Theo - 5-8 weeks

Here comes another serie of pictures from our little stinker!
Theo is doing great. in the last 3 weeks, he definitly learned to look steadily, to smile, and to become even more cheeky and making tons of faces, which we love!.

Also he got his first cold but that didn't last long... just a couple days. And he got to see the queen's house (from the outside).

At 7 weeks, he weights 5kgs or 11lbs and is 59cm tall or 1'11".

Spectacular conjunction

When celestial mechanics plays it well, it becomes a pure pleasure for our eyes.
One such event happened recently on Dec 1st when the moon, Venus and Jupiter got positioned together in the evening sky within a few degrees of each other.
In fact, the moon even eclipsed Venus for 2 hours.

Unfortunately, the London weather didn't allow me to enjoy it on the D-day.

So I got a picture before the show on Nov 25th and another 2 days after the show on Dec 3rd as the moon had already distanced itself from the 2 planets by 26 degrees (the moon does a full 360 degrees in the sky in 28 days or 13 degrees per day).

26 Nov, Jupiter left, Venus right and a plane light trail

3rd Dec, Moon, Venus left, Jupiter right and 2 plane trails

Nationalities

Theo became french and american this week! Though he isn't allowed to be english yet, as Daddy hasn't spent the mandatory 5 years in UK as an ECC citizen.

Well all in all it was a very smooth process. But I'm glad it's done.

Theo - 1 month

Happy birthday Theo! Already 1 month

Theo - 4 weeks

Another exciting week for Theo. Almost a month old. It's amazing how much he progresses each week.

Happy Thanksgiving to his grand parents in Megargel Texas!!! Yii-aaahh

He just loves to take baths and to ride in the car. He's also spending a lot of good time in his amusement park (Thanks Charlotte!).

The experience with the reusable nappies is quite good. Theo has them mostly during the day and overnight we still use the throwable ones... piece of mind at night is good!

What else. On Tuesday the health visitor came by and weighted him at 4.140kgs so he is growing nicely. Still a bit of a shrimp for his size... but that's daddy's genes!

Theo - 3 weeks

Time flies... that's for sure. We're already way into week 3 and so here is the new gallery of Theo.

This week lots of 'Premieres' again
-crazy haircut
-down to West Norwood Cemetery
-Petite snooze with Lenny
-new friends

Theo - 2 weeks

Here we go... already 2 weeks gone by... Theo's second week birthday!

To celebrate, Theo's adventures got pretty full in the last few days:
1-He got to see auntie Rachael and tonton Laurent
2-Then he got to go outside in the park for the first time
3-Then he got to see his uncle Damien and tata Karine!
4-He met his little friend Luca, 3 weeks older than him for the first time
5-He finally got clothes to his size thanks to Luca, Dan and Ellie, as Luca doesn't need them anymore
6-He tried formula milk and pouh... doesn't do good (except for allowing mummy to sleep!)

What a second week!

Theo - 1 week

Already 1 week old... time flies... well to celebrate, Pachou came specially to London from Paris for the day to see his grand son!.

Day 6 - Going home!

Day 6... Almost a week old!

Theo is discharged from the hospital. Things got faster and so the nurses told us that if Georgia was feeling ok, Theo could be brought home today. So we decided we would go!

Daddy took a 'petite' snooze with Theo while waiting for the paper work to be completed... Resemblance?



Made with Slideshow Embed Tool

Day 5 - Seeing the light at the end of the tunnel

Day 5 was fantastic because they started telling us about when Theo might come out. The timeline was based on his ability to feed at least every 4 hours.

Looking at the progress he was making, we started planning for him to come out Wednesday for his first week birthday!

Georgia is becoming more expert at breastfeeding. Theo and her seemed to have done it all their life. We heard stories where it takes days to weeks to adjust but with Theo, this is pretty much established practice after day 1!

I came home early on Monday after saying hi to Theo because we had the carpet getting installed in our new loft. It was supposed to be done the day Theo was born!.

As one of my friends rightfully said, when you are in your beyond your twenties, there aren't so many first times. Maybe once a week if you are lucky, once a month otherwise...

But with a baby, you reenter the world of "first times" many times a day. This is so magic.

So for Day 5, my first times were:
-first time I left Theo and wasn't going to see him for an entire day
-first time he grinned to me

Monday, I spent the day catching up with things at home and started getting ready for my investor meeting the next morning. The team had done a fantastic job of preparing the content and so I just had to finalize it.

Around noon, flowers were delivered from my previous company, Tideway. Thanks a lot, they look amazing and made Georgia feel very welcomed when she came home.

By 7pm I wend back to the hospital to see Theo for the evening and came home around midnight...


