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.