A call to all positive thinking Mothers to contribute....Say no to Negative Nancy’s !

Positive Stories Please !!!

With 6 days to go, I am excited about meeting our baby, and remain positive and relaxed, although yesterday I did have a bit of a wobble and a good cry, which I am told is quite common when so near to the birth. I am under no illusion that labour is going to be probably the hardest thing I have ever been through, but with the help of hypnobirthing I have been training my mind and body to reduce fear and tension. I hope to go through every contraction as a productive feeling and see it as one step closer to meeting my baby.
Whilst trying my hardest to work on this bubble of peace, I have had family, friends, work colleagues, acquaintances, midwifes and strangers all chomping at the bit to share their negative horror stories about pregnancy and childbirth with me.

Why do mothers feel compelled to “tell their stories” as if it’s universal fact anyway ? I try to think, for every horror story there is a beautiful one round the corner.

Is it therapeutic for them to share?
Is it some badge of honour?
Is it empowering?

Here are a few of the stories folk have shared with me :
* Oh my God, birth was the most traumatic experience of my life!!! I was in labour for 9 days. No really. NINE DAYS ?! I didn’t eat food or drink water that entire time so when I went into the hospital they all thought I was going to die
* I have haemorrhoids the size of golf balls and the veins in my eyes are permanently popped
* Half the hospital staff has seen my vagina.
* I would rather spend the rest of my life stabbing myself in the eyes with bamboo shoots than give birth again. But good luck with yours!
* My neighbour gave birth to a lovely baby boy over the weekend, but they lost him on Monday, Oh… I probably shouldn’t have told you that
* Don’t bother with a birth plan, you will be screaming for every drug under the sun and it will only go out of the window
* Childbirth is like being kicked in the balls…. I doubt any women can understand the intensity of pain we guys face when we get hit in our testicles
* It’s like sharing hell with Hitler, said a former midwife?!
* Don’t breastfeed, my wife’s boob’s look like cocker Spaniels ears. Why do they always compare the breasts to Spaniels I wonder?
* Book an epidural as soon as you can, it’s the most unnatural thing you can do, is give birth

So there are a few of the horror stories so far, and then there’s my lovely little gran…. She loves a good horror story, but she’s forgiven, because she’s 91 and can’t remember telling me every time I see her.
In light of the above, from this day forward I will only be surrounding myself with positive and successful birth stories? So does anyone have a happy story to tell? I'd love to start a positive blog vibe for other mothers to visit when they need to escape the horror stories.  I know other women must feel like I do.  If you have a good story to tell, the positive things you felt, the wonderful emotions, even some of the funny stories associated with being pregnant, then please either leave a comment, or email me:
craftystash2013@hotmail.co.uk
I will publish them so other mums to be can share our good vibes.

Thank you

SALE - Distress Ink Pads £1.50 a pad - one week only....

.....I've popped these on my Etsy shop, but it will only be for one week, so grab a real bargain while you can, the amazing Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pads.  Here's where you need to shop:

https://www.etsy.com/shop/craftystash2013

For anyone who hasn't shopped on Etsy yet, please don't worry about it looking like you can only shop in dollars.  You can shop in good ole English pounds.  All you need to do is scroll right down to the bottom of the page.  In very small print, it will have a box for you to select where you are shopping from, and therefore the £££££'s sign you want to see.

As with my Ebay account, orders over £10 for the UK, are postage free.

If you have any queries please drop me a line:

craftystash2013@hotmail.co.uk

Happy shopping.

Befriending for Age Concern

Whilst on countdown for baby Browns imminent arrival, I am still managing to fit in my visits to Rose and Peter, an elderly couple in Stacksteads, who I met through Age Concern 4 years ago. 

I started voluntary work when we lost our granddad, and seeing how my gran had to adapt to life on her own after 60 years of marriage, it made me so sad to think of so many old folk who are desperately lonely.  It seems the older a person becomes the less visible they are.  

I spend a lot of time with elderly people due to the care I provide for my little gran who is 91 years old, and now my regular visits to Rose and Peter.  The more time I spend with them the more I realise that, whilst their bodies are frail and their minds sometime fail them, inside is still a human being who hasn’t forgotten what it is like to love, laugh and cry.   

