Scary things here! Bump, Croak & Snuffle in the night!

I have mostly been concentrating on the left side border of the garden and trying to deweed and destone that with a lot of sieving. I took all the plants out and have put them in a big tub in water whilst I complete this. I have just finished this and put them back in. Unfortunately it took a couple of weeks though so a few plants look very sick! :-s Hope they pull through. One I am giving a chance but I am convinced it's not going to - Or if it does then not this year. The roots look ok and green though so I am giving it a go.

Rubbish finished pictures but it was late. I will get more and add to my next update.

After completing this I thought it was time to go round the garden again on take 2 as the first lot is now weedy again - ARGH! It's never ending!

So yesterday I delved back into the veggie patch where I took everything off the greenhouse shelves and then moved it. Last year Jess grew potatoes in this patch - and yup! Up has come a ruddy tata plant ... In the middle of me bleeding greenhouse! Now not one to give up on free food it is staying ... That and my big girl put hard work into growing that. (Dropping a potato in a hole is hard right?!)

I have moved all the slabs and I am thinking of trying to level off the ground again and then put the greenhouse directly on the soil. I know due to weeds this is by far the worst option however I can't think of anything else I can do. As I couldn't do any hard work in professional levelling off.
Last night I dug up and de-weeded the first half of the whole veggie patch and tonight I finished it off. No pictures of this due to it being well after dark when I came in - 10:20pm! Again I will add to my next garden update.

The new grass is settling in well! Here is a piccie of it at the weekend.

Often when you re in the garden late at night just as the last slither of light is going things take on an eerie atmosphere! I had 5 minutes left before I was done and with face to soil I heard a massive crashing and banging noise going on in the alleyway behind out garden! It sounded like a person as it was so heavy. I suspected it might be a rat or something so I cautiously opened the back gate to peer out. Then I saw a hedgie-hog! Here he is! :-D

Coming back down the garden to go into the house and I heard plop, plop, crunch as something moved on the stones by the pond. I knew what it was! Walking down the grass I was surprised to spot one here ...

Froggies!! The garden is full of them this year! :-D

One has made a home by the back door. I have an emergency tub of water to add plants in quick that need a drink/soak. The other night I took a plant out to go and plant it and look what I saw ...

He's totally loving it in there! So I added in a pond plant pot and a stone for him to stand on to get out. Right once again that's it for a quick update! Chin up and look to the sky! 🌞🌝 XX


How does your garden grow?

Breastfeeding past and now - You see the emotional journey of 2 babies!

Fun Fact: My breasts have fed a baby for a total of 4 years, 5 months and 1 week now!!! 

That's a heck of a lot of milk and many maaany hours!! 

... And we ARE still going! ...

Breasts, boobs, knockers! Whatever you want to call them! Mine fed Jessica for 2 1/2 years and we stopped when I was around 13 weeks pregnant with Sophie. Sophie is now 23 months and we are still having 1 bedtime feed.

So what is the differences in both baby's journeys?

Well with Jessica it was a hard, hard journey for the first 4-6 weeks. The second night of her arrival she fed constantly all night long! I didn't get to have any sleep until 5am. I was then really annoyed that I got woke up at 6am by a doctor doing some rounds! ARGH! 1 hour's sleep all night!

This constant all night feeding was pretty much was president for the next month. She would cluster feed all evening. Maybe put in 20-30 mins nap around 9-10 and then from 10:30pm that would be it. Glued to my breasts all night long until gone 3-4am. I may then get an hour or 2 sleep and off we go again. After the first month/6 weeks she started putting in a 3-4 hour stint of sleep from around 3/4am. 4 hours sleep felt amazing!!!

The lack of sleep plus the constant feeding wasn't just it. By far the worst was the state of my poor nipples! Each time she came off they would be white on the ends from being clamped on. This is usually a sign of a bad latch but as far as I could (and numerous other midwives and the nasty health visitor who fancied looking at my on show breasts!) see the latch was bang on. I was feeling highly frustrated as it didn't make sense! I was reminded I could go to lanterns where they have a breastfeeding support group. I was also using Medela nipple shields by this point. As you can see here :-) (The thing kept flipping up lol!)

