Lovely

A lovely day today Clanettes! Paul has annual leave, so we went to lunch at 'Jamie's Italian' at Gunwharf key. It was beautiful!

The bugs had their last day of term and as a treat for amazingness this term, we took them bowling. They loved it!! Lochie won the first game and paul won the second.

My lovely day was finished at Elle's house, with Vikki and Becky for Christmas drinks.

The talented Elle had made me boob shaped juggling balls to celebrate and symbolise all the boob related additional work on taking on after Christmas as I move towards my long term goals.

And the amazing Vikki with the poorly carpal tunnel hands had made heart bunting!!! LOVE IT!!

And then as is tradition, we did a little bit of craft whilst drinking a little bit of wine. Pom poms!

Today is Yule. I am working on what we hae been prepped as 'the busiest sales Saturday of the year' - eeeek! But I have tomorrow to look forward to, a family day with the Tippers celebrating Yule. And then it's home to my parents for Christmas!!

Works Christmas party

Clare you actually rule the world! Xx

Christmas

Clanettes! Another million years between posts! It is manic here, I have been doing zillions of overtime and prepping for Christmas and Paul getting home and School Christmas plays and and and! You get the picture!

Anyway, today we set aside as a Christie Day and we got ourselves a tree - a real one, we left the fake one in the loft this year - and we went to see Father Christmas and we have had a LOVELY day.

 

In other news, its precisely one year since I 'did' my back. I know I never actually 'did' anything to my back, but it was the 14th December 2012 when I had my friends over for drinks and a shared dinner and as I bent down to my glass away, something twinged and I couldn't move. It seems a life time ago now.

When Paul got back from his 10 day 'Cycling Santas' in support of childhood cancer ride, (which made the yorkshire news

http://www.itv.com/news/calendar/update/2013-12-07/cycling-santas-raise-awareness-of-childhood-cancer/) we went out on a date - to the gym obviously! Paul is wooing me by teaching me to lift weights - I tell you Clanettes, I was the only girl in a room of buff men.. most off putting, but we had a good evening and a change to talk and catch up. We are going out for dinner next week. Proper wooing.

Thanks for reading x x

Cycling Santa's

Paul and Adam are 4 days into their 8 day cycle across Britain, they are delivering presents to children suffering from Neuroblastoma and raising money.

So whilst Paul is away, this week the children and I have mostly...

 

Had their school photo arrive

 

Dressed the fireplace - we need Paul back before we can get the main decs down from the loft

 

Had pudding in the bath

 

Bought our Christmas party shoes

 

Been to my dept's work Christmas party  

I'm going to the hospital on Friday, to see an old contact about resurrecting my volunteering and then after work on Saturday we are going to my parents for the weekend, to get their tree up and hopefully eat some mince pies.

To Chufferbelle - love that you read this and miss it when I don't post!

To Paul - We are following your progress and the children are so excited for the photos. Well done xxx

Yoga

I've been back to see Sharon, my yoga instructor this week. We have settled into a pattern of a 1-2-1 session every 5/6 weeks with me practising at least 4 days out of 7 inbetween sessions, and I can telephone/email her with any queries.

Yoga was always one of those things that I saw my closest friends doing, enjoying and living, it was something I had tried in various forms, but it was something I just didn't get. Til I met Sharon.

There are no pretenses with Sharon, no fancy airs or graces. She offers me tailored yoga sets to meet my spinal fusion needs and she doesn't expect me to change my life style to do it. 

I can absolutely tell you Clanettes, in utter certainty, if only for myself at least, that yoga is helping my recovery. There are days when it just loosens me up and helps me carry on lifting and bending, and there are days, like when I get a new (harder!) set that I know, because the evidence is there, that I can reach further than I was, stretch deeper and breathe better.

I urge you. If you have even the faintest interest, or passing thought that yoga could help you, that you might even just try it for enjoyment, then do try it. You've got nothing to lose, but everything to gain!

Lochlan's 7th birthday

Lochie turned 7yrs old today. He had a party yesterday and has spent two days being the centre of attention and loving it.

This is my account of his birth, as I wrote it at the time (there are many things I would edit now, but then it would be the story it is!).

 

Lochlan was due on Wednesday 15th Nov…
I had been eating Pineapple, walking everywhere, taking raspberry leaf capsules and using clary sage oil for days and nothing was working.

Wednesday 22nd Nov
Lucy gave me a massage and some reflexology to try and get things moving!

