In the absence of anything interesting to write

Here's some photos!

Lia dressed up for Pirate day at school:

Connor and Daddy bonding!

Connor practising to be a Rock God

Six weeks

So here we are at six weeks already! I've been signed off officially by my Consultant so that's great news.

Connor is growing well and he now sleeps in his cot all night - he's such a noisy sleeper that we get a much better nights sleep with him just that bit further away! He has his 10pm feed from Daddy and generally wakes me between 3 and 4 am so I'm hoping it won't be too long before he's sleeping through - he just needs to get a bit bigger so he can have a bit more milk in his tummy.

He's also happier spending time in his swinging chair - not long though, five or ten mins at a time, but it makes all the difference to be able to put him down and know he won't squawk straight away. In the last couple of days he's found his fist to suck too.

Lia's still loving him, she's being great and helpful and doing well at school so I really can't ask for anything more.

We've also booked our summer holiday to Greece. Almost three weeks! We fly to Athens and stay in a hotel for three nights then fly to Kavala where we have a house to stay for two weeks then it's back to Athens for three more nights and home in time for Lia to go back to school. Before we've always staying at my inlaws but there's just not enough room for us any more hence the hotel. DH is a feeling a bit weird about the hotel thing - it'll be the first time he's been home and not stayed at home - but a friend of ours works in a hotel chain and has got us a great deal on a fantastic hotel so hopefully that'll make up for it.

While we're there FIL will be 70 and DH will have his name day so there'll be lots of celebrations. Also SIL has just had a baby girl so there'll be plenty of baby showing off. That is absolutely the last baby of our generation in both families barring accidents! We've got a ratio of four girls to three boys so it's pretty even and the age range is 5 days to 5 years so they're all pretty close.

I'm really looking forward to this holiday - we've pushed the boat out a bit spending wise but it's likely to be the last time we manage such a great holiday for a LONG time as once I'm back to work and Connor is in nursery there won't be much spare cash or spare holiday time...

Five weeks

Can it really be five weeks already?

We're doing okay here. Connor is growing well - last weigh in he was 9lb 11oz which puts him exactly on the 50th centile of the weight charts and well up on his 8lb 7oz birth weight. He's still sleeping well at night and not much during the day and feeding has slowed down a bit. Week 2 - 3 he had a complete feeding frenzy but he's slowly but surely settling down to more of a four hour routine now. He's having two bottle feeds now - the evening feed and the night feed - as breast milk was just not getting him through a decent chunk of sleep time at night, I'd feed him for an hour or so and he'd be up for more in under two hours.

Day feeds are all from me though and that's going just fine so we're now in the routine we're likely to continue with until six months when I'll slowly give up the breast feeding.

Sleep wise he goes down about 7pm and DH wakes him at 10 for a bottle then Connor wakes me around 2am for his next feed. Most mornings he's then back awake aroun 5.30 - 6am for his breakfast.

Apologies if this is a little tedious to read but I want to write it down to remember! I started this blog just before Lia was born and I was back reading the early posts today in a bid to see how things were with her compared to how Connor is. It was quite a revelation as I remember her being hard to get to sleep but I didn't remember quite how hard it was!

She also didn't sleep during the day and at around 7 weeks I started sleeping her on her stomach for day time naps which made all the difference - she instantly went from not sleeping at all to sleeping for 3 hours at a time! Admittedly for the first couple of days I was totally paranoid she was going to die as I was going against all 'official' advice but when I was a baby my Mum was advised never to put us on our backs, we should always be put on our tummies. Oh and in Greece they advise sleeping the baby on it's side so my choice is to sleep the baby however works.

The difference with Lia is that she didn't sleep much at night either so it was awful. I can cope with Connor not sleeping during the day as I'm not so tired I can't see straight. I will, however, try him on his stomach in a couple of weeks or so to see if that helps during the day. I remember that we didn't put Lia on her stomach at nights until she was four months old (we were in Greece the first time) by which time she was able to roll over anyway.

So that's about it when it comes to Connor really. He's not doing much other than eating, sleeping and crying still but he has made his place in the family totally clear:

I am still missing stitching though. I got the last part of Bent Creek's Big Round Zipper through this week and I am so keen to get started on the design (I've not even started part 1 yet) I keep picking it up and looking at it. I know that it won't be long before I can get started again but it's torture being surrounded by all my stash and not having the energy or time to dive in...

I miss stitching...

I didn't realise how much until today but I'm really having withdrawal issues! I've not had caffeine for three and a half weeks now and am coping just fine with that but not picking up a needle in that time? Really bugging me!

