Rain and a mad coincidence!

I love the sound of the rain on top of the boat. It's so calming, soothing and relaxing. It takes me back to holidays in caravans with Nana in the Lake District when we were kids. Caravans are a little like boats in that way, the rain drumming tunefully on the metal tops, the tapping like a gentle massage of the soul.

Today, we went for dinner with some friends, then whilst back on the boat having cups of tea a boater came by in a very similar looking boat to ours and we were just remarking on it when the chap said, 'oh hello, we were in the waiting room at the hospital together when you were going in to have your baby' ~ what a coincidence!!

They needed to fill up with water so we let them moor up and we had a chat and compared boats and babies (ours seemed much larger and more sleepy ~ the baby that is!)

Windsurfing on the canal?

I looked out of the window yesterday and this is what I saw...

He didn't mind me taking a picture. He was with a friend, they had surfed from Broadway market through the tunnel. They said that was something else, surfing through the tunnel ~ must be like an extreme sport or something, extremely crazy more like!! One way to keep fit, shame I haven't got a spare windsurfboard! And off he goes back through the tunnel...

One Handed Whizzkid

I'm amazed at how much I can get done with only one hand. I normally write with my right hand, but when I was at school I broke my right wrist on a ski slope ~ it wasn't even whilst on the skiing holiday it was on the dry ski-slope practise session beforehand. I was petrified and convinced I was going to break my leg, only did half the slope, turned around at the bottom to joyously shout 'yey I did it' and fell, breaking my wrist...~ and I remember having to start my new geography book with my left hand. I was good. A little slow but at least you could read it. From then on I practised writing with my left hand as much as possible and when people asked if I was left or right handed I would proudly say, 'mainly right-handed, but ambidextrous really'!

Hilarious!

So now, putting it bluntly, depending on which boob is being drained, one hand is supporting the boy and the other is frantically texting/typing/eating chocolate or whatever is close to hand/drinking/reading/knitting (that one is admittedly a little harder!)/mopping up spillages/brushing hair/making tea/you get the picture...

I know I could use one of those slings, but to be honest I'm still a little tender down there and don't fancy crushing my stomach too much just yet - I have got a brilliant shoulder sling a friend bought for me in Canada, it's a Pippalily and it's got a beautiful design of dragonflies on it and I even have a picture of me using it for the first time...

Oops = upside down, bit like how I feel at the moment! He can feed whilst in it too, but I like to sit down whilst feeding and it's then that I seem to want to do everything all at once and oh crap, I've really waffled on here about nothing that I even wanted to waffle on about and it's time to get on with the cycle of feeding/nappy changing/sleeping, in which I'm not sure where I'm at right now but hey...

Jam asked me to juggle this morning with a pomegranate, lemon and apple, whilst I was feeding, making tea, buttering toast and washing up... I did it too, what fun we have!!

Baby Gazing

Please forgive my absence, I'm rather busy you see,
Not busy writing, reading, or watching lots of telly,
We don't even have one of them on board, what a waste of space,
I'm just happily sitting here ~ gazing ~ at my baby's beautiful face.

The perfectly formed fingers, delicate and long,

Made for the piano, time for Rowan's song.
The sweet dimple in his chin, just like his Dad's,
And cracking side-burns that Jam wishes he had!

Gentle purrs of pleasure as he suckles on my breast

Losing track of the days in this idyllic love nest.

Rolling eyes and a beautiful smile,

I know it's only wind but let me play for a while.

Auburn head of hair that curls when slightly wet,

Ancestral colours lest we should forget,

Deep blue eyes, will they stay or change to green?

Shh, he's gently sleeping now ~ blissfully serene.

I'm in another world and don't ever want to wake
The joy I now behold can make grown men shake,

Whatever did I do before this miracle came?

Who cares, life's amazing and will never be the same!

Picture taken by Anna Deacon, eagerly awaiting the rest of the set ~ she's a fabulous photographer! http://www.annadeaconphotography.co.uk/ my link button missing for some reason and baby is waking, so had better post this now!!

Welcome to the World!

Well, I am over the moon! On Friday morning our little angel of a boy arrived. He is everything and more I could have ever dreamed of! He's got my nose, Jam's chin and auburn hair, a proper red squirrel!! My grandad was a red-head, my sister and Aunty too; awwww he's so beautiful!!

The Cesarean was fine, I was really nervous, but calm and expecting it. Having the canola fitted was the worst part, I hate those things (the tube for the drip, canola may not be the right word)! The anesthetists were so lovely and really put us at ease, going through their cd collection to find some nice music, they said I should have bought one of my Hidden cd's in, but we ended up plumping for Frank Sinatra. When we told them about living on a boat they were really interested and after the procedure on the way back to the recovery ward we lost Jam only to find that he'd stopped to give my blog address to one of the anesthetists who was interested in reading it and finding out more about living on a boat!

When they lifted our baby out, they held him up for Jam to announce 'Oh Flora my darling, we've got a son, it's a boy!' He was taken to the side and checked and passageways cleared, he started to cry, then weed on the nurse, Jam started singing the lullaby he used to sing to him and he calmed down and grabbed his fingertip, then Jam bought him over to me and held him close to my face and he stuck his little hand in my mouth and up my nose and had a good look and I cried with joy. It took a bit of pulling and pushing as they sewed me back up, which was just a weird sensation and I was convinced that my legs were in stirrups, even when they took the curtains down and showed me ~ apparently your body remembers the position it was in when it went to sleep so that was why it felt like that.

Back on the ward I just held him and held him and he suckled and looked at us and it was incredible. Our little miracle safe in our arms, we've called him Rowan. When we were choosing names we were certain of our girl's name - Romilly Bella, and really struggled with the boy's name, liking Morgan, or Rowan, or more recently I'd been thinking Barnaby. His middle name would be Courtenay, the same as Jam's, slightly breaking the tradition in the family that the second born son would take Courtenay as his middle name, but hey.

I stayed in hospital for two days. It was so hard when Jam left in the evening, I should have slept whilst Rowan slept during the night, but he was on me, suckling and I was just gazing adoringly at him, unable to do anything else. The second night was the hardest, it was still quite hard to move around and the noise of the TV's from the other beds was too much and the nurses would turn on the lights every time they came in to take blood pressure or give out medication. It was hard getting up to put him down in the cot and then get back into bed, only to have to get up again because he didn't want to be there. One of the ladies from another bed, who I had chatted with in the waiting room came and helped me, I burst into tears, she was really lovely and said it was all completely normal!! Of course it is, and now we're home it is all so much calmer and more relaxed and I'm going to have to post this quickly to go and feed the little angel - more on this soon with photos, I just wanted to welcome him to the world... xxxxx