pandabob1

Hokey cokey day

2014-07-16T20:54:17Z

Why is it that when the summer holidays appear on the horizon everything gets busy and everything happens on the same day?

Today had been a worry to me for quite a while because everything was happening at the same time never mind on the same day but with a bit of planning its all worked out brilliantly :-)

First thing this morning Shorty had her first ever violin concert. She started learning to play the violin just two months ago and she was really nervous this morning but she did a great job and Tiny and Mini loved being able to see her play and, unlike some of the other littlies, and most of the adults, in the room they both stayed quiet throughout an hour of performances from children through year 2 to year 6 playing guitar, violin, keyboard, clarinet and cornet and one amazing young lady who did two solos where she played the guitar and sang. I love school events that show off the talents of the students, its a good reminder of just how wonderful kids are when they're given opportunities to be.

This afternoon was where my concerns about today were because it was Tiny's nursery graduation party 2.30 - 4.30, I had to pick Shorty up from school at 3.15 and she then had to be back at school for the end of year disco at 4.30. I am but one person and I haven't yet located a cloning machine so for the first time in 13 months I was facing a position of not being able to do what the kids needed!

The solution was a a quick letter to the head to ask permission to pick Shorty up early. lets be honest, being at school to watch frozen on DVD for the 750th time was far less useful a way to spend her afternoon than sharing in her little sisters nursery gradation and party so I don't even feel bad about it.

Tiny looked lovely in her gown and very proud as she walked across the stage to pick up her card and present from her keyworker and Shorty had such a proud look on her face that I knew I'd made the right decision in taking her :-) There was a mad magician at the party, she was crazy but the kids liked her, and Tiny volunteered to help with a trick and had everyone laughing and shouting when they should. I sat at the back of the room with Mini and watched Shorty and Tiny play along together and It was the most fun I've had in a while!

At 4.15pm exactly the magician finished her act and I grabbed all three kids and we almost ran home so that Shorty could get changed for her disco. The theme was 'the red carpet' and she looked amazing in what she chose to wear. We made it to the disco at 4.32pm, so she'd missed a whole 2 minutes which considering all the running around I think is pretty impressive!

Right now I feel like Ive been through a bit of a crazy day but its all been worth it for the smiles and laughter of my beautiful girls :-)

If you've bothered to read this far, thanks for taking the time, its strange to do these things with the kids and have no one to share them with so I guess this is my sharing.

PB xx

The School Run

2014-06-02T21:14:09Z

Shorty was back at school today, half term has been great fun but sadly holidays must end and school returns, there are fun bits to the daily routine though :-)

Mini wakes up about 6.30 for her morning feed, not a bad time for a little one I don't think and it gives us about an hour to cuddle up together in the quiet. Tiny and Shorty come for cuddles at 7.30, climbing into my bed and reading stories or telling each other about fun dreams they've had or in Tiny's case making up daft stories about sweets and candyfloss clouds :-) All days should start with time for cuddles I feel :-)

We walk up to school, it's not far and in winter the view as we walk around the corner near school and see the sun rising over the sea is enough to improve any day. Today the sun was up already and the grass on the field was being cut and everything smelt just like summer should but best of all was that every child we came across on the way to school was smiling. I don't remember being full of smile on my way to school any day of my school career never mind on the first day back after holidays but these kids seemed to be looking forward to their day.

I have tried to remember those happy kids throughout the day and t face everything I've done with a smile on my face, I even managed to smile at the healthvisitor who spoke to me like i was five at clinic this morning. I asked her how I might stop Mini from stealing food and eating it without putting her off just a few weeks before she 'should' start on real food. What i wanted was some help, what i got was a lecture on the evils of food before 26 weeks because obviously we are all dead or fatally poisoned by our parents following the guidelines at the time and feeding us evil poison food before the magical 26 week mark.

Anyway, this post has taken about an hour to write because I only have my left hand available as my little baby girl is asleep on my right, it plays havoc with my typing but I'll miss my cuddles when she's big enough to go to bed on her own!

PB xx

June!!!

2014-06-01T19:41:25Z

I can't believe its June already, where has this year gone!!

I've been beginning to wonder if I will ever write again, that is write for fun again so I've set myself a challenge for June. The challenge is to write 1000 words a day that are fun, that might be emails, chat, blog posts people feel they have to read or even possibly fic (this is the least likely I feel!)

