It was Harry’s Christening on Sunday and – to our great relief – everything went according to plan in the end.
There were, however, some little dramas along the way to keep us on our toes. The first happened about five minutes before we were due to leave for church.
Harry was sitting in his chair smiling happily when suddenly his expression changed and we had a full nappy. Nothing unusual in that, you might say, but Harry had already filled his nappy twice that day so it was a little unexpected.
To compound matters, the contents of his nappy had somehow spilled onto his vest, which meant we had to undress him completely. As you can imagine, caused some excitement as Melissa and I battled to change a nappy while trying to protect our outfits.
Anyway, we managed to get to the church in time and Harry was perfectly behaved for the first part of the service – before falling soundly asleep in my arms.
This left me with a dilemma. Should I wake him up before handing him over to the vicar to be baptised, or should I let him sleep. I chose the latter.
I admit I can’t think of many things worse than being woken up by somebody pouring water over your head while being dangled upside down in front of an audience, but Harry handled the situation with aplomb.
True, his bottom lip quivered but, thanks to the swift intervention of Chirk vicar, Rev Tony Rees, Harry was soon back to his smiling self and the rest of the service went without a hitch (or a scream). I think Harry just enjoyed being the centre of attention.
Friday 26 June 2009
Friday 19 June 2009
Five months on... and I'm still enjoying it
Harry is five months old today – and the time has simply flown by. Looking back, I’m amazed how quickly you adjust to the massive changes in your life, and how much you learn in a relatively short space of time.
Take nappies. When Harry was born, I was incredibly clumsy with nappies and the result was that Harry would often wake up damp. Now I’m a dab hand at changing him, even though I say so myself.
Sleep has also changed markedly. When Harry was born, we were up once or even twice a night to feed and change him; now we’re grumpy if he wakes early and disturbs us.
As you become more familiar with the day to day demands of being a parent, you also learn to relax a bit more too. When Harry was born, I couldn’t imagine leaving him with anybody except Melissa; now I’m quite happy when he stays with his grandparents.
There’s no doubt that having children changes your perspective on life. As I’ve said before, it does make you soft; last week, Harry managed to roll onto his front and Melissa phoned me – right on the Evening Leader deadline – to tell me. I’d have done the same – the smallest development is big news when you have a baby.
As for Harry himself, he’s great. He’s getting bigger, stronger and more alert by the day. He’s also more demanding – and if you’re not paying him enough attention, he’ll happily let you know by way of a loud scream.
He’s started playing a lot more too. At the moment, Harry’s favourite game is grabbing your fingers and trying to eat them, and he’s generally much more responsive when you talk to him – smiling, giggling and laughing – which really does make you feel like the most important person on earth.
So, after five months, I’ve only good things to say about being a parent; and before you say it, I’m sure I’ll still feel the same when Harry’s a teenager.
Take nappies. When Harry was born, I was incredibly clumsy with nappies and the result was that Harry would often wake up damp. Now I’m a dab hand at changing him, even though I say so myself.
Sleep has also changed markedly. When Harry was born, we were up once or even twice a night to feed and change him; now we’re grumpy if he wakes early and disturbs us.
As you become more familiar with the day to day demands of being a parent, you also learn to relax a bit more too. When Harry was born, I couldn’t imagine leaving him with anybody except Melissa; now I’m quite happy when he stays with his grandparents.
There’s no doubt that having children changes your perspective on life. As I’ve said before, it does make you soft; last week, Harry managed to roll onto his front and Melissa phoned me – right on the Evening Leader deadline – to tell me. I’d have done the same – the smallest development is big news when you have a baby.
As for Harry himself, he’s great. He’s getting bigger, stronger and more alert by the day. He’s also more demanding – and if you’re not paying him enough attention, he’ll happily let you know by way of a loud scream.
He’s started playing a lot more too. At the moment, Harry’s favourite game is grabbing your fingers and trying to eat them, and he’s generally much more responsive when you talk to him – smiling, giggling and laughing – which really does make you feel like the most important person on earth.
So, after five months, I’ve only good things to say about being a parent; and before you say it, I’m sure I’ll still feel the same when Harry’s a teenager.
Friday 12 June 2009
Please help
In a break from my usual ramblings about Harry and family life, I thought I'd issue an appeal through this blog for sponsorship. For reasons which now escape me, I've signed up, along with three colleagues from the Evening Leader, to take part in the Three Peaks challenge next month.
