May and June at the Duckpond

A two month round-up this time, as I didn't get round to actually writing a post at the end of May!

• We went on holiday to Butlins in Bognor Regis; on a break which was booked back in 2019 and had been postponed twice. It wasn't quite the break we envisaged when we booked it as we steered clear of all the indoor activities (not wanting to risk catching Covid) but we certainly made the most of the outdoor fairground and childrens activities. 

• Whilst we were in Bognor Regis we also explored the south coast area, doing an afternoon drive to Brighton on one day and a drive to Portsmouth and Southsea on another. And we also surprised Lily with a mystery tour to Paultons Park - which she loved!

• TV - obviously we're 10 years behind everyone here but wow, 'Line of Duty' is rather good isn't it! We binge-watched it over about 2-3 weeks and probably ended up with far too many late nights as we wanted to keep watching the next episode. We watched 'Vigil' as well, which was also excellent - although watching it immediately after 'Line of Duty' meant than we suspected everyone in the show :-D

• Music - I've been listening to Arcade Fire's new album, 'WE' which is brilliant. I've only seen them live once (Glastonbury 2014), I'd love to see them on their tour later in the year but it's not worth the Covid-risk. I'll stick to listening to the tunes on repeat!

• After we'd finished in Bognor Regis we headed down to Cornwall for the weekend to see another show at the Minack Theatre, 'Calvino Nights' - which was fabulous. Lily asked to go to that theatre again so we've booked one of their October shows, 'Horrible Histories - Terrible Tudors'. 

• We've been visiting one of our local outdoor swimming pools a lot recently so that Lily can practise her swimming. We decided to cancel her indoor swimming lessons; she hadn't been since last September (when the Covid rates started rising) and she didn't want to risk it herself. So we've been doing lots of afternoons out in the sunshine, taking a picnic and enjoying the water. 

• I did my usual shifts at Glastonbury festival. helping to look after a farm and a lane in Pilton village. I took Lily into the festival on Thursday when the Kidzfield opened and she had a fantastic time, I think her highlight was playing on the adventure castle and watching 'Andy and the Odd Socks' from CBBC. We didn't go on site the rest of the weekend though, there was just too many people and it wasn't worth the risk. 

• The other half turned 44; we had an outdoor fish & chip supper at a local farm shop which was tasty. Not sure he's looking forward to next year though, being halfway through his forties!

• The other half picked a birthday day trip out to the West Somerset Railway to see the steam trains and eat chips by the seaside. 

• May's photo an hour was Saturday 21st (the day of our visit to the railway) and June's date was Saturday 18th. The next date is Saturday 23rd July. 

• Andrew took his vintage lorry out to its first show since August 2019 - the Bath and West show. It rained quite a bit but he still enjoyed it. 

• We watched some of the Jubilee celebrations on the television. It was brilliant to see the carnival cart from Bridgwater take part in the pageant parade (anyone involved in carnival has been following its build progress over the last year on social media!). If you want to see it all lit up, come and see it (and lots of others) during the Somerset carnival season in November. 

• I've been eagerly making my spreadsheet of all the wonderful shows on at this year's Edinburgh Fringe. There seems to be lots worth seeing although I haven't actually booked anything yet - not sure if any of them are worth the risk. We'd be wearing our FFP3 masks anyway but still, I haven't decided yet what to do. 

What have you all been up to? 

 

This Little Big Life - Autumn and Winter Doings

Last summer Sarah and Louise started a little link-up series called This Little Big Life, showcasing highlights from the weekend. Needless to say, none of us managed to keep up with posting on a weekly basis; as often happens, life just simply gets in the way.

I can, however do an almighty round-up of what we got up to over the autumn and winter :-)


September
September was spent enjoying the last of the summer weather with a holiday down to Brixham, a trip to a local lido and a sunny day trip to the beach at Weymouth. We also saw a couple of local small carnivals (in preparation for the big ones in November) and had a bit of work done on the house, in the form of a lovely shiny new wood-burning stove. We had some trips out to the playground, a visit to Bridgwater Fair and started some new baby classes: The Creation Station's Baby Discover (arts and crafts) and a Mum & Baby Yoga course.

 

October
October saw more carnivals, more playgrounds and a chance to dress as a novelty pumpkin (Lily, not myself). There was a local lantern parade which we joined in with and a trip to The Egg Theatre in Bath to see a show aimed at babies (about spongy things!). We spent too much money at an NCT Nearly New Sale and I had my first evening out with the little one (all us mums in our NCT group went out for a meal). I ended up being interviewed by BBC Radio Bristol all about National Fertility Awareness Week and we also met Kipper at the Bath Children's Literature Festival!

