Penny Blogs - Page 10 of 15 - An insight into the things in life that make me smile

Going from being couple to a family, in 24 hours

February 11, 2019 by Penny Leave a Comment

This blogging lark is hard work when you have a newborn in the house. In fact, I’m not even sure I’m allowed to call her a newborn any more. At what age do they stop being a newborn and become just a “baby”?

The truth is that my little Tube Stop Baby (as she’s become known online) has been with us for a whole three months now. She’s gone from a curled up little scrap of a thing, to a little baby that is already showing us heaps of cheeky personality and an ability to wind up her big brother by laughing at him when he has a strop. Smart girl.

I’ve been a bad blogging mummy though as the story of my pregnancy with her kind of petered out after writing about the final stages of pregnancy. Her actual arrival though was a bit of a rush and it takes me a while to remember all of the things that happened in the 24 hours that we were away from home. 24 hours which took Bonn and I from being a couple to being a family.

As I’d mentioned before here, my bump was measuring big so at 40 + 3 I was booked in to hospital to be induced. It was a Wednesday and my other two kids stayed at my house the night before so that morning I was up early to take them both to school, giving them both a huge hug in the playground knowing that by the time I saw them next the would have a little half brother or sister to welcome into the family. It was a strange feeling.

The hospital had said that they would phone me by 10am to let me know what time to come in. All through the school run I had one eye on my phone waiting for it to ring. Nothing. Back home we had time for a cuppa and a chat with my mum before my phone finally sprung into life at one minute to ten. Talk about leaving it until the last moment.

As I’d suspected the call was to say that the unit was busy. I’d fears about them telling me that I’d have to be delayed until the following day, but instead they told me to get there for 6pm that evening, as by then there would be a bed empty for me.

Six o’clock came and B and I rocked up at the hospital where we went up to the allocated ward and were shown to a bay, before being left somewhat to our own devices for a bit. I knew I might be in for a long wait so we were armed with a huge array of books, snack, board games etc and I’d even brought my sewing kit with me so I could finally fix the pocket in B’s coat. A job that I had been putting off for ages for no real reason.

Needle threaded I’d taken about two stitches before someone finally turned up and attached me to a monitor so that they could monitor the baby’s heart beat before starting the induction process. Now, back when pregnant this baby used to go nuts every single evening about 7pm. It was a regular thing that I would spend the evening sat on the sofa being exhausted by this child inside of me going into full on party mode summersaulting around my stomach. The things is apparently this isn’t usual the student midwife was a little puzzled to see what was going on.

Unfortunately all these acrobatics meant that it was pretty much impossible to get a stable trace of the baby’s heart. At the time we assumed it was all down to how much they were moving about, but the midwives were convinced that it might be something more concerning. There was talk about not being able to induce until they had had a stable trace for at least 30 minutes. No chance of that happening with this baby. Talk then turned to needing a c-section in case the baby had a cord wrapped around his or her neck. I’d had this with Little Miss C, but in that case it hadn’t been spotted until she was delivered.

They finally agreed to take me down to the delivery suite so that someone could take a look and see if they could break my waters. There were a few regular tightenings so they hoped that breaking them might help to kick things off naturally. Down we moved to a sauna of a room in the delivery suite. We were literally stripping off as soon as we arrived as it was so hot in there. There was more coming and going of midwives as they assessed what was happening and trying to decide what to do. One consultant seemed to think that a natural birth might be possible, but she was unsure. Still it was impossible to get a perfectly stable trace of baby’s heart.

I forget exactly why or when, but they did finally move us to a room that felt a normal temperature rather than being tropical and just before midnight a midwife did manage to break my waters. A consultant had by this stage agreed that a natural birth should be possible, but he wanted a very close eye keeping on things just in case baby’s heartbeat trace got any stranger than it already was.

