Hello World

At 10.41am on Friday the 30th of November, Sam Finlay Doughty eventually decided to join us.

One week late and as attention seeking as possible (5 people in the room not including Marie & me) and a whopping 9lb 1oz!

Marie & Sam are doing great but enough fluff - here are some pics!
Don't forget you can click on the pictures to see a bigger image (patronising session over).


Proof that he is a bruiser!



'Enough ogling - where's my milk?'



Whose this wrinkly old whinge bag? Your Dad!



After a hard day being born time to catch some zeds.



'Do I have to repeat myself - it's business time!'



Awake for 30hrs - by the looks of me you'd have thought I'd just given birth.



9lbs!! I'm having a puppy next time!



Sam & Mum having a bond.

As you would I'll stick some more pics on here soon.

Money, Money, Money

Here is nice pic of Marie at Holkam taken a few weeks back.

A walk round the grounds is now our staple as I struggle to go much further (Marie seems to be OK with it!)

Well as predicted by everyone on the planet all our savings are slowly being sucked away by Diddy & he isn't even born yet!!!



Number 1 - the car seat...



Number 2 - the crib...



Number 3 - the pram...

There goes my XBOX 360 Elite then :-(

Big Bird

As you can see Diddy has been very busy. All those visits to Deepdale appear have taken their toll!

Café Nero has to take some of the blame though.











Diddy is showing no signs of actually wanting to come out - who can blame him.

He's getting carried about, food on tap & nice 'n' cosy.

Little bit jealous really.
:-)

Busy

Sorry that there hasn't been any posts in the last month but we've been really busy getting ready for Diddy's arrival!

Diddy has been getting rather big (as you would expect) and lots of things have been bought or done to the house!

I'll endeavour to get some pics and stuff on here over the next couple of days but seeing as it's only 3 days to 'Diddy-day' I may have something more pressing to worry about! :-)

Cat Cuddle

Dave and I are stuck in London again on another Microsoft course and we're missing the family as usual. :-(
(Oh and Halo 3 as well!)

However the cats both appear to be using the time to their advantage and have been bonding with Diddy.


Marie's bump may now be getting uncomfortable for her but Murphy & Chloe seem to love it.

I hope they feel the same way when Diddy arrives!

I left my heart at Burnham

One thing we have been trying to do before Diddy arrives is grab as much quality time as possible. The last thing I want is Marie & Diddy to get stressed, so we’ve been spending far too much time at Burnham Overy Staithe & Burnham Deepdale.

Loads of time on Overy beach has been fantastic and its been good practise for Diddy. He’ll be ready for the days he’s going to be forced to spend there!

We have had enjoyed several picnics and beautiful sunsets – which has been rare considering the extremely mild summer.





Anyone who has spoken to us at the weekend may have heard of the second place we always end up at – Deepdale Café!

Some may say that we are obsessed by the place but everyone we have dragged along seems quite happy. :-)

Marie & Diddy certainly love having a cheese jacket & Mocha!

It may be helped by the fact that Fat Face is on the doorstep but I think that Truffle, resident mascot for Blooming Gorgeous, may have something to do with it!

Everyone has suddenly been getting more flowers, mainly down to the fact that they are fantastic and Truffles Mum & Dad are lovely.

We are so infatuated that we camped next door a couple of weekends ago – 30 seconds walk and a Deepdale breakfast – nothing better. :-)



Deepdale farm was really good & we'll definitely be back (nothing to do with the 10% discount at the café at all).

I certainly have some wonderful Diddy memories already from the beach - having a cuddle & feeling Diddy having a good kick are my favourites.

I'm looking forward to many more.

Dave and the City

Apologies for no updates recently – I’ve just been rubbish and too busy enjoying a lot of Diddy kicks!

Well I’m stuck in London all week on another Microsoft course but I’ve not been alone – Diddy has a new pal, Dave the Cat.

Dave has been re-named of course - better than the original!

Dave has been helping through the tough time of missing Marie, Diddy & the cats.

It's not been easy as London isn’t one of my favourite places in the world – it’s easy to be lonely with so many people around.

Well, this country boy has just two more days to go and I'm on my way home for hugs, kicks, purrs & Deepdale café (more about that soon).

Diddy Kiss

It has been great to see the Irish contingent for 2 weeks. I was a little worried how Ciarán would be around Diddy but he was fantastic. Diddy was included in the nightly hugs & kisses and Ciarán even started giving them out all the time! (As you can see.)

Diddy had a fab time especially when we went to see the seals at Blakeney Point. We went with Beans from Morston Quay and it was a really good trip.

Being National Trust we saved a fortune on car park fees again - one advantage of being old before my time.

Steve, my brother-in-law, got some great seal shots from the boat. Have a look at his site - he has some excellent pictures on there.

Seeing Ciarán is always good (and Nina & Steve) but now that we know Diddy is a boy I appear to be taking more notice of 'boy things'. Ciarán is football mad and I realise that I only have a few years to get up to speed as Diddy may follow suit, especially if his cousin has something to do with it!



