This is what happens when a baby is being fed, and sneezes...
Saturday 24 May 2008
Tuesday 20 May 2008
Long Time No Update...
Someone just wrote on the blog that it was time for some updates, and gosh darn it they are right.
With all the best intentions in the world, sometimes stuff like this blog just get forgotten.
So apologies.
Well Lilith is just over 5 months old now and the time has flown by, but it feels like she has been part of our lives forever.
She is not our little baby any more, she is growing very VERY well.
Mummy D is doing an awesome job looking after Lilith. I truly don't know how she does it.
So many things have happened, let's try to remember in the right order.
Lets start by showing a picture of Lilith on the day of her birth, compared to one taken the other day.
Firstly between Yule and New year, Lilith came down with a bug :-(
She had lost a lot of weight in the first few days and had not been putting that much weight back on as expected. We were getting concerned, so some tests were done and a urine sample showed she had an E. coli bug.
We were told not to panic as there are 8000 different types of E. coli but to get her to hospital so a doc can take a look at her.
So in we went and to cut a VERY long story short we were told that she would have to stay in overnight for observation.
One night turned into three nights and four days in hospital.
Lilith had to have a cannular in her arm and two lots of antibiotics three times a day. She did not like that at all :-(
Anyway she started to really put weight on well and could come home, but she had to go back 3 times a day for a few more days to finish the antibiotics.
So on Dec 31st we got to come home and spend our first new year as a family all together.
For the next few days we had to go into hospital for 7 am, 2pm and 10pm for her antibiotics.
But soon that was all done with and we were free not to have to go back into hospital and time soon.
:-)
In other news,
It turns out Lilith was a VERY hungry baby so we had to move to bottles after a while.
The first time we gave her a bottle was scary because she drank it all down like a good little girl the after about 5 minutes threw the whole lot back up Exorcist style.
I think she reached about 2 and a half foot of projection!
I was very impressed.
She attended her first drumming event, the Wassail at middle farm in January and went down a storm with everyone.
She has her very own set of tatters to wear to drumming events.
She looks super cute in tatters.
Actually she just looks super cute all the time.
There is a lovely photo of her in her summer hat taken from Jack In The Green 2008 in Hastings
Some friends of our run a wiccan baby clothing store and asked Lilith to model for them.
Lilith will also be appearing in the June edition of Prediction magazine, so grab a copy.
We had lots of smiles from her, and here are some of her best.
Lilith is now just starting to roll over so it should not be long before she can crawl.
I'll leave you with a family photo from Jack In The Green 2008.
With all the best intentions in the world, sometimes stuff like this blog just get forgotten.
So apologies.
Well Lilith is just over 5 months old now and the time has flown by, but it feels like she has been part of our lives forever.
She is not our little baby any more, she is growing very VERY well.
Mummy D is doing an awesome job looking after Lilith. I truly don't know how she does it.
So many things have happened, let's try to remember in the right order.
Lets start by showing a picture of Lilith on the day of her birth, compared to one taken the other day.
Firstly between Yule and New year, Lilith came down with a bug :-(
She had lost a lot of weight in the first few days and had not been putting that much weight back on as expected. We were getting concerned, so some tests were done and a urine sample showed she had an E. coli bug.
We were told not to panic as there are 8000 different types of E. coli but to get her to hospital so a doc can take a look at her.
So in we went and to cut a VERY long story short we were told that she would have to stay in overnight for observation.
One night turned into three nights and four days in hospital.
Lilith had to have a cannular in her arm and two lots of antibiotics three times a day. She did not like that at all :-(
Anyway she started to really put weight on well and could come home, but she had to go back 3 times a day for a few more days to finish the antibiotics.
So on Dec 31st we got to come home and spend our first new year as a family all together.
For the next few days we had to go into hospital for 7 am, 2pm and 10pm for her antibiotics.
But soon that was all done with and we were free not to have to go back into hospital and time soon.
:-)
In other news,
It turns out Lilith was a VERY hungry baby so we had to move to bottles after a while.
The first time we gave her a bottle was scary because she drank it all down like a good little girl the after about 5 minutes threw the whole lot back up Exorcist style.
I think she reached about 2 and a half foot of projection!
I was very impressed.
She attended her first drumming event, the Wassail at middle farm in January and went down a storm with everyone.
She has her very own set of tatters to wear to drumming events.She looks super cute in tatters.
Actually she just looks super cute all the time.
There is a lovely photo of her in her summer hat taken from Jack In The Green 2008 in Hastings
Some friends of our run a wiccan baby clothing store and asked Lilith to model for them.
Lilith will also be appearing in the June edition of Prediction magazine, so grab a copy.We had lots of smiles from her, and here are some of her best.
