Bank Holiday fun!

Hello again!

We've just had a lovely weekend with my family in Shrewsbury. Thought I might share some photos with you;

Saturday was spent in Llangollen and we had a lovely walk along the canal there. It's a lovely little town, well worth a visit if you're in the area. Another place that is nice to visit (if you're into that sort of thing!) is Stokesay Castle, where we went on the Monday. It calls itself a castle but it's more of a fortified manor house. When we were there they had people there telling you about what life would have been like for the people that lived there when it was in it's prime, which was very interesting, but that was an event put on for the bank holiday and isn't always there. However, if you're interested in old buildings it's still a good little outing and there are some nice views from the top of the tower (especially if you manage to get some good weather!)

Blogging on the go!

I have just brought my first smartphone! And of course I've been browsing for apps. I found one for Blogger so this is my first attempt at a post from my phone! Hopefully it means I'll be able to update more often! This is just a test, so I'll be off now and hopefully in touch again soon!

Update

Hello again!

Hope you enjoyed the photos! Nathan is coming up for 18 months now! Six more months and he'll be two! My little baby! He's just growing up so fast! He's really into climbing everything at the moment, his latest conquest being the chairs at the dining table! He loves the new vantage point this gives him and the ability to reach all those things that we put on the table to be out of his reach! (and of course being able to get up on to the table itself now and again!) Always up to mischief and with an ever developing sense of humour there's never a dull moment in our house, which partly explains why I don't have much time for this any more! But I'm loving the stage he's at and now that we've developed a routine that works for us things are much more managable than they seemed this time last year!

I must admit that I really struggled after Nathan was born with the demands of being a wife and a mummy. It wasn't easy to admit to that at the time. For a time everything felt overwhelming and I felt like a failure for not being able to meet up to my own expectations. I looked around me and everyone else seemed to cope, more than cope, excel in motherhood! They all seemed to find it so easy! Looking back I can see now that what I saw could easily have been other peoples good days, their public front, just as that was most likely saw of me. Being a mum is hard work, don't let anyone tell you otherwise! Everyone has bad days!

Anyway, that's enough misery! I am blessed to have a wonderful, loving husband and family who were there and helped me through the worst days. Things are changing everyday and mostly for the better! Every day brings new challenges but life would be boring without them!

Andy's been busy with work and training to become charted hopefully soon so life has been pottering along full of everyday busy-ness! As Nathan gets ever more active and is growing up fast we have started thinking about moving. Our little flat has been great but we are fast growing out of it, it's amazing how much space a small person needs! We aren't really sure where we will end up yet, all possibilities are being explored at the moment! I will keep you updated with news when I know it!

Well, I better go, Nathan will be waking up soon and I have jobs to try and get done before he does! Apologies that this isn't a very interesting post!

Pictures from the last year...

Long time, no blog post!

Ok, so it's been over a year since my last post! oops! Doesn't time fly when you're busy being a mum! What with having Nathan and getting used to all the changes that involves has meant I haven't really had time for the blog. But I think we've got ourselves into a routine that works for us so I've managed to find some time for myself again!

It has been a busy year and not all of it easy but, generally it has been a good one! Since I last posted Nathan has learnt to sit up, crawl, stand up, walk, had his first birthday and has even learnt a few words! It's amazing how much they change in a year! He definitely has developed a sense of humour and it's fascinating watching him playing. He's really good fun to be with and I wouldn't want to be doing anything else! Ok, so there are lots of times when I don't feel so positive about it, like when he is emptying the cupboards (again), or when you feel like the only thing you say these days is 'no'! But he's still learning and I know that you have to set the boundaries now so that he can grow up a happy, confident, independent person. If anyone tells you that one year-old's don't know they're doing something wrong, I can tell you they most definitely do! I've just looked up from the computer to see what he's up to and found him with one of my gels pens, at which point he looks at me and gives me the cutest cheeky grin, knowing that he probably shouldn't have mummy's pens but in the hope that I won't notice if he smiles! Sometimes I wonder why we bothered with all of the lovely toys he's got, when he is just as happy with a pen! (or some other relevant non-toy!)

