Baby Felicia was born on Friday 17th March at 3.10am! She was 8 days past due date, arrived at home, and is perfect. She is now 9 days old, and so adored. We had the perfect birthing experience. :)
After several false starts, including one on the Tuesday before she was born, when I started getting surges on the Thursday evening, I didn't think much of it, I assumed it was another false labour, and decided to go to bed. For some reason, I decided that it would be a nice idea to have some couple time with J that evening, thinking well, it couldn't hurt, and it might well be the last time for several weeks/months ;) after, we went to sleep, and at around 12.50am I woke to go to the toilet. As I sat up, I realised the bed felt quite damp. I didn't think too much of it, until I walked to the bathroom, and realised I was leaking fluid, and it was trickling along the floor as I walked. I also noticed that my surges had picked back up again, and knew this was it, my waters had gone and were trickling. So I called my mum (who was 2 hours drive away) to let her know this was it. She was in A&E with my step-dad, who, she had told me on Tuesday, had had a heart attack the week before. He was back there again with chest pain but had been seen and they were sure he was ok, and the pain wasn't anything serious. She said she'd get here ASAP, and she could leave A&E soon. After I got off the phone with mum, I called the labour ward, and told them my waters had gone, and they said they'd get a midwife to call me back.
A short while later, I got a call back from the midwife. As soon as I heard the midwife's voice, I was so pleased, because it was the same one that came out to me a week before to talk about my home birth, due to a call I'd received about possibly not being a candidate for home birth due to one of my previous births. I found out it had been Robert's birth that was the cause for concern, and so I talked to her about why I felt this birth would be fine, that I was not going to give birth in water this time, that my positioning would be better, and I was less naïve, and more experienced this time. The midwife, Sheelagh, was lovely and said they would absolutely support me in home birth, and that she could see no reason why home birth would not be ok. So when I heard her voice on the other end of the phone, I was so pleased it would be someone I'd met and got on well with attending the birth. I told her that the contractions weren't incredibly strong or regular yet but they were stronger than the false labour ones I'd been having. I also told her I didn't want any cervical checks, so I would be happy to wait til they were stronger and more regular and call her back. She told me I could call her mobile directly, so I made sure I could redial easily, and hung up, sure it wouldn't be long until we called her back.
Due to leaking, I put a pad and knickers on, and a towel on the bed, and went back to bed again, to try and get some more rest. About an hour later, at 2am, I felt the baby move, and immediately a huge gush of liquid came out in bed. I leapt up, grabbed the towel between my legs, and woke Jonathan back up again. The surges were back, and much stronger again, and definitely labourish, so I called Sheelagh back to tell her what happened, and that it was definitely happening now, and could she please come now? I went down to unlock the front door, and then went to the toilet in the cloakroom. Sure enough, my knickers and pad was soaked through, and I just put the towel between my legs again and went to find something to wear that would be modest and warm enough but allow me to birth easily. Jonathan was getting dressed too, and we went over what we'd need, made sure we had enough towels and waterproof sheets.
At around 2.30, Sheelagh arrived and sat and we chatted a bit, she started filling in forms, and taking observations, my blood pressure, listened to the baby, took my temperature and so on. The surges continued to come, and were getting strong enough that I'd have to breathe through them. Jonathan started to play the Steven Halpern hypnobirthing music on the TV, and for some reason it really bugged me, it sounded cheesy, so I looked through the music and finally found some calm atmospheric music that was just right. We went over my birth plan, which was fairly simple, and Sheelagh seemed happy enough. I sat on the sofa, resting between surges, and breathing through them. Then pretty soon I felt rather pushy, Sheelagh was saying she needed to try and guess when the second midwife should attend, to be here in time for the birth. I had another surge where again I felt pushy, but tried not to, instead breathing through it, but I told Sheelagh I was feeling a lot of pressure, and she called for the second midwife, Sonia, who was 20 minutes away in Kettering. The next surge I again felt the need to push but again I didn't, because I was still sitting and I knew I needed to move to kneel for delivering. Jonathan had been busy during this time setting up the beanbag, waterproof sheet, and towels in front of the opposite sofa.
By the next surge, which was around 3am, I had moved to kneel on the beanbag, and I allowed my body to bear down once I was in position. Sheelagh told me that I should ideally be more upright, so I shifted my position slightly so my elbows were closer to the edge of the sofa. Jonathan however had started up the stairs to go and get another beanbag to help position me more upright. I didn't know why he was going upstairs, but I remember thinking he'd better not be long because his baby was coming, and she wasn't going to hang around! I couldn't tell him this though, but luckily, Sheelagh did, basically saying that he should get back down NOW if he didn't want to miss the birth! And sure enough, on the next surge, her head emerged. Sheelagh constantly encouraging me to breathe, not push (I wasn't pushing, I was just bearing down with my body! I could not stop it at all!), and then when the head came, she suddenly changed tactic, and told me that her hand was by her head, and to push to get the head out. One more big push to get her head out! Then what seemed like 10 seconds later, Sheelagh was telling me to push again for her body. Out she came, with a big gush of the rest of the amniotic fluid, and immediately a gurgly cry! Sheelagh told me to lift my leg so we could pass the baby up, and I just held her for a while. Before I lifted her up, I remember glancing briefly between her legs and seeing that she was a girl, but in that moment, it did not matter at all! I lifted her to me, with a huge sense of relief that she was finally here, and that the birth was done! We moved over to the sofa where I had been resting and breathing through surges before delivery, and was just holding her, when a knock on the door was heard, followed by it opening, hearing my mum call out. Jonathan went to meet her, and said to her "you're too late! You can go back home now!" in a jokey manner. :) mum came in to see my baby girl in my arms!
