"The Hall" - Crochet Baby Blanket

Anyone who follows me on Instagram or Twitter will know that I learned to crochet last year. Along the way I've made blankets for friends, snoods, scarves, hats, snowflakes, but it was all leading up to this. A blanket for my own baby.

The trouble was that blankets take an awfully long time, and despite trying to do some every evening, it was seeming like the baby would be here before the blanket was ready... Well, I'm pleased to announce that at 38 + 1, the blanket is finished and packed for hospital, and the baby is still firmly inside.

The blanket is shell stitch in 3 rotating colours. I used the same yarn I used to make "The Alexander" blanket, Cotton Soft by King Cole. The colours are oyster, jade and wine.

I make my blankets big, and this is far larger than a normal sized baby blanket. I have used around 2 balls in each colour for this one although that's approximate as all of the colours I had from making other things and I supplemented with new balls! The easiest tutorial I could find online for Shell stitch was on My Rose Valley's blog. I then had to wing the final row to give a straight edge, filling the "troughs" with a tr, htr, dc, htr and tr before joining as normal at the top of the next peak. I then finished with a treble crochet edge in oyster. I used a 4mm needle for this project.

The shell stitch is a looser stitch, or certainly is for me, so I really advise leaving far longer tails that you can weave in further into the blanket, or leaving the tails unwoven until the edging is on and then weaving into the edge. It feels far more secure that way.

So maternity leave officially starts tomorrow, the blanket is made, the tiny clothes are washed. In the meanwhile, I'm afraid the end of pregnancy has hit my like a high speed train and sleeping is hard, walking is hard and this baby has dance moves to rival those of the figure skaters in Sochi. Just thankfully not the blades on the skates to match.

We are ready Baby H. Not long to go and we cannot wait!

Silent Sunday

Fresh air

When my daughter woke up at 7:30 this morning and peeled my eyes open I assumed at first I must be dreaming. A) a lie in? B) is that SUNSHINE?! 

Today was marked in my diary as the day I'd attempt taking a few photos of my bump that weren't just me in the mirror with my camera and might be vaguely good enough to hand alongside the handy work of my lovely friend Sarah McKee, who took my shots when I was expecting E. It was also the day at the end of a very wet week so E needed out but  despite the sunshine, it was bitterly cold and blustery... So, there's no better place in my mind to tick off all the boxes: Kirby Hall, our local English Heritage property, which I have raved about on le blog before. 

Despite the wind we were able to search for the (absent) peacocks, engage in hide and seek, read books about the Tudors, see some birds of prey, chase our shadows in the sunshine and look at moss growing on the urns out in the garden.

I took advantage of my favourite window in Northamptonshire and managed a select few pictures to be proud of, with a better selection of photos being photo-bombed by my toddler. 

We'd almost forgotten what blue skies looked like. Almost.

Family Photo Friday #4 - 24/01/14

This week has disappeared in a pile of work, mostly. At the weekend we celebrated our friends' daughter's baptism, and I photographed the event... Which meant I spent the whole day on the wrong side of the camera.

However, a little bedtime silliness and the camera did catch my two children - in and out of utero - for this week's Family Photo Friday. 

Her fascination with the bump is growing as much as the bump grows itself.

Her prediction last week was a dinosaur. This week a girl. We shall see! 

Thank you to those who linked up with me last week. Each week finds a new face, and it's so lovely to have you all on board! 

My favourite image this week came from Life as a Mum - I think it filled me with excitement for E having a sibling and the special relationship they will have... And who can resist a puddle?!

Right then Week 4! Let's recap the rules! 

• Share a family photo from your week just gone. It needn't be a Family Photo Friday specific post, I don't mind you recycling! You can join in weekly, monthly or just whenever you can. It can be a formal portrait or a snap from your phone, something you posed for or something you caught when no one was looking. It could be from a day out, a gathering, an activity at home, it doesn't matter so long as it gives a snap shot of what your family looked like during the week that's just been.
• Give us a brief explanation of your photo. 
• I'd love it if you could grab the badge to add at the bottom of your post and Tweet about it using #familyphotofriday - my Twitter handle is @oneformybaby12.
• Pop over to visit at least two other bloggers and see what they've been doing - maybe you can watch their family grow and change too!
• Leave a comment if you can.

