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Spencer's first holiday!

Tuesday, July 15, 2008


We've just come back from our first family holiday! We went to Spain for 10 days and we had a lovely time. Spencer suffered a little bit with the heat but we muddled through and he seemed to enjoy his 'swims' in the jacuzzi!
He even managed to relax enough and get a couple of beers in!
Ok, ok, it was Daddy's beer can and it was empty, but he seemed to enjoy the can!
We have got more photos but they're all on different cameras, so as soon as we're co-ordinated enough we'll get them organised.

posted by NMPhotography
6:34 AM
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Some more cute photos

Wednesday, June 25, 2008



Mummy couldn't resist taking more photos of her little boy.




Notice that adorable string of dribble!! How can you not fall in love with him!


posted by NMPhotography
11:59 AM
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Making moves

Spencer seems to have suddenly grown up! In a couple of days he's managed to:

Pull himself up to sit upright in his car seat (bless the shocked look when he realised Nana had a camera!)

Lift his head and sholders off the floor when he's lying on his front:

And today he even tried baby rice!! Photo to follow shortly as soon as Mummy figures out how to get it off her phone!


posted by NMPhotography
11:54 AM
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Christening

On Sunday 22nd June we celebrated Spencer's Christening. As per our general luck the weather was miserable as well as blowing gale force winds - not good considering we were having a BBQ and wanting to have the gazebos up.
Bishop William, who married Alan and I, did the service and was his usual jolly self and everyone seemed to enjoy the service - even Spencer, who only muttered a tiny winge when his head was wetted.
Spencer even seemed happy to be carried about by Bishop William!


Aunty Becky did a reading from the Bible - Bishop William sprung it on her as a copy of the Bible happened to be in front of her and she did it brilliantly, absolutely no mistakes!

In all Spencer has 5 godparents!! Yes, we went over the top, but each one of them is very dear to us and we couldn't imagine them not having any influence on Spencer's life.

So this is the 'unofficial' family photo!
To finish off, we all went back to Nana and Grandpa's and had lots of food, wine, milk and cake - specially made be Mummy!

posted by NMPhotography
11:24 AM
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Common Faces of Spencer

Tuesday, June 17, 2008


Spencer does actually have a very expressive face and seems to have good control over his eyebrows - he's very good at the 'What are you talking about' look (which makes him look a lot like his Grandad Frank, except he does has eyebrows unlike Grandad!):

Most of the time however, he has his hand in his mouth. Apparently its quite normal but it does get rather annoying, especially when you go to pick him up and he grabs hold of you with wet slimy hands!
But then of course he's a right little smiler, especially for Mummy and Daddy, although he is getting better with strangers, in particular the pretty ladies - little charmer!

posted by NMPhotography
2:46 PM
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The Bumbo has arrived!!!

Spencer's bumbo has arrived and he seems to really like it - albeit for short periods. He likes being able to sit up and watch what's going on. The other day he had a few minutes sat watching Daddy doing the garden.



posted by NMPhotography
2:44 PM
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Scar Face

Saturday evening Spencer had his last dinner (he has two!) and finally drifted off to sleep in Mummy's arms, but then in his sleep he tried to rub his eye but instead cut himself under the eye with the sharp nail of his thumb that Mummy kept meaning to file down....bad Mummy!

So Spencer now has a nice scratch on his face just in time for the Christening!

posted by NMPhotography
2:27 PM
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Look at what I can do Mum!!

Tuesday, June 10, 2008


Spencer's turning into a right cheeky little monkey - he's started to pull himself up into a sitting position! Yes, he's only 3 months old, but he seems determined to get up and going as soon as he can. He's just not happy unless he's either sat up or you support him and let him stand up.

Spencer also had his first experience of a high chair at the weekend. He is a right nosey parker and likes to see what everyone's up to, so this gave him the chance to look around at us having lunch and also to have his favourite friend Ollie with him. We've decided its time to order a Bumbo so we can plonk him anywhere and let him see everything, should arrive soon and that'll hopefully avoid the tantrums when we can't be holding him up 24/7.


Spencer has also started rolling over onto his tummy - he's been rolling onto his side for ages but he's really going for the tummy now. This morning we were awoken at 4:30am and found him with one arm through the railings in the cot and lying on his tummy, unable to get back onto his back. So that means we need to get a cot bumper as Mummy is terrified of him dislocating his shoulder!