I started to nurse her, and then about 5 minutes after that, Sonia, the second midwife arrived. Jonathan gave her the same quip, cups of tea made, and while I nursed, Sheelagh set about taking our temperatures again, and other observations while we waited for the placenta. About 10 minutes after delivery, the placenta came away naturally. As I nursed, I consented for the vitamin k injection to be administered. Felicia barely even opened her eyes, and didn't even make a noise! I was checked for tearing, and was amazed to find out I didn't tear AT ALL! Sheelagh and Sonia started filling in paperwork, mum started knitting, and it was such a relaxed post birth atmosphere. After Felicia finally finished nursing, we went to get her weighed in the kitchen. There was some speculation over her weight, and I thought maybe 8lbs, the midwives we're guessing 9.5lbs or so. But nope, Felicia amazed us all again when we found out she weighed a massive 10lb 12oz! Sheelagh and Sonia finally left around 4.30am, and we were all just too amazed and in awe to consider sleeping! I did have a sudden gush of blood after the midwife left, which panicked us all a bit. It soaked my knickers and the maternity pad, and was dripping out onto the sheet pad I was sitting on. I was worried it might be a hemorrage, so phoned Sheelagh back, who asked if it was still gushing or if it was slowing down. After I calmed down a bit it was evident it was slowing down so felt more able to relax. I got a couple more pads on a fresh pair of knickers, and all seemed OK. The three of us stayed awake until the boys got up for the morning.
It was so surreal sitting there, seeing the sky turn from completely dark, then getting lighter and lighter! Eventually the boys woke up and came down. Robert came first, and stopped on the stairs, looking groggy and confused, as he spotted his nanna sitting on the sofa and his daddy standing recording him on the phone! Robert then saw me, and the baby in my arms, and he just stopped dead still, open mouthed, and then to our amazement, his lip quivered, his eyes filled with tears, as he stood staring at his baby sister. He burst into tears, completely overwhelmed with joy! When I finally felt able to say something, I got him to sit down next to us, and he just sat and sobbed! Christopher and Daniel followed soon after, and grinned when they saw Felicia, and then both asked to go and have breakfast, while Robert was still sitting next to me. :)
It was all just completely perfect. We could not have wished for a better birth experience for our fourth and final baby. :)
Showing posts with label boys. Show all posts
Showing posts with label boys. Show all posts
Monday, 27 March 2017
Friday, 11 November 2016
23 weeks! And oops, long time since update!
All is progressing well with the pregnancy. I had a bad fall at the beginning of October which saw me go to A&E instead of a wedding reception, as I badly hurt my right foot/ankle and had nasty cuts to my left knee and big toe. I was in agony with my foot and could barely walk, but as I'm pregnant they didn't want to X-ray me, especially as my foot didn't hurt in the right places that would indicate a fracture. Luckily it has healed up ok with just a bandage, although the first night I was crying with the pain and I couldn't even walk 2 metres to the toilet! Changing the pressure on the bandage and back to back paracetamol helped, then the next day it was much better.
Baby has been by far the most active little bean I remember having. I had my anomaly scan at almost 21 weeks, and I was curious to find out if the placenta was at the front of my uterus, or, as I suspected, at the back. Sure enough, it was at the back, so I'm feeling every little kick and wriggle!
The sonographer checked everything out, and could see everything present and correct as far as she could tell which was a relief, and as she did the measurements, I stared to see if I could see a telltale sign as to whether Pipkin was a boy or a girl. As she got the thigh measurement, I was pretty sure I could see what gender our sweet baby was... But wanted confirmation, so at the end when she asked if we had any questions, I begged her to find out if we were expecting a boy or a girl. I held my breath the entire time, as she positioned the device to look, and she said to us "well... It looks like you're having a baby girl!" Which was what I thought I had seen earlier but didn't dare to believe until she said it too. As I got down from the table/bench afterwards, having wiped all the jelly off my abdomen, I must have looked like the Cheshire Cat! Yes, I cried a little in the room. A baby girl!!! 2 weeks on now, and another scan later (to confirm the kidneys) at which she also double checked the gender again, and I think I might be starting to actually believe that after 3 lovely cheeky boys, I get to raise a DAUGHTER.
She is such (SUCH) an active baby. I'm feeling at LEAST 6 bouts of strong kicks a day, even though I am sometimes very busy, and she's still so little, only about 1lb in weight (although that seems very big too, as it doesn't seem that long ago she was the size of a poppyseed and weighed less than a gram in weight!). Time seems to be flying so so fast, and the older two boys are absolutely over the moon that they're getting a sister! D, is only 3.5 years old so he's not all that aware of what it means, although he had been maintaining for a while before we found out that "it not a baby boy, it a baby GIRL". Whereas R and C were hugging themselves in anticipation saying "ooooooh I hope it's a girl, I really REALLY hope it's a girl!" So when we brought home a box with multicolour stripes in, hiding a "it's a girl!" balloon, and opened it up to show the boys (and grandma and grandad) what was inside, there was lots of whooping and joyful leaping around! :) and Christopher coming up to me, giving me a hug and saying "I'm so HAPPY it's a girl!" It really really made my heart sing!
