Lookey who came to join us

Elisabeth Jade

Oct 9th

7lbs 13oz

52cms

This photo is at a week old. I now have a lightweight and a lump! I'll post her birth story soon(ish!)

just for granny mary!

I'm almost 2 and it still doesn't fit me granny mary!

Housing part 2 B&B

So, mum finally kicked us out this summer. Heck it was the summer from .... you know where! There i was 30-odd weeks pregnant and hanging around the housing dept. with an active 20month old in tow. NOT fun.

After about 3wks of bugging and being sent from pillar to post (read mums to housing!) we finally got a B&B place. I wouldn't house my worst enemy there. There were rats in the garbage bins in the garden.. so glad i didn't find *that* out till after we left cause i took sian out there to play a couple times. The knobs came off the drawers & wardrobe leaving sharp screws exposed right at sian's height in some cases.

We got lucky, mainly cause i just carried on bugging them even after they found us that place. So not worth £40/night... the local mcdonalds got a great deal from us cause it was the nearest place we could feed sian antyhgin dairy free.

Anyways. They offered us a 2bed maisonette about 10minutes from where my little sister lives. Only a temporary place, so you have no choice really but to say yes. So, we went off to look at it. And then the next day found out it hadn't been passed as fit for habitation. *great* it didn't look like it either but we could see the potential behind the loose hand rail on the stairs, lack of carpeting in a couple rooms and all the rubbish left from the previous tenants.

Housing... part 1 B&B photos

the drawer & wardrobe knobs came off.. into sian's hand in one instance

the wardrobe made a great hiding place! and was good to play in by all accounts!

sian was trying to use her get out of jail free card here lol.

my bad.

last time i posted to you, blog, was waaaaaaay back in may. So much has happened since then. I don't think I can do it justice in one post. Some of the time i was minus a computer, though mum and the library are always helpful. Where to start? A new post possibly? I have pictures to share too.........

yesterday....

went well. 3 kids ate a LOT of fruit salad between them. mama's not so much - it kept being pinched from under our noses! in spite of the miserubble weather we had, it was nice to have them all here. and so funny to see the differences between them. the oldest was born dec17, then dec 27 then jan 17. guess who's the tallest lol.

the plumber started, but didn't finish- like everyone else who's been in and out of this house this week. mam now has wiring for an unfinished power shower, part of a shower that needs hooking up to the water tank upstairs and a floor that needs to be ripped up before the new one can by laid. so much for it all being done by this evening. at least shrimpy & i have had freinds over and got out a couple times too.

the shrimp is still a shrimp. she's a whopping 17lbs 5oz at 17mos. wonder if she'll be 18lbs at 18mos etc. i'm mainly keeping going to get her weighed so i can replace her infant seat with a ff carseat in my dads car. that way i know that my nephew will be safe as well- at the moment he's in a booster that is not really going to do much good for him. ugh. i wish i could win hte lottery, i'd make sure that tehre were safe seats for all the neices & nephews in dad's car. the parents think that cause the boosters don't get used regularly they don't need replaceing even though they're 6 years old now. i can't win that fight till i get teh cash though *sigh*

having a lunch party.

and it was meant to be in the garden so the 3 17mos olds could wear themselves out. guess what the weathers doing? no trampoline, slide or ball pond. there's not room in the living room for any of it. i suppose my lungs will thank me. i was going to have to inflate the ball pond before everyone got here!

however, 2 bowls of fruit salad (i didn't have one big enough) later, with fresh bread, ham, cheese, tomatoes, cucumbers & crisps for the kids should be fine. i know i'm going to have to hoover after that lot! the splash mat sure isn't big enough for 3.

i wonder what madam shrimp is up to. i left her in the kitchen putting fridge magnets in and out of a waste paper basket. she hasn't quite got the concept of sticking htem on the fridge, although she thinks taking them off is great fun lol

boing! boing!

we took the faulty trampoline back to toys r us. and bought one from tescos. what a good idea! it was most defintley worth the extra £5. and it went together sooo much more easily than the first.

if i can ever get my pc and my digicam to talk to each otehr again, i have pictures to download so that i can take lots more of sian playing on her new toys

straddle jump... well the shape! 

argh!

so. the slide went together fine, in approx. 10mins- loseing the instructions contributed to the time, it's a snap together item. sian thinks it's great fun. and we bought some floor mats to put at the bottom as she tends to fly a good half a foot away from the end! the mats are even more appreciated than the slide i think lol

then i tried the trampoline. i could not get the nut to screw onto the bolt for love nor money. neither could dad. we both tried. for about 10mins each. and made the pleasing discovery (independantly of each other) that the nuts don't fit. so dad took it back for a replacement.