I could say lots about the training, the excellent befriending matches, on-going support, safeguarding issues, signposting to other services, and lots of other formal stuff but what this is really about is people. The lovely, interesting, caring, funny, challenging, intelligent, mischievous, confused, warm, frightened, angry, gentle, beautiful, playful, amazing people I have had the privilege of befriending.  I would never have met Rose and Peter without being a volunteer.

 

My visits usually last about 2 hours and involve lots of cake and subsequent chats about the calories that were in that cake, and what I will need to do that week to burn those calories off !  Peter is a great story teller who loves a good gossip, he retired early due to ill health and now cares for his wife who is profoundly deaf.  Although there are two of them, they have no family and seem to get quite lonely, and look forward to my visits.  I always seem to come away with something useful, this week was a rape alarm which sounds at 145 decibels and is equivalent to the noise coming from a jet engine 100 feet off the ground.  Rose kept sounding the alarm, because bless her, she couldn’t hear it !

 

We have quite a set routine, a bit of a chat about what’s been going on, what they have watched on TV or updates on my family, especially my sister who they watch without fail.  We cover current affairs, the state of the feral cat population and how we are single handedly going to save them all, their failing health and how they have donated their bodies to medical science, and the practical jokes he likes to play on his neighbour.

Anyone out there with just a spare hours a week, go for it.  Volunteer.

Spiders and crafting

Our bedroom is ready for Charlie (name to be confirmed) and, after a deep clean, is spider free.  Carl claimed a spider crawling along his t-shirt (whilst he was wearing it and screaming for help) was a black widow spider, and Britain was under attack.  He claims it is only a matter of time before they kill.  He has an irrational fear of spiders and has had this since he was little.  His mum once told him spiders crawl up your bum while you sleep and lay eggs. !!

 

Bob our lovely three legged rescue cat killed the spider with minimal effort and has survived to tell the tale.  Speaking of Bob, after much praise he weed in his toybox today, think this is in protest to the new arrival. !

Now, I want to explain the Etsy thing for anyone new to it.  It looks like it's only in dollars, but if you scroll down to the bottom of the page you can actually opt for how you want to view the site - all you need to do is click on UK, and the £££'s appear.  This is the Etsy shop:

https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/craftystash2013

And this is the crafty ebay account:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/teelamai

I hope!!

Hypnobirthing - the last lesson!!!

We have just completed our 6 week Hypnobirthing course at the Hub in Chorley and now its time to put into practice everything we have learnt and breathe, breathe, breathe ! 

HypnoBirthing is a birth education program, which teaches simple but specific relaxation and breathing techniques for a better birth.  In a nutshell this is what we learnt:-

 

·         Techniques of deep relaxation to help you during your babies birth

·         How your body is naturally designed to conceive, nurture and birth your baby with ease and comfort

·         To create your body’s own natural relaxant

·         Natural ways to bring your body into labour without artificial chemical induction

·         How you and your birthing companion can create a birthing environment that is calm, serene and joyful, rather than tense and stressful

·         Gentle birthing techniques that allow you to breathe your baby into the world without the violence of hard physical pushing

·         To use your natural birthing instincts to birth your baby in a way that most mirrors the way that nature intended

 

The most important aspect for me was that it replaced anxiety and fear with concentrated power and energy and I’m hoping I can put that energy into the birth of my baby.  For the past 6 weeks, I have been listening and putting into practice my relaxation techniques and listening to birth affirmations which are truly inspiring.  My positive mindset is now in place, and I feel I have developed a connection with my body and prepared my mind for any circumstance that might occur during labour. 

Here is a list of some of my favourite birth affirmations which are on post it notes all over the house to remind me I can do this !!!.

·         I am a strong and capable woman. I trust my instincts to know what I need for my labour.

·         The strength of my uterine contractions is a sign of my feminine strength.

·         The power and intensity of my contractions cannot be stronger than me, because it is me.

·         My body is indeed beautifully and wonderfully made

·         300,000 women will be giving birth with you today. Relax and breathe and do nothing else. Labour is hard work but I can do it.