I collapsed on hubby in a blubbing knackered emotional wreck one night and I said I can't do this any more and we should just put her on formula like everyone else. The health visitor had been pushing this for some time saying after every breast feed to give her a bottle. She had horrific reflux and often it was just too much for her. And she would just throw the whole lot up over us, the sofa and floor. What a waste! So it was decided we would have one last try by visiting the babies breastfeeding group if that didn't work formula it was ...!

My experience of a breastfeeding group

Not sure what I thought I would see or get from this group. I am very much a introvert so I had to be mega desperate to go out and do this. (Having failed at the whole giving birth thing I was! Jess was C-Section for being breech) I'm not one for meeting new people so it was hard. However it was amazing to see a big group of ladies all sat in a circle with their babies. All sharing their experiences and agreeing on the challenge of feeding babies! The counsellors went round the group helping ladies one by one. I came in at a quiet time so they came straight to me. I might have been first or second in I can't remember now! It was picked up that Jessica had a tongue tie and that this would need cutting. It took 3 weeks for this to get done! I was told there was no appointments and that I would need to go 40 miles away to Salisbury hospital - I said no way. So a week later I had a call saying that there was one slot at Winchester and could I make it straight away. I said we could do in half hour so we upped everything and went! It turns out the consultant who did it was there for his last day before he stopped working for the summer holidays. We got lucky!

The change was immediate. My nipples were much better within 24 hours. I had been using Medela nipple shields before that due to the cracked nipples that were bleeding and the skin dangling off! 

After this feeding began to settle down. Still frequent but a tad better. Feeds were taking around 40 minutes+ at a time! And she was feeding every 2 hours or so. Feeds are timed from the start of a feed so by the time she finished a feed she was 40 mins into the time before the next one.

Growth spurts were very obvious with Jess as she would feed constant - Often only giving me 20 mins between feeds. Enough time to run for a pee, get a drink and de-square my poor bum before being back in the nursing chair! I spent all night in that chair just "watching" tv in the first 7 weeks. I say watching as you are so exhausted your eyes go and you constantly fall over asleep. Looking back I can't believe I did it! Here are a couple of cute pics of breastfeeding poses! That little hand is adorable!

Breastfeeding in bed!

Like every new mother I was terrified of cot death. I read a book when pregnant about cosleeping and said to hubby I will never do that it's too dangerous! However once I had been to the breastfeeding group the lovely ladies told me the stats, explained how to do it safely etc and I tentatively had a try. It was one afternoon she had just gone to sleep so I carried her up and laid in the middle of the double bed. I piled pillows each side of me so that if she fell off me she wouldn't fall out the bed.I some how managed to forget the smothering risk but they weren't that close! I had her on my chest and I laid back. I was so terrified of something happening I set my alarm for every 5 mins to check on her. She was sleeping fine - I however didn't sleep! She then woke up 20 mins later so back to the nursing chair!

At 7 1/2 weeks I thought I would try the bed. So after a 5am feed I decided to venture up to bed - took her with me and put her between us so she wouldn't roll out. This was my big bad thing! As you aren't meant to have them between you both. I had my arm over her though. But it worked! She slept great - I slept great and hubby slept ok. His hips kept hurting though so he moved to a mattress on the floor next to us not long after! So that was it. If she woke for a feed I would sit up on a mountain of pillows and just feed her there. This continued until she was 8 months and then she went into a cosleeper cot next to ours that basically was just an extension of cosleeping with the side down.

FAST FORWARD 3 YEARS TO WHEN SOPHIE ARRIVED!

Not much to write on this one really! From start to finish it was all a dream in the early days! Sophie also had a tongue tie but I recognised this straight away. This was then cut when I came home from hospital less than a week after her arrival. Oddly I was only really sore on one nipple the other was uncomfortable but not agony. There was also no real blood shed this time. I have a picture of this but feel it would be TMI to put in. However as I am giving a real life account of what breastfeeding IS like I feel like I should?! However I think I will leave this up to you guys! Do you want to see the picture of my poor nipple for education purposes? Let me know in the comments below!