If anyone has any ideas of things I could write about here or if anyone has any prompts they think might help me learn to write again please feel free to share them in the comments here :-)

Shorty's birthday is this week, I can't really believe that it is seven years since I was fed up of being pregnant and wishing she'd be born sometime soon. She went 15 days over in the end and every one of them was a pain in the everything but right now I'm glad I have a few more days to get things sorted for her birthday party. Dinner for 14 is to be cooked and served in my house at weekend and right now I couldn't find 14 seats for people to sit on never mind plates, cutlery and food. It's going to be a fun week getting sorted ;-)

Its the holidays :-D

2014-02-15T23:20:03Z

Today we started our first holiday as a family of four and, although its been a tough day with the driving its looking like it might be a good one.

Last night I really wasn't sure we'd get here but a lovely lady and a lovely gentlemen jumped in a car at 6 o'clock last night and drove 100+ miles to cuddle Mini for me so I was free to pack without having to listen to her cry and then they drove home again! Its a weird world in which people feel inclined to make a 200+ mile round trip on a Friday night just to help me out but I am very grateful to them :-)

Four hours sleep was had last night which isn't bad really and then the day began with feeding Mini, packing the car, feeding Shorty and Tiny, feeding Mini again, driving 89 miles, feeding mini, eating snack, driving 120 miles, feeding Mini, eating lunch, driving 95 miles, doing some shopping, driving 9 miles, feeding mini, unpacking everything, eating tea, feeding mini, putting Tiny and Shorty to bed and then guess what? Yep you got it, Feeding mini ;-)

its been a bit crazy and some sleep would be nice now, I'll probably get four hours and maybe if I'm lucky I'll get a few more than that, but there have been some lovely bit to the day. We saw snow :-) the scenery on the drive up in pretty impressive in any weather but something about the snow made it all look very intimidating in a very beautiful way.

The real highlight of the day though was this,

A present from the holiday park, a wee dram to wet the baby's head :-)

An apology and a bit of a moan ;-)

2013-12-22T18:32:52Z

First up I need to apologise for being rubbish at communication right now, it took me an hour to write a one paragraph email on Thursday night and I haven't managed more than 140 characters in a row since then I don't think. I am reading everything and keeping up to date with people but I am guilty of not commenting or replying to messages and I am sorry about that.

I woke up on Wednesday morning with headache and dizziness and feeling rubbish all of which are signs of things going wrong with the baby or with me so I called the midwife and someone came out to see me. They did all the checks and everything was fine but they concluded that i was in early labour which sounded like good news to me :-)

I had contractions on and off all day and got no sleep Wednesday night so when it got to Thursday morning I got the kids packed off to school/nursery and called the midwife again. Tiny was born 45 mins after the midwife arrived when I had her so the midwife was quickly here to check me over just in case! After doing all her checks the midwife said things were progressing slowly so no need to panic right at that moment but to keep an eye on things and call her if I wanted to, she also informed me that if the plan was for baby to born at hospital she would have been suggesting I went in to be checked over and to have things helped along but seen as the plan is to have baby at home I should just relax as much as possible while keeping active and keep in touch with the labour ward.

My mum and dad took the day off work to come up so i didn't have to worry about school runs and such and the contractions continued all day but just as the kids went to bed they stopped!!

My mum and dad stayed over and in the morning I woke up without a sign of anything :-( and it stayed that way all day so they went home again to get sorted for Christmas.

The midwife is coming tomorrow morning to do pre Christmas checks but if i'm honest I think I've resigned myself to a post Christmas baby and I just want to focus on having fun with Shorty and Tiny and making it the best Christmas we can have (this is made less simple by the antics of the ex but he will never win because he just isn't important enough)

So yeah, I'm not in the best of moods right now and I'm slightly fed up but in reality life could be far worse and I'm really a very very lucky lady :-)

Well that was the month that was.

2013-11-30T22:21:48Z

I'm not sure if I achieved something positive on here every day this month but the main aim, which was to see the positives in life more clearly has certainly been achieved :-)

So many things have happened this month and its been relatively busy which has been nice.

