2 Weeks Old

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Originally uploaded by David R Chapman

Two whole weeks!!! And a few days. We are sure that Abigail is a very advanced child... though we may be a little biased of course. She's has had visits from a large number of family over the last two weeks, and went to church with us for the first time on Sunday. We have taken to letting her have some "playtime" every day, usually putting on her playmat which has several brightly coloured toys for her to look at. Deborah says she definitely batted one with her hand, but that may have been accidental...

Today, after a visit to Dobbie's garden centre in Stirling and then another mammoth feed, she had her first experience of her new bouncer chair with builtin vibration. She seemed very taken with it, apparently enjoying the raised vantage-point and, again, overhanging toys. All of her grandparents were present, so of course there were 3 cameras and a video camera recording the event. I took this fun picture looking through one of the toys and thought it needed to be shared with the world!

Abigail had her first visit from a health visitor on Monday, and was pronounced as doing very well. Most encouraging of all was the news that her weight was 7lbs 7.5oz! That's 5.5oz up on her birth weight and confirms what a good job her momma is doing of keeping her well fed!

Tomorrow, we are heading for her other grandparents house to spend the week. More to follow.

One week Old!!!

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Originally uploaded by David R Chapman

Well today, Abigail passed that grand milestone; one week! It has been an altogether interesting week. The sudden change of sleeping patterns. The midnight feeds. The 3am feeds. The 5am feeds. The 7:30am feeds. The lunchtime fee......... But really, we have been truly blessed with a wonderful child, and we are grateful to the Lord for his goodness and kindness to us.

It's amazing how quickly things change. At the beginning of last week we were wondering if this child would ever arrive; what would we have? Would we get on? How would we ever adjust to being parents? Now, it's hard to think of Abigail never having been with us! And to find yourself completely, overwhelmingly and inexplicably driven to protect and care for a tiny, helpless child who just 8 days ago was still unknown to you..... it truly is amazing! Deborah and I love our daughter more than words can describe.

Of course, it hasn't all been sweetness and light. Last night was a bit tough. Abigail simply wouldn't settle down, no matter what we did, and struggling with tiredness as we are, neither of had a particularly easy time of it. I'm still struggling a bit with the intricacies of changing those tiny little nappies whilst she squirms and kicks and generally makes a nuisance of herself. And poor Deborah has to be ready to feed her every 2-4 hours!

We made our first trip out with her yesterday; to Mothercare of all places. It was quick drive from Stirling to Falkirk, followed by a jaunt in the buggy and a drive home. So she is now a veteran car passenger!

Ok folks, that's all for now. My apologies for the rambling nature of this post; the thought processes of the sleep-deprived! More soon. God Bless you all.

The Introduction

Abigail makes an entrance!

Hello everybody! This is the event which has prompted the setting up of this little endeavour. The arrival, on Wednesday June 27th 2007, at 6:45am, of Abigail Faith Chapman. She made a sudden entrance into the world, seeing as it was just 2-and-a-half hours between Deborah waking up, thinking she might be in labour, and the delivery in Stirling Royal Infirmary.

We left Yoker in Glasgow at 5:45, arriving at the hospital at 6:15. For those of you familiar with driving the geography of Scotland, you'll appreciate that this required me to be driving rather quickly, but we really thought that we were going to deliver a baby at the side of the motorway, so I am entirely unrepentent. The midwives, who were friends of Deborah's, were fantastic. They were surprised at how far on she was, but didn't miss a beat. And so, after just a half hour in the labour ward, we had our new arrival!

As I'm sure you'll appreciate, this marks the beginning of a whole new phase of life for the two of us, since we are now the 3 of us. Hopefully, we'll be able to chronicle here the adventures to come. Watch this space for news of family, our move to Stornoway and of course, Abigail's first year.