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Tuesday, November 28, 2006

Felt quite nervous this morning as Jenny-from-number-55 was coming for coffee. Not that she is terribly scary but you never know with new people and we hadn't really met before, bar a 2-minute doorstep chat when she came to collect her flowers which the interflora man had left here. As it happened she is very nice (of course! Why wouldn't she be?) and we had a very civilised coffee. Fairly civilised, anyway. Well, as civilised as a coffee can be with a 2 1/2 year old joining in the conversation: Me: yes, Cornwall is lovely
Jenny: we often camp
Maggie: I'VE GOT TIGHTS ON!

Lisa at 17:32
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Monday, November 27, 2006

Some brief notes at 2 weeks:
- I love the celebrity-ness of being out and about with a tiny baby: I was mobbed in Chester today. Particularly in Crabtree and Evelyn which is clearly the sort of shop staffed by very soppy women: I had all three staff members gooing and cooing for a good 10 minutes before I was allowed to buy anything and one (pregnant and clearly bonkers) woman even got all teary over how sweet my baby is.
- Tamsin has soft downy hair and bright Mrs-Tiggywinkle button eyes that she is starting to focus: today she started to make eye contact. The health visitor* came today and swore blind she saw her smile (not sure about that). She also remarked on how alert she is, and we discovered she has gained a whole lb since birth. Smugness abounds.
- Maggie used to hold spiky starfish hands up in front of her face; Tamsin prefers a sort of bunny-paws posture.
*Quite in my gang ("we have to advise against having a baby in your bed, but when I was a midwife we used to encourage it"), much to my relief - you hear such horror stories of officious interfering incompetents.

Lisa at 18:00
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Sunday, November 26, 2006

I'm feeling vaguely proud today: 13 days post-childbirth I have not only squeezed into a pair of pre-pregnancy non-elasticated trousers but have been outside spreading manure around the roses and planting garlic (better late than never). All this despite feeling like the mother of a newborn is supposed to feel, i.e. completely sleep-deprived and rather incoherent. Not the fault in any way of said newborn but rather more to do with her elder sister who came visiting, ice-cold feet kicking and squirming into the bed, at 4 am. Fortunately my mum is still here and could be set to work* roasting lamb and accompaniments, preparing pink soup with the firstborn and knocking up a swift plum crumble**.
*Who am I trying to kid? She's done nothing but work since she arrived: I should make the most of feeling proud and smug at the moment as all hell will let loose - and we will have to open an account with the pizza delivery people - as soon as she leaves.
**I'm leaving the path open to return to elasticated waistbands as necessary.

Lisa at 19:00
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Monday, November 20, 2006

A week old already! And we seem to be doing fairly well, with the help of my parents who are cooking and cleaning and entertaining children like troopers - M, surprisingly, got to nursery on time this morning, washed, brushed, breakfasted and dressed in suitable clothing. I was still in my pyjamas when the midwives turned up (but if they will come at such an ungodly early hour - 9.30 am - what do they expect). I left the house for the first time today (twice!), my only previous expedition having been to the shed at the end of the garden. T liked riding in her sling but it felt really weird to be driving and - gasp! - leaving the village. Cabin fever. C is back at work (and has an overnight trip organised for tomorrow); so life goes on.

Lisa at 17:31
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Wednesday, November 15, 2006

My photo-blog connection is playing up and I am insufficiently with-it to fix the problem today, so if anybody would like to see a picture of Maggie looking very pleased with her new sister, I'll just direct them here, and here for a jolly snap of midwives, Maggie, me and about-an-hour-old Tamsin.
We're doing pretty well, I think: M is a little cry-y with us, as expected, but absolutely thrilled with her sister (and her new Fimbles DVD is a close-run second). T has feeding absolutely sussed but so far prefers to sleep during the day and stay awake all night; she has a small touch of jaundice but nothing unusual and they can't be that worried as nobody is coming to see us again until Friday. I'm very well, if tired (no surprises there), and Cameron is doing stirling work keeping us fed and watered.

Lisa at 17:26
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Monday, November 13, 2006

OK, so I was all set to sign in today and update you all about being 41-bloody-weeks with the whole monitoring, induction, honspital nightmare lurking over me - had a very frustrating antenatal appointment on Friday. And I was going to tell you about our windy walk on saturday and other nice weekendy stuff that now escapes me. But instead I find myself with an announcement:
Tamsin Sarah, 6 lb 9 oz, five to one this lunchtime. Home waterbirth as planned; *much* shorter labour than last time; photos to follow once we are back on our feet.

Lisa at 18:34
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Wednesday, November 08, 2006

So far today: 2 x "what a big bump", 2 x "what a neat bump", 1 woman completely panic-stricken on my behalf because I was shopping! One my own! And had driven myself there! Poor soul, I didn't have the heart to tell her I had (inadvertantly) left my mobile phone at home too.
Good to see somebody still has some moral fortitude: not quite the exciting anniversary edition I had hoped for (and been led to expect with all those trailers) - I had developed a good theory involving stalker-Kirsty and a gun massacre - but fun all the same. Now, will Sam go psycho or slink quietly away?
The other radio 4 programme I've heard this week was all about war songs (we'll meet again, Lili Marlene et al): when they played an excerpt of some RAF squaddy-type song (bleep bleep bleepity bleep: not sure why they bothered), M piped up ooh I love this song, it's my favourite! Nuts.
And the other thing i am enjoying at the moment is digging deep, on BBC2. Is anyone but me watching it? Completely bonkers garden therapy and highly recommended to do your ironing in front of.

Lisa at 12:03
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Monday, November 06, 2006

40 weeks
... but who's counting?
Compare and contrast with last time, here.
In other news, Maggie is getting ever-braver and more athletic: last week she impressed us by jumping into the swimming pool on her own (no hand-holding required) and performing her first proper forward roll! But she hated the fireworks on Saturday - the kiddies' display was nice (no bangs and cbeebies tunes played) but the proper fireworks were just a disaster. If I'd been a Good Mummy we should have left but that didn't occur to me at the time so I just held on tight to a very distressed little girl. They are pretty but very noisy. (Fireworks, I mean, not little girls. Although...)
Otherwise a very (quietly) pleasant weekend of gentle activities: carpeting the allotment, pulling out frost-killed marigolds, making pumpkin soup and reading the paper.

Lisa at 17:08
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Wednesday, November 01, 2006

What a glorious autumn day: clear, crisp, cold and sparkly is so much more pleasant than the warm and wet we've had of late. I was even inspired to rise from my slug-like sofa residency to take some wheel of the year photos (let's hope I do better than last month and actually get them onto Flickr at some point).
No trick-or-treaters last night whatsoever (well OK the doorbell did ring once - but Maggie was in the bath so I ignored it and they seem to have just retreated without a trick). Quite surprised as I had expected a lot in this sort of village (we certainly used to get them at the old house), but relieved as I hadn't remembered in time to buy sweets and had nothing for them but raisins or digestive biscuits. Besides, I disapprove. Bah, humbug - but I love bonfire night and resent, on its behalf, it being elbowed out the way by silly pumpkins and cheap Asda masks on money-grubbing teens. Meh.

Lisa at 17:06
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