We've sorted everything out for our new baby, not that the baby has managed to make it this month much to Tiny's annoyance.
We've spent lots of time just being together, just the three of us.
I've started counselling
Shorty has had her assessment for her counselling, I'm still waiting for appointments but that's the NHS for you.
I've made a very clear decision on the ex and ALL his family and I've taken all the necessary steps to put that into action in a legal way that offers me and the kids protection.
I've had a full and frank assessment of my parenting by children's services and it has been decided that the kids are lucky to have me so the case has been closed.
I've swum 500 lengths and raised a bit of money for people who need it as well as staying nice and fit for looking after the kids

And here we are, 30 days on and not really remembering the way things were a month ago. The next month is going to change everything for ever but the last month just made me realise that every day changes something about our lives and any day can be the one where you make the decision to do something new.

Thanks for bothering to read this drivel all month :-)

PB xx

pandabob1 @ 2013-11-28T21:34:00

2013-11-28T21:34:06Z

I missed the midwife today so we have no delivery kit!

I didn't know she was coming so its not like I intentionally made the decision to take Shorty swimming rather than wait in for the midwife to call but it still worries me slightly.When I had TIny we had no kit at all, it arrived in three taxis ten minutes after she arrived!! Tiny was delivered by a midwife dressed in high heals, tight jeans and a rather low cut top because she'd been allowed to leave work 20 mins early to come and check on me before the over night team arrived and the baby arrived before the team and their kit did ;-)

I'm not feeling in anyway like baby might turn up soon so I really shouldn't worry but still the boy scout in me is having trouble with the lack of preparation ;-)

I've been swimming today, twice :-) The first time was for a proper swim this morning while the kids were at school/nursery, I only managed 40 lengths before my stomach had had enough but it was nice to get the blood flowing :-) I rewarded myself with a lovely bowl of fruit for my breakfast and a lie on the sofa watching Lewis. The early episodes really are very good to watch :-)

The second swim was with Shorty and it was lovely :-) we talked and played and swam and she spent most of the time without her armbands even though there were some older boys in who were being less than polite with their behaviour and were jumping in, making huge splashes, just feet away from her. I am having really proud days with Shorty right now she is growing up into a very wonderful young lady :-)

Counselling tomorrow!! I'm sort of looking forward to it but also sort of not, my emotions are all over the place with the hormones and stuff and it feels like it could be a messy one tomorrow!!

PB xx

pandabob1 @ 2013-11-27T21:16:00

2013-11-27T21:16:28Z

I met a woman today who I used to be related to, she was the wife of the nutcase's uncle but she isn't any longer. I'd seen her when I was out with the kids a few weeks ago and I'd been surprised that she didn't have a go at me about something but then I didn't know they'd split and weirdly she didn't know we had!

I'd heard all kinds of stories about her over the years from the in laws, things about her making decisions she had no 'right' to make and taking things that weren't hers and even that she was stealing her mother in law's pension. Today i found out just what stories she had been hearing over the years about me!!

We got some seriously funny looks in the shop as we laughed rather loudly at the madness of the family we've escaped from, they really are as mad as a box of frogs!

Tiny needed some new shoes, she seems to go through them like water but then she runs around, climbing on things 'adventuring' all the time so its not to be wondered at really. I looked at the rack of shoes there were some lovely black slip-ons, some dark purple boots, some brown sandals and some white trainers and then there were some bright pink boots that had furry insides and elastic for laces. Guess which ones Tiny picked ;-)

Both kids now have winter boots but i don't :-( I just can't find warm and cosy boots that go up to a size 8! I might just have to go back to my walking boots if the weather turns bad which aren't bad so I'm sure I'll manage :-)

Have a good evening people.

PB xx

Do you ever

2013-11-26T22:38:15Z

have days that start out one way and end up another?

Today has been one of those! The day was good and full of productivity until suddenly it wasn't and my head felt like it had been mashed.

I guess its to be expected right now that my emotional state is less than balanced but its still really weird!!

