Announcing the arrival of....

Deborah Anne, born at home at 4:30 am this morning (13th of October). She weighed 8lb 7.5oz and was 57cm (nearly 22.5 inches) long.

Here are a few photos of her first day:

First photo of her

Happy big sister and brothers (even if Benjamin wanted to put on an ugly face!)

A delighted Clement! :-) He's been in love with babies for months now - he spots them everywhere and in everything. So he was very excited to find a baby sister this morning! He's been going round the house all day with a massive grin on his face saying "bay-bee" - and he's amazingly gentle with her too.

Peter and Clement with Deborah

All cosy and sleeping!

After her first bath! :)

We are thankful that all went so well with her birth and that it happened at home (as planned), and at night, with all 3 of the children *asleep*!! We were quite impressed that Benjamin (who can be a very light sleeper) slept through everything in the room next to where she was born! I have to admit that I was very exhausted after 3 days of labour starting and stopping - even down to 3 hours of contractions every 10 minutes one morning. Tuesday evening it started again, but this time with even more painful ones, which lasted well over a minute, some about 1.5 minutes long. By 11:30 last night I was feeling this was the real thing, especially after I started getting chills and was shaking very badly (something I'd experienced in the past at the *end* of my labours). So we phoned the midwife and she said she'd come out shortly. She arrived soon after midnight and then the 2nd of the midwives arrived. They started getting everything organised. Despite having progressed quite a bit before the midwives arrived, it was still a further 4 hours before she was born! Perhaps if I hadn't been so tired out things would have moved along more quickly. The Entonox (gas & air) was very useful in helping me stay calm and helped with the breathing - can't imagine having been able to go through those hours without it! And my 3 midwives were brilliant - I felt relaxed and comfortable with them, which goes a long way. So in every possible way, it went really well and is a relief to have it over too!

Now, if only my lovely little girl would like to settle for sleep tonight! She's quite grumpy and windy just now and doesn't want to fall asleep! And having had less than 2 hours sleep last night (not falling asleep until 6am this morning) I'm rather shattered and would like nothing more than to go to sleep - especially as it's nearly midnight!

Never enough time in a day

Yes, we're still alive - just never enough time in a day to get everything done - let alone think about posting a blog! I actually uploaded this lot of photos to Blogger a full week ago, but haven't found the minutes before now to add any words to a post. So I'll try to be brief and post this before another week goes by. Several of these photos were actually posted to Facebook already (as it's quicker & easier to put things there), but about half of them are new - all taken in August, I think.

I've been struggling over the past 2 weeks with an awful sinus infection - I've had lots of them over the past 15 years or so, but I think this is the worst yet. Never had a sore throat so long either, with sinuses bleeding and coughing up blood the whole time too! I think I'm finally getting over the sinus infection part of it, though my chest is feeling bad now - bit of wheezing/asthma sort of stuff, as well as coughing. Seems my weak chest gets rather ill during pregnancy! I'll always blame the toxic mould that was in the nursing home that I used to work in back in Texas - don't think my lungs were ever the same after spending a year and a half or so working there!

Ever wondered what an absent-minded little girl might look like? ;-)

Yes, I know - not very proper or polite to be walking on the table! [oops] Several weeks ago I was busy doing something in the kitchen and asked Abigail to distract Clement at the table. He was probably sitting on it and I was hoping she'd show him some books. However, before long Clement was gone - and Abigail was totally unaware of what she was meant to be doing. Instead she'd ended up *on* the table, walking around reading books to herself! I think it's a "Robin Hood" story in her hands from the Oxford Reading Tree series, and scattered around the table are various "history stories" which she's been enjoying.

She didn't even realise I was taking her photo - so *into* a book! :-)

Clement learning to ride a stick horse

Clement was a bit afraid of the turnip that came in our organic veg box one week - he didn't know what to think of all the roots! :-) Eventually he attempted to attack it with a pencil!

My lovely little Clement, who seems such a big boy these days!

