The Verran Family Blog

Today is Heritage Day in South Africa, but as braai’ing being one of our heritages, we also celebrate Braai for Heritage Day today as well. But with the weather so gloomy outside with rain pouring, we are staying in and having our braai with friends later on.

It has been a while since an update from us here in the Verran household. Joshua is 7 weeks old now which makes him nearly 2 months old. He is doing very well. He has grown so much and weighs in over 5.55kg now and 59cm. This was as of last Monday. He has also started smiling at us and we are seeing more reactions now – especially since putting hm under his playgym. See the video on the right.

But he has been such a joy so far and despite those evenings when he’s impossible, at least at times we are getting 4 hours a sleep – those are considered the lucky nights.

We have booked our flights in December to go up to KZN to see the family after Christmas. I got so excited when I selected “Infant = 1″ on the flight booking. This is going to be Josh’s first flight and I hope it is going to be a lot of fun for him – not to mention all the extra baggage that we’ll be taking with for him now.

The journey has been a road of a lot of learning, Google searches, huge dirty nappies, burping and many more. Being a daddy and mommy is a huge privilege and honor for anybody.

It is time for some more pictures. Here they are below.

Look, I am with daddy

Daddy feeding me my first bottle

Bonding with my daddy

More bonding with my daddy

Here I am with my Aunty Clair

Who is that good looker

I am so facinated

Happy times with all the toys

I love my monkey

My first real day out at Bolders Beach

Looking all smart

Daddy carrying me around like a kangaroo

It is a good day with my mommy

I am enjoying the picnic with mommy and daddy in the garden

I am enjoying the picnic with mommy and daddy in the garden

I am taking up my place at the microphone for another ZA Show Podcast

Fast asleep at Oumie and Oupie on the table outside

Here I am being hold for the first time with Oupie

Oumie feding me my bottle. Hmmm .. nice milk

In my new tracksuit and I look so cute!

Mommy and I are having so much fun

Here I am again with my monkey

Joshua is one month old today and in celebration of his first month, here is the video that I put together of our journey to birth and stay in the hospital.

Our little boy currently has a bit of a cold. I think he picked it up last weekend already, but we can only hope that he can ride it out and get rid of it quickly.

I cannot believe that it is the end of August already and in 6 days time, Josh will be one month old. But although the honeymoon of the birth is over and Bridgitte’s mom, who spent 2 weeks with us is back in Durban, and I’m back at work, we are still over the moon. I still have to pinch myself once in a while.

These 3 weeks have been – well, what can I say? Feed, change nappies, sleep, feed change nappies, sleep and so it continues. He has been a huge pleasure so far and there is no way, that I’ll swap that for anything on earth. Yeah, it hasn’t been all that plain sailing. There are those evenings where he has no interest in going to sleep and crying uncontrollably – even after going through the “checklist” and at the end of the day, a lot of patience and bouncing and he finally goes into la la land. Oh, and not to mention, that Bridgitte and myself have had the privilege of been sprayed during a nappy change.

It has been icy cold in Cape Town during the past week or two and there has not been much opportunity to take him out at all. We’re trying not to take him out if we don’t need to during the first 6 weeks. Yesterday, Bridgitte went shopping while I stayed at home with Josh and we didn’t get to go to Mass this weekend either – just too cold to take him out.

But yesterday, it was daddy and Josh bonding time and I did it the way I know how. Fired up iTunes and hit play on one of my all time coolest playlists and him and I boogied on down to some great tunes – LOUD! I think he enjoyed the music and after the 2nd song, he was fast asleep. Sweet!!

But he has been to 2 visits to the clinic nurse for a weigh-in and checkup and all is going well. He has increased his weight from 3.54kg on discharge to 3.9kg as of a week and a half ago. I’m sure he is over 4kg now. Bridgitte’s boss, who is an optometrist, also tested his eyes and everything is looking good. A baby’s eyes are only tested at 6 months, but it was great to get a running start.

Here some some more pictures that we’ve taken over the past 2 weeks or so.

I'm all snuggled up in my carry-cot

Candy is my protector and looks out for me

All bright eyed and bushy tailed

Me with mommy and daddy

Mommy cuddles

Me and my daddy

My new friend Wihan and meee

I think Wihan and I are going to be good pals

Our boy is home. Bridgitte and Joshua were discharged from the hospital on Friday morning and around 11am, we were home. It was great to carry him into his new home where he’ll be growing up with a very loving family. The trip home was very emotional for me. It was a sudden realisation that we are bringing him home after what seemed to be such a quick few days in the hospital.

