Ffion and her teddy/ blanket

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Getting there ish!!

Well it has been 6 weeks since my last post but that is a marked improvement on the last gap.
Not sure how I will keep this up when I have 3 children though but hey ho we can only but try.
So our holiday to France was really lovely, the girls spent loads of time by the pool and swimming, Martha just loves it sooo much and Millie was really independent and enjoyed going on the slides, even the big ones!! V. scary- close eyes are needed with Millie, she is just off with no cares in the world.

We had mostly good weather, in fact it was 29 the first few days we were there. We had lots of bike rides and just general holiday fun. The girls really enjoyed themselves and so did Liam and I, just can't believe its our holiday over for this year. We spent the last 2 nights nearer the ferry port in a tent and are seriously considering doing it all ourselves next year in a tent. A few reasons, cost- we will be going in school hols next year and what we paid this year would probably double next year. The girls enjoyed it and I was ok with it too (probably the bigger issue of the two). Plus I just think its fun, if we do it when the girls are small then they will get used to it and the sites are just as well equipped with facilities and plus we can choose from probably a wider selection of campsites. On the camping theme we are hoping to have a weekend away down the Gower in a couple of weekends. There is a lovely campsite there that we camped on when I was a lot younger, its also got a pick your own there. We are hoping to camp for two nights and pick lots of fruit whilst we are there. Its also near the beach so if it was really nice we can spend the day on the beach. We got a tent last year in the sale and have been dying to use it since. If we do decide to give the whole camping thing a go next year however we would need to get a bigger tent as the one we have currently is 4 berth and we of course will be 5 next year.


Whilst we were on holiday we put Millie into a big bed, it meant we didn't have to take a travel cot. Martha was in a big bed by now and so thought it time. Since she took to it so well we have moved her into the smallest room in the house, also in a big bed. The are a few reasons why we have moved her, one is it will save us having to decorate this year- the room she was in is the only room in the house with dodgy carpet. So wouldn't have just been walls and furniture it would have been a new carpet too. Also Martha has a fairly decent size room and plenty of girls toys upstairs. We thought that if the next baby is a boy then the room Millie was in would be better to store boys toys upstairs too. If the next baby is a girl then I am not sure what we will do. Probably keep them where they are!!!??. Talking of beds and sleeping, Martha and Millie shared whilst we were away. They were fairly good with it, there were a couple of nights where we had issues with them going to sleep. It was quite funny listening to the slightly one sided conversations going on in the bedroom though.


I am doing well, sickness well and truly over with and I seem to be blooming, everyone keeps telling me how well I am looking or the other comment I get regularly is 'you look nice today'??? It is nice though having all these compliments. I am 23 weeks now and can't quite believe how quickly the time is going. The first 12 weeks seemed to drag and now I turn around and already I am 23 weeks! I keep thinking about how quickly Millie transformed into a little girl especially now as she is talking a little bit more. I really must cherish every moment this baby is little as they don't stay small for long and then it gets to the point where you can't wait for them to do things like crawl, walk and talk etc.

I must just say that my bump looks bigger in the pic/ dress than it is in real life!
The weekend just gone saw me here there and everywhere. On Thursday night I was in Carmarthen Trinity College for my Welsh exam which went okish- will let you know how ok when I get my results. After the exam I went to Port Talbot ready to get train on Friday morning- off to a wedding. Emma and Neil got married on Friday and it was a really lovely day. It was all a bit surreal with all the travelling. I just seemed to get to the hotel quickly get changed and then the wedding was happening. Normally when we have been to weddings we are near venue night before and have seen at least one of the couple. Maybe it is just me and my preg brain being weird. Saturday it was back to Port Talbot and then down to Porthcawl for a BBQ with Anna and Peter. Another lovely afternoon. Sunday then was swimming lessons with the girls and then back to Twyn and back to normality and early nights all round. I think my parents were pretty shattered too. They have been doing a lot of travelling recently down west and back. My gran had bowel cancer and had an op to have it removed. The op was 5 weeks ago tomorrow but she is still in hospital. Everything seems fine but she had to go on antibiotics for a chest infection and just general recovery is slow. We are hoping she will be out on the weekend. My parents have spent a few days there and a few days in Port Talbot but the miles and travelling they have done is incredible- no wonder they are tired. Hopefully my gran will be out soon and things will get easier and they can go and enjoy their holiday in July- I think they both need it.