My favourite photo of Benjamin! I've failed to get any really good pics of him for some months now - he always seems to be looking away from the camera. So I was really pleased when I managed to get him looking at me with such a lovely smile - while the camera was available to capture it! :-) And speaking of Benjamin, it's been 8 weeks since we saw the dermatology nurse and got prescribed the Elocon steroid & Dexeryl emollient for him. This also means we've managed to go 7+ weeks without using the strong and dangerous Fucibet Lipid cream (steroid & antibiotic) and his skin has never been better - ever. I find myself amazed at how lovely his face looks, and the fact that there is zero eczema on his feet or legs. We haven't managed to get him *off* of using the Elocon steroid for 2 small places on his hands, but I'm using the absolute smallest amount every evening or every other day and it's keeping the hands from a bad flare up and means that the eczema is very much held at bay. I think the Dexeryl is helping his skin to not get too dried out. And whilst it's not exactly natural (and does have ingredients I'd rather not put on him) the fact that it's working, and we're having to use so little of anything, means I'm just sticking with it and afraid to change anything that's working. It's really a wonderful blessing to have the eczema so nearly gone. At the same time, some people might think this means life is rather easy now that it's so controlled! Yes, it's much easier. But unfortunately Benjamin still has to be closely watched as he has scratching/attacking habits that remain, somewhat unconnected with actual eczema! And he will have a chew of his hands/fingers on occasions when he gets bored/annoyed/upset! So he still requires rather more time/attention than other children might - just so he doesn't remove layers of skin and we end up with open wounds! But we have so much to be thankful for with the progress regarding the state of his skin.

Abigail and Clement - another favourite photo of mine! :-) At the moment Abigail finds her brothers (in particular Clement!) rather annoying at times. And the fact that Clement can get such a reaction from his sister is quite exciting and makes him try all the more to annoy her!

Again - big sister and littlest brother!

A couple of weeks ago my friend Lorraine came to see us for several days, along with her 2 little girls. It was lovely to see them and Abigail had lots of fun with Salome and Apphia. Here they are making bead necklaces together. Unfortunately I didn't manage more than this one photo from their visit!

Benjamin and his wood construction models that he made with his mummy!

The children are enjoying the new park that is sooo close to our house! It's still not officially "open" - no idea what silly requirements are yet to be fulfilled, or if the responsible people just can't be bothered! But I think the local citizens just got a bit fed up with it being closed all during the summer holidays and a few days before the schools went back, someone moved/opened some of the fence panels/barriers and un-officially opened the park! It's now been like this for several weeks and no one has bothered to shut it - and several more panels have fallen down since. So, there's Benjamin above on some of the park equipment one morning.

Abigail - who always loves parks!

Clement who was rather un-interested in the park that day. ALL he could think about was the ball he'd seen in someones garden as we walked to the park, and he kept trying to leave and go get it!

Boys climbing and sliding

On the slide again

Benjamin and Abigail enjoying the "birds nest" swings. These swings are extremely popular with the teens and pre-teens around - so you have to go in the morning when they're at school to get a chance to use them! :-)

Brothers playing with Bob the Builder toys in the front garden

Clement sorting the vegetable peelings into appropriate categories! :-)

Making some fruit cake for daddy! :-)

So, I should get to bed. It's no wonder I can't get over colds when I always stay up so late. It's only just over 4 weeks now till baby is due, so I really shouldn't be getting so little sleep. But there's always so much to do - not to mention things like 2 hours appointments with the local midwives to go over a massive stack of paperwork covering every possible risk of a home birth! And then a 1.5 appointment with them, as well as the Supervisor of Midwives yesterday - again because of them thinking I'm "high risk". The main thing comes down to having a mild shoulder dystocia when Clement was born, and the midwives being worried if it happened again or was worse. If only it was possible to really know how big this baby was and if it was likely to be bigger than Clement was. I've got a growth scan and have to meet with a consultant about this on Tuesday next week. And then I have to make a final decision about continuing with my wish for a home birth or giving up and letting them push me into the idea of a hospital birth. As a compromise they've offered me a "Domino birth" where one of the local midwives would accompany me into hospital for the birth and try and get a 6 hour release for me afterwards. Certainly sounds better than the standard hospital procedure, though I don't know how likely it would happen to plan - and I do still prefer home. Oh well. Decisions to be made!

Goodnight.