November
November was all about carnival season here in Somerset. Lily went to her first Bridgwater carnival and spent half of it asleep and half of it wide-eyed and open-mouthed at the lights, music and dancing. We also watched a couple of firework displays and visited the theatre in Bristol to see 'The Grinning Man' (which was A.MAZING). I also helped out at our local NCT Sale (which was great fun) and then ended up joining the local branch as a volunteer. We went back to visit all the staff at the fertility clinic to say hello and Lily ended up being on Twitter for a while. She also celebrated reaching double figures in months by spending the day asleep during Glastonbury Frost Fayre and a visit to Glastonbury Abbey.

December
December saw theatre shows, Father Christmas, reindeer and presents. Lily went to her very first classical music concert - a group called Music for Miniatures who run regular events locally in Bath and Frome - it was excellent and a really Christmassy start to the month. We had a mini holiday to the New Forest for my birthday and Lily met Father Christmas for the first time. We had day trips to Longleat for the Festival of Light and to a local garden centre for their Christmas displays. Me and Andrew even managed to have our first evening out on our own since before Lily was born! (We went to the Bristol Old Vic to see 'The Snow Queen' - which was quite spectacular) We had a real wreath on our front door for Christmas too - handmade by my own fair hands under the expert tuition of the lovely Gemma from Dora Flora Flowers. We made sure Lily had her fill of Christmas theatre too with four shows and one concert watched: 'Reindeer on the Roof'; 'Jack Frost'; 'The Christmassy Christmas Show of Christmassy Christmasness' (highly recommended); Little Tim and the Brave Sea Captain'; and 'The Snowman' performed by Bath Philharmonia. We also had some settling in sessions at Lily's nursery!

January
It was the end of maternity leave this month, having had the full 12 months away from the office. My role was made into a job share with me doing the Monday and Tuesday. Lily also started at her nursery (a fabulous forest school set on a farm) and we settled into a routine of two days at nursery followed by three days of baby groups. Lily's social life is better than mine with regular classes of music, painting, messy play, toddler groups and swimming lessons! We also went to the theatre to see 'Snow Mouse' (which will be at the Barbican in London this Christmas) and me and Andrew managed an afternoon to ourselves seeing 'The Play That Goes Wrong' at Bath Theatre Royal - both shows highly recommended. We went to a friend's fancy dress 'heroes & villains' party as the Little Red Riding Hood story and then the little one turned one whole year old! I embellished a vest for her to wear on the day and then a few days later we had one big birthday party with all her friends and lots of inflatable and soft play stuff. It was good!

So how's life with you?

A Photo Every Hour - Saturday 27th August

August's photo an hour challenge fell on the 27th - the Saturday of the bank holiday weekend. Andrew was down at the Great Dorset Steam Fair all week with his lorry; me and Lily joined him for the weekend.

Here's what the day looked like...


7am - Someone decided that it was a good idea to start playtime early.

8am - A quick nip to the loos.

9am - Early morning stroll.

10am - Breakfast!

11am - Post-brekkie snack.

12pm - Waiting for the rain to pass.

1pm - Themed nappy for a transport rally (even if the vehicles on it are a bit modern).

2pm - Listening to one of the organs.

3pm - New toy purchased from one of the stalls.

4pm - Watching some of the displays whilst waiting for Andrew to take his lorry round the show ring.

5pm - Family selfie whilst Andrew's driving round the ring.

6pm - Alfresco dinner.

7pm - Time to pack dinner away.

8pm - Off out for a walk round the show.

9pm - Showman's engine wheel.

10pm - Evening engines at Great Dorset Steam Fair.

This month we had 22 lovely people joining in:

Lizzie from Lizzie Dripping joined in on Instagram, Twitter and her blog
Susie from Second Hand Susie joined in on Instagram, Twitter and her blog
Sharon from Sunshine and Celandines joined in on Instagram, Twitter and her blog
Amy from Fluffy Owl's Adventures joined in on Instagram and her blog
Hazel from World of Joy joined in on Instagram and Twitter
Char from T*rexes and Tiaras joined in on her blog
Bev from Confuzzledom joined in on her blog
Andrea from Fiction Burns joined in on her blog
Franca from Oranges and Apples joined in on Instagram
Charlotte from Discovering Charlotte joined in on Instagram
Jennifer from Adventures in Pop Culture joined in on Instagram
Jane from Is That You Darling joined in on Instagram
Rebecca from Just Me joined in on Instagram
Tukru from Kissakerho joined in on Instagram
Rebecca from Halfway Home joined in on Instagram
Liz from Distract Me Now Please joined in on Instagram
Jesamine joined in on Instagram
Siobhan joined in on Instagram
Vikki joined in on Instagram
Laura joined in on Instagram
Juniordrumkit joined in on Instagram
And of course, myself here on this post, plus on Instagram and Twitter :-)

  

Next month's photo an hour will be Saturday 24th September - we're off to one of the local carnivals so there might be a carnival float or two in next month's pictures!
 