Other news, is that we have just bought some triple bunks for the boys, which will be set up tomorrow and they (and I) am very excited to get them up and built :) a nice Saturday morning job. :)
Baby has been by far the most active little bean I remember having. I had my anomaly scan at almost 21 weeks, and I was curious to find out if the placenta was at the front of my uterus, or, as I suspected, at the back. Sure enough, it was at the back, so I'm feeling every little kick and wriggle!
The sonographer checked everything out, and could see everything present and correct as far as she could tell which was a relief, and as she did the measurements, I stared to see if I could see a telltale sign as to whether Pipkin was a boy or a girl. As she got the thigh measurement, I was pretty sure I could see what gender our sweet baby was... But wanted confirmation, so at the end when she asked if we had any questions, I begged her to find out if we were expecting a boy or a girl. I held my breath the entire time, as she positioned the device to look, and she said to us "well... It looks like you're having a baby girl!" Which was what I thought I had seen earlier but didn't dare to believe until she said it too. As I got down from the table/bench afterwards, having wiped all the jelly off my abdomen, I must have looked like the Cheshire Cat! Yes, I cried a little in the room. A baby girl!!! 2 weeks on now, and another scan later (to confirm the kidneys) at which she also double checked the gender again, and I think I might be starting to actually believe that after 3 lovely cheeky boys, I get to raise a DAUGHTER.
She is such (SUCH) an active baby. I'm feeling at LEAST 6 bouts of strong kicks a day, even though I am sometimes very busy, and she's still so little, only about 1lb in weight (although that seems very big too, as it doesn't seem that long ago she was the size of a poppyseed and weighed less than a gram in weight!). Time seems to be flying so so fast, and the older two boys are absolutely over the moon that they're getting a sister! D, is only 3.5 years old so he's not all that aware of what it means, although he had been maintaining for a while before we found out that "it not a baby boy, it a baby GIRL". Whereas R and C were hugging themselves in anticipation saying "ooooooh I hope it's a girl, I really REALLY hope it's a girl!" So when we brought home a box with multicolour stripes in, hiding a "it's a girl!" balloon, and opened it up to show the boys (and grandma and grandad) what was inside, there was lots of whooping and joyful leaping around! :) and Christopher coming up to me, giving me a hug and saying "I'm so HAPPY it's a girl!" It really really made my heart sing!
Other news, is that we have just bought some triple bunks for the boys, which will be set up tomorrow and they (and I) am very excited to get them up and built :) a nice Saturday morning job. :)
Monday, 15 August 2016
10 weeks. TEN!
So already we appear to be a quarter of the way through our last pregnancy. Morning sickness has reduced to practically nothing although I do occasionally feel it creeping up a bit. Not enough to bother me like it did from 6-8 weeks, and I appreciate how lucky I was to get it for only two weeks, and milder than a lot of people do. Even if it has been my worst case!
For a while I've been thinking how I'd like to give this little baby a nickname in utero. Robert was Sausage, Christopher was Squidge, Daniel didn't really have one. And I was thinking about it and every now and then a nickname would pop into my head. Twinkle was one. There were a few others I don't remember. But today, out of nowhere, the name Pipkin came to mind. My little Pipkin. :) It's all still so surreal to me at the moment. No movements, no scan photo, symptoms have abated, although I'm still needing to wee loads, and I've started getting round ligament pain. I sort of still can't believe we have a tiny baby on the way. So I think maybe naming him, even in this temporary capacity, might help make things more real.
The boys ask questions on nearly a daily basis about the baby. When will the baby be born? How big is the baby now? Is it a boy or a girl? What shall we call the baby? They are so excited about the baby which is absolutely lovely and heart warming. Even Daniel, who clearly does not have a great understanding about it all just yet, keeps saying, as he holds his finger and thumb an inch or two apart, "is vis your baby, mummy?". Today, the older two boys passed some of their time by writing down their ideas for baby names on paper. Robert's ideas were Stephen, Ryan, Lauren and Hayden. Christopher's ideas were Daisie, Amelia, Lola, Florence and Jack. :) we put them up on the fridge so they could add to their lists if they wanted! What a lovely bunch of big brothers our little Pipkin has already! 😍
For a while I've been thinking how I'd like to give this little baby a nickname in utero. Robert was Sausage, Christopher was Squidge, Daniel didn't really have one. And I was thinking about it and every now and then a nickname would pop into my head. Twinkle was one. There were a few others I don't remember. But today, out of nowhere, the name Pipkin came to mind. My little Pipkin. :) It's all still so surreal to me at the moment. No movements, no scan photo, symptoms have abated, although I'm still needing to wee loads, and I've started getting round ligament pain. I sort of still can't believe we have a tiny baby on the way. So I think maybe naming him, even in this temporary capacity, might help make things more real.
The boys ask questions on nearly a daily basis about the baby. When will the baby be born? How big is the baby now? Is it a boy or a girl? What shall we call the baby? They are so excited about the baby which is absolutely lovely and heart warming. Even Daniel, who clearly does not have a great understanding about it all just yet, keeps saying, as he holds his finger and thumb an inch or two apart, "is vis your baby, mummy?". Today, the older two boys passed some of their time by writing down their ideas for baby names on paper. Robert's ideas were Stephen, Ryan, Lauren and Hayden. Christopher's ideas were Daisie, Amelia, Lola, Florence and Jack. :) we put them up on the fridge so they could add to their lists if they wanted! What a lovely bunch of big brothers our little Pipkin has already! 😍
Tuesday, 15 October 2013
Almost 5 months old!
