A Photo Every Hour - Saturday 23rd May - Instagram vs. Reality

So ignoring the fact that this post is what...6 months overdue? Well, as the clichéd phrase goes, better late than never, ha.

On the photo an hour day in May, I was 5 weeks and 4 days pregnant. We'd only just found out the previous Friday that our frozen embryo transfer had actually worked and morning sickness was just beginning to make an appearance. Our families knew and a couple of close friends but to the outside world, it was just a normal May bank holiday.


8am on Instagram - a perfect Saturday morning of bacon sarnies and reading The Simple Things.

8am in reality - bacon sandwiches seemed to be about the only thing I could keep down and I couldn't really concentrate enough to read much of the magazine.


9am on Instagram - A gorgeous sunny day on our way to a steam rally.

9am in reality - Usually I would've stayed on site at the steam rally, but what with feeling ill (and Andrew not wanting me to ride in his rather bumpy 1952 lorry) I stayed home and just went for the day.


10am on Instagram - We'd arrived at the steam rally and it was still sunny.

10am in reality - Well, this was pretty much the same, we'd arrived and I was trying to drink a cup of tea whilst wearing those seasickness bands around my wrists.


11am on Instagram - Looking at all the old vintage vehicles.

11am in reality - I'd begun to feel a bit better so we took a quick walk around the site.


12pm on Instagram - Still looking round at all the exhibits.

12pm in reality - Just on our way back to Andrew's parents caravan for a sit down because I felt absolutely shattered.


1pm on Instagram - Tea and cake in vintage china at a stall on site.

1pm in reality - We met up with some friends (who knew the news) and I did actually manage to eat a whole piece of cake and not feel too bad.


2pm on Instagram - Shiny vintage vehicles (this one is Andrew's)

2pm in reality - I popped out from the caravan to take the picture before going back for a nap.


3pm on Instagram - Still a lovely sunny day.

3pm in reality - Same as before, it was a case of taking a nice-looking picture and then going back for a sit down.


4pm on Instagram - Afternoon tea.

4pm in reality - Much the same, just tea.


5pm on Instagram - Sunny days and country lanes (just leaving the rally site).

5pm in reality - We were actually running a bit late as we had a wedding evening do to attend later on and still had to buy a card on the way home.


6pm on Instagram - Country fields.

6pm in reality - Dashing home to get changed and wrap the present up before the party.


7pm on Instagram - Snack food.

7pm in reality - I really fancied salty stuff at that point so Andrew bought a savoury snack selection and crisps from M&S for me to try.


8pm on Instagram - Red shoes and red dress for the party.

8pm in reality - I was struggling to find a nice outfit that would a) have long sleeves and hid the fact I was wearing seasickness bands and b) not be too tight across my stomach because I already felt like anything tight was a no-no. Oh and add that to the fact that the party was 20 minutes away and we were supposed to arrive at 7.30pm.


9pm on Instagram - Party balloons.

9pm in reality - The smell of food was overwhelming and the venue was rather hot, I kept having to nip to the toilet and outside for some fresh air!


10pm on Instagram - A happy bride and groom with their family.

10pm in reality - Wondering what's the earliest we could escape from the party without looking conspicuous so I could go home and sleep.


11pm on Instagram - On the way home. 

11pm in reality - On the way home, thank goodness!

 

So yep, Instagram isn't always what it seems - especially on that occasion!

 

 

Jane compiled the round-up that month - if you fancy seeing who took part 6 months ago, pop over here and take a look!

 

Also, check out what I was up to in...

May 2014

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Yarn Along 1

One of the things I've really enjoyed reading over the last few months are the 'Yarn Along' posts - a weekly Wednesday knitting and reading update started by Ginny from Small Things.

Elise and Jenny seem to make the most amazing knitted and crocheted patterns and I've spotted Hazel and Char joining in recently as well. I do have a Ravelry account (if anyone fancies adding me) but I think I need to get a bit more organised on there with my projects and uploading pictures.

So I thought I'd jump on the proverbial (yarn-bombed) bandwagon and share a little bit of what I'm making and reading as well. I can't promise a post every week but let's give it a go and see how far we get.

Currently knitting: a present for my sister-in-law for Christmas which I can't reveal 100% in case she's reading!

