Did I say a new post every day at lunchtime? I guess I didn't have time today, so here I am in the middle of the night instead.
Just a quick update: preparations continue apace for the weekend. Rachael's Mum arrived yesterday evening, and her best friend, one of the godparents (sorry, support parents), tonight. Food is being prepared, much shopping done, maps being emailed hither and thither, ceremony wording settled, cake re-iced (and yes, it really is the top tier of our wedding cake, which has been in the freezer for thirteen years apart from a brief outing when it appeared as part of our tenth anniversary cake!), photo slideshow prepared for looped projection throughout the afternoon, logistics thought through over and over again.
More family arrive tomorrow. We'll find jobs for them all.
Friday 28 September 2007
Thursday 27 September 2007
What's in a name?
Ainsworth James Thomas Coultart
That’s a bit unusual, isn’t it? Where did that little lot come from? Let’s start at the easy end. Coultart: well, that’s my name, isn’t it. When we got married we briefly considered taking Rachael’s surname instead, but I’m very glad we didn’t because then he’d be Ainsworth James Thomas Thomas, which would be a bit daft. Which brings us neatly on to Thomas.
Before we were married we’d chosen baby names: Thomas for a boy and… well, I won’t mention the girl’s name in case it comes in handy one day. Thomas because it was Rachael’s surname. Thomas because I’d always understood that my dad liked the name. But for various reasons which I’ll not go into now (but feel free to ask us afterwards) we didn’t end up using it as AJ’s first name.
James is easy. We could pretend it’s chosen after our first godson. We could pretend that we were following a small tradition of using James somewhere in the name: Ainsworth’s uncle is Benjamin James, his cousin in Tennyson James. But there’s a simpler reason. We wanted something starting with J so that we could call him AJ for short, and James was simply our favourite J name.
And so we get to Ainsworth. When we knew that a baby was on its way we started the name discussions in earnest. I found the lists of the most popular hundred names for boys and girls and we each went through annotating these lists with ticks and crosses. Rachael’s favourites were almost all in the top ten – which to me was in itself a reason to rule them out. And then one day, completely out of the blue, she surprised me with “How about Ainsworth?” Rachael, who had wanted to give our child a name that he would share with half his classmates, suggested Ainsworth. Now it will help if you know that Ainsworth is Rachael’s Mum’s maiden name.
I was quite taken aback initially, but very soon it started to grow on me to the point where I could think of no other name. I hoped we would be having a boy. In the meantime Rachael was becoming less sure and was finding all the reasons not to. Until the moment he was born, we hadn’t made the decision. But then 30 weeks ago we looked at his face, at just a few minutes old, and it seemed to fit.
There is one other reason. Most of you will know that one of Rachael’s brothers died a few years ago, and I’m sure a few of you may have wondered if we would call a son Daniel in his memory. I know I did. And I also know that Daniel always wanted us to have children. So we have chosen to remember Daniel: his name was Daniel John Ainsworth Thomas.
Ainsworth James Thomas Coultart: we hope he grows to love it.
(Note: this is a first draft of what I might be planning to say at Ainsworth's dedication on Sunday. Feel free to suggest amendments!)
That’s a bit unusual, isn’t it? Where did that little lot come from? Let’s start at the easy end. Coultart: well, that’s my name, isn’t it. When we got married we briefly considered taking Rachael’s surname instead, but I’m very glad we didn’t because then he’d be Ainsworth James Thomas Thomas, which would be a bit daft. Which brings us neatly on to Thomas.
Before we were married we’d chosen baby names: Thomas for a boy and… well, I won’t mention the girl’s name in case it comes in handy one day. Thomas because it was Rachael’s surname. Thomas because I’d always understood that my dad liked the name. But for various reasons which I’ll not go into now (but feel free to ask us afterwards) we didn’t end up using it as AJ’s first name.