So that was a fairly long post won't need to post again for a few more weeks now- lol! Holiday pictures will be on facebook soon :)

Does anyone blog anymore!?

Right well I was considering setting up another blog - reasons I won't go into at the moment but then I though why bother with another one with another theme when I can't blog on my own one!!!

So thats when I thought I would look at all the other blogs I read and low and behold no one else has posted for a while- should I continue with this or not. I would like to continue as I am sure it will be lovely for the girls to look back on when they are older and see what they did when- thats if blogs are still going then!!! Something else will be the craze then!

So a lot has happened since my last blog, birthdays, Christmas, a wedding, more birthdays and I am pregnant again with baby number 3. Morning sickness this time around has been something else, although my tastebuds are back now which is good, I was barely eating the first 8 weeks I knew I was pregnant. It hasn't helped that I have had cold after cold after cold plus tummy bugs and all sorts of other viruses. My bump seems to have grown quickly this time too, I am astonished at how big I am for 16 weeks! Maternity clothes and everything!! I wonder if the different things happening will mean its a boy?? Who knows (bets can be taken now- we won't be finding out) I would like it to be a boy as it would sort of complete the family, nice for the girls to have a little brother they can boss about! I am not bothered obviously if its a girls and its not like we haven't got any clothes for a girl! Only time will tell I suppose.

So Millie started walking over Christmas and seems like she has walked forever now, she loves being able to follow Martha around and Martha loves having someone to boss around too! They both love playing together and most of the time I can leave them to do so without worrying about them. I am not sure who leads who astray the most as you can tell Martha bosses Millie around from what she is saying but then I think if Millie is doing something that Martha thinks is a good idea she will just copy. Like last night when I left them upstairs playing, I should have known they were too quiet. When I did go upstairs they had plastered themselves in sudocrem and half the room. I managed to stay quite calm about it all- no point shouting and screaming about it- me and my sister were the same and no harm was done really.

There are loads of other things that have happened since my last post but seeing as my blogs do tend to go a bit I am not going to even attempt to go into all the things.

Liams sister Lisa got married in February and we all had a lovely day, both Martha and Millie were bridesmaids and loved every minute of it, Millie spent most of the day going round kissing people. How cute!

Martha and Millie have both had chicken pox the last few weeks, Millies spots still a bit scaby but Marthas are fading more and more each day.

Millie not talking a lot more than my last post but we are trying our best to encourage her, I think its worse because we know what Martha could say by this age, give it another month and at Millies age Martha could pretty much count to 10 in English and Welsh.

My Welsh classes are still going well, since the start of the year though I have done the bare minimum needed for class but now I am feeling better I know I need to get my head down a bit more. Plus I am sitting an exam that goes with the course in June.

We have booked a holiday to France for a couple of weeks at the end of May, its creeping up on us slowly, well quite quickly actually- I think 3 weeks today we are there. We have had some lovely weather recently so hopefully it will stay nice while we are away. We had okish weather last year in France and the year before in Devon well what can I say it was horrible- thirs time lucky?

So I am going to leave it there for now but I might just spur some of you other bloggers out there to post again soon!!?? Who knows when I will be on here next but hopefully not in 6 months time and a bit before then!

Cuddles

All my favourite friends!