Obviously there's nothing I can do about it for now - having a new baby does not really leave time to do anything for myself but I'm hoping it won't be too long before I get the chance to stitch a little. I was definitely stitching by the time Lia was three months as I had some obligation stitching that I did so I can pin point the exact time I did it.

Still, we're working really well here. Connor is a hungry boy and feeds A LOT during the day but in return for that he sleeps well at night. He goes down around 7pm and then DH does a bottle feed around 10pm meaning that I get a good chunk of sleep as I'm in bed for 8.30pm and Connor wakes me around 1am, if not later. Depending on the timing of his night feed I'm then woken any time between 4 and 6am for another feed. Weekdays we're all up around 6.30am to get ready for work / school but weekends he'll often have another sleep after the morning feed.

All in all I'm averaging around 7 hrs sleep a night which is more than enough to remain human. The downside is that I have no evening time to do any stitching and as he only cat naps during the day I don't get any done then either.

But it's not forever right? And he's certainly more than cute enough to make up for the stitching deficit.

Better pics of Connor

Now his jaundice has cleared up we can take lots more pics!

Introducing Connor

Born at 9.48am 7th April by Caesarian. All is okay - I'm sore and tired but that's to be expected, he's very calm and contented and eats and sleeps really well. Lia is totally in love with him and would sit and stroke his head 24/7 if she could. More importantly she slept through every bout of his yelling last night which means we don't have a grumpy child today.

Lia's Easter Present

So here's my 'little' girl all dressed up in her new Belle Princess dress that was a gift from her Nonna (Godmother) for Easter. Could she look any more pleased with herself LOL.

Yes I am still around

No I haven't had the baby

Yes I am getting lots of rest

No I haven't taken any pictures of my crafting progress despite my best intentions

Yes I will try and take some this weekend

Have a lovely Easter everyone!

Tail Feathers

So I've finally completed the quilt top. It's huge! I do still have the stitchery to do but I'm thrilled I've managed to put the top together - it's probably the fiddliest quilt top I've made so far - over 300 1" blocks for a start!

Work, what's that?

So I'm now officially on maternity leave with less than four weeks to go till Junior arrives.

I plan on taking things nice and easy but do have a few jobs to get done as well. Today I'll be finishing up the ironing and then working on Tail Feathers - I have a window of five hours to myself on week days while Lia's at school so I'm hoping I can get one job plus some crafting done every day.

And even if I just lie on the sofa and veg in front of the TV at least I'm not at work LOL.

No I haven't had the baby yet...

I'm just short of things to say here at the moment!

It's still four weeks to go and I've now officially entered the fat and uncomfortable stage. I have two more days at work and then I officially won't be working again until 2011! I'm pretty much exhausted by the time I get home these days and the hardest part of the day is getting through the hours between school pick up and Lia's bedtime as I have so little patience I find myself snapping at her.

Poor thing, she's being an angel at the moment but it must be hard having a grumpy Mummy! I put a stop on play dates a couple of weeks ago so she's not getting fun time with friends either at the moment but I'm thinking that will change next week as I'll be able to rest a bit during the day when she's at school.

It doesn't help of course that DH has been working late a lot recently so he's been getting home after bedtime which is normally his job.

I've not been doing too much crafting wise - lack of energy in the evenings means most nights I just can't be bothered to pick anything up - but I have done a bit more on my stitched Noah's Ark quilt as I figure if I don't make the effort to get it done in time for Junior's arrival it'll end up at the bottom of the WIP pile until I'm on course to be a Grandmother.

Any spare energy has been spent clearing up in the house and getting domestic jobs done. Today I phoned round to arrange quotes for carpet cleaners and have three coming tomorrow and friday so hopefully one of them will be able to come next week and get that done. Other than that the last job on my list is a full internal valet of the car - I usually get it done once a year and it makes sense to do it now rather than when I have to juggle a baby too.

I still haven't found the foot pedal for my sewing machine though...

In my defence...

I'm really tired. And I was bored at work. And I had about 10 mins to fill till I could leave. And it was a lovely sunny day. So I surfed a bit. I did avoid the stitching shops but I had a quick look at some of the quilting shops and I happened to go to Thread Bear (fab shop, fantastic service, huge variety of stock - go check them out!).

And whilst there I thought I'd see what they had in that was new and I saw this lovely charm pack. And because it was sunny and spring has sprung and my defences were weak plus they're lovely little girl colours I had to buy it.

