Solstice (by sarah)

It is Mid Summers Night and it is tipping it down. The rain seems to last forever even though yesterday was lovely. Now I find it really difficult to have energy if the sun is not shining so I decided to make a sun picture to share with everybody and amazingly the baby let me! Though she her self did end up covered in pen and we had a slight altercation over running off with all of mummy's pens.

Thursdays is Alaric's day in Bristol so me and the girls tend to bake stuff and watch films. Today we did bagel burgers and solar cakes complete with sun spots 🙂

Recipes will be on Salaric Cooking soon 🙂

Icicles (by sarah)

This is a photo from last winter - I just really thought I should share these fantastic icicles!

A Week of Medical Stuff (by sarah)

Monday saw us at two (technically three but as two of them are next too each other it doesn't really count) hospitals having scans and consultations and a meeting with the diabetic nurse.

The issue is that as a result of the glucose tolerance test I had just slightly raised sugar that would normally have been ignored but due to Jean's pregnancy and family history it was considered enough to be checked out and monitored.

Then the consultant (C-section guy) said he'd been worried that the baby wasn't growing enough but now it was in the top 10% i.e. it has has grown alot in the last month 🙁 But not to worry as I am having a c-section anyway. But he was releived we were going to see the diabetic clinic and showed us what they would want to see on the scan.

I got a blood test kit and stuff from Gloucester (appointments all over ran so we had to get someone to pick Jeany up from school for us). Anyway we ran through my diet and stuff and I should be fine but I have whopped on weight since the end of the summer - probably due to my decreasing mobility. She suggested I try swimming - this is like one of the few exercises I can do anyway but I explained we'd only just got a car again but that I had emailed all the local pools as soon as we got the car to ask about mixed changing and pool access but not one had gotten back to me >:(

She told us of the ones that have mixed changing and pointed out phoning might have been an idea (doh! neither me or Al had actually thought of that - we expect to get responses from emails). Anyway the issue is I'm not supposed to aim to loose weight whilst pregnant but from the info I was given most of my problems with Jean's labour were caused by the out of control gestational diebetes. The diabetics nurse said that obviously with the problems I'd had with the blood clots and things the diabetes had not been a priority last time but that I should have been monitoring my blood sugar from week 16 of pregnancy.

This was about the time we found out I was pregnant and not suffering from food poisoning :/ And from the results I've been getting with my six skin prick blood tests a day - I really wish I'd known this - I had to ask about the sugar test in the first place. I should also have been having an yearly test to check that I hadn't developed diabetes as I am a high risk group.

Tuesday was spent on the phone to more medical people. I'm having trouble getting my compression hoisery meaning long car journeys are out. These are for two things - one I got red warm patches that hurt on my legs and two I have a huge varocous vein on my right leg - which hurts too. Obviously there is fear about blood clots again as I had the lung ones last time.

There is issues with my blood anyway with it not making up it's mind weather I'm positive or negative - something Jean apparently has sensatized me too.

Wednesday the diabetics consultant decided I needed to go onto metforming a drug to help my body control sugar levels - especially as I'm not actually eating anything wrong (as it were).

Thursday I spent on the phone talking to the dietician, visiting the Dr Surgery and then getting caught in a blizzard and being turned around by the police trying to get to the hospital to pick up medication - this time it was Cheltenham General so a different hospital again!

So I am on two metformin (500 mg) after my evening meal - put it this way two hours after eating you are supposed to have a sugar reading of below 7, on noodles (the portion that suggested on the packets which the dietition said are small portions anyway) and broccili stirfry (not a suacy stir fry just broccili and onions) I got a reading of 9.9 🙁

I'm feeling really guilty because last month when I managed to get into my writing meets I was having Toffee Nut Lattes 🙁 Al pointed out that my sugar would have been much much worse with Jeany. The hospital food alone was a nutrition nightmare :/

Friday saw Alaric struggle out of the valley to pick up a literal sack of medical stuff for me including a sharps bin :/ (with biohazard logo and everything!). He was going to pick wood up as well but I had a rather scary eruptive nosebleed - I sneezed and showered poor Jeany in erm... red jelly. I didn't realise I had done this, nor that there was blood running down my face. Jean just said, 'Oh ok Mummy, stay there - I'll get you a tissue,' which she did and then ran to get Daddy. I didn't register any alarm as I was finding thinking and even staying up right an issue.