I swear that this little man will be walking at 9 months the rate he's going!

posted by NMPhotography
2:13 PM
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Just chillin'

Alan and Spencer relaxing on the sofa just after a bath and before dinner.

posted by NMPhotography
2:10 PM
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Spencer's Got a Brand New Car

At the weekend Spencer's Grandad Frank was rented a 38 year old Jaguar E Type (was his 60th birthday present) and we drove into North Wales to meet them for lunch. Now, only Grandad Frank was actually allowed to drive this meaty machine, but Spencer was incredibly priveledged and managed to wangle a go behind the wheel! None of the rest of us were offered a go, we only managed the passenger seat.



posted by NMPhotography
2:03 PM
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Whassup!!!

Watching the game, having a milk....true, true.

posted by NMPhotography
1:27 PM
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Big Boy Bath

Saturday, May 17, 2008


Spencer's now graduated to a Big Boy Bath as he's got too big for his baby bath and we are trying to get him into a bedtime routine of bath, food then bed, so a shower doesn't quite work as well in that routine. Here's some photos of the little man in and out the bath.



We can't believe how big he's getting now - last week he weighed in at 12lb 8oz! That's half a pound a week on average! So next week when he gets weighed he's likely to weigh 13lb! I'm also going to ask them to see how long he is as I'm sure he's got a lot longer.

posted by NMPhotography
3:56 AM
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First time on the keyboard

Spencer had his first go at typing today and this was the result:

. c zzv c tcvv n tffffff nb n deeeeeeeeeeeeee34sd3\azzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz VCCVXXXXXDZ .00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBU 04M CV Y7

He also managed to open up my favourites list and add the website that was on the screen at the time - I don't even know how to do that via the keyboard! I think we have a computer whizz on our hands!



posted by NMPhotography
3:11 AM
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First smiles!

Wednesday, April 16, 2008


I finally caught Spencer smiling on camera!!

Everytime I watch this it makes me laugh!

video

posted by NMPhotography
1:15 PM
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New toy!

Wednesday, April 9, 2008


Spencer received a new toy in the post today (kindly bought by Mummy off Ebay!) - a new playmat! Excited (Well, Mummy was as it will hopfully entertain Spencer enough to let her have some time to do some work!) we unwrapped it, started to pull it out the bag and Mummy got whacked in the face by the arches and is worried about having a black eye for Friday's wedding, but after recovering we got it set up, Spencer got put down on it and what did he do....


...sleep!

Typical! He has been screaming all morning because of a gassy tummy and when he's finally got something to distract him, he falls asleep.

posted by NMPhotography
4:20 AM
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The World's Youngest Googler..?

Tuesday, April 8, 2008


Alan had a meeting with Google in London today and the very kind people there gave Spencer a present, which he can be seen proudly wearing below. Thanks to Danae and the rest of the team at Google!

posted by NMPhotography
3:15 PM
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How big?

Thursday, April 3, 2008


Spencer had his 4 week weigh in today at clinic and oh my god - I must be doing something right!

Birth weight - 8lb 8oz
2 week weight - 9lb 3oz (11oz gain)
3 week weight - 10lb 6oz (1lb 3oz gain!)
4 week weight - 11lb 2oz (12oz gain!)

He's gone from the 75th centile to the 91st!! Not that I know what that means!

And there was me worrying that he wasn't getting enough from my mastitis boob!

posted by NMPhotography
9:25 AM
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What a face!

Tuesday, April 1, 2008


Alan took this photo of Spencer when he was having a tantrum about not getting his dinner and its one of my favourites! Definitely one that will be brought out when he brings his first girlfriend home to meet us ;)

posted by NMPhotography
2:30 PM
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Even more photos

We're not taking photos every single day, but we try to take some when we can, mainly so we can show everyone how much he is growing, but also so we can see too!

Well, he has definitely grown! He has now outgrown some of his sleep suits and it was getting to the point where either his toes were bent backwards in the foot bits or his knees were constantly bent in the leg bits! Its a bit of a shame really as he's no longer our tiny (ok, he was never REALLY tiny, but the tiniest he was when he arrived) baby. It also seems to be going really fast and I'm worried we're going to miss something.