today i tried to put the replacement together. guess what? yup. nuts & bolts don't match up. this time you can *see* that it's not going to work. the blessed bolts are cut wonky.

i'm taking the darned thing back to toys r us tomorrow and spending an extra £5 on the one we saw in tescos- sian did ask for it the other day as it's colorful, and the metal edges are padded so i'm happier with that model... as long as it goes together!

the garden is about to be over taken

with a whole load of toys for the neices, nephew and shrimpy girl.

already out there are:

rocking horse, trike, push along lawn mower, 2 chairs and a plastic gardening set.

tonight we bought to add to them:

trampoline, slide, balls, pool and a play house!

i am the *first* person to object to garden trampolines.. but sian's using me as one and it's not comfy lol. at least you can't fit more than one kid on hers, and it's got a handle to try and encourage her to stand on the thing instead of knee jumping.

better get off to bed. i've got a slide and a trampoline to put together in the morning!

i spoke too soon.

teh nausea and sickness is back with a vengeance. at least it was nice not having to run to the bathroom while it lasted!

ack. shrimpy's pulling nappy liners out of the packet. there. got them moved. now what's she found.... nappy sacks. *sigh* she's a monster. and i love her dearly! i wouldn't change her... might put her on e-bay as a one night only offer.... i'd get some takers i'm sure lol

my little girl is turning into a little chatter box. her favourite words are foot, cheese, ball and no. foot and cheese going together of course lol. so do belly and tickly for that matter! she also says book, hair, mumee, dadda, hat. and this morning she made a very clear and creditible attempt at good morning.

if only she'd get up and walk! she's a wriggle britches when you carry her and is not enamoured of the pushchair these days. i'm scared that she'll get up and run though!

international shipping

is bloomin' expensive! i sent some toffee off to a freind yesterday. it cost me more to ship than the toffee did to buy. i'm not looking forward to sending the books off to mum in iowa.. she may have to wait till we go over again (which won't be for at least a year unless we win the lottery) theres tea sitting waiting too. the post master said to keep the packages to under 5kg to keep prices down... but even so.......!

happy day :o)

touching wood first... i've not thrown up for 3 days. and i've only felt sick when i need to eat which is a BIIIIG improvement!

I LOVE MY MIDWIFE!!

she came, phoned up to get blood test results she'd forgotten. double checked that she'd cancelled my OB appt. we discussed about the extra scans.... some of it i think will depend on timeing but sian didn't stop growing till later on so i *might* have all 3 but she's leaving it up to me.

best bit. shrimpy and i HEARD THE HEART BEAT!!!! chugging along in teh 140's.... maybe it'll be a boy after all as sian's was in the 160's at this stage. i'm right on track for 18wks :o)

we see her again on jun 27th.... so long away lol but i have her phone number and can call her if i need help, advice or to see her before then.

I know I know!

still no picture of me with my new hairstyle. it's not smooth and straight any more.

i phoned a midwife last week. she's going to do her best to get me the home birth that i want. and said if i'd called her before i had my booking appointment she'd have done that at home too. yay! no white coat hypertension!

sian and i meet her on may 10th. and we've agreed that i will only have *one* extra scan at 32wks unless trish seems worried. i felt sooo much better after talking to her :o)

i'm still (just about) managing to bowl. although all i'm ready for after a match is a niiice loooooooooong nap lol.

ugh. not a good day nausea wise today. i'm eating ice cause at least i'll stay hydrated.

the fringe was down to my nose today! 

i just lost 3lbs!

of hair! i just got my hair washed, cut and blow dryed. and boy was it nice to have someone wash my hair for me. i think it's up there in the top 10 of luxury things to do. not too sure what the other 9 are yet.....

it was shoulder length with a nose length full fringe (bangs) and now it's jaw length with a side fringe. i'll get piccies up asap. i know i can get the before one up earlier... although even that is a little old now!

i am soooo bad at this blogging!

had my first scan yseterday at 13+2. and ElJay is measuring right on target :o) sian and clive came too so we can include shrimpy in the whole process. after all ElJay is her sibling.

while i've been neglecting the blog. we've been to the easter funfair at hampton court, and for a short break to christchurch including a trip to paultons park.

there are pictures from the park and the fair in my snapfish account. which i'll link later.

so our short break. was meant to be sunday afternoon to thursday morning. it was sunday afternoon to tuesday as we had to come back to sign a contract on a flat wednesday morning. that got pushed back to the afternoon. and then it wasn't safe for sian so we didn't sign anything. pissed off.. a little. but we may have a home of our own soon!

ElJay's 1st pictures (7th April 05) 

no ice cream this summer

finally! it's taken over a year. but today we got the skin prick testing done for sian's milk allergy.

i got a call from the day unit yesterday, tried to phone back all afternoon. finally got trhough this morning.