Lilith is now just starting to roll over so it should not be long before she can crawl.
I'll leave you with a family photo from Jack In The Green 2008.
Friday 14 December 2007
Another little picture of Lilith
Well, here is another little photo of Lilith.
She went from 4am this morning to 9am when mummy had to wake her up for a feed.
Nicky and I were up about every 30 minutes to an hour checking on her from about 11pm to 4am.
There were many Marmite nappies!
:-)
Thursday 13 December 2007
May I introduce...
Lilith Oriana Rhiannon Draven
Born at home on, December 13 2007 at 11:20 am weighing 8lbs 15oz, height, 56cm.
Both Nicky and baby are in perfect health.
Everything went exactly as we wanted it to. Natural birth, no pain relief other than gas and air.
Please join me in welcoming a new spirit to our beautiful earth.
I know she will have many groovy friends.
HENGWAH!
Born at home on, December 13 2007 at 11:20 am weighing 8lbs 15oz, height, 56cm.
Both Nicky and baby are in perfect health.
Everything went exactly as we wanted it to. Natural birth, no pain relief other than gas and air.
Please join me in welcoming a new spirit to our beautiful earth.
I know she will have many groovy friends.
HENGWAH!
Sunday 7 October 2007
Due dates
The closer we get to our 'due date' the more I have been thinking about the pressure involved in adhering to a specific date (I have been off sick recently so I have had a bit of 'thinking time' on my hands!).
When we found out we were pregnant we worked out our own due date and this was confirmed by the medical profession but what on earth does it really mean? Obviously we believe our bambini will be incredibly intelligent but I highly doubt that it has a little palm-top with its birth date diligently entered.
As I read more and more about birth procedures (arming myself with as much knowledge as possible) I realise how much importance the medial profession place on this date, using it as a basis for deciding when it is 'safe for you to birth at home' or when to induce labour if they feel baby has been 'cooking' for too long.
We briefly spoke to Caroline the midwife at Crowborough Birthing Unit and she agrees that too much emphasis is placed on this highly specific date women are given, which can ultimately cause a great deal of stress and the unfair labelling of baby as either lazy or inconveniently early.
Caroline told us that she preferred to work on a ten lunar cycle gestation period as this is what women traditionally had used. She asked us if we knew the lunar dates of our pregnancy and as luck would have it Greg and I had been checking this that very morning.
Baby was conceived at new Alder moon (20th March - Spring Equinox) and is due 12th December which is new Birch moon according to our calendar, however I have a sneaky suspicion that our baby will be drawn to the full moon and will make its appearance in time for Winter Solstice (around 22nd / 23rd December).
I really feel that being given a more general time scale, whether that is "December new moon" or "sometime mid December" it would take an awful lot of pressure off pregnant woman to 'perform' on a certain date.
Until such a time that the medical profession looks back to the natural world and to the wisdom of the moon and seasons I suggest scientists start working on designing babies with internal alarm clocks so that they may have the good manners to arrive on their specified due dates.
:-)
When we found out we were pregnant we worked out our own due date and this was confirmed by the medical profession but what on earth does it really mean? Obviously we believe our bambini will be incredibly intelligent but I highly doubt that it has a little palm-top with its birth date diligently entered.
As I read more and more about birth procedures (arming myself with as much knowledge as possible) I realise how much importance the medial profession place on this date, using it as a basis for deciding when it is 'safe for you to birth at home' or when to induce labour if they feel baby has been 'cooking' for too long.
We briefly spoke to Caroline the midwife at Crowborough Birthing Unit and she agrees that too much emphasis is placed on this highly specific date women are given, which can ultimately cause a great deal of stress and the unfair labelling of baby as either lazy or inconveniently early.
Caroline told us that she preferred to work on a ten lunar cycle gestation period as this is what women traditionally had used. She asked us if we knew the lunar dates of our pregnancy and as luck would have it Greg and I had been checking this that very morning.
Baby was conceived at new Alder moon (20th March - Spring Equinox) and is due 12th December which is new Birch moon according to our calendar, however I have a sneaky suspicion that our baby will be drawn to the full moon and will make its appearance in time for Winter Solstice (around 22nd / 23rd December).
I really feel that being given a more general time scale, whether that is "December new moon" or "sometime mid December" it would take an awful lot of pressure off pregnant woman to 'perform' on a certain date.
Until such a time that the medical profession looks back to the natural world and to the wisdom of the moon and seasons I suggest scientists start working on designing babies with internal alarm clocks so that they may have the good manners to arrive on their specified due dates.
:-)
Big decisions.
We are now only nine and a half weeks away from D-Day!
Since out last entry, we have made some big decisions.
Originally our choice of place of birth had been the
It's right in the middle of the hospital which means no windows to the outside world, the rooms are tiny and cramped and from our findings the staff there are more interested in what time they are finishing rather then your baby!
