Matthew Knott

I thought that a new job and a new baby together would be a clean break all-round. As it turns out it's about the hardest thing I've ever been through, and on top of it all I've got a cold.

But enough moaning, on to some updates.

Firstly, week two at work is over, and things are getting better! More structure, more idea where things are going, more settled and more vision for the future.

On the back of work, I'm learning asp.net, amongst other things. I always knew it would be a huge leap going from asp 3.0 to .net, and there is that ever-present, inherent fear of the unknown to contend with. Now I have no choice but to learn it, and thankfully it's not as hard as I thought. In fact I'm enjoying it, which definitely helps.

Outside of work it's been a tough week. The amount of work that goes into raising a baby is starting to sink in and take its toll, and I'm only doing a quarter of the work (if that). Lisa has been amazing taking care of him, but it's still draining. You just don't have time for anything, and sometimes knowing that just eats away at you, even if you don't have anything to do anyway. I can only update my blog at crazy times of day. It's a tough lifestyle change but I'm getting used to it. Single parents have more than my admiration, they have my vote for sainthood. 

The run of failing electrical items has progressed today as I ordered a replacement fridge freezer. The old one doesn't keep milk for more than a couple of days, bugger. That's now the Xbox, the Camcorder, The Tumble dryer, and the washing machine that have bitten the dust recently, as if things weren't strained enough.

Another positive is that I found a little motivation, and a little time to start working on a few project ideas. Unfortunately I have little of both and things haven't worked out very well so far, but progress is progress. I want to build something to help me save money, and will probably make it into a web service, all singing all dancing. I'm also working on a VLE of my own, probably open source. Hopefully it will be my first asp.net project release, although I plan a php version also.

Well the room is starting to rock back and forth which means one thing, need sleep.

Tags: Work Baby Lisa Michael Tired Sleep Progress ASP.NET Silverlight SharePoint Open-Source VLE Electrical Moaning

I can't believe it's been two weeks since Michael was born. It's flown by, and already he's changed so much.

All babies loose weight after birth. Michael went down from 7.4 to 6.8, but 2 weeks on has regained that weight and filled out a lot, getting a small belly. He's also become more alert, holding our gaze and looking towards us when we talk. He can also roll onto his side already which is impressive. In the last few days he's started to learn about kicking. When he's in the bath we put his feet against the end of the bath and he'll push himself to the other end. After initially hating the bath it's now his favourite thing, and will usually scream when he comes out.

Becoming a parent for the first time has been a strange experience. I day dream about him running around playing with his toys but can't quite believe it's going to happen. It's also hard getting used to the fact that you can't just sit down and play on the computer when you want, and it's hard to program holding a baby. I might have better luck with the harness though.

It's really strange having everything you've ever wanted, and probably why I still can't quite believe it.

Tags: Baby Michael Family Parenting Fatherhood

After 9 months of seemingly unending waiting, Michael finally arrived at 07:28, Tuesday 15th April 2008, weighing 7 pounds, 4 ounces.

The Start

Labour began in earnest at 1:45 A.M, with contractions every 20 minutes or so. We rang Lisa's mother and she was there by 3 A.M. The contractions were now every 10 minutes or so apart. We rang the hospital, but because there was no-one from our birth team on duty, the midwife advise us to stay at home.

At 4 A.M Lisa's water broke with a pop, then the contractions were coming every 4-5 minutes. At 4:30 A.M we arrived at the hospital. Lisa was 3 cm dilated, it was just a matter of waiting now. 

The End

As it happened we didn't have to wait long. By 6:30 she was on the gas and air, in a lot of pain. At 7:00 she got onto the bed on all fours, and at 7:28 he came out in what was a pretty easy birth all things considered.

Michael was here, all wrinkly and gorgeous. I let Lisa's mother cut the cord, she was dying to do it :)

There were no problems and everything was perfect. As an indication of how well it went, but 9:30 Lisa was showered, and dressed ready to come home. Michael had his vitamin K injection and took it well, no crying. Any hopes of coming home early were snuffed out because he wasn't very hungry.

The waiting game

We went onto the ward and waited for him to have a feed. This proved more difficult than we thought. When he did have a feed he wasn't sucking very strongly, so the midwives were concerned incase he wasn't eating properly.

When he was feeding we couldn't find a midwife and when we did he'd stop. Eventually, at around 8pm, we finally got him to feed in front of a midwife and were free to come home.

We all slept like a log that night, until Michael woke us up at 2 a.m. Wednesday morning, but he's so gorgeous he can wake me up all he wants.

Tags: Baby Pregnancy Michael Birth Family Happiness Born

I really thought the baby was on his way today, there were lots of signs but things have calmed down a bit now. Still, she's due Wednesday so I don't think I've got long to wait.

Strange as it sounds, it's actually hard to imagine the transition from her being pregnant to holding our baby in a few days.

We watched "The other Bolyn girl" earlier. It was okay, really a film about nothing much. It's not often I come out of a film and don't feel good or bad about it. It was a bit like watching an average episode of an average drama series.

Tomorrow is friday and then, the weekend, Ospreys V Leicester. I'm looking forward to it with intrepidation. I'm terrified at another hammering, but hopeful of the possibility that we could win.

Leicester are the cup final kings and it will not be easy, but they are missing a few players, namely Seru "Pinapple on his head" Rabeni, so there's some hope.

Tags: Rugby Baby Ospreys Leicester Film Movie Pregnancy

Well, Wednesday, Lisa was sick all day on and off. She's 35 weeks pregnant by the scan date, and as the day went on the sickness became more and more frequent, until it was exactly 20 minutes apart.

After each spell of wretching, she was having contractions, and other pains. She also had a number of pre-labour symptoms. Freezing cold extremities (since becoming pregnant she's always got warm hands and feet), super-heightened sense of smell (I was told to take a shower before getting through the door) and lower back pains.

At 2 am, after having called the hospital once for advise, I phoned them again and was told to take her in. We were seen to immediately, the staff there are top-notch. They put a drip in and gave her an anti-sickness table, which was a relief and helped her get some rest. The stomach tensing had been causing the babies heart rate to drop, but he was doing great so no problem there. They decided to admit her about 4 a.m. and took her down to the ward around 6 a.m. I was home myself by 5:30 and totally exhausted after 24 hours on the go.

I'd already advised my manager in work of the situation and was not going to go in, but didn't want to let down the friend I give a lift to work. So, I thought I'd get my head down for an hour, drop her of, it's only a 30 minute journey and I still felt fine to drive. I set the alarm clock for 6:45 as usual, and woke up, except it was not 11:00 a.m. ooooops, I must have been more tired that I though and switched the alarm off when it went.

Went straight up to get my mother in law form Ammanford, then back down the m4 for visiting time. Once that was over I dropped her back home, and by now had a splitting headache and felt pretty sick myself. Went over to my Mothers house, who also lives in Ammanford and slept till 6, at which point I still had a headache and felt even worse.

There were a few things lisa wanted, including food and a change of clothes and visiting was 7 - 8:30. I went home to get the bits she wanted, feeling awful, and managed to stop myself getting into bed. Couldn't face making sandwiches so went to Tesco, loaded up of snacks for her and Gaviscon for me, and set off again to singleton for the third time today.

Lisa was much better but a bit lonely. Apparently she had a kidney infection which cased the vomiting but she's getting much better now and with any luck will be home tomorrow.

Tags: Hospital Baby Lisa