Anyway, here are some photos - some were ones I'd missed from when he was a bit younger.

Spencer's first bath at home - he screamed the whole time, but now it really calms him down and he seems to quite enjoy them:

With Spanish Grandma Rosie:

With Uncle Steve:

On Daddy's lap at a week old:

Asleep on his changing mat, taken today:


posted by NMPhotography
2:02 PM
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Our little porker still a fattie!

Saturday, March 29, 2008


Spencer had Noreen the health visitor come again on Thursday with her new trainee Emma. Just before they arrived he had been constantly unsettled and was screaming, but as soon as Emma gave him a cuddle he was off to sleep! Typical! Everyone else sees him as a little angel and we get the little monster!

Noreen checked him over (and he almost weed all over her but it just missed!) and he's all fine apart from being a tad jaundice still. She said he's a 'proper' boy with chubby cheeks!

Then came the time to weigh him and seeing as he was weighed 1 week before and weighed 9lb 3oz I thought he'd be about 10lb. How wrong was I!! 10lb 6oz! That means that in 1 week he's put on over 1lb in a week! In the first 2 weeks he'd put on 11oz, which I thought was a lot, but then to put on another 19oz in 1 week - that's ridiculous!!

Noreen was impressed and thinks that I'm obviously doing something right! Definitely gold top! Main thing though was that she said its a good weight for him to put on and he's in proportion with his length (55cm) so he's not a fattie really, just right for his length. It also points to him being tall - not really a surprise with all the tall people in the immediate family.

posted by NMPhotography
9:09 AM
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Some more photos

Monday, March 24, 2008


Spencer is getting very good at holding his head up now and having a good look round when he's sat up. He's also opening his eyes really wide now and even following us round the room with his eyes. Being proud parents we'd like to think he's advanced as we didn't think it happened until he was over a month, but its probably quite normal - we're still proud of him though!

In this first photo he looks just like Alan in a photo that was taken when he was little, I'll have to dig it out.


posted by NMPhotography
12:15 PM
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First session in the studio

Today we tidied up the studio a bit and Spencer had his first photo shoot experience. We stripped him off (bless him!) and we got some photos of him with Daddy and myself.

Apart from peeing all over the backdrop and pooing on Daddy it seemed to go well.




posted by NMPhotography
12:08 PM
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Our first day by ourselves

Wednesday, March 19, 2008


Yesterday Alan had to go back to work, which I was absolutely dreading as it meant being left by myself with Spencer, and he's been particularly irritable over the past few days and taking ages to settle. There was nothing we could do about it though and Alan left for work - at least its only a 3 day week for him this week and a 4 day next week because of the bank holiday.

Even though I was dreading it, it didn't actually go too badly. Yes, Spencer took ages to settle and I found the only way I could get him to sleep was to have him lying face down on me, which isn't the best thing when you want to get on with things, but he's just so cute when he is like that!

We also had the health visitor, Noreen, round to give Spencer a check-over and to make sure I wasn't sufering with post-natal depression or something. She was happily surprised that he'd put weight on and thinks its brilliant that he's not a scrawny baby - like he would be with a mother like me! She was also full of advice on what we could do to get him to settle and sleep at night. Now Noreen, although she works for the NHS, seems to be my type of person. She doesn't believe that we should be overprotective with babies, or stress about every little thing - she believes that we should do what we feel is best and what will help us be less stressed and tired. So, as a result, Spencer will now be given a bottle of formula if he is just mega hungry and mummy's not been able to fill him up, he will be sleeping in his cot in his room rather than in with us, and if he wants a dummy (as he's settled by sucking and our fingers are getting tired!) then he'll get one. She's also suggested gripe water if he's got a sore tummy.

I felt so much better when she had gone as these were things we wanted to do and try, but because everyone has such a go at you for it, we haven't done so and spent every night up until at least 2am trying to settle him in his moses basket in our room.

So last night we had a bottle of warm water on standby with the formula powder, we put him in his sleepbag and once he was dozy we put him in his cot with the monitor on and shut the door. That was at 12am (2 hours earlier than normal) and apart from the odd grumble at first, he fell asleep until about 4am, then came into our bed for a feed and was asleep until we were up at 7. SUCCESS!! Alan and I slept better for it and hopefully it'll carry on! We didn't even have to use the formula either, but we'll keep it on standby each night just in case.

