The end ... and a new beginning

This blog was set up when we found out that our little Pip was on the way! Well now she is here, and is also known as Poppy!

This blog was about the first 9 months and so now we have decided to update our blogs and create two new ones, the first is already up and running and you can view it by going via our website: www.joandsimon.com. The blog is called Jo and Poppy's blog.

The second blog will follow shortly!

Lastly, have a look at this news article from the BBC on woman blogging.

'Hip'py Butler

On Poppy's first full day she had a 'MOT' at the hospital and because she had been born with 'frogs legs' she was automatically refered to the Childrens Orthopedic clinic. That appointement was yesterday.

To cut a long story short, we went, we saw, and the Dr said 'she is a good'un' and then we came home!

The hip examination was really quick, using an ultrasound and the Dr was more than happy with what he saw, she has perfectly normal hips!

Happy Birthday Uncle Nik!

it's my uncle Nik's birthday today and I want to wish him a very happy birthday and my Dad told me to tell him the card is in the post!

Time fly's!

Somebody gave me a phrase the other day - kids are a great time eater, and we can confirm that! Hence the reason why the blog is a little slow at being updated, but following a reminder from Australia we will try and keep site and blog updated!!

Since our last little entry Poppy has gained a few more pounds and is now 9lbs! She is guzzling down her milk on a frequent basis and is doing well.

Watching M*A*S*H

Poppy has discovered early on that a part of the household ritual is to watch a bit of M*A*S*H between 7pm and 8pm each evening .. as you can see, she loves it!



The noise in the background is not bad editing, just the torrential rain that we were having at the time on the conservatory roof!

The lighting in the video is a little poor.

Me and my chair!

Sometimes it's good to chill out ... so i am, in my chair!

The sound effects you can hear are supplied by the chair .. its not Coldplay but it amused me for awhile!

A visit to St Mary's

There are a number of milestones that your children reach through the years (so i am told .. wow, that sounded good didn't it!!).

Poppy has two immediate milestones that she wanted to achieve, and she achieved the first today ....!

Poppy visited St Mary's this morning, home of the Saints! As you will see she has brought home some memorabilia of her visit and also has her first strip to try on as well!

The second milestone for Poppy is to visit an Apple Store .. we are building up the anticipation for this one, as its so special, and will visit when the new 3G iPhone is launched, and believe us, Poppy is very excited about that!

'Girl in the hood!'

Its was a family weekend when we had a get together to celebrate Millies first birthday, so it was off to the pub!

Poppy was introduced to Erik and Millie this weekend, the 'new generation!'

Poppy had a further 'meet up' with Erik on Sunday morning when they swapped nappies .. well actually Erik had grown out of his current brand of nappy and so he gave them to Poppy .. thank-you Erik!

We are now heading back to the south coast!

Like my new motor?

Well today mark's Poppy's two week birthday! Amazing, that this time two week's ago she had just made her entrance!

Firstly, and most importantly, Poppy and Mummy are doing well. She has already grown and is getting the hang of the feeding, crying, sleeping etc etc etc!

Tomorrow is our first big outing out, we are heading for Berkshire for the weekend, and hence the picutre of Poppy on a test run in her new motor! Despite her Mum's driving she survived!

We have been extremley lucky, and our girl has already been very spoilt with gifts galour, so thank-you to everybody that has treated our little girl, she loves all her stuff.

Lastly, i hate to raise this, but having just clicked on the photo, which then enlarges the picture, my question is: 'is my daughter giving me the finger?!?!'.

Poppy is in the house

At just after 7pm yesterday evening Poppy had her first adventure into the big wide world! By that i mean she had to put up with her Dad's driving as she was given the all clear to come home!

So Poppy is home and has spent her first night at Hotel De Butler, Southampton Branch.

For some reason the instruction manual is missing for Poppy at the moment so we are finding our way around at the moment, and i am sure that is the way it should be.

Poppy has had a tour of her new home, stopping off at the important stops such as the iPod collection (her inheritance!) and having a peek at the website to give it her official approval!

Its great to have Poppy home and we could not of done it without the help of the excellent team at Princess Anne Hospital.

As far as the three of us are concerned all the team at the hospital went above and beyond to help us .. so thank-you to all of them.

