Back to the old grindstone as a new dad

Apologies to you all my dear readers, I have been remiss in keeping you updated since I went on Paternity leave.

As discussed in my last post, Monkey Boy Two was born on the 8th of September and has since officially been christened Bug and moving forward will be dropping his original name.

Bug and Mrs Bunny Chow came home to us after two nights in hospital and are doing brilliantly, there were some early concerns about Bug's weight dropping once home but he seems to now have a handle on this and is certainly looking healthy although the official discharge from the care of Croydon's midwifery team is yet to be forthcoming, Mrs Bunny Chow, Bug and Ouma Bunny Chow are going to see them later today and I have every confidence that this will now be a mere formality.

Ouma and Oupa Bunny Chow have been a great support to us and have been acting as chauffeur's to Monkey Boy as well as fetching and carrying tea, beer, wine and food so that Mrs Bunny Chow and I have been able to spend lots of time settling back into having a new and demanding master.

I think that we had both forgotten all about late nights, unsociable demands for feeding, changing, cuddling etc, although we are a lot more relaxed about it all this time around and also have the knowledge that whilst the early days are tough they also pass and become something new and exciting as routines are established and order of some sort comes about.

Monkey Boy has taken very well to having a brother and whilst he has been a tad attention seeking, he also enjoys pointing at the Bug and very solemnly stating Baby. He also enjoys patting and stroking him.

My biggest worry with the Monkey Boy is that he has become very attached to Ouma Bunny Chow and is going to be very upset when she returns home to the dark continent on Friday.

Anyway, that's the end of my spiel for the time being.

Normal service will resume in the coming weeks.

Take care and as always

TTFN

Mr Bunny Chow

Being Dad Again

Good Morning dear readers,

I just wanted to drop you all a short note to tell you a little bit about the arrival of Monkey Boy Two, he was born at lunchtime yesterday 08.09.11 by Cesarean Section at Croydon University Hospital (Mayday in old money) weighing in at a whopping 9.1lbs and 58cms long.

There are some amazing things that happened on the day besides the happy and safe arrival that I thought I would share with you all.

Mrs Bunny Chow arrived at the hospital slightly apprehensive about the whole Elective Caesar thing and concerned although we knew all along that it was the right choice it is major surgery and not to be taken lightly. The initial wait was awful, the maternity triage unit, had zero privacy and we were both nervous and excited, but also irritated and bored and interesting cocktail.

After we'd been seen by the anaesthetist and surgeon a young man walked into our cubicle introducing himself as a trainee and querying our southern African accents, we gave him a brief rundown of our history and he began telling us about his and how he'd recently had a Son himself, his story sounded vaguely familiar to me and then it all clicked into place, I'd read his story and sent it to Mrs Bunny Chow a week or two ago and the excellent Bumi Beat Blog wow what a small world. Talking more to him it also became apparent that our parents were acquaintances.

Tom Stayed with us throughout preparation, filling in all the notes, doing blood pressure checks keeping us calm and informed and was genuinely lovely, he made the whole experience so much better than it could have been and he's going to make a fantastic doctor when he's finished his training. I thank him from the bottom of all of our hearts.

The surgery itself was as uneventful as these things can be, and Monkey Boy Two was brought into this world looking very much like a baby as opposed the the squashed little sausage we were handed when Monkey Boy One was born, I suppose that's an advantage of the sunroof exit. I was a little concerned when I heard the surgeon mutter an expletive that was explained to me after as the umbilical cord had not only been wrapped around Monkey Boy Two's neck but also had two knots in it which had we gone with natural childbirth would have severely affected his chances of survival and would almost certainly have resulted in an emergency C'Section anyway. Phew we made the right choice for once and all that fighting with consultants to get booked in for the surgery in the first place was justified.

Anyway Monkey Boy One and Two have now met, both Mrs Bunny Chow and Monkey Boy Two are doing brilliantly and I'm desperately in love with them both and think they're amazing.

Take care all

TTFN

Mr Bunny Chow

Changes to Mr Bunny Chow

I'm moving all of my future product reviews over to their own tab and keeping the original section for my rants and essays.

I also hope that as many of you will take advantage of the items reccomended in my little shop, there are some bargains to be had.

I really do appreciate all of my readers and appreciate the feedback I have received since starting up at the beginning of August.

Please keep your thoughts coming and let me know of any idea's that you have.

TTFN

Mr Bunny Chow

Shameless plugging

As some of you my dear readers may have noticed I now have a new link at the top of my page which links through to my own Amazon store, yes I will get commision from stuff that you buy through it, and yes I'd be grateful if you do indeed buy stuff through it.

There are not many products in the store as yet as I don't want to link you through to anything that either I have not bought myself or will not buy myself.

I will add stuff in as and when I have some time.

I'd be grateful for any feedback and thoughts you have.

Happy shopping

TTFN

Mr Bunny Chow

Being Dad part 4

Well if it all goes according to plan I will become a father for a second time a week today so I thought I'd put down some of my thoughts in advance of the big day as may not get a chance for a while once it's happened.

As I'm sure I've mentioned previously we're both a lot more relaxed about what's to come this time around, this I'm sure is brought about in part by the lack of snow on the ground, but also the fact that we now know or at least think we know what to expect from a little bundle of trouble when we bring them into our home.

Of course there are some nerves, I know that no two babies are alike and there are risks to Mrs Bunny Chow and Monkey Boy Two involved in the birthing process, I'd be a fool not to have a least a few niggling concerns, but mankind has successfully continued to breed for thousands of generations and I also have total confidence in the amazing Mrs Bunny Chow's abilities having seen her in action so to speak once before.

Mrs Bunny Chow has been in a frenzy of cleaning, washing and organising since she went on maternity leave and the house whilst not sparkling is certainly looking a lot shinier than it did a few short weeks ago. We've moved a lot of stuff into storage and have no idea where it all went before we took it down there as everything is still amazingly cluttered but I guess this is the lot of the family with not much money, a Monkey Boy, a dog and two cats and an obsession with the hoarding of books, kitchenalia and anything else we find along the road.

Mrs Bunny Chow is holding up well, she's now very obviously very uncomfortable in her massively expanded body and needs my help with little things that historically would have posed no problem to her, but she is amazing and carries on with a fierce determination that I cannot help be proud of her. She is an amazing woman and mother and I often find myself watching her and thinking how did I get so lucky.

Right barf fest over my parents have had to delay their arrival due to the unique qualities of living in a tinpot dictatorship and the vagaries of their national airline (Air Zimbabwe) their original flight which was due to land today has been cancelled due to the fact that they would rather buy new aeroplanes than pay their current staff who've understandably gone on strike.

They are now flying with Ethiopian Airlines on Sunday but have to go via Lusaka, Overnighting in Addis Ababa, then Rome before finally arriving at Heathrow smack in the middle of rush hour on Monday thirty six odd hours after leaving their house in Harare. It's been nearly a year since I last saw them and they last saw their grandson Monkey Boy One (I'm having to distinguish them now)so I can't wait to see them both.

Anyway I've done enough wittering on about feelings and girly stuff for today.

I will keep you all posted and may even put up a few pictures once Monkey Boy Two makes his presence known.

TTFN

Mr Bunny Chow