Well the last time I posted, Daniel was just 2 months old. I've been SO incredibly slack here, but then no-one seems to have noticed my disappearance anyway, as most of you are probably on Facebook so connected with me there.
Daniel will be 5 months old on Thursday! How time has flown! He is not an easy baby, but then he's not a hard baby either. One thing is for sure, and that is that he likes attention and closeness with those he is familiar with. His big brothers dote on him, and are for the most part, very gentle. But Daniel seems determined not to remain a baby for long, he is already sitting unassisted for a few seconds, rolling from front to back and back to front, pushing up on his hands, and has managed to get on his knees a couple of times. He pushes himself backwards and gets squashed up against sofas, toy boxes etc. He is grabbing quite accurately with his hands, and gets very excited when we sit him on our laps while eating. He has had a suck of apple, and cucumber, and got very cross when he dropped it! We semi- co sleep,he is exclusively breastfed (apart from the minuscule amount of apple and cucumber juice he may have consumed), and his main method of transport is the sling, except in the car of course!
I have even managed to get him on my back, and am slowly becoming more accomplished with back carries, which will be particularly useful as he is a big boy for his age, on the 98th centile for length, and the 75th for weight.
On to the big brothers! Robert has recently started full time in reception year, after almost 4 weeks of part time. He is struggling to settle in to the routine and fit in with the rules of school, and has been moved up their disciplinary ladder more often than not in the time he has been at school. The children start off on the sunshine every morning, if they carry on doing something when they are told not to, they get moved onto the grey cloud, if they do it again, they get moved onto the black cloud and they miss out on golden time. I am slowly coming to terms with the fact that it is Robert's personality and not a reflection on my parenting per se. But it is hard, and has made me have good long thinking sessions. I struggle to understand, or enjoy time I spend with Robert. His personality is so full on, so exhausting and unlike mine, that the games he enjoys seems to be time wasting to me. He has so much pent up energy a lot of the time that it gets unleashed at home, running around the living room and crashing into the sofas, playing with cars he will get bored of driving them around properly and then it will devolve into rolling them back and forth along the same area at high speed, inevitably catching someone's hand or foot as he isn't watching what he is doing. I have yet to figure out what it is he actually needs... It's like I'm groping around in the dark when it comes to parenting Robert. But one day we will get there. One thing I am proud of is his progress in literacy skills. He has enjoyed blending words together from early on in nursery (just turned 4) and he is getting better and better. He is learning his keywords well, and now knows "the" which was tricky at first for him as he kept sounding it out and getting confused when the resulting word was "ter-her-eh" he enjoys his "reading" books he comes home with twice weekly. They have no words to read generally apart from the title, and the idea is to tell the story from the pictures.
As for his relationship with his brothers, Robert absolutely adores Daniel. Every morning he comes straight in to our room, climbs up on the bed to see Daniel and snuggle up to him. When I expressed some milk for him a while ago, Robert revelled in his duty of feeding Daniel (who took the bottle like a pro!), and was so tender and loving towards him while he head the bottle for Daniel. On the contrary, his relationship with Christopher is often very fraught, and filled with arguments. Christopher and Robert are like chalk and cheese. Robert is an outdoor child, Christopher is an indoor child. Robert flits from activity to activity, Christopher concentrates for extended periods of time. Robert can be quite boisterous, and rather like a bull in a china shop sometimes, whereas Christopher seems much calmer. They both do the typical small child thing of wanting exactly the same toy that the other has. But they do have their moments of laughter and fun. They enjoy a bit of rough and tumble with each other, Robert will give Christopher pony rides, and it's a joy to see them playing happily WITH each other so I tend to only step in if completely necessary.
Christopher is in his last year of being at home with me all the time (except Tuesdays which he spends with his grandparents). Next September he will be starting Pre-school and the thought makes me really sad! I seem to "get" him much more than I do Robert, he is a joy to look after on his own (well, him with his baby brother), whereas it can get stressful with Robert around! Christopher has started talking LOADS more. The leap in his speech compared to when he had his 2.5 year review is astounding. He has lost his cute "gub"s which was the word he used for yes. And he is speaking in 5+ word sentences now, joining several sentences together to iterate his thoughts. His pronounciation s are still quite babyish which is very cute. :) he can't pronounce "l" very well so it usually ends up as "y", such as "yeyyow", "yuv" "yike". He also says things like "dis quite bicy Mummy" (this is quite spicy mummy). And clever is "kwevah". :) he is very thoughtful and shows concern for other people (which Robert does very rarely), and also, Christopher does NOT like getting told off. But in the way that it upsets him that you're cross with him, he always looks rather distressed, then starts crying, and comes up for a hug, before saying "me vewy sowwy mummy". Robert on the other hand doesn't seem to care when told off, and starts fake crying when part of his discipline involves something being taken away, or him having to do something he dislikes.
I find it so hard to tell what a child's personality is like before the age of 2 ish, even my own children. So it is hard for me to know what Daniel will be like once he is older.
Well Daniel is awake now so I have to go. I hope the next gap won't be so long as the last!
Daniel will be 5 months old on Thursday! How time has flown! He is not an easy baby, but then he's not a hard baby either. One thing is for sure, and that is that he likes attention and closeness with those he is familiar with. His big brothers dote on him, and are for the most part, very gentle. But Daniel seems determined not to remain a baby for long, he is already sitting unassisted for a few seconds, rolling from front to back and back to front, pushing up on his hands, and has managed to get on his knees a couple of times. He pushes himself backwards and gets squashed up against sofas, toy boxes etc. He is grabbing quite accurately with his hands, and gets very excited when we sit him on our laps while eating. He has had a suck of apple, and cucumber, and got very cross when he dropped it! We semi- co sleep,he is exclusively breastfed (apart from the minuscule amount of apple and cucumber juice he may have consumed), and his main method of transport is the sling, except in the car of course!