Also, check out what I was up to in...

August 2015
August 2014

Happy Half Birthday (and What Happened Six Months Ago)

So yeah, it appears that we've managed to keep this little sprite alive for a whole six months.

Happy half birthday Lily!

It also occurred to me that I never actually shared her birth story (spoiler alert - there's nothing gory) so for those of you who are interested, read on...

(and for everyone else, see you later in the week for a photo an hour post and (hopefully) an Ikea vlog thingy)

 

The story begins on Monday 25^th Jan when we popped round to see one of our NCT friends and their 6 day old baby (now Lily's best friend!). They joked that cuddling the baby might help kick-start things as I was 6 days overdue. .

Two hours after leaving their house, I went to the loo about 10pm and felt what wasn't quite a gush of water but was definitely more than a trickle. I wondered if it was my waters but it wasn't till I stood up and was leaking on the floor, I thought "okay, yep that's probably them".

We went up to our local hospital where they confirmed my waters had gone and said I'd be given 24 hours to go into labour naturally (and ideally, deliver the baby) before they'd induce me - as there's a risk of infection the longer the waters have gone without delivering.

They told us to go home and get some sleep but by 11pm I could feel contractions starting. Mine were all in my front, low down in my bump and I couldn't lie down and go to sleep – it was much more painful doing that and instead I sat on the edge of the bed breathing and Andrew rubbing my back.

About 1am we hooked up the TENS machine and went downstairs to watch TV - I used the chairs and table to bend over whilst having a contraction. The midwife said to ring up when they were 5 mins apart and had been like that for an hour but mine seemed to get close together quite quickly. I started timing them about 12am and they were about 7-8 mins apart from the start; by 3.30am they were about 3 and half mins apart so we rang the local big hospital and they said to come on in. Andrew packed up the car and we arrived about 4.30am; by then the contractions were between 2 and half to 3 mins apart. They examined me and grrr...I was only 2cm dilated. The midwives did say though, the baby was really low already and wouldn't take much pushing to get her out.

We were allowed to stay on the delivery suite, although they couldn't give me a room; instead they gave me paracetamol (which I don’t think did anything) and we walked up and down the corridor and used their relaxation room till about 6.30am. We were then moved to one of the delivery rooms (one with a pool as I'd said I wanted to use that) and then left alone to labour and try and get to 4cm. They had this rule that they couldn't officially admit me until you were either a) 4cm dilated or b) had accepted some kind of hard drugs. Even though I wasn't 4cm, they said we could use the room as they weren't very busy.

About 9.30am they examined me and grrr again...I was only 3cm, despite having contractions every 2 to 2 and half minutes. They offered me Diamorphine (which meant I could be officially admitted) which they said would help speed up the contractions while giving me a chance to have a bit of a rest. We had tea and toast and I kind of dozed; I could still feel some of the contractions a bit but I was using my TENS machine and they were okay. At 2.30pm the midwives came back and stupidly, I was still only 3cm. Looking at my maternity notes afterwards, it says my contractions slowed down to every 3-4 minutes so having Diamorphine hadn't really helped other than to give me a chance to rest.

At that point they started mentioning the 24 hour induction deadline and went through my options - because my cervix had thinned brilliantly but just not dilated, they suggested going on an oxytocin drip with epidural. At that stage the pain was still quite okay so I didn't really need the epidural but I knew from our NCT course that having an oxytocin drip could potentially increase the risk of needing assistance to deliver and would likely make the contractions incredibly fast and painful so I agreed to that plan. 

The epidural itself was a "soft" one, which was perfect as it made the pain about 90% disappear but I could still feel the building pressure of each contraction. They got it organised by about 4pm and then the midwives stayed in the room monitoring me all the time. We chatted, Andrew went off to get some dinner and then had a nap and it was a really good atmosphere in the delivery room.

At 5pm they examined me and I was 7cm dilated and then by 8pm I was 10cm – much to the midwife's suprise, she thought it'd take much longer! They did a shift changeover and about 8.45pm the new midwife said I could start pushing, using the pressure of each contraction in conjunction with the rising numbers on the monitor. I could feel when to do it quite easily, even starting to push before the monitor started registering the contraction. At the same time, the drip for the placenta injection started beeping because it had run out and the midwife popped out to replace the bag, saying "don’t worry, you can carry on pushing, it'll be a while". Obviously that was when I delivered Lily's head. 