And of course then I googled Moda's Spring Fever and I found this lovely quilt kit. I'd like to say that no, I didn't buy the kit - for a start I'm not buying from the US at the moment as I had two import duty bills recently which I don't mind paying, it's the £8 on top that the Post Office charge that bugs me, and also it seems to be taking at least twice as long as usual for anything to get here from the US and I'm running on limited time!

Anyway, I thought maybe I'd see if there was a jelly roll around and sure enough, a quick google found them at Nerybeth Crafts (I've removed the link because they appear to be out of stock now!) so of course I just had to get one as a charm pack on it's own won't make a particularly big quilt now will it?

So I'm now excitedly waiting for my stash! I've been really good up until now but I couldn't resist these and also I got my Health in Pregnancy grant through last week and decided that having a small stash purchase will help my health no end LOL.

Talking of pregnancy I'm now 34 weeks and at the point where I want it over and done with. Sleep is almost non-existent, I'm averaging 3 - 6 hrs a night with a lot of waking up. It's my dumb restless leg syndrome which has now spread to my arms as well. I knew it was going to get worse, it did when I was pregnant with Lia, but it's just unbearable some nights and worse when I'm tired so it's a bit of a viscious circle. Still, I don't have any other symptoms and everything else is going well so I'm just grinning and bearing it and counting down the days.

I finish work at the end of next week and then it'll hopefully be a bit easier as I can nap during the day if I need to

Reading

My reading mojo appears to be back with a vengence!

As long as I can remember reading has been a big part of my life - I was quite a solitary kid and regularly read a book a day - and that didn't change much all the way up until Lia's arrival. Obviously my reading levels dipped at this point as I was a little preoccupied but I've never not had at least one book on the go.

This last couple of weeks I've been seriously tired in the evenings - work plus being a Mum plus not much sleep pretty much wipes out my reserve energy stocks and stitching and quilting tend to just get put to oneside, especially on weekday evenings. However, I have been picking up books again and getting through them at something like my old speed - two or three evenings can see off a novel.

As previously mentioned reducing my stockpile of unread books is on my to do list for this year (my buying books mojo never stopped despite my reading mojo taking a dive LOL) so that was my motivation to push myself into reading more. Of course I only have approx six weeks before there'll be another reason to be preoccupied but for now I'm making the most of it.

My current reading is 'The Truth about Melody Browne' by Lisa Jewell and I highly recommend it. I don't think I've read anything from this author before but I'll certainly seek out other things she's written as this is a cracking good read and I should finish it today (I started it two evenings ago).

Has anyone seen the foot pedal for my sewing machine?

I know it's in the house somewhere. Or at least I am sure it's in the house somewhere LOL.

I want to have the machine serviced and the guy I spoke to made a point of mentioning I should bring the foot pedal in with the machine. Well I don't use the foot pedal at all and I have absolutely no idea where it might be. I know I saw it not so long ago but can I remember where?

Hopefully it'll turn up in my general tidy up of the house that is now underway. We've pretty much finished the baby's room now (just the blind to put up) and all of his stuff is in there instead of being scattered around everywhere. I have washed, dryed and ironed all the clothes, sheets, blankets, bibs, etc I have and they are all sorted and put away. We've been so lucky that I actually have excess clothes and have put aside a big bag full for a friend who is having boy/girl twins a few weeks after I'm due.

I ran through my inventory of baby stuff and there is now absolutely nothing I need. Seriously. With what we've been given, what we had stored and the odd thing that we've gone and bought the only thing that I don't have in the house right now is powdered baby milk (I intend to breast and bottle feed combined just as I did with Lia).

I am officially ready to have a baby LOL.

So now all of that stuff is safely packed away in his room I can start clearing up the piles of mess that have appeared around the house and you never know, I might even find that foot pedal...

Tail Feathers

Last June I signed up for the Buttonberry BOM for the Cinderberry Stitches Tail Feathers Quilt. I got my first months package, made up the block and started the stitchery and then it all fell apart a bit as I got pregnant!

The best laid plans and all that...

Anyway, I decided that it would be sensible to get as much of the actual block making bit of the quilt done before the baby arrives as I might then have some kind of chance of getting the stitcheries done.

It's a pretty intensive quilt top, there's definitely no way I'd do it if it wasn't a BOM as the fabric strips are all 1.5 inches wide and as well as the main parts of the blocks there are 376 one inch squares and 24 log cabin blocks each with 13 pieces! There's enough cutting as it is but if I had to cut the strips as well...

