The last 11 weeks :)

We cant believe how time has flown, our baby boy is 11 weeks already!

It has been crazy here, with a newborn baby and my husband in the process of opening his own business you can imagine what it has been like! So we do apologise for the long awaited update.

Ethan is a happy,content and beautiful little boy and we have been really blessed. He brings us such joy.

Here is a sneak preview of pics from the last 11 weeks....



1 week old









2 weeks old, just before bath time



Going out for the day

4 weeks old

6 weeks old

                               

10 weeks old, our blue eyed boy



11 weeks, sleeping on daddy's chest







The past 11 weeks have been amazing.



Thank you to everyone who sent messages, gifts and flowers we appreciate it greatly.



Until next time



Renee, Andrew and Ethan x





























Sneak Preview

He is here.
Mom is doing ok,
We will do a full update and news over the weekend but here are just a few pics for now.




Holding hands with Dad




All the details





Welcome to the World





Peaceful Sleep



Alert and ready to take over the world!!




Lots of love to all
And praise God for His blessing

Andrew Renee and Ethan



Counting down the days

We are patiently waiting for the arrival of our little boy. Our scan on the 16^th August went really well, our little one now weighs between 2.8 and 3kgs. Doc said that he was happy with me and with baby’s weight gain and wants to see me again on the 1^st September (if he doesn’t see me before then in the maternity ward).

Sleeping is becoming very difficult and uncomfortable, I’ve also been suffering with a sore throat lately which seems to get worse at night!

I’ve been taking it easy lately and have been doing pretty much nothing – which is lovely. Won’t be able to take it easy when he arrives so taking that opportunity now.

Well my due date keeps changing, ranging from the 30 August – 10 September, so now we wait and see when he wants to make his arrival.

Will keep you posted

Thanks for all your prayers

The Gotmans xxx

My tum at 37 weeks

Waiting for our Son

The last month has flown past. We have been so blessed in so many ways. Will try update on everything.

Renee is doing well still. Her foot has been giving her problems but otherwise has had a trouble free pregnancy. (For that, I am especially grateful)

She has also finished working both jobs and is taking this opportunity to rest and try sort out UIF. (We praying it will go easily)((UIF, not the rest, sure that will go fine))

The most important thing is that my back is better. Against certain advice, I tried playing golf again and had no pain or problem at all. In fact I am playing better than I have in a while. I guess I have no more excuses now, I will have to go back to gym.

Our baby boy is growing and doing so well. At his last scan on Thursday 28 July he weighed around 2.5kg (a bag of sugar) and the doc is very happy. We will go see him on the 16 Aug again. Doc isn’t too worried about details at this point, so we taking his lead and not stressing.

His room is finally ready. My dad and I finished the cot. And Renee has been cracking the whip so I will finish everything else. We are trying to keep it calm and tranquil, while picking up the red colour using Ferrari stuff. (My favourite! Will try getting some Man United stuff in when she isn’t looking). We have shelves, drawers, clothes, blankets, nappies and a department store worth of creams and lotions.



Note the Ferraris on the end shelf



A cot, a shelf and some love

All we need now is the baby.

Ella threw a baby shower for Renee and tried to surprise her, it worked and they even involved me. So while Ren was dressed up as Mommy she had to dress up Baby Andrew. Nappy and all. The juice bottle wasn’t bad.

Sipping on the Bottle, colic free



Nappy change, with supervision from Grace



My Moms handiwork

Then during the following week Dawn and M.O.M.S through another one.Aslo loads of lovely gifts, nuch needed nappies and plenty of love.

She even had another mini one at work. 

Between the two baby showers here and the one in Durban we are thoroughly wet with blessings. Thank you everyone who has helped, given us stuff, given us advice or just listened. We are blessed to have friends and family like you. God has truly blessed our lives but our son is His best gift so far though.

Thank you again

God bless

Andrew, Renee and Baby Buttons

A future glimpse

Our beautiful baby boy...



Deep in thought



What a wonderful moment it was when we saw our son’s sweet little face, it makes waiting for him even more exciting and we are anticipating his arrival. Can’t wait to hold our son in our arms and cuddle him.

