Adam Bird - My Personal Blog

Caution: This blog entry may contain sentences of a sentimental nature. I am sat here now writing this after what has been the longest, most emotional and most rewarding few days of my life. We were due for inducement at Darent Valley hospital on Wednesday evening at 6:00pm, so I had planned my leave off work to start on the Wednesday and to use the day to do some shopping for Christmas and some pre labour relaxation. However, over the weekend and on the Monday morning Stephanie had been feeling sporadic contractions, so I decided to bring my leave a day earlier in case she went into labour and I was able to assist her in getting into hospital ASAP. Despite my initial concerns Tuesday went without incident and I was able to get a few things out of the way paving way for a relaxing Wednesday before going in to get things kick started. Baby Bird had other plans. I was woken up in the early hours of Wednesday morning by the bedside light being switched on and in my half asleep state I cou...

This is by far the saddest thing I have ever done! At 12:40am nearly 24 hours after arriving at the delivery suite I am here typing this! Still no Baby Bird, but a day of emotion and high drama! Full report to come just as soon as Baby Bird hatches! Over and out!

Here is a link from the Sky One website showing the ten minute prequel for season 6 of 24! Season 6 Prequel If the above link does not work use the Sky One website instead! If you have not yet seen season five, and don't know how it ended - DO NOT WATCH!!!

Remember that TV ad which showed a guy growing up as music played in the background showcasing the "soundtrack to his life"? Well someone has got the Jukebox spot on with Take That sitting at the top of the singles chart with a song called "Patience", totally apt considering mine and Steph's current situation! If I was a betting man I would have put money on Baby Bird coming early, as witnessed by my bold proclamations earlier on in the pregnancy. However, so far, so not a lot! We await Wednesday now with the unimaginable thoughts of inducement now a realistic certainty. The doctors make the appointment for you as you approach your due date on the basis of accounting for all possibilities. Steph at the time said something along the lines of "as if I will need to be induced!". Although we are currently frustrated with the waiting, it has been fun. Going to work each day and people asking me "what am I still doing here", and comments sugg...

Nine months into a trouble free pregnancy we finally hit the skids at the business end of the gestation period. Not only are we a day late, Steph is really struggling with a sore throat and cold. I am really hoping that the baby holds on for a little longer, just so Steph can get over the worst of it and enjoy the first hours of motherhood without worrying about dripping snot on the baby or coughing all over the poor thing! It's been a pretty mad few days at work with some long hours thrown in to meet deadlines ( Britain's Best Driver ) etc, so I haven't really had a chance to sit and think about the imminent arrival of Baby Bird. I know Steph sitting at home has been frustrated, but with the cold and feeling rough has only added to her worries. Dad went back to Iran this morning, so I am pretty gutted that he may have to wait six weeks before he gets a chance to meet his fourth grandchild. But he told me this morning that he may in fact be back sooner than expected! We hav...

I am sure that the pregnancy advice books write pages and pages about what parents to be ought to be doing a week before the baby is born. I am sure that they prescribe rest, to take things easy, but Steph and I yesterday took the advice a little too literally! We did... nothing! Steph woke up at ten and was watching birth tv as per usual, whilst I did some updates for Uncle Matthew on kings-medway.co.uk . Once I had finished that I suggested we watch the last two episodes of 24 (We have been catching up on series four, so we are all up to speed again ready for series five which we brought on DVD last month). So by the time we had watched those, it was not much point in getting ready to go out anywhere, as we didn't really have anywhere to go, and we had spent so long on the sofa that our bodies had been moulded to it! We started to watch the beginning of 24 series 5, and before we knew it we had watched the whole of the first dvd (four hours)! At this point it was time for X-Fa...

After days of painful soul searching, I decided that I could afford to take the risk and go to Manchester and watch the game vs Chelsea. As it turned out, the baby is still safe and warm and being incredibly well looked after. If there was any hint of an appearance, I would have course stayed at home! Despite the long journey, which included a monsoon at Heathrow scaring the bejesus out of me and Reaso, we arrived at Old Trafford at 3.30, dry and in one piece. Having parked seemingly in Macclesfield, or Altrincham we faced a long walk to the stadium which we could see tantalisingly in the distance. As at Arsenal earlier on in the season we had to walk along a similar looking road, consisting of fried chicken eateries, cab offices and parades of boarded up shops. I have been to Old Trafford only once and on that occasion I was overwhelmed by the shear amount of people walking to the ground, congregating outside pubs and on corners close to the ground. That was before they added another ...