We're raising money for Hope House Children's Hospice - a very worthy cause - so feel free to support us by giving me money. Full details of our challenge can be found here:
http://www.eveningleader.co.uk/news/NWN-editors-to-support-Hope.5360699.jp
I've no idea what I'm getting myself into - I've never walked any of the mountains before so it will be a whole new and, no doubt, very challenging 24 hours. Anyway, if you feel inspired to help you can e-mail me with any donations at martin.wright@nwn.co.uk.
Right, begging over. Normal service will soon be resumed.
We're raising money for Hope House Children's Hospice - a very worthy cause - so feel free to support us by giving me money. Full details of our challenge can be found here:
http://www.eveningleader.co.uk/news/NWN-editors-to-support-Hope.5360699.jp
I've no idea what I'm getting myself into - I've never walked any of the mountains before so it will be a whole new and, no doubt, very challenging 24 hours. Anyway, if you feel inspired to help you can e-mail me with any donations at martin.wright@nwn.co.uk.
Right, begging over. Normal service will soon be resumed.
Bonding?
Like all new parents, I want to form a strong father-and-son bond with Harry. However, I think my efforts in this direction have suffered a bit of a knock in recent weeks.
Firstly, I went along to the doctor’s with Harry for his second round of injections. Melissa had taken Harry for his first set a few weeks earlier and he was, by all accounts, pretty upset at the whole experience.
So this time, I went along as well. By the time we’d walked to the surgery, Harry was fast asleep, so you can imagine the nasty shock he got when he woke up to find a smiling nurse jabbing a long needle into the top of his leg. Poor Harry looked heartbroken and, judging by the look in his eyes, he didn’t think much of me for allowing it to happen.
Anyway, I’ve since spent plenty of time trying to rebuild Harry’s trust in me – only to undermine all the good work by taking him swimming.
Things started pretty well. We took Harry to Plas Madoc for the excellent parent and paddler session on a Sunday morning. We bought the necessary inflatable, popped Harry in it and he seemed quite happy bobbing up and down in the water.
Then the wave machine started; Harry was almost instantly submerged by a wave which caught both of us by surprise. Fortunately, Melissa was on hand to pick up the pieces and Harry was soon back to his smiling self – albeit with his trust in me once again thoroughly undermined.
We’re definitely going to persist with the swimming, though, because Harry did seem to enjoy it for the most part. Next time, when the wave machine siren goes, I’ll be a little more careful.
Firstly, I went along to the doctor’s with Harry for his second round of injections. Melissa had taken Harry for his first set a few weeks earlier and he was, by all accounts, pretty upset at the whole experience.
So this time, I went along as well. By the time we’d walked to the surgery, Harry was fast asleep, so you can imagine the nasty shock he got when he woke up to find a smiling nurse jabbing a long needle into the top of his leg. Poor Harry looked heartbroken and, judging by the look in his eyes, he didn’t think much of me for allowing it to happen.
Anyway, I’ve since spent plenty of time trying to rebuild Harry’s trust in me – only to undermine all the good work by taking him swimming.
Things started pretty well. We took Harry to Plas Madoc for the excellent parent and paddler session on a Sunday morning. We bought the necessary inflatable, popped Harry in it and he seemed quite happy bobbing up and down in the water.
Then the wave machine started; Harry was almost instantly submerged by a wave which caught both of us by surprise. Fortunately, Melissa was on hand to pick up the pieces and Harry was soon back to his smiling self – albeit with his trust in me once again thoroughly undermined.
We’re definitely going to persist with the swimming, though, because Harry did seem to enjoy it for the most part. Next time, when the wave machine siren goes, I’ll be a little more careful.
Friday 5 June 2009
All change at feeding time
There's never a dull moment when you're a parent. As soon as you think you've cracked it, everything changes and you're back to square one.The latest dramatic change in Harry's life is feeding.
Now Harry's quite a big baby - he's put on weight regularly since he was born and is now around 20lbs, despite being only 21 weeks old. But this means he's hungry and his bottles just aren't enough for him. So we've now started him on a teaspoon of baby rice with his midday feed.
When we first tried it (bank holiday Monday), Harry screamed as if we'd tried to poison him and spent the next couple of hours looking hurt and making us feel guilty. But thanks to Melissa's persistence, by the end of the week he was thoroughly enjoying his rice and was back to being a happy, settled baby once again – and sleeping through the night, thankfully.