As the night went on they started me off on a drip to try to bring on labour, but instead it just made baby’s heartbeat drop more so they stopped again until it came back up. Again the consultant came in and stretched his head a few times about what was going on. There was further talk about c-sections and the cord possibly being either trapped or wrapped round the baby’s neck in some way. At this stage I was convinced that it was how this particular birth was going to pan out and my head was starting to fill with all the logistical challenges of performing a 30 mile round trip school run when you can’t drive for 6 weeks.

The midwife herself was getting a little annoyed at the lack of progress and seemed convinced that natural labour would be possible and after lots of studying baby;’s heart trace it was finally agreed that we could try the drop one last time. Only a half measure though and at the first sign of anything even slightly irregular with baby’s heart it was to be stopped immediately. The consultant finally agreed and when the overnight midwife went off shift at 8am she was literally just waiting for one signature before I could be started on it again.

Our new midwife was a breath of fresh air after a long night and hear lovely bubbly style when she introduced herself to both of us (midwives please do remember to say at least hello to a woman’s birthing partner or the baby’s Dad – it’s not only polite, but also helps everyone feel a bit more confident about things) she said that she was determined that we’d have a baby in our arms by lunchtime. After such a long night of nothing really happening I laughed this off and she agreed that it night be a bit of a stretch target. Instead we agreed that by the end of her shift might be more realistic. I figured that within 12 hours that would at least have taken me into theatre to make things happen with surgery if everything else failed.

Around 9am all the paperwork was in place and a new drip was started. We chatted away for a while with me just hoping that the 2cm dilation (that was possibly just a hangover from previous births!) would finally increase. 10 o’clock came and went and I noticed that the tightenings were becoming a little tighter, but still nothing to write home about. I’d been allowed the gas and air for a while, and it was definitely helping with things. In my exhausted state I knew that things weren’t going to get any easier though. The midwife and I talked about additional pain relief and I decided that I would indeed like an epidural. The midwife agreed, but noted that I would need to be examined again. Something that they wouldn’t normally do until 1pm, four hours after the drip was started.

There was no rush, but she agreed to examine me again. By this point it was about half past ten. A bit more faffing about various things and she then finally got round to examining me at about quarter to 11.

I then lost twenty minutes of my life in a complete blur.

Her examination revealed that I was about 6cm. Huge progress.

Then baby’s heartbeat did something worrying and the emergency button was pressed.

The next thing I knew the room was filled with additional voices and someone was, quite forcefully, telling me that that I needed to be examined again.

I remember someone saying that I was then 8cm. Then it suddenly became 10cm.

A voice asked if I was ready to push. I wasn’t. I was still hoping for an epidural at this point!

I realised that I’d shut my eyes at some point in the previous five minutes. I opened them to find four or five women that I’d never seen before peering between my legs.

One of those women became incredibly stroppy with me. Or maybe the technical term for it is forceful. Whatever it is I’m mighty glad she did!

By 11.06am my gorgeous second daughter came into the world and was placed up on my chest where I was in a complete state of shock, and totally in love.

Active labour lasted a grand total of 17 minutes. Those midwives the night before had been spot on. The cord was wrapped around her neck. Twice.

Our midwife gave me a huge smile, congratulated us and very smugly said “I told you we’d have a baby here before lunchtime”.

Tears running down my face I thanked the stroppy woman for being stroppy, and thanked our midwife and the rest of the team for being the amazing medical professionals that they were. Quite where they had all run from when the midwife pushed the emergency button I have no idea, but they sprang into action and brought our gorgeous daughter safely into the world. Something that I will forever be grateful for.

By 6pm that night, just 24 hours after arriving at the hospital we were back home. Discharged just 6 hours after birth with just a tiny scratch and no stitches. 24 hours which had taken us from being a couple to a new family. 24 of the most magical hours of my life.

I never did finish fixing the pocket in B’s coat though. I think he’s forgiven me for that…

2018 – the year that…

January 10, 2019 by Penny Leave a Comment

Did I blink? What the heck happened to 2018? How on earth is it 2019 already?

With the exception of Pregnancy diary posts here on the blog (and let’s be honest they petered out a bit as the year went on) it feel like an age since I last wrote a catch up blog post. It’s fair to say that quite a bit has happened in 2018 and it only feel fair to summarise it all. Partly for people reading, but also for me to realise just how much I achieved in a year.