I worried about having a newborn and a toddler. However it was MUCH easier than what came from 3 months+! I had a traumatic birth - traumatic on my body more than my mind over all. I am still paying for it now ... So I was very weak and wasn't allowed out of bed for 2 days. I was in a room by myself as I had to be monitored due to my severe blood loss. So as I couldn't even reach to my side for a cup due to the agony of my muscles after giving birth I really couldn't do much in the way of baby care. I had to buzz a midwife to pick her up, change her, pass to me, put back etc. I was and still am very confident in my mothering abilities. I knew that breastfeeding laying down would be easy to I tucked us both in and we slept like that most of the night. She would wake every 3 hours roughly feed for 5-10 mins - 20 max and be done! 

Again except for during growth spurts when it might drag out to 30/40 mins but no where near as bad as Jess did! The norm was over and done with in 5-10. I was warned I might not be able to breastfeed easily or "on time" due to the blood loss and it might take a lot longer for my milk to come in. However day 5 in it came. I had the familiar feeling I had first time round although not as bad. I felt off, a bit ill, fluey almost and hot. I had no idea what that was with Jess until I read about it somewhere!This time I had an extremely fast let down. The milk came in a flood and fast. Poor Sophie was choking lots and doing a lot of noisy gulpy feeding trying to keep up with it. It was like this for the first 6 months at least!Sophie was feeding at night every 2 hours for a long time. Easily up to 8 months. I then tried the gradual nipple withdrawl as she used to use it to go back to sleep. This then led her to sleep through at 9 months. I did the same with Jess although that was at 5 months. This time Sophie felt too young then and being my last baby I wanted to savour it all as long as I could! Due to this constant feeding it was hard to pull out any sleep regressions and it was all just one big mess of no real sleep.This is where cosleeping really comes into it's own though. I had fab sleep. She would wake I would roll us over - get a breast out and leave her to it and go straight back to sleep! 

Here's some cuties of Sophie! ...........

So that's it! The biggest difference between the girls! Me up in the nursing chair until 4am with Jess (having not yet been to bed!!) V just getting a boob out and going straight back to sleep with Sophie! Poles apart!!

Hope you enjoyed reading about my breastfeeding journey. As you can see it started off really troubled but ended really well! They are different.So if you can't breastfeed first time round or give up like I almost did ... Then it doesn't mean you won't be able to breastfeed second time round! So that's it - Chin up and look to the sky! ~ 🌗 X

What happened? ... Not for the first time!! ...

The garden took over my life! I started witing this so many times!

Here was my start:

"I have just realised 5 days have passed with no posting! Things have been mad round here. One child ill to the next. Cold + fever. But seems to be mild compared to some illnesses we have had."

And another ...!

"I have been tons of work into the garden ... as has hubby!! The garden has taken over my life! The very long grass has now been cut ... And the big empty space of dirt is now covered in turf as of Tuesday! It arrived at 12pmish and was laid by 4pm ... Impressive!! It was starting to dry out on the drive so I covered it in a sheet and then a tarpulin.

There will be loads of photo's in this due to so much going on ..."

It has now been a further week or more since I started this blog post!! And now ebay is taking over my life lol!! (This was 2 weeks ago!!!)
     =======================================================
Right I am back to it! I refuse to go to bed until this is complete even though it is long gone midnight! ... A few more weeks later! I've really struggled with being able to write this post but tonight I am determined to do it!  I will update on the garden first and as ebay is quite complex I will update on that in a separate posting.

And attempt number god knows how many at writing this!! ... Getting on for 10 at least!!

Reading back I was talking about the new turf so I will show you all this first!

GETTING LAID!

AFTER BEING LAID!

HOW TO WATER YOUR LAWN ...

WATERING THE LAWN IS FUN!

Laying it proved to be an easier task that digging up and levelling the lawn off. This arrived right in the middle of that hot weather a few weeks back. So we were watering this 3 times a day then! Now only once or less depending on hot it has been etc. We started walking on it tentively after about 5 days but using properly after 10. Again only really walking up and down.

Here is my garden friend :-) More pictures of her in my garden album on facebook for those of you that have me on there. If you don't comment below and i'll add you :-)

And here is another gardeners friend and Sophie having a look :-)

I'm going to end here with some pictures of my rose! I have more that I will add to a different post ...

