Relax

Friday 4th January 2013

Today's adventures included me singing endless nursery rhymes whilst Bean played on his home made drum kit. We had quite an extensive conversation about beat and rhythm and what they were. I played endless rounds of marbles according to Pumpkin's rules whilst simultaneously trying to make sure that Plum didn't eat any of them. And, me and Plum spent a long time crawling around the floor chasing each other. This was all followed by a quick outing to the park around the corner, where Bean decided to scoot instead of ride his bike and there was a lot of negotiation about who would ride in front. It was a very long discussion between Bean and Pumpkin and I was desperate to speed up the proceedings but had to remember that this was amicable and moving in the right direction (I.e. a mutual agreement) so i waited patiently.

Bean has been venturing out of his usual comfort zone and yesterday delved hand first into moon sand. But today... He was playing in the garden and a ball went into the neighbours' so he came in and announced that he was going next door to ask for his ball ...and he did (with Pumpkin in hot pursuit) It was only two weeks ago that he refused to go and post a card through their letter box.

It is probably worth mentioning that Pumpkin has had a fringe trim in the last few weeks and it is so nice to be able to see his eyes again. He had expressed a desire to grow it but it was becoming irritating for him and after we explored several options he choose the snip!

And as I haven't posted for a month, here's a little update on Plum. She now has three teeth and is going through the process of working out what they are for (biting) This has involved a lot of bites to my leg and the joys of bites during breast feeding, she has also taken to chewing my sleeves when going to sleep and my back when in the sling! She also cruises the furniture confidently now and has twice stood up in the middle of the floor and balanced herself for a few seconds. She continues to love music and singing and is starting to recognise familiar people outside the family. She is also able to communicate with us what she wants by pointing and is becomes very upset if she doesn't get it. Mostly we are able to accommodate and she can have the banana or apple or toy but some things are off limits (like the computer mouse when we're watching iplayer!)

Just incases

December Highlights

So, just in case you thought that the lack of posts on the blog meant that December had been a write off or that my general low seasonal dark days mood had resulted in us batting down the hatches and being truly anti-social, here is a round up of some of the highlights from December: 

(although we were quite anti-social and most of our regular haunts are closed for the winter - boo)

There has been:

Christmas gift making

 weighing buttons and comparing the size of buttons that weighed the same amount.

Visiting London with daddy in tow to see the Christmas lights, not quite making Winter Wonderland as it was too noisy for Bean.

Celebrating the newest arrival to that family clan aka cousin C

Finding an Advent calandar built from lego and containing lego Christmas constructions behind every door.

The usual cycle rides (although not in the same quantity or distances as usual)

Celebrating Christmas and indulging the craze of angry birds (they wore the hats all day!)

Loving being with our family

Sleeping long

Enjoying dinner at friends'.

Playing a lot a lot a lot of angry birds.

Building dens in various places all over the house.

Having friends to play

Outdoor ice-skating

Many trips to various play areas in the local area

Having our first Christmas tree since we've been married and enjoying the smell of pine in the house.

Happy Birthday Plum

A birth story

(it seems only fair as I wrote one for Bean)

Women love to tell their birth stories, it must be part of the process I think, or a way of us making sense of it all as much as we can, there really isn't anything else like it on earth and not something that can be wholly explained or described to those who have not had the pleasure (yes, I said pleasure)

Plum was born one year ago today and her arrival was a great relief and joy. She was technically 10 days early, according to the medical profession but arrived just as the good Lord planned on the second of January. I was in a lot of discomfort having suffered with pelvic pain for at least the last three months and was using crutches just to get to the bathroom and generally avoiding moving if I possibly could. Every position hurt, sitting, lying down, standing and especially walking.

Very early the previous morning (about 4.30am) I woke up in the single bed in the spare room in more pain than usual and was secretly hoping that Plum was on her way but it was hard to distinguish at this point as so much hurt in the pelvic area. Bean had woken up early too and came in bed with me for a cuddle and more sleep until morning. By 6.30 I had gone back to sleep truly miserable. I was so uncomfortable for the rest of the day and my mood was generally low. It was a Sunday so we went to church in the morning and I took a nap in the afternoon. By the time I woke up I knew Plum was on her way. No enormous labour pains but definitely frequent niggles that were more than the general discomfort I had. I didn't tell daddy though as I knew he had to take the evening service at church and I'm not one for fast labours so I packed him off with a secret smile that evening as he said, 'don't go into labour whilst I'm gone!'

