4 months today!

Our gorgeous little girl is 4 months old today.  We still can’t quite believe she is here!  She is doing well and growing well (6.44kg / 14lbs 3oz at her weigh in last week), and it is fascinating to see her changing as the days go by.  She is such a good baby and is sleeping well at night.  I’ve not been so well, it has been one infection after another for, mainly mastitis (and yes, despite problems I am breastfeeding totally) but most recently tonsilitis as well.  Perhaps the infection that led to my emergency C-section weakened my resistance.  I’ve certainly never had to take so many antibiotics before.

As I am finding it impossible to get round to updating here regularly, I think the time has come to shut down my blog for a while.  I am sad to do that as I have enjoyed blogging, and I hope I will return in the future.  In the meantime, when I have some spare time (!) I hope to be visiting on your blogs – I’ve got a lot of reading to catch up with!

Time just seems to vanish with a little baby – I can’t believe she is already 7 weeks old (today).  Poor little thing has a terrible case of infant acne, but the GP has assured me that that will clear up soon on its own.  I have got mastitis again, or rather, probably, the  bout of mastitis that I had two and a half weeks ago didn’t quite heal and has resurfaced.  So it is more antibiotics.  Breastfeeding is a lot harder than I ever imagined, I’ve had a lot of problems, but Julianne is doing well on it and I am determined to keep going. 

We have unlooked for excitement at the Church today – the BBC is filming the funeral my husband is taking.  It is of a Jamaican member of our congregation, a lovely old man.  The BBC are filming it for a documentary they are producing on attitudes to death, to be presented by the actor Richard Wilson (of “One Foot in the Grave”  fame).  They wanted to film an Afro-Caribbean funeral, so here they are.  My husband has no yearnings for fame or worldly recognition so this is just extra stress for him, but the family were keen for it to go ahead so he gave permission.  He managed to cut himself shaving this morning so that should cut down on any screen time!  We don’t have any idea when this documentary will actually be shown, but both Simon and the family are to have a right to veto anything they are unhappy with.

Quick update

  Just a very quick update while Julianne is sleeping!

Thank you so much for your prayers and best wishes.  We can’t believe we have been so blessed to have this gorgeous little girl in our lives.  Truly an awesome responsiblity though.

I’ve had mastitis, so more antibiotics (and more pain, ouch), but Julianne has been going from strength to strength, she is just amazing.  She is already growing out of some of the newborn bodysuits we have as she is quite long in the leg.  We all got a bit more sleep last night, so I’m feeling much more with it today!

We’ve had snow here, it actually settled for a few days, and we had no post for a week as the postmen couldn’t/ wouldn’t get through (not very impressive that is it?).  At about 7 inches here this is the most snow that London has had for many years.  All melted now, so life is back to normal.

She’s here!

Praise the Lord!  Our little miracle, Julianne Grace, arrived on 9th January at 1.09pm by emergency caesarean.  Three weeks early, she weighed in at 7 lbs 10 oz (3.45kg).  After a shaky start she is now doing well, and I am recovering well, too.  We can’t believe she is finally here, or how beautiful she is.  She is totally worth all the pain, and lack of sleep (and the seven years of waiting).  We are so, so grateful to God for this generous gift.  Thank you very much to all of you who have been praying for us – your support has meant a lot to us.

I will be off line for another week or two while I heal and try to get feeding established, then I’ll let you know more details about the birth.

new scan

We’ve just come back from having a scan to check the location of the placenta (which was very low at the 22 week scan).  We are very thankful that the placenta has grown up, the location is no longer a problem.  The baby seems to be doing well – the estimate on weight is a whopping 7lbs 12 oz!!  (and I’m only 36 weeks).  I knew I was right not to buy any newborn clothing!