Recently though, look what I've made! An actual item of clothing! Okay, so it's for a baby but still, something which someone could properly wear! It still needs pressing and I need to sew some poppers onto the front (and don't look too closely at the seams) but I'm quite chuffed with my first attempt anyway.

And this little (or large) fella made his way up north to Spartacus Rooftops, complete with a 'Very Hungry Caterpillar' book. Sarah very kindly sent me (and Findina) a fab package of baby bits and pieces so I made a little something as a thank you gift in return. The pattern for him can be found on Ravelry.

Currently reading:  Jambusters by Juliet Summers.
The story of the Women's Institute during the Second World War and the book which inspired the ITV series, 'Home Fires'. I'm only about 30 pages in so far but it seems to be a fascinating read; I'm a fan of reading mass observation-type stuff anyway and this is filled with quotes and interviews from people who were actually there.

Linking up with Ginny's Yarn Along

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A Tuesday Round-Up

So...over at Rosalilium, she's running her 'Blog Every Day' challenge again. I had this wonderful idea that perhaps, just perhaps, that would be a way for me to catch up on all the posts I have hanging around in my drafts folder.

So let's just ignore the fact that Tuesday is already 3 days into November (and yep, I'm actually writing this on Friday). And move on.

I used to do a little Monday post of what had happened over the weekend and I do still like the idea of a Monday round-up; a sort of allsorts post with a mixture of stuff. So here goes...


Life Lately
Weekends have been full of carnivals (the big one, Bridgwater is on Saturday) and weekdays seem to fly by so fast. We went to London for a mini 'babymoon' and saw 'Xanadu the Musical' at Southwark Playhouse (definitely recommended, the campest night in a theatre you'll ever have) and visited The Baby Show at Olympia. We ended up coming home with heaps of freebies from the show but more importantly, we bought our pram (an ABC Design Cobra if you're interested). One of the things we did at The Baby Show as well was a practical baby care workshop (which involved this scary looking thing!)

I've also signed up for 3 online Christmas swaps: Char's Blogger Secret Santa Swap (the deadline's passed for this one, sorry); Jenny's The Geeky Knitter Christmas Craft Swap (sign up by Friday 6th November!); and Janet's Thrifty Christmas Gift Swap (sign up by Sunday 8th November).


How's the Bump?
Umm, bigger is probably the word. 29 weeks this week and suddenly I feel very large. I've been doing pregnancy yoga which is great for stretching and having a general chill-out and me and Andrew are doing a hypnobirthing course as well. My plans for birth are basically "whatever", as in I have no firm plans; instead what I'd like is a bit box of mental tips, tricks and techniques so depending on how I feel when I get there, I can call up whatever bit of info I need.

We've also booked our NCT course, booked our tour of the hospital ward, practised putting the pram up and down, practised putting the car seat in the car, put the cot up and partially arranged the nursery. Oh and I'm doing 4 day weeks at work to use up my annual leave before Christmas (which is great!).


Essential Reading
Standard Issue on why Pulp's 'Different Class' album is fabulous.
Rosalilium's 100 ideas for things to do this Christmas.
Sarah's posts with Matilda the dragon and her gorgeous Halloween footprint ghosts.
Sophie's rolo brownies - yum!
And that gorgeous lady, Michelle, did an outfit post (which obviously, Pete and Betty gatecrashed).


Meal-Planning Monday (or Tuesday, or even Friday in this case)
Clare and Dee both take part in 'Meal Planning Monday' inspired by 'At Home with Mrs M'. I used to be very organised and plan all our meals but during the first trimester of pregnancy, that kind of went out the window. I'm back planning meals now though and also thinking of what to store in the freezer for January!

Monday 2nd - Chicken fajitas and sweet potato wedges
Tuesday 3rd - Maddie haddock
Wednesday 4th - Mousakka (using half on Wednesday and half on Thursday)
Thursday 5th - Mousakka (leftover from Wednesday)
Friday 6th - Goulash with dumplings (made in the slow cooker)
Saturday 7th - Fry up for breakfast and takeaway in the evening (at Bridgwater carnival)
Sunday 8th - Bacon and eggs kedgeree-style for breakfast and dinner at The Bay View café in Burnham on Sea (before the fireworks display)


Thanks to... (this is going to go back a while)
Sarah Rooftops for the lovely package of baby bits she sent down (and her truly lovely positive comments).
Jane for mentioning my news back in the summer on her blog (and for keeping up with photo an hour, even when I've been flagging).
Elise, Alex, Gwen and Denise for a lovely breakfast in Edinburgh back in August.
Elise for the fabulous little yellow booties she knitted for Findus.
Danielle for mentioning my Findus news (and some photo an hour posts I think) in her weekly round-up.