I put the boys to bed and then got some things ready. There was a lot to get ready in the general sense as all our baby goodies were in the loft still. We had thought of getting them down and washed and in the right places over the Christmas period but I guess the whole idea of nesting had passed us by during the festive season and we hadn't got around to it. We were planning a home birth though so I wanted to make sure I had the room ready and the excercise ball out and I put on the TENS machine.  I, of course, told daddy when he returned. We also rang our friends SGS and SGG to see if the boys good go and sleep at theirs. They came and collected them at 9pm and shortly after we rang the hospital to enquire on the availability of midwives. They consequently sent them out to us, far too early in the proceedings but as it was cold and dark and they had travelled a distance they both choose to stay. We had the pleasure of having Jessie, who had delivered Pumpkin (but that's another story) and Leigh (who was permanently in residence after Bean's birth) so we had the unusual privilege of knowing both midwives.

It was about 10.30pm when they arrived and they did all their protocol examinations and tour of the house and then we settled down with tea and biscuits. A lot of the discussions focussed around possible birthing positions as the pelvic condition was very limiting. Things were very slow and I was having mild to medium contractions on and off for hours with one enormous one which took us all by surprise and put us on a false start for a while. At some point in the middle of the night I was getting tired, mostly from just being awake, and went upstairs for a lie down. One of the midwives followed shortly after to listen to baby's heart and my waters broke...but that was the high drama of the night!

By 4am the midwives were obliged to repeat their examinations and we discovered that I was still 6cm dilated, the same as I had been 6 hours early...very unencouraging. So a plan was devised! it was suggested that I had a sweep, which until that point I had never had before, it was suggested that this might encourage some action. So at just after 4am I had a sweep and at 4.53am we had a baby in the room. My lovely husband was there the whole way through and held on to me tight and supporting my weight as I ended up delivering standing up. 

We are so blessed to have been given Plum into our family and it has been a joy, not only to see her grow, but also to see how her brothers have seamlessly accepted her onto our little family unit. It is also only now that I am truly appreciating my decision to take a photo of her every day for a year. I knew the time would fly by and I didn't want it to go unnoticed.

O Holy Night

So, I haven't blogged in the whole of December. Not to say I haven't thought about it. I've considered posting about: our lack of travels and the days drawing in and us responding by days and days at home; or how Christmas prep has taken over our household; how pj's are the number one clothes item for the winter months; is it acceptable to be obsessed with angry birds and how do we manage our expectations verses our children's; why Santa Claus makes no appearance in our house; how we celebrate Christmas; the centrality of family in our lives; how education is a by product of our lifestyle and how we live our lives and the relationships we are forming with eachother, with Jesus, with our friends are central; not applying for a schools place; places we go to when the weather is grim and our usual haunts are closed for the season; the difference in our parenting between the arrival of baby #1 and #3; what the children have been exploring and learning and questioning and playing.....let's do that!

Bean: Bean has been enjoying festive activities, making cards and salt dough decorations and watching Christmas shows (which all deceptively snow on Christmas day), choosing and shopping for presents for family, carols outside in the dark and by cancel light, a puppet show and singing 'happy birthday Jesus' at nearly every place we go!

Pumpkin: Pumpkin has been perfecting his angry birds skills and beating daddy at every level and finding accessories and birds that daddy has never come across. Mostly, that's it. Or so it would seem some days. Other days he draws and paints and colours reenacts angry birds with his toys and bricks and Bean! And he has baked a lot of cakes and biscuits for his friends as Christmas gifts.

Plum: Plum has grown more hair! She is also cruising very happily and has 3 teeth come through. I read the other day about the order at which teeth grow through and at what age. I only read the first few sentences before I stopped as it stopped applying to Plum in the first set, yet again proving that we are all different and not being average is not necessarily a problem (well, not in this house and especially not when it comes to teeth growing!) She is also vocalising a lot and managing ma ma and da da and pointing most decisively at the things she wants. She loves to sing along to music and her body can't help but move when a good tune comes along.

And then Christmas came and we joined our families to spend days together and sharing gifts and mince pies.

And it would not be a post about December 2012 if I did not mention the latest addition to our family, the beautiful Cleo, my new niece whom I love dearly and am so happy that she has been granted to our family to care for, what a blessing.

The hills are alive

I am enjoying the vibe so much more now that we are all recovered on our colds and ear aches and coughs. It is such a joy to watch Bean and Pumpkin play together again. Today's game largely revolved around the train sets and each being assigned a different area, the yard, the quarry, the repair shed.