My mom arrived on Sat 25 in the evening, we braved the cold and went to fetch her from Lanseria airport...brrr it was a chilly night.  When we got home we were welcomed with gifts from England from my mom and sister, wow....spoilt baby. Andrew was over the moon when he received all the man united gifts as well - how cute will our little one look in this... All kitted out.

All we need is the ball

It has been a wonderful week with Tuesday being the day we went for our 4d scan, booking of the hospital bed and our normal gyne app. What an exciting day, my mom was with us to share this special time.  Our boy was given a stern talking to and he participated wonderfully showing us his little face, what a miracle. We then went on to book our bed and to do a tour of the maternity ward, it became very real then knowing that is I will be in about 10 weeks time....exciting but scary. At 2.30 we went down the hall to our gynes room where we yet again saw our son, he is growing so well and is about 1.5kgs already at 30 weeks along. Doc is happy so we are happy!!!

I still can’t believe I’m 30 weeks already, how time has flown - it has been a wonderful experience watching my tum grow and making space for our baby. I have no real complaints at all, just battling to sleep and continue to toss and turn through out the night trying to get comfy.

Today we felt him moving, he felt closer and stronger than before. A sure sign that he is growing and getting ready for the big world. We can’t wait.

Andrew back is much better and he is slowly on the mend with his physio getting less and less, he just can’t wait to get back to golf. He is hoping to make a comeback this week in fact

We are so grateful for all the gifts and support from everyone and thank God for His work in our lives.

Much love to everyone

Andrew, Renee and baby boy.

Ups and Downs

Well it has been a while since we have put pics of our latest scan, which was on the 29 April. We have been to Durbs and back and Andrew even had a visit to Olivedale Hospital.... Let me fill you in.

Durban was good, we had a lovely time visiting with family and friends, I even had a baby shower thrown for me by my friend Mel - Which was lots of fun we (meaning our son) got spoilt rotten. Thank you to everyone who came and made it so special! Andrew and I both appreciate all the wonderful gifts we were given. We got to spend time with Andrew’s aunt and uncle and his cousin and her family which was lovely, also spent the afternoon and evening with Andrews sister Catherine and her family and friends. We also spend time with Andrews best friend Adrian and of course spent time with my dad.

We got back from Durbs, quite tired from the long drive but excited as we were going to the Doc on the Friday to see our little one and to get the doc to confirm that he is a little boy! From the scan pic you can see clearly what he is. Showing off most probably :) We were delighted to hear that he is growing well, the doc could even see contents in his little tummy from him swallowing amniotic fluid, and all the developments that has taken place is amazing. It was lovely to have my mom in law with us, she enjoyed seeing her grandson. So doc was happy and so were we.

Definite this time

Big Head = Big Brains

Andrews little visit to the hospital started when he was complaining of lower back pain, eventually after the pain getting really intense and making a visit to the emergency room on mother’s day, he was admitted to hospital on that Tuesday with confirmation from the specialist that he had a slipped disc, where he was given strong pain medication which helped the pain a lot. The specialist said he didn’t want to operate yet but he went for physio and an epidural (pain block) and was released on Thursday afternoon.  He hasn’t been back to work since as he has been in loads of pain still. We just need to keep praying and doing the exercises from the physio and it will hopefully strengthen that way and NO operation will be needed. It has been a tough 2 weeks but we just have to keep the faith.

I’m doing well (24 weeks now)- tummy growing and our little boy is kicking up storm(already training for his Man United debut – how many titles will they have by then?) , it’s so amazing to watch my tummy move every time he kicks and punches but of course every time I tell Andrew to look he stops kicking! One of these days I will get him to stare long enough at my tum to see!

Our next appointment is next week Thursday where we will be booking my bed and hopefully our 4d scan as well which we can’t wait for. And we will try not wait so long before our next update - things have just been really crazy here!

God Bless and thanks for your prayers.

Andrew, Renee and baby boy Buttons

" I THINK it's definitely a boy".

We both started our Thursday in good moods as we knew that we would be seeing our little miracle and hopefully finding out if "it" is a he or a she? We saw the doc at 2.15 and he is happy with the way I’m progressing - we then went to do the scan he is also happy with the heartbeat and baby's growth, which is when we said “So, can you see what it is?” Our child was lying upside down so it was a bit difficult to see but after a little bit of maneuvering his words to us were

 " I think it's definitely a boy".

