kaliha | And here's the reason for my leave of absence

Meet Cheddar, who has now been rebranded as Bethan, and is a very special outside baby! There's a few photo's behind the cut. A full account of my adventures with the NHS is currently being typed up (I'm doing it in between feeds, it's taking a while) and will be posted on the baby-filter in the next day or so. If you're not on that filter and you want to be, let me know.

That is a 'tiny baby' sized hat swamping my tiny baby. Bethan, the baby formerly known as Cheddar was born at 7.48pm on the 1st weighing in at a teeny tiny 4lb 4oz. She was 4ozs over the limit for needing neonatal care so she was put into an incubator just to regulate her core temperature and we went back to the antenatal ward I'd been on for the last four days because there was no room in either postnatal ward.

A very proud daddy with a very tiny baby (a mini Cheddar if you will)

The label in her hat is nearly as big as she is.

She's already quite the drama queen.

She threw up all over all her pink and white clothes so I had to have her in blue. Everyone thought she was a little boy. A little jaundiced boy at that.

Look at them eyes!

She's practicing her MySpace poses. (ignore the little bit of sick on her cheek please, thanks)

In her car seat ready to go to the Midwife-led Unit five minutes from my house. She really enjoyed the car ride, she was wide-awake for the whole thing.

Fast asleep in her cot.

Looking all fluffy after her first bath. Which she actually rather enjoyed. At least, she wasn't screaming all the way though like all the other babies did.

Daddy's enjoying the new baby smell.

Refusing to stay still for the camera. She was only awake for about an hour a day at this point so we tried to take as many photos as possible. She was even falling asleep in the middle of her feeds which was really frustrating because she was getting nowhere near enough food into her.

Some brilliant photography skills there.

Back home now and here's a close up of the random blonde streak she's got on the back of her very hairy head. I hope she keeps it.

Little jaundiced baby lying in the sun to break up the yellow pigment. Just a shame we don't get all that much sun in November. As the sun was moving I was pulling her around the bed to keep her in the patch of sunlight.

It's a bit blurry but really, how cute is she? The midwife weighed her again yesterday and she's up to 1880g so she's put on 10g since Wednesday. Only 80g to go to get up to birth weight again.