Anyway tomorrow is another day :-D

PB xx

Today was a good day :-)

2013-11-25T21:29:27Z

Lots of jobs done, lots of smiles and cuddles shared and no falling outs :-)

Shorty had a great day at school even though she'd lost part of her entry for the Christmas decoration competition in the tidying up we did on Saturday so she didn't have it to hand in today. A few weeks ago that would have been the first domino to fall in a very long line of things that meant that she spent the whole day on the edge of upset but not any more. She came running out of school, smiling widely ready to tell me all about her gold star day and the science demonstration she'd been to this afternoon. I've had a full demonstration of static electricity and a good explanation of an experiment that resulted in a crumbling banana. The banana had something to do with liquid nitrogen I think but whatever it was it had Shorty totally enthralled :-)

This morning I had my appointment at the hospital and all the tests were spot on which is great :-) I asked the doc if she was sure that the baby was head down because the last thing we want is a surprise breech when we're not at hospital, she looked at me for a minute as if she was going to tell me off for being rude enough to question her and then she smiled and said 'lets have a look'

Tiny was confused when we had to move to another room and she looked around at all the monitors and screens in the new room with a bit of concern but the look on her face when she saw the baby up on the screen is something i won't forget in a hurry. She actually stopped talking for a whole two minutes as she stared at the screen and then she turned round and said 'Is that our baby mummy?' I have no idea how she's going to react to the baby actually being here but she is seriously cute about it all right now :-)

PB xx

pandabob1 @ 2013-11-24T21:14:00

2013-11-24T21:15:01Z

There aren't many days left in November now, it feels like the month has passed so quickly but looking back things are so different than they were on the 1st of the month so I've certainly achieved things even if time is passing quickly :-)

Today has been a lazy day, a VERY lazy day. We have watched barbie riding horses and being a mermaid, we've watched bob the builder building in the snow, we've watched the doozers build and invent things and we've watched two Alvin and the chipmunks films. Written down that sounds really bad but I have cooked good meals, we've done shorty's homework and we've had lots of cuddles so we've not really just watched the TV all day.

Tomorrow I have my final consultants appointment at the hospital with regard to the baby. I have to be weighed to check my BMI isn't at a dangerous level, I've put on less than half a stone during this pregnancy so even though it'll be high it should be ok. I have to have my BP checked to see that that's at a healthy level, it was 120/80 when I first met my midwife and it was down to 120/60 at last weeks appointment so that should be ok. On top of those two things I need to have clear sugar and protein tests and if all that is ok then its all systems go on the homebirth :-) In reality they can't make me go to hospital to have my baby but if there were any problems identified tomorrow that made it any more risky to be at home than in hospital there is no question that the plans would change and I'd be packing my hospital bag tomorrow afternoon ready for D day and be making arrangement for childcare for the other two.

I've been resisting the urge to take pictures of the baby's wardrobe, I know it sounds odd and a very weird thing to do but right now it looks neat and tidy and beautiful with all the tiny clothes hung up in it and it will probably never look like that again once the baby is here!

Its strange to think that this could have been my last weekend as a mummy of two, it probably wasn't and I'll probably end up with a last Christmas as a mother of two but still it feels very odd to be living each day knowing it might be the last time I do things before the baby comes.

PB xx

12 hours

2013-11-23T23:20:20Z

12 hours of lifting, carrying. opening, closing, washing, cooking, tidying, vacuuming, dusting, talking and laughing and now we have everything ready for a baby.

Tired now though!!

I hope you've all had a great Saturday I will be having a very lazy Sunday ;-)

PB xx

I made it to France :-)

2013-11-21T20:50:07Z

Ok the title makes no sense because I'm actually still right here at home but over the last few weeks, since the new school term started in September, I've been trying to swim the channel. Its part of a fund raiser for a spinal injuries charity but more importantly, for me at least, its kept me fit and healthy during a period of time when it could have got difficult to chase after two kids if I'd sat around doing nothing the rest of the time.

Shorty's class at school had 100% attendance and no late arrivals in the first half of this term and today they were rewarded with a film and treats afternoon. Popcorn, sweets and drinks, teacher seats to sit on in the school hall and a film up on the big screen. Shorty was really looking forward to it even though she didn't know what film they would be watching and with nativity practice all morning it was going to be a day when she didn't have to put pen to paper so all in all a win for the girl :-)

I, however, am really annoyed about the choice of film, it was a PG and I'm sure schools are only supposed to U films and it was all about Christmas which the kids don't need winding up about any more than they already are but most of all I'm annoyed that I wasn't invited to watch the film with them!

The film was Nativity! staring Martin Freeman!!!!!!!

Any school that will encourage my daughter to spend her afternoon watching Martin Freeman being super Christmasy and cute is a school I want my children to spend their time in :-D

Shorty was so cute about it and all excited to tell me what she'd watched but I do wonder what some of the other parents will think of the school breaking the U only rule and getting in the Christmas spirit!

PB xx

Totally forgot about this today!!

