Raspberry leaf tea?????

I'll be 36weeks pregnant on Thursday and was thinking about starting raspberry leaf tea, I used it last time round and thought I quite liked it! I had to get sister in law to order some with her weekly online shop as none if our local supermarkets stock it!  I made myself a small cup last night it was revolting! 

This morning I thought I'd investigate how much is recommended.  On googling I've found lots of different views on how much and when to start drinking. Now I have some concerns:- 

1) most say not to start till at least 37weeks but I thought it needed to build up in your system us three weeks long enough and should I leave it a bit longer

2) read shouldn't use if getting induced- last time I did and was induced did I do wrong what if I need inducing again?

3) also says not to use if high blood pressure which I don't have but when I got to term last time it shot through the roof and am being monitored weekly from this week to make sure doesn't happen again!

4) is it even effective?

Please help what's everyone's views and experience? Wether to use or not!

A pregnancy announcement

My parents moved to Malaysia some 18years ago now so we don't get to see them very often.  This year however they wanted to come over for G 's first birthday however my brother got married in Jamaica a few weeks before this and was having a party when they got back and I managed to convince them they needed to come back for that not a birthday!  We found out we were expecting about 6weeks before they were due to land so we decided to keep it to ourselves until then.  They arrived the day before our 12wk scan and that evening we had both sets of parents round for dinner.  Before the meal wet old them that G was being promoted to big brother! The father in law got his wires crossed and thought he was going to be on big brother! It took a while to explain!

We had organised a naming day/birthday party for G's first birthday while mum and dad were still here.  So we celebrated a bit early but he was none the wiser!  Surrounded by family and friends we celebrated G's life and welcomed him into the family then before we lit the candle on his cake we told everybody in the room.  I had been concerned that certain people would be bothered they hadn't been told before or personally but there were plenty of squeals and everyone was genuinely pleased for us, and in the end it was lovely being able to share with all of them all at once rather than keep having to tell people.

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5 weeks and counting

Around 30weeks ago I gingerly took a pregnancy test it was 35 days since my last period but since having G that wasn't unusual, it was positive, I sat there in disbelief so took another that was positive too.  Panic set in what was I going to do G was only 9 months old we hadn't necessarily been trying but seen as we both now in the late 30's bracket we weren't exactly not trying! So I shouldn't really have been so shocked but not to give too much away, it hadn't exactly been a month of opportunity! 

So many questions going through my head.  How was I going to cope with 2 under 2? How were we going to afford it I'd only just handed my notice in a couple of weeks before.  What were people going to think of us having another so soon?  How could I live another child as much?  I'd got my head around it a bit by the time chris came home from work and when I told him he was so excited I relaxed instantly.  My parents live in Malaysia and they were coming over around the time we'd be 12 weeks so we decided not to tell anyone until then we thought it would be nice to be able to tell them to their faces for a change to over the phone. Those were the hardest 6 weeks of my life I was bursting to tell people but couldn't before mum knew! (She'd kill me!)

This pregnancy has been completely different to the last a lot less heartburn thankfully although it's started making up for list time this last few weeks!  'Bob' is way more active than G was I'm sure they think they're some sort of Acrobat!  I'm starting to get more uncomfortable and sleep is getting harder but not unusual when you are the size of a beached whale!  I am also starting to ache in my back and also bottom of bump I don't think this is helped by stooping over to help G on uneven surfaces! Other symptoms I won't go into detail include leaky boobs and don't even  mention the pelvic floor!!!

With 5 weeks to go I've finally decided to get organised as feeling guilty not really thought about it this time.  It's not that I don't care as much it's a lack of time and money.  G is very full on at the minute he's so mobile and had quite a few big teeth come through these last few weeks so unfortunately when I need to be catching up on sleep in preparation for the impending sleepless nights I've been up and down doing the okey kokey between his cot and our bed. 

 But that said we are getting somewhere we've bought a second hand tandem pram and neighbours have given us a cot as their youngest is now in a bed.  Is it fair though that just because 'Bob' came along second he/she should have all second hand when G had practically everything brand new?  I hope so because it means that we will be able to do other things with the two of them and they will both know they are loved we shall make sure of that.

Autumn play date

Today G had a play date with 2 girls (lucky lad!) we took Wellies and waterproofs and went for a walk in the woods at the back of their house to see what we could find to make some art when we got back

We had to cross the troll bridge! And found a barricade

G loves the freedom if being able to wander it was a bit hard work towards the end though having to stoop as he's still a bit wobbly (especially in Wellies!) and my bump got in the way!

Here's our finished masterpieces!

My birth story

As due date no 2 comes ever closer I thought it was about time to share my first birth experience!

