I've finally uploaded a few pictures to our website.

See :

• Rowan on his tummy
• Our new office
• Rachel's birthday cake (cake-pod anyone?)
• Emily's photos of us camping near Bromyard

Yesterday (17th of May 2008), Cassie (the dog) died. She signed off peacefully on a campsite near Bromyard (Herefordshire) after a sudden unknown illness that started in the morning. She was subsequently buried under a blooming damsen tree on my mother's farm.

She'll be best remembered for her ability to :

• bite unsuspecting individuals (Alex) and family members (Emily),
• producing some horrible smells,
• obediance,
• loyalty
• and a night time trouble making streak (bin emptying and weeing on the fridge/freezer!)

Since Rowan was born, I've made an effort to get in touch with some people. Unfortunately for them, I have some conditions that I need met for me to be comfortable seeing them. 'Unfortunately' for me, it appears they won't accept those. 7 happy and confident years without them has taught me that I'm a better person under my terms, but still I felt that I ought to make the effort to let them see Rowan.

Today, I cooked a full roast dinner, with slight supervision ("Be careful - the knife is sharp!") as my Mothers day present. I ended up having to undergo this ordeal as I was too useless to book a table in any local restaurant in time.

Before stuffing my face with roast beef, I pre-empted my excessive calorie intake by by running nearly 13 miles.

In other news, last night, Rowan managed to sleep for 4 hours (and then 3 afterwards), which was a welcome change from his normal regular 2 hour feeds through the night.

As various family members keep asking for more photos of Rowan, try here

Well, you can't expect much else from me can you?

Rowan now weighs 8lbs 3oz, which isn't bad as he's only 12 days old. He also appears to have grown 2cm, which would be a 4% increase from birth.

Kat's started to play with him, and he appears to have grabbed his toys while she's waving them in front of him.

In other Rowan-related news:

• He has/had gunky eyes, which seem to go away though the day.
• His umbilical cord stump has fallen off
• He's very happy sleeping on our chests, not so in his cot.

We were warned (repeatedly and by everyone) that the first few weeks with Rowan would be really difficult. It seems they were right, some nights at least. Rowan is sleeping unreliably to say the least - but at this stage its to be expected. His current trick is to feed intermittently for hours and hours - the midwife says this is apparently quite normal (about 8 last night, 4 the night before). The night before last was actually good because he then proceeded to sleep for nearly 4 hours in one go.

Hello world.

First off - something to laugh at - The Dos and Don't with Babies (thanks Elleo).

Secondly - Rowan is now feeding very well, but perhaps too well - as he seems to like the idea of feeding almost every hour for 5-10 minutes. At the moment we're taking the view that he can eat as often as he likes, as long as he puts on weight and catches up for the first 36 hours where he wasn't keen on feeding at all.

After getting off to a bit of a shaky start with the whole breastfeeding lark - which everyone at the hospital was wonderful with - Rowan and I have been released!

Its wonderful to be at home although David and I are having to work things out as we go along now. He's just off taking Rowan for his first Walkies, which is a bit scary for me as its the first time I will have been without Rowan for longer than it takes to have a bath, and the first time he's really been outside.

Today Kat entered labour, and after a little bit of faffing (car headlights decided to pack in; cue frantic call to Jenny etc) we arrived at Redditch's hospital at just after midnight (sunday morning).

Fast forward nearly twelve hours, and out popped Rowan at 11:44am. On the way, we had two (or three?) failed attempts at giving Kat an epidural, and her being put on a drip to fix some dehydration. In the end, anyway, after much effort he entered the world, to become one of 6 billion (or so) individuals.