Right i'm closing here for the night now! Hope you enjoyed the pictures. Sorry about the radio silence ...! Hopefully I can add postings more often now. Until next time chin up and look to the sky! 🌛 X

A review of Swagbucks!

So I have been Swagbucking for a few months now. Swagbucks is a website where you get to do "tasks" that then give you points. The points can be used for conversion into either cash or gift cards. Depending on how many tasks you do daily depends on how fast you rack up the points. As with most things on the internet this is no get rich scheme but more of a 10 minute daily time filler that will net you some dosh to withdraw as pocket money.

So what are the tasks? ... Tasks include doing a search in their search bar, "watching" a set of videos, answering the question of the day, watching 3 short videos and answering if you like them or not, and answering surveys. These activities are daily and if all are completed then you net yourself some bonus points of the day on top. There is also a deal of the day - Eg sign up to X and get X points. If you do this the points can be big. I purchased Jessica's school shoes using this site at Clarkes and my points came back to me fine. I suspect there are other activities that can be done but I am yet to find them! There is a To Do list on the left side of the screen half way down and it ticks things off as you go which is handy. You click on the task and it takes you straight through.

They have a refer and earn section where you can refer people and earn a certain amount of points for what they do - again daily! I already have someone on this and have points trickling in daily.

How reliable is payout? Well I earnt 350 points which then got me a pay out of £3. I chose an amazon voucher as other wise you need to earn more to get a paypal payout. I had my voucher in my box within 24 hours. I would say it was before this even! Within 12 or less ... I spent it fine and have also spent 2 x further vouchers of £5. So I've had £13.50 over 2/3 months. You could earn more esp if you do all the surveys on offer. I tend not to do these any more though due to time and focus on the videos as you can just leave these running in the background in another browser to accumulate points.

So that's that! If anyone fancies a sign up feel free to use my referral here: http://www.swagbucks.com/p/register?rb=35370443

Anyone using any other methods of earning online like this? Drop some comments below! Until next time ... Keep your chin up and look to the sky! 🌞

New changes aloft?

So I have been meaning to research blogs more for a while. I hear that blogger just isn't cutting it any more and that you can really have more control and neat features over on wordpress. I had looked at this before I opened blogger way back when - yeeeears ago! However it looked cold and clinical to me then where as blogger looked more fun. I am now thinking that I can change and customise wordpress better as well as get hold of all the neat add on's. Who doesn't like toys to play with?! So I will at some point be looking into this more. I don't do changes though so this will be a real big thing for me both in terms of moving stuff over but also emotionally lol! 

I have got a site that redirects to blogger too. I like the idea of my own site and it's nice and easy to remember. We are parked at www.talesofahousewife.com! I was suprised I could get it but also pleased that I did. So if I move over to wordpress I will need to redirect that. I was highly impressed with the service I received when I got this name. I brought it through 1 to 1 at 99p for the 1st year and then the 2nd at a cheaper rate than godaddy was advertising. It helps to shop around ... 

The next day a guy from 1 to 1 called me up and asked if I needed help setting stuff up. I said no I was ok and he said I can tell. He had looked at my site all ready and said it all looked ok and good to go. He was very friendly and to the point. More impressively he was happy to put the phone down and not try and sell me anything else! However it was only a few days before the annoying calls came in from random web development people all around the globe asking me if I needed help in making my site ... I am still fighting them off now!

So that's that - A little behind the scenes update. Oh and here is a fun fact for you all. In the month of May my blog received 550 hits!!! And here are the countries we are having hits from: UK ~ USA ~ China ~ Bulgaria ~ Canada ~ Germany ~ Ireland ~ South Africa ~ India ~ Ukraine ~ Poland ~ Singapore ~ Bahrain ~ Ghana ~ Netherlands ~ Philippeans!That is just barmy! My previous to that had been 238 hits in September 2011 so a long time ago! And all those countries! We really are worldwide! So thank you all for reading my mindless drivel! I must be doing something right! As always let me know what you want to see more of?? Pop this in the comments below. Hope all are well and enjoying summer?! Well it was a couple of weeks ago but I was in bed for all of the heat and missed it all!!! Any ways chin up and keep looking to the sky. ☀

The garden rescue continues!