I have even managed to get him on my back, and am slowly becoming more accomplished with back carries, which will be particularly useful as he is a big boy for his age, on the 98th centile for length, and the 75th for weight.
On to the big brothers! Robert has recently started full time in reception year, after almost 4 weeks of part time. He is struggling to settle in to the routine and fit in with the rules of school, and has been moved up their disciplinary ladder more often than not in the time he has been at school. The children start off on the sunshine every morning, if they carry on doing something when they are told not to, they get moved onto the grey cloud, if they do it again, they get moved onto the black cloud and they miss out on golden time. I am slowly coming to terms with the fact that it is Robert's personality and not a reflection on my parenting per se. But it is hard, and has made me have good long thinking sessions. I struggle to understand, or enjoy time I spend with Robert. His personality is so full on, so exhausting and unlike mine, that the games he enjoys seems to be time wasting to me. He has so much pent up energy a lot of the time that it gets unleashed at home, running around the living room and crashing into the sofas, playing with cars he will get bored of driving them around properly and then it will devolve into rolling them back and forth along the same area at high speed, inevitably catching someone's hand or foot as he isn't watching what he is doing. I have yet to figure out what it is he actually needs... It's like I'm groping around in the dark when it comes to parenting Robert. But one day we will get there. One thing I am proud of is his progress in literacy skills. He has enjoyed blending words together from early on in nursery (just turned 4) and he is getting better and better. He is learning his keywords well, and now knows "the" which was tricky at first for him as he kept sounding it out and getting confused when the resulting word was "ter-her-eh" he enjoys his "reading" books he comes home with twice weekly. They have no words to read generally apart from the title, and the idea is to tell the story from the pictures.
As for his relationship with his brothers, Robert absolutely adores Daniel. Every morning he comes straight in to our room, climbs up on the bed to see Daniel and snuggle up to him. When I expressed some milk for him a while ago, Robert revelled in his duty of feeding Daniel (who took the bottle like a pro!), and was so tender and loving towards him while he head the bottle for Daniel. On the contrary, his relationship with Christopher is often very fraught, and filled with arguments. Christopher and Robert are like chalk and cheese. Robert is an outdoor child, Christopher is an indoor child. Robert flits from activity to activity, Christopher concentrates for extended periods of time. Robert can be quite boisterous, and rather like a bull in a china shop sometimes, whereas Christopher seems much calmer. They both do the typical small child thing of wanting exactly the same toy that the other has. But they do have their moments of laughter and fun. They enjoy a bit of rough and tumble with each other, Robert will give Christopher pony rides, and it's a joy to see them playing happily WITH each other so I tend to only step in if completely necessary.
Christopher is in his last year of being at home with me all the time (except Tuesdays which he spends with his grandparents). Next September he will be starting Pre-school and the thought makes me really sad! I seem to "get" him much more than I do Robert, he is a joy to look after on his own (well, him with his baby brother), whereas it can get stressful with Robert around! Christopher has started talking LOADS more. The leap in his speech compared to when he had his 2.5 year review is astounding. He has lost his cute "gub"s which was the word he used for yes. And he is speaking in 5+ word sentences now, joining several sentences together to iterate his thoughts. His pronounciation s are still quite babyish which is very cute. :) he can't pronounce "l" very well so it usually ends up as "y", such as "yeyyow", "yuv" "yike". He also says things like "dis quite bicy Mummy" (this is quite spicy mummy). And clever is "kwevah". :) he is very thoughtful and shows concern for other people (which Robert does very rarely), and also, Christopher does NOT like getting told off. But in the way that it upsets him that you're cross with him, he always looks rather distressed, then starts crying, and comes up for a hug, before saying "me vewy sowwy mummy". Robert on the other hand doesn't seem to care when told off, and starts fake crying when part of his discipline involves something being taken away, or him having to do something he dislikes.
I find it so hard to tell what a child's personality is like before the age of 2 ish, even my own children. So it is hard for me to know what Daniel will be like once he is older.
Well Daniel is awake now so I have to go. I hope the next gap won't be so long as the last!
Sunday, 5 February 2012
Photos!!!
Wow, for the first time in AGES, Jonathan has managed to catch up on editting and uploading photos!!! There are NO photos waiting to be processed! Go Jonathan!!! :D
As such, for the first time in AGES, I can update WITH PHOTOS FROM TODAY!!! :)
Poor Christopher isn't very well at all, and hasn't been well all day. He's had the odd cold every now and then, but he's never had a vomitting bug, and not really had a prolongued raised temperature. Luckily he's not vomitted yet, but he's had a raised temperature all day. First one was an under arm reading of 37.3 celcius or 99.2 or so farenheit underarm. His highest reading (from just after getting home from going out for a meal (yes I know, somewhat crazy, what with a poorly baby and the SNOW, but it was a special occasion, MIL's birthday meal) was over 102 farenheit (39 celcius). Since getting home he's been stripped to his vest, dosed up with calpol and given as much milk or cold water/squash as he'll tolerate. He didn't eat much solid lunch.
