Thank you all for the congratulations. We're all settling down nicely and getting used to being a family of four. Christopher is doing really well, he took to breast feeding straight away with none of the problems I had with his sister. He's been doing so well that at 5 days he was only an ounce under his birth weight(!) and when weighed today he is now 9lb 14oz. I'm obviously producing Gold Top this time round!

The big advantage of this is Christopher has more or less got himself into a routine especially at night, so we're getting some sleep (if not enough) and I'm getting a small amount of stitching in on a few nights.

Rosie is easing into being a Big Sister. She's being very helpful at nappy change time and bringing me things I need. Her latest thing is giving Christopher kisses.

I'm going to leave you with a small finish that I had just before Christopher was born -Mama Bird by Brightneedle. This design was published in the April 2002 edition of Just Cross Stitch. I'm not sure how I'll finish it yet, possibly a pillow.

Mama Bird - Brightneedle
stitching in the recommended Sampler threads on Country Stitch hand dyed linen (can't find the details at the moment)

Christopher

Christopher John arrived at 2:17am on Thursday 8th July weighing in at 8lb 9oz.

I should like to point out that while I did go into hospital on the Monday afternoon I wasn't in labour all that time, as happened when I went in to have Rosie I managed to hit a baby boom here and there was a queue to get onto Delivery Suite. As a non urgent(ish) induction I just had to wait on the Anti-Natal ward until there was a free slot in delivery.

There were some advantages to the wait! I got two books read, Louis De Bernieres' Notwithstanding and Ian Rankin's Beggars Banquet(I can't remember the last time I read anything that quickly probably pre-Rosie) and managed to get the best part of an ornie stitched, Star Shine by Heart In Hand from JCS Ornament Edition 1999. I also did an awful lot of walking in an effort to get Christopher to move by himself and by the time I did get called to delivery suite on Wednesday evening I was having regular contractions. This didn't save me from going on a drip but did mean that 7 hours after having my waters broken I went into second stage labour, much faster than my midwife anticipated; they were prepping me for an epidural at the time. So I did it on gas & air with no interventions this time round. The whole labour was just shy of 8 hours and I have to say I felt a whole lot more human afterwards this time round. So human in fact that we were discharged on the Thursday afternoon.

Since then we've been getting to know Christopher, Rosie has taken his arrival pretty well, what she struggled with was all the uncertainty about the length of my hospital stay and there have been a few meltdowns about needing Mummy but as we're working out how everyone's routines mesh they're getting a lot less common.

Rosie gets the Blues

This is going to be a post of many parts. First off I would like to thank all of you who commented on my last post, all the messages meant a great deal to us.

We have been treated to a great deal of blues harp over recent weeks. Rosie found her Daddy's harmonicas and it didn't take her very long at all to get the hang of playing them. It could be that as I've been working my way through our CD collection with her and we recently hit a run of Charlie Musselwhite albums that she found inspiration. She certainly seems to enjoy her Delta Blues.

There has been a bit of stitching going on when I can fit it in. I've started an online class - Anniversary Roses with Lauren Sauer of Forget Me Nots In Stitches that's been offered by Susan at Hanging by a Thread. I've finished the first section of this gorgeous sampler, you can see a picture of the complete sampler on the class page.

Lastly Ellen has asked how much longer it is till Alien 2 arrives. Because of some health issues on my part which have led to me being diagnosed with Obstetric Cholestasis again, I'm scheduled for induction on the 5th July when I will be at 38 weeks. This is the same condition that led to Rosie's early arrival. I would have preferred not to be induced again but ultimately my only goal is to have a healthy baby so I'm concentrating on the positives. Dave has his leave booked, we can get Rosie over to my folks and I'm not having to worry that everything will kick off in the middle of the night with Dave at the other end of the country and me having to find people who can run me to hospital and to look after Rosie.

Tansy

Sorry to have been absent from here over the last few weeks but we have been suffering from a bad dose of 'life' round here.

It all started with Rosie cutting another tooth (only 3 left to go!) then Dave & I both caught a stomach bug last week that lasted over the bank holiday weekend. Thankfully Rosie didn't get it but the whole parenting thing doesn't work very well when both parents are broken. The final straw was when I found one of our cats, Tansy (the cat in my avatar), behaving very oddly on Monday afternoon.

Dave took her to see the emergency vet where they discovered she was extremely dehydrated and has lost over a pound in weight since her annual check up in December. The vet ran some blood tests, and they found severe kidney failure. The vets tried to treat her but she was not responding, they were trying to syringe feed her but Tansy refused to swallow so we listened to what she was telling us and let her go. My Dad came over and took Rosie and I to the vets as Dave had a meeting he couldn't get out of. We let Rosie say goodbye to Tansy and then my Dad took her to a near by park while I stayed with Tansy till she'd gone.

We all miss her horribly. We got Tansy and her litter mate Dill when they were 8 weeks old in 1996. Rosie is taking it by far the best of all of us, thank goodness for the pragmatic nature of two year olds. I got a copy of 'Goodbye Mog' in just in-case but I don't think I'm going to need it this time round.

Tansy was a frequent visitor to my sewing room to keep me company when I got to spend time up there

In her classic 'feed me' pose

Tansy loved a sunny spot and wasn't too fussy about where it was

4 Wishes

I just seem to be posting finishes at the moment but that's more a reflection on how infrequently I get round to posting these days than the amount of stitching I'm getting in!

Here's the finished 4 Wishes, I think it will probably become a bellpull eventually.

Just Nan - 4 Wishes
stitched on SMF Putty with the recommended DMC

Regency Roses

I actually finished the stitching on this small Just Nan sampler last year but never got round to sharing it as I went straight into the finishing. Shortly after I started I realised that I had started the hem stitching too close in to the stitching so it languished waiting for me to decide how to rescue it. A few weeks ago I decided to mount it on a fabric bellpull and managed to get it finished. Despite my best efforts it's slightly crooked but I'm going to wait till I'm slightly less sleep deprived (I'm aiming for somewhere round 2013LOL) before I try and correct it. As this is a Rose sampler it's going in Rosie's room of course.

Regency Roses by Just Nan, shop exclusive for Hanging By A Thread
stitched using the fabric and AVAS silks from the kit.

A finish and Quilts

I finished Forget Me Not a couple of weeks ago, it's taken me a while to have the opportunity to photograph it and then get the picture uploaded. I think I must have had this in my stash for around 10 years so it's good to get it stitched!

The Drawn Thread Forget Me Not
stitched on Lakeside Linens 36 count Vintage Light Exampler
with the NPI silks from the chart pack.

The weekend after I last posted we spent in London. On the Saturday Dave and Rosie went to visit friends and I got to indulge myself with a visit to the V&A with other members of the Sampler Guild. The main reason for the visit was to view the Quilts 1700 - 2010 exhibition although we couldn't be in there without paying a visit to the samplers as well.

The quilts were stunning, though the inclusion of a couple of YBA's left us cold (and if the comments I heard were anything to go by the vast majority of the other visitors as well). I treated myself to the accompanying book and a piece of one of the exclusive Liberty fabrics that have been produced to tie in with the exhibition. My goal is to make a dress for Rosie from it but I wouldn't hold your breath on that one, LOL!