Mums Blog

Ria is nearly there.....

2008-10-24T16:06:00.002+01:00

Week 39

Nearly there! Have been having quite a few twinges (?) if that’s the right word for them this week, and keep wondering…hmmm is this how it starts?! I can only really describe it as similar to period pains, but they don’t come and go as contractions will, just a dull ache. Have had some funny feelings in my groin (!) and back as well, and I can’t even begin to describe my ridiculous need to go to the toilet at the most inconvenient times, and about every 15 minutes! Usually whilst out dog walking…which is not so bad as at least I’m wearing wellies!

We are really intrigued now to know when she’s going to make an appearance, and I’m really excited about it, my active birth classes have made me feel so much more confident about the birth, that I’m not really dreading it any more, just want to get it out the way so I can cuddle this little wriggler that keeps making herself known with little bum, feet and elbows poking out all over the place.

Jon and I are going into hospital this week with the girl that runs active birth so she can take images of us for her book about Active Birth, she is going to set up a labour room for us and we’ll have a trial run at all the techniques we’ve been practicing in her classes, it should be really good for us as will make it all the more familiar when the time really comes, lets hope we can hold on until then.

I had a stroke of genius with baby girls hammock this week, and have made it into a little fairy grotto with pretty flower lights wrapped around, it looks so cosy and snug and really beautiful, hopefully it will entice her into some peaceful sleeps, and the lights give just enough light to see and feed to without hopefully waking Jon up too much on school nights! Buttons (the cat) is quite intrigued but still hasn’t tried to leap in.

Jon is away with rugby this weekend, playing in Nottingham, luckily he is allowed to drive up behind the players coach so if I need him can summon him home, it’s still about 4 hours away though so hopefully I wont need to. Next weekend he has a home game, which makes things a bit easier, not sure I fancy giving birth by the side of the rugby pitch but I’ll probably still go and watch. I know he can’t wait until I’m at rugby with babe, he always runs over to us at the end of the game, and I know he’ll just love to run over to see little one and give her a big muddy cuddle!!

Tamzin has a weekend away...

2008-10-01T17:07:00.006+01:00

Week 36

We finally left Isla for a whole weekend – well, Saturday morning to Sunday evening! Pete and I decided we should get a ‘romantic’ weekend in before the baby comes so we went to London. It was great and I didn’t cry once, I was more than ready to hand Isla over and have a break with my husband, it was lovely; I found myself giving him hugs and kisses like I used to before they all went to Isla – who, to be fair, does smell nicer and has softer skin!!

We got the train up which was really relaxing other than the loo situation and when we arrived at Waterloo we got a cab and checked into the hotel and then went straight out again. Had lunch, bit of shopping, which was a bit frustrating for me, but it made a change me sitting around outside changing rooms rather than Pete!

Then we did some people watching over a cup of tea in Covent Garden, then went for dinner, then went to the theatre, then went for ice-creams and wandered around Soho, then finally got a rickshaw back to the hotel at about midnight! Impressed by my stamina at 36 weeks?!!! I was! The rickshaw was most uncomfortable however and I did think there was a strong possibility I might be jolted into early labour so Pete asked the poor man to avoid the bumps and holes!

I think the best bit though was the lie in the next day followed by a leisurely breakfast and a read of the papers.....I can’t remember the last time I did that, well I guess it was 16 months ago. Then we wandered along the South Bank, went on the London Eye and got the train home, it was great and did us so much good, although Pete got an earful when we got home and I realised he hadn’t packed my wash bag which I’d asked him to do and it had my glasses in which I’m lost without – I’m allowed to be scatty, I’m pregnant – he’s got no excuse! I got it back minus my very expensive new bottle of foundation..... never mind!

Isla hadn’t missed me at all which was brilliant, but she was absolutely delighted to see me and wouldn’t let go of me – even to hug her Daddy – oops, poor Pete. She finally relented about an hour later and gave him a kiss. But every time I left the room she wailed, she was fine the next day though. It was worth being away just to have that welcome home.

Rosee comes back down to earth...

2008-10-01T16:25:00.001+01:00

After the high of giving birth, I came back to earth with a real bang the first week of Storm’s new life.

Despite having had a caesarean section I spent just 36 hours in hospital – I think the staff were desperate to have my bed as it was a real baby boom month in Bristol.

But, even though I felt very frail, I was glad to go home early. The nurses and midwives had been lovely, but there’s nothing like your own bed.

The food in the hospital was absolutely disgusting as well, with no real healthy options and certainly nothing organic in sight!

Storm mostly slept through her time in hospital, although we did manage to get her to breastfeed successfully after a few false starts.

When I got home, it was a different matter. My milk came in the day after we got home and I felt extremely hormonal and teary. I couldn’t look at Storm without getting upset, because I felt so protective of her and so overwhelmed by the love I felt.

I also began having some struggles with breastfeeding as I was producing so much milk Storm couldn’t gulp it down fast enough. She was getting terrible wind, which was really upsetting her, and no amount of burping seemed to help.

Then we had a really hot day and she kept falling asleep while she was feeding, and not taking in enough milk. This left her dehydrated and hungry and fractious. By the end of the day I was desperate and, having read the suggestion on the internet, starting using a cold flannel to keep her awake by dabbing her with it.

The technique worked and she fed for TWO HOURS, before finally falling asleep at midnight.

Staying in the house all the time left me feeling cooped up, so Al and I went for a walk. But, six days after the birth, it was too much to even walk around the block, and I had to stop half way around, thinking I was going to throw up or faint.

By the end of the week I was at my wit’s end. I spent half my time weeping with love for Storm and the other half terrified something might happen to her or that I would have a bad feeding session with her.

I wished I’d understood how hard those first few days could be. I’d read about the baby blues, but nothing really prepared me for it, and at times it felt like too much to bear.

Happily, by the time Storm finished her first week in the world my hormones began to settle down and I started to feel slightly more normal. I realised that, although parenthood was the biggest challenge I would ever face, that, if so many millions of women could meet that challenge in far tougher circumstances, then I could do it too.

Libby takes to the water....