2013-11-20T23:23:40Z

is it a sign that I've been busy enough to not have time or a sign that I am way too tired to be trusted with anything important?

Who knows but sorry anyway, I don't like forgetting things!

PB xx

The Escape Artist

2013-11-19T21:25:45Z

Did anyone watch The Escape Artist when it was on BBC1 a few weeks ago? My memory for storylines isn't brilliant at the minute so I've fallen into the habit of recording short series like that and then watching the whole lot together which is what I did today. If you saw it what did you think?

It was a great use of a day to myself I would say :-)

I went for the hardest swim of my life this morning first thing after dropping the kids at school/nursery. 50 lengths in 45 mins and every one of them felt like it was draining the life out of me but I still have about a mile of the channel left to swim before the end of my challenge so it won't be the last swim I have before baby is born even if my body wishes it was!!

After swimming I had breakfast, and had a very difficult conversation with a friend of mine who is in a relationship that makes me feel quite uncomfortable and who is making some big decisions that might not be easy to come back from in order to keep her other half happy, and then I curled up on the sofa under a blanket (I don't use the heating on days when the kids aren't in so I have many warm blankets to snuggle under) and watched all three parts of The Escape Artist and I have to admit that at the end of part one i was very glad to be able to watch part two and three because it was one of those programmes that I think might have worried me had I had to wait a week to watch the next bit!!

I did do some housework this afternoon, I agreed the contents of a letter for the nutcase with my solicitor and I remembered to go and pick the kids up from school and nursery and to give them their tea so all in all a successful and yet restful day :-)

Oh and we had SNOW this morning!!! :-D

PB xx

I just noticed

2013-11-18T21:43:31Z

That today is the 18th of November, yes I know its weird that I could get to nine o'clock at night and only just notice the date but I have no real need to know what it is at the minute really other than to know that I've already left it too late to send my grandma a birthday card and have it arrive on time :-(

But the big thing about noticing it was the 18th today was that it means we're in the one month countdown to D-day!!!!!

Anyone who has ever had or known anyone who has had a baby will know that they don't have a very good understanding of calendars and that there is an official 'full term' window of five whole weeks either side of the due date so no one will be booking the 18th off work in expectation but it is quite an important date as far as I'm concerned.

On the 18th December 2005 I lost my first pregnancy to a miscarriage, it was very tough and the date was one that I thought would hold sad memories for ever. On the 18th December 2009 I found out I was pregnant with Tiny, it was quite unexpected and it made me smile on a day that still held sadness even though by then I had Shorty running around. So on 18th December 2013 I am expecting my (probably) last baby and it feels strangely right that that is the due date even though I know that the chances of it turning up on the 18th are only 5%.

Of course it matters not a lot to anyone else but it does to me :-)

PB xx

The day of sleep

2013-11-17T21:22:15Z

It was very late when we got up this morning, it might not have counted as late for other people but it felt like a good lie in for me and I had some fun listening to the kids play and tell each other to be quiet so they wouldn't wake mummy ;-)

After a busy day yesterday we were planning on a quiet day today so Tiny didn't bother getting dressed and Shorty just put a jumper over her pjs. Quiet lasted for as long as it took to eat breakfast and get through Shorty's maths homework but the second we got to her literacy homework the roof nearly came off!!

Writing is something Shorty won't do without screaming and shouting, she will happily draw and colour and she loves art so its not that she is incapable of holding a pen or anything, writing is just something she doesn't want to do. I've discussed it with lots of people and I've tried to talk to school about it but its a real sticking point :-( The counsellor Shorty saw last week advised that I treat the problem in the same way that I treated her when she refused to eat when she was a toddler.

When she went through a phase of not wanting to eat what was for dinner I told her that that was fair enough but she had to sit nicely at the table while everyone else ate. I gave her her dinner and I ignored her eating whether she did or not, no fuss if she didn't and no praise if she did just the reminder if she complained that the expectation was that she sat nicely at the table. So apparently I should tell her the work needs doing and I should set her up at the table for a certain length of time and if its not done i should just put it away and forget about it. No attention either way is the key apparently BUT how does that work with homework? if its not done she's going to get told off by her teacher which undermines the whole thing and, of course, the majority of her being told she has to write happens at school so there isn't much I can do without their support and I've asked them to stop making a fuss about it so many times and its made no difference :-(

Anyway that's a problem for when I manage to arrange a meeting with her teacher, not one I can do anything about myself (I find it really annoying when my kids have problems I don't have the power to fix, I know its crazy but I really can't help it!)

