Here's hoping it's a great 2008

I wish everyone a happy and healthy 2008.

I have only 2 New Years resolutions this year:
1) To have a healthy baby in May/June
2) To move house

Not many but as they are whoppers I reckon they will keep me busy enough!

Happy Christmas

So how was Christmas for you? I hope you all had a wonderful time.

Our Christmas was lovely. We had a busy week visiting friends and family and being thoroughly spoiled by everyone. A few photos to sum up the week.

Firstly the weather - freezing fog and no light for decent Christmas photos.

Secondly much playing with new toys (that includes me - I loved the new train set as well!)

Thirdly - cosying up at Grandma and Grandpa's house in front of their lovely log fire.

And finally a winter picnic at a local NT park we discovered. Cold but lovely. Food just tastes better outdoors for some reason.

Favourite pressie I received - The Happy Campers book - this is so me!
Favourite pressie I gave - Alex's train or the Oxfam Unwrapped train a teacher package for my Mum.
Favourite moment - when Alex delved into his Christmas stocking and found the chocolate coins. Or Alex dancing in his jim jams to Chris's new Motown CD. Such happy music.
Favourite meal - stollen and tea by the fire at my parents house.

Fabric Frenzy

I may not have had much energy to do any crafting of late but I have managed to pick up some great fabric in the local charity(thrift) shops recently. I never buy new fabric anymore apart from the odd bit of felt and stuffing. On my budget charity shops are definitely the way to go. Table cloths, sheets and pillowcases tend to be my best buys - none of the above cost more than £2.00. The pink and green tablecloth/throw is very Christmassy but I don't want to cut into it. It would make a great bedspread as it is. My Mum has an old pine cabin bed lurking in her attic somewhere and I want to use it for Alex when he is a bit older. This would go great with that - very Alpine and rustic. (I'm half Swiss so I love Alpine style even if it is twee!) Talking of things Alpine - I must find a copy of Heidi to read to Alex. I loved that book soooo much when I was little. Still do.

Rainy Weekend

There was some of this...
...and lots more of this....Apologies for the terrible photos - all due to a combination of my cheap camera and terrible weather as shown by the giant puddle. Although Alex and his pals Zach and Tobias just loved those puddles. They all ended up covered in mud to their waists and soaked to the skin. Not that they minded one bit. Then when the rain finally defeated us we retreated indoors to decorate the tree. Alex just loves the tree. He had such fun opening the Christmas box and hanging baubles up. I forgot to take any photos as I was just enjoying the moment so much. Having children of your own makes you remember just what a special time Christmas is for children. It's truly magical.

I did manage to cobble together a few more presents on my list. Being on a very tight budget this year and also not having the energy for crafting in the evenings I had to come up with some new ideas. I have been noting the wonderful ideas floating around in the blogosphere recently and have bookmarked them for next year instead. I especially love Bella Dia's advent activities!

For the children in our swimming group I dug out some Christmas tins I got on sale last January and filled them with chocolate coins. I remember loving chocolate coins as a child so hopefully they will all enjoy these too. Cost about £1.00 per tin.

A chef's set for kids from Wilkinson's for under £5 for our playgroup's Secret Santa. (I really should make this myself but I went for the stress free version!)

China egg cups shaped like vintage VW camper vans - a bargain at £1.49 in Cancer Research Shops. I got a whole load of these for all my nephews and nieces. I quite fancy one myself.

The 4 babies that arrived this year are getting white onesies with a little patch cut from some cute superbuzzy fabric on the front. (Yes they will be made by me!)

Sister in law is getting a little jug with some ingredients for hot chocolate to go with it.

Still a few more to go though.

Christmas is coming....slowly

Well, so far we have done very little Christmas shopping, mainly because I hate shopping at the best of times and right now the crowds are unbearable. I did manage to get some panettone and stollen cake for some friends. I am getting my Mum another Oxfam Unwrapped gift this year. Last year I bought 100 school dinners for kids in Africa and a training programme for a community nurse for her/on her behalf plus a couple of handmade goodies. She absolutely loved the idea. Dad is getting a foodie hamper from us with a selection of local produce. Chris - I still have no idea although he is getting a celebratory meal, DVD and some cava for his birthday (24th Dec). Alex is getting a wooden train set and some bits and pieces in his stocking.


