A bit of me

At the moment I feel as if Hexham hospital and our Doctors surgery is my 2nd and 3rd home. Since the baby arrived I have been on an endless treadmill of appointments for weither the baby or one of his brothers. It just seems tot go onforever and just as you get through one appointment another drops through the door. Its as if the medical proffession really want more than a bit of me at the moment. If it wasnt for my more than fantastic husband I would probably just stay in bed, pull the duvet over my head and shout 'go away......! Come to think of it that might not be a bad idea,

Before I had the baby I was medication free, hardly anythng passed my lips in 9 months. 3 weeks on and Im now taking 2 types of antibiotics, an anti fungal, an antidepressant, and several different pain killers. Makes you wonder really doesnt it?

Walk on the wild side

Its no good I thought to myself this morning today's the day for taking a walk around the house, and when I say walk that's just what i mean. I have had sitting in a cupboard a nice selection of ankle and leg braces or should I put it another way KAFOs, knee-ankle-foot orthoses that have been doing nothing for rather a long time. Once was the time that I was able to stand up, sit down, and take a slow amble from one side of the kitchen to another. Its not smooth, its not elegant and its certainly not easy but I did used to be able to do it and bloody useful it was too. But 3 years of babies has meant my balance has gone to hell in a handcart, and my legs ballooned to pregnant proportions over the 9 months. So any kind of walking became more and more difficult until I decided it was best forgotten. However Ive realised that a little teeny tiny bit of extra mobility is a god send with small kids and as my doctor said last week, 'you need to mobilise' so Saturday morning at home seemed like a good chance to brush everything down and give it a whirl.

Of course wrestling with the damn things reminded me just why I don't use them very often, unwieldy and uncomfortable it takes ages to get them on properly and also I have to be a contortionist as well. I also have deformed legs, OK not exactly deformed... but the orthotics guy at the hospital described them as inverted champagne bottles, meaning fat thighs and skinny calfs. I know Ive always had fat legs and they still are even now! However this means that fitting isn't great and I can tell you this to be the fact as I always get sore spots afterwards. But Ho hum onwards and upwards.

So I was in the middle of launching myself across the kitchen floor, its a good smooth surface where I'm not too likely to trip over and plenty of things to grab hold of when I spotted my friends husband at the door. With new found confidence I lunged for the door and managed to half open it, I guess it was a shock to him as I don't think hes seen me standing up before so he looked as though he'd seen a ghost and I was lurking behind the door smiling madly while holding onto the wall. Ah hello I shouted in an ever so jolly I'm not going to topple over manner, he looked and blinked and mumbled something and then made a hasty retreat from the slightly crazed woman swaying in the doorway,... or so it seemed to me. But what he doesn't know is that he was actually the first person to see me stand for some considerable time, and it was a bit of a milestone for me . I didnt fall over this time anyway and hopefully I will be able to at least build on this for the months to come. I know I cant do stairs and I'm not going to be running round the garden but just being able to stand up enough to reach those bloody high shelves is a wonderful thing when you haven't done it for about 3 years. I'm just hoping my friends husband has recovered from the shock!

Mastitis, a horrible thing.

Last week I was ill, in fact I was so horribly ill it was touch and go as to whether I would have an overnight in hospital. This was all down to mastitis, which I have never had before and hope never to have again. with all the symptoms of flu I did for a while think I was going down with it, but after realising I had none of the respiratory problems got my husband to call the doctor. She arrived at 11pm on a Saturday night and started antibiotics straight away. I was so hot you could have cooked an egg on me and my head was about to explode it was so painful. By morning although the bed was wet with sweat I was looking better than I was. I'm still taking the antibiotics but am a lot better than I was a week ago. It made me realise how lucky was are to live in an age where a few pills can effect an almost instant cure whereas it would have probably carried me off a 100 years ago.

Elias Nobel

And so after much moaning and grumbling over the last 9 months, Elias Nobel arrived at 8.30 on the 27th October weighing in at 7lb 9oz. It was from my point of view a speedy delivery, 3 and half hours at home with assistance from my 2 favourite local midwives who have looked after me through the last 3 pregnancies. It was wonderful and appropriate that they were able to see this one into the world. His name is Elias Nobel, both family names. Elias after my husbands gt grandfather who was killed in the bombing of Liverpool in May 1941, and Nobel after my grandfather and his father being Norwegian. So thats it I guess, family complete, we are not planning anymore...... but then we said that after the second one!