Being a Gillingham fan means that I miss out on the thrills and spills of the Premier League, the Ferrari's, the million pound weekly a salaries and foreign mercenaries. So when a chance comes along to swap my Priestfield's and Millmoor's for Anfield or Old Trafford I snap it up with gusto. Having recently received an opportunity, courtesy of good friend (even better now!) Reaso, to watch Manchester Utd v Chelsea I accepted without hesitation. I had sudden visions of Rooney, Giggs, Carrick, Saha, Shevchenko, Lampard, Ballack and Drogba. 75,000 passionate fans roaring in the "Theatre of Dreams", the smell of a big game, Mourinho's whinging, Fergies red hooter and yet more photo opportunities for the website(!). Before my fantasies got too out of hand it suddenly dawned on me.... Baby Bird....! Bugger.... I could possibly be in Manchester whilst Steph goes into labour with my first child! Although not due until the 6th December, there is every possibility she co...

I have just got back from the third scan, and despite my initial excitement the actual event was a bit of a letdown. Firstly - the result! We only had a third scan to check for giantitis but the baby's growth is on the dollar with nothing to worry about what so ever! I can ever breathe a further sigh of relief as Steph is not even carrying too much water, it must be just the way Mother nature decided Steph would carry her first baby! The head was measured in diameter and circumference and all was worked out to be fine. The thigh bone was also measured, and again all was as it should be. The next measurement was taken, but I am not too sure what it was they were measuring! We were not actually looking at this point, as whatever was being measured would have given the game away as to the baby's sex! It must have been a strange view for any voyeurs seeing three excited people (my mum came this time) looking away from the monitor with their eyes in their hands! I was expecting the ...

As we enter our eight month of pregnancy Steph and I are all ready and waiting! The nursery is ready (albeit awaiting some blinds - which are on order), we have a baby bath - with a floating duck themometer, we have stacked up on baby shampoo, talcum powder, nappies and all sorts of potions that I don't have a clue what are used for! The only thing we need now is a baby! In footballing terms, we are entering what Alex Ferguson referred to as "Squeeky Bum Time", that period at the end of the footballing season whereby each game played determines whether or not your team is going to come out on top, win the championship or get pipped at the post. For ninety minutes as a supporter you are sat at the edge of your seat willing your team on. Steph and I are at the stage now, we have gone nearly to the end of the season, in a position of strength in a flaw free nine months, and we are waiting nervously for the final whistle! More seriously thought, we are both starting to get ...

Yesterday Fox released a trailer for season 6 of 24, which finally answered some of my lingering questions left over after the immense cliff hanger of season 5, but at the same time launched a thousand more! Having now seen it (3 times!) I can safely say that this season is going to rock! The tag line this year simply being "For America to survive, Jack Bauer must die". That sentence alone sends a shiver of excitement through my veins, but it also fills me with utter dread. Jack Bauer IS 24! Can they really kill him off? How do they make a series without him? Would I watch it without him? I don't think I would! The trailer also answers another major question left over from season 5. Who is the new president? I am happy to say that it is none other than Mr Wayne Palmer, brother of the deceased David who was assassinated at the beginning of season 5. The trailer is available from: http://www.24trailer.com/ take a look! It looks a lot slicker, quicker and damn more ...

Last night I got a call from Steph's mum "Adam, it's Pat, Stephanie is here crying that her stomach hurts, so I am going to the hospital so they can reassure her". At which point I thought "OK, no worries, probably something over nothing, go see the doctor and he will tell her everything is fine". Which, as it transpired, is exactly what happened. I received the call at work, just as I was leaving, so I had to endure a half hour walk to Charing Cross, plus an hour train journey to Dartford, in which the only company I had was my imagination. By the time I had got to Dartford, and flagged a taxi down to take me to Darent Hospital I was full of worse case scenario's and panic! After I had been briefed by the doctors, Steph and her mum, it became clear to me that the baby was absolutely fine and the problem lay in Steph's "water", which showed signs of an infection - as a precaution they would be keeping her in overnight. Both of us endured s...

Apparently the length of a pregnant ladies bump should equate in centimetres to the amount of weeks they are pregnant. Any higher or any less and the doctors start wanting to know why. Stephanie, being 32 weeks pregnant is expected to have a bump 32cm long. She was told today that she is a whopping 36! That would make the baby four weeks away from delivery! The doctors now want to know if we are having a baby elephant (their words not mine), or if Stephanie is carrying a lot of water! I am actually hoping for a bigger baby because I don't want to be there when the dam that is holding all that water finally breaks! I cannot imagine that it smells particularly nice! One blessing is that we now get to have another scan, which is great news for both of us, as we had such emotional experiences during out last two visits. I do however have a slight worry over this third scan. As the baby is going to be a lot bigger this time around and a lot more developed, I am slightly concerned ...

Last night, Steph and I were sitting vegged out on the sofa, as we normally are during the week! I was telling her about a song I had downloaded on my Ipod and asked her to listen to it! As she was sitting listening to the music she felt Baby Bird starting to fidget! I was in the kitchen at the time, making sandwiches for work today, but when I came back she asked me to sit and watch! She started to listen to One by U2, and it was at this point that the baby really started to move! I was watching the ipod balancing on Steph's bump moving up and down - something that was quite freaky as well as exciting! I decided at this point to conduct an experiment. Could we determine the babies sex depending on the response to music Steph played on the ipod? I asked her to play a Spice Girls track (this is only on my ipod because I copied an old dance album and somehow have not got around to deleting it!), just to see what the reaction was. As it was playing the kicking and movement abated, and...

