I think it might be summer.

Could this be the beginning of our usually short and ultimately disappointing British summer?

It's gone from quite chilly and rainy to a scorching 33 degrees overnight.
(that's centigrade btw, otherwise it would be bloomin' cold!)
And apart from the odd thunderstorm on Tuesday, the good weather seems to be hanging around.

Fingers crossed that it carries on this way.

Thankyou Kari for inspiring me.

Busted!

Ian has been complaining lately about there being hairs on the bed.

He's convinced that one of the animals has been jumping up and rolling around on his side.

I told him he was a moaner and it was probably his hair as the bedroom door is always shut and the animals are all outside.

For some reason he didn't appreciate that I was implying that he was going bald!

Well Ian you can breath a big sigh of relief, you and your hair are not parting ways just yet.

The culprit has been found.

Sneaky, lazy, but extremely cute, little git!

Update on yesterday:

The day went surprisingly smoothly. Buses were all caught on time. Shopping was done. Appointments were met. Small people behaved themselves. Extra small people slept all day and were deemed to not have any hearing problems. Older children were collected from school on time ( in a thunderstorm which had held off until I opened the door to leave the house!!! Only bad bit really.)

I didn't buy Baylie's birthday present as they didn't have what I wanted but I did do some reconnaissance work and now know what to get her and where to get it from online.

All in all a successfully day. TOOT!

Wish me luck

As you read this I am attempting to cope with 2 children on a one hour bus trip into Norwich city centre.

Get some shopping done, including Baylie's birthday present, whilst Baylie is with me.

Try to successfully hide said present from Baylie.

Catch a second bus to the Hosiptal for Logan's Newborn hearning test.

Hope that they see us on time, as we are on a very tight schedule if we are ever going to make it back in time to pick the girls up from school after another hour long bus journey.

It may or may not still be the sweltering heat of Monday. I'm hoping not.

Running around frantically is one thing, sweating profusely at the same time is another!

I need some posistive vibes sent my way please people.

Logan on a Lundi

Sometimes the "Milklady" is busy and someone else must step into the breech.

Friday Finds

A weekly slot where I can showcase things that have caught my eye.

Please share any finds you might have made this week, be they in the real or virtual world.

It can be anything from a some pretty bauble, a tasty recipe, a craft project, literally anything that you would like to share.

This week

DIY Spring flowers by Freckled Nest

How beautiful and simple is this. 

Hat nightmares

I recently purchased the new Oliver and S book, Little Things to Sew

It is full of delightful things to sew for little ones, hence the title.

The girls were all desperate for new sun hats and the school were sending out the customary "the suns out, let panic" letters about hats and suncream, so I thought I'd give the bucket hat pattern a go.

They looked great and were being shown off on some talented blogs like here, here and here.

source

My first attempt was for Baylie, a pretty red and strawberry number

Fabric purchased from this shop.

But after all my hard work it didn't fit.

I'd made the biggest size designed to fit a 21' head circumference but something had gone a little wrong.



And I know my kids have 21' head circumferences.. I checked!

A bit weird how they all have the same size head! Surely that's not right!



But at least it is too big for one of my children.

So on to attempt number 2.
This time for Ria, as her need for a sun hat was more pressing.
The others still had last years hats that they could wear, but as with all things, Ria had lost hers.
She lost her new school fleece within a week of starting school even with a name label in it!

I enlarged the pattern by an inch all around to give my self some room to maneuver.

But although it fitted this time, I really couldn't get my head around the construction, without it looking amateurish, and even to say that it looked like an amateur had sewn it was generous!

Attempt number 3.

Admit defeat and buy new sun hats!

Father's Day

We all know its not a real holiday, it's a hallmark holidays invented by card companies so that they have something to sell between Mothers day (which is a totally real and justified holiday!) and Christmas.

But an effort should be made, after all there are two of us trying, and failing, to control this rabble that call themselves our children.

Apparently the way to a man's heart is through his stomach, so Ian was treated to a full English for breakfast and his fathers day gift was a big box of Ostrich meat.

If you have never tried ostrich, please do so. It is fabulous and can't be anything but free-range.
Try keeping one of those big brutes in a cage!

But all holidays, fake or not, need a centrepiece

"Campfire Delight" cake recipe found here. 

Disclaimer: do not visit this blog if scrumptious looking cakes make you hungry and induce fits of drooling. You have been warned!

The marshmallow fluff required for the filling was made from this recipe. I love that I now know how to make my own fluff. No more buying overpriced tubs imported from the States.