"can you come in for testing today?"
"sure, let me get a banana"
"ok, no rush"

so, we get there and the nurse shows sian that it doesn't hurt by doing it on me. oh boy she screamed blue murder! but we got a drop of saline, histamine and concentrated cows milk on her arm.

went off and played for 2o mins.. after a quick nursing session. gotta love the comfort factor of them!

histamine- no reactoin
saline- no reaction
milk- weird reaction, but deifntley wasn't there before we started.

*sigh* guess there's no ice cream for us this summer! ah well, we didn't get any last year either!

granny mary's jumper

mama's freind mary knitted me a jumper. it's been too big for me all this time- i'm 15mos now. actually it's still too big for me! but i asked her to share a picture of it so everyone can get an idea of how much to big it must have been when it arrived.

mmm ice lolly 

granny mary's jumper 

arrgh!

try as i might i can't get a photo on my profile. so i'll have to share a photo from sian's birthday here instead. yes, clive always looks that rough! i've been trying to get him to cut his hair since then too lol

sian's 1st birthday 

the pregnancy post lol

well. after 6weeks of nausea from hell i feel great today! i don't think i'll beleive that #2 is on hte way till i have an ultrasound though heh

yesterday we took sian to a playgym in the morning where she got to bounce around to her hearts content and play in the ball pond. then we went for a nice swim in the afternoon. the only draw back to the swim was that it's a good 45mins drive away. it's a great pool for shrimpy though as it's a leisure pool so she can crawl around in the shallow water. she loved the slide and was crawling up it and sliding down on her own!

oh we have boobage alert lol. well dear blog. i'll sign off again. you got two posts in one day though. please be impressed

more signs from sian

i forgot to update you on these dear blog.

sian can sign more now. and oh boy does she get her point accross! since i last posted she's added

phone
food
more
nappy (diaper)

to her signing vocabulary.

she's taken to pulling at my top and frantically signing please when she wants to nurse. it's funny when she does it as she generally ends up smacking herself in the head!

just being a girl! 

sigh

i am so bad at updating this! it's been over a month since i told you all about my positive pregnancy test.

my first ante-natal appointment is on March 24th. and i am *telling* them that i'm having a home water birth. of course if they come up with "your too fat" like alst time i'll just get them to put it in writing and send it off to the Department of Health and AIMS (http://www.aims.org.uk/aims.htm) i have a list of phrases to try and learn and remember.... placenta brain has set in early hehe.

what has happened since i last wrote?

sian and i have both had ear infectoins. that was a great birthday. stuck in the dr's surgery and feeling grotty to boot. shrimpy's cutting teeth - when isn't she? one of them should be through soon by the looks of it. i'll have to try and get a toothy picture.

we're waiting for an appointment to have shrimp tested for cows milk allergy. i've only been after this for a year! and i am missing things like ice cream lol trouble is if i have it, someone else wants it. oh and she's still nursing like a champ! i can't see her quitting anytime soon.

morning sickness sucks. and hwoever named it must have been a bloke! it's with me 24/7 . i know i can stnad to lose a few pounds but it's not nice praying to the porcelain throne all the time. and poor sian is starting to think the telly is her mama i'm sure. i'm so not the mama i was just a couple of months ago. only 30weeks to go!

i did something silly

yesterday morning.

i woke up ... as usual...

i went to the bathroom- while the shrimpy one was screaming at me for her milk but there are things that she just has to wait for!

i peed on a stick.....

and ....












Siân Louise is going to be a little BIG SISTER!!!

I'm due around Oct 12th... booked my first appointment with my GP for next thursday. I *want* a home water birth this time- that was what i booked last time!

I'm still in shock!

why oh why

when i need to find an inhaler i cna't? yet there are FIVE in my bathroom cabinet and one in my nappy bag. ah well. i'm getting used to hearing th ewheeze now. not that it's a good thing!

signing

my shrimpy one's almost asleep again.. but first let me say i'm a proud mama :o)

she can sign a 2-word sentence- is there such a thing? any way. she signs "milk, please" or "all gone, thank you"

words she can sign (BSL)

• milk
• hello
• goodbye
• all gone
• please
• thank you

admittedly hello & goodbye are the same sign, so are please & thank you

we'd better work on

• more
• food
• biscuit (cookie)

*yawn*

shrimpy girl is 1 year & 2 weeks. i feel like she's 2 weeks! i think she's all settled for the night and next thing i know *waaaaah!*

so, i sit here at 1am with a baby on boob, nursing at keyboard (nak). you'd think i'd be a nak pro by now, huh? it was sooo much easier when she was a relatively still shrimp. now she's a big wriggley shrimp who's making mama's wrist/hand go numb

i'm going to see if she'll let go of the boobage... wish me luck!