But Conquest seemed different. The rooms are larger there, the maternity unit is on an external wall and there is more freedom to do 'YOUR' thing!
So our mind was made up, Conquest it was...
Right up until Nicky sent me a link to the Crowborough Birthing Centre. This is a midwife led unit, It has 6 beds, is open 24 hours a day.
I had a look at the website and loved the look of it right from the start.
We arranged a visit (all you need to do is call about one hour before you want to go) but each time we called they were busy. They advised that a weekend visit may be better.
So, on Saturday 6 Oct, after a well deserved lay in, we called them and they said to come along there and then. We hopped in the car, set the destination on the Sat. Nav. and off we went.
It took us about 35 minutes to get there. We went in and started our guided tour, which really didn't take long as the unit is not all that big, but it is lovely.
The big room we saw had a few crystals sitting on the window sill. This made us feel good.
We were given the tour by a lovely lady called Caroline who is one of the Midwifes there (info: 'Midwife' comes from the Anglo Saxon 'Mid-wif' meaning 'With Women' describing the role.).
After our tour we sat down with Caroline and talked through our plans whilst she looked through Nicky's notes.
We were given a leaflet which advised us of the things to take in and also of the visiting times.
Unfortunately this was where our happy feelings were slightly put out.
Father visiting times are between 7am and 9pm. All fine and well you may think, but I don't want to leave Nicky’s side at all if I can help it!
We asked about this and the reason was that there is no provision for fathers!
As far as I can think, all I would need is a comfy chair!
We said that I would not be comfortable with having to leave Nicky, so Caroline said 'Why don't you have a home birth?'
We explained that so many people we have spoken to have said that for the first one, it is best to have it in a hospital, just in case anything was to happen!
Of course they are right.
Caroline said that as this pregnancy had gone so well there was no real issue with planning for a home birth, only had there been complication during this pregnancy would it not be advisable!
But we live close to the Eastbourne DGH, so were there to be a problem it would take only minutes to get there.
But this would mean that we would end up in the place that we don't like very much.
However...
Birthing at home is our ideal situation:-
A completely familiar comfortable surrounding,
We know where everything is,
Excellent Tea and Coffee Making facilities,
No visiting times to worry about,
We don't have to worry about taking a car anywhere or bringing baby home,
Nicky is completely in control over the birth that she wants.
And in an emergency we really would not care where baby and mum was as long as they were getting the best treatment.
So...
We have decided to have a home birth, with the Crowborough Birthing Centre as our second option.
Now all we need to get are some plastic sheets!
Wednesday 5 September 2007
Baby's travel system, in the flesh.
Well this turned up today and we are dead impressed. We read through the instructions fully cos we are good like that.
It is really nice, very groovy colour too.
Also baby's bath turned up today with a few groovy other bits.
Sunday 2 September 2007
The Light and Mighty Oak King.
I have been thinking about the Winter Solstice and baby.
Thanks to a very good friend Damh the Bard the Winter Solstice open Ritual up at the Longman is my time.
I have had the great honour of playing the Oak King, opposite my friend Kev as the Holly King, for some time now.
It all seems so amazing that Baby Draven is due at around the time of the Wintere Solstice, around my time, where the Oak King retakes the year and brings life back to the land.
I hope it is possable for baby to attend this open ritual with us this year.
Obviously this really depends on how things progress but I feel it is meant to be, as with everything else about this pregnancy.
It is difficult to put into words how perfect this pregnancy has been. After all the problems with babys we had for some time, we have been given the perfect time with this one.
Performing some magic just a couple of days before conception.
Concieved on the Spring Equinox (My Birthday...Tee hee hee).
We found out during our visit to Tintagel, birthplace of the Dux Bellorum, Arthur Pendragon (Tintagel is usually the place where things go wrong for us).
The day after we got back from Cornwall, Damh calls me up and asks me to play Arthur and asks Nicky to play Guinevere in the Anderida Gorsedd Spring Camp main Ritual, which was all about Arthurian Legend (Athough I believe it to be more than legend).
Baby is growing perfectly in Nickys tummy.
Everything is perfect.
:-)
Thanks to a very good friend Damh the Bard the Winter Solstice open Ritual up at the Longman is my time.
I have had the great honour of playing the Oak King, opposite my friend Kev as the Holly King, for some time now.
It all seems so amazing that Baby Draven is due at around the time of the Wintere Solstice, around my time, where the Oak King retakes the year and brings life back to the land.
I hope it is possable for baby to attend this open ritual with us this year.
Obviously this really depends on how things progress but I feel it is meant to be, as with everything else about this pregnancy.