I've never made a cake of this magnitude before, but it was worth it and Rosie provides tips on how to get the cakes perfect. I didn't go the whole 6 layers, I think that might have been a little to much, not that I wouldn't have managed it. It was very yummy and I am a hungry nursing mummy, hence the amount of food posts.

Logan on a Lundi (& Baylie too!)

The trouble with small people who are used to being the centre of attention is that they still expect to be and stick their faces into shot.

These were taken on before Baylie smashed her face into concrete.

BTW, She is feeling fine. The grazes on her face are almost gone and her lips didn't swell up as much as I was expecting them too.

She was also very chuffed that the tooth fairy came and left her 20p and that fairy didn't wake her up... Aren't I Isn't she a clever fairy!

I am trying hard to capture Logan's beautiful baby smiles, but they are elusive and are testing my camera's "Sports" mode.

Friday finds

A weekly slot where I can showcase things that have caught my eye.

Please share any finds you might have made this week, be they in the real or virtual world.

It can be anything from a some pretty bauble, a tasty recipe, a craft project, literally anything that you would like to share.

This week



Bakerella's Cheesecake bars
Divine.
Nuff said.

Apologies for the repeated use of the gruffalo plate.
Sadly however this is its final apperance as this happened.

I'll give you 3 guesses as to which clumsy little girl did this.

You should only need one.

The perils of being clumsy.

Baylie had a fight with the concrete floor of the playground.

She lost!

But ice lollies and the promise of a visit from the Tooth fairy make every thing better.

For her, at least.
I will miss her cheeky, full toothed smile, because its going to take a while for her tooth to grow back and the one next to it is very wobbly as well, so I think the Tooth fairy will be back for another visit soon.

Vanilla-ry things.

A while ago I won a giveaway offered by the lovely Annika from All the live long day.

She had just come back from honeymoon in Madagascar (her holiday snaps are amazing) and was giving away some vanilla beans purchased on her travels.

She wrapped them so beautifully, it was like Christmas come early.

I have been putting them to good use over the last few weeks.

I have made fruit poached in vanilla syrup to accompany granola and homemade yoghurt
( the yoghurt also had a pod added to it.)

The Victoria Sponge cake was made using vanilla caster sugar and it was also liberally sprinkled over the top.

Browsing through my new book Mexican Food Made Simple by Thomasina Miers I found an ice cream recipe.
(What can I say, I'm addicted to cookbooks and this one is filled with yummy recipes that I can't wait to try out.)

Her Mexican vanilla ice cream recipe didn't call for an ice-cream maker and sounded like the perfect way to showcase the vanilla in all its glory.

To accompany it I made a strawberry sauce but with a Mexican twist... Chilli.

The result was suprising pleasant.

The ice cream was ridiculously cold.
Yes I know ice cream is supposed to be cold but this recipe is liquid nitrogen cold.
I felt it needed a little heat from somewhere.

I don't want to call the sauce a recipe as its just throwing a punnet of strawberries in a blender along with a deseeded chilli and a tablespoons worth of icing sugar, and blitzing them until smooth


 


The sauce was fresh with just a tiny added kick.

I still have loads of pods left and plans for them.
For now just keeping them away from the girls who keep wanting to smell them is a challenge in itself.

Logan's Birth story.

4 weeks ago this morning, Little Logan was born and I'm only now getting round to writing her birth story.
Finding time to use the computer isn't the problem, typing with one hand, possibly even my left hand, whilst suckling a babe, that's the hard part. That means it takes a lot longer than usual to do anything.

At 4 days overdue, I visited the midwifes for a check-up and a membrane sweep.

Baby's head was too high for her to carry out a proper sweep and I was only about 1-2 cm dilated and 50% effaced. She sent me home telling me to relax, watch a funny film and have a bit of a kiss and a cuddle! Her words, not mine!

This was a little disheartening, I was hoping that the strong Braxton-hicks I'd been having would have done more work than a measly 1cm. I basically resigned myself  to remaining pregnant forever.

Around 9. 30 that night Ian even asked me if I felt anything... "No!" I snapped back "she's never coming out!"

Twenty minutes later, I went to get off the sofa to go up to bed and my waters broke.

I wasn't having any contractions yet, so whilst I was still mobile and lucid, Ian and I got the front room ready by laying out the plastic sheeting and spare shower curtains.