Back in January last year I only really had one ambition for the year, and that was to find somewhere to live. The house we now call home was one that I first went to see on about the 9th January last year. Yep, a whole 9 days after I started looking! And it was the first (and only!) house that I actually viewed.

As soon as I walked in I knew it would make a perfect family home for us. I instantly called B and told him. We managed to arrange a second viewing the following day and met there as he came back from a job about 200 miles north. It was pitch black and right at the end of the day, but the estate agent happened to live just a round the corner and was keen to make his first sale of the year. Just a day later we had organised a mortgage agreement in principle, so we put in an offer and amazingly were accepted!

Of course house purchases are never that straight forward, but we still managed to move things along pretty fast and exchanged contracts in mid March and collected the keys and moved in a week later. Oh, and did I mention that the day before we exchanged I found out I was pregnant?

Yes, it was planned, but you just never know when these things are actually going to happen. Moving in whilst suffering from awful nausea was rough, but we managed. By the school Easter holiday we were actually able to have all the kids to stay in their own bedrooms. It was all rather rushed, and involved far too many trips to Ikea, but we finally had a home that was actually big enough for us. And better still there was no more black mould constantly causing me sleepless nights!

Four months of settling in and getting a million and one jobs done followed. Along with planning ahead for a baby and dealing with all the early pregnancy niggles that you get when you’re having your third child. In this period I also received my decree absolute. My time as Mrs C was officially over.

By July I’d obviously decided that things were getting a bit dull again, so I added a bit of excitement to my 40th birthday by heading off to Tea and Tents with my WI friends. How many women celebrate turning 40 with a spot of pregnant skinny dipping?

B also probably though that I was sitting there with my feet up enjoying daytime TV a bit much because he also used July to formally propose to me. We’d talked about it for ages, but now suddenly there was a wedding to plan. Oh, and did I mention that we wanted to do it before the baby was due in early November?

It turns out that you can organise a (small, family) wedding in under two months. And it can be perfect too. Who says you need month (or years) of planning and vast expense to have a perfect wedding day. We had neither, but there’s nothing I’d change about the day at all. Everything was just how I wanted it. Perfect.

Wedding out of the way we managed to squeeze in a couple of days of honeymoon up at Penny from ParentShaped’s barn in the Peak District. It was exactly what we wanted and needed and Penny made our stay special with loads of thoughtful little touches for us.

Batteries recharged it was time for the final push to the end of the year and the birth of our daughter. I know babies don’t work to schedules, but this one must have realised that we were a bit tight on time. Her due came came and went, but once they took me into hospital to try to induce me she realised we meant business. A full birth story will be written up soon, but the fact that I was in hospital for a total of 24 hours and discharged just six hours after she was born probably tells you that it all went rather well. Most importantly though, we were able to take home our gorgeous little girl.

The sleepless nights since then have been tough (I can’t lie about that. I think I must have blocked them from memory from LMC and Master C!) but so worth it when she flashes you one of her gorgeous smiles.

As we sat there on new year’s eve (with a screaming baby in our arms – that six week spot is flipping hard work!) it was quite mad to sit there and think about how much had happened in the previous 12 months. I’m exhausted looking back at it all, but it’s been an incredibly 12 months. Filled with so many memorable moments.

My plans for 2019 aren’t as involved, but after 2018 I feel like I deserve a bit of a rest if I’m honest with you. Let’s see how that pans out though. I’ve never been one for sitting with my feet up doing little!

The final stages of pregnancy

December 12, 2018 by Penny Leave a Comment

It’s been a while since I wrote my last pregnancy update here on Penny Blogs. Whilst the regular readers may have noticed that a new addition to the family had indeed arrived, I feel that she (quite rightly!) deserves a bit more than just a passing comment in a review blog post. But before I talk about her arrival, I’d better finish off my pregnancy story.

