It’s been a busy few weeks for the Family Winchurst – well, busy by our standards anyway!
We had the Girls Christening which was lovely – pictures will be up shortly, we are just in the process of gathering them up for a Gallery. It was great to catch up with lots of people that we hadn’t seen for a while – apologies if we didn’t get much chance for a really good chat…….it was a bit like getting married again – so many people to see and not enough time to get round everyone!
So, things here are FINALLY beginning to fall into some form of routine. The day begins anytime from about 5.30am onwards – now don’t be fooled into thinking that I actually get out of bed at this point, I am merely awoken by my youngest daughter who generally starts her day by grunting merrily (and extremely loudly!) for at least half an hour before she decides she is hungry and then she tends to go back to sleep!
What time I actually get up depends a lot on what time Isabel wakes up – she likes her sleep so doesn’t tend to wake up until 8.30am at the earliest and even then, is happy to sit in her cot chatting to her toys for a good hour before she starts demanding to be retrieved! I have quite quickly learned that if I am to stand even the vaguest chance of getting dressed before 4pm, I have to get dressed as soon as I get out of bed – sadly, leisurely breakfasts in my PJs are a thing of the past…….unless I actually WANT to stay in them all day, in which case I don’t worry about it too much!
This may end up becoming a theme of future posts but I do want to apologise for the infrequency with which I manage to get round to updating you – this may have something to do with the fact that most of my time is now taken up with making bottles (2 different types), changing nappies (2 different types, both equally disgusting in their own special way!) and generally meeting the requirements of our little Angels (though I may not always think of them in exactly that way!) ….and if I’m not doing that, then I’m probably asleep!
Continue reading A moments peace means time to write a post!
You may be pleased to know that I am now back in the land of living and am just about recovered from the trials of childbirth – unfortunately, the nice and easy recovery process I had hoped for didn’t quite materialise and I seem to have been plagued with infection after infection………after my 3rd course of antibiotics though, I seem to have shaken them off and am now feeling a lot more like myself and a lot less like an invalid!
Life at home with 2 small children has also been a huge learning curve – I am extremely thankful to my support team who came and stayed during the first 3 weeks…………quite what I would have done without them doesn’t bear thinking about! This week has been my 1st week on my own and so far it hasn’t been too bad (though it is only Wednesday!) – the fact that today is the first day I have managed to get out of my pyjamas before 4pm should probably be glossed over as should the fact that I have failed miserably in my attempts to do even the smallest amount of housework………things can only get better from here I suppose!?
Molly and Isabel seem to be enjoying bonding with each other. As soon as she is released from her cot in the mornings, Isabel’s first action is to go and look for Molly so that she can give her a kiss and she will look at you hopefully and say “Snuggle?†– this is, however, a request for a cuddle with Molly and not me…………once I got over my disappointment I was able to see the cute side of it and it’s lovely to see how enthusiastic Isabel is where Molly is concerned. It’s also very amusing to have Isabel lean over your shoulder whilst you change Molly’s nappy and declare “Oh Yuck!†but she does say that about her own nappies too so at least she’s consistent!
Yes indeed folks, the C-Section date is set…….. although, in the words of the Doctor, we are merely “pencilled in†for the 16th January which isn’t quite as concrete like as you might hope but works for me for the time being!
So, yesterday’s appointment was a whole host of unnecessary palavers – I’m sure that the Doctor is a lovely person, but she proved to be completely unable to read patient notes and totally lacking in the tact department!
She started by trying to persuade me that I actually wanted to give birth naturally – given that right from the word go I have been totally upfront with everyone about my desire to have a 2nd c-section and have had nothing but reassurance that that would be fine from the medical persons I have spoken to up to this point, I was slightly surprised by this u-turn and also felt that this was something that should have been broached about 6 months ago and not when you only have 5 weeks remaining till your due date!
Having reluctantly “pencilled us inâ€, she then wanted to have a listen to Baby and have a good feel of my middle. This involved 5 minutes of trying to locate the heartbeat whilst muttering about it being “hard to find†and me getting slightly more panicked each time she moved the machine to a new location and still didn’t pick it up – what I hadn’t realised was that she hadn’t taken the time to read the midwifes notes from my Friday appointment that made reference to the fact that she felt that Baby was currently in a Breech position, and therefore she was trying to find it’s heartbeat in it’s bottom! Having poked at me a bit more she said “I think this Baby may be breech†and with that, located the heartbeat just under my ribs! Easy Peasy!
Another bout of poking and a whipping out of the tape measure revealed my oversized bump, another thing that had come to light at Friday’s appointment – having said that, the midwife’s measurements had me at 37 weeks instead of 34 and a half and the Doctor’s had me at 42! I can assure people that I had not eaten that much cake over the weekend and, if she had taken her note reading pills that morning, a little red warning flag would have been waving in her head and suggesting that she might want to re-measure me just to be on the safe side!??
