excess babbage

We came back to New Zealand with a fair bit of gear... As well as shipping 1.284 cubic meters of stuff on a boat, we had packs, and we managed to inherit extra stuff in Australia. Wo we arrived in New Zealand with some 58kg of checked-in luggage and mighty heavy on-plane bags. But no amount of security scans and luggage checks revealed our secret—we also returned to New Zealand carrying Excess Babbage.  : )

That's right. Bronwyn and I are excited to be expecting a baby in early October! This wasn't the reason for our return to New Zealand, but it sure fitted in with the fantasy of the “tidy life”. But yes, we knew the about the baby before we left London... In fact, we had an early scan at St George's in the week before we left. Even at 2.1 cm long at that stage, the radiologist was able to point out to Duncan arms and legs, body and head, and even a clearly beating heart on the video screen. It was amazing! Bronwyn's impression of the quite rapid scan was considerably less clear, but on two occasions since we've been able to hear the heartbeat. Wow. Bronwyn is clearly showing now too, even noticably changing shape every few days. Our book tells us the baby is now 14 cm long. Bronwyn is hoping however the baby will be more her birth weight (3lb 12oz) than mine (9lb 0.75oz)!

While we'd been looking forward to the prospect of having babies after we returned to New Zealand, we've realised how vast the gaps in our knowledge are. Despite this, we're pressing on in mostly ignorance, aided so far by an uneventful pregnancy absent even of any morning sickness. Bronwyn seems to be taking after her mother in that respect. We are feeling blessed to be surrounded by family and friends who are such great parents to their own children, that we can take as role models.

We've another scan in a couple of weeks. There is debate about whether to find out the sex of the baby. I never thought I'd want to know, but now I'm here... Meanwhile, Bronwyn does not want to know whether it is a boy or a girl... Well, not yet, anyway!