A Baby,  A Lamb and a Calf!

A Baby A Lamb And A Calf

This weekend Arthur was one month old! It feels like yesterday I was wondering if he would ever make an appearance after the longest pregnancy ever!! It’s been a whirlwind four weeks at our house! All of my first five children have their birthdays between September and November so having a Spring baby is new to me. I love Spring for so many reasons. Given the fact I’ve had six babies,  autumn /winter fashion tends to suit me more but I live in a constant state of denial. The fake tan comes out, the highlights go in and I try to work a playsuit like I’m Kendall Jenner! I also love that the kids are outside so much more,  fashion for Arthur is as easy as a vest and maybe a babygrow and it really feels like the season to celebrate life. The Spring season started at our house with the suprise birth of our little lamb Boop. We had no idea our Ewe was pregnant.  We had taken four sheep from our local farmer and it hadn’t occurred to us that one may have been ‘ in the family way ‘. Nevertheless, it was a wonderful suprise and really made us realise how wonderful life and nature is. There was me, told that despite my 5 star birth record I was now considered ‘ high risk ‘ and my birth choices were limited to a bed and a room.   Yet my Ewe had gone through pregnancy, labour and now nursing a newborn with no advice or intervention. We had woken up and just found a beautiful little lamb in our field! Mothers Instinct is such an incredible thing and should be encouraged celebrated more! The kids faces,  when they got back from school to find Boop in the field was a picture.  Explaining to libby that we didn’t know which of our boys was the dad disgusted her. ‘Obviously it’s the one that married her otherwise how could she have a baby!?’ I think I will limit mikes ‘father / daughter’ chats before she tells me she wants to be a nun. Then we have our Indian Runner ducklings ….  Thriving with our chickens.  Actually less thriving than surviving! The chickens have started bullying the ducks so we are moving them out into their own pen. All our chickens used to completly free range but thanks to Mr Fox we have to keep them in pens now. ….and the calf,  our lovely calf! We had been waiting for him since early April and he finally made his appearance 10th May. It was a manic morning and if someone had told my 17 year old self, after giving birth to your SIXTH baby you will be breastfeeding him in a field while checking on your newborn calf, my rimmel mascara would have smudged from laughter. I missed the actual birth but we were there what seemed to be minutes after. Umbilical cord swinging, calf wet and mum laying down, totally exhausted. Arthur was little over a week by then and if I’m honest,  as gorgeous as the calf was, my heart was with his mum. I felt like we had made a connection during our pregnancies.  Particularly the last month or so,  we would waddle over to eachother and just stare into eachothers eyes,  understanding eachothers pain, impatience and discomfort. So when the vet told us to get her up and get the calf feeding I immediately jumped to her defense and told them to give the poor animal a minute to recover. It only bought her a couple of minutes,  but I know she was grateful. I have retired her from breeding now (this was her 3rd calf that we know of). So once the calf has stopped feeding she can enjoy her freedom from pregnancy and breastfeeding and spend her days enjoying grazing in the fields. Maybe even work at getting her figure back 😂 Sistas have to stick together 👊 So, what’s next?  more chicks? Turkeys? Piglets?  I’ll keep you updated. Lots of Love Kate X

My morning off

My morning off

I think every mum can relate to the difficulties we face in getting out of the house and having some ‘ mum time ‘ I had my first ‘ child free’ morning since having Arthur last week.   Even though it was a brilliant morning it didn’t come without its stresses! I woke up on Friday to find my six year old daughter in my bed. When I asked her why, the poor mite told me she had been sick during the night. I  went into her room to asses the situation. Yep, she had been sick, from the top of her cabin bed.  There was puke all over the floor and up the side of the bed. Can you imagine the total carnage I was faced with!? To make matters worse she had eaten strawberries and raspberries before bed 🙈 So, at 7.30am I was on my knees,  scrubbing the carpet with Vanish power foam (a mothers best friend FYI!) After I had cleaned the worst of it I started getting ready.  Typically, I was suffering a bad hair day on my first non-pregant day off. A morning with No toddler hanging off my leg or baby off my boob. I managed to make the best of a bad situation and scraped it back with a grip. I made the bottles,  got the babies dressed and put everything Mike might need from nappies to Calpol in a box next to the sofa. I dropped the boys to school and I was OUT! After breakfast, a yummy cocktail,  and a mooch around London Bridge with the girls, I was back to school for the 3pm pick up. By 4pm I was home, Arthur was back on my boob and I was attempting to make cakes with Libby. All in a day of a mum. Mike had a day out last week.  His day was a little different. He got up, got dressed…..and went out!😒

Lisa is 40! 

Lisa is 40!

