new posts!

Oh Hello! Are you still here then?

There are new posts over at www.southwarkbelle.blogspot.com you know!

Kxxx

More Moving On

It is beginning to seem a bit silly that this blog is called bumpblog, as Evelyn is clearly not a bump anymore. So I have decided to move to a shiny new blog! I will probably copy stuff here occasionally, but I'd be very grateful  if you'd all form a neat line (boy, girl, boy, girl) and head over to:

www.SouthwarkBelle.blogspot.com

Where you will find a brand spanking new post about me starting back at work as well as all the old posts from this site.

Also - if you can, please become a follower of the new blog - it has no followers at the moment and makes me look very sad!

Thanks,
Kxxx

47 Things to Do Before My Kids Hate Me

I came across this rather lovely Blog post today at Momstowork.com and thought I should share it:

47 Things to Do Before My Kids Hate Me

Kxxx

The Birthday Girl

A lot of people get a bit over excited on their birthday and end up being sick.  In Evelyn's case it was a close encounter with an adolescent goat that caused her to loose her lunch.

Evelyn currently loves all animals, her favourite word is "quack quack ", which started off referring to ducks but now goes for anything feathered or furred that moves in an interesting way. With this in mind we took her to Surrey Docks city farm on her birthday and she had a marvelous time quack-quacking, limb-shaking and grinning at all kinds of farm yard beasts. Hopefully we have some video to put up here in due course.  If all that wasn't exciting enough a sudden downpour had forced us into the local Burger king for lunch, which turned out to have a giant Iggle Piggle!

We rounded off the day with a cup cake with a candle in it at tea time and so with her first sugar rush/sugar crash behind her our little one year old went to bed.

What on Earth is this?

hmmm, Cake...

I like cake!

All this was only one of the celebrations though. The first had been a joint party for all the babies in our NCT group. We rarely manage to get so many of us in one place so it was lovely to see the babies all together, it was also good to see most of the Dads again as I haven't seen a few of them since the babies were very small. The little ones had a great time pulling each others hair and grabbing each others toys. The parents also had a lovely time, owing to a slight flaw in our catering plan. This was "bring something to share" and resulted in a lot of cake, biscuits, cava and one token carton of orange juice (oopsy). I think for once it was the parents going home from a kids party feeling a wee bit sick! 

Proof that the NCT babies, and more to the point the Mummies, all made it through the first year!

The final round of celebrations was last Sunday when we had a party here at slummy terrace (I'm still working on what to call this place). A whole gaggle of friends and family turned up and after some initial clingyness Evelyn was happy to sit on a rug and hold court. Her subjects also brought with them a truly staggering pile of presents, the result of which has been to buy Mummy and Daddy several, wonderful little moments of baby playing happily by herself. Thank you everyone! Yes, even those of you who bought musical instruments!

No, I think I still need more toys, and perhaps an audience...

that's better

the morning after the afternoon before

Xylophone from Auntie Charlotte

Kxxx

A Bit of a Medical Rant

Those of you who are also my facebook friends may have noticed a little rant in my status update the other day following a visit to our new GPs surgery. It went something like this:

GP: ...and you're hypothyroid?
me: Yes, after having my baby
GP: oh! That's very unusual!
Me: er, no it's actually very common
hmm I feel a ranting blog post coming on as soon as I get time for a ranting blog post!

Well I finally got time, here's the ranting blog post.

Postpartum thyroiditis (PPT) is caused by the immune system, which is suppressed in pregnancy, coming back all over enthusiastic after the birth and attacking the mothers own thyroid. Exactly how common it is is up for debate, one study suggested that 16.7% of British mothers were effected although most put the figure at around 7-8%. Either way that is a lot of women and yet my GP thought it was a rare condition.

 It's funny how the medical professions and indeed the media are falling over themselves to talk to you about some aspects of pregnancy, birth and babies but other things you just never hear about. Breast feeding, pelvic floors, breast feeding, postnatal depression, breast feeding oh and breast feeding tick, tick tick, but had you ever heard of PPT?

The problem with PPT is the symptoms. Well ok that's the problem with most illnesses but you'll see what I mean if I list some of them: Tiredness, depression, weight gain/failure to loose weight, bad hair and nails, aches etc. During pregnancy you spend months listening to everyone (regardless of whether they've had kids or not) telling you that your body will be ruined, you'll never sleep again yada yada yada. Throw in a fairly epic labour, an emergency c-section and of course looking after a baby and I could just imagine the conversation with the GP:

Me: Ever since I had a baby I've felt really tired and rubbish

GP: er, yes, you were expecting what, exactly?

Fortunately for me I have a very eagle eyed medical student friend who spotted that I had a slight goitre (swelling in the neck) this is one of the few clear indicators of Thyroid problems (but one that doesn't occur in everyone) and after a few blood tests I was diagnosed and started treatment. The good part is that PPT is very easy to treat, I just pop a pill once a day and as this simply replaces something the body is missing  there are no side effects. I will have to have regular blood tests to check that I am on the right dose and to see if it eventually goes away by itself (which is the case for most women) but oh my goodness do I feel better! Before starting the pills I felt as though I had aged 20 years and had gone from a fairly young and healthy woman to someone dragging her aged body through life. now I'm pretty much back to my old (younger) self.

