Our 2nd Scan & Trip to Ballynahinch Castle

Our latest scan at around 23 weeks was v different to the 13 weeks scan. King's is very much a teaching hospital and for the first 30 minutes we had no idea what we were looking at as a trainee slowly searches across Lydia's womb looking for a recognisable image. Lydia and I enjoyed this. But after what we felt was ages of training we were happy as an expert stepped in and showed us genuine close ups of our child. A brief glimpse of our baby then - a more close-up examination gave me the opportunity to concentrate on the the scan pics. I said I thought its a girl based purely on top lip shape - the scanner Maria said 'how did you work that out' as if I was correct. I felt she knew I was only guessing at best. She said she thinks I am right and we are having a girl. This allowed Lydia and I to go away and imagine a girl in our lives - I personally stared at the pics of girls in the 'Maman Bebe' catalogue to help me get a grasp of the idea of a baby girl. I liked this. We would be good with a girl we think.

Then off we went for a weekend away in Conemara - a breakfast-in-bed fest for 2 days in a wonderful castle where people bring you hot chocolate and Guinness as you sip and play Scrabble by the fire - heaven! Lydia enjoyed the R & R !!

Back home we wandered off to John Lewis to buy a cot, a baby bouncer and my brother Tim gave us a great ruc-sac shaped baby carrier and a little baby rucsac with a dinosaur on it. How cute !! As I uploaded these photos I am aware they look like E-bay pics. We're thankfully now in possesion of a cot; bath; baby sleeping bags x 2 - all we need now is a half dozen 'baby grows', nappies and a lot of babywipes and we are well on the way to being ready !! So I like to think.

A Trip to Anglesey

We went to Benllech to visit Lydia's parents at the end of October. We had another glorious sunny October Saturday and walked out near the beach and island at Llangoed and Penmon Priory. Saw a puffin and discovered various remnants of an old marble quarry.

The next day we went for a walk around Beaumaris and down near the bridges.

Durdle Door in October

Some photos from our 2nd trip in the campervan on Oct 8th, Lyd's birthday.

This time we went to Durdle Door near Lulworth Cove for 3 nights.

On the Friday I took Lydia to Wild Garlic (the restaurant recently opened by Masterchef Winner Matt Follas) for lunch.

Ash, Charlotte, John and Sarah arrived on the friday eve. We went for a steep walk over the hill to Lulworth Cove on the gloriously sunny Saturday. A few beers, fish and chips and the steep walk back. This was particularly difficult for the pregnant Charlotte and Lyds. On Sunday we went down to look at Durdle Door, the limestone arch then had a great pub lunch at The Weld before heading home.

The van performed brilliantly and I was happy Lydia and I had good cosy sleeps. Lydia liked the fact you could unzip the windows in the morning and look out over your new home without leaving your duvet, particularly good when you arrived in the dark! Sarah Beard was introduced to the van, the van was introduced to Sarah Beard. This seemed to go okay.

The campsite was great, well run and in a great location. It would be good to try the real ocean view pitches next time. Our pitch was a bit uneven so bought wedges on return home. Note to self - take a few photos of the van next time!

Baby Leach - 13 weeks

The best shot from our first trip to Kings College Hospital in Sept. An incredible experience, a very happy hour as he/she wriggled around. Cannot wait until our next appointment at the end of Nov.

This is a blog I have created to share photos of our camping trips and of the first years with our new child. I have not written a blog before or even read that many so forgive me if its a bit clunky to begin with !