I was invited last week to spend the day in France yesterday with my Dad, Granddad and Jessica's boyfriend James. The itinerary was to spend some time visiting World War I battlefields, having a spot of lunch and visiting the hypermarket for some bargains. Normally the idea of World War 1 battlefields would have sent me to sleep and I would politely decline, but I thought it would be a great idea to spend the day with my Dad and Gramps, especially as I haven't really spent that much 'quality' time with Dad over the past few years. As we were only going to be there for a day we would only be paying a flying visit at one battlefield, Vimy Ridge. When we arrived I was completely awestruck about what I saw. It was as if I had landed on a lunar landscape that had been turfed over and millions of trees planted on top. I had seriously under prepared myself for what to expect. My only previous knowledge about the Great War had been gotten from Ben Elton, whom wrote "The Fi...

Having now been back in the country for two days I am in a better position to look back and write about our week in Fuerterventura, which overall was a resounding success. I had never been to the Canary Islands before, unlike Steph who had already visited Tenerife and Lanzarote. One of the reasons we chose Fuerterventura was purely because we knew that it would be fairly quiet and sedate, perfect for two parents to be looking for a rest before the excitement of imminent parenthood. The week did not get off to a perfect start however! Stephanie being the victim of sunburn after the first day, ensuring that she spent the rest of the holiday with bright red legs and applying a cocktail of creams, yogurts and other remedies in order to stop the stinging. Added to that, she spent the most of the week covered up and under an umbrella! Neither of us were going to let that beat us, after all, we have several years experience of coping with these little pickles! We were staying in a timeshare a...

Steph and I are now well into our final trimester of her pregnancy, and things are really starting to build up momentum. On Saturday we are flying out to Fuerteventura , which I have been holding as some kind of benchmark as to where we are within the pregnancy cycle. When we come back it will be the final countdown to welcoming Baby Bird™ into the world! As we look forward to a week in the sun, things back at home are changing rapidly. The nursery is starting to take shape with all new furniture and furnishings for the baby. Mum and dad very kindly brought the baby some new wheels in which the baby can travel in style and comfort - thank you Nanny and Bampy! Also, lots of little bits and pieces have started to litter the kitchen and elsewhere around the flat. The week away comes highly recommended in a lot of the pregnancy books I have read (well one!), not only because it is possibly the last chance you will get away with peace and quiet for 18 years, but will be a chance for Steph a...

Is it really only ten days that I posted my last blog? Work has been incredibly busy over the past two weeks, so being able to post a blog during work-time has been impossible, and by the time I get home the last thing I want to do is to switch the computer on! (If anyone is in interested in what I have been working on check out the Ferrari Panamerican 20,000 tour !) On Wednesday evening I was lucky enough to have been asked by my friend Stuart to go with him the brand new Emirates Stadium, home of Arsenal Football Club. His brother in law was a season ticket holder and had a couple of spares. Keen to keep my tally of football grounds going I could hardly say no! Having kept an eye on the Arsenal website throughout construction of the stadium I was quite looking forward to actually seeing it in person, even if I was not too fussed about seeing the Gooners themselves, much to the jealously of my Arsenal supporting mother! We walked to the stadium by going down the Holloway Road from th...

Coming soon to the site (hopefully by the end of the week) will be news on a great event that five of my friends are taken part in. On Saturday 16th September they will be attempting to row 22 miles down the River Thames in the annual Great River Race event to raise money towards the National Ankylosing Spondylitis Society. More details on the race, including a full description of the "magog", which is the boat they will be rowing, rower profiles, and further information about the Ankylosing Spondylitis Society will be added soon. They will be rowing under the name of "Oarsome 4Some", (although I preferred "4 oars and a cox"), and Skipper William Buckby will (hopefully) be keeping everyone updated via the newly installed blog which can be found (empty at the moment) at http://www.adambird.co.uk/oarsome.html .

Mum started it all off when I was a kid, making sure that I was always reading, encouraging me and giving me different books to read. One of the best things about my new job is that I can sit on the train for an hour a day (on my way home) and read to my hearts content. Since starting in April, I have probably read about 12 different books! The Waterstones just outside Charing Cross station is doing a roaring trade out of me! I have just finished a book called One Big Damn Puzzler which I recommend to anyone reading! It is without doubt the funniest book that I have ever read! Sitting on the train with someone asleep next to you as you are laughing out loud is not a comfortable experience, but I had to do this for total of nearly six hours. The people I sat next to during these times must have thought I was mad! I won't write a book review as the synopsis on the above link in all the information I had to go on before hand, and sums it up better that I could. But if like me, you l...