Being in work meant that I'd missed out on most of his progress so last weekend I was really looking forward to seeing him eat (this is the kind of thing that gets me excited these days).
And I have to say, it was magical. Of course there was a bit of mess, but I was amazed at how well he took the food from the spoon and resisted the temptation to spit it straight back out (I've tried some of this baby rice and believe me, I wouldn't have blamed him if he had). Eating's not the only big news this week. Harry has also learned how to roll on to his side. Admittedly this doesn't sound particularly exciting but, having been used to Harry lying on his back, immobile, since he was born, this is a pretty major development.
He’s also found his feet – literally. He will now quite happily spend hours on end grabbing his feet. I can’t see the attraction, but then I’m not supple enough to grab my own feet while sitting down these days, so maybe I’m just jealous.
Either way, I can’t wait for Harry to start moving around properly, although that promises to bring a whole new – stressful – dimension to parenthood.
Now Harry's quite a big baby - he's put on weight regularly since he was born and is now around 20lbs, despite being only 21 weeks old. But this means he's hungry and his bottles just aren't enough for him. So we've now started him on a teaspoon of baby rice with his midday feed.
When we first tried it (bank holiday Monday), Harry screamed as if we'd tried to poison him and spent the next couple of hours looking hurt and making us feel guilty. But thanks to Melissa's persistence, by the end of the week he was thoroughly enjoying his rice and was back to being a happy, settled baby once again – and sleeping through the night, thankfully.
Being in work meant that I'd missed out on most of his progress so last weekend I was really looking forward to seeing him eat (this is the kind of thing that gets me excited these days).
And I have to say, it was magical. Of course there was a bit of mess, but I was amazed at how well he took the food from the spoon and resisted the temptation to spit it straight back out (I've tried some of this baby rice and believe me, I wouldn't have blamed him if he had). Eating's not the only big news this week. Harry has also learned how to roll on to his side. Admittedly this doesn't sound particularly exciting but, having been used to Harry lying on his back, immobile, since he was born, this is a pretty major development.
He’s also found his feet – literally. He will now quite happily spend hours on end grabbing his feet. I can’t see the attraction, but then I’m not supple enough to grab my own feet while sitting down these days, so maybe I’m just jealous.
Either way, I can’t wait for Harry to start moving around properly, although that promises to bring a whole new – stressful – dimension to parenthood.
Monday 1 June 2009
Sleep: part two
AS I’VE said before, sleep becomes something of an obsession when you’re a parent. Not just your own sleep (although that is high on your list of priorities), but your baby’s too.
There’s certainly no shortage of advice on babies’ sleeping habits but, typically, we’ve taken very little notice of this, opting for our own ‘make-it-up-as-you-go-along’ approach.
Until a couple of weeks ago, we’d keep Harry downstairs with us (usually asleep) until we went to bed but we’ve now started putting Harry to bed on his own.
On the face of it, this should have helped us to relax more in the evening. In fact, it has had to opposite effect. Both Melissa and I will sit downstairs listening to the monitor intently in case Harry stirs, meaning we can’t even concentrate enough to watch television.
And we race upstairs at the slightest hint of movement to check on him. All in all, it’s pretty stressful.
We are getting used to it – slowly – just in time to start worrying about when is the right time to move him to his own room.
Official guidance seems to suggest putting babies in their own rooms from about six months onwards. If we follow this advice, that gives me another few weeks of decent sleep – before Melissa starts kicking me in the middle of the night to go and check on Harry.
There’s certainly no shortage of advice on babies’ sleeping habits but, typically, we’ve taken very little notice of this, opting for our own ‘make-it-up-as-you-go-along’ approach.
Until a couple of weeks ago, we’d keep Harry downstairs with us (usually asleep) until we went to bed but we’ve now started putting Harry to bed on his own.
On the face of it, this should have helped us to relax more in the evening. In fact, it has had to opposite effect. Both Melissa and I will sit downstairs listening to the monitor intently in case Harry stirs, meaning we can’t even concentrate enough to watch television.
And we race upstairs at the slightest hint of movement to check on him. All in all, it’s pretty stressful.
We are getting used to it – slowly – just in time to start worrying about when is the right time to move him to his own room.
Official guidance seems to suggest putting babies in their own rooms from about six months onwards. If we follow this advice, that gives me another few weeks of decent sleep – before Melissa starts kicking me in the middle of the night to go and check on Harry.
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