type as me

So far we have:

• Bean
  
• Beany
  
• Hollybean
  
• Ickle Pickle
  
• Icky Picky
  
• Icky Von Picky ,shortened to
  
• Icky Von
  
• Icky McPicky
  
• Ickster
  
• Grumple Stiltskin (when she's in a mood)
  

I get a bit carried away

Imagine the scene... It's late at night. Holly's unsettled, and I try to comfort her. She slowly calms done as I pace back and forth, and then falls asleep in my arms. I go to put her back in her cot, and slowly move her toward it. Reminiscent from the above scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark, I carefully place her down, knowing that one false move could start her off again, and unleash a rolling boulder* if she wakes.

But success is oh so sweet It's just not how you'd want to emulate Indy.

^{*metaphorically, of course. The room's not booby-trapped with spears, rocks, or poisoned darts. Well, not that I know, anyhow.}

What an unbelievable week it has been! From being woken up at 1.30am last Saturday by Pip telling me she thought her waters had broken, to Holly being born about 15 hours later, and then being taken away shortly afterwards with breathing problems.

I don't think I've had such a roller-coaster of emotions before, going from the trauma of seeing Pip in labour (due to a variety of things she couldn't have a painkiller, and she really needed one), the elation of Holly being born and holding her in my arms,

then the fear and panic of her turning blue and being taken to the Neo-Natal Unit and being attached to so many wires and tubes.

She was in there for just over a week, and although they unit has 24 hour visiting, you can't help feeling distant from her, and helpless.

Each day we hoped to see improvement, but for the first few days she was stable, but not improving. All we could do was look at her through the perplex, as the Doctors told us they wanted to have minimal interaction, concentrating all her energy on breathing.

But then there was a distinct change. It's like her lungs finally got the idea, and kicked in. She was taken off the oxygen for longer periods, and we even got to hold her.

The nurses and staff were fantastic, letting us getting involved as much as we could; changing her nappy, and helping with the feeds.

One by one the different wires came off, starting with the oxygen, then the drip and monitoring leads, and finally the feeding tube.

I was moved into the hospital to help establish a feeding routine, and slowly Holly started to feed for longer and longer. She wasn't, however, putting on weight, but the Doctors allowed us to take her home on Monday.

We had to take her back in today, to make sure that she had put on weight, and she had! A whole 4oz. So now she is home for good, and we're enjoying every minute of it. Even the night where she didn't settle until 4am

This is THE EGG. He's going to be watching over Hollybean's room, and let us know how hot or cold it is. I've been giving him a trial run in preparation of Hollybean's arrival, and THE EGG has not been happy.

Look at his face! He's red with anger! It's soooo hot at them moment, and this pic was taken on a relatively cool night. Luckily Hollybean's arriving in the Autumn, so hopefully it won't be as hot. If it is, we could be in for some (even more) sleepless nights, as I dare say she'll be unhappier than THE EGG.

And yes, Khad, I realise that this isn't hot at all for you

It's been 8 weeks since we last saw Bean, and today Pip and I went for our 20 week scan. It really is amazing to see Beany move on the monitor, and he/she has grown so much.

We were hoping to find out if he/she is a he or a she, but unfortunately, Bean was not playing ball! As you can just make out, their legs are tucked up, and so it was impossible for the sonographer to tell. More importantly, due to this she couldn't carry out all the tests that needed to be done. Of all the ones done, everything is fine, but it does mean that we have to go back in two weeks to have another scan.

That's actually really good, because I love seeing the baby. On the scan today we saw Bean's little face, hands, feet, and heart. We even saw it sucking its thumb. Well it probably wasn't, but it looked like it It also keeps to suspense about the sex going for that little bit longer...

Having told people that Pip's pregnant, one of the first questions that people ask us is "do you want to know the baby's sex?". We're not sure, and it's such a hard decision to make. You've got the romance of surprise on one hand, but the practicality of knowledge on the other. At the 20 week scan you can apparently find out the sex, and so we have around 7 weeks to decide. Pip and I are both people who like to be prepared, and I think we're leaning toward finding out, just so we can buy things/decorate accordingly (and as my little little brother is only 6 months old, see what hand-me-downs we can nab )

Knowing the sex then brings another, probably more important decision: baby names. I think Pip and I starting thinking of names as soon as we found out. Although we have got a couple of definite contenders, we have struggled to find names that we both like. Here are a few of the names that have been vetoed by either (or both) of the prospective parents:

Names for a boy	Names for a girl
Mario Luigi Link Optimus Galvatron Ganondorf Geoff Chewbacca Obi Wan Indiana Han Boba	Peach Daisy Zelda Samus Leia Padme Geoff Amidala Rogue Moneypenny Lara Cheetara

Some cracking choices there, I'm sure you'll agree! Has anyone got any names for us? You may have guessed that the above choices were less than serious (most are my big little brother's suggestions), but if anyone has ideas for names, I'd love to hear them!