James is easy. We could pretend it’s chosen after our first godson. We could pretend that we were following a small tradition of using James somewhere in the name: Ainsworth’s uncle is Benjamin James, his cousin in Tennyson James. But there’s a simpler reason. We wanted something starting with J so that we could call him AJ for short, and James was simply our favourite J name.
And so we get to Ainsworth. When we knew that a baby was on its way we started the name discussions in earnest. I found the lists of the most popular hundred names for boys and girls and we each went through annotating these lists with ticks and crosses. Rachael’s favourites were almost all in the top ten – which to me was in itself a reason to rule them out. And then one day, completely out of the blue, she surprised me with “How about Ainsworth?” Rachael, who had wanted to give our child a name that he would share with half his classmates, suggested Ainsworth. Now it will help if you know that Ainsworth is Rachael’s Mum’s maiden name.
I was quite taken aback initially, but very soon it started to grow on me to the point where I could think of no other name. I hoped we would be having a boy. In the meantime Rachael was becoming less sure and was finding all the reasons not to. Until the moment he was born, we hadn’t made the decision. But then 30 weeks ago we looked at his face, at just a few minutes old, and it seemed to fit.
There is one other reason. Most of you will know that one of Rachael’s brothers died a few years ago, and I’m sure a few of you may have wondered if we would call a son Daniel in his memory. I know I did. And I also know that Daniel always wanted us to have children. So we have chosen to remember Daniel: his name was Daniel John Ainsworth Thomas.
Ainsworth James Thomas Coultart: we hope he grows to love it.
(Note: this is a first draft of what I might be planning to say at Ainsworth's dedication on Sunday. Feel free to suggest amendments!)
Monday 24 September 2007
First of many?
I've not written here nearly as much as I'd hoped I would. Almost every day Ainsworth does something that that makes me think "that'll make a good blog post" but I never get round to writing it and now there's too much to talk about. I will try to do a bit of a catch-up by posting something each lunchtime from the office instead of reading the paper.
So, today, the first of many new posts - what shall I talk about?
We're in the middle of preparations for Ainsworth's dedication service at church on Sunday which we're hoping to be an interesting do. The dedication itself (which our minister tells us is technically an "infant presentation" but everyone refers to it as a dedication and always has) is a short part of the normal Sunday service, much like a christening but without any water. (It's a Baptist church so we leave baptism until someone's in a position to make his or her own mind up about it.) We'll make promises about how we intend to raise Ainsworth, the friends we've chosen to be Support Parents* will make a promise to support us however they see fit, the church will stand in support, and the minister will smile a lot. He loves babies. Especially ours.
We have fifty or so extra guests coming to the service, so we hope those that aren't used to church manage to get through it okay before we all depart to Rachael's school for a couple of speeches and a celebratory buffet (with bar, of course!). Rachael's speaking about our choice of Support Parents*, I'm talking about our choices for Ainsworth's names (I might try that out here tomorrow), then we've asked our two Support Parents* to say a little something about any hopes and aspirations they would have for Ainsworth. All in all, were hoping for a great day.
*"Support Parents?" I hear you ask. "Why not Godparents?" Simple: one of them is not a believer. We're adjusting the words of the promises subtly. We've made up for that by having the other one as a vicar.
So, today, the first of many new posts - what shall I talk about?
We're in the middle of preparations for Ainsworth's dedication service at church on Sunday which we're hoping to be an interesting do. The dedication itself (which our minister tells us is technically an "infant presentation" but everyone refers to it as a dedication and always has) is a short part of the normal Sunday service, much like a christening but without any water. (It's a Baptist church so we leave baptism until someone's in a position to make his or her own mind up about it.) We'll make promises about how we intend to raise Ainsworth, the friends we've chosen to be Support Parents* will make a promise to support us however they see fit, the church will stand in support, and the minister will smile a lot. He loves babies. Especially ours.