2008-09-19T16:28:00.003+01:00

Libby at 12-14 weeks

I cannot believe that Libby is 3 months…it won’t be long before I have to pack away the 0-3 months clothes. It is just flying and it won’t be long before I have to go back to work, but hey let’s not think about that. In the mean time, let’s hope we might miraculously win the lottery and then I could give up work and have lots and lots of babies…

Now back to reality and I am wondering how mums cope with having more than one child. Now Libby is older she needs stimulating even more and this in itself can be quite tiring. Tim often comes home from work asking what we have been up to and he probably thinks that we are just out socializing but we are always doing thinks at home in between naps and socialising. She lovers her door bouncer and will easily spend 20 minutes or so in that and then she likes having a good kick about on the play gym or playing with her toys or bouncing around on my knee to nursery rhymes. I always try to interact with her as she loves this.

Libby had her second set of jabs this fortnight and again she didn’t have a reaction to them which was a relief. She obviously cried when they were done and slept for a while afterwards and was a little bit grizzly but was otherwise ok. It will be good when she has had the last set in another 4 weeks as I don’t think that she has to have any more until she is one after that.

We started our Waterbabies classes at last. It is great as there are 7 of us who became friends through ante-natal and aqua-natal and we meet weekly for coffee and decided to take Waterbabies classes together. It is quite expensive but the way I look at it is the child benefit helps to pay for it. Tim and myself decided to use the child benefit to help pay for activities for Libby as she grows up. Waterbabies classes are held at very warm swimming pools – our takes place in a hydrotherapy pool and it is boiling. The classes last for 30 minutes and the term is 10 weeks. In our first class, the instructor dunked our babies under the water and they were all pretty good and there were only a couple cries. In the last class a photographer takes underwater photos, I hope none of them cry!! I have always wanted a Nirvana underwater style baby photo, I just hope we don’t have to re-mortgage to get one!!

Rosee is a mum!

2008-07-31T15:50:00.010+01:00

Week 38

Well, I got my wish for an early labour!

My waters broke mid morning on the Sunday, when I was 38 weeks and 5 days pregnant. I’d spent three hours the previous day working in the garden and looking back I guess I was in nesting mode!

I called the delivery unit and they asked me to come in, as our baby was still breech and they wanted to make sure things were okay. After spending some time bouncing on my birthing ball and a quick pit stop at Tesco for snacks, Al and I arrived at the hospital at about 3.30pm.

Our midwife Vicky had been told about my wish for a natural birth and so we agreed a plan of minimum intervention, although I would have to put a heart rate monitor on towards the end of the first stage of labour to make sure the baby was okay.

Although Vicky warned me that first labours are often erratic and it was likely I could be at least a day away from giving birth things progressed surprisingly quickly.

Within a couple of hours I was having contractions every five minutes and had to get in the bath to ease the discomfort.

Al was a star, massaging my back and playing me Stephen Fry podcasts to take my mind off it, but it was a lot worse than I expected.

My natal hypnotherapy definitely helped me to relax, but by early evening I was starting to find the pain overwhelming and, after an hour or so using my TENS machine, I asked for some gas and air.

This meant Vicky had to examine me to see how far along I was so that she didn’t give it to me too early. I was dreading being told I’d hardly progressed, but the good news was I was 7cm dilated!

Unfortunately Vicky also discovered our daughter had decided to stick a foot out first. As earlier ultrasounds had shown she was sat cross legged inside me this meant she was at a real risk of getting stuck if her other leg didn’t come down as well. Not the best time to be doing the hokey cokey!

The senior registrar was called and he recommended I have a caesarean to remove any further danger to our little girl.

By the time I got into the operating theatre I could feel she was really on her way out and when they dropped the screen across my tummy so that I could see her being born she was pink and wriggly and clearly ready to make her entrance in the world!

Storm Josephine Frances Woodland was born at 10.58pm, weighing 6lb 7oz, just 12 hours after my waters broke.

My friend Jo was with me in the operating theatre as Al is so squeamish, but he did come in for a few minutes to have some skin to skin contact after Storm was born. He went a bit grey when he saw all the medical equipment, but he was very brave to come in at all and I was so proud of him.

After spending so long waiting to see her it was amazing to be able to hold her pressed tight my chest and look into her wide eyes and welcome her to the world.

Tamzin lets non-sleeping babies cry...

2008-07-28T09:52:00.003+01:00

34 weeks

When I saw my midwife the other day she had a feel of my tummy and said that the reason I still look so small is because the baby’s head is right down where it should be at 38 weeks! She wasn’t worried but now I keep thinking she’s going to come early.

Tonight I’ve been having some really uncomfortable pains and it really feels like she’s trying to push her head even further down. I was actually gasping with the pain earlier and my Mum got quite worried but I’m sure it’s not anything, there’s too much other movement and they’re supposed to get quieter before you give birth....aren’t they?!!

The other thing my midwife said was that they do get the sex wrong sometimes which I knew but hadn’t really thought about much and now I keep thinking how weird it would be if I had a boy! I wouldn’t mind at all but it would be strange because – well, because it’s a girl! She’s very firmly in my mind, Isla’s little sister, my 2 little girls, I see us in the future with our two daughters etc. It would be a shock; I think I better have a few boys names on stand by.

A while ago I wrote about how badly Isla was sleeping and it continued on and off until four nights ago. I finally did what I never wanted to do and that was not go into her at all when she started crying. It was soooooooooo hard, I lay there listening to her and feeling like I had someone twisting my heart (dramatic, but that’s what it’s like isn’t it?) until she went back to sleep – 50 minutes the first night 40 the next and since then she’s slept through, is it going to continue? I’ll let you know! It was horrible but if it’s worked I shall do it much earlier with the next one! I did go in to check her as soon as she went back to sleep, just to make sure she was ok!

You feel so cruel but as someone said to me recently they don’t have any conception of time, they’re not like us checking the clock and saying ‘hmmm I’ve been crying now for 10 – 12 – 16 – 30 minutes’ and you can tell with the cry whether there’s anything really the matter. It was never a desperate cry, just a ‘I’m awake and I want my Mum to come and stroke my brow’ cry. I do feel bad but I tell you what , we are all loving our good night’s sleep now!

Ria is thinking about cider...

2008-07-16T09:10:00.001+01:00

Week 38

Unbelievable that I am writing this blog with still no baby! After all the worries about being engaged so early and baby being so small and being bound to come early and we are officially now considered full term! I really am starting to look it now too, although every time I think I’m massive we see someone who is much bigger or people will be in disbelief at how far gone we are.