Apart from an unhealthy gaviscon addiction due to an exceptional amount of heartburn I had a pretty straightforward uneventful pregnancy my due date was Sunday 6th may (chris was hoping for a Star Wars say baby!) but it came and went and no sign of any movement.  I was booked in with midwife on the thurs for a sweep when I got to my appointment she performed all the usual tests dipped my wee and checked my blood pressure, she then turned and asked if i had transport (I knew that wasn't good!) turns out there was protein in my urine and my blood pressure had shot up through the roof I can't remember the exact figure now but it was in the region of 200/100.  So she rang the day ward at the hospital and informed them i was on my way.  Fortunately on this particular day fate had made chris work extremely local and by the time I'd walked home and made sure I'd got my bags and notes he was back looking a little stressed bless him!

We got to the hospital and put on the day ward where I wax attached to monitors to check baby and my bp which came down a little but not enough so consultant decided to admit me and start induction.  Now I'll admit I read up on every aspect if pregnancy except induction - it wasn't going to happen that way so didn't need to know! 

On the ward I was given my own room but because the delivery suite was busy it was nearly 24hrs before I was seen by dr and a pessary inserted I think this was supposed to be left in 12hrs but again was more like 24hrs before seen again and no change so had some gel then. By this point getting very fed up sick of being in hospital!  The next morning (Sunday!) on examination I was 4cm dilated so they could break my waters I just had to wait for a bed upstairs! At 4pm they came to get me.  

Nothing went as planned! I had planned for an active birth but I had to be attached to all the monitors and so was bed bound. The monitors gave chris endless entertainment in fact the most helpful comment was "ooh that one wasn't as big as the last one was it?" With respect to my contractions- yes he is still with us!  My waters were broken and a drip attached to my arm which made contractions start fast and furious.  All dignity goes in childbirth I wasn't allowed to leave the bed so hubby and midwife had to lift me onto a bedpan! Mortifying up until that point never seen me wee before! Whole other story now going in family baby change rooms! 

I was also determined not to have pain relief but as laid on back G was pushing onto my coxic so asked for an epidural anaesthetist held up so had to wait, I waited for an hr or two then asked again but still busy so asked if I had some diamorphine could I still have an epidural! At this point they came in with epidural and lots of people appeared I was feeling a but like at the end of a night out in a night club with the music flooding in and out and a bit of room spinning! Chris found this hilarious! Turns out they'd all appeared as G's heart rate had dropped and we needed to get him out, fortunately he was lie down enough that we managed with vontouse and didn't need the forceps they'd brought in so only ended up with secondary tear.  I was a little shocked when they said it was a boy is convinced myself we were having a girl but he was perfect he didn't even have a funny shaped head from the vontouse!  The icing on the cake was G crowning as our wedding first dance song take that rule the world came on radio!

A woodland adventure with nature tots

Today we went to Brockholes nature reserve for their new nature tots programme they started last week but I didn't have the car so wasn't able to get there.  Brockholes is run by the wildlife trust for lancashire, Manchester and north merseyside we have been a few times in the past before G came along. 

The session cost £4 and they hold two groups the first for 15month up to 3yrs then an older group after when we got there we were made to feel very welcome there were a couple of large toy boxes set out to explore while waiting for everyone to arrive and the 3 lovely girls running it were really interactive with the kids.  This weeks programme was a scavenger hunt so we donned Wellies and they provided all in one waterproofs if needed then gave everyone a scavenger bag and a list of things to find

All ready to go complete with 'manbag'!

And off we went into the reserve the girls were brilliant trying to engage the children along the way pointing things out and helping find everything off the list we searched into the trees to look for hazel nuts (even mummy learned something there!)

Once we'd found everything and filled out bags up with other bits and bobs we set off back to the activity centre where we used our gatherings to make a picture 

G loved playing with the glue

We then sat down for a drink and a snack followed by some singing and playing instruments.

Our finished picture

All in all we both had a wonderful time and will definitely be going back.  The only down side to today's outing is the car parking charges we went into the restaurant after for scrambled egg on toast so we had been on the reserve  just over 2 1/2 hrs and the car park came to £4.10 which made the day a little too expensive to be able to participate every week!

Chocolate crispy buns

On Wednesdays G normally spends the day at nanna's but this week they were in Scarborough so it was up to mummy to strike off the cleaning and ironing for a week (this took a lot of will power!) and come up with something to entertain him! After deciding paint was just too messy for today I looked through the cupboards to see what we had in and found we had everything for chocolate crispy buns.  I used an old favourite recipe I've used before 

100g chocolate

50g butter

2tbsp golden syrup

And approx 75g cereal (to how u like it)

Sometimes I add mini marshmallows or dried fruit

The dilemma was what cereal which has led to many a discussion at kids parties in the past.  Now ordinarily I'm a cornflake girl myself whereas friends hubby will only eat if rice crispies!  Today however I went against my own better judgement and used rice crispies.  There were two reasons for this one G had had cornflakes for breakie and two I thought they'd be less likely to go to crumbs once he started mixing (or crushing however you look at it!)  

We put everything except the crispies in a large bowl and set on top of pan of hot water to melt.  While that was happening G helped put out the bun cases

Once melted we tipped in the crispies  and stirred!

This was followed by quite a bit of quality control!

And I managed to get some I to the bin cases!

It didn't take long for G to work out how to clean the bowl!