·         The experience of labour and birth is a great gift.

·         This is what my body was designed to do.

·         My body is not broken. I can do this.

·         I am doing this exactly right and exactly as nature intended.

·         My body knows what to do. I will surrender fully and completely.

·         I trust my body to birth my baby.

·         I trust that my body knows exactly what it’s doing.

·         I am deserving of a easy, uncomplicated birth.

·         My courage and patience will send my baby into my arms.

·         My body is made to give birth, nice and easy.

·         My body will give birth on it’s own time.

·         I give birth in safety and solitude.

·         I do not fight the birth in any way. My body is relaxed.

·         Surges are easy and relax.

·         My body knows how to have this baby just as my body knew how to grow this baby.

·         Keep breathing slow and even. Inhale peace, exhale tension.

·         Keep my mind on acceptance and surrender.

·         I surrender my birthing over to my baby and my body.

·         I love my baby and I am doing all that is necessary to bring about a healthy birth.

·         Birth is an easy and natural occurrence for which my body has been perfectly designed.

·         I am ready and prepared for childbirth.

·         My job is to simply relax and allow the birth to happen.

·         Just let my body do it; let it happen.

·         Each contraction produces a healthy, positive pain that I can handle.

·         Birth will go exactly as it should.

·         I deserve this wonderful birth!

 

Despite my hypnobirthing, I feel as prepared and as ready as I think you can do in the onset of labour.   

I have been hardcore nesting over the last week since being on maternity leave, throwing away anything Carl hasn’t worn in the last couple of months, ebaying things he has to make room and this morning have made a chilli, a curry and a backup of celery soup to last months, whats that all about ? !!

 

Baby Shower....not long to go!!!

I've had my baby shower!!  This means the arrival of baby Brown is imminent. Aaaah.  I had a 3D scan as well this week, which was brilliant.  They are so clever, they even give you the forecast weight of baby!  Thankfully he's not gonna be the size of a house....but surely if I eat more cake things will change?

My baby shower was fantastic, and I felt really over whelmed and emotional after!  We all trotted off to Heaton Park, and took over a classroom there.  The girls brought loads of smashing food, and our Laura did a great selection of games to keep us all amused.  I've got pictures drawn by the girls of Baby Brown, really hope he doesn't resemble any of the artist impressions!  There were some scary premonitions.

We had to tell what flavour the baby food was - this has made me realise just how bad baby food is.  I think they probably make a big vat of "slush" which they then add a minuscule bit of the main ingredient.  Think I'll really have to try and make my own.

We also ate melted chocolate out of nappies!!  haha. So wrong, but really funny.  I loved the way my mate Jo tucked into hers without flinching.  We all got to spit our dummies out - not that this is anything new for us lot.

The weather was smashing, and we all had a go in the rowing boats which was brilliant fun.

Really wonderful day, plus I was treated to some lovely pressies from my wonderful friends.  Thank you ladies xxx

baby food tasting!!

All the girls spitting their dummies out!!

Josi, loving the chocci nappy

Aww, brilliant Michelle.  The only one who made the effort to dress up (Aina did pop her baby suit on as well so Michelle didn't feel left out).  Michelle looked ace and really made my day

Getting ready for dummy spitting

Rowing

Hypnobirthing

As a consequence of my irrational thinking and anxieties during pregnancy I decided to join a hypnobirthing class in Chorley, led by a lovely lady called Rebecca at Peaceful Births.  I was a little apprehensive about the class but thought it was worth a go.  We learnt about the history of woman and birthing, why and how you can have an easier, more comfortable and safer birthing expensive with the aid of deep relaxation and hypnosis.  These methods can help you to stay alert, but at the same time shut out the world and focus on your body.

https://www.facebook.com/#!/peacefulbirthslancashire

I feel very positive after my first class and am really looking forward to the next one.  I can’t thank my sister Leonie, enough for agreeing to be my birth partner and travelling up from Peterborough to support me in the first class.  All being well I would love my sister to be my birth partner, as well as Carl, as she’s on my wavelength, able to offer emotional support and may be less upset by seeing me in pain than Carl.   