Bean also drew a plan of a boat that he was going to make. He drew all the things he was going to need and what it would look like when he had finished. He then set about making it by gathering all the things he needed from his list and started making it. It needed some improving along the way and he has only had time to paint half of it but I really enjoyed watching him go through the process.

The afternoon was a trip to town (still no phone) and an extra gymnastics class which tired us all out but makes the whole evening rhythm later so bean was over tired by bath time but we had bought glow sticks and the boys were looking forward to a glow in the dark bath...which was much fun and exciting.

Plum has completely lost any rhythm she had going on and didn't eat or breast feed or sleep all day she finally gave in on the way home from gymnastics and fell asleep in the car and then in the song for an hour. She did eat dinner and has had one milk feed. She is now on her way to bed. Pumpkin is enjoying a viewing of cars for our Friday evening family film.

Have a nice day

We are back on form today :) Bean got up after only a slightly disturbed night (up twice) and after trying a breakfast unsuccessfully ploughed headlong into the day with track building for racing cars and train track lines too. Pumpkin joined him and they played together for nearly two hours with pumpkin taking a few breaks to go and repeat some of the puzzles he has been working on recently. Plum woke at 8.45 giving us plenty of time to get our things together and go out too. A little cautious, we went to a crafty group just in case bean lost his powers and needed to rest. But....he made an angel and a food craft and some scratchy art and cutting and sticking and he played in the soft play. Pumpkin did the food craft (obviously) and then played with the toys and in the soft play. Plum enjoyed taking it all in from the comfort of the sling and then had a wander around, again straying quite a distance even to the point where she couldn't see me, although I did note that she could see her brother and frequently turned to look at him.

The boys played for another couple of hours when we got home whilst plum and I did some chores and she had a feed and a nap in the process. Lunch was interesting as I hadn't done a food order this week and the cupboards are running low especially as we haven't made it to the shops either.

After lunch friends came to play. We had talked this through earlier today but Bean insisted that he felt okay and they had a lovely few hours with their friends enjoying a larger scale role play game involving rescuing a queen and fighting a king, there were lots of dressing up items involved plus all their bedding and bean bags and the emptying of the upstairs toy box. There was also some clay models and play dough, colouring, trains, racing cars, building bricks, Lego and a repeat of a game they made up the last time they visited called 'cuckoo.'

Needless to say this busy day wore Bean out and Pumpkin too (hurray!) Normal service seems to have resumed although I don't think we'll venture too far tomorrow just in case full energy reserves have not been replenished. Plus, much to my liking, there was very little iplayer and computer games today.

Why why why?

No phone = no photos :(
Ear infection = stay at home :/
Confined Pumpkin = not good :0

We are at home again. Bean is fighting his ear infection by sleeping a lot on and off. Yesterday saw him go to bed at 5pm and he woke this morning at 8am. He then tried to eat some breakfast but ended up drinking a lot of milk instead, built himself a train track and then took himself back to bed at 9.30am. After two and a half hours rest/ sleep he came downstairs. Unfortunately he was upset because he had banged his poorly ear on the side of the bed. He recovered with some tlc and a change of clothes and...

Pumpkin had been busy making fruit juice ice pops and butterfly cakes to cheer Bean up and make him feel better. The butterfly cakes were ready just as Bean joined us so we ate cake and drank some more. It was lovely to spend an hour with Pumpkin just us.

Plum didn't wake until 10.45 today. She refused a morning milk feed and ate pancakes for breakfast and happily played around our feet as we made cakes. She has spent the rest of the day eating! Milk feeds and toast and baked beans and oranges. The playing happily has steadily been replaced by needing lots of cuddles but refusing to go back to sleep. She has been tired now for nearly two hours and has just gone to sleep.

The large amount of watching has continued today but Bean has spent all of his time downstairs lying on the sofa. We're sure that the ear ache is due to his cold virus and not an infection so we are trying to let it take its natural course.

Last night I was part of an upsetting conversation with some other mums (who I didn't know) and how they are trying to get their respective children to sleep through the night. A combination of Not feeding them, smacking them and shouting at them before closing the bedroom door on them. How upsetting to be that stressed about sleep. Lack of sleep really does push people to do the strangest things. And as if to remind me how rubbish sleep deprivation is I was up three times with Bean in the night, once with Pumpkin and up feeding Plum at 7am, although I still didn't resort to threats, punishment or withdrawal, it was tiresome and tiring.