Andrew had to run round the bed and push the help button and a different midwife ran in just in time for me to deliver the body. Andrew said it seemed a bit hectic and panicky but I remember it being very calm and steady. All in all, the pushing stage took 15 minutes, the midwife said it was about 3 contractions worth to deliver her and ended up telling the rest of the staff on duty that "just because you've been induced and had an epidural, doesn't mean you can't have a straightforward birth". Two midwives checked me over whilst we were having 'golden hour' snuggles with Lily and said that everything seemed to be intact, no tears and no stitches needed at all. 

Our birth plan was a little bit more natural and a lot less medical so it really ended up being nothing like that but other than being mildly miffed that I didn't get to use gas & air or the pool, I feel like it was a really positive experience. I would say I'd do it again, but (apart from the fact that we'd be unlikely to conceive), I'd be worried any future birth wouldn't be as good as Lily's!

PS. Just to be rather sad, this post is going like at exactly the time she was born...

This Little Big Life: Father's Day & Raspberries

Even though I don't get round to commenting on many blogs nowadays, I do still read an awful lot of them. One of my absolute favourites is run by the truly lovely Sarah over at Sarah Rooftops.

A few weeks ago I noticed herself and another blogger, Louise from Squished Blueberries (a new-to-me blog) had started a new link called 'This Little Big Life' - all about capturing the little moments (which make up a big life) from a weekend with the post going live the following Friday. That sounded like a lovely idea so I thought I'd join in.


Saturday was fairly quiet with a bit of TV watching and a bit of unpacking from our week in Cornwall. The big news was that someone learned to blow her version of a raspberry.



Sunday was Andrew's first Father's Day. I dressed Lily in an OTT 'Daddy' top, presents were handed over and we went for a drive ending up at a McDonald's (Andrew's choice!).

Pop over to Sarah's blog and Louise's blog to see what they got up to!

 

A Jacamo Coat-wearing Catalogue Man

 And now for something completely different...
{Monty Python style voice adopted}

A few weeks ago an email popped into my inbox that was perfect timing - would Andrew like to review a coat from the online retailer Jacamo?

"Well, yes I would" said Andrew excitedly (or as excitedly as a man can do) as he was on the lookout for a winter coat anyway and had heard of Jacamo but never bought anything from them.

Jacamo is part of the JD Williams chain (one of the catalogues I remember my mum getting when I was a child) and aims to be your hassle-free one-stop shop for menswear. It was certainly easy enough for Andrew to navigate (bearing in mind he's male, i.e. short attention span) as he'd quickly found a few different coats he liked the look of. The website is very simple to use, with plenty of choice and everything is laid out on the page so you can easily scroll through and look at pictures of all the items. You could also narrow down your search further if you were looking for a particular brand, colour, style or price range plus chat to a helpful customer service person if you had any questions via the live chat link.

The coat Andrew picked out was the Williams and Brown Hooded Jacket and I approved of it as well so he was on to a winner really.

He must've been looking forward to it as when it arrived, he actually opened it and put it on straight away - unheard of for most of his other mail and parcels. The first words he said were "very nice" (not in a Boris Johnson type way) and "I like it".

He's worn it almost every time we've gone out over the last week or so and the other few phrases I've managed to drag out of him are:

"good quality, feels and looks more expensive than it is"
"got a hood with drawstrings"
"lots of pockets, more than you realise from the website description, I like that"
"pockets that button up are good, you can put your keys in and not lose them"
"inside pocket is very useful"
"very warm"

Aww, he's so eloquent isn't he?

I wore it myself for 10 minutes as well (it was the only way to carry it around the house as I'm still using crutches) and Andrew was right, it is a very nice coat and very warm too. It has extra ribbing around the neckline and cuffs which helps keep the cold wind off your neck and arms. I like the colour of it and the checked bit inside is very pretty (although you can't see that bit when it's on). It feels like a really good sturdy coat and I daresay he'll spend most of the winter wearing it (meaning that I won't be able to chuck it in the wash when it's dirty - another brownie point for the jacket is that it's machine washable).

All in all, I think he made an excellent choice and Jacamo is one menswear website he'll more than likely be returning to in the future!

 

 

Andrew was very kindly sent his choice of coat by Jacamo in return for reviewing their website and the coat itself.

All words, opinions and photos are my own and Andrew's.

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