This afternoon we curled up on the sofa to watch the new DVD the kids got yesterday, the plan was to have some quiet time with the two of them but what actually happened was I fell asleep!! I had my arms around the two of them and we were all wrapped up in blankets and I have no idea at all what Barbie got up to or what happened to the fish in the second DVD. I would feel guilty about it if I wasn't quite so sure that the kids probably didn't see much of the film either because they looked like they'd had a pretty good nap as well :-)

New week starts tomorrow, I have far fewer meetings planned so hopefully plenty of time to finish the last few things off in the house and I might even fit a trip to ikea in :-D

Hope you all had a good weekend

PB xx

pandabob1 @ 2013-11-16T21:51:00

2013-11-16T21:51:07Z

Yesterday evening I had to go to the doctors to arrange a few things for after baby turns up. Shorty and Tiny struggled to gain weight in the first few weeks and I don't want that to happen again so I've been setting up extra support and part of that was arranging to see the doctor sooner than normal after the birth. My appointment yesterday was at 3.40 so we had to run from School and the surgery is in our little village and is generally filled with relatives and friends of the mad ex because they all live here and there is always something wrong with them so it was a bit of a stressful thing to start with and that was without the hour delay in the appointment, we finally saw the doctor at 4.50!!

The upside of the delay was that the sun had almost gone down when we were walking home and the normally horrible parts of town looked really beautiful. Shorty asked me to take this picture and she told me to share it with those people on the internet, I guess she meant you lot ;-)

I had a moment today, as I was hanging the new curtains in the nursery, when I suddenly realised that I was having a baby. I know that sounds nuts because I've known it was happening for a bloody long time now but suddenly as I closed the curtain for the first time it all became very real.

In a very short time from now I will be sitting on my sofa, cuddling my little baby and typing everything one handed, something I am sure you will all be very happy about as it will halve my ability to ramble on ;-)

PB xx

I'm going to eat you little fishy

2013-11-13T22:32:51Z

I took TIny swimming today, she is half fish I am sure if it an she really enjoys being in the water so we had great fun. Swimming is about the only thing that still exists that will (normally) guarantee me a rest in the afternoon. I added the brackets there because today was the day that it didn't!! I could have done with a nap this afternoon but Tiny wanted to play on the computer and dance around the living room which as far as I'm concerned is not a reasonable response to going for a swim ;-)

I've had a very welcome almost boring day today I hope everyone reading this has had a good day :-)

PB xx

I can't blog today

2013-11-11T21:33:29Z

I have no energy at all and every drop of life has been sapped out of me by today. This is not a bad thing I promise but I can't do words today.

PBxx

How cold does it have to be?

2013-11-10T20:45:38Z

We arrived home tonight after our weekend away and the house was freezing!! I turned the heating off at lunchtime on Friday before packing the car and setting off on our trip and I guess its been a chilly weekend to leave the house with no heating but seriously it was FREEZING!

I can't say I wanted to come home, I know that I have lots to be excited about and lots of fun things to do over the next few weeks but I can't say that coming back to this house was a nice feeling.

On the positive side, because I'm determined to be positive about things as much as possible, Tiny walked into the house and said 'Its been nice to see Granny and grandad and auntie x but it's nice to come back to our house with Shorty and Mummy' she's such a lovely little thing but she also makes me feel slightly guilty about how life has gone for Shorty.

Shorty is so beautifully awesome now and she was lovely four years ago but she wasn't quite so sunny and bright as she is now or as Tiny is now. Makes me wonder what her life would have been if I'd ended things with her dad sooner, of course she wouldn't have had the most important person in her life if I'd never had Tiny so I didn't get it too wrong really I guess :-)

I hope everyone reading this has had a fab weekend because you're all awesome :-D

PBxx

so

2013-11-09T22:47:07Z

I had almost no sleep last night.

I struggled to get to sleep because I was thinking about the in laws and also about a strange text message I got yesterday that i replied to a bit more honestly than I would normally do and then felt a bit bad about because the person who sent the message probably didn't deserve the reply he got!