Well I have been MIA for a few weeks as I have been ill. I somehow managed to get food poisoning. Any way I am back on my feet now and starting to catch up from everything that got behind during this time.

I started this a few days ago but have been somewhat struck by writers block again! So many things to write about none of them feel right to do right now.

So I thought about giving another garden update and as this is where I have spent most of my time this seems best fitting.

OK So once I had recovered and started to regain some control on the house I then ventured out into the garden to continue rescuing it from the weeds!

I tend to most of my gardening in the evening. Get the kids down to sleep and get out there to it! I am that figure you see moving at the bottom of the garden in the almost dark LOL! I get out around 9 and can whip in an hour before bed whilst the days are still drawing out for the next couple of weeks.

I have been working my way up the left side of the garden. This started as basic weeding to try and find the plants that existed there. It has now moved onto digging a spades depth and sieving the lot to destone it aswell ...! Ever ambitious me! Some of the bigger stones I have put by the fences at the bottom We have some large gaps which often lets weeds and over growth through. So I have been bunging some there in the hope it might keep some of that back too.

Last month I put in some new plants into my right side border so I shall add piccies of that here. They have obviously somewhat grown since then so I need to do another posting showing those and all of the garden in flower at a later date!

The grass - aka weeds - have got somewhat tall! As the lawn has only been done twice this year I'm suprised that we haven't been tripping over them before tbh! Just so much to do out there.

My veggie patch at the top is full of weeds again following the rain so once I have finished this left side I shall be going round the whole lot again!!! This time it should be easier though ... should! Ha!

I planted some carrots in about a week ago. I can't say they are looking to happy with the transplantation though so not sure they will live. I have courgette and beans to put in too at some point. I have a raspberry plant I planted last year which has some fruit on! YAY! Got it cheap on clearance so am excited about that!

I also need to finish going over the pond and stripping back some of the growth. That is a pain to do though as the kids want to get their hands in too which obviously is not a good idea!!! Once everything is under order I can then venture out into the front garden which hasn't been touched in years bar the lawn. I really don't know what to do with that it's just one unattractive mess really and I would like to do something nicer but at the same time I don't have the time. I've even thought of growing veg etc out there but I know people would steal it lol!

We have a stone area outside our front door which is unattractive too. And whilst long term this area will be built over for now I want to do something nicer with it.

Today I started listing up my teasels on ebay to sell. I am somewhat behind on that as I have just been swamped with other stuff but they are in stock and need to go :-D I had a bid on one a few hours after putting them up too! Happy day'z!

So that's it for now! Hopefully updates will be a bit more regular from now on.  Here are my pretty poppies in full bloom to end on ... Take care all and keep looking up! 🔆

Gerd/Bile reflux ... And me.

So I have had reflux issues since my first pregnancy with Jessica. In hindsight I think I had a mild form of this even before that as I just chucked the rennies down and left it at that!

I started this post 2 days ago. And in true mother style have been distracted from it at least 4 times. I knew what I was going to write and how when I started but right now I have writers block and don't know what to write! Argh! Right I shall proceed and no doubt cause a mess of it any way ...

After my caesarean section with Jess I had a very upset stomach - in terms of pain - and the gp prescribed me Omeprozole which is a PPI for 1 month. For those that don't know a PPI basically reduces acid in the stomach so that your stomach can heal itself. The one month course was up and all was grand so I stopped at the end of the pack. Fast forward 18 months or so and I had been having a lot of chest pain again and a couple of episodes of horrific pain that gripped my throat and chest so tightly that I couldn't breath. I would be leaning over the window sill in agony. I couldn't sit or lay down and it didn't stop. This would go on for up to a few hours. My shortest time was 30 minutes.