We finally managed to do the hospital tour last night.  The midwife showing us around was so nice, and everything was very peaceful on the wards (no screaming to be heard!).  To my surprise the standard delivery rooms were nicer than I’d imagined, and the “home from home” rooms (these are all available free on the NHS, it just depends on staffing levels) weren’t as nice as I’d pictured.  The “home from home” rooms have much more space to move around (active birth philosophy), and have en suite toilet and bath facilities (this is what sells them to me!).  The only pain relief available on them however is gas and air (just as it would be if I had a home birth), and after the estimate on the baby’s weight at today’s scan Simon said to me, “So, does the weight of the baby affect which room you’d like to request?  He has a point, I think I might well like to have the option of other, stronger, forms of pain relief!

Christmas blessings

May the obedience of Mary and Joseph, the wonder of the Shepherds, the joy of the wise men, and the peace of the Christ-child be yours this Christmastide.

the tale of the (not so) ghostly piano tuner

As yesterday was my husband’s day off we went shopping and took the dog for a walk in a more exciting place than he gets for the rest of the week.  When we got home about mid-afternoon we found my father-in-law’s front door keys in the lock on the front door.  My father-in-law was upstairs in his room watching TV and dozing.  We all make mistakes and are forgetful from time to time, but leaving keys in the door in a busy urban area such as this is very dangerous.  When we all sat down to dinner I pointed this out to him (in no uncertain terms). 

 His daftness then hit higher levels as he told us he had heard the piano in the afternoon.  Had I been playing it?  Definitely not (if the carpal tunnel syndrome was not enough to stop me playing the piano the fact that it is so out of tune than it bothers even me has certainly been stopping me).  “It sounded like it was being tuned.  Someone was going ‘dah, dah, dah’,” claimed my father-in-law.  Simon and I rubbished all this.  “You obviously dreamt it.”   “You heard us talking about the piano tuner coming tomorrow and you dreamt about it.”  “You heard something on the TV or, more likely, a car stereo up too loud in the street outside.”  My father-in-law was not convinced by any of this and jumped to the conclusion that, sadly, is all too logical in his mind:  “it must have been a ghost”.  Simon and I did not keep our scorn and scepticism quiet.  I (in a spectacularly bad mood all day) finished the discussion with, “Well, you didn’t hear this piano being played, and that’s an end to it.”

Now, let us jump forward to a little earlier today when the piano tuner arrived at our house to tune our piano and the two in the Church.  I have such admiration for this man.  He is completely blind (cannot even distinguish light and dark)  and yet manages to support himself through his work.  Just before he arrived I cleared a wide path through the living room to the piano and removed the few items that were on top of the piano.  “I’ve got a surprise for you,” he said.  He then proceeded to tell me how he got his appointments confused yesterday and ended up on our doorstep at midday yesterday.  Simon and I were out, of course, but my father-in-law’s keys were in the door.  A bit frightened, he came in (with the taxi driver’s help), found the piano and tuned it, not realising he had got the wrong day until he checked his appointments in his (audio) diary!

To say I am eating humble pie doesn’t even come close!  I fetched my father-in-law so he could hear the story first hand, and yes, I have apologised profusely, as has Simon.  We were right about one thing, though:  there was a perfectly rational explanation.

Well, top marks to the osteopath and to the NHS physio I have just started seeing (who happens to be a friend from church).  I am now considerably more mobile than I was a fortnight ago, and also in hardly any pain.  I was even able to walk to the hospital and back for my physio appointment this morning (a good 2 mile round trip)!  And all this is despite having spent the last two days cleaning the house!

Our house is now fully double glazed. It took the workmen 7 working days – I can’t believe they did everything so quickly and with so little damage to the inside of the house.  It is definitely warmer in here now, and the heat is staying in the house instead of going straight out the windows!  Oh, and everything looks cleaner and brighter (clean windows inside and out!), the new white plastic window frames will be much easier to clean and will never need painting.  Hurrah!