It was Jon’s sister's 30th birthday this week so we had a hectic sprint down to Plymouth after my active birth class on Monday, and a swift clothes change in Sainsbury’s toilets (very classy) before meeting them for dinner. Just as we arrived at the pub, they were coming out, and I totally felt like an exhibit at the zoo because about 15 people all walked past, analysing my bump, feeling it and commenting on me / bump! It was awful! I’m not the best at having lots of attention, and my sister-in-law was giggling at the back seeing how uncomfortable I was! Anyway, dinner was lovely and it was great to see everyone, probably won't be down for a family dinner again until little madam arrives!

A week of birthdays! I also had one of my best friends from Uni come down for the evening on her birthday, her boyfriend is a fireman and was working nights so I was given the task of entertaining the birthday girl! We had a good catch up and a lovely meal out, then mooched around Exeter the next day before meeting Jon for lunch. She is an auntie of two and had just been to Disneyland with the little ones for a fun weekend, I can’t wait to do kiddie stuff like that without having a conscience!

No new pregnancy complaints this week, just my back is agony at night, and I so desperately want to lie on my back because it’s the only way I can still move when I wake up! But mountains of pillows and careful positioning I must endure for a little bit longer! Oh and I really can’t wait for my first pint of Magners!

Kelly's social life is booming!

2008-07-16T08:54:00.003+01:00

Libby at 11 weeks

We went to the local library for “Rhymetimes” this week and it was great fun. It was just as good for me to learn all the nursery rhymes that I had long forgotten as it was for Libby to bop along. I think Libby was getting a bit bored of Old Macdonald, The Grand Old Duke of York and Ince Wincey Spider so I now know a few more to add to my nursery rhyme collection. She is such a sociable and alert baby, she loves music and looking around at all that is going on around her. I think she is going to be nosey!!! Not sure where she gets that from??

I thought that I was pretty busy and sociable before I had Libby but I think that we are even busier now. If it’s not baby group, baby massage, coffee with fellow mums, swimming or baby clinic then we are generally out walking about. We have made lots of friends from walking about and everyone always loves to stop and look at Libby whether it is at a supermarket or in town. It’s quite funny how everyone goes crazy for babies and they love her great big blue eyes. I must admit, although I loved babies before, I just adore them even more now and think I will soon be a “aah how old is she, what is her name…etc” interested onlooker too!!

Everyone said to me before I had Libby to cherish every second and it’s true, I can’t believe that she is no longer that totally dependant newborn. She is nearly 3 months and can push herself up on her front and has already developed a personality. She is also happy to play by herself for about 20 minutes which is great when I need to do something. I think that it will not be long before she will no longer fit into her moses basket which means that she will have to move into her own room.I am not quite prepared for this yet. The milestones pass so quickly before I know it she is going to be crawling and then walking. I have made a mental note to bring the camera and camcorder out more often as she is changing all the time. I do use them quite a lot but I don’t want to miss any phase.

Libby is now in a pretty good routine. She is in bed by 7:30pm and sleeps through until 7am, waking up only once at around 4am. I feel so much more rejuvenated and really don’t mind getting up once. I don’t think that she will sleep through until she is on solids but I don’t mind, she is a pretty good sleeper and otherwise good baby. It is great as I get to spend the evening with Tim and have even decided to join the gym next week and to go once she is down to sleep.

Her daytime naps have become more structured now as well. I haven’t imposed a strict routine as I am pretty flexible but it has just evolved. She tends to wake up about 7am and then fall to sleep about 2 hours later for about 40-60 minutes. She then has another nap at lunchtime for 1.5-2 hours and then one in the afternoon about 3pm for about 40-60 minutes. Her naps fit in well with our social events and she sometimes takes them in her car seat or in the pram but if we are at home then they are in her cot. She is so much like Tim in that she can pretty much sleep anywhere. I wish I could!

Rosee is going through the mill...

2008-07-01T15:32:00.000+01:00

Week 37

After the shock of discovering last week that our little lady is breech we’ve been through the mill a bit.

On Sunday, 48 hours after a scan showed she was the ‘wrong’ way up, I started to feel ill and have mild contractions.

Because I hadn’t seen anyone since, I called the hospital and they asked me to come in for a check up.

This meant a panicked call to one of my friends to ask her to be my birth partner if I ended up needing a caesarean that day as Al thought he wouldn’t be able to cope with being in the same room as me having an operation – he is extremely squeamish.

The hospital staff were lovely and, when it became clear my contractions weren’t really going anywhere, they offered to try to turn bambino as I was already there.

It seemed the obvious thing to do, so the consultant gave me a drug to help my womb relax and then tried to move the baby. This involved him grabbing her from the outside of my stomach and forcing her to try to do a forward roll into the right position. Al said the consultant was using so much pressure he could see the outline of the actual baby through my skin! It really was one of the most painful things I’ve ever experienced.

About three quarters of the way through the ‘roll’ the baby’s heart rate literally halved and, even though the consultant immediately stopped the attempt, it took her several minutes to recover to normal, which really scared me.

I stayed in hospital a bit longer, and the midwives wanted to keep me in overnight but I insisted on going home, reasoning that I was only a few minutes away if labour started again.

The next day we went for our appointment with the acupuncturist, who used a technique called moxibustion to try to get our little one to move in a gentler way. She lit an insence stick the size of a cigar and held it near a pressure point on my little toe to heat it up. The scientific theory behind this ancient Chinese technique is that it stimulates the circulation in the pelvis and uterus, causing the baby to move. Amazingly, she started to turn straight away. But at three quarters of the way through a turn she stopped again. The moxibustion brought on very strong contractions and over the next couple of hours she moved back to her normal position.

Al and I tried the moxibustion half a dozen times more over the next few days but each time the same thing happened , and after a while it seemed to have less effect.

So on Friday, a week after the breech diagnosis, we went back to the hospital for another turn attempt. This time I saw a woman consultant, who was a lot more gentle with me. After a couple of gos at moving the baby she stopped, and said she thought our daughter simply didn’t have enough room to get the whole way around. This is what I had thought all along, so I wasn’t surprised, although it was disappointing news.

What was surprising, however, was when I told her I wanted to try for a natural birth she agreed! She said that because I’m tall and have had a trouble free pregnancy (well, up to this point), and the baby seems not to be huge I’m a good candidate for attempting a normal delivery.