So I'm gonna attempt to watch 'Match of the Day' seeing as the new season starts this weekend (?) - the things you do for your children!! ;-)

A bump for Down Under

As the Oz contingent seem to be missing out on seeing Diddy getting bigger I thought I'd better post a nice pic for them...

Pizza & chocolate may be fav food so far but this pic is 100% pure Diddy! :-)

(P.S. the background is our new wall colour - no more yellow wallpaper!)

Winkle, Winkle, Little Star

21 weeks, 5 days and Diddy has now has a sex! :-)



Most importantly everything on the scan looks as it should and no cause for concern.
Oh, and by the way it's a boy!! ;-)

Diddy had lots of fun in the scan and was a right jiffle bum, thanks to several fruit pastilles that Marie popped to make sure he didn't have his legs crossed all through the scan. As you can see from the picture that he has got a little bigger and everything is more detailed.

The scan picture reminds me of the film poster for 2010 - 2007 is the year we make contact though!

This scan was awesome - unfortunately the picture doesn't give away the detail we could see.
Fingers, ribs and his spine - we even saw the 4 valves of his heart!

As you can guess, Marie has already gone and bought some clothes and Tesco will have a good week profit wise.

Just got to convince Marie that Diddy needs a PS3 now!

Can I Kick It?

Diddy has finally decided that he has an opinion about the world and has started letting Marie know. Jiffling about has now turned into the odd hoof and Diddy currently has a top 3:

1. Pizza - just like his Dad, Pizza has a big reaction
2. Chocolate - hard to say but I think this one comes from Marie more than me
3. Baths - the temperature that Marie has them at I'm assuming he is trying to get out! ;-)

I saw my first 'wibble' the other night and I'm now on Pelé watch at bath time as that appears to be the most consistent time for 5-A-Side.

I must admit that I'm getting a tiny bit jealous that Marie can feel Diddy but she is looking lovely with a bump and not too long till the scan - these things help me get over it. Oh and Gü chocolate brownies seem to be helping as well! :-)

He or She?

Marie and I have decided that until we know the sex officially we are going to refer to Diddy as 'he'.
We were both naturally saying he all the time & didn't want to refer to Diddy as 'it'.

It makes life a little easier - just don't assume that we know the sex if I say he from now on! :-)

Showtime

Well Diddy appears to be getting bigger every week (as you would expect) and Marie is starting to show. Yet again another reality check in the best possible way. :)

We have finally got the date through for the 20 week scan - July 17th.
Marie was slightly disappointed as it will 21 & a bit weeks, I'm just trying to look on the bright side as we'll hopefully have a better chance of finding out the sex.

Fathers day & my birthday were awesome as I got presents from Diddy D. However I'm now concerned where the money is coming from - are we going to have the heavies appear in November when Diddy arrives?

Diddy-mobile!

Thankfully there were no tears shed on Saturday when we lost the Fabster.
So now we say hello to the replacement - Mr.T the Diddy-mobile! (Marie thinks it looks like the A-Team van.)



He's a beast and I'm loving the cruise control.
Hopefully Diddy will appreciate the room.

Bye bye Fabster

They keep telling me that change is good but sometimes it ain't.
Due to Diddy D needing as much room as possible we've had to get rid of old faithful - the Fabster.



We've traded the car in for a VW Touran but the excitement of a new car will be marred by the departure of the fabster.

The car is great and has given us three years of joy but Diddy D is worth it.
On Friday he'll be off to some find some new owners and Marie, I'm sure, will be in tears.

Train or horse? Err - underwater techno!

Apparently the old wives tale states that if your babies heartbeat sounds like a galloping horse it will be a girl, if it sounds like a chugging train it will be a boy.
Well we had our 16 week appointment with the midwife today and were lucky enough to hear the heartbeat - awesome! :-)

Trouble is it didn't sound at all like a horse or train - it sounded like a water-logged night in Ibiza!!

Joking aside it's another reality check in the best way and I just can't wait until the 20 week scan. Marie is apparently looking big for 16 weeks and everything else is good (including her iron levels - not bad for a veggie). Now we just have to finish the nightmare decorating!

Hi Jack!

Congratulations to our friends Beth & Iain on the birth of Jack. :-D



Jack was born on the Monday & weighs in at a whopping 8.85lbs!! Ouch!
Beth and Jack are both doing well and we can't wait to meet him in the flesh.



Poor old Diddy D is a little upset as she/he wont be able to see his new friend quite as soon as we will.

84 Days Later

12 weeks in and time for a reality check!



Click on the pic above for a closer look at Diddy D.

We were both relieved that there was a wee Diddy in there. Marie has been lucky not to have morning sickness (yet) and very other few symptoms so we were getting worried.
We were lucky to get our first wave from Diddy D (well, we thought it was a wave) and I could have easily spend hours looking.

Now the floodgates have opened and I'm never going to be able to walk past a baby shop again! ;-)

That's the easy bit over with...

It's official - we've finally grown up. After 14 wonderful years together we got married & now we are having a baby!

So being the geek that I am I've decided to document the arrival of Diddy D, the bumps unofficial name, so that friends, family and whoever else can see what's going on.

So keep your eyes peeled here for the latest developments, pictures & ramblings of a father to be.