Poppy's first tanning session!

Poppy has decided that as everybody else is enjoying the good weather, and she can't get out yet, that she is going to have a tanning session of her own!

She currently has her sunglasses on, has gone topless and is under a UV light topping up her tan!

Or .. if you want the official 'Doctor' line, she has just gone over the threshold for jaundice so needs to spend a spell under the lamp. She had a test yesterday and was just under, but today she has gone over, so she is getting a top up!

Other than that, mother and daughter are doing fine.

Fame already!

Poppy got her first taste of fame today (Sunday) when she featured on international Radio 1.

Now she might not of been aware of it, but her Mum and Dad were pleased that she was added to the Radio 1 register.

If you have no idea what i am on about, then click on the link below and listen to what we are on about!

Poppy on Radio 1

Poppy Alice Butler

We are pleased to announce a new member to the Butler family:

Poppy Alice Butler, Born: 06.06.08 at 15:26hrs. 6lbs 5oz


Mum and baby are doing well.

There are many stories from the last 3 days to tell, and over the next few days we will blog them here for your reading pleasure.

There will of course be a few further pics as well!

Beating like a good un' !

Its been a frustrating morning, no ones fault but we were unable to go down to the day unit this morning. Apparently overnight the labour ward was so busy that they nearly had to close it. This has had a knock on effect with everything that was due to happen today.

As they are so busy it is hard to get a clear plan of what is happening but it is more than likely that we will have to wait until tomorrow.

So, Pip's appearance might not happen until tomorrow now .. so in the meantime, attached to this post is a sound file. The sound you hear is Pip's heartbeat! It might be a little hard to hear, and you will need to turn the volume up, but i can assure you that is Pip's little motor running!

Click here to hear the heartbeat

Pip is on the way!

Jo's waters broke early this morning and Pip is on the way!

Yes, we know its early, but Pip is not too worried, she had run out of space and has sent us the signal that she is on the way!

Jo went to hospital this morning for here weekly blood test and they confirmed that her waters had broken. We were uncertain as there was not a lot of water .. this was because Pip was acting as a plug!

So .. its now just coming up to midnight. Jo is tucked up on Level F of the Princess Anne hopsital, and unless anything over night happens, she will be induced tomorrow morning at about 08:30am.

Watch this space .. and when Pip decides to show her face, you will know!

The picture accompanying this entry is titled 'the last dinner' - Jo's later dinner before becoming a mummy! (Sadly the dinner was not a grand spread, more like something from school!)

Slowly cooking .. !

Its been awhile since we have posted and the main reason for that is that there has not been much to update you on!

Pip is well and getting bigger and heavier, so i am told!!

Jo is also doing ok and is doing well with the diabetes, the dietitian was more than happy with the results this week. She continues to have weekly blood tests which although literally a pain in the arm, its good to hear Pip's heart beat.

The results of the blood test this week showed a jump in figures which was not what we were expecting but did explain why Jo had started itching again (although i am sure Gadget has fleas !!!!!) Jo has a visit to the Dr's on Monday to get more tablets and to sort out a NHS Funding war that she has got in the middle of !!

What this space .. we will keep you update!

No Pink Please!

Its been a busy few weeks for our little bump Pip and Mum to be!

Jo was told that she had gestational diabetes, it has nothing to do with age, weight, family history etc .. it is to do with hormones! There are lots of websites on the subject so i won't give you my expert diagnosis here, however we did have an excellent midwife who explained it all to us. Basically it means Jo needs to be careful with what she eats and we will be visiting the hospital a bit more often!

A further blood test also showed that Jo has a high reading of some type in her liver, which could be related to the cold/virus she has had, or it could be a reason why she has had itchy feet / bump and hands!

This all equaled two sets of tablets that Jo is now taking through the day as well as testing her bloods 5 times a day!

Lastly, we had another scan and now know that Pip is in fact Miss Pip !

Attached to this post are the scan pics although they are not that clear, more because of how they are put on here, but Pip is certainly bigger than last time, in fact at the moment a healthly 4.4lbs. Which the consultant said was good .. big babies have a healthier life .. proven fact we were told !