Anyway, since we woke up and it had SNOWED overnight, giving us a generous 3 inches or so, after breakfast, we bundled the boys up and let them play in the snow. Robert was SOO excited about the snow!! He went downstairs first, while we finished getting dressed and then we brought Christopher down. When Jonathan got downstairs, he found Robert trying to unlock the doors using the Yaris car key ;) While still wearing pyjamas of course haha! And no socks let alone shoes!
As soon as Robert got out, which amazingly was before 9 o'clock (not sure when but after a lengthy play outside we were all back inside before 9.15!), he had great fun simply RUNNING around in the snow, making footprints :)
Christopher however, had managed to fall over in the snow a few times before he got the hang of walking on such odd terrain, and when I managed to get hold of the camera. He seemed quite bemused by it!
After a while, Christopher got a bit fed up with the snow, and not blaming him, my toes were getting cold, and he was a little poorly too. So I held him for most of the rest of the snow fun. :) Robert by this point was busy scooping the snow off all the elevated objects. The slides had the first clean, and the swing, the sandpit cover, the table, and even the BBQ! Jonathan started to build snowmen, which Robert loved, and I went inside (with Christopher, who started whinging when I put him down) to get some carrots and raisins, which Robert insisted he wanted for the eyes (which unfortunately didn't work well).
Robert and Christopher both loved playing with the carrots, Christopher took them out of the snowmen, (I guess bright orange things sticking out were too tempting!!) and Robert moaned a bit at Christopher before he decided that the carrots would look better sticking out of one snowman as arms!
Before long, the two snowmen got demolished, so Jonathan and Robert (Christopher and I had gone inside by this point) made a very very tall snowman (or a pillar with eyes and a nose) which I reckon stood about 6 foot high, it wasn't quite as tall as Jonathan!
Robert has had several experiences of snow now, at least 3, possibly 4, whereas this was Christopher's first snow, so I had to let him have a go too!
The boys both had a nap today, Christopher a few fairly decent length ones, not surprisingly as he has been unwell, but also Robert, who fell asleep nursing again, I suppose not too surprisingly as he'd had a busy day!
After being dosed up and dressed in a sleepsuit only, no vest and not covered, Christopher's underarm temperature was completely normal when I tested it a little while ago after he woke up. So here's hoping he is on the mend!
As such, for the first time in AGES, I can update WITH PHOTOS FROM TODAY!!! :)
Poor Christopher isn't very well at all, and hasn't been well all day. He's had the odd cold every now and then, but he's never had a vomitting bug, and not really had a prolongued raised temperature. Luckily he's not vomitted yet, but he's had a raised temperature all day. First one was an under arm reading of 37.3 celcius or 99.2 or so farenheit underarm. His highest reading (from just after getting home from going out for a meal (yes I know, somewhat crazy, what with a poorly baby and the SNOW, but it was a special occasion, MIL's birthday meal) was over 102 farenheit (39 celcius). Since getting home he's been stripped to his vest, dosed up with calpol and given as much milk or cold water/squash as he'll tolerate. He didn't eat much solid lunch.
Anyway, since we woke up and it had SNOWED overnight, giving us a generous 3 inches or so, after breakfast, we bundled the boys up and let them play in the snow. Robert was SOO excited about the snow!! He went downstairs first, while we finished getting dressed and then we brought Christopher down. When Jonathan got downstairs, he found Robert trying to unlock the doors using the Yaris car key ;) While still wearing pyjamas of course haha! And no socks let alone shoes!
As soon as Robert got out, which amazingly was before 9 o'clock (not sure when but after a lengthy play outside we were all back inside before 9.15!), he had great fun simply RUNNING around in the snow, making footprints :)
Christopher however, had managed to fall over in the snow a few times before he got the hang of walking on such odd terrain, and when I managed to get hold of the camera. He seemed quite bemused by it!
After a while, Christopher got a bit fed up with the snow, and not blaming him, my toes were getting cold, and he was a little poorly too. So I held him for most of the rest of the snow fun. :) Robert by this point was busy scooping the snow off all the elevated objects. The slides had the first clean, and the swing, the sandpit cover, the table, and even the BBQ! Jonathan started to build snowmen, which Robert loved, and I went inside (with Christopher, who started whinging when I put him down) to get some carrots and raisins, which Robert insisted he wanted for the eyes (which unfortunately didn't work well).
Robert and Christopher both loved playing with the carrots, Christopher took them out of the snowmen, (I guess bright orange things sticking out were too tempting!!) and Robert moaned a bit at Christopher before he decided that the carrots would look better sticking out of one snowman as arms!
Before long, the two snowmen got demolished, so Jonathan and Robert (Christopher and I had gone inside by this point) made a very very tall snowman (or a pillar with eyes and a nose) which I reckon stood about 6 foot high, it wasn't quite as tall as Jonathan!
Robert has had several experiences of snow now, at least 3, possibly 4, whereas this was Christopher's first snow, so I had to let him have a go too!
The boys both had a nap today, Christopher a few fairly decent length ones, not surprisingly as he has been unwell, but also Robert, who fell asleep nursing again, I suppose not too surprisingly as he'd had a busy day!
After being dosed up and dressed in a sleepsuit only, no vest and not covered, Christopher's underarm temperature was completely normal when I tested it a little while ago after he woke up. So here's hoping he is on the mend!
Sunday, 15 January 2012
A little late...