I'm not going to go into detail about what we did last year, it would take far too long! I will just give a brief overview. There have been many happy events with four weddings of friends and family, including my sister, and several new additions to the extended family, with several of Andy's cousins having babies! We have enjoyed some nice family holidays and helped out on one of the CCIW camps in the summer. Andy continues to be busy at work and has recently decided to go for it and take his final interview in May in the hope of becoming a chartered surveyor. Nathan and I enjoy going to the parent and toddler group (Little Ark) and the Womens Hour at church during the week generally spending time together at home!

Well, I'd better make that it for now, hopefully the next post won't be in a year's time!

Update Part Two...

Christmas and New Year;
Christmas crept up on me before I was really ready for it! Before having Nathan it seemed like there would be plenty of time to get things sorted. I did intend to get most things sorted before the birth but time got away from me and I didn't get as much done as I wanted. So the weeks between were a bit frantic! Getting used to looking after a small baby, housework and trying to get sorted for Christmas certianly keeps you busy! I was extremely grateful to our friends at church for providing us with meals and to Andy for helping out with everything so that I could recover and concentrate on Nathan. The snow we've had didn't help, making it tricky for me to get out of the house, that and the pain of getting everything down the stairs from the flat!
Nathan has had some jaundice and in the week after he was born had to have a blood test to check he was ok. The health visitor had seen him a couple of times and was concerned that he was still yellow at a few weeks old. She was supposed to visit on the Wednesday before Christmas but couldn't make it because of the weather. A misunderstanding meant that I hadn't taken Nathan to the doctors as she advised and after speaking to the doctor (who had never seen Nathan) she decided to book an appointment at Watford for him to have another blood test! All this would have been fine, a bit of a pain but do-able had it not been for the weather and the fact we were supposed to be travelling up to Shrewsbury to spend Christmas there, giving Emma a lift. The Health visitor knew we were going away too which was the most annoying thing. To cut a long story short in the end we didn't got to the appointement but it was stressful getting things ready to go away for a week and trying to sort all that out and look after Nathan and Emma and Jo! But at last, after a journey in horrible weather that took twice as long as normal we made it to Shrewsbury.
It was really nice to be with my family over Christmas and to see our friends from the church there too. Ben had changed so much since we last saw him, grown up a lot! It was nice to have all of us there, with me being married already and Emma getting married next year it may be some time before that happens again at Christmas.
Christmas day started with a service at the little chapel in Plealey followed by tea and biscuits at my grandparents house. Christmas dinner at my parents and then presents and a quiet evening! Nathan slept through most of it! But at just under a month old I didn't really expect anything else.
It was good to see my friend Amy, who I've known since secondary school. Her daughter, Leia, is nearly three weeks older than Nathan and we hadn't seen each other since becoming parents! We had a good catch up, compared babies and births and swopped parenting stories! We also considered marrying Nathan and Leia off! But I don't want to think about my boy getting married just yet! I intend to enjoy every bit of his growing up.

New Years eve we were back at home and had a visit from my Grandad and Grandma (Alcock) and my cousins Tom and Aaron. Tom and Aaron hadn't seen Nathan so my granparents thought they would bring them for a visit.
New Years day we visited Andy's brother and family and met their newest addition to the family! Mark is a few weeks younger than Nathan but as he was 10lbs at birth he is already bigger than him! But he did have a head start!

Anyway that what we've been up to! I'm going to put some pictures on soon, but I'm on Andy's computer (we may have internet again but not wireless yet!) and the pictures are on my computer! So I'll leave it there for now!

Update Part One...

Nathan has been keeping me busy and we've been without internet for a month so this is the first chance I've had to update the blog! So many things to write about so I better get on with it!