Saltburn-by-the-Sea part 1

We've just spent a lovely week on holiday in the North of England. We hadn't exactly planned to go away just now (and don't usually go on holiday in the summer because of Peter's hay fever) but since our friend Hannah kindly offered us to stay in her house for a week, we thought it was too good of an offer to refuse! :-) And since it was only 1 mile from the sea, that would mean good air for an allergy sufferer! So, we headed off on the 6:40am train from here on the 23rd of July. It wasn't a very nice start when we got to Inverness and realised we only had about 5 minutes to catch the train to Newcastle and the conductor quite rudely shouted at us to get on the train *NOW*! Peter had a trolley with the suitcase and 3 car seats and was trying to find a carriage with sufficient luggage space. And I was coming along behind him, big bump, Clement on my hip in a sling, carrying fairly heavy double pushchair in left hand, 2 bags in my right hand, me nearly having an asthma attack, with Abigail & Benjamin in tow!! The conductor popped out of the train to shout at Peter just as we were passing him and *really* upset Benjamin. :-( Then as if that wasn't enough, the man asked me if I had my tickets already paid for, when I told him yes, he then shouted at me to get on the train NOW and disappeared inside the train - not even offering the least bit of help! :-O It was really appalling! I'm used to the local staff on the ScotRail trains being very helpful and kind, even when I hardly need help. And on this occasion, I'm desperate for help and struggling to breathe, and this man frightens my 3 year old son leaving him frantically crying, and then just goes off! So I have to say, I'm really not keen on city life/city people (no offense to friends of mine who live in the city! :-) ) but I'm always encountering rude people in cities! And this was a train bound for London, so he had no time to spare, I guess! When we confronted the man on the train about his behaviour he just continued to be rude and told us it was our fault, we were late, and we should have gotten there sooner! Duh! We had booked a through train from our home town to Newcastle, so it was an "approved" connection - we didn't realise it would be such a struggle to meet it. Now we know better! In any case, it was an unpleasant experience and took a good hour to calm poor Benjamin down afterwards. But thankfully it didn't ruin our holiday and we got to Newcastle around 1pm as planned, and Enterprise Hire Car met us there and we got our car for the week and then set off for Saltburn by the Sea, which is about 10 miles from Middlesbrough.

After a long and tiring day, it was too kind of Hannah to have a warm pot of soup waiting for us, with fresh homemade bread...AND homemade cookies too! We really appreciated it and it was very yummy. :-)

On Saturday morning (24th) the children all woke up by 6:45am - not exactly a welcome sight for tired parents, but at least it means you can't sleep your holiday away! LOL So, we were down at the beach before 10am!

Abigail enjoying the sand - she *loves* the seaside!

Benjamin at the beach

Clement decided he'd gotten up tooo early that morning, so was already having a nap! He didn't manage to play in the sand at all, but that might have been a good thing, as I'm sure it would have ended up in his eyes (like his food often does!).

Collecting sand

Attempting to make a sand castle

We were on the beach for about 1.5 hours before the sun came out. Once it warmed up, it was a bit much for Benjamin (he doesn't cope well with heat - even cool British heat!) and it was getting a bit crowded, so we headed off down the pier seen in an above photo and then up the cliff lift (which I didn't manage a photo of, though you can see it here: http://www.brydene.com/images/clifflift.jpg). Then we walked into town to get sandwich makings, and then had a very long walk downhill to a park where we had lunch. After lunch we took a ride on the miniature railway. Again, I failed to take a photo of it, but can be seen here: http://www.haveyoubeenhere.co.uk/train1.jpg

And then some yummy ice cream!

On the Lord's day (25th) we were in Stockton at church and with our friends the Mohons between services. We had a lovely day and it was very good to fellowship with them again.

On Monday morning we headed off to the Newham Grange Country Farm. Clement is watching the piglets in the above photo. But he got very frightened when the mummy pig opened her mouth *very* widely as she begged us for some food!

Abigail showing "Fluffy" (her favourite stuffed cat) the rare breed chickens

Having fun in the play area at the farm

Relaxing in the big swing

Clement walking up the slide

Having a ride on a tractor

After the farm we went to Guisborough for the afternoon. We got some take-away food from Subway and then ate on a bench. Abigail and Benjamin enjoyed this work of art while they had their sandwiches! :-) And then we had a wander round a number of shops in the town.