Back at 39 weeks I was pretty sure that it was just a waiting game as to when this baby was going to arrive. It seems that the size of my belly was to have other ideas though. My last midwife appointment saw me measuring large again for my dates, and as I was no longer following the growth curve in my maternity notes I was sent for a consultant appointment. Had this happened earlier in the pregnancy I would instead have been sent for a growth scan, but if this happens in the last week or so then apparently the sonographers say that it’s too difficult to scan and get a measurement, so off to the hospital for a consultant appointment I went.

Luckily they managed to fit me in just the next day, although when I actually turned up at the hospital there was no record of my appointment (a slight deja vu feeling with this particular hospital!) Luckily they seemed to notice just how heavily pregnant I was and an appointment was found. Even if I did have to sit there waiting for nearly an hour and a half for it!

The consultant decided that there was indeed a risk of a large baby so promptly said that my plan to give birth in the midwife led unit had to go and instead I would be booked into the consultant led unit to be induced. Bearing in mind that I still wasn’t convinced that my growing bump wasn’t due to a late pregnancy addiction to custard creams I did engage in a bit of discussion with her as to exactly when they were going to induce me. Taking into account when I would have LMC and Master C staying with me I wanted to try to plan it for a time when I wouldn’t have them with me. I also wanted to factor in when my mum could come to stay so that she could help out with school runs if I was in hospital for a while.

With a date agreed I was sent off, crossing my fingers that the two sweeps I had booked in before my induction date would do the trick. I also went a bit mad planning big walks for B and I to do in an attempt to. bring in labour naturally. I think the dawning realisation when we were furthest from the car park on a trek along the top of the Dunstable Downs frightened him a bit and I thought it wise not to point out that my due date five kilometre trek through Wendover Woods resulted in us being out of mobile phone reception for a while!

Despite the best attempts of the midwives performing sweeps (and their comments about my cervix being “favourable”) my due date came and went with me feeling incredibly well and not at all like I was about to give birth. Damn! I even got my mum down to stay with us should things kick off naturally.

Every FaceTime call to my kids when they were at their Dad’s had Master C asking if the baby had arrived or not yet and each time there was a look of disappointment on his face when I told him that I was still pregnant. It’s hard work explaining to a six year old that babies don’t arrive to a timetable.

And so the date of my induction arrived. I’d spent the day before wandering around antique and charity shops in Hitchin with B and my mum, and desperately hoping that things would happen naturally. As I set off on the school run that morning (still driving at this point!) I still felt no where near giving birth. I hugged the kids goodbye, not sure exactly when I’d be seeing them again, but knowing that I’d soon be getting a phone call telling me when to head into the hospital to start the induction process. It wasn’t how I was planning this pregnancy to end, but you don’t always get a choice about how things happen in life. Horror stories about other people’s induction experiences were going through my head and at this stage I couldn’t help but feel apprehensive about the whole thing and also annoyed that my body hadn’t made things happen naturally.

Making Motherhood Skincare Simple #MyAquaphor Challenge

December 3, 2018 by Penny Leave a Comment

You may have noticed that things have been a bit quiet on here since I wrote about week 39 of my pregnancy. There’s a very obvious reason for that. There’s a new Little Miss on the block here and Bonn and I are trying to remember how cope with sleepless nights whilst also having a new little human to look after. It’s a bit of a shock to the system after all these years of being able to sleep through the night!

What motherhood third time around is reminding me of is the need to simplify things in life to fit around the new arrival. With other kids in the family already life’s not as simple as being able to spend lazy days curled up with a newborn and just breathing in that gorgeous newborn smell they have whilst watching numerous box sets and eating all the chocolate that wonderful friends have been sending. Instead there are school runs to do, Christmas concerts to attend, packed lunches to make, school uniform that needs washing and numerous other errands that need running on a daily basis. To keep all the balls up in the air I’m having to take some shortcuts in life, and one of those areas that was most likely to take a hit was my skincare routine. That was until Eucerin Aquaphor Soothing Skin Balm came into my life.