Made with Slideshow Embed Tool

Day 4 - Learning to know Theo

On day 4, we started to learn our parenting skills... changing nappies, breastfeeding, cleaning, etc...

Day 4 is also when the haematoma disappeared. So amazing how quickly he recovered from something that would have taken weeks to resorb in an adult!

Day 4 was also the last night I spend camping in Georgia's room in the hospital. By the evening I started thinking again about life outside, the startup I've just joined, and the investor meeting we had schedule for Tuesday to raise money for the company.

Good night Theo.


Made with Slideshow Embed Tool

Day 3 - Out of the aquarium

Day 3 was magic.

When I went to the 4th floor to see Theo in the morning, I discovered they moved him out of the incubator and into a normal cot! Finally we could start hugging him...

His auntie Quitterie came with his grand mother Manou. Very special moments.

Pics are worth a thousand words...


Made with Slideshow Embed Tool

Day 2 - fishbowl diaries

Day 2 started like Day 1... Except that today the nurses tried to feed him more regularly and setup a tube through his nose to his stomach to delivery the previous milk directly where needed with the minimum effort from Theo so that all of his energy can be spent to heal.

By noon, we enjoyed Theo in the fishbowl for the rest of the day...

We got a few visitors, Dan and Eleanor with their gorgeous new born Luca, who will very surely become Theo's friend very soon.

My sister in law also came by with an state of the art camping mattress so that I can stay overnight more comfortably... Rachael, you're the best!

While I was home again, Georgia happened to be with Theo when his nappies were being changed. As he got cleaned, the little monkey decided it was time to wee and sprinkled the whole incubator. So the midwife had to take him out and gave him to Georgia who got to hold him for the first time after birth... I missed this moment, I was so dead jealous of her!

We finished the day with Theo, until midnight, enjoying every eyelid flutter or shake in his tiny hands... from the other side of the bowl...

During the time in the new born unit, name the Fred Still unit, we also learned about who fortunate we are. Around Theo are premature babys, as early as 24 weeks (that's 16 weeks before term... less than a kilo... Theo was 3.4kgs at birth). Their parents have to wait several months before seeing their baby home. Premature babies also usually suffer from various problems due to the fact that their organs aren't properly formed.

So having Theo at term and knowing that he is relatively healthy, only with a facture is such a blessing.

It is also a blessing to have known all the fantastic doctors, nurses and midwife. They are truly inspiring people.


Made with Slideshow Embed Tool

Day 1 - Life in the fishbowl

On day 1, we discovered Theo in the High Dependency Unit inside the incubator.

This was heart breaking but also we felt he was so closely monitored that this was very conforting at the same time.

The people taking care of him were simply amazing. We were so lucky to be so close to The Fred Still Unit so that Theo could be taken care of the best way possible.

Day 0 - A tough start

Well it turned out that the delivery was more complicated than expected, because the little Theo was hook with a very short umbilical cord. And so every time Mummy was pushing him out, he was holding back on the cord like Tarzan to stay inside...

The doctors thought it was time to put an end to the game and had to bring the heavy machinery to get Theo out. The umbilical cord was to short and so it snapped when Theo was taken out of Georgia. In the process, the forceps unfortunately fractured his skull and it resulted in a very scary, big and visible blood ematoma in the back of his brain... So 10 min after birth, he was rushed to the new born observation unit to scan his little head and check on the damage.

There are no words to describe the distress of Georgia and me, being separated 10 minutes after birth, not knowing what was happening with Theo who was clearly in huge pain. I went with Theo, while Georgia was being taken care of by the midwives.

Theo looked very bruised by the forceps, with puffy eyes and an elongated skull typical of this type of delivery. He had a huge lump of blood in the back of his head. Still cover in blood, it was really hard to call everyone and send out the news of Theo's arrival.



By 11:30am, the doctors said that the ematoma was external to the brain and the skull and as we had recovered a little bit for the 40 hours of no sleep, we called our parents to give them the news.

By 12pm, the doctors told me that they were going to do a CT scan to make sure nothing happened inside the brain.

Meanwhile Georgia was resting. Unable to move due to the epidural, she couldn't go see Theo. So I was going back and forth to the new born unit with the camera and taking videos of Theo to show to Georgia her son so that she can be reassured and start creating a bond with Theo.

By 4pm we finally got some CT scan results and we learned that the external ematoma was related to the fracture but that there were also 2 small subdural ematomas (the membrane that envelops the brain under the skull. We didn't understand what that meant, whether Theo would be ok or not. He was in pain, still covered in blood as the doctors didn't want to touch his head and clean him to avoid any further complications.