I promise to visit as many of you as I can and I'll pick my favourite photo to share next Friday.

Happy photo-taking and memory-making!

<div align="center">
<a href="http://thursdayschild-fridaysthoughts.blogspot.co.uk/p/family-photo-friday.html" title="Family Photo Friday @ Thursday's Child, Friday's Thoughts"><img src="http://i1363.photobucket.com/albums/r718/oneformybaby12/cfd43ed3-81dd-4bc8-891e-83da05b4339a_zpse02e79b8.jpg" alt="Family Photo Friday @ Thursday's Child, Friday's Thoughts" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

New

Reality is kicking in.

We're on the final countdown to our big 'new'. Our second baby. A brand new life.

Starting all over again. 

E will be a new big sister. We'll be new parents again. A new family of four.

I'm looking at all of E's stuff that is out and ready for it's second round. As good as new, some of it virtually untouched. But all new to this baby.

We can't wait to meet you, little new.

Testing

My daughter took her first unaided steps just after Christmas last year. Two or three steps between furniture and such continued until February, when she just let go and never looked back. She gets around on foot. Most of the time. Maybe I've been spoiling her and carrying her out of convenience and speed. Who knows.

This week we reached breaking point. Yesterday she point blank refused to walk to the park (circa two minutes at toddler speed) and I refused to carry her.

E planks on a wet pavement and screams for five minutes, unbothered by the fact that I am still on my way to the park. Proper face down, covered-in-mud-kind-of-planking. People walked by chuckling at the stand off between two incredibly stubborn Aries women. Eventually I gave in, put her in the car and went home. So much for making the most of my Fridays off and dry weather. 

I needed a plan. I resisted Dr Google for this one, however, and tough mum is out of the box. A kiddo somewhere between the 98th and 99th, by the age of 20 months weighs in excess of two stone. I cannot carry two stone and be 28 weeks pregnant. She has legs and can walk. End. So as of 7am this morning the "no carry" rule was enforced Chez Thursday's Child. Mostly successful. I am feeding her more fruit shaped snacks to keep her hunger induced grumpiness at bay and some bribery and coercion is needed. 

But we managed an early morning trip to the park, 99.9% on foot. I am sad that the colours of autumn are gone, but I do love an early winter morning. E enjoyed the ducks, the puddles and the swings. 

Let's hope that 99.9% is a figure we can stick to. Day one has set high expectations...

Milestones

I have two significant milestones to celebrate in my life this weekend.

The first is THIS IS MY 100TH POST! I cant believe I've found enough interesting stuff to write about, but it feels good and if I'm honest, part of me can't believe I'm still here.

Even more excitingly, yesterday was 27 weeks and that means it's the third trimester of this pregnancy. The last lap. The final countdown.

It genuinely only seems like yesterday I found out I was pregnant again. I just don't understand how this can be. I didn't enjoy being pregnant with E and this time I feel so much better and I simply don't feel that I've even had a second to stop and enjoy it. 

In the battle 'Mama v SPD' I'm afraid to say that SPD might be winning now. I'm having to slow down, but it's not been the easiest of weeks with E home poorly with another temperature and a bad mood to match... A koala around my neck is not what I need right now! The pain is worse at the front at the bottom of my pelvis, more so than I remember last time, and I feel stiff all the time. I might be walking like a duck, but I'm battling on, co-codamol in hand!

This baby is a mover. Non stop wriggling, thunderous rolls and hiccups that make my brain hurt just thinking about it. Thankfully, it seems to have the same idea its sister did and settles down at night time. I think it's head down and bum up under my right hand rib cage as the biggest kicks feel like they're in my waist, right to the side, and hiccups are definitely down at the bottom of my bump.The weight and gender guesses have started - I've dug out a picture of me at 27 weeks with E and snapped myself in exactly the same vest top yesterday for comparison. I think I'm bigger this time, but my bump has changed shape in the last few weeks and my prediction is...

GIRL. 10lb 4oz.

You heard it here first. E, for reference was 9lb 13oz. Place your bets!

December 24th 2011 27 weeks

December 7th 2013 27 weeks

I'm pleased to report that we're finally over the worst of our colds and catching up on sleep. Just these final molars to contend with. D cheered me up yesterday with a maternity Christmas jumper (I was in New Zealand for Christmas was pregnant with E so needed no such item in my wardrobe!) so I'll be living in that for the next few weeks.