So that was the perk of the day and I also managed to get some more photos of Spencer. I can't wait to get him into the studio, but that's going to need some preparation.

Enjoy!


 Asleep on Daddy's chest

posted by NMPhotography
3:35 AM
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He exists!

Tuesday, March 18, 2008


Yesterday we took Spencer to Chester to get him registered and get his birth certificate. So its official, Spencer now exists and is all official! No going back on his name now.



posted by NMPhotography
3:43 AM
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Spencer's big weigh-in!

Monday, March 17, 2008


The midwife came today to give Spencer a check-up, weigh-in and to sign us off to the health visitor. Apart from still being everso slightly jaundice he was given the all clear. We then had to strip him off to be weighed - whilst being told that on average babies lost weight at first. She then popped him on the scales and seemed quite surprised when she told us he weighed 9lb 3oz (4.16kg)! Now less than 2 weeks ago when he was born he weighed 8lb 8oz (3.85kg), so thats 11oz (311g) he's put on!! Little porker!
Mummy is definitely producing gold top stuff!

posted by NMPhotography
4:27 AM
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Some more photos

Sunday, March 16, 2008


Just wanted to add a few more photos for everyone.

Shortly after being born and in his new clothes and hat - complete with bruising on his face from the forceps, poor mite!

Spencer having his hearing test at the hospital - he looks like a mini DJ! (It was all clear by the way!)


Exactly 1 day old!
First time he met Aunty Becs.


First time he met Grandad Steve

Back at home and having his first top and tail wash.

posted by NMPhotography
7:43 AM
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The Story of Spencer's Birth

Saturday, March 15, 2008


Spencer was due the 25th February, but although we were hopeful he would arrive early or on time (as his Grandma Pat was going away to New Zealand for a month 6 days after he was due) I had a sneaking suspicion that he would arrive closer to the first due date they gave us of the 5th March - I also had a 'feeling' about the 19th February but I think that must have just been wishful thinking!

Anyway, the 25th February came and went and before my due date I was fed up and doing everything I could to encourage him to make an appearance, but once the date was passed each day I felt less fed up and more at peace that he was going to be quite late!

On Sunday 2nd March Grandma Pat had to leave and Spencer still hadn't made an appearance, which was a shame, but obviously we couldn't do anything about it. The next person due to leave was Grandad Frank on the Wednesday morning, so again we were hopeful Spencer would arrive before he jetted off too. I was due to see the midwife on the Monday and she was going to try something (I won't go into gory details!) to entice Spencer out, so there was a chance he may arrive before Frank left, but considering the midwife had tried twice before over 2 weeks, we weren't hopeful!

Monday came, midwife arrived and tried her trick but said things weren't ready so she couldn't do it, and doubted Spencer would be here for a while, so I was booked in for an induction the following Monday - obviously this meant we wouldn't have a homebirth, but I think at 2 weeks late I wouldn't have minded.

Now, the midwife came at 2:30 and said things wouldn't happen for ages, so I made my peace with it and had some lunch and went for a nap. At 3:47 (exactly!) I was woken by a short sharp pain in my tummy and suddenly a HUGE gush!! As you might imagine, it was a bit of a surprise, firstly as the midwife said it would be days yet and secondly as only a small percentage of women actually have their waters break before labour.

I rang Alan and said he'd better round things off at work and head home, and I then phoned the midwife's office and said my waters had gone. They asked me to go in for monitoring as there was blood in the water, so Dad drove me into Chester (painfully slowly!) whilst I was having contractions every 15 minutes.

We met Alan at the hospital and I was hooked up to a monitor and we were left to it for 45 minutes. Contractions quickened to every 10 minutes, so we knew things were definitely progressing. This is a photo of me in between contractions and still smiling!

After an hour and a half we were discharged and told I would only have to go back in if Spencer hadn't arrived with 24 hours of my waters going - so off we went happy that we were going to have the homebirth we planned!

We headed straight back to Grandma and Grandad Harding's with my parents, Grandad Frank and Aunty Rebecca and all tucked into a big curry my mum had made, the whole time getting contractions every 10 minutes!
After dinner we headed back home to try and sleep, but as the contractions were coming every 5-7 minutes I only managed to doze off occasionally, the rest of the time I paced the living-room so that Alan could get some rest.