Firstly, Nathan's birth;
Well, it wasn't quite as bad as I thought it would be, I think I had built it up in my mind! It started on Friday morning when I woke up with some backache and had a show. Thinking nothing of it I went about tidying up the house getting it ready for my parents visit at the weekend. The backache came and went at intervals during the day. By lunchtime I began to wonder and got in touch with Andy. He didn't come home then because I still didn't think I was in labour, not until he phoned to say that one of the women in the office didn't realise she was in labour because she only had backache for a lot of it! So I got out my TENS machine and had a bath (not at the same time I might add!) I do have to say that I was a bit silly in not going to bed at this point, but carried on sorting the house out! I don't think I wanted to let myself believe that it really was happening, just in case it wasn't! I didn't want to get excited or get my hopes up I don't think having heard stories about women whose labour stops and starts.
Anyway it only took Andy one look at me when he did come home after work to notice that I was in labour. We had some dinner and tried to keep calm! I had another bath because the backache was getting stronger. It helped a lot as did the TENS machine which I put on when I got out of the bath again and I was able to rest a little. But by about 3am the contractions were getting too much for me and we headed to the hospital. I think Andy was a bit concerned at the noise I made when I got a huge contraction just arriving at the hospital! The TENS had come off by then and I couldn't walk around so I felt it really strongly. It seemed to take forever to get into the hospital, get into a room and get seen by a midwife, but Andy tells me it was only a few minutes! It was really hard trying to concentrate on the questions the midwife was asking me, I just wanted to walk around or, more preferably some pain relief! It wasn't so much that it was painful like cutting yourself kind of pain exactly but it's really really intense and takes all of your concentration. When the midwife examined me she found out I was 9cm dilated, so it was probably about the right time for us to go to the hospital!
Finally I was able to get some gas and air! It was great! But really weird at the same time! It doesn't exactly take the pain away, but helps you cope with it better. For me it made me feel like I wasn't attached to my body, like I was someone else! So much so that it felt like the noises I was making sounded to me like they were coming from someone else!! I didn't want to make so much noise but apparently I did!! My waters must have broke at some point but I don't really remember noticing!
Andy was great the whole time. He was really supportive and made sure I was breathing and drinking and generally looking after me! I'm afraid I squished his hand quite a lot when I got to the pushing bit!
They said they would only let me push for an hour and then next thing I know she's telling me that I've been pushing for an hour and a half! When they tell you that they you can be pushing for an hour, but it really didn't feel like that! Which is a good thing! They only let me go that long because baby was happy. In fact in the end he was too happy where he was! Because of that and something to do with him being back to back (hence the backache) and not turning round or something they decided to help us out! I was getting tired (it's about 7ish by this point!) and baby still hadn't arrived so they took me to the theater, gave me a spinal block and helped baby out with forceps! The spinal block was not something I wanted to have really but by that point it felt great to no longer feel the contractions and relax after so long! It was weird not feeling my legs though!
A couple more pushes and he was out! Our lovely baby boy! (not that he looked that great at that point if I'm honest!) They gave us a quick look at him and cuddle then they took him for a quick clean up and check over! At this point he decides to wee all over the place!
When he was all wrapped up (and with a nappy on!!) Andy got his first cuddle with his son!
After getting all sorted out and taken back to the room it was nice to have some time with just us three. Even if it still didn't feel quite real! All of a sudden I realised quite how tired we both were! But we had our baby boy and he was here and was healthy and that's what mattered! So tiny and perfect! And such beautiful big eyes! A bit battered and bruised from the delivery but that doesn't matter to new parent does it?! We couldn't get the smiles off our faces!

It was nice that mum and dad were already on their way to see us and were able to come to the hospital to see us. Ben wasn't allowed to come into the ward so Mum, Dad and Emma had to take it in turns to stay outside with him! Tim was able to come in and see his nephew though! It was good to see them!

I went home from hospital on Sunday afternoon when Nathan (although he didn't have his name then!) and I had had all of our checks and they said we were fine! I felt like I should have asked someone if I was allowed to take him home! It was weird and a little daunting thinking that he was ours and we were now responsible for him! But it was nice to get home!

Since then it has been hard work sometimes and totally exhausting, but I am loving being a mum! He is generally a placid baby and already sleeps most of the night most nights! He has been quite jaundice but that is clearing up now and we are trying to get into some sort of routine and get the flat back in order!

I would just like to say thank you to all of our friends and family who have supported, helped and prayed for us. We are so grateful to all those people who have made us meals, given lifts, done housework and helped in other ways, it has meant so much and helped us out such a lot! Thanks to everyone who has been so generous and sent us cards and presents for Nathan we have been touched by how generous people have been.

Hope that wasn't too much detail for you! I better get back to looking after my little boy but I'll try and keep the blog updated!