Exciting news!

I've not been very good at keeping up to date with my blog diary. I have to blame it all on work. I am just so busy now. Promotion is a marvellous thing but it does entail doing many more hours and currently I'm trying to do 3 jobs in 1 week. The number of staff I am supervising has trebled in last month and although I will be losing one of my work districts that will not happen until the last newly appointed worker is fully inducted. So I feel a bit like a juggler, trying to keep all the balls in the air at once, I never was any good at juggling!!
I keep saying to myself , it will get better, it will get better and yes I guess it will, but it'll be mid summer before it starts to settle I surmise and even then the pressure will still be on. Not that I am complaining, because i do like to keep busy.

In the meantime my daughter BB's pregancy is progressing nicely. She had her second scan on Wednesday. We were there for hours. The Ultra sound person took us in quickly and the baby was located and all was well, but it wouldn't let her do the measurements, it kept putting it's hands on it's head as if to say "Leave me alone- Go away!",BB also wanted to know what sex it was, so we were asked to go and wait a while, BB had to drink more water. She drank more water, we waited , she had to wee because couldn't stand it any longer, so she then had to drink more water, we waited again, eventually about an hour later we went back into scan. The woman still could get the measurements she wanted so had to ask a colleague, the new person came in, found it all quickly, did the head measurements and spine and then told us she was 90% sure it was a "pink"!!

Which is delightful, I'm more than happy, but I think there was ahope amongst some of the family that it might be a boy as both our family and M's family have large number of girls already!
At the end of the day the important thing is that she is healthy, nothing else really matters. So exciting to see how much she has grown since the last scan.

BB is very tired and has a lot of back pain. Probably the M.E doesn't help, but lucky thing id off for a week in the sun with partner M. He's finished his degree now and ready for a short break, so they have booked a last minute to a Greek Island.
I hope she'll be OK.

Bluebell Walk with friends

We were very fortunate with the weather,though it was wet early on, the sun came out in the afternoon, so after a yummy lunch of homemade soup and lots of cakes and puddings we were ready for our walk! Though I think maybe with the exception of G, who is a practised walker , my friends will have woken this morning cursing me!! I took them on a walk that I had only partly done before and it went much further round before we could get back again. We saw lovely bluebells on the way, but must have walked 4-5 miles when we eventually reached a point I recognised and poor A was struggling, her wellies had rubbed blisters and so I rang BB and she came and picked up some of us, including the dogs, who were in need of a long drink. G & R did the whole walk. I woke this morning very stiff in the legs and back and think others will be suffering too. So that may be last of the Bluebell Walks, I think they may not want to come again. Though we did have such a good day and lots of laughs, especially when Molly (dog) jumped on the table and started eating the chocolate mousse that G had brought!

The Bluebells are out!

The picture above is of the bluebells last year.

This Saturday my friends and I are getting together for lunch and another Bluebell walk. I do hope the sun will shine on us as it did last year.

Breast or bottle?

When BB saw the Midwife the other day, I was most surprised that when BB said she wanted to Breast feed that the midwife sounded surprised as if it wasn't normal for young women to want to breast feed. She said nothing to encourage BB but just said "Oh, you want to breast feed then?" as if it was an alien suggestion.

Speaking to an American friend who is now living over here and is expecting her third child, she said that in the States she had no support whatsoever for breast feeding her first 2 children, it was just expected she'd bottle feed. But over here her Midwife is actively encouraging her to breast feed

I know not every one is able to breast feed but I do feel it gives the baby immunity if you are able to even for just a few weeks and of course it is very good for losing the post pregnancy weight gained.

BB has been closely following the media discussions about the damaging things Bisphenol A, or BPA that are in the plastic bottles, which can seep into the baby's milk & cause harm if you use a microwave or boiling water. She's even thinking of ordering glass bottles from USA ( they do lovely glass bottles covered with plastic safety coat in lots of colours) where they have already banned the plastic with the . Our govt is saying the levels are so low that not likely to cause harm, but how can they be sure. USA must know something we don't, if that's the case.

I breastfed my 3 girls, didn't do too well with eldest, but other 2 were on the breast for over 6 months until I had to return to work, but what a challenge it was to get them totake a bottle after having the breast so long, they weren't keen on the cups either, the poor child minder had a real struggle and sometimes I had to go round in my lunch hour to feed. But I also remember using bottles for the Progress milk and always heated them up in the microwave, without another thought. I hope I haven't left them with some long lasting damage.

What are your views ? Breast or Bottle? Toxic or Not?

Scan photos

First glimpse!

I feel so priviledged, it was so amazing.
There on the screen was this tiny baby, it's little head has a working brain, I could see it's heart beating, it moved it's arms and legs. It is all there, but so very tiny. From head to it's bottom is just 6.6mm. The head width was just 2.4mm. But perfectly formed.

Life is such a miracle. How can you not believe in God when you see such a miracle of nature?

It was very emotional. BB cried at the sheer joy and relief that it is there and growing.

There is only one baby! No twins! In fact the Radiographer said the baby is slightly on the small side, so the tum BB is getting must be due to food rather than baby!!The EDD is now 16 September, gettting nearer to my birthday on the 18th September!

The next scan is in May, hope to find out then if it is a granddaughter or a grandson. BB keen to know so she can buy clothes in the appropriate colours! Though I don't see any problem with babies wearing any colour really, my girls wore lots of blue. Em was often mistaken for a boy as she had no hair!

Tomorrow..................

Tomorrow, I will be taking the morning off work to take BB & M to our local hospital.

Tomorrow, BB has her first scan and she wants me there too!

Tomorrow, I get to see my grandchild for the first time!

I'm very excited!

Considering she is only 12 weeks, BB is already showing and needing to wear loose fitting clothing. What does this mean? Could it be twins?? or does she have her dateswrong.
Tomorrow we find out.

I'll let you know when I get back from hospital.