In next week’s class Lancashire Life (magazine) are doing an article about HypnoBirthing and would like to come and take some photos in class and possibly ask a few questions!!! I broke this news to Carl last night together with the fact we would be watching vaginal birth videos together and he went very quiet, he said something about a pink panther giving birth to a watermelon hence the fact I need my sister there to say the right things!!

Crafty Vintage

Crafty Vintage, Helmshore Textile Museum, Rossendale

Crafty Vintage came to Helmshore, Rossendale recently, and the weather was scorchio !! We soaked up the atmosphere and the cocktails (they had some cracking non-alcoholic ones!!) in the historic mills, saw the machinery at work, whilst enjoying the nostalgia and finest display of vintage, collectibles and handmade wares, vintage cars and street food. It was a great opportunity for the many local artists, crafters and collectors to meet the local villagers, as well as each other.

The Fayre included some fab quirky gifts that I didn’t really need, but I really wanted, cocktails served in wellies (not the people serving, the actual glasses), street food, cookery demo’s and our local enchanting celebrity singer Kiki Deville: http://www.kikideville.com 

I obviously fell in love with the Herdy sheep range from www.tipsycake.co.uk which is down to my unhealthy obsession with everything sheep related.  I am also on the lookout for something a bit different for my little unborn (Charlie Brown, to be confirmed) and stumbled across the fabulously talented Bella and Mr Tom and bought Charlie his first pair of spaceship pants!!  www.facebook.com/pages/Bella-Mr-Tom

Baby brain has well and truly kicked in this week with an array of new irrational non-related thoughts and anxieties which I know are irrational, and yet I struggle to convince myself of the more logical and reasoned answer to questions such as:-.

·         In this warm weather, will the sheep have enough water ?

·         Why does the satnav not re-correct itself even when turned upside down ?

·         Why do you never see any baby pigeons, am I just looking in the wrong places ?

·         Why doesn’t glue stick to the inside of the bottle ?

·         Why is it that people say they "slept like a baby" when babies wake up like every two hours?

T     This is a selection of my mixed up thoughts....there's plenty more where that came from!!

       I'm still really busy at the moment, filling my time with lots of friends and visiting.  It's taking me quite a while to sort the craft stuff out Nonie has given me...but I'm getting there.  Anyone interested, then check out my ebay site, and my Etsy.  Just bear with me....especially with the Etsy, it's a new venture!!  If you need any help though, please drop me a line (if I can't answer at least I know someone crafty who can!).  All the links are here:

      ebay:http://www.ebay.co.uk/usr/teelamai?_trksid=p2047675.l2559

      Etsy:https://www.etsy.com/uk/people/craftystash2013?ref=hdr

      Email: craftystash2013@hotmail.co.uk

      Right, lets get some ribbon loaded, night everyone

 Musical happenings at the Crafty Vintage day out

 New pants for baby Brown!!

 Wellie Cocktails!!

   Fabulous felted sheep!!

Being Pregnant

Babies, bless their souls, have always given me the creeps -  but here’s hoping my own wont!!

Over the last 7 months me and Carl have been through, and are going through, an incredible journey.  We got married at Samlesbury Hall then found out over New Year that I was pregnant !

Pregnancy is a lot of things. It is the gift of life. It is a miracle. It is exciting…to create a life. To carry that life within your body for nine months is so clever, to nurture it, to feel it grow, to create another human being. It is incredible and I do feel so lucky when others are not as fortunate as me.

It is also horrifying, scary, dramatic and bizarre. Things happen… strange things, not nice things, things you don’t expect, things change colour, things drop, things no one warns you about.  If women were warned, the human race would not grow as quickly, I am sure !!!

On finding out I was pregnant, I vomited from excitement, then chocked on the tears. Hid under the duvet, told my new husband (and allowed him to go to the pub for the rest of the afternoon) so we could make sense of the news.  I made everyone promise not to say a word, fell asleep, everywhere, on everything and watched countless episodes of One Born Every Minute - and cried again, frightened to death and already deciding I could not do this !!

I thought of a cute way to announce to my 2143 friends on facebook (that I never talk to) that I was expecting - I said "Woohooo !!!"