I am itching to put all our Christmas decorations up but Chris insists on waiting till next weekend. I think all the twinkly lights make the house so cosy and special. Just take a look at Soule Mama's beautiful cosy home. I love that the Americans put theirs up straight after Thanksgiving. I have been looking for ornaments in the local charity shops but I think everyone else has had the same idea as there are none to be seen. I did find the one below sometime in the summer and the little snowman and santa noughts and crosses game at a car boot sale.


Craft wise I am planning to make a stocking for Alex but that will have to come after the embroidered felt Christmas hearts I am hoping to make for my closest girl friends. I am hoping to try a button wreath sometime but it depends whether I can find the right glue anywhere. Alex and I made glittery pine cones at a friend's house last week and I really want to make some more but I can't find any glitter at the moment as it seems to be sold out everywhere!

The 12 week scan - an emotional rollercoaster

A couple of months ago I emailed Manda at Treefall to offer my sympathy when she had some bad blood test results for her long awaited MP2. She was worried about risking an amnio and having been through a similar experience with Alex I wanted to email her to let her know she wasn't alone. And I wrote that I was trying to get pregnant but already terrified of being in that very same position again. As it turned out everything was fine and someone somewhere had input the wrong due date which skewed the results. I was so relieved for her as Manda and I have very similar tales; same age, a history of infertility and miscarriage and mercifully we both have a much loved toddler at home.

What I didn't expect was to have an almost identical experience to hers.

We had booked a private nuchal fold scan for 12 weeks as it is a more thorough scan than the NHS dating scan and it is combined with a new early blood test result. Our reasoning was that if something was wrong the earlier we knew about it the better and the longer we would have to come to a decision about amnios and futher testing etc. At my age (38) these things are heavily recommended and as I have another child to think about I was keen to know as much info as possible.

The scan was fine. The baby looked healthy (and waved at us) and the nuchal fold measured 1.4 which is spot on. We breathed a huge sigh of relief as Alex's nuchal fold had been 2.5 and just on the borderline for abnormal ( we chose not to have an amnio with him). I finally let go some of my fears and let myself believe we might be having another baby in May.

But then we moved over to the computer where the consultant inputted all the data. His face fell and he muttered something. I looked at the screen and my heart stopped. The Papp A blood test results came back with a 1 in 17 chance of Downs (should have been about 1 in 250 for my age) and 1 in 200 for Trisomy 13 and 18 (should have been 1 in 1400). I just couldn't take it in. Seconds ago everything had been looking rosy and now everything looked blacker than black. My poor beautiful baby. Then I just broke down and started sobbing so hard I couldn't speak.

The consultant double checked the results with the lab which confirmed them. There was no chance they were wrong. So we left and drove home through the pouring rain with tears falling down our faces. We talked and cried and cried and talked and then we retreated into exhausted silence.

I couldn't believe we were in this situation again. Although this time the statistics were much much worse than they were with Alex. There was so much to think about, what impact it would have on Alex and his life, how would we deal with things, what decisions could we with live with and which were just not possible . I made a decision a long time before we had Alex that we could not terminate a child with Downs. It really helped me to know that I had made that decision already but I was worried what impact it would have on Alex, especially if the child has serious medical problems such as a heart defect (common in Downs). What really worried me worst of all were the trisomy 13 and 18 results as they are supposedly incompatible with life (edited to add - please see Therese Ann's comment!). I had known there was a chance of all this happening but the scan had lulled me into such a state of false security that I just couldn't get my head round it at all.

When we got home we just hugged each other for a long time. And then the phone rang and it was the hospital. The consultant has stayed behind to go over the data again and again. And he found one of the dates was wrong. When he changed it it changed the results - back to normal.
The risk went from 1 in 17 to 1 in 650 for Downs and 1 in 200 to 1 in 14000 for the other trisomies. So we went from happy to desperate to pure joy in the space of a few hours.

So my thanksgiving day was spent thinking how incredibly lucky we are. To have one wonderful child and another one hopefully on the way. That some people never get to have children at all. That we may have got bad results but we got a phone call that changed all that and gave us the most wonderful good news. That most people who get bad results don't get that phone call later. We are so very very grateful.

Winter Sunset

This was the view from our house a couple of weeks ago (before the rain and snow). A nice photo to make up for the lack of anything handmade and the very wordy previous post.