Well seeing as our Christmas photos have now been uploaded I thought I'd write a little Christmas post :) And thank you for the comments the other day, I felt the blog was due a change, and trying to get the weather to brighten up by putting a spring theme on it ;)
Having 3 lots of grandparents (the kids' not ours!) to fit in seeing, meant that we had four "christmasses" this year! We spent Christmas Eve at the in-laws, as they were going to Jonathan's sister for Christmas Day. We spent Christmas Day together as a family, and then on Boxing Day headed down to Kent to see my parents over a couple of days. We only have photos up til Christmas Day right now so I will have to just post those :)
Christmas 2011 had us feeling like it crept up on us yet again - and so stressed out was I that I didn't bother sending out any Christmas cards, but only gave some to family who we were seeing over Christmas. I made a selection of cards and they turned out rather well! I did use Christmas card templates, so they weren't entirely my own doing, but I would like to do my own this year!
The photo I used of the boys was an old one, because it was the nicest one of the two of them I had together. Christopher was probably about 8 months old here.
Christmas Eve was quite nice and relaxed. We let the boys play during the morning, while my mother-in-law was cooking a delicious Christmas dinner :) Robert enjoyed having his grandad read him a book on sea creatures. He loves the Octonauts which is a cbeebies cartoon about animals who live under the sea in a giant "octopod" helping out the sea creatures when they are in trouble, so he enjoys reading about different sea animals.
This lovely photo of the 3 generations, my two boys, their daddy, and his daddy! :)
Then came the lovely Christmas dinner. The boys loved it, and more surprisingly, they both loved the crackers, AND the party poppers!! I thought they'd be a little scared of the big bangs, but they were fine!
"What do I do with this Dad? This doesn't look like turkey!!"
Robert struggling to pull his cracker, so grandad did it ;)
After the very filling dinner, came presents time! Robert was SOO keen to get stuck in, I think he'd unwrapped most of his presents before Christopher had opened even one! They were such lucky boys over Christmas, and it was nice that they got their presents spread over 4 days. Here they are opening some of their presents from Grandma and Grandad.
We decided to head up to the village park after presents, and got some photos of the boys in their new matching jackets (these are the very first identical clothes the boys have, it's not a habit we are intending to continue, particularly, but it was cute seeing them both in the same clothes! And wow, Christopher just looks so tiny here! He is somewhere between the 9th and 25th centile for height and weight, whereas Robert is just above the 75th for weight and 91st for height! I tried to tell various people to get Robert age 4-5 (despite just having turned 3) and no-one did.... the age 3-4 DOES fit him with a bit of room, but age 4-5 would have been a bit better for growth! Where-as everyone bought Christopher age 12-18 month or 18-24 month... the jacket was 12-18 and still somewhat swamps him!! He has a bunch of 18-24 month stuff he got for his birthday which he might JUST be about to wear when he turns 2, unless he has a massive growth spurt between now and then! :) Anyway, photo! We had to get Christopher up in the middle of the room, make him clap (haha bless him) and then make Robert join in, to get this shot!
Just after this photo was taken, poor Christopher had a fall in the hallway, and cut his lip and a bit of his mouth too, where the gum joins the lip at the top, there was a cut which just kept on bleeding. I was surprised at how quickly he settled down, I did nurse him for a while afterwards because he seemed quite tired, and wondered if he would go to sleep but he didn't, so I quickly strapped him into my new(ish) meitai, and went to catch up with Jonathan, Robert and Betsy who had already started off.
Hugely cute photos of Christopher toddling around the park here, wearing a little beanie hat which was rather low down and almost covered his eyes hehe! You can see the little cut on his bottom lip here! (or it might have been dried blood I'm not sure!)
And then it was lifted up a bit and wasn't quite as cute! (But still pretty cute!)
After getting back, Robert (well, Jonathan, really) played with Robert's new meccano set, and Robert then played with the aeroplane Jonathan made ;) Christopher, who hadn't napped apart from in the car that morning on the way over, finally nursed to sleep, and we laid him out on the floor for his nap.
We had tea, then headed home after their bath. Once both boys were asleep we set about putting the presents under the tree. We are not "doing" the whole Father Christmas thing, that is, saying he brings the presents, and comes in the night while they are sleeping. We are not going to say he *doesn't* exist though, so if they choose to believe when they are older, they can, and we are going to try and do our utmost to make sure they treat other children's beliefs with respect. The challenge this year was building up excitement without "Father Christmas" and it was quite difficult. I am hoping that next year, Robert will remember more what Christmas is about (and yes, he does also have a Christmas book about the real meaning!) so will be excited by default! There are lots of Christmas traditions that it would be nice to include as years go on, and finding our own special lot of these is the amazing thing about being a family! Anyway, our tree, with presents all ready for the morning!
The big one at the back right was a dolls house for the boys!! When morning came, Robert came into our room, climbed up to nurse as usual, and then Jonathan said "yay! It's Christmas! Do you want gah-gee or do you want to go downstairs and open presents?!!" And for once, gah-gee wasn't the preferred option ;)
We only seem to have a picture of them playing with the dolls house, but they had sooo many presents, it's so hard finding room for them all!
We had just such a lovely lazy day with the boys, playing on the playstation (Robert loves the new Toy Story PS3 game!), playing with all their new toys with them, and Jonathan did a looooo-oooverly Christmas dinner (mark 2!). I am so thankful to have a husband who can, and is willing to, cook :) Although these days, there's not a lot into cooking a roast dinner, seeing as you can buy practically everything frozen and ready to just plonk into the oven at the right time ;) But the bits he did do from scratch were lovely! We were just all so stuffed, but it was lovely being together and just having a lovely lazy day!
I'm sure I'll update about the days spent with my family later once we have photos!