I'm off to watch The Polar Express and put my feet up. I don't have much feet up time left! 

So now you dance

Yesterday was a big milestone in this pregnancy. 24 weeks. "V Day". The turning point at which the medics would actively do everything they could to help my baby should something happen between now its due date. It feels good to be here. 

This week has been quite a week. We've all been riddled with sore throats, coughs, temperatures and feeling quite off colour. It's been a busy one at work. E was home poorly on Thursday. I managed to ruin an entire load of washing (including most of my limited maternity wardrobe) throwing in an old scarf that the dog had slept on only for it to turn everything a hideous shade of cooked salmon. Then on Friday (the day before V Day), about 7pm, I'm merrily blogging at the computer and go to head downstairs and before I know it I'm bouncing my way down on my bottom.  I grab the stair gate to steady myself and pull it off the wall. I have skinned my elbow. I have a blue backside... My biggest concern is baby, and of COURSE it decides it's a good time to have a nap and do nothing. Chocolate... Cold drink... No movement. So I called the hospital who asked me to go in to be checked. Needless to say, as I drove myself to hospital the worst thoughts were going through my head... I was 4 hours away from having a "viable" baby... 4 hours too far.

Now, I'm being cared for my a different hospital this time as I had such an awful experience at my local hospital when having E. I know full well that they would have dismissed me in this situation. However, lovely new hospital were amazing, and understanding, and didn't make me feel like I was wasting anyones time. 

The second I lay down for them to do some checks, the small one arose from its slumber, did a little dance and promptly got the hiccups. Small one is fine. I am fine, just sore and stuff and battered, but I'll keep. 

A huge relief.

Preparation is moving on. We have booked E into nursery for a day over Christmas with the specific intention of painting the kids' new room. Batch one of baby loans has been returned and we are sorting though, pulling out the neutral stuff and putting the pink back up in the loft. I am LOVING my new pram, be it only in single mode, and am hovering over the eBay listing as I write waiting for my old pram to sell. I bought an extravagant blanket yesterday, but my is it soft! The last two weeks have seen the arrival of no less than three babies to friends or family of friends, one pink and two blue, and I'm getting increasingly more desperate to meet this little one and find out which team it'll be joining...


Now, if next week could be a little calmer, I would be grateful.

The countdown continues. 

Silent Sunday

21 weeks

Pregnancy is just ticking along really, and there is very little to report.

I'll kick back and enjoy that.

However, I wanted to share the weekly bump and just take 30 seconds to rave about my new cardigan. I'd never heard of Crave Maternity until recently, but I stumbled across their sale online in the week and bagged myself the one item of clothing I was really missing now that the weather is cold and blustery: A chunky knit cardigan. This little beauty was in the sale for £16 down from £79 and is soft, and chunky and warm and divine. There's no other way to describe it. I'm not sure my bank balance would ever have afforded me a £79 cardigan, especially without seeing it in the flesh first, but for £16 I am the happiest and warmest pregnant lady on the planet right now and can assure you it's worth much more than what I paid. So thank you, Crave.

I was delighted to see that they're a company based just up the road in Leicestershire too... I love to support local business...

A good weekend for warm bumps.

A step forward

So here we are. 20 weeks. Half way. 

This is insanity.

I was writing a guest post the other day, which is due to be published next week about preparing for a baby, and I suddenly realised how much there was to do and it has given me a kick into doing something for this one's arrival which is much closer than it sounds!

The other weekend we found ourselves in IKEA buying ourselves a new wardrobe. This weekend, D enlisted help from a friend and assembled it. Why is this significant? Well, D's clothes currently live in a chest of drawers in the spare room, which is about to become the kids' room. So those drawers needed vacating - pronto! This baby has somewhere to sleep and somewhere to keep their clothes... Progress. Now to start boxing some stuff up that we don't need out and thinking about doing some decorating. I'm still very much thinking about that! 

In other news... 

I had my 20 weeks scan today. Baby is happy, healthy, a little big for gestation. And tall. Just like it's sister was. I went on my own, which was a little odd, but I'm pleased to report that nosiness didn't get the better of me and I stayed firmly Team Yellow. Time to buy some white baby grows! I bought the wool for a baby blanket this week... I fear that my list of Christmas makes will be getting in the way of that for some time.

