Nag Nag Nag

That's all people seem to do to me,

They say if it's not one thing it's your Mother/Mother-in-Law

Firstly
Massive congratulations to my Work Wife (Laura) and her bloke (Gaz) on the birth of their first baby (of many I hear !!!!).
'Erin Sophie' arrived a little early on 24 January weighing just 1lb 15oz.

I haven't blogged about it as I wanted to get her permission fist (Lauras' that is not Erins'), the Nag on my last blog has given me that authorisation.

Our only problem now is getting Laura to do her own collection.

Well done darling, now hurry up back to work as we have no I.T. Chick.

Secondly

My Mother-in-Laws' friend asked about getting free music for her children, as this is not something I do, I have had to ask a few friends who do this kind of thing.

The best bet for this is to use something called Bit Torrents, all you need for this is the "client" and the websites that list the .torrent files. I can't go into too much detail here as the legality of it all is still in question although there are stories of the BBC using the torrent technology to allow people to download content, we'll just have to wait and see. in the meantime, google for bittorrents for more info.

That's it, "Is there anything I can do for anyone?"

Back to work

Leah...How many Goals will Derby win by on Monday?

My paternity leave came and went, my week off also went just as quick, now its time for me to go back to work* and back to some kind of normality (and a rest)

I love fatherhood again (v3.0), however its been very hard work, not the baby part, that's easy (for me), Mummy breastfeeds so I can't help there, however trying to support mummy is the hard work.

Cooking I love,
Tidying I don't love,
Cleaning I hate,
Ironing I haven't

Despite all of the above, I still feel useless as I can't help through the night

Whoever says Mothers and/or housewives are lazy and should "get a real job" have never been either.

I have learnt in the past 3 weeks;

1. Too much sleep is not good for me
Going to bed early in case I got woken up by crying, only to sleep completely through it all and wake up in the morning made me feel worse than the XBozx days of 4 hours sleep a night - Althugh i did help SWMBO by bringing "Me Daughter" downstairs at the crack of dawn on a few occasions to let mummy sleep.

2. The internet is a great/bad resource for newborn baby information.
Great - babycentre and babyworld among the best, coming a close second was "12 Things No One Ever Tells You About Babies"
Not Great - You can diagnose just about anything with a quick google, this isn't always good, modern day medical dictionary where you can find something wrong with yourself

3. Midwives are great
Despite the bad press and crap the likes of the BBC and my local paper say, Midwives are excellent.
STOP SLAGGING OFF MIDWIVES - the government/NHS could save millions in compensation claims by employing hundreds if not thousands of extra midwives.

4. NEVER EVER... ...Believe your missus, if shes says "Never again" when in labour. SWMBO walked out of the hospital and decided she wanted another baby - Best contraception ever !!!!

5. Visitors are great, but make it very hard work
Everyone wants to see your new bundle of joy, your new bundle of joy loves being cuddled, however once the visitors have been and gone, your new bundle of joy does not want to go to sleep at night unless being cuddled, I was given the piece of advice - try and get all of your visitors round in the first week. This was impossible, I think we might be half way through now though. The amount of cards and gifts we have recieved is unbelievable

6. Be there for each other
Tiredness is a recipe for arguments, don't let it

7. Listen/Dont listen to advice.
This has been an adventure - everyone likes telling you how to do things, the way they did things 30/40/50/60 years ago. some good ideas, some bad, and some Im sure are now illegal

* After Wembley with the boys to watch The Rams in the playofff final.

Our New Arrival
Monday May 7 was indeed a very special day for me (and SWMBO I Guess).

The birth of our baby daughter Leah

Many thanks to all staff at the Derby City General Infirmary, in particular Annabelle for the safe delivery of my little angel

Hence the reason for my lack of blogging, I have once again been enjoying every single minute of fatherhood.

Already She has the Byrne frown mastered

Asleep in front of the fireplace

Resting (again)

One proud Mummy

The look of love

Trying to hide under the towel

Daddy will never let you go

Thank you Xbox !!

Just as I was getting some normality in my work/life/sleep balance, confirm release of Call of Duty 4: Modern Combat.

I was even at the point that I didnt feel the need to switch my XBox on every single day. No doubt time spent getting the nursery ready for our baby, buying Nappy Stackers (and other stuff you don't really need) played an important part of this.

Obviously I need to back to having no sleep... which is where the Xbox - More importantly Infinity Ward has come to the rescue.

We've all been a bit slack on the XBox online front, but I for one will have lots of sleepless nights any time now....