3 Days Old

It would seem there is a lot of interest in the blog since Brandon arrived. Prior to Brandon's birth I think the highest hit count in any one day was 12 people. Thursday we peaked at 16 and I think that yesterday may have been higher still.

Anyway Brandon is now 3 days old and his first night at home last night was pretty good indeed. Its hard to imagine, but so far Joshua's little brother seems to be even more content and placid than he was. 90% of the time we don't even know he is there as he is so quiet. The picture below was one of the rare moments where Brandon had his eyes open.

Today we gave Brandon his first ever bath - I was a little rusty with my new born bathing techniques but I am sure it will soon come flooding back. Fortunately Brandon did not scream too much during the bath. And here is a little bit of playtime with Dad.

As a gift to Tina I bought her this rocking nursing chair so that she is nice and comfortable feeding the new baby and can rock the little guy back to sleep. Thanks to Uncle Dave and Cousin Matt for picking the chair up earlier today.

So far Joshua has exhibited lots of mixed reactions to Brandon. Initially he reached out to try and grab something, but he seems to have now learnt to be more gentle. Joshua has been very inquisitive and curious and can often be found peering into the moses basket. When Brandon cries Joshua seems to be a bit confused and often backs off looking for Mum or Dad. But the best moment so far was the family snap below which caught Joshua giving Brandon a nice kiss on the head.

Here's another nice shot of the new family all together.

And lastly for today here is a picture of Grandad with the little dude. Joshua and Brandon's Nan and Grandad came over today to help Tina out looking after "my boys" whilst I went off for a couple of hours to visit Mum in hospital. Brandon also had visits from Shahinah & Mia, Lisa David and Matt, and from Nelson and Amber today - so a busy day.

The Home Coming

Finally today Tina and Brandon got to come home. There where a few last minute complications today as Tina has been diagnosed with DVT in her leg and now requires some additional medication over the next week. Brandon was given the clean bill of health from the paediatrician and seems to be eating and sleeping extremely well.

Brandon appears to be very different from Joshua. Although some of his facial expressions remind you of Joshua, I do not think they look much alike. Brandon has not opened his eyes much yet but from the odd glimpse that you do get I can see they appear much darker than Joshua's. Also he has a very thick, curly head of dark hair - complete contrast to Joshua's very light hair. In fact I have been joking that Brandon will need his first hair cut before Joshua.

This was Brandon's coming home outfit.

It was kind of weird loading up Brandon and Joshua into the back of the car to come home from the hospital tonight. It just seemed really odd to have two child seats, with our two little babies, at two very different stages in their lives. Oddly enough though, driving home Brandon slept all the way and it was Joshua who was crying. As you can see below Brandon even looks tiny in his car seat.

When you hold Brandon, change his bum or have any close contact with him you soon realise just how fragile the little boy is and how robust Joshua has grown. That 3lb difference in their starting weight is huge. Brandon can just about hold his head up for a quick look around, where as Joshua could support his head very well from birth. One thing for sure is that we will now stop thinking of Joshua as a baby and more of a toddler now that Brandon is on the scene.

Here's a picture of my two boys in the back of the car - a cold frosty night to return back home.

Once Brandon was home I think we had about an hour of complete chaos and confusion where it dawned on us the difficulties of managing two babies in terms of meal's, bum changes, baths etc.etc - you would think 2 adults : 2 babies that it would be easy (haha). I thought logistically it was hard work with just Joshua, but with two children you really do need to think hard and plan out even the most simple tasks. So far Brandon has pretty much slept most of the evening and is right now crashed out in the moses basket which is giving Tina time for a nap. So I am on monitor duty listening out for Joshua and every now and then just checking up that Brandon is ok. If he decides to wake up later we might try and give him his first bath.

The little blue toy in the moses basket was Joshua's present to his younger sibling. In return Brandon has thoughtfully bought Joshua a rather noisy Disney Cars toy.

Well I think that's enough of an update for today as I am also knackered and might get some shut eye before the night shifts start! One thing is for sure - the hard work is only just about to start!!!!!!!!!!

Brandon Michael King was Born

It gives me great pleasure to present to you the first pictures of our new son who was born today at 2:21pm in Basildon Hospital (2 weeks earlier than his due date). Joshua's younger brother weighed in at a tiny 6lb 4 oz (a whole 3lb lighter than Joshua) and has been named Brandon Michael King. Tina was absolutely phenomenal and me and Joshua are extremely proud of her. Both Tina and Brandon are doing very well and so far he is sleeping and eating extremely well. I had the pleasure of his first nappy change just before leaving and even the newborn nappies seem to swamp the little guy.

The very proud Dad.