The sample of Aquaphor was waiting in the door mat when we returned home from the hospital and whilst it took me a couple of days to get around to opening the packet, once I did it has revolutionised a small part of my day to day life. The beauty of Aquaphor is that you just need the one product, no matter which part of your body you want to use it on. Just the one cream works perfectly for hands, nails, body, face and lips. Imagine that. In a sleep deprived state I don’t have to think about what product I’m picking up from my bedside cabinet or the bathroom shelf before using it. I’ve heard plenty of stories of tired parents picking up the wrong product with hilarious results before!

As a new parent you tend to find yourself washing your hands far more than you might normally do. After nappy changes, when washing bottles, after mopping up various bodily fluids, before feeds. The list goes on. If you’re on the go you might also end up using anti-bacterial hand gel when you can’t get to soap and water. All this hand washing can really dry them out and keeping my tube of Aquaphor handy has been a god-send for trying to stop my hands from reaching that cracked painful stage. The turn towards the colder weather that we’ve just had normally plays havoc with my skin, and that’s before you consider how often I’ve been washing my hands these last few weeks.

My hands aren’t the only part of my body that I’ve been testing out Aquaphor on though. As anyone who has even been pregnant will know, the latter stages of pregnancy mean that you don’t see your feet for several months! Unless you pay someone to give you. pedicure in those last few months (or have a very understanding partner) then chances are that your feet could do with a bit of TLC after you’ve given birth. Aquaphor soothing skin balm is perfect for tackling the dry, cracked heels that seems to have appeared whilst I (literally) wasn’t looking!

Hormones mean that skin on the rest of my body is changing massively at the moment and whilst rushed off my feet I’ve also been trying to look after my skin. I’ve noticed a change in the skin on my face which is a combination of hormones and also the after effects of it drying out during my hospital stay. There’s also what was once a baby bump that is changing daily. I spend much of my pregnancy rubbing various creams and oils into expanding parts of my body in the hope of avoiding stretch marks, and since giving birth I’ve been trying to keep up that regular skincare routine. Again, just having one product to pick up from the bathroom shelf makes doing so so much simpler.

Aquaphor protects skin by creating a breathable protective barrier, allowing oxygen and water vapour to circulate to and from the skin. This allows the skin to “breathe” and strengthens its natural barrier function. Formulated with only seven ingredients it is gentle enough to be used on highly irritated skin as well as on sensitive baby skin.

My experience with Aquaphor so far has been fantastic. Not only does my skin (on my hands, feet and in-between!) feel noticeably softer, but I’ve also loved how it has simplified my skincare routine. It’s so much easier to just grab one tube regardless of what I want to do. I’ve taken to having my Aquaphor on my bedside table through the night so whether I want to moisturise my hands or put balm on my lips during the various night feeds I only have to grab the one tube. Little simplifications like that make such a difference when you’re so sleep deprived that you don’t even know what day of the week it is!

Disclaimer: This post is an entry for the BritMums #MyAquaphor Challenge, sponsored by Eucerin. Discover the benefits of Eucerin https://www.eucerin,co.uk/products/aquaphor/soothing-skin-balm-45ml

Pregnancy catch up – week 39!

November 7, 2018 by Penny Leave a Comment

Hmmmmmm – the weekly pregnancy diaries seem to have petered out with married life! I could say that it’s because I’ve been far too busy making sure that I’m the dutiful 1950s housewife with my husbands dinner on the table when he gets home from work and his slippers warmed by the fire. I’d be completely lying though. I have no idea where the last eight weeks have vanished to. None at all. Baby is still very firmly on the inside though and as I head towards my due date there’s no sign as yet of him or her making an appearance.

I was hoping for the last 10 weeks of pregnancy to be nice and calm, but I’m not sure I’ve managed that. Family life seems to continue at a pretty frantic pace. I don’t really seem to have much time to think about being pregnant, but then I’ve been quite lucky that this pregnancy hasn’t really had any issues or complications.