Fathers are 'shut out of birth'

The above title comes from an article on the BBC website, the link of which is below:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7343229.stm

Jo actually sent me the article and it confirms something that we have noticed all through the pregnancy to date, which is, that the vast majority of staff that we have seen have 'ignored' me! Probably the only exception being the midwife.

We have talked about this on a number of occasions as an observation, they just don't seem to be able to communicate to two people at the same time, especially if the other person is male!

I would never raise it as an issue, in that, i want Jo and Pip to have the best care that they can get, and as long as they are both happy, then i am happy, and so far we both feel that we have.

It just seems strange that in this 'modern' day and age they don't seem able to communicate to the other person involved. I am sure some of the argument will be that they are focusing on the 'medical' care that is required, but surely a few people skills would not go amiss!

It was something that i had never thought of mentioning on here, but the BBC website article makes intresting reading, and something we have both witnessed!

Girl or Boy?

If you don't want to know the sex of our baby, then we suggest you don't continue to read this entry in the Pip to Mac Blog!

We had our 28 week antenatal appointment today and had it confirmed .. we are definitely going to have a girl or a boy!

Ground breaking news i am sure you will agree! For those that seem confused by this news, all we were certain of before was that it was going to be a baby, so to have it confirmed that it was going to be a girl or a boy .. well we are proud parents!

Other than that, all went well, Pip's heart beat was strong and the mother reports 'kicking well' !

Pip's first snow?!

Ok, so we are strectching this a bit, as Pip did not actually see the snow this morning, but we are sure she felt it, as it was damn cold out there!

But to ensure that Pip does see the snow, we have this snippet of snow, from out the front door, so that when she decides to pop out, she can see it!

Mum, Pip and Gizmo!

Is this a cat massage?

Gizmo (the cat) has taken to sitting on Mum's tummy (the Wife!), and getting a massage from Pip (the Baby) while he is kicking around!

Looking on from the auditorium in this picture is quackers!

Picture of the day

I was having a little surf and this picture caught my eye. It is titled: 'Daddy when do i get my MacBook' !

Excellent fathering .. keep up the good work!




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We are aiming for the Top 10

The girl is kicking!

Pip continues to grow and last night 'Daddy'! felt Pip moving around for the first time. We have had some debate on what it feels like, and obviously it feels different from the outside to some little bugger kicking you on the inside!

The midwife described it as 'popping bubble wrap'. It felt like a heart beat in the wrong place to me!

Point to note - Although the title of this entry may well be 'The GIRL is kicking' it could easily be 'The BOY is kicking'. We don't know apart from a very technical indication from the Fetal Expert' who said 'I can't see any dangley bits' yet!! Make of that what you will!

The force is strong in this one!

Just came across this picture while surfing and thought, what good parents .. start your children young!














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3rd Scan Pictures

Scan number 3 completed and Pip is doing well .. the pictures are not as clear as the first one as Pip was rather active during the scan ... fidget arse (just like his mother!!)

Pip's second scan

The three of us went for another scan today , as at our first scan the 'scan person' (see, i am very technical!) could not see if Pip's right arm was ok. So we went to see a specialist at Princess Anne's Hospital to have it checked out.

The specialist and the midwife were excellent and confirmed that Pip's unique feature was that he/she had decided not to fully grow it's right arm, so instead of having a full arm with hand, it had stopped growing just after the elbow.

Apart from the unique feature everything else is fine, with our down syndrome test being very low!

Apple logo birthmark

Apple logo birthmark
Originally uploaded by kmcculler

Do you think you can order one of these via a website, or ask the midwife to add it to the order list ... i will ask and let you know !

Why Pip to Mac ?

Have you guessed, or do you need help? Why did we call this blog Pip to Mac?

Well it's easy really!

We could not use 'bump' as that is currently in use within the wider family, so what do we use for our little bump? Well, as you might have guessed i have a small obsession with all that is Apple. So where does an apple come from, yes a Pip! And as all of Apple's computers are called 'Mac' what else were we to do!

So there you go, Pip to Mac in 9 months (ish!)

The wife's been baking!

As a few of you may be aware now, we have a new addition to the family coming along in a few months time, well to be exact, on the 4th July 2008!

Not to be shy, he/she has posed for there first photo!