As it stands, I now have to go and have a GTT (that being a Glucose Tolerance Test not a Gin and double Tonic!) on 2nd of January, her thought being that Baby’s large size is due to my having Gestational Diabetes regardless of the fact that I have NEVER displayed any symptoms nor has there ever been any Glucose in my urine samples in either of my pregnancies (and that includes that sample on Friday, Sunday and the one I did 10 minutes before seeing the Doctor on Monday!) followed by a scan on 3rd January to check whether we are still the wrong way up and to check kidney function – perhaps I should have mentioned at this point that my Grandma had 5 children, all naturally and the lightest was my Mum at 9 and 1/2lbs and the heaviest was my Uncle Ted who weighed a minimum of 14 lbs.…………that was as far as the scales went, so it was most likely more!
I’m sorry if all of that comes across as a bit of a rant, and it may well have been made worse by my being somewhat hyper sensitive at the moment, but I did come away in tears wondering what you have to do to get people to actually listen to what you are telling them……..or to at least read your notes before embarking on an examination!?
Asides from that, we haven’t been up to an awful lot recently. Isabel had her first immunisations this morning (delayed because of clashes with Cleft Palate surgery) which she wasn’t overly thrilled about but cheered up with the help of some stickers that the nurse gave her!
The end of the week will see us heading off on our Christmas Tour and then it will be back home to gear up for returns to work and the last bits of preparation before Baby makes his or her appearance a couple of weeks later!
Can you believe it???? Two weeks today is Christmas Day – thank goodness I have finally managed to be the organised shopper I hope to be every year and have done my shopping! I’ve even managed to send things to New Zealand – admittedly, it was on the last posting day (according to Royal Mail!) but I did it so feel very proud of myself……..but I am sorry if those of you on the other side of the world don’t receieve things in time for Xmas itself!
The whizzing by of time also means that we only have, very roughly, a month to go until “Bob” joins the Winchurst Clan – and again, I have amazed myself by being well organised in that department as well!!! The Double Pushchair has been mulled over, chosen, ordered and arrived and, thanks to Aunty Catherine, the tiddly Baby clothes have been rooted out and sorted through……….that also allowed us to get on and pack the Baby Hospital Bag – one down and one to go!! All we have to do now is hope that Isabel doesn’t unpack it too many times – and if she does, hope that she doesn’t move them too far from the source so that it can be easily packed up again! At least this time no little furry creatures will be able to wee in it (in case you didn’t know, it did happen last time and was very smelly and very annoying!) so it should be safe until we need it!
So now all we have to do is finish the last couple of Baby related jobs (like buying the stand for the Moses Basket!) and we can sit back and relax over the festive period – not that I had any intention of doing anything else………….in my current beached whale like state, even getting into bed can be slightly problematic at times so an excuse to be waited on hand and foot is not something you have to think about too much!
Just so you know, the requests for pictures have not fallen on deaf ears – it’s just that I have become increasingly bad at remembering to charge up the camera batteries (it’s this pregnancy lark you know, it does stuff to your brain! Though, now I think about it, I wasn’t that good at remembering before either…..) which is slightly vital to being able to transfer the pictures onto the computer! Panic not though, I am endeavouring (even as I type!) to charge up at least one set so hopefully some pictures will emerge in the not too distant future!
This weekend, we headed down to Devon to stay at Hotel Winchurst and to watch the Holsworthy Carnival – we could tell that Isabel was riveted by the Children’s Carnival in the afternoon by the loud snoring coming from her pushchair! Luckily, she saw fit to stay awake long enough to watch the Adult Carnival in the evening and seemed to quite enjoy watching (and waving at!) the floats as they trundled past!
Our weekends between now and Christmas are going to be a little bit full-up I realised this morning. Next week we are combining a visit to Hotel Radcliffe with a catch up with Ian & Pip and Baby James – having not yet met James in person, we are very much looking forward to seeing them and to seeing how Isabel reacts to there being a small Baby in the vicinity!
After that, we are expecting a visit from Uncle Ken followed by a visit from Aunty Catherine – and by the time those are over, we will have one more weekend until Christmas……..rather a scary thought if you think about it too much!
Anyway, keep those eyes peeled for pictures – I don’t think there are that many but some pictures are always better than no pictures at all!
In case you hadn’t noticed (and those of you in NZ etc probably won’t have!), the temperature has dropped considerably since the start of November……….and I think it’s great! We even had to put the heating on for the first time last week (which was an adventure in itself given this is a new house and we hadn’t thought to test it before!) – we only had it on for an hour, after which time I was seeking the cooler climes of the hall and kitchen as the lounge was a bit warm for my liking! (special thanks to my personal thermostat!)
We had a very nice week off, and enjoyed catching up with the families. Isabel was particularly pleased that, whilst staying at Hotel Winchurst, she got to share her cot with a “Mioaw†– all her Christmases had come at once! Charlie (said furry friend) seemed to think that the fluffy blanket in the cot was specifically for sharing – and, much to our surprise, refused to budge when Isabel appeared! Luckily, he also resisted the urge to extend his claws otherwise it would have been tears before bedtime!