First steps

Changes

Its only been a month since I last posted on here but even in that short space of time things change. Millie can now say Mum finally, only taken her 13 months- I think Martha does all her talking for her, Martha picked up words a lot quicker but they are all different aren't they. She is also standing on her own now but then she comes down onto all fours, I think she might wait till she is steady on her feet to walk. Martha was somewhere between 16 and 17 months before she walked and when she went she was steady I am hoping Millie will do the same, not sure I am ready for the bumping into everything and falling over!!! She has been terrorising Martha lately, they both want what the other one wants and if its Millie wanting something then she goes straight for Marthas hair and pulls it hard. I tell her she isn't to pull hair but the little cheeky one thinks its hilarious!!! Poor Martha!! Martha was sitting in her chair the other day and Millie climbed up next to her and then pulled her hair for her to get off!!! She has also pushed Martha off the couch!! Its fair to say Millie is definitely her own little person now and definitely knows her own mind. Its funny cos when Millie was born I sort of forgot she would grow to do the things Martha does. Now its lovely she is becoming more and more independent and they do play together lovely most of the time. Well I think Martha bosses Millie around!! All good fun!

All the birthdays have come and gone and now I need to decide what we are going to do about Marthas 3rd birthday?? There is a soft play place we could hire out but not sure if i should just invite a couple of her friends over!!! Well got a few weeks to decide!

Welsh is gonig well, it is quite intense but its fair to say I am at a bit of an advantage on some of the other people in the class, there are a few English people learning and there is a girl from Hong Kong!! I think that this will help me a bit as it will mean there will be times it has to go slower for the others and therefore its a bit gentler. I had some friends over yesterday afternoon and one of them was speaking in welsh to her daughter and I understood what she said- I was so pleased. I think hearing Welsh around and about will be great but will need the confidence to actually speak it! Anyway got Welsh again tomorrow morning so have to go and do my homework! Its like being in school again!!! Hope to sort out my September pics and put them up soon.

Just a beautiful girl!!!

Birthday cakes

A mixed bag!

