Lunch date with Lily

Here's Lola with her friend Lily. OK, so they're struggling to focus on each other at the moment but it won't be long till they're playing together happily and keeping each other amused, I'm sure. Thanks to you both for behaving very well and letting Rachel (Lily's Mum) and I enjoy a meal at the Honor Oak.

A bit of sleep

Last night, after seven exhausting and unsettled nights of Lola waking around every hour, she decided to do her Mum and Dad a favour and sleep for one three-hour and two two-hour stints. After feeding she settled pretty much straight away. I woke up feeling like a new person and ready to face the (snowy) day. Thank you our darling daughter – we love you more and more each day!

People tell you how tiring the newborn stage is – and you think about times that you've been tired before and multiply it by 100 – but in reality, you're still not quite there. I truly believe this is why you love your children so much. If you didn't, you'd just get too damn knackered and put them out with the bins on a Wednesday.

The Brandt-Parks

Today saw a visit from Will and Lucy. Here they are with Lola – complete with Will's new beard which makes him look pretty hot. And a bit like this bloke out of 300.

First night out

An important night for the Arsenal, we decided to head up to the Blyth Hill Tavern and watch the Emirates leg of the Champions League match against Liverpool. While it wasn't the best result for us with Liverpool scoring a crucial away goal, we had an absolutely marvellous time. I did feel like a bit had dropped off me at first. I did spend most of the time talking about Lola to our pub aquaintances (to be fair on me, they did ask) but it was really good to get out. And Nan and Granddad obviously relished the opportunity to have Lola to themselves for a couple of hours.

Nan and Granddad de Cozar

This week saw a visit from the maternal grandparents which was wonderful for both Katie and Lola. There were trips out to Jam Circus and the Honor Oak, and to Wickes (which she didn't find so exciting) and general parading around the neighbourhood being shown off by her very proud Granddad Gus.

Trip to B&Q

I absolutely love this picture. Paul looks lovely – knackered, but gorgeous. Both Paul and I absolutely hated DIY related trips when we were younger, but thoroughly enjoyed this one to B&Q to choose garden furniture. One of the effects of parenthood I guess. Advance apologies to Lola for all of the boring weekend excursions to Currys, B&Q, Carpetright etc we're going to put you through during your life...

Lola's weekly bath

Fortunately for us Lola likes to have a bath. She's even happy for her Daddy to wash her hair. It may be the strange folk singer Raffi who plays on the CD player while she's having her bath that she really likes. A strange Rushforth family tradition which is completely new to me.

A whole weeks worth of updatery

A thousand apologies for not being more consistant with the posts. I don't know what we were thinking.

Here's the down low on the last 7 days:

Easter Saturday - Bromley

Our first travels to a different postcode saw us brave snow and trains for an afternoon in Bromley. Mum shopped like mother should, and dad tried to find any form of child friendly estalishment for a sit down, and maye a glimpse of the football. No joy, so went for moules et frites instead with Daniel K.
No pictures, but to be fair, it was Bromley...

Easter (Not so super) Sunday - (Sky Sports 1, 1pm-5pm)

Jonny and Jo popped in for a cuddle.

Lola was so upset at Aresenal's performance she had a 90 minute protest sleep on Adrian's chest.

We ate some eggs too. Or, more honestly, eggs three.

Easter Monday - Daddy's Birthday
Had a lovely morning in bed opening cards and presents, before venturing to the Honor Oak for lunch. As Daddy was due back to work on Tuesday we all had an early night.
Nothing to do with easter Tuesday

Back to work for Daddy - Boo Hiss, but a nice visit from Great Nanna Margaret and Pretty Damn Good Auntie Maxine, who brought all of Baby TopShop with them.


Plain ol' Wednesday

A lovely morning with a visit from Emma,

And trip to London and Lunch on the South Bank. Perfect.

Thursday

Mummy hosted her first NCT coffee morning, a sucess by all accounts, and officially registered Lola's existence. Daddy was once more earning the daily (lightly toasted and drizzled with olive oil, ciabatta) bread.

Out and about...

Well, since the last post there's been no stopping us. On Tuesday it was Mummy's Birthday, thanks for all the cards and presents, we opened them all in bed with a nice cup of tea. Then we went to lunch at The Honor Oak, which was nice. Lola slept the whole way through, waking just once for a snack.

Wednesday was Dan King's Birthday, and we went to the Perry Hill for lunch. It's new and spangly and very nice, good food, good price and great service. Again Lola slept through the whole thing, waking only once for a snack and a quick change.

Grandad Rushforth came round to introduce himself and demonstrate his calming ability, and his skills at wind manipulation. A very pleasant evening by all accounts. Despite watching Manure act completely in character and hammer Bolton.

Thursday, no birthdays and not really leaving the house weather. Lola spent the day doing very little, but somehow ended up over tired, leading to a rather long evening. Luckily though, she slept quite well through the night.

Too easy

We decided that this newborn parenting game is far too easy, so we turned the difficulty level knob a whole quarter turn from "Beginner" to "Easy", and mixed it up a bit.