Forty years ago today something pretty special happened.   My girl Lisa was born! We first met at work 15 years ago and it has been a friendship that I have been thankful for ever since. A career driven, strong, independent women who still manages to keep her femininity and maternal insticts at the forefront of her personality. She doesn’t suffer fools and you can guarentee you will get the honest truth whether it suits you or not, but if you ever need her she is there unconditionaly. God help you if you upset her friends or family, her comical wit and quick tongue will shoot you down in a heartbeat. When she announced her pregnancy six years ago and she told us she was planning to carry on working full time, I must admit I wandered if her career would have to take a back step. Hell no, she juggles work and motherhood like a pro. Always giving her job 100% and making sure her family get all her attention when she is at home.   She even manages a pretty decent social life! She is a perfect example of a modern, working mum and I am so very proud to call her my friend. Always the more sensible of my girls I think it’s safe to say she keeps us all in check and in return we have opened her mind to the world of f#cks, Ann summers sambuca and low-cut tops 😘 So,  the year she turned 40 was always going to be a big deal. We have a few celebrations in the diary over the next few weeks but today, we sacked off the local garden centre and kicked off the celebrations with a girls boozy breakfast at Aqua Shard. I’ll review ourbreakie on another post. Lisa, Happy birthday Chick.  I hope you enjoy every minute,  you deserve it. Love you 💗💗💗 Kate  xxxx

Day 10 – Sink or Swim 

Day 10 - Sink or Swim 

Today is that day. The day after you have a baby that is sent to test your true strength. Today, Arthur is ten days old and this Is the day that is throwing everything at me, goading me, trying to break me. Well, its midday and I haven’t reached for the gin.  Instead I’m laying in bed with my beautiful daughter watching trolls, enjoying a (hot) coffee and writing my blog. So guess what!?  You didn’t beat me!! I’m made of stronger stuff than that!! It started at 2am this morning. I woke up and popped to the loo, only to be greeted by the sight of a mouse running across the bathroom floor. I screamed at Mike but he seemed to deem his sleep more important than dealing with little Jerry in the bathroom. The mouse had dissappeared anyway so that had to wait till the morning to sort out. Then at 4am George (our 20 month old) wakes up. The poor mite had been been sick in his cot. He came in and snuggled in between Mike and I, then continued to be sick every ten minutes until 9am. Obviously I made sure it was aimed on mikes side of the bed,  resulting in him crashing Charlies room. At 4.15am Arthur woke up for a feed. Ninja style, I managed to catch sick with a towel whilst breastfeeding AJ and making sure at no point I cross contaminated. At 6am I went downstairs to make a coffee and let the dogs out. Through bleary eyes I saw one of the dogs had escaped and was high-tailing it across the field without a care in the world. I chucked on the nearest shoes (mikes size 11 work boots) and dragged my feet out, into the garden and across the field to chase the Bullmastiff, who I’m pretty sure would have been waving a middle finger at me if she had one! Once she was safely indoors I went upstairs with my coffee and settled back into bed to feed again. Arthur had just  latched on when libby ran into the bathroom chucking her guts up. This is when I had a word with myself. I had two choices. I could crumple into the bed, crying into my sick smelling sheets. Just give up, admit defeat, open a bottle of prosecco and after 10 years of being a non smoker….spark up. Or Pull myself together and work out what needs to be done. Stay calm, realise I can only do what I can do and If I start the day like this there might be a glimmer of hope. So, I finished feeding Arthur, ran a warm bubble bath, stripped the beds and chucked the sheets in the washing machine. I explained to my three older boys that I really needed there help and asked them to make their breakfast, tidy the kitchen and fed the animals. Usually this would be met with a moan but because they saw George was unwell,  they jumped to attention and helped without any questions. George is like a little celebrity in our house. The kids adore him and put him on a very high pedestal.  In fact,  if Mike or I tell him off we usually have to explain ourselves to the older kids. Libby and George jumped in the bath and I washed Libby’s hair and rinse the smell of sick off birth of them. I put George back in his cot for a nap / play / whatever he wanted to do to buy me an hour or so.   As it happens, the early start was staying to affect him and he went back to sleep for a couple of hours. Libby sat on my bed watching Game Shakers (one of the most irritating programmes ever)  but if it keept her happy it would make my morning easier. Then I managed to clear all my washing away,  bleech the bathroom,  vacuum and freshen up my bedroom and make poached eggs on toast!  WTF! Even I didn’t expect to get all that done! By now the sheets are ready and I took them out of the tumble anf make the bed. I had a shower and washed my hair. I cuddled up with Libby with another coffee and I sat back and watched Trolls! By now Arthur is due another feed and George is just waking up. All this before midday! Now I feel on top of the day,  nothing can bring me down. Now, I don’t like to show off,  parenting can be hard,  especially with a newborn. But today I rocked motherhood, today didn’t beat me! Today,  I’m winning 🏆 If you enjoy reading my blog please share the love amongst your friends. Through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, email or word of mouth, sharing is caring 😘 Love Kate