Well that was a long few days!!! But busy too!
So lets start with my health problems. I had some more tests not long after I had posted on here, one of which was a cancer test, I was given the name of it as the doc I was dealing with was away during the time I had had the tests so that I could ask the receptionist about the results. Unless you know the names of specific tests they don't know anything. Anyway its a ca125 which is for ovarian cancer. I had thought that it probably wasn't that serious as my pain had gone away and come back- guessing that if it was something like cancer that I wouldn't have got better?? I did a bit of research on the internet and apparantly the test can show high for a number of reasons including having your period or anything gynaecological. So well anway results come through and receptionist says doc wants to speak to me about them, guessing they weren't clear, this was a tues pm, next day I could speak to her was Thursday, so a couple of worrying days even though I didn't think its that serious. Basically the results came back borderline, the doctor spoke to the lab and said the same as what I had already read on the interent that they can be high for anything but she also said that if it was likely to be cancer then it would be sky high. The next week I had another ultrasound scan where they scanned lots of my organs- all clear. So then it was a case of waiting for appointments with the specialists. I saw the general specialist in the middle of August and he said he was quite worried about the levels showing high in my blood but pointed out that its just an indicator showing something is wrong but not what. He suspected that he might need to do a laparoscomy and initial thoughts were that he would end up taking my appendix out. However he lay me down and was able to induce pain which led him to believe that it was most likely a ruptured rectus abdominus (stomach muscle). He still wants me to see the gynacologist and he has said if the pain persists he would still perform a laparoscomy. He said that normally these things take 12 -18 months to heal, if this is the same thing I had when I was in hospital before I had Millie then I am down 12 months already. I am not convinced as my periods are all over the place and also I do have pain the other side sometimes. I wish I had thought of these things whilst I was there to ask him but thats typical I suppose. So where are we, well pain is a lot lot better and sometimes I feel a niggle and then other times it can be quite painful and then other times nothing. I am now waiting for the appointment for the gyny. Watch this space!!
So what else is news, well Millie was 1 yesterday!!! Can't believe its been a whole year since she was born, so much has happened and she is really starting to blossom into a little monkey!! She is so cheeky. So is crawling, cruising and climbing!! Martha was never a climber so this is something new to us, eyes in the back of our heads are needed- if anyone knows where we can get these let us know! We did have a little get together with some of the family yesterday but she had a shared party with one of her little friends last week.
Millie has recently got into sucking the tag on her blanket when she is in her cot and using it like a dummy. I have decided enough is enough and have taken it away from her- she now looks for taggies on anything and everything!! It takes her seconds to find a tag on a toy now and starts sucking it- I am glad I didn't go with the dummy when she little as I am convinced she would have been a thumb sucker like Martha! Speaking of which the dentist has said we need to encourage her to stop!! Easier said than done! We are currently trying with the star charts but its hard going and doesn't seem to be working- anyone know of a good way of stopping a child sucking their thumb. There are times when she tries really hard and then others when she doesn't at all- ike when she is tired and needs a good ol suck!! Its so infuriating as I can see the way her teeth are forming and if something is not done sooner rather than later I know she will need some form of dentist/ orthadontic work.
Liam worked from home a couple of weeks during the school holidays which was lovely for all of us. The first week he did it felt like a week, however the second time it felt like a month and was sad seeing him go back to work last Tuesday after the bank holiday weekend. Martha has also found it harder this time and asked for Daddy quite a few times. She has started back a cylch though so at least that occupied her a little more. She was mostly good going last week apart from the first day hen she cried. There were a lot of children crying there last week when I was leaving so not sure how long she will last being good for. I do have a friend (who Martha knows) who is starting work there tomorrow so that might help her. Fingers crossed.
We have started the run of 1st birthdays a couple of weeks ago and have been to 2, one was shared with Millie. We have another 3 to come of the the next few weeks and also my grans 90th next weekend and a wedding at the start of Oct. So all in all a busy few weeks ahead for us all. I wasn't going to do anything major for Martha with her friends this year but with all these parties she keeps asking when hers is!? Will have to see nearer the time.
For Millies shared birthday party Liam made her a cake, I too then made one for her this weekend. I must say we did very well. We did have a mould but aside from that I think we did a very good job! I think I might continue in the future too! Will see. Speaking of hobbies I am going to start learning Welsh, I was able to drop it when I was in my first year of secondary school, something I deeply regret now but hindsight is a wonderful thing. With Martha going to a welsh school and quite a number of people in the area speaking Welsh I think it will be a great benefit. I would have started this time last year but wasn't able to. Be careful if I do well I might blog in Welsh! I think thats enough for now and will put some pics up later on.

Where does the time go!!!??

I keep checking all my friends blogs to see whats news with them and nothing!!! Then I relaise its been over a month since I last updated mine, so with that in mind I am going to try and update mine over the next few days! Watch this space for some news!!!

Ooops

Thought I hadn't yet put pics on facebook of our holiday but I did it a couple of weeks ago!!! Thats your lot then folks!

Slide fun!

Holiday, crawling, blessing and news!

Its been some time since I have written on here but I have had good reason!

I think the last time I was busy getting ready for Millies blessing. We had a lovely weekend with a family bbq on the Saturday and the actual blessing on the Sunday. The weather held off all weekend, in fact the weather was glorious. Millies blessing was really lovely and both girls were really well behaved during the service- true angels!!

That week then was half term for Martha so I was pretty busy keeping Martha occupied and we had a lovely day at Folly Farm with my parents. We even fed the goats!

The next week was busy getting ready for our holiday to Brittany in France. We had a car full of stuff- just for two children and us, I don't know how people travel abroad with the little ones but then I suppose I didn't want to have to wash clothes, we took food, milk and nappies for Millie and probably took advantage of having the car! We also couldn't be certain of having good weather so needed a range of warm and cold weather clothes. Our first week there was up and down with the weather more down though and we managed to fill the days with a visit to an aquarium, soft play place and a couple of the local towns. It was funny because the end of the rainy days it seemed to clear up and we managed a few hours by the pool!