It’s not considered good practice to induce breech babies, or use interventions like epidural and forceps, so we agreed I would move straight to having a caesarean if I go into labour and it doesn’t seem to be progressing or the baby is in distress. Although I felt really low for 24 hours after the second failed turn attempt, I now feel much happier. At last someone has taken my wishes seriously and accepted a compromise which means our daughter at least gets the benefits of the first stage of labour, when the contractions help the baby to prepare to breathe.

I’m now just hoping I’ll go into labour fairly soon. I’m so excited about meeting our little girl and giving her the best start in life I possibly can.

Little Libby Gets Her First Party Dress...

2008-06-26T09:40:00.005+01:00

Libby at 8-10 weeks

Libby had her first set of jabs this week. She cried just after she had them and was very cuddly all afternoon when she wasn’t sleeping. At teatime she was a bit grizzly so I gave her some Calpol and it seemed to help. No adverse reaction to the jabs so was really pleased but I felt so sorry for her when she had them. I know she needed to have them but she’s so tiny and I felt quite emotional when she was having them done. But she only cried for a few minutes so it really wasn’t that bad. She has to have her 2nd set of injections in 4 weeks and then her 3rd set in a further 4 weeks.

I had my first night out with friends and we had dinner at a lovely Japanese restaurant and I had even expressed enough milk to have a couple glasses of wine. I was only out for a few hours and was home by 11pm but it was fab to get dressed up, slap on some make up and feel attractive. Since having Libby, I normally only spend 5 minutes getting ready after a shower every day. Your priorities do totally change but I am sure that once Libby is into more of a routine things will get easier.

Going out was a hassle from the point of view of having to express and throw away my contaminated milk throughout the night. Libby usually wakes up once in the night so I had to express after I had fed her my non contaminated milk else it would have been like experiencing engorgement again. I had built up quite a supply of milk in the freezer over the last week I had expressed once a day. I had been advised that you could keep it in fridge for 24 hours or in freezer for 3 months. I defrosted the milk either in the fridge overnight or at room temperate for a few hours. I bought some sterile freezer bags but you can also freeze it in containers. I like the freezer bags as you can write the date and amount of milk you have frozen. This is so handy for knowing how much to take out of the freezer and which milk to use first.

We also had our first long car journey away for my nephew’s christening in Warrington, Cheshire. My parents live in Gloucester and we decided to split the journey up by staying up there on the way up and by stopping there on the way back to feed Libby as it is conveniently halfway to Warrington. Libby slept most of the way and was fine with the traveling. She loved all the attention at Jacob’s birthday when she got to wear her first party dress.

I cannot believe that Jacob is already one. I am really trying to appreciate every week with Libby as the time just flies. I cannot believe that she is 10 weeks already either! It was nice to spend time with my sister, Neal and Jacob. Jacob is doing so well and is nearly walking. He is a cutie. I really hope that Libby and him grow up to be as close as I am with my sisters.

I also traveled to Poole with Libby to stay with my best friend Vicki. Vicki is heavily pregnant with her second child and her daughter Abby, who is 2, absolutely loved Libby. She was helping me change Libby’s nappy so I think Vicki is going to have a real helper there. I timed leaving once I had fed Libby and she happily slept all the way. It’s only about a 2.5 hour drive so the perfect distance to travel and for Libby to sleep most of the way. I was careful not to take too many things and Vicki had quite a few things that I could borrow to save me loading the car up.

I also suffered from a bad back over the last fortnight. It started in Centre Parcs, from lifting Libby awkwardly out of the cot and I just aggravated it with lifting her and carrying shopping as well as being in the car for long journeys to both Warrington and Poole. I ended up having some much needed acupuncture and it was brilliant. The physio gave me some exercises to do and within days it felt so much better. I decided to go back to yoga once it was healed as this has always helped keep my back strong and I had not had a problem with it over the last 6 years since practicing yoga. The doctor advised that I had to take it easy and not to overstretch as the pregnancy hormone relaxin was still in my body.

Ria is back on track...

2008-06-26T09:31:00.003+01:00

Week 37

We are back on track to being sorted for our little princess to arrive… we now have a new and far more sensibly sized car for transporting baby and puppy about, and have had our beautiful hammock delivered so she has somewhere to sleep now. The spiral stand is really cool and the hammock looks so cosy, and - despite trying - we have discovered that puss cats can’t jump into the hammock, so no chance of being smothered by a fluffy tail.

I drove up to Bristol this week to see one of my best friends who has just had her baby, Charlie, she and he had quite a traumatic birth and he has been suffering from colic and stress related trauma. But the little fella was a real cutie pie while I was there and was happy and content to snuggle up in a papoose on Katie all the time I was there. I took pup, and have discovered (not surprisingly) that puppies and baby toys, rugs, hats, shoes, jumpers, and most amusingly moses baskets don’t mix! Noodle couldn’t understand why something as snuggly looking as Charlie’s moses basket wasn’t appropriate for her to sleep in! Still our house is more puppy proof so hopefully we can keep everything out of harms way!

Having decided to have little one in our room for as long as we need to, we haven’t done very much to what will be her nursery, and everyone keeps asking if the nursery is ready, and I’m feeling a bit guilty that we’ve not done it! The room it will be in is our study at the moment, and we want to keep it that way as long as we can before we have to move the computer etc… but I have spoken to a girl I used to teach who is now at Art college and she’s going to come and paint Jungle book mural’s all over the room in the summer, she’s been commissioned before for something similar and it looks fab - as you can see from these pics:

We are really on the home straight now waiting for baby cakes to arrive, and I’m feeling fine at the moment, I had a few emotional stresses a couple of weeks ago, but now am really keen to meet her, I keep wondering what she will look like and when she’s going to make an appearance. Jon is so busy with rugby at the moment that we just hope she can hang on till a day when he’s actually in calling distance and not 6 hours up the motorway!

Tamzin is out on the town!

2008-06-04T09:20:00.000+01:00

33 weeks

Went out on the town last Friday and managed to stay out until TWO O’CLOCK!!!! ROCK AND ROLL!! It was quite strange actually, I hadn’t been out for ages but it was my best friend’s birthday and we went out for a meal. I was expecting to be home by 11 but then Pete offered to go and relieve my Mum from babysitting while we went out, so I couldn’t say no!