Dee for the shout-out in her favourite blogs post (and if you're reading Dee, I hope you're doing okay)

Angela for the cake and excellent natter at Farringtons back in September (and the gorgeous handmade over-the-shoulder dribble bibs).

Michelle for the smiley cheery tweets and the brilliant blog posts she writes.

All of you lovely lot for the comments we received when we finally published our Findus news.

 

 

 

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A Photo Every Hour - Saturday 17th October

October's Photo an Hour challenge fell on Saturday 17th October - the same day as Taunton carnival (although at this time of year, any Saturday will fall on a Carnival day) :-)


8am - Up early to get ready to head out to an NCT sale in Frome (we'd heard they could be a bit of a bunfight!)

9am - Just about to leave and our garden is beginning to look very autumnal.

10am - Inside the NCT sale and despite what we'd heard, it's rather well organised and very civilised!

11am - Back home and sorting out some of the bits and pieces we picked up at the sale (and just in case you missed it on Twitter, we found out a few weeks ago that Findus is apparently Findina) :-)

12pm - Dropping off some books at the library in Wells before catching the bus down to Taunton to mooch round the charity shops before the Carnival (Andrew was driving down later in the afternoon to join me).

1pm - On the bus, somewhere near Somerton, about halfway to Taunton.

2pm - Ready for charity shopping!

3pm - Just in case I'd forgotten why I (and everyone else) was there today...

4pm - Time for a stop off in Wetherspoons for a cuppa, a sit down and a toilet break.

5pm - Whilst waiting in Primark for Andrew to arrive, these babygro/vest thingies accidentally fell into my basket...

6pm - Back at the car and enjoying some dinner before heading out to find a spot to watch the procession.

7pm - Carnival selfie with me, Andrew and the brother.

8pm - The first of the large floats arrived passed us (if you hadn't guessed, this one is based on the film, Madagascar).

9pm - The last of the large floats (and the end of the procession), Harlequin Carnival Club with their entry based on Phileas Fogg's world tour.

10pm - About halfway home.

11pm - We left the sorting out til Sunday morning!

This month we had 20 lovely bloggers joining in:

Jane from Is That Your Darling joined in on Instagram, Twitter and on her blog
Shazza from Sunshine and Celandines joined in on Instagram, Twitter and on her blog
Kerri from Crumbs in the Bed joined in on Instagram, Twitter and on her blog
Rachel from The Inelegant Wench joined in on Instagram, Twitter and on her blog
Rachael from Dear Ms Leigh joined in on Instagram, Twitter and on her blog
Elise from Elise and Life joined in on Instagram and on her blog
Jennifer from Adventures in Pop Culture joined in on Instagram and on Twitter
Josie from Tales From The Finch's Beak joined in on Instagram and on Twitter
Dee from The Life of Dee M joined in on Instagram and on Twitter
Susie from Second Hand Susie joined in on Twitter and on her blog
Laura joined in on Instagram
Rebecca from Just Me joined in on Instagram
Emma from Oh Gosh joined in on Instagram
Rebecca from Writing, Fatshion, Me joined in on Instagram
Siobhan joined in on Instagram
Erika from Quiet Girl Noisy City joined in on Twitter
Lucy from Lucy in the Clouds joined in on her blog
Bev from Confuzzledom joined in on her blog
Hazel from World of Joy joined in on her blog (and wins the award for most exotic photo an hour post!)
And of course, myself here on this post, plus on Instagram and on Twitter :-)


November's date will be Saturday 21st November - which falls on Glastonbury Carnival day, the last of the big Somerset processions for the year!

 

Also, check out what I was up to in...

October 2014

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A Photo Every Hour - Saturday 29th August

And so another photo an hour day rolls round - doing this challenge each month seems to be about one of the only things I'm keeping up with! Everything else - blogging, reading, baking, cleaning the house - fallen by the wayside over the last few months.