This week has definitely been the week of growing: I'm starting to feel HUGE and I'm feeling baby much higher up now. I've had the appetite of a king and some of the nasties of pregnancy that I'd managed to escape or at least deal with up until now have started to become a little more problematic. And of course the pharmacist wont give you anything. Sigh.

Anyway, I'm making a shopping list for the kids' new room and pinning like a mad woman on Pinterest. That'll satisfy me for now.

Less than 20 weeks to go...

Silent Sunday

18 weeks.

I cannot get over how quickly this pregnancy business is flying. I'm very nearly half way, and I only blinked. I've got a tap dancer on board who seems to be awake a lot of the time and a bump that I'm pretty sure you can't miss, yet it seems to have gone unnoticed by many of my colleagues. Maybe I have always been rounder than I thought.

Bump is starting to feel tight and a bit itchy so it's time to get moisturising religiously. If the stretch marks do what they did last time, it'll be just before baby arrives that they suddenly pop... Better be safe than sorry. I'm giving Cussons Mum & Me a whirl this time, having loved their stretch mark fader (which works a treat on C-section scars too!)... And it smells lush. And I have an irrational love of pump bottles. Time to get out more.

So exciting news this week is that I have a date for No. 2's arrival! We're keeping it a secret, but it's a smidge early and I'm due 22 weeks today, so you can probably start working it out. Very exciting, but we have SO much to do before then. We're swapping bedrooms around as the kids will share once No. 2 is sleeping through and it currently looks like a dumping ground. It will be vastly improved when all our university stuff (!) and a lots of the books that we don't use all that often get boxed up in the loft. Their room is going to be grey and rainbow - it looks SO much better than it sounds I promise - and my attention has turned to thinking about what blanket design I'm going to crochet. 
          
In other news, all of E's Christmas presents, along with presents for most of the significant children in our lives, God son and daughters and the like, are purchased. I'm thinking about toddler Christmas crafts (potato printing wrapping paper anyone?) and scratching my head about what to get D... 

I like to claim I'm organised. This post has made me realise that I'm probably not quite as organised as I thought. Time to make another list. 

                                                      

Autumn

Without doubt my favourite time of the year. The changing colours, the cosy evenings, the crisp mornings with hazy sunny days, the run up to Christmas, the knit wear, the slow cooker.

E and I took the opportunity to get out and enjoy just some of that yesterday. Not too cold you needed a coat and sunny enough for the leaves to be crunchy and the grass not too damp.

Although she was been walking for nearly nine months (hold up, that's half her life?!) we're only just at a stage where she'll walk most of the time we're out and about, which is a good job given how much she weighs now and my increasing belly! Her understanding is phenomenal, and she got so much of what we were talking about yesterday as we wondered around the park looking at the leaves changing colour and jumping in the crunchy ones that had already parted company with their trees. We enjoyed sitting in the last dregs of the sunshine watching the ducks and chatting about what she could see. Fair to say, tantrums aside I am loving her company at the moment! 

What struck me though, was how well I am feeling. 17 weeks today, and I am totally experiencing that second trimester energy, the sickness has gone and Gaviscon takes care of the heartburn. I never got that buzz when I was pregnant with E and struggled to walk the dogs of a weekend, never mind chase around after an inquisitive toddler. I am sleeping well most of the time. Baby is wriggling away and has a clear dislike already for the waistband of my jeans...That sounds familiar. My hips are niggling but I'm trying not to think about that at the moment. Now that everyone knows and I'm not trying to disguise my midriff in tents I am totally loving being pregnant. I don't think I ever said that last time.

Maybe I was too self indulgent last time... I could have sat on the sofa for 40 weeks until she made her appearance. Maybe I've just got a different attitude this time, and someone who wont settle for later pulling at my trouser legs to go and do something. Maybe I'm just sucking it up! Meh. I'm enjoying sucking it up. Long may it last. It's whizzing by!

Big week this week, changing hospitals after the disasters of last time at our local hospital and heading out of county. Meeting my new consultant and hopefully making a plan...

23 weeks to go. E can't stop pointing at prams and pointing out babies. She has a curiosity about my belly and suddenly the overwhelming desire to elbow me in it as much as possible. 

My family of four. We cannot wait.

17 weeks