We had a great time but I did feel very protective of myself! I was wearing a dress and it was obvious that I was pregnant but drunk people don’t really notice these things and there was a lot of them about! I did a lot of big elbows and arms out in front of me dramatically! It was fine until I started needing the loo and after the second time of queuing for more than 15 minutes and no-one letting me push in I couldn’t bear it anymore!! I put my coat on and stood waiting for my drunk friends! I felt like my Granny when she decides she wants to go – she doesn’t tell anyone she just puts her coat on and waits for someone to notice!! Selfish really but it’s the only time we have an excuse – pregnancy and old age! Got to make the most of it!!

Anyway I don’t know if it was the late night out, or if the baby was having a growth spurt but the last few days I have been more tired than I’ve ever been in my life and that’s saying something. I just didn’t have the energy to do a thing, it was horrible! All I wanted to do was sleep and lie around which is a bit difficult with a 14 month old Isla. Luckily she’s very good at entertaining herself, so I could lie down and she’d play with things and bring me books to read to her. Today I woke up and felt fine again thank goodness, but I’ve got lots of catching up to do now.....housework and tidying.....boring.

Charlotte is singing!

2008-06-02T10:02:00.003+01:00

This month I have mostly been craving curries and hot spicy food. I thought that food cravings are supposed to occur when you are pregnant! When I was pregnant I went off anything spicy and have never liked really hot curries, but since I gave up breastfeeding I have been craving and enjoying hot and spicy curries and chillies - how bizarre!

Lexie is now 23 weeks old. During the last two weeks, I have been feeding her vegetable and fruit purees. She has enjoyed a variety of tastes, including sweet potato, butternut squash, carrot, apple, banana and pear. I have been trying her out with different foods every two days. For the last two days she has been trying pea, and it is the first one that she hasn’t appeared to enjoy. I think she is impatient too, because, although her milk does not seem to be satisfying her as it used to, she is far to used to receiving it at a fast rate. So trying to eat purees is much more like hard work and takes longer so she gets impatient!

When she reaches six months I will start her on the chopped fruit and vegetables as finger foods so hopefully by then she will be used to the tastes and textures of the fruit and vegetables and enjoy chewing on them. Her favourite so far is sweet potato and apple (not together of course!). It’s far more interesting for her and for me to be eating a variety of foods as I’m sure milk must get boring!

Hayden is doing well too. His speech is amazing and he picks up words he hears immediately. Recently he has been going around at his nursery saying ‘all right babes’ to the nursery assistants who all find it amusing! We have to be really careful what we say even more so now. As for the terrible twos, he is going through the tantrum phase. It kicks in mainly when he is tired, and during his tantrums he’ll lie on the floor crying and screaming for so long that I’m sure that he forgets what he is crying about! Alexa watches him with fascination, I’m sure she is storing up knowledge for the day that she can copy him. One way I can get him out of his tantrum is by singing nursery rhymes to him as it seems to calm him down. This has caused no end of amusement for Craig who has been known to turn up the radio when I sing in the car as he doesn’t appreciate my singing talents, but as I point out to him our children like my singing so it can’t be that bad!

Libby goes on her first holiday!

2008-05-21T14:13:00.002+01:00

Libby at 6-8 weeks

Libby’s first holiday!! At last our first weekend away to Centre Parcs Longleat had arrived. We were celebrating Tim’s mum’s 60th birthday with all the family. It was great and was nice to spend time with Tim’s folks, brother, sister and nieces. The accommodation was brilliant and we cooked all our own meals that was easier with the children. Tim’s mum, myself and my two sister-in-laws had a much needed 3 hour spa session which was so relaxing. The men played badminton and pool and it was just so nice to chill out. Libby also slept in a cot for the first time as to save on luggage we decided not to take the moses basket. She takes after her dad and can sleep pretty much anywhere so we knew it would probably be ok. She looked so small in the cot and I wondered how long it would be before she was in her own cot at home (I secretly hoped a long time as she will move into her own room when she no longer fits in the moses basket and I am not ready for that yet!)

Libby went swimming for the first time at Centre Parcs but I was disappointed with the toddler pool. It was not that warm and it was quite shallow so I didn’t let Libby stay in for long. I decided to take her to the local baths the next week instead. I had checked it would be ok with my doctor to take her before her first set of jabs and she said that as long as the pool was warm enough it would be fine. We have signed up for Waterbabies classes with some of our friends so I want to take Libby swimming a few times beforehand to get her used to it.

After Centre Parcs we decided to start putting Libby down earlier at night between 7pm and 8pm. Then I would either dream feed her or wake her when I went to bed and give her another feed around 10:30pm. I found that gently waking her would make her take more feed and sleep a bit longer. It was working well as meant that Tim and myself had a few much needed hours together in the evening before we went to bed. She even managed to sleep through until 6am a couple times!!!

The breastfeeding is still going well and Libby seems to be thriving. At 8 weeks she weighs 11.5 pounds, 4 pounds heavier than birth so she is putting on half a pound a week. No wonder I feel so tired!! She has moved from the 50th percentile to nearer the 75th for her weight now but this is more in proportion with her length. I have been getting her weighed weekly to make sure that she was getting enough milk as breastfeeding you have no idea how much they are drinking. Although I obviously don’t have anything to worry about, I think I will just get her weighed fortnightly now unless she is not very well.

Libby is developing well she is smiling all the time and cooing lots. You can even have a cooing conversation with her which is fab. She is a real cutie and we are so proud. She has such big blue eyes and I think they will probably stay blue as they are a real blue and not dark. Her eyelashes have grown really long just like her dad’s. I just spend ages looking at her every day and never get bored of looking at her. She is gorgeous!

Rosee is doing head stands...

2008-05-19T15:35:00.000+01:00

Week 36

Well, it’s been quite a week.

I saw my consultant on Monday, a follow up appointment from early in my pregnancy, when I was diagnosed with a bicornuate uterus. A bicornuate uterus is basically heart shaped, with a dip in the top, and can cause problems with progress of labour, and also increases the chance of a baby being breech.

But I’ve really had a very straightforward pregnancy and, after double checking our baby was head down, my consultant was happy for me to go ahead with my home birth as planned.