This all reminded me of another Mum I met a few months before my diagnosis. We got chatting and she told me how she felt constantly tired, aching and old, just like me. Also like me she attributed it to a difficult birth, an emergency c-section and being in her thirties, as her daughter approached one, she and her husband had decided not to have any more children as she just couldn't face going through it all again. I have no idea if she'd been to the doctor about it and had her thyroid checked, but I do wonder. 

My PPT is fairly mild, it's not some terrible life threatening thing but wouldn't it be sad to think that there are Mums out there who'd like another child, but just don't feel capable of it when all they need is one little pill once a day. This doesn't seem to be a condition that midwives, health visitors or GPs are on the look out for, or even aware of in some cases. I know there are a few of our friends who read this and are working on bumps of their own right now or planning to in the near future, just pop this in the back of your mind in case you need it. Better to have a doctor think you're a silly woman than to feel too worn out to enjoy your baby.

Kxxx

Meanwhile upstairs...

While all the work in the kitchen has been happening, we've also had Evelyn's room redecorated. This involved replacing the ceiling, which was at risk of falling down. That created enough dust to cover every surface in the house. But the end result was worth it. Since the decorators finished, Kirsty has been hard at work making it into a proper baby's room. For the first time Evelyn has a room that is really her own, not a multipurpose study/spare-room/nursery. Isn't it pretty?

Transforming our kitchen

We've successfully moved into our new house now and the work to improve it has begun in earnest. The previous owner had made only one alteration since moving in twenty years ago - a new bathroom - so most of the house looks very dated and some of it is defective. We can live with the dated stuff for a while and gradually redecorate, but with a baby who is on the verge of moving under her own steam, it was important that we get anything dangerous fixed quickly. The top priority was Evelyn's bedroom, where the old Victorian ceiling was seriously bowed and risked collapsing. After some pretty foul dust, and even fouler language from our Saaarf Lahndan (South London) builders, the room now has a new ceiling and the walls have been stripped. They start painting today, so the job should be done by the end of tomorrow. This will be a huge relief, as Evelyn has been waking up very early whilst she's been sleeping in our bedroom. And it will be lovely for her to have a room of her own, rather than study/store room/baby bedroom.

The next priority was the kitchen which, as you can see from the photo below, was very dated. What you can't see so easily is that most of he cupboard doors were coming off, and the washing machine and oven didn't work. (I really enjoyed carrying about 20kg of wet laundry up the hill back from the laundrette at the weekend!)

On Monday work started on ripping out the kitchen and as you can see from the next photo, by the end of the day it had all gone. I can't believe how fast that can be done. Along the way the builders discovered some pretty dodgy work. You can see most of these in the photo:

- missing floorboards

- wet rot, dry rot and woodworm in floorboards and joists

- illegal wiring

- half-rusted iron gas pipes

- lots of lead water pipes

- missing brickwork around the (leftmost) window

By the end of day two the wiring and gas pipes were fixed, the plumbing was half done and the missing bit of wall was replaced (look at the left most window: you can see how much was missing by the amount they had to replace). The builders had also raised the lintel in the chimney (right hand side), to create space for the cooker and cooker hood. Again, I can't believe how quickly they did all this.

While all this is going on, Kirsty and Evelyn have escaped to stay with Granny (very wise). I am still living in the house, surviving on a fridge freezer and microwave in the dining room, washing dishes in the bathroom sink and to be honest mostly living off takeaway. Fortunately the weather has been wonderful, so I can enjoy the lovely garden which - unlike the house itself - the previous owner took great care of.

I'll try to keep posting a photo of the kitchen each day.

Update 28 June

Sorry I have failed to do daily updates. Here are some more photos.

After day 4 the hideous fake brick tiles had come off the end wall and even more floor had been removed.

By day five the end wall and the whole side wall had been redone.

And by the end of today, day 6, the walls were done and the floor was starting to come back together again. But you'll just have to take my word for that as the builders have also disconnected the lights and it's after dark now.

Update 29 June

Today a nice Polish plasterer came. Now we have walls that are straight at last. There also seems to be a bit more floor, but there's still more to do. The builders are back tomorrow.

Update 4 July

Work has been continuing for the last few days. More problems have been found, and thankfully resolved. It turns out that not only were the floorboards and joists rotten, the bricks underneath them were too. Here is the kitchen on 30 June, as the floor and all its supports were being removed to get to the bare earth.

A day later the bricks have been rebuilt, the joists replaced and most of the floor is down.

And by the end of the second week of work, on 2 July, the floor had been completed. Who'd have thought it would take that long to get the room into a state where it was ready to have a kitchen put in it?! The morals of this story is that if you have a leaky tap don't wait 30 years to get it fixed, and if you have your floor relaid, make sure there's proper damp proofing in it. Or something like that. What do I know about building?!

Update 18 July

Work is still continuing in the kitchen, and is about to enter its fifth week, but now the end is in sight. The floor and walls have been tiled and had their first coat of paint, the kitchen units are in, as are the worktops and the appliances. Here are some pictures from Wednesday 14th.