We got all the towels, blankets and baby clothes ready and waiting and went up to bed where, understandably, I didn't sleep. I sat there waiting for my contractions to start.
I was showing a calm exterior and telling Ian everything was fine and that this was normal.
Inside however I was confused and a little scared because this wasn't how my labours usually progressed.
In the past, I have gone into labour in the morning, not at night, with contractions and there has never been a gap between my waters breaking and contractions starting, they've always gone hand in hand. I hadn't expected this time to be any different. Actually I was convinced that everything would happen that way and this change had thrown me a little.
My contractions started up at around midnight. At first I wasn't sure anything was happening,

By the time I was sure that I was having contractions and we'd timed their frequency, they were about 4-5 minutes apart. We rang the midwifery team at 12.45, who said they would be on their way out shortly.

They were coming from the hospital so we knew they would be at least half an hour.

Ian help me attach the tens and get back downstairs.

I positioned myself on my knees leaning onto the sofa. Breathing through the contractions and boosting the tens as needed.

When the midwifes, Carla & Rebecca, arrived, the contractions were increasing in strength, and increased even more once they were there. It was as though I had been holding back waiting for the professionals to reach me.

The lead midwife, Carla, was very calm and reassuring, sitting by me and telling me that I was doing well with my breathing but I was beginning to get frustrated with the tens machine.
It wasn't working properly, the setting I was using wasn't strong enough but the next setting was too strong.
I was also beginning to feel the need to push, my contractions were very strong now but they weren't like in previous labours. They felt like a stitch across my hips and not all over my stomach.

However at this point, the midwife still hadn't examined me and I was desperate to know i was making good progress, but I could talk I was trying to concentrate on my breathing so much. I was so grateful and relieved when Ian asked her if I was dilated. I don't know why he asked at that time but I was so glad he did.

Carla said I would have to turn over for her to check.

Turning over was painful. It felt very uncomfortable, as though I was sitting on the baby.

Carla examined me and announced that I was 6cm. A horrified look must have come across my face because I needed to push so much, how could I only be 6 cms?

She explained that there was a large lip of cervix in the way and she would try to push it out of the way with the next contraction.

Both of the midwifes were beginning to get concerned about baby's heart rate as well. Her heart rate was dropping with the contractions but not coming back up like it should after the contraction had finished, they began mentioning that they might need to transfer me to hospital if things didn't improve over the next few contractions.

I remember thinking, you can transfer me to hospital if you want but this baby will be out long before the ambulance gets here.

Carla managed to push the lip of cervix out of the way and said that I would be able to start pushing.

She helped me up onto the edge of the sofa and suggested that I lie back.

I went to lie back but it felt so wrong that I was crying out to be lifted back up straight away.

As soon as I was sitting again I couldn't help but push.

Baby was moving so quickly, even when Carla told me to stop pushing and pant as her head was crowning, I could still feel her moving down. I was convinced that I was going to tear because she was racing to be born.

Ian says she was born in 2 pushes and that the midwife nearly didn't catch her in time.

At 3.18am on the 17th May, Logan made her rapid entrance into the world and her slippery little body was placed into my arms.



Amazingly I didn't tear and equally amazingly I didn't wake the other children.
Tabatha woke up a shirt time later and heard noises so came downstairs to find out what was going on.
Ria woke after the midwifes had cleared up & left. She went to the bathroom, Ian went up to check on her and she asked why she could hear a baby crying. She came down then to meet her new sister.

We headed back up to bed at around 5.30am, hoping to get a little sleep before morning.

Baylie slept through the lot. In the morning she came and knocked on our door, "Mummy, the girls are saying the new baby is here."
There was tone of disbelief in her voice, maybe she had given up on baby ever arriving as well.



This birth surprised me by being different to everything I had anticipated, but thankfully was still a quick and straight forward delivery.



Once Logan was born, her heart rate was fine. Carla thought that it was probably the lip of cervix pressing on her head that was upsetting her, and no ambulance had to be called.
Rebecca visited me again a few days later and said how they had had a very busy night that night. They had attended 4 home births and she hadn't been relieved from duty until 10.30am.
I was lucky to have slotted in at the right time with the right length of labour. An hour earlier or later and they wouldn't have been able to come out me. They had a call to attend another home birth shortly after Logan was born that they had to tell to go to hospital because they couldn't get to her on time.

Typing this all out, makes it feel like it was such a long time ago but yet only yesterday. Weird.

Still over the last 4 weeks she has only grown more beautiful



Albeit a bit chubbier round the face and has developed a touch of baby pattern baldness.