For me today has been one of the most emotional days of my life. With the birth of our second son, events at work and Mum having her cancer surgery today - its all been a bit too much to handle and I'd be lying if I said I hadn't shed a secret tear or two. There were times where I didn't think I would hold together but had to remain strong to support Tina through the delivery. Brandon coming into our lives is a beautiful experience and if he is anything like his bigger brother then I will look forward to every day with our new family. But for now my thoughts go out to my Mum and hope that she has a speedy recovery from the surgery and that she will get to meet the new family member as soon as possible.

The very proud and exhausted Mum.

Auntie Shahinah and Mark pay a visit to see Brandon.

I would also like to thank Auntie Nicky, Uncle Michael, Auntie Lisa and Uncle David for visiting today and for all the wonderful text messages and phone calls we have received.

Big Bro gets his first glimpse of his new play buddy (me and my boys!).

Hummm, that smile looks very mischievious to me.............

We "Four Kings" - the very first picture of our new family of four.

Roll on 10am tomorrow when I can visit Tina and Brandon again. For now its time for me to celebrate with a beer or two and get everything in the house ready for their return home tomorrow. Fingers crossed I might get some sleep as well. Just as a final thought before I turn in for the night - as I think most people will know I love Joshua more than life itself and would give everything up for the little man if I had too. Now that Brandon has come along I almost feel like I am cheating on Joshua by wanting to love Brandon. Its a really weird feeling and something which I am going to have to come to terms with over the next few days and weeks.

J2 Update - Waters broken

Well could this be the very last blog update before this blog is updated to accommodate Joshua's little brother or sister? Yes ignore the 18days shown on the countdown. For those that do not know Tina's waters broke in the early hours of Monday morning and we have been back and forth to the hospital ever since. A few contractions here and there but no real signs yet. It might be tonight, who knows? If not we are back down the assessment centre tomorrow and nothing still happens then Tina will be induced early Thursday morning. So one way or the other, J2 will be with us all before the end of the week. Needless to say its panic stations here trying to dig out all the old baby stuff and get everything ready for the arrival.

I guess one thing that this whole experience is demonstrating is just how different each pregnancy is. With Joshua it was a case of Tina's waters broke, the contractions started and then bish, bash, bosh............10 hours later a little mini-me arrived. In this case we are now not far off of 2 days into the labour process and no signs of J2 making an appearance just yet. Can't say that I blame the little one really with the appalling weather we have at the moment.

Anyway lets not forget little Joshua. Here is a nice picture of Mum tickling his back. It would appear the little guy has a very sensitive back (just like his Dad) and often rolls over onto his belly just to have his back stroked. He will quite happily sit in this position for ages and even have a little snooze. Wouldn't it be great if life was this simple and you could just forget about work, the recession, paying bills etc and just be pampered all day!

Caption Comp

Joshua can now reach the door handles in our house but has not quite figured out how to pull them down - soon there will be no stopping him. He pretty much climbs on everything and anything - but then he has always done that. Also he has now figured out how to turn on the taps to the bath by himself - so its time to start making sure they are all closed extra tight before he floods the house!!!!.

I think the first picture below is just begging for a caption competition!

Bubble

Well its now under 3 weeks until the due date for J2................today we started shopping around to get some ideas for a new cot and a double pram. They are probably the two biggest purchases which we need to invest in sometime soon.

Joshua continues to develop very well and seems to get cheekier by the day. His language skills are getting better and better. Bath time has now been named "bubble" - might be something to do with Dad spreading bubbles on his face in the bath and giving him a pretend shave with my finger razor! The nursery have started getting him to gently rock some of the smaller babies when they are in the baby bouncer in preparation for his new brother or sister - what a good idea eh?

Anyway for today's piccy updates here are the two Pixifoto pictures which we eventually bought a few weeks ago. If anyone would like a master copy of one or both of these then just let me know. I think they are both great shots.

Josh The Builder 2

This week has been a bit tough on the sleep patterns as Joshua seems to have decided to fill all the gaps in his mouth with new teeth all at once. Touch wood we are over the worst now and the little guy is back into his 7pm - 7am sleep routine (oh to have 12 hours sleep everyday!!!!).

Nursery is going really well for Joshua and they are now talking about moving him up into the next class in a weeks time. This will be quite a sad day really as Joshua has done so well in the baby room and built some really good relationships with some of the staff. Even they have said they will miss the little guy when he goes up a class.

The next midwife appointment for J2 is Wednesday, can you believe it is only just over 3 weeks before Joshua will have a little brother or sister!!!!!!!!! Tina had her last day at work today so she can now enjoy making the most of a relaxing period before we start all over again. I guess I better start looking through that name book.............

The Bob The Builder hat still seems to be a favourite of Joshie's and he usually makes a beeline for this as soon as he gets in the house. How about the serious of cheeky pictures below which were taken tonight whilst he was having his tea.