Anyway, onto last Saturday, a bit of a mixture of a day - some of it boring and some of it a bit more interesting.


9am - A glass of orange juice to start the day (the fancy 'not from concentrate' stuff as well) :-)

10am - A bit of a rest before starting some cleaning. I've realised over the last few months I need to do a bit of work and then sit down for a bit otherwise I just knacker myself out.

11am - Lots of laundry which needed to be put away.

12pm - More cleaning, although the dishwasher means I don't have to do the leg (arm?) work.

1pm - Another pitstop. A cup of tea and one of these chocolate scones picked up from Tesco the previous night.

2pm - Andrew's turn to do some housework now and all I have to do is lift up my legs!

3pm - Time to get ready to go out and this was the print I'd chosen for the evening (from the New Look maternity range although I acquired it from a charity shop, obvs) ;-)

4pm - On the road, heading off to Sturminster Newton in Dorset (the place for the first illuminated carnival of the season here in the South West)

5pm - Not too much further to go now...

6pm - Luckily my parents had already arrived and done the chip shop run for us. Me and Andrew surfed and turfed it that evening.

7pm - Waiting in the rain for the procession to reach us.

8pm - It was only a small parade but still fairly exciting; being the first one brings out all the carnival friends you haven't seen since last year.

9pm - Back to the car after the carnival and my dad had come prepared with flasks and chocolate.

10pm - Almost back home, just a few miles to go.

11pm - And the usual 'book and hot drink' pic before heading to sleep.

This month we had 23 lovely bloggers joining in (including some new faces - hello!)...

Jane from Is That Your Darling joined in on Instagram and Twitter
Jennifer from Adventures in Pop Culture joined in on Instagram and on Twitter
Rachael from Dear Ms Leigh joined in on Instagram, Twitter and on her blog
Rachel from The Inelegant Wench joined in on Instagram
Laura joined in on Instagram
Rebecca from Just Me joined in on Instagram
Kitty from The Eagle and Other Bikes joined in on Instagram
Chelsea from Love in Modern Life joined in on Instagram
Janet from Words That Can Only Be Your Own joined in on Instagram, Twitter and on her blog
Kerri from Crumbs in the Bed joined in on Instagram, Twitter and on her blog
Emma from Oh Gosh joined in on Instagram
Shazza from Sunshine and Celandines joined in on Instagram, Twitter and on her blog
Penny from A Penny for Them joined in on Instagram and on Twitter
Sarah from Sarah Rooftops joined in on Instagram, Twitter and on her blog
Liz from Distract Me Now Please joined in on Instagram
Amy from Fluffy Owl's Adventures joined in on Instagram and on Twitter
Sarah from The V Nice Life joined in on her blog
Elise from Elise and Life joined in on her blog
Hazel from World of Joy joined in on her blog (and it was a special birthday - happy birthday lady!)
Susie from Second Hand Susie joined in on her blog
Eileen from In My Playroom joined in on her blog
Shaheen from Allotment2Kitchn joined in on her blog
And of course, myself here on this post, plus on Instagram and on Twitter :-)

For September's date I'm going to go with Saturday 26th - purely for selfish reasons as I'm supposed to be off on a coach trip to the Big Pit National Coal Museum that day!
 

 

Also, check out what I was up to in...

September 2014

September 2013

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This Summer at the Duckpond

Questions, questions...

How have I managed to do no blogging whatsoever over the summer?
How am I already over halfway through this (still fairly unbelievable) pregnancy?
And the eternal blogger cliché - how is it already September?

Answers on a postcard please.



So that was summer 2015. I honestly had no idea back in May at the start of the summer that by the autumn I'd be well into the second trimester and expecting a Findus in January. I mean, we'd started the treatment for our frozen embryo transfer at the end of March but it didn't even cross our minds that it might actually work.

We still managed to get up to a lot of stuff though, even if at times I had to take things a bit more slowly.



Findus went to his/her first Glastonbury festival (I was 10 weeks and 5 days); I did two shifts working down there and then went in on the Sunday evening to see Paul Weller and The Who. I did feel a bit tired during Paul Weller's set so I had a doze while he was playing - I'm sure it looked perfectly fine down there at Pilton!