 We both saw something but he said at our next scan we will be able to see even better.(will try get a picture) But we are confident in him that he knows what he is talking about and looking for, so with that we are happy to say that our future holds rugby, golf, soccer and anything blue!!! I can forget about pink, ballet shoes and cutesy hair accessories for now.

We are both over the moon though and very excited that we will be having a son. Since Thursday we already have been given a blue blanket and two pairs of blue booties! And thanks to my old boss Carmin, a draw full of blue clothes from her son Josh - at least I can put them to good use now.

My mom-in-law and I ventured to the baby expo at Emperors palace yesterday - what fun we had. We purchased quite a few things on the shows special which was a bargain. There really is so much out there for little ones it’s very over whelming actually. You need to know what you need and stick to it otherwise you really can go over board and buy loads. There is another baby expo in May which Andrew and I will go to and see what other bargains we can find. We are looking forward to that.

We have also bought the paint for the room so we will soon be transforming our spare bedroom into our son’s room - so exciting!

Our next scan is at the end of April and we are sure there be huge growth and changes by then.

We are also heading to Durbs this month and are looking forward to seeing friends and family.

God bless

Andrew, Renee and Baby BOY Buttons



We thought you might need some help figuring it out



Renee's 1st Post

It has been such an amazing journey so far and sometimes I still need to pinch myself and say "You are pregnant".  It makes it all real when we go to the gyne and we see and hear the little heart beat - it’s so amazing. I will never forget that day when I phoned Andrew at work to tell him IT IS POSITIVE, as I had done a pregnancy test at home then went on to do a blood test at Olivedale Clinic only for the nurse to say to me "What do you want it to be?" And of course I said I want it to be positive and she slipped me the piece of paper which said POSITIVE! I jumped up and down! And phoned Andrew immediately to tell him the wonderful news - you are going to be a daddy.

Positive!!!!!!

I am currently 15 weeks pregnant and loving every minute of it.

My tummy is expanding and none of my pants actually button up - time for maternity pants, I already have a pair of jeans which my mom bought while she was here.

13 weeks pregnant

We have been so blessed by family and friends already; this little one is going to be so spoilt.

We have gotten the compactum from my parents and a few other goodies all the way from England. Andrew parents have bought us the pram, rocker and carry cot amongst other small gifts as well.  Andrew just loves the pram as you can imagine its red and has big wheels, what guy wouldn’t like it.

Pram, seat (and bouncer hiding in the corner)

Compactum (so full we had to close it)

The compactum is nearly full and getting fuller by the day, as we try to buy nappies when we see them on special. We are also part of Discovery vitality which gives us huge savings as well.

We are hoping to find out at our next scan if it’s a girl or a boy - really holding thumbs as Andrew doesn’t want to carry on calling it 'it'! And we can’t wait to get started on the nursery - we have decided to go neutral, the room already has brown curtains, so we will paint the walls a neutral colour as well keeping in line with the beiges, creams and browns then add an accent colour once we know what we are having.

That’s all the news for this week. Hope you are enjoying the updates.

31^st is our next appointment so hopefully we will know what it is and have pictures.

God bless

Renee, Andrew and baby Buttons

The Very Beginning

Hello Friends and Family

We decided that, instead of a facebook page or some other social network rubbish, we would begin a blog. Something more personal for our close friends and family. We want to keep people up dated on what is happening in our lives, at the same time share they joy of watching our baby grow.

Welcome.

Buttons (our baby's nickname until further notice) is now 13 1/2 weeks old. Renee told me today the 'it' has developed the sense of taste. ( i don't know if peri peri chicken was a good idea tonight).
I will try to load pictures each time we go for a scan and also update our pictures.

We want this to be like an interactive sight, where our friends and family can comment and ask questions. We will check often and update as much as possible, so please let us know what you think and what you want to know. ( this is for you, we know whats going on with us) ((most of the time))

So God bless and enjoy sharing this miracle with us.

Andrew, Renee and baby Buttons

Buttons 12 weeks

Buttons 9 weeks