The second week was much nicer weather wise and a lot of time was spent by the pool just chilling out. There was a baby pool and a slide going in, it took Martha quite some time to get used to it but once she had been down a couple of times there was no stopping her.

The journey over was relatively trouble free, the journey back however was not so good, I had a bad tummy, crossing not overly smooth but the worst was yet to come! We arrived in Plymouth at 8.00ish in the evening and thought then that the girls would sleep. They did.... for an hour and a half at which point Martha woke up and just screamed and screamed wanting to be hugged and out of her seat. Liam did a fantastic job of calming her down, then however she decided she needed the toilet. We stopped not far before Bristol and had a quick toilet stop, when we got in the car then Martha was fine but Millie obviously felt left out so she started screaming, we stopped the other side of the bridge and changed her nappy, that didn't help. So the last hour and a bit of the journey both girls were crying and Liam and I were taking it in turns to sing nursery rhymes!!! Fun fun!

Only a couple of images from holiday but will upload some more to Facebook and I have still been nagging Liam to sort out our website so that pics can be uploaded there!!

Millie starting crawling while we were away and since we have come home she has started pulling herself up on furniture!! So much so she is obsessed with it, she won't even sit still in the bath now she has to stand up! Great but dangerous in the bath!!! She can also climb up stairs so the gates were sorted out this weekend. There was already one at the top of Marthas stairs but we hadn't put any anywhere else when we moved as Martha was confident enough. There are a couple of stairs to our playroom and Millie can get up those so its all go!!

So as I mentioned earlier the day we came back from our holiday I had some tummy cramps again, it started the night before with me feeling sick. Martha was sick that night so just put it down to that. The next morning when we came back from holiday though I was in quite a lot of pain and the Saturday we did come back I couldn't move and had a fever. The sunday night and the Monday I had some spotting. On the Sunday I was felling okish but worried about the spotting I rung NHS direct, only spoke to a nurse but she said I should see a doc that week as I was managing the pain. I spoke to the doc next day with our stupid call back system and he just said rest!!! Totally ignored my spotting! I was feeling a lot better but not happy with what the doc said so saw a different doc on the Thursday. She asked a lot of questions, took a urine sample and had a little feel of my tummy. Her conclusions were like before it could be cysts, a grumbly appendix or irritable bowel. She also wanted bloods done. They came back a week later with something showing as inflammed, by which time I had been having some back pain which I can only describe as mild contractions! The doc then wanted more blood tests and an xray. They came back last week with the levels that were inflammed are higher and xray was clear. I am now waiting appointments for a bowel specialist and a gynacologist. Hopefully we will get to the bottom of it and something will be sorted soon.

So that was a lot of news and hopefully will be posting soon with some good news!

Yummy lolly!

Millie on the snail

Martha and Millie enjoying the swings

Quick update

I am concious of the fact that I haven't written on here for a few weeks now and I have quite a bit of news but have got a million and one things to do in the next few days before we have a blessing for Millie on Sunday.
Couple of new things, Millie is now feeding well and has 2 bottom teeth, she is also starting to sit more and is moving round on her front and slightly backwards, not properly crawling as yet.
Martha was singing and playing with her toys tonight in the bath and then went- dai iawn, which means well done in Welsh, she can count in Welsh and does so regularly but this is her first word that she has picked up from Cylch. I have been quite worried about her grasping Welsh but I think she will do fine! Dai iawn Martha!
Right well like I said it was only a quick update so will try and get on here soon with more news!

Sisters!