We got home and settled him down. Then we let the dogs in and introduced them to him. Of course, Candy was sniffing and trying to see who this little being is and on many occasions, I had to hold her back due to her overwhelming curiosity. Champers also had her fair share of curiosity, but wasn’t as forward as Candy was. We were happy with the first introduction by the dogs. Only time will tell as to how they’ll be reacting to his crying and undivided attention that we’ll be giving him – considering that our attention is going to be shared by him as well as the dogs. During his first nappy change, the dogs were clamoring around us trying to figure out what was going on with the crying, etc. Champers was crying away too. Not sure if she was trying to show concern or what, but it was kinda cute. But as the day progressed, they got used to him more and more and over the last few days, we’ve noticed how concerned they get when he cries – looking up from their beds to see if anything is wrong. I think they are going to become best friends indeed.

We got home close to lunch time. Our lunch, came with compliments from the hospital. They packed in a celebration box with all sorts of goodies for the two of us to eat over lunch. In the box we found fruit salads, pasta & tuna salads, biltong, cheese & biscuits, Appletisers and a chocolate each to end off our lunch. So yummy indeed. Ag, and there I forgot to take a picture to show you.

We are slowly, but surely trying to figure him out and see what is going to work well for him and for us. He is breastfeeding and believe me, we are learning a lot here. When it comes to his feeding habits, at first he was feeding for long 30-40min periods of time and then feeding for 10-15min yesterday and today he is feeding 20-30min again – all with us trying to keep him awake at times. Gosh, I went out and nearly bought a R2,000 breast pump just to help relieve Bridgitte’s pain and emotions. But what we are realising is that we need to listen to our heads and use instinct and deal with it. That is what makes mothers who they are. We don’t want to see our baby loose weight and that does sit in our minds. On Wednesday he is going for his first weigh-in.

But researching on the net has helped a lot to get various opinions too.

We had my parents over for a braai yesterday – or should I say, we had Oumie and Oupie over. They are so delighted with their new grandson and I think they are going to make great grandparents. It was wonderful to have mom show and advise us on a few things and you can see how proud they are of him.

We had 6 hours sleep last night compared to the 5 and 2-3 hours the nights before. Lets see what tonight will bring us.

But we are so happy with our son and he is already bringing us loads of joy. Here are some photos taken during the last few days.

Now where are those cabbage leaves …

This was given to us from the hospital with all sorts of goodies for baby like nappies, wipes, bum cream and many more. This makes a great baby bag too.

This also contains a whole lot of goodies like vouchers, information brochures, baby stuff, etc. This box will contain all the keep sakes like name tags, etc that we collected.

Proud daddy. At the hospital on the second day

The first family picture on the second day in hospital

She had a private room and believe me, you WANT a private room!!

Here I am, lying in my hospital cot

We love this pic taken in Sepia. Burp me!!

On my right side is Sister Joey O'Reilly. She was our midwife during delivery and all I can say is that she is awesome! Thanks Joey for all your help. You are truly wonderful !!!

Bridgitte sound asleep during the night with the dogs deciding to take their chances and share of attention.

Waaah, burp me!

Sitting in his car seat with a cute little face

Please dad, change the channel, no more Olympics please?

Ahh, thanks dad, now I'm happy

Oumie, please burp me? Get that wind out now!

Daddy, wash my hair so that I can look gorgeous!

Splish, splash I'mma takin' a bath

Get my jumper on quick!

Thank you daddy, now I feel so much better

I am so nice and warm!

Hey look, I'm with Oumie and Oupie!

It is just after 5pm or so and I’ve just got home after a day that has changed our lives forever. Today, the 6th of August 2008 will be remembered for many years in this family – the day when my son, Joshua was born.

Emotionally, you cannot put into words how we are feeling right now. We are on such a high – and no, that has nothing to do with the gas that Bridgitte had to suck before the epidural was finally administored at 9:30 this morning. A high that only a parent of a brand new baby can explain.

If you were following us on Twitter and Facebook as well as this blog this morning, you are the followers of our dream, our little miracle baby and I just want to THANK YOU for your well wishes, words of wisdom – and yeah, Simon, you’re right – I was floating and still am. I think this was the first time that a birth was Twittered live in South Africa. Kudos! I read all your messages and again, thank you very much!!!

Joshua – I have never been very good at looking at people and say who they look like – mom, dad, etc. But everybody has said, and I can vouch for this is that he looks like his dad. He has blonde-brown hair, has his dad’s face and feet, his mom’s hands, and apparently, Bridgitte’s dad’s frawn. Oh, he also has Bridgitte’s eyes too.

He was born at 11:16 in the morning with a weight of 3.78kg and a length of 53.5cm.

But without any further ado, here are some pictures that I took today.