I wrote ages ago about how we were given the choice as to whether to have a C-Section or not and we’ve decided on a natural birth – hence the fact that I’m sat here writing this at 39 weeks rather than having a day old baby in my arms – as yesterday would have been C-section day had it happened. Fingers crossed that was the “right” decision. Only time will tell though.

I’ve had a few general aches and pains, but nothing more that I’m expecting at this late stage of pregnancy. A lot of my back and hip pain seems to have reduced by having got back to my regular aquanatal classes. It’s amazing how much they have helped. The Braxton Hicks have been ramping up all the way through pregnancy and I’m just hoping they’re all good practice for the real thing.

This baby seems to love a morning snooze before going completely hyper in the evening. Sitting on the sofa and watching my stomach lurch all over the place as become a regular form of entertainment in our house. I honestly sometimes think they’re making a bid for freedom straight out through my bump! I’m intrigued to see if they’re a real squirmer when they arrive or not.

I think I’m ready for baby’s arrival. Practically I’ve got things sorted. The cot is ready next to my bed. The car seat is already in the car and my hospital bag is packed. I have nappies, clothes, a little coat and lots of blankets ready. We’ve even decided on names. Logistics are in place for my kids should they be staying with me when baby arrives too and I have lists on my phone for what needs to be done in various different circumstances. Mentally I’m not sure I’m ready for the sleepless nights again, but will I ever be? There are certainly things I wanted to get done before baby arrived that haven’t happened (taking more photos of this pregnancy being one of them!) but in that way I don’t think everything will ever be done. I just need baby to be ready to make an appearance.

My last midwife appointment was nearly two weeks ago and at that I was offered a sweep – to fit in with local policy of trying to reduce the induction rate. I would have happily had one had baby actually been engaged. But it seems he or she wasn’t ready. Both Little Miss C and Master C were late so I feel a bit resigned to this baby being too. Then again I’ve got three different due dates (the first of which has already past) so you never know. I’m back at the midwife later this week so let’s see how baby is positioned then. Assuming they’re still in there by then.

Until then though I’m trying out lots of walking and every old wives tale for shifting babies. It’s definitely hit that stage where I’m over being pregnant. I’m just not sure how many evenings I’ll get away with serving up curry for dinner!

Halloween Crafts – Halloween Hama Beads

October 22, 2018 by Penny Leave a Comment

If you follow me on Instagram you’ll have seen that my Halloween crafts are back decorating the house again this year and one of my favourite bits has to be the Halloween Hama beads that were partially inspired by the selection that CraftMerrily included in a Bostik Bloggers box a few years back. It’s time to share what I did back then with the Penny Blogs audience.

Pumpkins (or Jack O Lanterns as they’re called in the US) are one of the most obvious Halloween symbols to me, so they were the most obvious place to start with my Halloween Hama Beads. The urge to make them was so great that no only did I use up all the orange beads I could find in the house, but I also placed a separate order for more of them!

After making one large pumpkin (pattern found on Pinterest – and pinned on my Halloween board there) I then moved on to a smaller design with the aim of making some Hama bead bunting. Ideally I would have made more pumpkins, but to be honest I just ran out of orange beads! As I made them I lined them up on the bottom of the big mirror we have in our lounge and liked them all there so much that I just didn’t have the heart to move them when I finished.

Whilst waiting for an order of orange beads to arrive I tried modifying some cross stitch patterns that I’d found to create some other Halloween characters.

I started with a simple skeleton – not too bad for a first attempt.

Then I totally depleted my white bead supply with this cute ghost. There’s no way you could describe him as scary but I am completely in love with him!

The thing I’m fast discovering with Hama beads is that no matter how many of them you seem to have in the house, you never have enough in the right colours to make exactly what you want to make when you want to do it. I’m coming to the conclusion (whilst I wait for my next order to arrive!) that buying in bulk and having lots of storage boxes (and you can even buy ones designed for Hama beads these days) sorted into colours is the way forward.

Disclaimer: This post was originally published on Being Mrs C as part of my work as a Boston Blogger. It contains affiliate links.