32 weeks and counting

Well, I am HUGE!  Technically my bump is exactly the right size for my dates, but everyone keeps commenting on how big I am, and whenever I look in the mirror I am completely taken aback.  (I guess all that eating during the first 4 months may have had something to do with this!  I have put on about 13 kilos/ 28 lbs in total) 

Finding clothes to wear is a challenge.  I’ve been blessed to receive some hand-me-downs, and I’ve bought several new items, but a lot of items in the shops seem to be very low cut on top.  Most maternity collections do not have any skirts in them this winter (most have short dresses), and nowhere I’ve looked at has any long skirts.  Obviously the answer is to make my own clothes (though fabric is expensive here), but I haven’t started on the curtains for the nursery yet, and, frankly, curtain making is stretching the current limits of my sewing ability.  Footwear is also being a challenge – I’ve had to go up a shoe size.  I have wide feet anyway and tend to go for sensible, comfortable shoes, but it got to the stage a few weeks ago when I had to buy a new pair of larger shoes or spend the rest of the pregnancy wearing walking boots/ going barefoot!

My carpal tunnel syndrome is bad – my hands and wrists are very swollen and my palms painful when I use my hands.  However, this pales into insignificance beside the pelvic pain I’ve been suffering from.  I’ve been in some measure of pain on one side for the past 3+ weeks now, originally I assumed I’d pulled a muscle, but early last week it got so bad I could hardly move around the house at all.  The doctor has referred me for physiotherapy (and I’ve just got an appointment for that for tomorrow), and I’ve been to see an osteopath privately.  Seeing the osteopath certainly helped, helped a lot – although in some discomfort still (discomfort not excrutiating pain) I am so much more mobile.  This time last week I could barely move;  this morning I walked to my ante-natal class and back, a distance of around 2 miles.  The osteopath reckons she can help with the carpal tunnel syndrome as well, and has given me some exercises to do. 

I’m still anaemic, and have just been given a new batch of iron supplements to take, my indigestion has been getting better though. 

All this probably makes pregnancy sound terrible, but I certainly don’t feel that way about it.  My bump may seem huge (to me and to everyone else), but I’m astounded by how little it actually limits my movement.  I feel delighted every time I feel the baby move.  I am so grateful that God has made us part of His work of creation through this miracle.

of windows and shopping

Workmen arrived this morning and started replacing our windows.  We are getting double-glazing!  I am so happy.  Also rather cold as the wind whistles through the windowless rooms while they work.  We didn’t know they were coming today until the end of last week, so it is all happening sooner than we expected at this stage.  (Actually, my beloved husband found out on Friday that they were starting work today, but didn’t tell me until Saturday night.  We had just had good news about the Church heating and our window situation just kinda slipped his mind.)  The workmen think they will have the job finished in about a week – this is extra good news as I’d assumed it would take much longer.  The disruption is huge while this is going on (we are having to tie the dog up to furniture and the cat is hiding under the duvet), but it will be fantastic to get it all over and done with.  I’m looking forward to a much warmer house when the work is finished.  This is our 5th winter in the house and we can rarely get the living room over 15 degrees Centigrade at this time of year (actually it rarely gets up to that temperature even), the first year when one of the radiators in there wasn’t working properly I considered contacting the local funeral director to offer use of the room as a temporary mortuary!  We are so grateful that the diocese has found the money in its budget to reglaze us this year, even more grateful that the work will be done before the baby arrives.  As heating costs continue to rise it will be great to be able to retain a bit more of the heat we put into the house.

When the chaps arrived to start work I was busy loading my shopping trolley in Sainsbury’s.  I was getting close to finishing, about to hit the freezer aisle, when the alarms went off and we were evacuated.  Thankfully, they were letting people into the carpark so I was able to wait in the car for a while before I decided that I might as well come home as clearly we weren’t going to get back in to the shop for quite some time.  It is an inconvenience, but we have food at home so we aren’t exactly going to starve!  I’ve just placed an order online to be delivered later this week instead of trying to go back and I’ve been able to get a few more heavy items than I could have managed in store on my own (a month’s supply of cat litter, for example!) – so it is not all bad!