Having 3 lots of grandparents (the kids' not ours!) to fit in seeing, meant that we had four "christmasses" this year! We spent Christmas Eve at the in-laws, as they were going to Jonathan's sister for Christmas Day. We spent Christmas Day together as a family, and then on Boxing Day headed down to Kent to see my parents over a couple of days. We only have photos up til Christmas Day right now so I will have to just post those :)
Christmas 2011 had us feeling like it crept up on us yet again - and so stressed out was I that I didn't bother sending out any Christmas cards, but only gave some to family who we were seeing over Christmas. I made a selection of cards and they turned out rather well! I did use Christmas card templates, so they weren't entirely my own doing, but I would like to do my own this year!
The photo I used of the boys was an old one, because it was the nicest one of the two of them I had together. Christopher was probably about 8 months old here.
Christmas Eve was quite nice and relaxed. We let the boys play during the morning, while my mother-in-law was cooking a delicious Christmas dinner :) Robert enjoyed having his grandad read him a book on sea creatures. He loves the Octonauts which is a cbeebies cartoon about animals who live under the sea in a giant "octopod" helping out the sea creatures when they are in trouble, so he enjoys reading about different sea animals.
This lovely photo of the 3 generations, my two boys, their daddy, and his daddy! :)
Then came the lovely Christmas dinner. The boys loved it, and more surprisingly, they both loved the crackers, AND the party poppers!! I thought they'd be a little scared of the big bangs, but they were fine!
"What do I do with this Dad? This doesn't look like turkey!!"
Robert struggling to pull his cracker, so grandad did it ;)
After the very filling dinner, came presents time! Robert was SOO keen to get stuck in, I think he'd unwrapped most of his presents before Christopher had opened even one! They were such lucky boys over Christmas, and it was nice that they got their presents spread over 4 days. Here they are opening some of their presents from Grandma and Grandad.
We decided to head up to the village park after presents, and got some photos of the boys in their new matching jackets (these are the very first identical clothes the boys have, it's not a habit we are intending to continue, particularly, but it was cute seeing them both in the same clothes! And wow, Christopher just looks so tiny here! He is somewhere between the 9th and 25th centile for height and weight, whereas Robert is just above the 75th for weight and 91st for height! I tried to tell various people to get Robert age 4-5 (despite just having turned 3) and no-one did.... the age 3-4 DOES fit him with a bit of room, but age 4-5 would have been a bit better for growth! Where-as everyone bought Christopher age 12-18 month or 18-24 month... the jacket was 12-18 and still somewhat swamps him!! He has a bunch of 18-24 month stuff he got for his birthday which he might JUST be about to wear when he turns 2, unless he has a massive growth spurt between now and then! :) Anyway, photo! We had to get Christopher up in the middle of the room, make him clap (haha bless him) and then make Robert join in, to get this shot!
Just after this photo was taken, poor Christopher had a fall in the hallway, and cut his lip and a bit of his mouth too, where the gum joins the lip at the top, there was a cut which just kept on bleeding. I was surprised at how quickly he settled down, I did nurse him for a while afterwards because he seemed quite tired, and wondered if he would go to sleep but he didn't, so I quickly strapped him into my new(ish) meitai, and went to catch up with Jonathan, Robert and Betsy who had already started off.
Hugely cute photos of Christopher toddling around the park here, wearing a little beanie hat which was rather low down and almost covered his eyes hehe! You can see the little cut on his bottom lip here! (or it might have been dried blood I'm not sure!)
And then it was lifted up a bit and wasn't quite as cute! (But still pretty cute!)
After getting back, Robert (well, Jonathan, really) played with Robert's new meccano set, and Robert then played with the aeroplane Jonathan made ;) Christopher, who hadn't napped apart from in the car that morning on the way over, finally nursed to sleep, and we laid him out on the floor for his nap.
We had tea, then headed home after their bath. Once both boys were asleep we set about putting the presents under the tree. We are not "doing" the whole Father Christmas thing, that is, saying he brings the presents, and comes in the night while they are sleeping. We are not going to say he *doesn't* exist though, so if they choose to believe when they are older, they can, and we are going to try and do our utmost to make sure they treat other children's beliefs with respect. The challenge this year was building up excitement without "Father Christmas" and it was quite difficult. I am hoping that next year, Robert will remember more what Christmas is about (and yes, he does also have a Christmas book about the real meaning!) so will be excited by default! There are lots of Christmas traditions that it would be nice to include as years go on, and finding our own special lot of these is the amazing thing about being a family! Anyway, our tree, with presents all ready for the morning!
The big one at the back right was a dolls house for the boys!! When morning came, Robert came into our room, climbed up to nurse as usual, and then Jonathan said "yay! It's Christmas! Do you want gah-gee or do you want to go downstairs and open presents?!!" And for once, gah-gee wasn't the preferred option ;)
We only seem to have a picture of them playing with the dolls house, but they had sooo many presents, it's so hard finding room for them all!
We had just such a lovely lazy day with the boys, playing on the playstation (Robert loves the new Toy Story PS3 game!), playing with all their new toys with them, and Jonathan did a looooo-oooverly Christmas dinner (mark 2!). I am so thankful to have a husband who can, and is willing to, cook :) Although these days, there's not a lot into cooking a roast dinner, seeing as you can buy practically everything frozen and ready to just plonk into the oven at the right time ;) But the bits he did do from scratch were lovely! We were just all so stuffed, but it was lovely being together and just having a lovely lazy day!
I'm sure I'll update about the days spent with my family later once we have photos!
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