So on Thursday my community midwife came to my house and we talked through my birth plan and discussed the implications of home birth. She was absolutely lovely and very positive about us having the baby at home.

Again, she checked the baby’s position and again all was well. I’d had some sharp pains and buzzy sensations recently and she confirmed the baby was starting to engage in my pelvis, making delivery likely to be two to four weeks away.

The good news made me very excited, and I went to bed feeling positive and happy.

Perhaps you can see where this is going…

On Friday, having had two or three days with my baby being a bit quieter than normal, I decided to go in for a double check on her well being at the hospital’s day assessment unit.

Thankfully, all was good. Her heart and lungs are working nicely and she was wriggling around.

But… she was also the wrong way up!

It turns out she has been sitting cross legged for many many weeks, a fact which has been missed by three midwives, two consultants and one student doctor!

I am, honestly, devastated, as if she stays breech my chances of delivering at home are zero. Our local hospitals will only deliver breech babies by elective caesarean, which is just about the last thing I wanted.

I am now booked for an ECV (external cephalic version) next Friday, when my consultant will try to turn my baby manually. I’ll go into the delivery suite and will be given a drug to relax the ligaments in my womb. Then my consultant will manipulate my baby using pressure on my abdomen to encourage her to somersault into position.
After that the baby’s heartbeat will be monitored to make sure she isn’t in distress, as there’s a 1 per cent chance the movement will pinch the cord, or damage the placenta, in which case I’ll need an emergency caesarean there and then.

The chances of an ECV working for a first baby are about 30 per cent, so I am trying to be positive, but it’s not easy.

In the meantime, I’m booked into to see an acupuncturist, who is going to carry out a process called moxibustion which has a higher rate of success. This involves the burning of herbs over pressure points to encourage the baby to turn.

I’ve also got to spend 15 minutes out of every two hours inverted for the next five days as this has also worked for some women.

But because my uterus is bicornuate there may simply not be enough room for my baby to move through 180 degrees.

Honestly, I am utterly crushed by this discovery so late in the day and can’t quite believe that within 24 hours I went from planning where to put our birthing pool in the kitchen to all this.

Who said having children was predictable?!

Ria's getting active...

2008-05-14T09:19:00.001+01:00

Week 36

This week began with the excitement of Active Birth Yoga and practising for labour! The classes are absolutely brilliant and well worth the money to go to them. Each class focuses on a different aspect of the labour process, and what you can do actively to keep you and your baby comfortable and make labouring as easy and stress free as possible!

Last week we looked at the latent phase…and practiced massage techniques, chill out yoga positions and smelled different aromatherapy oils that are safe for pregnancy. This week we did the first stage of labour, and went through how to set up your birthing area so it’s not dominated by a bed, but instead how to incorporate the walls, tables, our fit balls, yoga mats and birthing stools (and birthing buddies!) into helping the process. Really good fun, she also had a pool there which we practiced some of the moves in too, and I feel a lot more confident about the whole thing, Jon has a really active role too, so I’ve been giving him lessons after the class, as I’m sure I’ll forget it when it counts, and it’s been good to get the giggling fits over early!

My mum came down for a few days this week with her dog, so we’ve been walking pooches every day and chatting about babies and life and things which has been really lovely, she has also bullied me into packing a bag ready for hospital, even though I was convinced there’ll be no rush…but still best listen to mummy!

We also took Jon’s mum out along with his sister and fiancé to a lovely farm shop near by where they do amazing fish and chips - very nice. When we got back we thought it might be a good time to try out our car seat and buggy in my car… lucky we did as it turns out that no matter how you orientate puppy, car seat, buzz and KA there is no sensible way to transport all at once, so this week is operation swap cars! Nothing like forward planning, oops!

Tamzin starts thinking about labour...

2008-05-13T09:49:00.003+01:00

32 weeks

I had an appointment with the consultant this week regarding the safety of having a vaginal delivery after having had a caesarean. It was actually rather a waste of time as she didn’t tell me anything different to what my midwife had already told me. She basically said, “yes, that’s fine any questions?” And I didn’t really. There is a risk of rupturing but there’s risks with the whole thing so nothing’s worse than anything else! The only thing that worries me a bit is the fact that I’ll have to be monitored and I also have Strep B which means I may have to take antibiotics through a drip during my labour, I have visions of being attached to two things and unable to move around as I want. But my midwife said that I’ll only have to take antibiotics if the Strep B is in my urine and that I won’t have to be monitored constantly, so I should still be able to move about. My friend had to spend her entire labour on her back in a bed due to various reasons and I can’t think of anything worse! I spent most of mine on my knees with my head buried in Pete’s lap – it was very comforting!!! My yoga teacher talks a lot about having your forehead pressed against something during labour and I know a lot of people who have found it helps, sounds odd I suppose but it is oddly reassuring.

Isla is so adorable at the moment, how can it be possible that she just gets more and more amazing? I know all Mothers (and Fathers) find this, you don’t think parenthood can get any better and it just gets more and more!! She is getting really cuddly and she gets jealous when my Mum hugs me or I hug her, she immediately grabs my arm and hugs it, it’s so funny. She’s still not saying any words really, everything’s still ‘Da da’, she sort of manages ‘fish’ – ‘ish’ and if she’s in the mood ‘duck’ – ‘guck’ and ‘mamamamamamamama’ if she wants something, which I guess is the first stages of the demanding ‘mummy!!!’ I’m just really glad I gave up work when I did because these few months have been wonderful. I’ve not been out too much, I’ve just spent lots of time at home relaxing and playing and laughing with and at her, it’s been brilliant!

Rosee is getting her washing done...

2008-05-07T09:33:00.005+01:00

Week 35

It seems like a lifetime ago now, but last Friday was moving day. Al and I had been given early access to our new home, as we're renting it from a good friend. We'd used the headstart to take over most of the contents of our kitchen, books, clothes, and basically anything else we could fit in our smallish car. But there was no getting around it - we had to move the sofas, bed and wardrobe. That meant hiring a van and lugging the stuff out of our first floor flat and down the road to our new abode.

As by that point I was already almost eight months pregnant we enlisted the help of another good friend and Al's brother in law and spent half a day trawling back and forth with our worldly goods. Unable to lift anything much I was charged with driving the van and, my favourite job - directing. This all went well until we tried to get our giant sofa into our new (small) living room. Despite trying different angles, and taking off most of the paint from the hallway walls, the sheer mathematical impossibility of it won in the end, and we now have our nicest sofa in the kitchen!

