New Home

The Mummy Stygle Blog has moved home.

I started having problems with my browser on the Blogger dashboard which made it impossible to post, having to use Darren's computer to write this.

Our new home can be found here - http://www.mummystygle.co.uk

I hope to see and interact with you all on the new blog!

Kellan's Hospital Appointment

Kellan had a hospital appointment today with the Peadiatric consultant about his sacral dimple.

Kellan was referred for an ultrasound on his sacral dimple after his newborn check up back in November 2011. The dimple was quite deep so the consultant wanted to just make sure everything was ok. In the December Kellan had his ultrasound at which I was told everything was fine. I went away so happy after that appointment and stopped worrying over what was possibly wrong.

In April 2012 we received a letter from the hospital saying the results of the ultrasound had gotten lost in the system for a while and the consultant had only just gone over them and they had found an incident of spina bifida. They wanted to look in to it further with an MRI. The letter completely shocked us and left me worried at what an 'incident of spina bifida' was. We had an appointment for a couple of weeks after the letter arrived.

We attended the appointment where Kellan was weighed and measured and the consultant explained what the ultrasound had found. They could see a piece of vertebrae missing in the lower spine but because the ultrasound images weren't very clear they wanted to do an MRI to see if spinal fluid was escaping through the gap.

We were back at the hospital a month or so later for the MRI.  We went on to the day ward and waited for Kellan's sedative. He wasn't keen on the taste but was soon drifting off to sleep. We then made our way to the MRI room. I'd heard the machine was loud but wow loud is an understatement it was awful with ear plugs in I hate to think how loud it is without. Kellan was awake just as we were coming back to the ward and after a feed were allowed to head home. We were told the results would take 4-6 weeks to come back so we waited for an appointment to come by post.

Our next appointment was 6 weeks later to discuss what they'd found. The gap in Kellan's vertebrae was luckily just a gap and the spinal fluid was not poking through it which would have been a concern. So they arranged another follow up appointment 6 months later to see how Kellan developed in case anything came up with walking, moving around, bladder or bowel control. The consultant also sent the MRI scans to a consultant at Kings College Hospital for him to look over to get his opinion.

So today was talked about being the last visit to the consultant as Kellan has been normal at his other checks. They just wanted to make sure that his last few development milestones were as they should be and that I had no concerns over anything.

We still had no word from the consultant at Kings College Hospital and was told that was probably a good thing. I explained I had no concerns with Kellan and that he's a very active little boy who runs about, jumps down stairs and climbs everything and that his bladder and bowels seem normal to me. The consultant checked his reflexes, looked at his dimple, which has become more shallow, and checked his hips. She was very happy with him and commented that his ankles are extremely flexable and Kellan has now been discharged and declared normal!!

We came out from hospital today, although I knew he was fine, over the moon and celebrated by treating Kellan to a Happy Meal.

Our Halloween

Our Halloween was a quiet one this year. Normally we decorate our living room with ceiling decorations, spider webs and wall hangings but this year we just didn't feel like hunting through the attic finding all the boxes just for a day of use.

We didn't go trick or treating this year. It's far too cold out for the children to be walking around with thin costumes on so we stayed home and had a mini tea party.

The food

We had food that I renamed, sorry if this sounds disgusting.

Cheese wiggles/wotsits - fingers

french fries - worms

mini scotch eggs - eye balls

pizza - puke pizza

trifle - zombie brains

The trifle was a hit we had two which the children chose from one chocolate and one strawberry.

We also treated the children to candy apples which they gobbled up in no time.

The children with the candy apples

The children loved all the food and came back for second and thirds.

Darren gutted our pumpkin and I then carved it. It took me about 40 minutes to carve and wasn't as hard a job as I was imagining. The theme this year was Minecraft since we love it and rather than carving a Creeper which seemed to be what everyone carving a Minecraft pumpkin was doing I opted for tools/weapons and TNT.

Front : Pickaxe and sword

Back : TNT

With the flesh of the pumpkin we made a rather yummy pumpkin soup.

The children dressed up in costumes, except Archie he wasn't really that bothered.

Cerys the cheetah

Harvey the vampire

Jorja as Snow White

Gwen as Ariel

Kellan as Pooh Bear

Rory as Sleepy the Dwarf

And of course I couldn't leave out a Halloween nappy photo

Rory in our Fluffy Dreams Halloween nappy

Kellan's 2nd Birthday

Saturday was Kellan's 2nd birthday, I honestly don't know how time has gone by so fast. This year we knew exactly what to get for Kellan for his presents. Kellan has recently become interested in cars and Thomas the Tank Engine and of course dinosaurs are still a favourite of his.