At 5am I had had enough and was finding the pain a bit too much and contractions were every 3-4 minutes, so I got Alan up and we phoned the midwife, who agreed to meet us at The Cottage. We then phoned The Cottage and warned them we were on the way. Its only a mile away but with contractions it felt like 100! We arrived to everyone awake though and the kettle on.

The midwife arrived and after the room was set up and the gas and air brought out (not as good as I imagined, but couldn't have done without it!) the midwife then examined me and happily told me I was 4cm dilated - just what I wanted to hear! She thought he'd be with us by 2:30, which was nice to hear, so we just started counting down the contractions and everything was going brilliantly and was absolutely textbook. We couldn't believe how smoothly it was going and with the help of gas and air, and a TENS machine, we even managed to catch a smiley picture with Aunty Rebecca!


At about 12:30 the midwife did another check and said that I was almost ready to push and by 1:30 things were ready to go! But that was things went wrong, my contractions went from 3-4 in 10 minutes to less than 2, which was annoying as it meant there wasn't enough there to get him out. The midwife gave us a time limit of 2 hours before we would have to go to the hospital to be put on a drip, which was the last thing we wanted, so we tried walking about, jumping on the spot (that didn't last long!) and a few different positions. But at 3:30 the midwife wasn't happy and called an ambulance.

Typically, the day this would all happen they decided to start roadworks on the way to Chester, and that meant the ambulance took half an hour. By the time they arrived my contractions, although still not close enough together, were getting closer and stronger, but the decision had been made and we had to be transferred. They also told me I wasn't allowed to push as Spencer couldn't be born in the ambulance! Not the easiest thing to do when you're body is doing everything it can to push.


I don't remember much about the ambulance ride apart from the fact that I went from laughing at the traffic being backed up all the way to Chester and trucks having to pull off the road for us to get through, then being in tears as I wasn't allowed to push during the contractions.

We eventually got to the hospital at about 4:30 and I was hooked up to a drip (I still have the 2 bruises in my hand from the first attempt and the successful one, almost 2 weeks later!) and the doctor came to check me over.


Now, if I described the doctor as the daughter of Satan it still wouldn't describe how horrible she was. Thankfully Alan was there as otherwise I wouldn't have got through it - I can still remember the pain from the examination she did on me and it was still awful with me having gas and air constantly! Alan actually said to her that she's been too rough when she came to do another examination, and she actually had a go at him! Here was a man saying that she's been too rough with his wife and that it was upsetting me massively, and she has a go at him! B*tch is all I can say. If my legs hadn't been where they were she would have gotten a kick!

Anyway, to cut a long and painful story short this devil woman decided that she couldn't wait for Spencer to arrive, even though she kept saying that I could push him out myself as the contractions had picked up, and decided that she'd pull him out with forceps. Now, forceps never entered my mind when thinking of worst scenarios for how it could go, I never could have imagined how painful they were. I think I would have preferred a c-section to be honest.


Eventually Spencer arrived at 18:19 after only using gas and air (OK, I had half a dose of pethidine but at 10:30, so I don't really count it!) and weight a very healthy 8lbs 8oz.


He even managed to have the cord wrapped round his foot and in between his toes!

Alan cut the cord and all I can remember saying was that he was huge!

Our first family portrait - proud Daddy and worn out Mummy!

Unfortunately I had to stay in hospital overnight as my waters had gone more than 24 hours before, and Alan had to leave at 8:30 with my parents, so until he could come back at 11 the next day, Spencer and I were by ourselves. We survived the night though and at 9 the next night they finally let us go home. I was worn out (think I had a right to be!) but so happy to be going home!

So, now we're home and Spencer is causing havoc - including just waking up, so I'm going to have to leave this incredibly long post and give you all more updates later!

posted by NMPhotography
9:01 AM
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Welcome to Spencer's website

Friday, March 14, 2008


As Spencer's grandma, grandad and great-grandma live in Spain and won't get to see Spencer every day, we thought it would be a good idea to create his own website where we can put photos and videos and updates.
We'll try to keep it up to date and we hope you enjoy seeing Spencer grow!

posted by NMPhotography
3:36 PM
0 comments