Thursday 23rd Nov
As a last ditch attempt to try and shift Baby (we knew he was a boy, but didn't decide on a name until a couple of days after he arrived), we had Madras for tea. Horrid curry! I now know why I always have a korma. I ate the whole thing tho… washed down with two pints of water. Yuck!

Friday 24th Nov
Cramps and niggles all day. I thought I was reacting to and digesting the Madras!
First thought I might be in labour half way through ‘Deal or No Deal’ 4.39pm – I dismissed this thought as pure fantasy tho!
Cooked Paul and I tea - bangers and mash with yorkshire puds.
Spoke to midwife – Jill – at 1915 who told us to continue as normal and see how we got on
Pool went up in the kitchen at 2000 – just in case, you understand!
2100 Watched 'Torchwood' as normal
TENS machine on at 2300 when I finally admitted I was in labour
Went to Tesco for essential supplies (mars bars!) at 2330

(I should point out that the times are so specific because I kept yelling at Paul to record the times of everything as it happened on the white board in our kitchen. Remembering everything is so important to me.)
(He claims that I kept shouting ‘Did you write that down?’ so he’d go and do it, only for me to yell ‘Where the hell are you?’ Lol. Sorry Paul x x)

* Saturday 25th Nov
0030 – back from Tesco, pains increasing
0040 – Phoned midwife, she recommended having a bath and going to bed, then phoning her when I couldn't talk through the pain (HA!)
0040 Had a bath – TENS machine came off (TENS does nothing for me)
0125 Both got into bed
0440 Paul asleep - this hurts too much!
0540 HUGE 'show'
0550 Paul started filling pool
0635 I got in the pool
0715 Rang Jill to come out
0810 Jill arrived
0840 Out of pool for an internal exam – 5/6 cm dilated
0900 Gas and air - thank goodness (I got thru 4 bottles in the end)
0940 I got back in the pool
1045 First urges to push
Shelia, my second midwife arrived at some point
1317 Lochlan born – 8lb11oz - I ended up being stood up by my bed and giving birth in a squatting position in the smallest place in our bedroom! Both Jill and Paul were desperately trying to see what was going on using a tiny hand mirror! My only real memory of the actual birth is reaching down and feeling his head as it started to emerge and thinking how slimy it was!

I was able to deliver the placenta naturally and cuddled Lochie for an hour on our bed, chatting to my Mum on the phone, before the cord was cut by Paul.
We are both big, dark haired people, and I marvelled at how we had produced such a lean, beautiful, faired haired baby.

Once I'd had a shower and Lochie was all cleaned up, we had to ask Jill how to use a nappy.. perhaps there is method to attending antenatal classes!
My Mum, Dad, Sister, B-I-L and Gwamma came to visit us that evening and brought vital chocolate cake and champagne. Then we settled in bed for a our first night as a family of 3. 

Signs

At the goddess conference I went to last month, our womb blessing was very much focused on our matriarchal line and acknowledging out ancestors. I was lucky enough to pose for this photo this week, four generations of women. A couple of cute boys in there too.

Following on from the conference, I was inspired to create an affirmation board this month. I have filled it with things that inspire me, and I look at it in bed, or when I'm doing yoga. I adore it, and the items I have either collected or been given.

It was the full moon last night, and I went to the second of my new circle meetings. Despite my beliefs, and my use of oracle cards, I don't believe in 'signs' - I believe that signs are all around us, but I don't believe they are always interpreted correctly, so it's hard to put much stock in them!

Despite saying that, I knew that Niamh was on her way, before I knew I was preggo, and I knew I was going to get my job at Kiddicare because a colleague in my interview group (who i still work with!) had a tattoo with huge significance for me.

As an aside, I find it strange that I never got any signs or inkings about my fusion (aside from the back ache!), but I often put that down to the fact that I'm still not comfortable with it in my life. Can you actually see signs about things that you want to ignore?!

Anyway! I am trying to change/improve my future at the moment, proper brave changes that require input and determination and I have done a couple of big things towards that in the last week. 

Tonight we each pulled oracle cards at the end of circle. I pulled 'Lady luck', the certainty and realisation as I looked at that card struck me as properly as seeing my colleagues tattoo. I just knew.

Maybe I need to re-think how I view signs. Maybe I need to lose some of my cock-sure-ness. Either way, change she is a comin', and Lady Luck is definitely on my side.

Where else would she be?!