All in all a successful (not too messy - well he didn't need to go straight in the bath!) days baking.

A thank you to our local sure start children's centre

Before I fell pregnant with G I'd never even heard of a children's centre. Our first visit was for our booking appointment and didn't see very much of the centre but the midwife got us to fill out a form to register.  At this point wasn't sure what I was signing up to but when the invitation came through the post to go to a 'bump birth and beyond' course we were so glad we had.  This was a 3wk evening course and there were about 7 other couples from all over s ribble. It was very informal informative course and highly recommended to anyone expecting their first baby they covered everything you wanted to know (even quite a bit you probably didn't want to!). There was a representative from our local centre at Bamber bridge there, and Laura invited us to pop in sometime prebirth to visit and see some of the activities.  So whilst on mat leave I ventured out for a walk and was greeted by her smiley face as she recognised me and brought me in to see the baby group.  We chatted and she said she'd ring in a few weeks to see how the birth had gone.  True to her word she did  was lovely having someone to talk to.  She gave me a list of suitable groups for when I felt ready to leave the house and the option to ring anytime.

When G was 7wks I was going stir crazy so set off for baby rap n rhyme on a Monday morning it just so happened that one of the mummy's from BBB group turned up that day aswell so there was another friendly face.  At that time Riff was running the group and she was an instant hit interacting with the babies G instantly fell in love mesmerised by her lovely sparkly bright scarves!  We were made to feel welcome and encouraged to return the following day for bouncing babies another brilliant group with a bit of everything there were play stations set up and a messy table a little apprehensive of this at first but soon got a dab hand of hand and footprint painting realising it was as much (if not more!) for the mummy's as the babies! 

We have met some lovely mummy's and babies at these groups and we have regular get-togethers its lovely watching them all grow up at different stages.

We have done practically all the baby classes including baby moves, which really helped G's development, and baby massage which was at Lostock hall centre. We also went to the majority of Bamber bridges summer programme which was brilliant I think our favourite was probably the mini chefs 

closely followed by teddy bears picnic!

As G has got older we now go to the toddler versions of the groups we started with which are mostly run by Merle and Amanda. It has taken until this week to realise G needs these outlets to express himself and burn off some energy, especially now I'm 33 wks pregnant with no 2.  He proves this by being centre of attention in the singing he's turning into a bit of a diva! But it's great seeing new sides of his personality coming through and it's all thanks to the help and support of all at the centre! Thank you!

A picture for Nanna

So it was the mother in laws birthday last month so I thought we could get the art box out! I glue stick'd Nanna on a piece of card then let G loose with the glitter

Its lovely now as he's just at the age where he's interested in things like this and really enjoyed sticking stars on one by one!

 

I did however have to convince him to use the smiley faced stickers as he kept picking the grumpy ones out of the tin! Nanna was most impressed and is considering framing the finished product!

Blackberry and apple jam

I hate the hedge at the front of our house its mostly laurel with some other bush which had little yellow flowers then black round berries (I'm not a gardener -can you tell!) and lots of spiky brambles which attack you every time you go near it!

This year there were hundreds of plump blackberries so I braved the prickles and picked those I could get to wad very surprised with my haul and ended up with over half a kilo and there were still some waiting to ripen!

Now I'm not a big berry fan but I remember blackberry picking as a child and my mum used to make blackberry and apple jam with them having never really attempted jam myself i found a simple recipe from delicious magazine which can be found here:

www.deliciousmagazine.co.uk/recipes/blackberry-and-apple-jam

I bubbled up my fruit in a large jam pan I received when my Nanna passed away last year 

Not being a fan of berries I opted to seive  the fruit what a nightmare but do worth the extra effort!

I sterilised my jars and when I'd finished I ended up with 3 and a bit jars of jam

I was very impressed that it set even though the kitchen did look a little like a crime scene!

It was my sister in laws birthday so I found some left over material to make a cover and made a tag I was very impressed with finished product but forgot to take a pic!

The jam itself was a little on the set side (but not bad for a first effort if I do day so myself!) but I was instantly transported back to my childhood it has gone down a treat in this house and were already down to the last half a jar in just over a fortnight which is not bad going as jam lasts us a year sometimes! There's an enormous sense if satisfaction in giving my son something homemade like that and he obviously loves it!

Wet Friday baking boy!

Today was the first cold wet day we've had for months so thought I'd try baking with G we've tried in the past but he's still a bit young! But today he showed a real interest in mixing. We used a basic cupcake recipe and I measured everything out before we began just to make things a but easier.

The recipe said to throw everything in food processor at once but we added them one by one to the bowl and G enjoyed how the bits disappeared

Because there were few steps he didn't have much opportunity to get bored however his attention did lapse at the end and one of his cars ended up in a bun case and then the empty bowl!

His little face when they came out of oven think it was just seeing cake but in my mind its awe at what he achieved!

When they'd cooled we made a lemon icing (not quite enough though but used up all the icing sugar!) 

They're not necessarily the prettiest buns but they're my little mans first baking masterpieces!

The proof is in the tasting!