Oh yeah, and did I mention we met Lionel Richie? (rather than being chauffeured back to the helipad (which is along the lane we work on) he decided he wanted to walk and "enjoy the English countryside")


Me, Andrew, my parents and brother spent a lot of the summer Shaun-hunting in Bristol. Following on from the 'Gromit Unleashed' trail back in 2013, this year it was our woolly friend who descended on the place for the 'Shaun in the City' trail. There were 70 Shauns in total and we managed to spot 59 of them - a fairly respectable number methinks considering my condition! (oh yeah, that's being wheeled out as an excuse from now til January...)

Me and Andrew had our usual trip to Edinburgh for the Fringe Festival at the beginning of August. Back at the start of 2015 we decided to go for the whole week which in the end, proved to be a very good decision indeed as we could spread out the number of shows and I wouldn't get so tired. We still (somehow) managed to pack in 28 of them though, including a live recording of Radio 4's 'Just a Minute' at the BBC Potterrow tent and a blogger meet up with some truly lovely ladies - Denise, Gwen, Alex and Elise (who is an absolute darling and had knitted Findus some gorgeous little booties!). We did well for celebrity spotting in the street too - not including the ones we saw in shows, we also walked past Nina Conti; Rory McGrath; Josh Widdicombe, James Acaster, Mickey Flanagan and Ivo Graham (who were all going to see Jon Ronson at the Assembly Rooms - who was fab); Rob Beckett; Matthew Crosby; Janey Godley; and spot of the week - Richard Osman.

And a Findus update...
Well, he/she is still alive. Despite being a fairly positive person for the rest of my life, I can't help but worry about this little one. I clearly have no trust in my own body. We had our 20 week scan last week (at 19 weeks and 1 day) - it was 8am in the morning and this baby is obviously not a morning person as it spent most of the scan curled up in a cosy little ball asleep. The sonographer was lovely and got me to do some kind of belly dancing move to try and wake the baby up - all you got then was it shuffling round for about 10 seconds and then going back to sleep. It did a perfect impression of someone who really didn't want to be woken up that early! Long story short, we have to go back on 18th September for another scan so they can complete all the necessary checks (and hopefully find out whether it's a boy or a girl!).



Hope you've all had good summers!

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This...

Random picture of some nice ducklings at work

This...is why I've been such a crappy blogger, blog reader and especially blog commenter over the last couple of months.

This...is why I had a week or so of feeling (and being) pretty darn sick back in May (and couldn't complete BEDM).

And this...is part of (but not the only) reason why we bought ourselves a new car.


This is Findus*.

Travel back in time to 1st May 2014 and I was having an egg collection operation as part of our second IVF (ICSI) treatment. They collected 10 eggs on that occasion and 8 of them fertilised overnight. By the 6th May 2014, two of the little embryos were looking really good; one of them was transferred to me there and then (which sadly wasn't successful); the other plunged into a freezer at -196°C to be stored ready for us to use at a later date.

That later date was originally September and I started taking the medication in August last year. The transfer date was all set for 19th September and then what did I do on 18th September? Fell off my own doorstep and spectacularly fractured my ankle, that's what.

Fast forward 6 months from September (the length of time the orthopaedic consultant specified I had to wait for everything to heal) and I started taking the medication again in March.

Exactly 1 year to the day, on 1st May 2015 that frozen embryo was defrosted and transferred. Two weeks later, for the first time in 3 and half years, we actually saw those two little lines on a pregnancy test.



Today is 12 weeks and 4 days and in theory (keeping everything it's possible to cross, crossed) Findus should be joining us in January.

At the moment, it's about 25% excitement, 25% disbelief and 50% 'oh-my-god-I-can't-get-too-excited-because-I'll-jinx-it-but-what-if-I-don't-believe-in-it-surely-that'll-jinx-it-too?' thoughts. We've had three scans so far - two early ones at the fertility clinic and one normal 12 week one at the local hospital (which strangely, was done at 10 weeks and 5 days). All the medical people seem to have a hundred times more confidence than I do; what's going through my mind all the time is "my body hasn't worked properly for the last 3 and half years so what on earth makes everyone think it's going to work now?"

I'm hoping all those thoughts are fairly normal though.

*Obviously we're not going to put 'Findus' on the birth certificate but we did think it was rather appropriate for a little one who spent a year in the freezer.

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