However, hiccups aside, the move went well and we now have a garden and a bath - just in time for the baby's arrival next month. I've been making the most of the outdoor space to finally wash and dry all our baby clothes, towels, bedding, muslins and so on.

I'm feeling a little overwhelmed by the sheer quantity of stuff we've accumulated, despite my best efforts to keep everything streamlined. I'm using Ecoballs instead of washing powder, and have been impressed how well they clean considering there's no powder involved.

It's pleasant work. There's something rather charming about hanging out the tiny cotton dresses, frilly bloomers, tiny t-shirts and seemingly endless supply of babygros. I love to think that our little lady will be wearing them in just a few weeks, and when she gives me a shove in the tum just as I'm pegging up yet another sleepsuit it really makes me grin.

Ria has a Cornish break...

2008-05-06T15:17:00.003+01:00

Week 35

Baby girl is growing! Good news as the midwives were all getting worried about my small bump and had sent Jon into a blind panic about the little one. They’ve been keeping a closer eye on me and my tummy, but have now decided that I don’t need to go in for a growth scan, and that my bump is small because baby’s head has been engaged fully for such a long time.

Although my bump measures a lot smaller than the average, it is growing at the correct rate, so all is well! It still feels massive to me though, and I can’t imagine how frustrated I’d be if it was as big as some peoples! My clothes are pretty much all OK still, I just have to wear long tops that can be stretched down over bump.

My worst thing at the moment is pain in my back and side muscles, going to bed is now a fully structured mission involving careful placement of several pillows, cushions, husband and cat! And then I still wake in the morning unable to move! Jon has bought me a Tens machine to start using now, and it does really help, and is good to get used to before the onslaught of labour pains!

We have had a lovely week together, Jon was playing Rugby in London at the weekend so I drove up to meet old Uni friends and stay with my sister, we all went for a long walk in Richmond Park with the puppies which was fun. And then Jon and I escaped to Cornwall for three days, taking Noodle to stay in a little cottage and play on the beach and generally chill out together, which was great.

We often spend time in Polzeath, which is where we got engaged and is quite a special family place, and it was crazy to think the next time we are there there will probably be another little one in tow other than Noodle pup. Scary but good!

Little Libby is starting to smile!

2008-05-06T15:07:00.002+01:00

4-6 weeks

Libby is now regularly smiling and we can actually make her smile by tickling her chubby cheeks and humming the tune that she loves from her V-tech radio. Sometimes she laughs so much she screws her eyes up and I love it. She has also started to coo and make noises I think she is going to take after me and be a little chatterbox when she is older.

Libby continues to show her strength by holding her head well and I have started to put her on her front partly to help her strengthen up and partly because some of her clothes are awkward to do up unless she is on her front. I only put her there for a few seconds and sometimes she can managed a minute or two before she tires and wants to get back on her back to have a kick. I have also started to regularly put her on her play gym and as the weeks go by she is showing more interest in it and wanting to stay on it for bit longer. The first couple times she could only cope with a couple of minutes. It’s amazing how much everything stimulates them and tires them out.

My six week check was pretty informal and I was not examined at all which I thought was strange but everything seems to be ok. I was just asked some routine questions and I enquired about returning to exercise. I have been doing lots of walking as I love to get out and about and get some fresh air. Libby loves it too and normally doses off in her buggy. Libby had her six week baby check and it was all fine so now we can participate in the baby massage class at our local baby group.

Libby has been sleeping better and we have even had 7 full hours of sleep! Hooray. She always sleeps at least 5.5 hours and then usually has a smaller stint of about 3 hours. We put her down about 10 or 11pm when I go to bed and then I only have to get up once in the night. I want to try and get her into a routine of going down to sleep between 7pm and 8pm but I think it may be a little early to introduce at the moment. I may try in a couple of weeks as it works for both me and her at the moment

Next week we have our first weekend away at Centre Parks, Wiltshire to celebrate Tim’s mum’s 60th birthday. It should be good and it will be interesting to see how much luggage we will have to take now we are three!!

Ria starts maternity leave...

2008-04-25T15:16:00.001+01:00

Week 34

Have had a busy week with my first insight into life not being at work! My maternity leave has started and although I was very nervous about filling the days and feeling useful it’s not been too bad! There appears to be a correlation with my emotional state and the weather… I’ve been happily spending hours walking puppy along the river without a care in the world in the sunshine, but not quite such a happy bunny in the rain!

Still, it has meant that I can do lots of classes that I want to at the gym, and am definitely feeling more positive as a result, I’ve been doing yoga, body balance or pilates most days and am quite reassured that I can still do most things relatively easily with only 6 weeks to go that’s good news! The best thing is that I’m also still in my jeans!!! Amazing, I was hoping to get to Christmas and still be able to wear them, but no problems at all, maybe I’ll go all the way!

I started Active Birth Yoga classes on Monday, which are a combination between ante-natal and pregnancy specific yoga, and they are brilliant. The girl that runs them is a midwife in Exeter, but also a trained yoga teacher, and she is training us to using principles of yoga and movement to be able to cope with the birth more easily, and to give birth in positions that are more conducive for both baby and mum.

We started by discussing birthing positions and why it’s easier to give birth standing, squatting or kneeling, due to the position of the pelvis and natures helping hands through gravity, and we discovered that the western habit of giving birth lying down came from Victorian times when the King wanted the best view of his Queen giving birth to the heir! Unbelievable, and goes to show how totally not sensible men can be!

We spent the 2 hours bouncing on gym balls, squatting on little plastic stools, doing yoga poses and practicing our pelvic floor exercises… it was great, and there was lots of getting to know the other girls, with massage, fairy lights and scented candles to chill us, lovely!

Jodi starts on Baby Led Weaning...

2008-04-23T09:13:00.002+01:00

Iestyn at six months

Hello everyone,

Just a quick update from me as I should really be packing the suitcases ready for our first family holiday to Florida!

Iestyn has turned 6 months since I last wrote and I was surprised how emotional this ‘birthday’ left me. I really felt as if my little baby had gone and still can’t quite believe how fast it’s gone; yes there is a recurrent theme to all my blog entries but it’s true, time really has flown by!