We have fifty or so extra guests coming to the service, so we hope those that aren't used to church manage to get through it okay before we all depart to Rachael's school for a couple of speeches and a celebratory buffet (with bar, of course!). Rachael's speaking about our choice of Support Parents*, I'm talking about our choices for Ainsworth's names (I might try that out here tomorrow), then we've asked our two Support Parents* to say a little something about any hopes and aspirations they would have for Ainsworth. All in all, were hoping for a great day.
*"Support Parents?" I hear you ask. "Why not Godparents?" Simple: one of them is not a believer. We're adjusting the words of the promises subtly. We've made up for that by having the other one as a vicar.
Saturday 22 September 2007
My first painting
There is so much I want to tell you all, but so little time. Eating has been a great adventure; I've had carrot, sweet potato, peas (yuck!) apple, pear, courgette - and lots of banana - and I have lots of photos but I'll have to post them another time. For now, I just had to tell you about my first painting. Mummy did the sponging, and I helped to spread the paint around until I was happy with the finished result. I thought it was okay, but it was a bit too flat, so I scrunched it up a bit to give it some texture.
What do you think? I think it looks a bit like some of my uncle's paintings.
PS: Daddy's just reminded me that lots more photos are available on my photo site even if I've not had time to put them here.
What do you think? I think it looks a bit like some of my uncle's paintings.
PS: Daddy's just reminded me that lots more photos are available on my photo site even if I've not had time to put them here.
Thursday 6 September 2007
Orange Stuff
It's official - my mum loves the colour orange! She wears orange clothes, she bought me an orange Bugaboo and now she's giving me orange stuff to eat!
Apparently it's called 'carrot' and I had it three days in a row. It was quite tasty, but I think the banana I had yesterday and today was even better - it was certainly stickier :o) And tonight daddy is roasting me sweet potato for tomorrow's snack (isn't that orange as well?!).
Well, I have to say I'm enjoying the new food regime. Mummy even lets me drink some of her water now - and I've been eyeing that up for months.
Apparently it's called 'carrot' and I had it three days in a row. It was quite tasty, but I think the banana I had yesterday and today was even better - it was certainly stickier :o) And tonight daddy is roasting me sweet potato for tomorrow's snack (isn't that orange as well?!).
Well, I have to say I'm enjoying the new food regime. Mummy even lets me drink some of her water now - and I've been eyeing that up for months.
Tuesday 4 September 2007
A delight
I'm very glad Rachael has posted an update. I keep meaning to (I probably think about it most days) but get distracted by other things, and I keep trying to persuade Ainsworth to tell you all what he's actually been getting up to, but he always seems to busy chatting, laughing, entertaining friends to find the time. I'll make sure he updates you soon.
In the meantime, Rachael is quite right. He is an absolute delight. And even if he's been frustrating at bed time (which he certainly can be) the smile he gives us in the morning makes it all melt away.
In the meantime, Rachael is quite right. He is an absolute delight. And even if he's been frustrating at bed time (which he certainly can be) the smile he gives us in the morning makes it all melt away.
Sunday 2 September 2007
26 Weeks or 6 Months...
I can hardly believe it! In some ways the day Ainsworth arrived seems like a lifetime away, in other ways it has gone by so quickly. The fact that I have been on antibiotics for nearly 11 of those weeks is a little scary, but hopefully the expensive consultant in London will sort me out on Tuesday.
Anyway, to things of Ainsworth... In the last week he has had his last breast feed and is now completely bottle fed. He knows exactly what to do with the bottle and is beginning to reach out and hold it or push it away. He has had quite a few more pooey nappies, but that seems to have settled this weekend. (My going on 'nappy-strike' and saying Trevor had to do them all this weekend seems to have reduced the amount of poo - I'm sure the two of them are in cahoots!)
He has also had is last jabs for a while and coped admirably with 3 injections at once!
His sitting has definitely improved - he is sitting more firmly with a good straight back, and is even straining to be more upright when in his bouncy chair.