We wanted to get him a dinosaur but not the kind you get in a tub and end up losing so were looking for a fair sized dino. We were in B&M when we spotted a rubbery T-Rex which is quite big. It doesn't do anything but its soft so if it's used as a weapon or thrown and happens to hit someone it won't hurt.

We wanted to buy him some cars but not your normal hot wheel sized cars something chunkier. We looked at wooden cars but they were a bit pricey. I then spotted the perfect set in Argos in the Chad Valley range of toys. The Car Transporter has 3 chunky cars, headlights which light up, a button to make noises and the ramp goes up and down. The Garage comes with 2 cars, has noisy petrol pumps, a ramp, a lift and a car wash for the cars to travel through.

We also wanted to buy Kellan a sturdy Thomas toy which seem to be somewhat hard to find. There are plenty of track sets but thought of those as being too fragile in the hands of a 2 year old. I spotted a Thomas toy in Morrison's whilst doing our food shop that makes noises, the smoke lights up and moves across the floor. It looks quite robust and is a speedy little thing.

We had a little birthday lunch of chicken sandwiches, crisps, chocolate mini rolls and Oreos followed by a fairy cake. The kids gobbled it all up in no time.

Kellan's Grandma popped over with his card and present, a gun that makes noises and lights up. Kellan has played with it so much the batteries have run out already.

I then prepared Kellan's cake. I normally make the cakes but Rory is still feeding a lot so would be impossible to feed him and bake a cake and decorate it too. We bought Kellan a chocolate cake from Morrison's and everyone loved it. We had Gwen asking for second helpings.

We then all sang happy birthday to Kellan and he blew his candles out all by himself.

Rory's 6-8 Week Check

On Wednesday Rory had his 6-8 week check up at our doctors surgery.

The doctor weighed, measured his head and length and checked Rory over from head to toe and everything is fine. Rory is now 12lb 12oz, 61.5 cms long and his head is 40 cms.

The doctor was impressed with Rory's head control. Rory was cooing away during the check up either at the doctor or a poster on the wall, Rory has a thing for pictures on walls and chats away to them for ages. During the check Rory very nearly soaked the doctor with wee, which was quite funny and I now understand how he's out weeing his cloth nappies so fast, lets just say he wee's a river! The nurse doing Rory's immunisations had a good old giggle at that and told him next time to aim a little better and get the doctors shirt.

We then headed through to the nurse for his first immunisations. Rory is the first of my children to have the Rotovirus vaccine, which is given orally. Rory didn't mind the taste of it and thankfully it was a colourless liquid so he didn't get covered in anything that wouldn't wash out of clothes.

Then he had an injection in each thigh which he really didn't like. He fell asleep not long after being dressed and placed in his buggy for the walk home.

He hasn't had any reaction to the immunisations thankfully and didn't need any calpol that evening. He did sleep a lot during the day which is very unlike Rory.

Rory

School Photographs

The children had their profile photographs taken at school at the end of September and we got the proofs last week.

We usually aren't very keen on what we see when we get the proofs and sadly this year is no different. We will be buying Gwen and Harvey's photographs though as we only buy reception and year 6 photographs.

Here are their photographs;

Gwen - Reception Class

Jorja - Year 3

Archie - Year 4

Harvey - Year 6

Group photograph

The children all look pale and ill and they are far from it, probably down to the use of a white background. We wish we'd get just one year of good photographs but I think that's a million to one chance especially whilst this company takes the photographs.

Rory's New Head Wear From Lactivist

Last week I noticed a post on my Facebook feed from the Lactivist page with a sale on their stock. I had no idea it was a closing sale when I first noticed the post and wasn't until Wednesday that I read they were reducing all the stock they had. I then went for a look on the website to see what they had and just had to get Rory a Lactivist hat.

The hats are normally £6.50 with free postage but were reduced to £4. I

then remembered a code 'autumn2013' the Lactivist page had given out and tried that at the checkout and it worked so I got the hat for £2.80!

I chose the 'Better than any old cow' 100% organic cotton hat.

The hat arrived today and is lovely and soft and fits Rory with room for growth. All the kids have had a little giggle at the print on the hat. I wish I'd bought one when Kellan was a baby.

Rory in his new hat

Heres the link for the Lactivist t-shirts, bags and hats - click *here*

Lactivist nursing necklaces and bracelets - click *here*

Lactivist network, news etc - click *here*