Graduation

My eldest daughter Em graduated on Monday, lovely event and lots of cake afterwards!

I'm a very proud mum.
Em has returned to Uni to start her MPhil. Exciting times.

At last baby has arrived!

At 3.17pm on 24-09-09 I officially became a Grandmother!

My daughter gave birth to a beautiful little baby girl and I am so proud of her.

Labour was long and drawn out over 18 hours, but the final stage came on quickly and she delivered baby without any complications.

We went to the hospital to see daughter and baby last night and took a couple of photos, you can tell which one is mum she looks exhausted, the other picture is of baby's Auntie Em, she doesn't look exhausted!!



Mother and baby are now safely home with us. All going well so far! Mic is most devoted dad ever!!

Still waiting................

The baby is still insitu, much to BB's dismay, she is so uncomfortable now. She is suffering from SPD, (Supra Pubic Dyfunction)which is when the pelvic bones separate and it is excruciatingly painful.

It's my birthday today. 48 years ago today my mum had just given birth to me in the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital.Now I'm about to be a Gran and my mum is about to be a Great Grandma!

It would be amazing if BB was to give birth today too but somehow I don't think she will. She has been having Braxton Hicks contractions for ages now, sometimes they get very painful and close together but not gone into full labour yet.

I will let you know when I have any news.

Keys & Things

Did you know that all Ford keys will lock any Ford car? No, nor did I and what a muddle I caused by this lack of knowledge!

Some of you will be aware that my Stan has a car habit, we have about 20 cars and about 5 of them are Fords.

Since the early summer when my elder daughter came home from Uni we have been very scrapped for space in the house and so have started to store things in the cars!

BB's room was getting so full of baby equipment, she decided to put her Moses Basket and her Quinney Buggy in a Ford Focus sitting on the drive. So far so good.

A couple of days go by and BB shouts down to me, "Mum, can you lock the Focus, coz my stuffs all in there and I don't want anyone to steal it" "Ok" says I.

I pick up the Ford key most noticeable on the side and go out to the Focus. I lock it, no problems.

2 weeks pass, BB suddenly says "Mum, I need to measure the Moses Basket to order a new mattress", "OK" says I again, " the key is here, come down and do what you need to do". I went out.

On my return, BB moans- " Mum, the key won't work, is there another one you used?" "No" I say " It's the key I locked it with , so should be the one......

Fast forward a few hours BB has rung Stan ( My Hubby, her dad)and told him about the Focus not opening...........duck now as we receive a barrage of bad language and huffing and puffing.....................The fact is we've locked the Focus with the wrong key, the actual key to to Focus is inside the Focus under the seat! Why? you may well ask, but Stan puts keys under seats as it saves him coming in and out to get keys when he is moving cars around. This is when he informs us that Ford nmake all their keys able to lock ANY Ford car but ONLY the correct key will unlock it. How stupid is that??Apparently it helps with the fleights of cars.

Now normally locking a key in a car would not be a problem, Stan is able to use wires and things through windows to pull up the lock.......BUT not in this case. The lock is hidden, there is nothing to pull up. So we are stuck. There seems to be only 2 choices- Break a window or get a new lock.

Stan makes us stew for over 2 weeks before he decides to have another go at getting the door open. He found out the key man would charge him £70 to break lock and fit new one and window would cost about the same. As it was my fault, I agreed to pay for key man to come.

Then one Sunday afternoon, Stan and a mate start playing with the lock again, lots of wires and wrenching goes on and eventually the door comes open, bit damaged but nothing untoward.

So the Moses basket is free and the matress is ordered and now sitting in the bedroom in readiness for the baby.

But would you believe it? Stan managed to lock himself out of his van up the yard the other day. He lost his key out of his pocket ( he has a hole in his jeans pocket) So had to get the key man to open the van up as impossible to get a key cut.........this cost him £30.

What is it with us and cars and Keys!!!

Not long now!

Well, the time has just flown by and here we are end of August and my darling daughter BB is nearly 38 weeks into her pregancy. EDD 16 Sept. To be frank I will be glad when the baby arrives. BB is struggling now , in a lot of discomfort, finding it hard to walk , not sleeping very well and the baby is a very active one.

BB & M are all organised, cot,moses basket, pram and all the sundry items required are now piled up in BB's room. She has loads of clothes, thanks to very kind friends and family. Great granny to be has been busy with the knitting needles, so there are lots of lovely matinee jackets, dresses and bootees and hats.