After the second month I finally felt out of the woods, after feeling like I was on a boat that wouldn't’ stop rocking, (no one warned me about that).  I also thought "I can do this, lots of woman do this, I have to do this".  Irrational thoughts, and baby brain, start to kick in such as " If/when Carl has a bath, will it fall through the ceiling if he fills it with too much water ?"  So I tell Carl to only half fill the bath!! 

I also feel very overprotective of Bob, our three legged cat, maybe this is me practicing ?   I worry about the sheep being cold in the winter and wet in the rain.   Drivers not signaling anger me to a new level, I now beep, wave, signal and wildly throw my hands in the air to them in disgust. 

I am now in month 6 and baby Brown is kicking.  Gone are the, “ooo shes let herself go since the wedding" , "is she just really fat?” days… now it is obvious that I am having a baby. So what happens? I get annoyed when people mention it, and offended when they don’t. Baby’s kicks are getting harder now. I can no longer breathe easily because the baby is getting bigger. Sleep happens sometimes. Not all the time. And when it doesn't, I fill my long nights with anxiety and worry about everything from Bob the cat, to the sheep being cold on the hills... to finishing work to.......... CHILDBIRTH !!!

 

Hello....and welcome

A bit about me

 

My name is Marianne Brown.  My maiden name was Pujol, which originated from Spain, and was always a cool talking point, however when I married my childhood friend, we thought double barreling Brown-Pujol was more of a joke than a cool talking point !  I am 35 years old, happily married with our first child on the way, living in Lancashire with the hubby Carl and our cat Oscar and ¾ cat Bob, (our a three legged rescue cat).  I am a marketing assistant during the day and a pint puller in the evening at our fab local pub, the Robin Hood in Helmshore.

More about me:-

LOVES: Cake; animals (of land and sea); the outdoors (nature drives me nuts); festivals with my sister; gurning; sheep in a big way (bordering obsessive); books on serial killers; family meals; vivid dreams; Christmas; Will Ferrell; fancy dress;  Rocky Horror Picture Show; Stephen Dorff; The Robin Hood pub in Helmshore; garden centers; dancing (not in garden centers);  the elderly couple I visit, Rose and Peter; Come Dine events with my brilliant bonkers friends; and most recently aubergines... in a big way !

HATES: Sandals on men; the Dentist; Sandra Bullock; cold soup; people not signaling grrrrr,; pernod; chick flicks; fun runs  (I don’t see the fun in it); boy bands; Blackburn town centre; animal cruelty; Ugg boots; people that don’t dress up for fancy dress parties; mosquito bites (I hate the bite but enjoy the itch).

This week...... as well as work !!!

We have been participating in a few friendly Come Dine events with our neighbours, and our turn is coming round fast.  I created my tapas menu to suit two pregnant ladies, a meat eater, an elderly lady who struggles with her false teeth, and a fussy husband who won’t eat anything that swims, any meat on the bone or anything in a creamy sauce!  The secret is, translate the menu to Spanish, the guests don’t know what there eating and get what their given !!! Next task is to find entertainment, I quite like Keith Lemon’s games on Celebrity Juice where guests form two lines to snuff out candles, the fastest to snuff wins.  The fun being the snuffer is tied between the legs, hilarious!  Don’t think the elderly lady would be much cop at this game.

I’ve also been searching for the perfect toy for my nephew, Luke’s, 4^th birthday, and want it to be different.  A toy to be remembered, and more importantly, so he remembers me as the best auntie who got him the greatest toy !!!.   He loves Fireman Sam and fluffy bunny rabbits.  On my fluffy bunny search I came across http://www.roadkilltoys.com/ where the bunny is described as follows:-

“ The blood and guts and gore are made using the latest high-tech stuffing and plush, to give it quite a realistic squidgy effect. The body and head and legs are made from specially sourced plush material, that gives them that tactile quality of mangy fur. The body is partly stuffed with beads, to give it extra dead weight. And unlike real roadkill it’s something you’ll want to take home and arrange on your bed.”

Wow!!

Think we will stick with Fireman Sam, he’s only 4 after all !!

Now, back to my tapas menu....and making up some Spanish words.