I thought this is definately the time to see the GP. I had horrific pain after every meal that would have me laying on the bed for up to a few hours at a time. The GP diagnosed me with reflux in the March and gave me Omeprozole again. When this didn't even as much as touch it I contacted them a week later and they added in Ranitidine at bedtime. This again didn't help massively but began to take the edge off after about 6 months. I had a endoscopy in the May as I wasn't responding to drugs so they wanted to see what was really going on! The scope showed Gastritis and Bile relux. Gastritis is basically just a lot of inflammation and swelling and can cause bleeding. Bile however shouldn't be in the stomach as this stays low below the bottom valve in your stomach causing food to travel one way - down and not have anything else coming back up! I was advised to start on Sucraflate - Which is a "magic" drug that coats itself to the lining of your stomach to stop the acid from irritating it thus meaning it can heal itself. However I could not get this for love or money! Apparently the manufacturer was having issues and couldn't get it. So the GP called the manufacturer who said that I should use gaviscon advanced instead (at around a £10 a bottle!! :-O) I tried for a further 18 months ringing the pharmacy monthly to get this then gave up trying!

I had another episode along the way of the horrific and I called the ambulance out. On this occassion they thought my aorta had burst and sent me off to Southampton general hospital! This was the second time I had been in an ambulance sending my prayers up that I would survive to see my babies again! They diagnosed me with esophageal spasm's and said that I needed to get the GERD (acid reflux) under control. They didn't even seem to acknowledge the previous diagnosis of bile reflux. The only way I can describe the pain is labour pains but in your chest. The exact same tight gripping pain except this was not as kind as labour. Labour gives this to you then gives you a rest. This was one long constant never ending contraction. I tried buscopan - a muscle relaxant for IBS - out of the blue once incase it helped and it actually did. Reduced the pain to 20 minutes! Now any hint of a spasming stomach or anything down there that is quite tight and I straight away chuck in some of those incase it comes back again!

In the October of that year I fell pregnant with Sophie and anything relating to my health went out of the window. Roll on to December last year I saw the GP who was not happy that the drugs weren't controlling this. I started a flare up in the July and was still in daily pain so he referred me to gastroenterology in January. I met with them last month and was advised to try sucraflate again. I told them I had never been able to get it - apparently it is now back in stock and she got some for me there and then from the hospital pharmacy! She also told me that if this didn't help to settle it she would send me off for a ph test to determine if this was acid that was going up into my - now very sore daily  - throat or bile. I am quite scared for this as I fear that Sophie will just try and rip this thing off my face! It will basically be a catheter fed into my throat down to my stomach and will have probes on the end at various points that will detect back to a box when I reflux and what it is. Bile or stomach acid. We need to know this as apparently if it is bile then the ppi's can actually make this worse!

We did talk about surgery and I said I am not keen due to the fact it can cause more problems than you go in with and she agreed so this is off the cards so far. 

I tried sucraflate for 5 days. This resulted in really bad pain that sent me off to bed again after every meal. So I stopped using this and went back on the ppi's as she had told me to do previously. I saw the GP about something else and he read through the notes and told me to try again and that I needed to contact the consult. I dropped her a line putting her in the picture and telling her all symptoms I had ever had. She said to stay on the ppi and see if it settles things. If not she will rearrange a repeat endoscopy. I will mostly likely play this up any way even if things have improved. As in the light of loosing FIL to cancer recently this will put my mind more at ease! Stomach and throat cancers are diagnosed mostly when terminal. So I would rather have another scope and pick this up early than get to that stage ...! Highly unlikely I have it but even so ... Not good for my anxiety otherwise! 

So this is where I am at right now ~  A kinda no mans land in the middle! All we know is I am refluxing something but we don't know if it's bile, acid or both. To try and calm this flare up down I am making small changes. A few weeks ago I changed my breakfast cereal from weetos to porridge. This is meant to be good for your guts. I have reintroduced a daily dose of actimel and am eating more peppers. I have stopped having food late at night which is a massive killer. I love my chocolate before bed - which I really can't do anymore! And I miss my bowls of cereal before bed. I really need those too as I can't put weight on and have lost loads since having Sophie. I really want to put more weight on but every thing I need to eat to do so I can't. Argh! As and when my stomach settles I might sneak in the odd one here and there but need to be careful. As one bowl would be enough for me to wake up with a really painful throat the next morning which could last weeks. This sure doesn't heal quickly!

Right it's late here so I shall go and put myself to bed. Before I reach for a bowl of cherrios as my stomach is growling for food ... Sleep well all! Until next time don't forget to subscribe for immediate updates ... Chin up! And look to the sky! 🌛