I finally got to sleep sometime around 3, I know this because I heard my dad go to bed and he says it was 230 when he went but I know I was asleep when Shorty started getting wet due to very heavy rain at about 4. We don't have a leak or anything but, at my parents we do sleep in the attic and because I like fresh air I'd left the window in the ceiling slightly open when I went to bed. The window wasn't open much but suddenly the rain came down so hard that it pushed the window open further and Shorty almost jumped out of bed as she was met with heavy, very cold, rain.

We were up this morning at 7 and downstairs watching cartoons by 730 so all in I had very little sleep BUT I've had a really nice day :-)

We curled up watching cartoons for a bit before granny got up and made breakfast for us all, we watched more cartoons and then were presented with lunch and then I got my four hours off and ran away to the football match with my dad, leaving the kids to make masks for the ball that Shorty is going to on Tuesday, we came home to tea on the table and then we had fireworks.

It doesn't get much better for a lady in my situation than spending a day not doing any cooking, cleaning, tidying, washing up or anything else really :-)

This may be the last time the three of us are here, next time it might be four of us and I'll be tied to the sofa feeding a baby so I really have made the most of being lazy today :-)

PB xx

All booked in :-)

2013-11-07T21:29:00Z

The midwife came today to book me in for my home birth, its all still dependent on the baby turning up between 37 and 42 weeks but all being well baby will be born at home with Tiny and Shorty in attendance :-)

Tiny was born at home and Shorty was there when she arrived and was cuddled up on the sofa with us within ten minutes. It was lovely to have us all together and Shorty has always been proud to tell people, sometimes in far more detail than they want to have, about Tiny's birth and how she helped and especially about the birthday cake she made for the baby with a lovely 0 candle on the top.

So today I had to have a reasonable BP, 120/62 was ok apparently, I had to have no swelling and no excessive weight gain, I've gained about 6lb in total so far so that's not a problem, and baby had to be head down, active and have a good variable heart rate all of which it did :-D

The appointment was the longest one I've had because not only was it a normal check up we also had to fill in plans and paperwork with details of who would be here and how they would access the house and the midwife had to explore the house and fill in details of where everything is so that the on call midwife who came out wouldn't get lost on the way and would be able to find things in the house even though they've never been before.

Its very exciting and yet also seriously scary to think how soon baby will be here and i really should be making better use of my time than I am ;-)

PB xx

decisions, decisions

2013-11-05T21:21:29Z

I've made a few big decisions today, not that I can act on them right at this moment but I feel weirdly calm about the fact I have made the decisions :-)

On a more practical note I have put a second coat of paint on the nursery which means its almost ready to move the furniture and put the stickers on and I've swum 50 lengths which was good for clearing the head although its getting to be a bit like swimming in treacle now and if one more person comments about me creating waves due to my large stomach I think I might just have to drown them!

I need to eat more, I should be eating about 2300 calories a day at the minute apparently but so far today I've managed 900! comparing that with what I burned on my swim I really think I need to have some decent supper but I just don't fancy anything. This is not a predicament I am used to, normally I have an appetite to rival a bodybuilder and I eat far too much!!

On that note I'm off to find food :-) have a nice evening

PB xx

pandabob1 @ 2013-11-04T21:40:00

2013-11-04T21:40:23Z

we now have yellow painted walls and not too much paint on Tiny who had a great time painting the wall while telling the baby in my tummy all about what she was doing and how the room was going to look when it was finished. (very cute)

We bought farm stickers for the wall instead of the butterflies we were planning to have. All the butterflies I could find were pink and felt far too girly for a room for a baby we don't know the gender of and the cows on the farm stickers were really cute :-)

After painting and cleaning we just about had time for a cuddle on the sofa and a chat before going to pick Shorty up from her first day back at school :-)

I was rather nervous about picking Shorty up today but she'd had a lovely day and got all her stars on her working hard chart. The last couple of days before the holidays were a complete disaster at school and I ended up going into school to calm Shorty down in the middle of Friday afternoon because no one could make sense of what was wrong with her. The head teacher was almost in tears watching her as she couldn't find a way to help her and she was very relieved to see everything clam within seconds of my arrival. We, the teachers and I, all know what the root of the problem is but it doesn't make it any easier to deal with when she had a tough day :-( BUT today, even with a supply teacher in and it being the first day back, She had a great day and came out full of smiles :-)

Now it is time to write something, not letters to people about rubbish that really matters but I can't be bothered with, Tonight I'm going to have fun and write fic :-)

PB xx