By 5pm, Georgia has recovered a bit and was able to be wheeled to the new born unit to finally see Theo for the first time after the traumatic delivery. This was a very emotional moment for the three of us to be finally reunited like a family for the first time. But Theo couldn't be hugged or touched. Georgia was still very weak and I brought her back to her shared room.

Earlier in the day, learning the news, my mum jumped on the first train from Paris and arrived at 6pm in London. She arrived exhausted as just like us, she couldn't sleep the previous night. She was awaiting the news all night...
So when she got to the hospital, we went to say hi to Georgia and then straight to Theo and introduce him to his grandmother... What a moment!

After an adventure that started 48h ago, it was time to feed the parents and take some rest. I went home with mum, and we had an amazing diner, celebrating with the best ever glass of champagne in my whole life... The sparkling bubbles slowly going down my throat were heaven!

I thought this was it for this long 48h day.. So I decided it was time to announce the news a bit more widely. As I finished writing the announcement around 11:30pm, I received a call from the hospital to tell me that Theo was transfered to the High Dependency Unit, a place where they can monitor him much more intensively... No real explanation, just that they wanted to monitor him more closely... What was happening... Should I send the email or wait?

I decided to have faith in Theo and the doctors, sent the announcement and crashed in bed out of exhaustion.

Theo is born!!!

Après deux jours d'efforts marathoniens, Georgia a comblé son mari avec le plus beau des cadeaux du monde. Théo, 3.41kgs, est né ce matin du 29 Octobre à 8:21 à Londres. Avec de tres grands pieds, la sage femme lui trouve une certaine ressemblance paternelle!!!
Georgia et Théo se reposent et recuperent.

After 2 days of marathonian effort, Georgia gave the most beautiful gift of the world to her husband. Theo, 7lb 08oz, was born this morning at 8:21 in London. With huge feet, the midwife thought he might look like his very proud daddy!!!
Both Georgia and Theo are now recovering and resting!

Nike 10K race training

Well, mid life crisis or not, I've signed up for the Nike 10K race. I don't think I've ever run for 10Km in my life... So a good challenge.
Not knowing if I even could do it, I picked up my shoes this morning and went for a run. 5.3miles or 8.5 km in 49 min. And it went ok. a bit hard at the end and it will definitly hurt tomorrow in the legs. But I guess all the cycling to work has paid off.

If I managed to keep the same rhythm on the day, then I should be able to do the 10K under the hour.

Below the run track of this morning...


View Larger Map

it's a boy... well not quite yet..

It is quite amazing what they can achieve those days with the new scanners. We got lucky as our hospital just received the new 4D movie scanners that literally make movies of the baby.

Well I'm not sure how nice the little monkey looks like, but I have to say the experience is just amazing.!!!

Round the Island Race 2008 - T+8h29

Voila, on a finit en 8h29 au terme d'un finish du même style que le
reste, vu qu'on était a 2 doigts de s'encastrer sur le bateau du
comite d'arrive a cause du courant de plus de 3 nœuds, littéralement 5
secondes âpres avoir passe la ligne!!!

Pfft
Pour la serie de tofos: C'est la

Nous voila fourbus, pleins de bleus et ayant reçu un max de soleil, en
train de célébrer notre course avec un p’tit verre de champagne bib
mérite.


Le résultat finale... 13eme de notre poule sur 39 arrives et 50 participants... bref pile poil comme l'année dernière!!!
results

Round the Island Race 2008 - T+7h39

Depuis le dernier mail, un peu d'aventure. On remonte à toute vitesse
vers Cowes et la ligne d'arrivée qu'on prévoit d'ici 1h environ

Mais la remontée ne fut pas sans incident. Il y a des haut fonds
sableux et un catamaran nous a littéralement refuse la priorité et nous
a force a la limite du banc de sable. Il a vire au dessus du banc er
nous de même étant sous son vent. Résultat au moment ou notre
monocoque a bascule pour changer de bord, Il a touche le fond et
nous nous sommes retrouver qqn secondes en balance sur la quille...
Gaspé. Heureusement les voiles ont pris le vent et ont finit de nous
faire basculer, et nous nous sommes remis à flotter et pouvoir
repartir.

Pff on a eu chaud.

Bon prochain fil chaud âpres la ligne d'arrivée si tout va bien.

Notre temps de l’année dernière: 9h04 à battre.

L'arrivee en vue!!!

Round the Island Race 2008 - T+4h59

On a passe Ste Catherine en longeant la cote et en évitant le contre
courant. On probablement reprit pas mal de retard

Maintenant c'est la descente sous le soleil, vent arrière. Plutôt relax
On en a profite pour un p’tit casse croute. D'ici une heure on devrait
attaquer la remontée aux prés ou ca risque de devenir excitant vu que
tous les bateaux se retrouvent les uns contre les autres dans le chenal.