It is difficult to put into words how perfect this pregnancy has been. After all the problems with babys we had for some time, we have been given the perfect time with this one.
Performing some magic just a couple of days before conception.
Concieved on the Spring Equinox (My Birthday...Tee hee hee).
We found out during our visit to Tintagel, birthplace of the Dux Bellorum, Arthur Pendragon (Tintagel is usually the place where things go wrong for us).
The day after we got back from Cornwall, Damh calls me up and asks me to play Arthur and asks Nicky to play Guinevere in the Anderida Gorsedd Spring Camp main Ritual, which was all about Arthurian Legend (Athough I believe it to be more than legend).
Baby is growing perfectly in Nickys tummy.
Everything is perfect.
:-)
We couldn't wait ay longer...
We have finally bought the babys travel system.
It is very groovy and comes with a free baby carrier, which means we can take baby up to the Open Gorsedds at the longman.
We saw this in Argos for £270 but a quick scout around the internet and we found it for £190 including delivery here.
The car seat comes with a base that sits in the car all the time and you can justy pop the car seat in and out as easy as pie... Mmmm Pie.
We have also just bought a baby sling. We like these because they are very versatile and feel natural. We got it here from a woman that has has 12 kids so she knows a thing or two about what works.
Again, this will allow us to continue our lives as usual as possable, and allow baby to do all the things that we enjoy too.
Not long to go now. We are both very excited.
Friday 10 August 2007
Baby Draven at 21 Weeks and 5 days.
Here is Baby Draven at 21 Weeks plus 5.
Baby is gorgeous. we have started to feel baby kick now, and it's magical.
Thursday 26 July 2007
Baby Dravens new cot.
Just finished building this and it just fits in. Perfect. :). Got it slightly wrong to start with but i'm sure the destructions were wrong ;).
The cool thing about this cot is it can turn into a junior bed so should be good for about 2 or 3 years.
Wednesday 18 July 2007
Nicky's story
Finding out we were pregnant:
Just before we went away to Cornwall I was stuck between fear that the 'dreaded curse' would ruin our holiday (and my mood) and the nervous, anxious wait to see if a miracle had happened and we were actually pregnant.
We spent the Saturday 7th April in Mevagissy and I quietly managed to sneak away to buy myself a pregnancy test. I did not want to say anything to Greg because I did not want to get his hopes up, just in case.... I did not have time to actually perform the test as we were so busy shopping, site seeing and eating so I had to wait until the Sunday morning.
After waking up in a beautiful four poster bed in the tower room of our B&B I snuck out of bed and went to the bathroom. When I saw the little blue cross appear I honestly did not believe it. For a moment I planned the perfect way to tell Greg. I would wait until we were at the top of Tintagel and then tell him the good news but then the thought of keeping such news away from Greg, even for a couple of hours did not sit well with me so I just had to wake him up!!!!
"Greg, you know how something bad ALWAYS happens to us in Tintagel?" (Bad falls, injuries etc)
"Yeeeeeesssssss...."
"Well what if something really, REALLY good happened?"
Confused / half asleep Greg raises an eyebrow and gets a used pregnancy test thrust in his face!!
We hug, cry (with joy), hug again, do some more crying and then ring our mum's!!
Just before we went away to Cornwall I was stuck between fear that the 'dreaded curse' would ruin our holiday (and my mood) and the nervous, anxious wait to see if a miracle had happened and we were actually pregnant.
We spent the Saturday 7th April in Mevagissy and I quietly managed to sneak away to buy myself a pregnancy test. I did not want to say anything to Greg because I did not want to get his hopes up, just in case.... I did not have time to actually perform the test as we were so busy shopping, site seeing and eating so I had to wait until the Sunday morning.
After waking up in a beautiful four poster bed in the tower room of our B&B I snuck out of bed and went to the bathroom. When I saw the little blue cross appear I honestly did not believe it. For a moment I planned the perfect way to tell Greg. I would wait until we were at the top of Tintagel and then tell him the good news but then the thought of keeping such news away from Greg, even for a couple of hours did not sit well with me so I just had to wake him up!!!!
"Greg, you know how something bad ALWAYS happens to us in Tintagel?" (Bad falls, injuries etc)
"Yeeeeeesssssss...."
"Well what if something really, REALLY good happened?"
Confused / half asleep Greg raises an eyebrow and gets a used pregnancy test thrust in his face!!
We hug, cry (with joy), hug again, do some more crying and then ring our mum's!!
Thursday 21 June 2007
Monday 18 June 2007
Damh with boobs.
This was taken at the mans 42 birthday. 42 and still acts like a kid.
You will notice that this picture does not actually look that wrong. What does that say about Damh, or my taste.
Sunday 17 June 2007
Saturday 16 June 2007
Friday 15 June 2007
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