Last weekend we had a lovely visit from Ruth & Andrew and, being Bonfire time, we ventured out to a Fireworks display on Saturday night – this year, Isabel actually made an effort to watch the display though we weren’t sure at some points if she might cry! Last year we took her to see the Fireworks in Wellington Harbour but she was more interested in the people than anything exploding in the sky!
This week, I was due to have an appointment with my new Midwife as my original one has moved back to working in the Hospital rather than being in the community – unfortunately, she was running so far behind that I ended up being seen by another woman who appeared to have come along for moral support! Having been told that I would now be into fortnightly visits, I was slightly surprised to find that it would be another 5 weeks before my next appointment! We have also worked out that it might actually be my last visit with the midwife – once you start to figure trivial things like Christmas and New Year into the proceedings, it leaves very little time before we hit the magic 38 week mark and therefore C-section time! We shall have to wait and see……..
This weekend we have Aunty Hannah coming to stay whilst Dan and I head out to the Fortis Dinner Dance on Saturday night – this seemed like a splendid idea until I started to ponder the “What am I going to wear?†question………….evening wear for people in my “condition†is one of those things that it is a little bit like gold dust! I did consider a trip to my local Outdoor Store to peruse their Tent collections but luckily I have now found something that will hopefully do……….it’s a bit late now if it won’t!
Isabel is fine and her language skills improve on a daily basis – though her favourite word appears to be “NO†she will also now say “Bye Bye, See You†which is quite amusing!
Things have been ticking over pretty much as normal here in the Winchurst household – lots of washing, lots of cleaning and yet still finding a laundry pile the size of Everest and wondering if you just dreamt the last 2 hours you thought you had spent with the hoover and damp cloth!
Unfortunately, we are a bit of a plague pit at the minute. Dan has been working too hard and his immune system has finally over loaded and landed him with a cold – Isabel also has a cold but I’m not sure if this has come from Daddy or another source……..so far (and not for much longer I suspect), I have not succumbed to the evil germs but I’m sure my turn will inevitably come!
Last week, Isabel and I spent a few days at Hotel Radcliffe whilst Dan was away at Center Parcs in Brussels on a course – it was nice to have a few days away from home (but this may yet prove to be the culprit of the cold!) and to be able enjoy the delights of Grandpa Jeff’s cooking! Isabel even had the chance to get up close and personal with a cat – Biba wasn’t too thrilled (the pinned back ears were a bit of a give-away!), but tolerated Isabels attempt at gentle stroking and placing her head on her whilst she said “Ahhhhhh!â€!
Next week, Dan is hopefully getting some time off and we plan to spend it with family (just in case of emergencies that would cause Dan to need to zoom back here!). First we’ll be back at Hotel Radcliffe where we are looking forward to seeing Good Old Uncle Ted, who is making a flying visit from the U S of A – given that he has never met Isabel and the last time we saw him was the week before I discovered I was pregnant with Isabel, it’ll be good to catch up!
After that we will be heading to Devon to stay at Hotel Winchurst until the end of the week – yet more furry creatures for Isabel to torment and a good chance to show off all her new skills to a new and willing audience….she’ll be in her element! (And I’ll apologise in advance in case we bring our stinky germs with us!)
Saturday will see us back here in time for a fancy dress Halloween party – look out for pictures from this as Isabel has a Spider costume, especially brought back for her from the “Best Costume shop on Broadway, New Yorkâ€â€¦â€¦â€¦.many thanks to Aunty Catherine for going above and beyond the call of duty (as usual!) – and giving Mummy a good excuse not to feel guilty about her lack of dressing up!
I’ve heard little rumours of people being a bit miffed that we haven’t been updating our blog much recently – not surprisingly, we mostly have been doing very boring and mundane things like cleaning, washing, changing stinky nappies, removing things that Isabel has found and shouldn’t have etc, and I wasn’t sure that would make very riveting reading! (Feel free to correct me if this isn’t the case!)
We have had the minor adventure of suffering our 1st puncture in one of our buggy wheels – having never fixed a puncture, and therefore not owning a repair kit, this was going to be an interesting experience! The first hurdle we had to over come was actually getting the repair kit. No buggy meant finding an alternative way of transporting Isabel into town – having quickly discovered that putting her in the rucksack was no longer an option (the fact that I couldn’t even lift it onto my shoulders was a bit of a give away!) meant there was only one thing for it……..we would have to WALK! So, we put Isabels new shoes on and strapped her into the reigns and away we went – you would have been forgiven for thinking that we never released her from the confines of the house…….she literally ran all the way to town, shrieking with delight and trying to trample through every puddle available! She was a bit slower on the way home (which was unfortunate given that the heavens opened about half way back!) but all in all, it was a great success – I don’t think we will be doing it too much just yet mind……..given that once we got home she grabbed her bottle, collapsed into her bean bag and didn’t move for the next 30 minutes it was pretty safe to say that she was exhausted!
You’ll also be pleased to know that we are making sure that we are educating her in all aspects of life – if you now ask her “What noise does your bottom make?†she will reply by blowing a raspberry with great enthusiasm! (It’s much better than the original response of “Miaow†which we were slightly worried about!)