Firstly, we decided to leave the house. And so wearing nothing more than confidence, a babygrow, a cardigan, a pram suit, a blanket, a hat the pram cover and hood, Lola left the house. After an initial right turn, avoiding the possibly sharp branches of the privet, we headed south down Carholme Road. There was no sign of rain, and the wind was 8mph SW. 3 Doors down a cat shot across our path, we paused, composed and continued, the cat shadowing our steps at a safe parallel distance. As we rounded the corner (right onto Marler ) we encountered a youth, coming towards us. Luckily, he was busy on his phone, no doubt making youth plans, and barely noticed our passing, which was a lucky escape, as we instantly had to switch our attention to driving through dog poo.
As we rounded the next right corner (onto Northwood) we heard the noise of a car accelerating and moved in closer to the fence. Luckily,said car was a block away, and so just missed us by 70 yards. We rounded the next right (A205) and quickly completed the busiest part of the journey, the presence of the newly installed speed camera increasing our confidence levels. We passed Carholme on our right, and decided to brave one more block. As we turned right again, a dark feeling crossed me, as I realised I'd never walked this road before (Blythe Vale), Katie assured me she had, and we passed a woman carrying a pointily wrapped present without incident.
Here Lola began to cry. A lot. A poo we think, but in the middle of nowhere, we had no choice but to plow on. Luckily, a Honda motorbike (loud but safely on the other side of the road, settled her, and we continued. Two sharp rights and we were back safely on Carholme. In honesty, our pace quickened with sight of our objective, and as we bundled back into the warmth comfort, and safety of the lounge mother and baby breathed a sigh of exhilarated relief. Daddy decided he could afford, and probably deserved a sit down before going out again to put the fresh copy of the Lewisham Shopper in the recycling.

What an amazing 20 minutes.

This photo was taken while there was no imminent danger.
(I was keeping an eye on the cat though)

Words of wisdom from the midwife...

"Every time I Come here it smells amazing, Daddy must be a great cook!"
- Hopefully she's referring to what's on the hob and not a lingering aftermath, although both would be compliments.

"Yes, Mummy has a fair pair of Melons" - Hopefully she was, erm, referring, erm, no,she meant exactly that.

Lola has reached an impressive 9lbs 4Ozs.

We are Family...

Wow, what a weekend, aunties, uncles, friends and grandparents came from miles around to coo and drink tea, and eat bisuits, and eat cake, and coo some more.

Food Glorious Food

One of the things "they" tell you about being a new family is that you'll not have time to cook. Yes, this is true. One answer to this is to, like I did, cook a massive vat of a couple of your favourite foods, and freeze them for use in the first few weeks. This is a great idea, even though I'm sure it wasn't mine originally, but it does mean that you end up with 6 meals worth of Spag Bol and 6 meals worth of Chilli, not exactly a varied menu or diet.

If for whatever reason you don't have time to cook, but don't relish ready meals, instant pasta or Favourite Chicken, try these guys www.cookfood.net

So far since we got home we've had steak and red wine pie, sausage and potato stew, and still have a fish pie, chicken ham and leak pie, a Morrocon lamb curry and various others. Simply take from freezer into oven, cook for 1 hour, add vegs and serve.

If I can only ever offer one piece of useful advice to you, it is this;
Click this link, give it a try, it's had a huge impact on us.

Daddy hard at it...

It's nice to do things together, especially when those things are sleep! Nice hair Daddy. You should get your hat back from the hospital.

A video, from Uncle Ian

Here's a video uncle Ian made. Funny to think that even back then, this was our little Lola.
Although I think Mummy would say you were kicking harder than that!

Quick update:

She slept for about 7 hours last night, broken into 2 and a half our chunks. Most of this sleep was carried out in the moses basket, with just a brief visit to Daddy in the middle of the night.
It's becoming clear that she gets her looks from Mummy, and her appetite and mastery of bodily functions from Daddy (both of whom pull a very cute face when passing wind)

Hey, how about another video?

Here, due to popular demand, is another video of tiny person.

Here she is demonstrating the correct way to lie down and pull faces. She's been practicing for a few days now, and I think she's got it down.



We'll post some more stuff soon, unless you're getting bored of it all....?

Fanfare please...

It is my pleasure to formally introduce you all to:

Lola Ines de Cozar Rushforth

We'd assumed it was a boy for so long, we had a handful of boys names, and we'd only ever really had one girls name. We did recently come up with a couple of other names for girls, but having met this young lady, none sat quite as well as Lola.

(It did take a long time to decide against "Jason", it was close though, she just has too much hair to be a Jason. Sorry Jase.)

Home sweet home

Well, after all that excitement, family de Cozar Rushforth finally made it home.



Baby slept the entire journey, and then some, racking up about 2-3 hours continuous sleep.

A trend which did not last all night. Though she did make it out of our bed and into the moses basket. For 10 minutes.

Wow moving pictures

Here are some fancy moving pictures of the little one enjoying hickups.

Twice



And so she continued...

Yay, Welcome Tiny person!

Greetings.
Well, we finally made it. A bit of a mad rush towards the end, a few hairy moments, and a very hairy baby.
I'd like you to meet Toshiba. A name which, in light of it being a girl (????) I think we'll have to change. But for now, meet Shiba.
All's well that ends well an Mummy and daughter are doing just fine. If a little tired.

No am dram here, this was proper theatre, with stunning performances from all.


For one reason or another (we'll ask her in a few years) she wasn't too keen on coming out, but Katie wasn't overly keen on her staying in there, and I'd have no idea how to give her pocket money if she did.

We'll be staying at Lewisham hospital for a couple if days, while everyone is brought back up to strength, I'll post contact details later on, but it's Maternity ward 5. In ther mean time you can get me between 1pm-3pm and after 8pm on the mobile, post comments here (Which she'll see and read (Katie, not baby)), send e-mails (which I'll read her). *** WE'RE HOME NOW 10/03/08***

More photos here

We'll see you all soon and we love you all very very much.



Oh and please pass this news on to anyone you may speak to!