We have talked a lot about food and getting him onto solids, but I can't help thinking that we could leave it a couple of weeks because he arrived at 38 weeks gestation. He's also still sleeping well and doesn't want more when he finishes a feed - other indicators of needing more than milk. However, he has developed a definite chomping action with his mouth this week and is reaching out for our food when we are eating (His looks made me feel very guilty eating an ice cream last weekend!). Mind you, he is reaching out for all sorts of things, especially the tags (wash labels) on his toys!
He has been swimming today for the third time and it was such a contrast to the first time. He was smiling most of the time and absolutely loved his float thing. His legs didn't stay still the whole time he was in it! He definitely needs a little while to adjust to a situation before becoming happy with it. Today I stood on the side and we watched the children swimming for about 5 minutes before we went anywhere near the water. We've noticed this in other situations too - he can be quite teary and clingy when faced with something new or different, but given a few minutes securely held by me or Trevor and he becomes smiley and chatty - a real delight to behold.
He is very chatty a lot of the time now - babbling away to himself in the mirror and to his caterpillar in the car, especially.
All in all, he is an absolute delight to behold. I do find it difficult to know what to do with him sometimes and was amazed to find myself going to the pet shop for no other reason than to look at the fish! I, who never had enough time in the day to get through everything on my list, suddenly find myself aimlessly wandering the streets (and pet shops) for no other reason than to entertain my boy!
And, in case we haven't already reported it, he is now absolutely fine in the car seat :o)
So, a good six months? A tiring, excillerating, amazing, frustrating, astounding, fantazmagorical, emotional rollercoaster of a six months. Would I have it any other way? Well, it isn't any other way, so no point asking the queation really!
Anyway, to things of Ainsworth... In the last week he has had his last breast feed and is now completely bottle fed. He knows exactly what to do with the bottle and is beginning to reach out and hold it or push it away. He has had quite a few more pooey nappies, but that seems to have settled this weekend. (My going on 'nappy-strike' and saying Trevor had to do them all this weekend seems to have reduced the amount of poo - I'm sure the two of them are in cahoots!)
He has also had is last jabs for a while and coped admirably with 3 injections at once!
His sitting has definitely improved - he is sitting more firmly with a good straight back, and is even straining to be more upright when in his bouncy chair.
We have talked a lot about food and getting him onto solids, but I can't help thinking that we could leave it a couple of weeks because he arrived at 38 weeks gestation. He's also still sleeping well and doesn't want more when he finishes a feed - other indicators of needing more than milk. However, he has developed a definite chomping action with his mouth this week and is reaching out for our food when we are eating (His looks made me feel very guilty eating an ice cream last weekend!). Mind you, he is reaching out for all sorts of things, especially the tags (wash labels) on his toys!
He has been swimming today for the third time and it was such a contrast to the first time. He was smiling most of the time and absolutely loved his float thing. His legs didn't stay still the whole time he was in it! He definitely needs a little while to adjust to a situation before becoming happy with it. Today I stood on the side and we watched the children swimming for about 5 minutes before we went anywhere near the water. We've noticed this in other situations too - he can be quite teary and clingy when faced with something new or different, but given a few minutes securely held by me or Trevor and he becomes smiley and chatty - a real delight to behold.
He is very chatty a lot of the time now - babbling away to himself in the mirror and to his caterpillar in the car, especially.
All in all, he is an absolute delight to behold. I do find it difficult to know what to do with him sometimes and was amazed to find myself going to the pet shop for no other reason than to look at the fish! I, who never had enough time in the day to get through everything on my list, suddenly find myself aimlessly wandering the streets (and pet shops) for no other reason than to entertain my boy!
And, in case we haven't already reported it, he is now absolutely fine in the car seat :o)
So, a good six months? A tiring, excillerating, amazing, frustrating, astounding, fantazmagorical, emotional rollercoaster of a six months. Would I have it any other way? Well, it isn't any other way, so no point asking the queation really!
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