So in the last month a couple of major events have occurred. The first is that Iestyn and I went to visit my sister abroad. I found the whole travelling alone with a baby experience very stressful whereas my little boy was impeccably behaved throughout the two hour coach trip, the four hours at the airport, the hour long flight and the hour long car journey! For me the stress came from needing to be three steps ahead of yourself at all times. Working out how many hands you would have free at any one time - especially when you have a tired and hungry baby, a pushchair and a large suitcase to contend with! Anyway we managed just fine and I’m sure it was all good practice for Florida although I wish it was another hour long flight instead of the 9.5 but at least I have Rhys to help me this time!

The other major milestone is that Iestyn is now eating solids! As I mentioned last time we have decided to skip the puree stage and go straight for the finger foods or the Baby Led Weaning method as it’s known. There are many supposed benefits of doing it this way; the child joins in with family mealtimes from the start, they are less likely to become fussy eaters later and basically as it’s a much more relaxed affair although it is very messy!

So, on the day before his 6 month birthday he was presented with a bowlful of steamed carrot sticks and broccoli florets. It took a while but eventually both hands went in and grabbed what they could and then shoved it into his mouth! Whilst not too much was actually eaten the first few times he certainly impressed us by knowing what he was supposed to do. He had the broccoli and carrot for the first three days, then roasted sweet potato and parsnip ‘chips’ for the next three days before being introduced to butternut squash and mango. So far I think that sweet potato is his favourite. It has been great fun for both of us so far although the change in nappies is an unpleasant side effect!

I’d best go and figure out how on earth I am going to fit everything in our flat, including the kitchen sink, into two suitcases. I’ll report back on whether or not it was relaxing holiday in a month’s time...

Charlotte learns about life with two children!

2008-04-21T16:05:00.003+01:00

Ok someone tell me; where has the time gone?!! I’ve just realised that I haven’t written a blog for nearly two months now, and it really only feels like a couple of weeks ago since my last one!

Alexa has changed so much in the last couple of months. She’s now four months old and is turning into a proper little lady as the days go by! She loves having conversations with me by cooing and gurgling and gets so excited when she sees her brother Hayden!

I’ve been gradually weaning her off feeding from me and onto formula bottles over the last four weeks, so she is now completely on bottles. I’ve been feeling sad, guilty and relieved that she is now on bottles. Part of me is glad to start getting my body back (but the downside is the diet starts now so no more chocolate!), but the other part of me misses the close contact. However, having a two year old cheeky monster running around whilst trying to feed Alexa has not been the easiest thing!!

What I have learnt having my second child (and that everyone has told me!) is that however much you try to do everything the same with your second child, it is impossible because you just don’t have the time to do it, so you have to make compromises. With Hayden I could take my time and give him 100% of my attention, whereas Alexa has to fit in with our routine. For example, I would have her latched on to me whilst walking (or rather running!) round the house trying to stop Hayden from getting up to mischief, which he would inevitably do to get my attention! So feeding time was not as relaxed as I would hope it to be and sometimes quite stressful for all of us!

But Alexa is thriving, with her chubby cheeks she is always smiling, she really lights up my day! Already her personality is coming out and she seems more chilled than Hayden. Also, she has set times of the day that she likes to sleep and is happy to go to sleep in her cot. With Hayden he would sleep at all times of the day and never in his cot, so because I know when Alexa likes to sleep it makes things a whole lot easier. Alexa sleeps through the night and often wakes up after Hayden in the morning, because he gets up, has some milk and then goes straight in to see his sister and wake her up! And Hayden is going through the terrible two’s stage at the moment…but that’s another story I’ll tell you about in another blog soon!!

Ria is silently panicking...

2008-04-16T10:20:00.000+01:00

Week 33

Had a scared emotional blip this week! I think it’s the realisation that baby will be arriving quite soon, and there is not much we can do about it than go with the flow and hope everything turns out OK. But emotional pregnant brain went into silent panic… firstly about the next 7 weeks and being scared about feeling incapable (shoe laces are becoming my worse nightmare!), baby entering the world (please let her slip out…yeah right!), and then the scariest bit what the heck we do with her afterwards! (eek!).

Jon is always very insistent that I tell him how I’m feeling, but I worry that when I say any of this out loud it sounds like I don’t want to be having the baby, which isn’t the case at all, I’m just petrified of the whole life changing responsibility of it all. And not being at work scares me too... I know it’s only supposed to be a job, but when you’re interacting with so many people all day every day, the thought of life being so different and focussed on just one tiny person is quite daunting!

On a more positive note, one of my best friends had her baby this Thursday, she was a week late with him and getting pretty fed up, but all along we were convinced she’d be having a boy and we were right! Charlie Ben has arrived into the world, and although I’ve not been able to speak to Katie yet she’s texted to say it’s great being a mummy, and I felt really proud of her and a lot more encouraged about the whole affair!

I start Active Birth Yoga classes tomorrow and am back off to the midwife on Tuesday to see if baby girl is more on track in terms of size, if not I have to go to have a growth scan as she was worried about the size of me and baby at this stage. Small is beautiful though!

Rosee is burning the candle at both ends...

2008-04-16T10:10:00.002+01:00

32 weeks

If you'd have told me a year ago that I'd be starting a new job, moving house and having a baby all within the space of six months I'd have laughed out loud. But here I am, 32 weeks pregnant and I haven't left work before 7.30pm in the last fortnight, my house is full of cardboard boxes and bubble wrap and I'm barely sleeping for worrying about it all.

It wasn't supposed to be like this. I've got two weeks left at work and I wanted to wind down slowly, but a major crisis in our department which I had to solve ate nearly three weeks of my time and left me seriously behind. So now we have a huge deadline looming in a couple of days and it's all I can think about - when I'm not thinking about moving that is. Again, it wasn't meant to be so last minute. We were due to move last November, but a series of delays meant that it all happened at the last minute as well.

It's all a bit much really. I've been trying to relax by listening to my natal hypnotherapy CD. But I keep waking up in the night and not being able to get back to sleep, with all the work and moving spinning around in my head.It's all in hand and I know I'm wasting energy getting stressed - in two weeks I'll be done with work and we'll be in our new home, waiting for our new baby to arrive.

I just need to breeeeeathe.