Not a good week

As the title suggests, things are not good here at the moment, nothing really wrong I am just having an emotional week.
For the past couple of weeks Millie has been getting a bit fussy with her eating, however the end of last week she had sickness and the runs so put it down to her not being well. She is now and truely on the mend and has been chatting and rolling about like normal. (Big rolls now too, from one end of the room to the other!) Yet the fussyness continues. She will eat bread, yogurt and fruit of a spoon but nothing else. I have given her some other finger foods the problem is that she can't hold them for very long and doesn't take in much, so much so that the knock on effect os beginning to kick in- up at 4.00 this morning hungry. Its so frustrating and is starting to get me down.
Martha is good and is enjoying Cylch Meithrin, some of her older friends have now stopped going and are going to Nursery now, but on the upside there are some new children there who will end up being her class as they are the same age. She tells me a lot more about it now aswell, initially it was just toast, milk and Alice! The other day she told me she had chocolate cake because it was Seans birthday and that they had sung Happy Birthday- in Welsh! So all good there.

I had my scan yesterday and after an hour of waiting I was in there for 5 mins and they checked my ovaries and my kidneys and both were clear. I asked about my appendix and apparantly you can only see them if there is a problem with them. So had the all clear there, which I think was good news!!? Problem is I have been having twinges so not sure what the next step is!? I think the scan looming and Millie not eating have been getting to me a bit and haven't helped with my emotions. Other things haven't helped either but thats another story. Hopefully this is just a blip and we will have the long weekend this week and a short week next week so I am hoping that will make me feel better.

No more doctors please!

Well as the title suggests, yes more doctors were seen, not for Martha or Millie this time but me!! I had some stomach cramps, similar to whenI was in hospital before I had Millie so assumed I had pulled a muscle as thats what was diagnosed back then! Monday I couldn't move so thought I shoud check it out- doc thought it could be appendicitis, told me not to worry and have bed rest. I tried and was very lucky my parents came to my rescue. That night I felt awful and had shivers and my head was banging! However the next day I was fine, well not fine but a lot better. Unfortunately it didn't end there as Wednesday I was really ill again, another trip to the doctor and was taken into hospital. Inital thoughts were appendicitis, ectopic pregnancy or something ovary related. Well after a lot of attempts to get blood they finally got some and it showed something was inflammed, doctors thought it was unlikely to be appendicitis as they way it had been. By the Thursday I was feeling a lot better and as long as there was a clear scan I could go home. The scan didn't happen and I was able to come home. I now have a scan at the end of the month, so fingers crossed it will either be clear or something small. The hospital itself was a bit of a circus and I have had a laugh about a few ofthings that happened there since but the system in this country sucks. I can say that having been in quite a few hospitals now. No one person to blame just the systems in place and the lack of communication between everyone and doctors wanting to hear what they want to hear.

The weekend just gone was Easter and saw us travelling upto Liverpool. Liam and I had a wedding on Good Friday in Manchester. It was a lovely day (apart from the weather) and was the first wedding I had been to and not been pregnant since the start of 2006. So I let my hair down and had a really good time. We saw most of the family both sides of Liams and most of mine at some point over the weekend which was lovely and great to catch up. Thank you all for the chocolate and gifts.

Forgot to mention the birthday party that Martha went to, it was quite full on for a 3 year old- loud disco and quite grown up- it was what the brithday girl wanted and she seemed to enjoy, on the other hand Martha was a bit bemused and stayed next to me while we were there. She also had her Easter bonnet day- unluckily for me I was in hospital so didn't get to see her go- or the competition for that matter. It didn't seem like they had prizes but I am guessing Marthas was the best- you decide.

So we have quite a few quiet weeks now until our holidays and hopefully they will remain that way- in terms of health anyway! Liam is working from home this week and its nice having him around. Although I do have to keep myself more busy whilst he is around so that I don't disturb him- or at least Martha doesn't disturb him! She is getting used to him being out of bounds though so thats good.

Congratulations to Liz and Pete on the birth of thier little boy Pablo, he is so cute and had lots of hair- well done both!

On the final note - I went and got my hair cut today and have gone for the chop. So here is a pic so you can all see!