Growing up already

In the last 5 days Alexa has managed to perfect her eating and pooing skills. Dad's eating skills are world renowned.. his nappy changing skills are getting there. Alexa eats like a monster from "never full up land" with the result that after only 5 days she has increased her weight from 3.24 to 3.4kg. This early weight gain bucks the trend really as most babies regain their birthweight after about 2 weeks... i.e. we are very proud of her. Hmm I wonder who she got this appetite from??

On the sleep front it seems Alexa needs to upskill a bit in terms of getting herself off to dreamland. We find that she needs constant cuddling and holding. I am very thankful this is shared between the three of us as it means there is not a lot of time between feeds for a sleep.

Gran is fantastic at looking after her during the day. She is giving both David and I a chance to disappear to bed in the middle of the day for a much needed zzz. I (a true lover of sleep) am learning to cope on short naps of an hour or so. This is easier to do during the day, but becomes difficult at times in the midst of night. Luckily David is there and excels at settling her - his patience and calm manner usually has her quietened down, if not asleep, in no time.

Today Gran and I took a wander around the block with Alexa in her mountain buggy. She was all wrapped up as temperatures are at a high of 5 degrees but with a bitter wind making it feel more like 1 or 2. The walk did the trick with her sleeping for a good while and we were very thankful to make it back to Turtle House just as a small flurry of snow arrived!

It's great to be home...

Heh guys, thanks so much for all of your fantastic messages welcoming Alexa. We can't wait for you all to meet our little baby girl. Love D&K

Alexa wrapped up and ready to head home...

Future Chef???

Alexa at St Thomas' Hospital, Westminster

Stunning...

'Rufus' becomes Alexa

Well folks, the waiting is over. In the early hours of Friday 24 February - 3.24am to be exact - Alexa Grace Chapman-Smith decided she was ready to say hello to the world. True to female form, she was a fashionable 4 days late and then decided to make a pretty dramatic entrance... more details to follow. Suffice to say she was greeted by 2 of the most unbelieveably ecstactic parents EVER! Alexa weighed in at a fairly petite 3.24kg, which is just over 7.2 pounds, however we don't expect this will last long given the voracious appetite she has demonstrated over her first 2.5 days. The family has now arrived home at Turtle House which is a great feeling and both Kirsten and Alexa are recovering swiftly. Dad is still riding the high! Anyway enough of the chit chat and on with the photos...

Due Date has come and gone

Rufus is now officially late as his/her scheduled day of arrival was yesterday. Despite the eagerness of David, Mum and myself to see the little one, there were no signs of exit. So while David battled on at work with another late night, Mum & I kept ourselves entertained with games of scrabble (I'm up 4 games to 3), trips to the Library & cooking dinner.

Today we are heading just north of London for a trip to Harpenden to visit Fiona and 11 month old Anna. There we can experience the joys of a little girl who is going through the throwing food phase. For the remainder of the week we have a few activities planned including Ladies Bookclub for Wednesday, however these would be readily shelved in favour of the arrival of our little one.

With a new Indian cafe opening on Thursday just at the end of our road, David has suggested may have to book in for an extra special vindaloo curry. As I'm not a lover of hot curry, other suggestions for moving things forward will be gratefully received.

Welcome to Chappy Zone

Hello,
This is David & Kirsten's first foray into web technology. This site is for us to share with you some of our experiences in becoming new parents & any other adventures that happen along the way. Some of you may be wondering why "Chappy Zone" given we still haven't made it up the isle and I am not yet an official Chappy? Suffice to say I was feeling generous when we set up this blog site! Seriously though we don't expect the wedding bells will be too far off but with our track record of delaying our return to NZ who really knows...

While I am writing this first entry in our blog David is still at work (it's quite late in the evening here in London) - unfortunately he is busy drafting contracts for a client with operations in the UK and the States and the US clients are making a habit of coming online late in the afternoon and requesting changes to be incorporated into the documents by COB US time. This has called for some very late nights this week & a very tired David.

This week I have also been busy learning to live life from Turtle House, our flat in Clapham, having finished up work recently to go on maternity leave. David took this photo of me at 34 weeks (5 weeks ago now) so clearly the "bump" has arrived in a big way! At 38 weeks pregnant, I am definitely finding that I need to slow down and take things a bit easier - not something that comes naturally to me. I am filling up my days quite easily though as there is still plenty of shopping for baby gear to do and a long list of odd jobs around the house that we've never managed to find the time to sort out. Keeping active and knocking off just 1 or 2 of these tasks each day is really helping my sense of accomplishing something.

"Rufus" (the name of the wriggling bump thanks to Anne & John) appears well. No, this name will not continue to be used once baby arrives on the scene. Anyway, "Rufus" is learning to make some solid foot impressions against the right side of my belly and is starting to engage - i.e. head south (kind of like "caving" as David says) - in preparation for birth. Due date is 20 February, although we keep telling the bump that he/she isn't allowed to make an appearance until the 16th for a couple of reasons. Firstly David jokes that this timing would allow him to go on paternity leave just before his current US deal gets crazy busy ahead of completion (legal speak). From my perspective this timing fits in with Mum's arrival in London.

Lynne (mum but soon to be Grandma) is arriving here next Tuesday (Valentines Day) for a 5 week stay and we can't wait for her to get here. Roll on next week!