At the point I was inspired to get on I had the first seven parts of the BOM (there's 10 in all) so I put together the seven centre blocks including the appliqued birds and stitchery transfers, I cut all the mini squares and I put together the first 12 of the log cabin blocks. I now have part 8 but haven't put it together yet as I'm waiting for part 9 to arrive so I have enough fabric to make the second half of the log cabins. I'll then also put together the last two middle blocks. I'm presuming month 10 will be the final four appliqued birds in the corners of the border but they'll just have to wait till I have the time and inclination to get them done - the package should arrive around the same time as I'm in hospital giving birth LOL.

So here's the blocks I've put together so far:

Log Cabins

A couple of weeks ago I had a burst of energy and got a bunch of quilting done.

A friend mentioned an eBay seller who had some lovely batik log cabin kits and I ordered one which resulted in:

and

There are actually 16 blocks in all which I am putting together into four cushion covers, I just haven't sewn the last 8 together yet. The kits are extremely well cut and presented so I just had to buy another couple once I'd done these, the next ones being blue and purple. They arrived this week so I may just get them put together before the imminent arrival...

17 working days...

And counting!

Yep, that really is all I have left at work, two full days this week and then three more weeks to the finishing line. I can't believe it has come round so quickly but, to be honest, I'm really feeling the tiredness now so I'm glad it has.

I've also got problems with a guy at work who has major issues with me because I'm pregnant. He has major issues full stop and has, over the last couple of years, upset, angered and generally pissed off every single person in our office with his attitude and behaviour. Granted, he has several personal issues but he treats people appallingly, ie he talks to people like they are a piece of crap, and then uses his problems as a get out clause for behaving that way.

I am not unsympathetic to his problems but he certainly isn't the only one with issues and none of the rest of us feel the need to bring ours into the work place. Certainly none of us use them as an excuse for our behaviour.

Anyway, one of his problems is that he and his wife cannot have kids of their own. They do have an adopted son but this guys whole attitude is that this isn't good enough and it's not the same as having his own. In itself I find this offensive as he truly behaves like his son doesn't count in the same way as a 'real' child would. I have friends and family who have adopted children and not one of them would dream of having this attitude, equally I have childless friends who have not managed to adopt who would kill to be in the position he is in.

So, to cut a long story a little bit short, this guy cannot cope with sitting in an office with me because I am pregnant. He sent me an email telling me this and stating that it was like 'being stabbed in the guts' when I was around. To be fair, I didn't need the email as he'd made it abundantly clear that he has a problem with me - he puts his headphones on when I walk in the room, he doesn't acknowledge me speaking, he lets doors slam in my face, that kind of thing - but to have it written down in that way was really upsetting.

Thankfully my boss thought so too and he has been ordered to attend counselling and is currently only working part time hours. His attacks on me are the end of a long line of official complaints but thankfully because he did this part of it in writing (most of his previous encounters with me and other staff have been verbal) it is easier for the boss to make this an official process.

DH is, as you can imagine, a little stressed out about me being here with him and some of the other staff are also concerned that he is unhinged enough to actually harm me. Obviously I try not to think about this too much and I honestly don't think it would come to him being a physical threat to me but it is extremely uncomfortable being around him. I work in a large open plan office though and there are 20 guys around all of whom would welcome the chance to throw themselves between me and him so hopefully the next three and a half weeks will pass without incident and then I don't have to worry about him for nine months.

Another not good thing is that DH's cousin died in his sleep on Friday night. He was only 30 and, as far as everyone knew, was fit and healthy. The autopsy showed it was a massive stroke which, if one can take comfort from things, is a good thing because it means there is nothing that anyone could have done to save him. As you can imagine the whole family is devastated - he was the baby of his generation and he and DH were extremely close growing up. I never had the chance to meet him although I have met his parents and grandparents - we had hoped to catch up with him last summer but our trip to Greece was aborted due to my pregnancy.

Poor DH, I've never seen him this upset and it's awful not being able to make it better for him - it's good that he has the baby to focus on but nothing is really going to be able to fix this pain.

On the good things front we're finally making progress on the baby's room and doing that is keeping DH occupied. It's practically empty (just one chest of drawers left in there we don't have any room for anywhere else) and painting has begun. Carpet is being fitted friday afternoon so all other decorating has to be done by then but we are currently on schedule to be done so I'm not too worried. Yet. I am relying on DH getting his finger out when I'm not there to nag though (he's home doing child care for half term whilst I'm at work cos I have no holiday left).