Round the Island Race 2008 - T+1h59

Needles en vue.


Nous avons enfin les Needles en vue. La houle commence à se lever au
fur a mesure qu'on se rapproche de la pointe. Le vent est toujours aux
alentours de 20 nœuds (force 5). Et le soleil est maintenant sorti
complètement.

On se demande si on va sortir le spinnaker, mais Il y a probablement
trop de vent. Peu de bateaux devant nous l'ont sorti.

Au niveau tactique nous nous en sortons pas trop mal en restant la ou
la marée descendante nous pousse le plus.

Le passage des Needles

Round the Island Race 2008 - T+0h50

Trouver le bon chemin tient de l'exploit!!!

On a pris un bon départ, en croisant la ligne dans les 20 second du
coup de canon. Tout va bien. Bonne brise de 15 à 25 nœuds. La houle a
baissée et on se rapproche doucement des Needles.

Sur la course, pas mal de casse. 2 bateaux se sont rentre dedans.
Coque éventrée. Un autre a démâte. Mais pas de blesse. Sinon le ciel
commence à s'éclaircir doucement.

Voila a part cela on est cote tribord, sous 1er ris, le bateau a 30 de

Round the Island Race 2008 - T-0h10

A 10 min du départ. Petite collision avec un autre bateau. Pas trop
grave mais un peu de tôle tordue. On a eu chaud.

Round the Island Race 2008 - T-1h00

Bonjour. Me voila prêt a participer a la course autour de l'ile de
White. 1850 bateaux sur 55 miles nautiques, plus de 13500 navigateurs
et autres citadins qui participent à cette 78eme édition de la
course.

Le but est simple, faire un tour autour de l'ile de White, départ de
Cowes, arrivée à Cowes.

L'année dernière, j'avais participé sur le même bateau, Dehla Soul. Et
nous avions finit 13eme de notre classe (premier tiers). Pas trop mal
pour un équipage qui s'est rencontré sur Facebook 36 heures avant la course!

Fini pour les détails techniques.

Donc cette année, même équipe: Adrian et son bateau, Rich1, Rich2,
Paul, Manu, et 2 nouveaux, Ronan et Tom.

Ce matin, réveil a 5:10. Un peu tôt, mais j'avoue qu'âpres une nuit a
6 dans un monocoque de 11m, cela fait du bien de sortir et prendre
l'air!

Je pointe mon nez dehors par la trappe avant (je dormais dans le nez
du bateau) et qui je vois: Andy Ormsby, mon collègue de bureau, a 3 m
de moi sur le ponton en train de marcher, a moitie dans la pate, pas
encore vraiment réveillé. Le monde est petit. On échange 2 mots, mais
on accepte rapidement la réalité du moment, et il continue son
chemin pendant que je replonge dans ma cabine!

Bonne nouvelle, la tempête d'hier s'est calmée pendant la nuit. Et on
peut espérer que les 3m de houle présent a la pointe ouest (The
Needles) se soient un peu dissipées, ce qui devraient rendre la
redescente au grand large le long de la cote sud (vers St Catherine) un
peu moins style "montagne russes".

Bref voila, le départ de notre classe de bateau (ISC class 5c) est a
7:10 tapante et si tout va bien, on devrait finir en a peu prés 9
heures. D'ici la, Il faut prendre des forces, on est en Angleterre,
alors bacon sandwich au menu ce matin!

A plus pour la suite des aventures.

ISS in transit... animated

I've recently spent a bit of time playing with the images of the march transit to build an animated gif of the sequence.
The result isn't too bad as it shows the ISS turning slowly as it passes overhead.




Quelques nuits plus tard, j'en ai profite pour faire une photo de l'amas globulaire M13, aussi connu sous le nom d'amas d'Hecrule (de la constellation du meme nom)...

ISS in transit

The ISS is in transit, visible many times a night those days. I managed to get a quick shot with my telescope... you can see the solar panels and main modules. Though this is far from what others have managed to obtain. This movie is simply amazing

12 weeks 4 jours. Already 61.9mm

Second scan yesterday. the adventure continues and takes shape. The little one almost doubled in size in the last 3 weeks. 2 legs, 2 arms, a brain and a profile that doesn't let think he's inherited his dad's nose... This was really cool. We could tape the scan so here is a short part of it below.

A little 31.5mm one

I guess this is how it starts... now we've decided to make it public. Even though the first 3-month scan is still 3 weeks away, we've got so excited by the news and by seeing this little heart beating so quickly during the first scan that we couldn't hold the news.
So if everything goes as planned, we should be 3 by Halloween this year!!! Georgia's doing great, minus the morning sickness that tends to arrive in the evening. Other than this, life is really cool! ;)