Our First Night and Meeting Alex

Because Oliver was born so late in the day, by the time we were both cleaned up and fed it was about midnight. The midwife was happy with us both and gave us the option of going home or staying in the hospital.

Duncan and I decided that seeing as it would take a couple of hours to get home and get settled Oliver and I may as well stay in the hospital. We also thought that with Alex away staying at Maddie's, it would give Duncan one last decent sleep for a year or so. The final cunning part of our plan was that it might be better to introduce Alex to Oliver at the hospital rather than already having him at home when Alex came home from Maddie's.

Except for the fact that I hardly got any sleep - between feeding Oliver and listening to three other babies and their Mum's who were in my room it was pretty interrupted. Duncan also said that he didn't get to sleep easily because he was still running on adrenaline.

On Sunday morning Duncan went and collected Alex and then brought him into the hospital. Considering it was such a strange environment and he was meeting Oliver for the first time, he did amazingly well. We had a puzzle for him as a gift from Oliver which seemed to impress him, and we even managed to get him to give a cuddle. After a short while we packed up and headed home. Alex and Dad on the bike and Oliver and I in a taxi.

Oliver Bryn Dunning

Dear All,

we're thrilled to announce that Oliver was born on Saturday 21st Feb at 9.14pm. He surprised us all by weighing in at 4420g about 9lb 12oz in the old money!

Labour was a much more reasonable 10 hours of which only the last half was intense.

Oliver loves to suck so feeding is going well. Alex did a great job of his first ever sleep over and hasn't been too phased by his new brother. Lots of playing with dad has helped keep some normality.

Love from us all
D, C, A & O

Time to update the Blog!!!

I've been agonising about how to deal with the Blog and in particular whether to continue with one or just "add" Oliver onto the existing one. In the end, I decided to go with the latter because -

1) I have enough trouble keeping one blog up to date and
2) I figure that so many updates will be about the two boys, that it's easier to do it in one place

Our last picture as a family of three??

Taken at the park on the 1st of Feb 2009

Reading

Alex now has the patience to read to himself. We also use reading as a distraction to help him to eat his dinner.



Sorry the video is sideways.

Puzzling

All of a sudden Alex LOVES his puzzles and seems to be able to do them without thinking. When did he learn all these things?

Our English Heritage

Duncan made scones for lunch yesterday. Alex enjoyed eating the jam off the top (there was no cream) and at one point managed to get jam in his hair. Duncan tried to wipe it out, and we ended up with a jam induced mohawk. Can we say "grub"! At lease he was happy.

Christmas and New Year

Well .... Christmas certainly didn't end up being what we planned, but we made the most of it and had a good time in The Hague .... just the three of us.

We had a little Christmas tree, and by the time I had wrapped all of Alex's presents, and added the ones received from friends and family, I was pleased that we didn't have to carry them all to Copenhagen and back. I must say - I was very impressed with Alex's restraint with the tree. I didn't think it was going to be worth having a tree because I thought it would be a constant battle to keep the ornaments on. Fortunately Duncan convinced me otherwise.


Some of the aftermath of present opening. We staggered it throughout the day. I think the last present was opened around 5pm.


We had roast lamb for dinner ... of course it always tastes better off Dad's plate


Helping Dad put together his new bike


Too impatient to wait for help


Just a little bit too short


Unfortunately, after a lovely Christmas Day, we spent the rest of the holidays inside feeling sorry for ourselves. Duncan got a cold on Boxing Day, a couple of days later Alex came down with a fever and cold, and then it was Mum's turn. Even now (10 days later) Mum and Dad are still not completely healed.

Our New Year's was very quiet ... I think we were all in bed by 9pm, and weren't even bothered by the fireworks. We were all exhausted.

Alex's First Haircut

Mum and Dad had decided that Alex was looking a bit scruffy around the edges so could do with a Christmas haircut. We went to a hairdresser called "kids only" and they were great. They certainly knew all the tricks for entertaining and distracting during the cut.

Before

After

ICTY Christmas Party

Our last Christmas Party of the year was hosted by the ICTY. It was much smaller than the ICC one, and there was a clown (not a scary clown) who did a great job of entertaining even the smaller kids. The catering was typically Dutch (fries and chicken nuggets) but hey - it was Christmas so we let Alex enjoy himself.

Father Christmas arrived again with more presents (this time in a UN mail bag) and while Alex was happy to pick up his gift while Dad was holding him, he didn't want to sit on his lap again. It was a little better than the week before though.