A bit of a makeover...

So what do you think?

I thought it was time for a change and, in honour of the expected arrival I thought I'd move to a more 'boy' coloured theme for a while.

My only issue is that in changing it I have somehow lost my links to the blogs that I read. And of course I didn't have them backed up anywhere! Oh well, I guess it's an excuse to go read lots of blogs!

Another Hobby?

When we moved house my sister gave us a piano and that piano has sat in our house for two years waiting to be tuned. Yes, I am a disgrace!

However, in the spirit of getting lots of things done before the baby comes and we have no spare money for things I decided to get it sorted and, as of yesterday, the piano is now tuned and ready to go.

When I was a kid I had piano lessons for a while and then my Dad bought a Yamaha organ (go figure!) so I switched to having organ lessons and continued those for several years. Don't get me wrong, I'm no great musician but I could play well enough to entertain myself and, occasionally, others.

I can't sing a note and am unable to play by ear but give me the music for something and I can pick my way through it. I remember a family friend who would always play when he came round and he couldn't read a note of music but could play anything he'd heard and I was so envious of him but he envied me because I could play something I didn't know if you just gave me the music. Just goes to show nobody is ever happy LOL.

Anyway, it must be at least 15 years since I played anything more than Chopsticks on a piano but last night I impressed myself by picking up the sheet music for Fur Elise and, after a few run throughs, being able to play it! Okay, it's not the most challenging piece but it's a recognisable tune and I played it.

Of course I'm now obsessed with continuing to play and get back into the swing of it and am keen to get out and get some sheet music. All that's been going round in my head since yesterday is the theme from The Piano which I absolutely adore so that is my goal, to learn to play that piece. In my head I now have time - only four more weeks of work and then nine months of maternity leave - but I'm not sure that it's a realistic goal given the production of a baby very soon LOL.

The funny thing is that 36 years ago my Sister bought the piano whilst she was pregnant with her first child (I should probably say that, due to my father marrying twice, there is 24 years age difference between me and my Sis, or rather my half-Sis to be accurate) with the idea that she'd have plenty of time to play it. I don't ever remember her playing it that much but me, my Bro and my two nieces did all learn to play on it so it wasn't a wasted investment.

Still, even if I don't have much time, Lia is showing an interest in it so hopefully the next generation will learn to enjoy it as much as I do.

An update on Lia

It occurs to me that I've not mentioned Lia that much lately and if I don't boast about her achievements while she's still an only child she's likely to get even more overlooked in a few weeks LOL.

She's settled into school fantastically well and is still really enthusiastic about going which is great. She's got a 'best' friend plus a small group of good friends and has at least one play date a week at the moment (while I still have the energy to cope!) Last weekend we got her a scooter as it's the current craze and all the girls we walk home with have them. I'm not normally an indulgent parent but she was really good for the first three weeks of term and never once asked for one even though she was the only one that didn't have one.

Her school subscribes to a national maths website called Mathletics. It's not part of the curriculum, it's purely for her to do at home as additional tuition option, and it is based on the curriculum and features short exercises and tests that she gets points for completing. And we all know that Points mean Prizes!1000 points or more in a week gains her a bronze certificate that she gets given in assembly at school. Five bronze certificates get her a silver certificate and four silvers gains a gold medal. You can only gain one bronze a week so it's at least 20 weeks of consistent work to gain the medal.

We currently have four bronze certificates and she's determined to get a medal (even if she's not exactly sure what a medal is LOL). I've got a display book that I'm keeping her certificates in - as well as her maths ones she's got ones for attendance, good work and a 'star of the week' for her class. At this rate I'm going to need a much bigger book! She loves getting the certificates though so I can't complain - they really motivate her to concentrate and learn.

As for reading, again she's doing really well. She's in the higher group for reading which is encouraging and she can pretty much read the books she is bringing home to practice on. Most days she reads at least one book to us, more likely two, at bedtime and it's amazing to see her progress just since Christmas.

Thankfully, getting Lia to do all of this isn't a struggle - she absolutely loves doing it so I don't feel like a pushy parent. In fact sometimes I feel like a bad Mum as I just don't have the energy to help her as much as I should LOL.

She's growing up fast and I'm really enjoying watching her. I'm so pleased that she's settled into school and has her own things to focus on, hopefully it will make her more comfortable in her world when the baby arrives.

Oh and her current best achievement as far as she's concerned? She can finally whistle! Okay it's a bit of a windy whistle still but she is constantly practising in order to get better...