BB & M went to look around the Delivery suite at hospital on Saturday, they are wondering about using the birthing pool, though there is only one and it is first come first served, so not likely to get it. Apparently there is going to be a boom of babies being born in Sept.

So watch this space for the announcement of the arrival of the baby.

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.

I'm fuming!

Those of you who have read my blog this week will know that my daughter BB is pregnant.

She had been unemployed for some time having left the airport restaurant where she was working because she couldn't cope with the 4.30am starts.

Last week she eventually managed to get a new job at a local bakery with small cafe.
She was advised by job centre not to tell them she was pregnant to begin with, so she didn't. She worked 3 days, then had weekend off and went to hospital on Monday. She decided she should inform her boss of her condition as she didn't feel it right to keep it from him.
He didn't take it very well and all the next day kept niggling her and made her do all the horrid jobs. Whenever, he could he'd be unpleasant to her and she came home in tears.
The next day she did her best to keep out of his way, out in public domain in cafe, she worked hard and had a good day.
Today , she was doing the same and all seemed to be well, then the area manager came in and called her into the office . He sacked her . He said he didn't feel she was suitable for the job and refused to give her a reason, saying if she wanted a reason she would need to write into head office. He said she was on a 4 week trial period, they never said that when she started.

It's got to be because she is pregnant. She didn't do anything wrong. No warnings nothing, she'd only worked 5 days.

Anyone know anything about employment law?
Can we do anything??

Diary of a Gran-to- be

What do you do when your 18 year old daughter tells you she is pregnant?
You do what I did, after reeling from the shock you tell her everything will be Ok and you'll support her come what may.

I didn't have a clue anything was wrong. I spoke to BB first thing in the morning and made her some breakfast and went off to work as normal.
Just as I was arriving at work i received a text, this is what i said "mummy I love you and you love me too right? So what I'm going to tell you , you're not going to hate me are you? I've done a pregnancy test and its positive. I wanted to tell you face to face but would of just started to cry as I am writing this. I love you please don't hate me, I'm sorry I f****d up yet again! XX"

Why would she think I'd hate her , of course don't hate her. I love her but i did get that sinking feeling. Oh dear Lord, here we go again.

You see this isn't the first time, last time she was far too young and I thanked God that she lost it, but the loss devastated her and consumed her with deep depression. So hearing she was pregnant brought back fears for her mental health, what if she should lose another baby. how would she cope?, how would we support her?.

Of course I rang BB straight away and told her i loved her, told her i'd be there every step of the way and reassured her that it was OK. She isn't alone, she has a wonderful partner, M and he is really caring and supportive. That was all 6 weeks ago.

BB is 12 weeks now and has been feeling as sick as a dog and most mornings start with that awful sounds of retching , but hopefully that will ease soon.

Last weekend I plucked up courage to tell my parents, they were surprisingly OK about it to my face, though told my sister it was " devastating news". I made light of it and told Mum she needed to get her knitting needles out as she was going to become a Great Gran. She is a wonderful knitter and all my childrern had beautiful outfits knitted by her as babies.

To tell the truth, I'm excited,I really missed not having any young children to buy gifts for from The Early Learning Centre. i love that shop. So now I will have an excuse again.

Time permitting I hope to keep a regular diary of BB's progress until baby arrives in September. Now that is a good month to be born. My birthday is September, so is Stan's and my dad's and a niece and nephew,so now we await the arrival of the latest September delivery!

In need of a rest!

What a day it's been, what a week!

Had eldest home from Uni all week ill in bed, she arrived feeling rough and got worse, not like her to stay in bed, but she did for 3 wholes days, just taking flu medicine and lots of fluids.

Youngest not feeling her best but has carried on all week.

Middle daughter was up all night being sick, not sure if cause was a dodgy chinese or a bug, either way, none of us got much sleep, had to clean carpet where she missed loo in middle of night.

Went downstairs in middle of night to find the dog had got lid of my bird food fat balls she'd eaten several, remains all over carpet. I put lid back on went back up stairs to clean up when I came down she'd got lid of again and was chewing on another!

At lunch time today dog was sick all over dining room floor thanks to fat balls, so had to clean that up too.

Then my toaster caught fire whilst heating up ciabatta, fire alarms going off all over the house. Had to get flames put out and empty crumb tray. House still smells of burnt toast!

Anyone like to swap my life for theirs, preferably one that is relaxing , with no kids or dogs???