What a poser!!!

This week Joshua's nursery have been slowly trying to phase him out of the baby room and into the next "bigger boys and girls room". So far it is going really well and today they took him in there from about 3 o'clock and he stayed in there right up until I picked him up to go swimming. He even ate his tea in the new classroom with all his new friends. This must be so strange for him to be in a new room with loads of new bigger children around him. But he is adapting well and was very happy and full of beans when he saw me arrive.

For today's picture update I have attempted to scan in a few of the pictures taken at last Saturday PixiFoto shoot. They are not the best of quality as they are scanned from an A4 print out. In a couple of weeks time we will have a few originals which we ordered and they will be much better quality. So if anyone would like any of the pics then just let me know.

"Josh the Builder"

Yesterday whilst in Mother care for Joshua's 4th Pixifoto session I had to entertain the little guy while we waited for about 10 mins whilst they finished with the previous customer. Whilst walking around the shop causing havoc and generally playing with every toy in view, me and Joshua stumbled across this little builder hat. He took an instant liking to it and since it was only £1.50 in the sale we decided to buy it for him. Since then it has hardly left his head.


Forget builders bum, check out the builders belly.............
How cute............
And it can even substitute as a crash helmet...........

Funfair

The baby proofing of the house continues.................today's modification was for me to install and new bath waste pipe with a pop up (chainless) plug system. This was quite a challenge for me since plumbing is not usually something I touch. The reason for installing this was that Joshua has become prone to pulling the plug out during bath time. We started making a game of it and saying 3 strikes and its bath time over. However this rule had to be wavered since the 3 times often expired very quickly no matter how much you try and hide the plug chain. Anyway in theory the new system will prevent Joshua from pulling the plug all together - lets just hope he doesn't figure out how to twist the Chrome overflow button which now activates the pop up plug. Anyway tomorrow is D day where we find out if my plumbing was any good or whether we have leaks!

Today we took Joshua to Pixi Photo's to get his last free bounty shots done. He started getting a bit tired towards the end of the photo shoot so we are going back tomorrow morning to collect them. If we get any nice shots then I'll scan them in and post them on the blog for all to see. Speaking of being tired and sleep - get a load of this................what time do you think Joshua got up this morning????? ........................8:45, woohoo, how nice was that to lay in bed until nearly 9am on a Saturday. I think he is just luring us into a false sense of security before J2 comes along in 4 weeks time and sleep becomes a thing of the past!

Anyway for today's pictures I have dug out a few snaps from over the Xmas break. We took Joshua to Southend one afternoon just to get out of the house and let him play on some of the toddler rides. He absolutely loved the little wheel and the merry-go-round.

J2 35 Week Scan

Today we went to the hospital for a 35 week scan of baby J2 just to check whether the baby is breached and also to check on the growth. Since Joshua was fairly big at 9lb 4oz there was a concern that J2 might also be a big baby. Well the good news is the baby is in the correct head down position and the even better news (especially for Tina) is that the baby is average size. By the sonographers estimation the current weight is 5lb 7oz. Obviously the baby will grow a lot more in the next 4 weeks and will put on more weight. But personally I would be surprised if J2 makes it much above 8lb (I could be wrong). Anyway it was very good to see the little bubba again, only 37 more days and we can meet in person rather than these black and white pictures/screen shots!!!!

SpiderMan

Joshua has reached that stage where everything is a climbing frame and he is getting pretty good at climbing. It all started over the Xmas break where the little guy managed to climb onto the sofa all by himself. This progressed onto his toy boxes and as you can see from the pictures below he soon moved onto Daddies TV/Hi-fi cabinet. This is a major problem as it now puts the little guy in touching distance of the 42" plasma!!!!!!!

To get down from the unit is easy, a simple nose dive onto the bean bag which was strategically positioned to stop him from climbing on the unit in the first place (very unsuccessfully).

Safety First

I recently read that some 500 babies/toddlers are administered to A&E every year due to heavy toilet seats falling down and either squashing fingers (or even worse winkies). Since Joshua is at the age where he s curious about everything then the latest safety feature to be installed in our house is some soft close toilet seats. Better to be safe than sorry.

I have also just encountered another problem with little people - IRONING. I'll be the first to admit that we hardly iron any of Joshua's clothes. However he has a few nice shirts and these do need ironing. Well have you ever tried ironing a little mans shirt using a big mans iron (not easy). I think a small travel iron might be the order of the day to solve this problem.

Anyway the Xmas break is now over and its back to work for me and Tina tomorrow and back to nursery for Joshua. I've really enjoyed the two weeks off and have tried to do as much as possible with Joshua. As today was our last day off we went to see Space Chimps at the cinema this morning and then this afternoon went over to Partyman again. So here are some more piccies from Partyman.