More photos/details in post 2 below:

Saltburn-by-the-Sea part 2

On Tuesday (27th) we went to Middlesbrough for the day. We started with a picnic in Albert Park, a lovely and huge park fairly near the centre of town.



Abigail having fun on the play equipment after lunch!

Abigail and Benjamin

And Abigail and Clement

After the park we went to the Dorman Museum, which was next to the park. The children really enjoyed looking around at everything inside. Probably their favourite exhibit was the huge collection of stuffed birds and eggs with nests (which were mostly over 100 years old). There were also fossils and other interesting things.

Abigail sitting in some kind of throne/chair that was next to a pretend Pharaoh!

Benjamin looking a bit confused by it all!

After the museum we went to the Transporter Bridge, which we got to ride across on (a sort of hanging basket that takes cars & people from one side to the other). After the bridge we finished the evening with some dinner in Pizza Hut.

On Wednesday (28th) we had a fun day at the Mohons, and the children enjoyed playing with their 3 grandchildren. The above photo shows them digging potatoes in the allotment, where Mrs Mohon grows lots of lovely vegetables!

Potatoes again!

Clement and his daddy :)

Clement and his broad bean

Benjamin with an onion!

After the allotment, we stopped at a park on the way back, where Benjamin enjoyed climbing on things!

and over things

And looked like he was going to climb out of this very high tower!

Clement trying to make friends with Martha's dog Zach!

Caleb and Clement playing together! :)

Thursday (29th) was a quieter day as we got ready for leaving the next day. We did a bit of shopping in Redcar etc.

Friday (30th) we got up early and left Saltburn before 8am in an effort to get to Newcastle without being held up with too much morning traffic. It was good we left early, as we had a bit of a disaster on the way with Benjamin vomiting in the hire car! (Which we now know can be an expensive experience, as we're told there will probably be a fee of about 50 pounds for them to valet it!) So anyway, we had to stop alongside the road to clean up Benjamin and the car, before continuing on to Newcastle. Peter dropped me, children & luggage at the train station and then took the hire car back. We had a quiet and uneventful journey to Edinburgh from there. Once we got to Edinburgh, it was a bit chaotic as they only announced the gate we were to leave from about 8 minutes before the train was due to depart! So there were masses of people trying to rush through the security gates to get to the Inverness train! Clement had a bit of a panic as we were getting onto the train (he seems very claustrophobic and doesn't cope well with small spaces) so he kept trying to climb out of the train as we were arranging the bags! We finally got seated in a *very* hot coach. And we waited for a while before finding out that one of the coaches was out of action due to an electric fault, meaning people mean to be there would have to find seats elsewhere. And due to the coach being "out" the train staff couldn't go from one end of the train to the other, so we travelled for about an hour with NO windows open and everyone was pouring sweat! The crowded train meant there were cyclists with their bikes in the toilets and they were sitting on the floors, etc. Peter managed to find a cyclist who had an Allen key in his bag, and at last, we could open the windows and get a bit of air! Arriving in Perth it was evident that there weren't enough seats for people and there were very hot people standing everywhere in the train! But before it left the station (after a long delay) they decided it was better for people to sit in a train with no lights/toilets/electricity rather than standing everywhere all the way to Inverness! So that at least meant it was less crowded, though I'm thankful we weren't in that coach! We missed our connection in Inverness but a later train to Kyle & Wick (which splits in Dingwall) was held for all of us, and at last, we were home-bound, arriving only 1 hour late! :-) I have to admit, it was very good to be home after that last leg of the journey! But we all came home with colds (and it was a cold that made Benjamin sick in the car, as he vomits very easily when he has a cold and was sick in the train too!), but thankfully he's a lot better now. Clement has been teething since the beginning of last week, has a cold, and also has some sort of tummy upset (which no one else has) so he's quite majorly grumpy for the past week or so, but hopefully he'll be his normal happy self soon!

And that's the end of our holiday! Back to chores at home and plenty of laundry to be done! Well, it's all washed as of Saturday, but piles to be put away! So I must get busy!