Not really sure what happened next but I was somehow on the setee with Jean watching kids films surrounded by bloody tissues. I spent the rest of the day bursting into tears at things like Gamima Puddle Ducks eggs getting eaten and Tiny Tin 'dying'.

I am finding thinking hard at the moment I have to confess. I have also started having my hospital, labour and miscarriage nightmares again. We were hoping that going for a swim would help with well everything but unfortunatly we are snowed in :/ Also without my parents here etc... I have not been getting to places were I can walk about (ie shopping malls - they are warm and flat and have lots of seats - I love hill walking but that is a no go at them moment with or without ice). This means I am really paranoid about blood clots building up in my legs and stuff - the metformin is also making me feel sick and stuff :/

I have to confess to being a grumpy moo - Jean even gave me grumpy stickers - but says she hopes I wont be grumpy forever :/ And this is still much much better than Jean's pregnancy and it is a pregnancy that's lasting and I still want my baby - but I am growing increasingly worried that something is going to happen - the midwife said that with what's happened before I will be like this until I have a live baby in my arms.

Being Demanding (by sarah)

I'm afraid that after last year of a single fan heater and the gas fire in the office and an exploding solid fuel fire and frozen water pipes I have been a bit militant this year. The year before we used the gas parabolics but I ended up rejecting them for rooms with a hyper small child plus they were only supposed to be tempory - Alaric thought his big gas heater could replace them.

The new fire works woderfully but it is still not enough to heat the whole house in the snow. Now Alaric doesn't feel the cold like I do so I stole his thermometer to prove how cold it gets - I then checked what acceptable work place temperatures. I have since obtained a large roll of bubble wrap and demanded it be put up on the windows - there are still a few upatairs that need doing.

I have also broken the covernant and bought - oil filled radiators (well actually mum and dad loaned me some money for some and I moaned at Alaric until he bought a third and then without even consulting him I have perchased a forth). These are making a suprising difference to the over all temperature of the house - as in I can actually do some things in the morning.

Of course Alaric got me the heated blanket and stuff last year which has been brilliant and my hot pads.

I am being militant for Jeany and Alaric as well as me and baby (who is due end of Jan so there could still be snow). I know he's trying to do whats right for his family - we're still working our way out of debt ect... so fuel budget was specifucally calculated and he's worried radiators will hike our electricity bill drastically and that we wont be able to pay it and be cut off and then have no way to work or cook etc.. He is not being some big troll being mean - which is what some people have suggested.

But I think on this one I have to do whats safest for my family and that includes him - I don't want him hurt again like last year and I suppose I am just being more militant about the house due to pregnancy - though it's in a worse state than ever as I just can't tidy very well 🙁

This post is being written one handed due to wrist acting up - which means crutches are a no go except for vital things and my main craft and writing are out as well which sucks.

I am aware that Alaric is struggling at the moment with work (still being up till stupid o'clock and being tired all the time) and I feel bad for putting this extra worry on him - but radiators just plug in and give heat and are easy. Part of it is - talking to Barbara and her friends I started to think it was me over reacting about the cold. But I have been talking to other mothers - and my conclusion is that I am right - my child/children need warmth - apart from the fact that I can't move at all if I get too cold.

What I'm hoping is that with my overdraft paid off as of yesterday - I can use my money and family allowance to pay any excess electricity costs. Leaving the fuel budget for the wood and the gas heater.

Home Schooling (by sarah)

With the school still shut due to the snow I thought I'd best take matters into my own hands and so have spent the last few days home schooling Jean.

I do an hour on each of the subjects I have chosen but tend to split that hour up into three with the focus on subjects. The time table stands at:

Writing and Word Structure

Number, shape and measurements

Art, craft, cooking and technology - or - Music and Drama

Reading and story time - or - World Studies

We also have P.E. each day which is when ever the time is right and has mainly consisted off going out in the snow and sledging or building snow castles and lasts as long as Jean wants to be outside!

Of course there is also break time and lunch involved in there somewhere.

Jean's told Alaric I make a good teacher except that a real teacher wouldn't shout :/

We have also been putting her in school uniform for this as she is more likely to site still as we are 'playing' school! Al is the headmaster she decided too 🙂

I sort of hope I'm covering everything to be honest - my main concern now is that she hasn't seen any other children to play with since my friend Buko visited just before this lot of on going snow!