All Clear!

We were hugely relieved this morning to be told that all of Anna's blood tests came back negative for any irregularities. This basically means that there was no specific cause for the abruption which led to Amelia's premature arrival and therefore no reason why it should happen again. We'll be following up with more enquiries but this is a major shot in the arm for us.

Important Appointment

Tomorrow we're all off to the hospital for another chapter of our life since Amelia came along. Anna has had complex blood tests for a condition called thrombophilia and tomorrow we find out the results. Thrombophilia is the potential to develop dangerous blood clotting in the veins or arteries and there is a possibility that it is this condition which led to Amelia's premature arrival. The cause of the initial bleeding may never be known but the body's reaction to it, clotting resulting in labour, could be this condition.

What the outcome will be regardless of the answer we don't know, but tomorrow is the first step to finding out.

All Sport Cancelled

I mean what's the point? If we can't win the Rugby or the Cricket and the knuckle-scrapers from Stretford are still prevailing even though monkeys strictly aren't allowed in the Premier League, why bother?

Anyway enough of 'them', here's some pics of Amelia on her visit to Yarnton the other week. She caught up with Kay (due in a couple of weeks), Pierre & Alfie.

Kay, Pierre, Alfie, Anna & Amelia

Herself

Herself

Herself

Prepare to do battle

Well this is it. The definition of the fight for Good vs Evil. It's derby weekend. Time for our knights in Sky Blue, guardians of truth and decency to do battle with the festering disgrace that is, them down the road. Yes its City Vs United on Sunday and we're on our way up this afternoon to Mancunia for the festivities. There'll be pies, there'll be chips, there'll be heads in hands. There'll also be a tremendous fuss made of young Amelia no doubt. Plenty of cooing and head-sniffing is in order.

Amelia does De Niro

Still watching the telly

6 Months Old

Yes, sharp-eyed AFC devotees will have noticed that yesterday Amelia was 6 months old. On Friday she was weighed and is now 10lb 4oz so Anna and I celebrated with a take-away curry and Amelia celebrated with milk. Yesterday we had a wander round Winchester and I remembered a rather lonely stroll I made the day after Amy was born. I'd have given my right arm then to be in the position we're in now so I couldn't help feeling somewhat emotional. Anyway here's the star of the show in some pics from the weekend.

The duck is always popular...

...sometimes very popular

As is the TV

But we're pushing the books as hard as we can.

Trouble In Togo

Regulars will remember we welcomed the country of Togo here at Amy's Fan Club after receiving an online visit from a resident, but what we didn't know was that a controversial power struggle was about to ensue. Apparently the death on Saturday of Gnassingbe Eyadema, their leader of 38 years resulted in his son being sworn in for the reminder of the term of office. This brought world-wide condemnation as it was the parliament's speaker, who under the constitution, should have assumed power after the President's death. Don't ask me why I care, I just think it's a bit of gossip but 'read all about it' here.

Jabs? What Jabs?

Apparently Amy was a complete joy at the doctor's yesterday. As the nurse was sticking needles into her she was looking at Anna with a face that just said 'Why?' There was a brief squeal but after that she was a joy all afternoon.

We had a 'moment' the other night. I had changed Amy and put her down and when Anna went in to kiss her goodnight she realised that the babygrow I had found to put her in had special significance. It was the first thing Anna ever bought for Amy last April and was supposed to be what we would bring her home from the hospital in last November - Amy's original due date. She's just big enough to get into it now.

We may look like just family...

....but she's my evil clone really.

Playtime

What?

Screams at midnight

Last night after a perfectly delightful evening of grinning and giggling, Amy went down at around 11:30PM without any trouble. At around 12:30 however we awoke to some blood-curdling screams from the nursery. She was crying so hard she was almost choking. We were pretty scared for about 5 minutes but when held upright she began to calm down so we can only assume that it was a sudden and extemely painful bout of wind. She must have got scared too resulting in a self-perpetuating panic - bless. I was in a bit of a state too frantically flicking through the leaflet about Meningitis symptoms. After about 40 mins of 'there, there' she went back down and that was the last we heard for the night.

This morning she was all smiles again and she's back on the baby rice to see if we can push that forward. She's been at the Doc's for innoculations too so I hope she's not feeling too bruised.

I'll put a couple of new pics up tonight. Sunday is a bit of a celebration - anyone know why?