Baby Six Birth Story

Baby Six Birth Story

After what felt like the longest third trimester ever I finally gave birth to my 2017 baby boy in the early hours of 29th April. I apologise for the lack of birth photos, this is for two reasons….. 1) I struggle enough to remenber to take photos when I’m blogging about dinner or a day out,  let alone while panting through contractions. 2) If Mike had started clicking away at me at my grimmest he probably would have spent a few hours in a different part of the hospital! So, the birth,  let me fill you in first at the lead up. I have previously had a twin birth in hospital,  two home births and a planned homebirth that turned into a hospital (birthing suite/ water birth)  due to no homebirth midwives available that afternoon. This makes me..  As I have been reminded many times in the last eight months, ‘para 5’. This term refers to the amount of  pregnancies carried to term,  and what tends to follow the phrase around like a bad smell is ‘high risk’. I have never considered myself high risk. I have been fortunate enough to deliver all my babies naturally without medication and have bounced back after labour straight away. Earlier on in my pregnancy I was referred to a consultant due to me being ‘high risk’. Apparently, hemorrhaging after birth Is more common the more babies you have had. Because of this he decided not to back me for a homebirth. He explained he couldn’t stop me of I really wanted one but he strongly recommended I have baby at hospital. He reassured me that if I agreed to this I could use the hospital birthing suite and pool. I’m not going to lie, being told what I can and can’t do when giving birth didn’t sit well with me. I champion womens choice during birth, whether you want a home birth,  drugs or a c section, I think it is important for a women to feel in control of her birth plan (taking into account any problems during pregnancy). I argued for the sake of arguing, but in the back of my mind was Mike and the kids.   Do I really have the right to take any chances? I have a family that need me and if the Dr is saying there is a risk (no matter how small I think it is)  I have a responsibility to my family to listen to him. Fast forward to my due date. At my midwife appointment I was told the hospital was so busy that if I went into labour that night the hospital might ask me to go somewhere else due to lack of bed space (104 births in four days!) I asked if a homebirth would be a better option as I didn’t want to get caught in a position where I would have to find another hospital while I was in labour, she agreed. We decided that as long as everything was progressing well during labour I would stay at home and call someone out. At that appointment I was 2cm dilated, and baby was quite high (not engaged).   This was my first baby to hang on till 40 weeks. For about a week before the birth I was having contractions,  sometimes every hour,  sometimes not for 5 hours, sometimes 5 in an hour! I put it down to strong Braxton hicks. Finally, Friday night,  3 days past my due date,  I woke up at midnight with bad Contractions. I tried to get back to sleep and started timing the Contractions in between sleeping. After fifteen minutes I couldn’t sleep anymore so I got up and looked at my Contraction timing app. They were barely 2 minutes apart! I grabbed my tens machine and strapped it to my back then dug out the delivery suite number. The midwife on call explained that she didn’t feel comfortable coming out to me when she hasn’t been too or house before (to carry out risk assessment etc) before so I agreed to come into hospital. I woke Mike up,  called my mother in law and started getting my bits ready. I wish I had taken photos of Mike.  His face, everytime I had a Contraction on the way to the hospital was classic. They were coming a minute apart and I couldn’t talk through them by that stage so after watching four births, he knew it wouldn’t be long. He told me after the birth that he thought he would have to deliver baby in the back of his truck down a pitch black country lane! When we arrived at the hospital the midwife examined me.  I was 8cm dilated. Then came the blow….she told me that the doctor on duty would not allow me to use the birthing suite because of me being ‘para 5, high risk ‘ I told her that the consultant had put on my notes that I could have a water birth but she told me,  because he hadn’t wrote it in the right place, I absolutly couldn’t use the birthing suite or pool. I was heart broken (and a little scared)  my last two births were water births and the pain relief in water is great! By this stage I didn’t have time to argue, I asked her to just take me to wherever I was suppose to deliver the baby. She led us into a room which was everything I hated about giving birth!  A delivery suite with a bed and….. Well, nothing else!!!!  Just a bed! I asked where I was supposed push.   By now my humour was fading and I was starting to feel pissed off,  So when the midwife answered ‘ you should know that by baby six’ i flashed a look at her that said it all. Then they insisted on putting a canuler in my hand,  just incase I started bleeding after the birth and needed a blood transfusion.   I agreed because I was so busy focusing on each Contraction. I told my midwife I couldn’t push laying down so she moved the bed in a position so that the top of the bed was vertical.  I was on my knees with my head over the top of the bed ( a very comfortable position to birth in). After I jumped in that position Arthur John was born in the next three contractions. Labor had been under three hours from when I woke up to Arthur flying out at 3.05am. He was born a heavyweight at 9lb 1oz, the biggest of our babes. What a scrumpy little bundle!!!  He came out screaming but after warming up and latching onto my boob he settled down. I didn’t have any unusual bleeding post birth.  In fact, the midwife said there was very little blood lose during delivery. This was my first birth that I didn’t tear and I’d like a little high five from you mums who can appreciate the feeling of going to the loo on day 2! 😉🎊🎉 His timing was great,  I enjoyed a glass if prosecco during the Anthony Joshua fight that night! Dispite none of my birth going to plan, we both got through it and it all seems like a dream now. And now here we are,  a family of eight!  The other children adore him,  well,  the older ones anyway. George doesn’t really know what to make of him,  he just finds it handy that when he can’t find his dummy he can go and take Arthurs! Tell me about your labours, I’m not the only one who’s birth plan went out the window am I!?