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*

Superhero Art

For Christmas last year we gave Harvey acrylic paints, brushes, sketching pencils, canvas in various sizes, drawing pads and other extras. He enjoys art and so we went a little overboard.

Today Harvey completed his first canvas inspired by Superman.

He's now planning his next piece. He's aiming to create a collection of superhero logo's on canvas and putting them up in his bedroom, which is where his Superman canvas art is.

Registering Rory's Birth

Today we made the trip in to town to register Rory's birth. Usually we'd go to the Registry Office in Canterbury which is situated just outside of the town center but they've changed where the births and deaths are registered to the updated library on the high street.

Rory is an official person!

We had to ask a couple of times where we had to go to register a birth and finally reached our destination. It was very strange sitting in a library and can't imagine sitting there if you needed to register a death. It didn't feel very warm and welcoming it was quite cold and unfriendly in our opinion. 

We were given a little book bag with two books, Making Friends! Just Like Us by Jess Stockham and What a .. Busy Baby! by Rebecca Patterson, baby's first shapes booklet, a book start rhymes booklet and a guide to books for babies.

Once we'd registered Rory we then headed to buy something to eat and bought some pasties from the West Cornwall Pasty Co. We've had pasties from there before so know just how lovely they are. I had a Sunday Lunch pasty, Darren had a chicken and bacon pasty, Darren's mum, Trish, had an original Cornish pasty and Kellan had some mini pasties which were pork and apple. They were delicious and Kellan loved eating his mini pasties whilst sat in the park.

We then found a little bakery on the high street and bought some cakes and a biscuit for Kellan. 

Kellan attacked his before I managed to take a photo

Cerys received a post card from school today in the post. It's from her English teacher.

Cerys didn't know she was getting a post card so this cheered her up. It's nice hearing from teachers. We are so far from her school that we can't get there for parent teacher interviews so these let us know how she's doing.

Harvey came home from school with his e-safety ambassador certificate today, it's now pinned up in our hallway.

Rory Is 4 Weeks Old

Time really does fly by when you have a new baby. Rory turned 4 weeks old on Sunday and on Tuesday 24th he was weighed again.

He is now a whopping 10lb 11oz which is a gain of about 8/9oz a week.

His head control is getting better and he has started looking at people and following them when in his line of sight. He smiled for the first time at the age of 3 weeks and a day old and we've started hearing little coo's.

He's not happy unless he's being held or fed so is mostly in my arms all day. He co sleeps with us and a usual night consists of feeds every 2 hours.

Rory

What Harvey Is Up To At School

Harvey is now a year 6 and he's a favourite with his teacher and he's a busy little bee lately.

In July he visited another primary school to attend an e-safety ambassador day. He was one of five children from his class invited to be trained in e-safety.

Teachers from the primary school lead the children in making e-safety cartoons and helping the children learn about e-safety. 

The five children would then be ready to give talks and advise children and teachers in their school when they went in to year 6. They also have their own page on the school website.

Harvey also has a reception class buddy. The primary school has a system that pairs a year 6 child with a reception age child to help them get to know the school and gives them an older friend to help them with problems or to just play with at play time. Harvey's buddy is Gwen which we were all surprised about and they are loving being paired up.

Harvey has also been picked to operate the sound system and projector in the school hall during assemblies with one other child from his class.

On September 11th and 12th Harvey took his Kent Test. It's a test taken by year 6 pupils in Kent to see if they can enter grammar schools in the area. Cerys took these in year 6 but didn't pass them. If Harvey passes it opens up our school choices for him but we have told him that we won't be disappointed if he doesn't pass. We find out October 16th at 4pm via email if he has passed and then we can get his secondary school application filled in before the deadline of October 31st.

Another job that Harvey has is to order stock for the Fair Trade tuck shop the school holds every Friday at 10:45am. They order the items via a website and Harvey had his first try last Friday.

Health Visitor

As Rory is 2 weeks old the Health Visitor made a visit to our house to weigh him and see how we were doing.

Obviously with Rory being baby number seven I'm quite experienced when it comes to babies and I had no concerns about feeding or his well being. He's been weeing and pooping like a trooper and feeding a lot so I know he's ok.

She weighed him and he was 9lb 9oz. He's doing really well and obviously mummy milk is doing a brilliant job.

She is coming to our house in two weeks time.

Gwen's First Day at School

Gwen started school today. She's only doing half days until September 23rd.

We had no idea what this morning was going to bring. Would she be frightened, cry and not let us go, be excited, run in and not say bye?

Well the morning went well. We managed to get everyone ready which was fun it's not easy sorting out a newborn, a 4 year old who needs a little help getting ready and doing two girls hair because Daddy doesn't do girls hair.

We got to school on time and Gwen said bye to Harvey, Archie and Jorja as they entered the school via the juniors door. We then walked her in to the enclosed reception class area and I said bye and gave her a hug and wished her a fun morning. She then took Daddy's hand and he took her in to the classroom. I stayed outside with Kellan and Rory in their buggies.

I could see in through the windows and once her coat, pe kit bag and wellies had been put away Gwen was leading Darren around the classroom trying to decide what activity to do. She eventually sat at the drawing table and Darren then asked her if it was ok if he left her and that he'd be back after lunch to collect her to which she said yes. So Darren came out and we watched her as we walked out of the play ground and she didn't cry, didn't panic and just carried on drawing.

Gwen loved her first morning and can't wait to go back on Friday.

Gwen all ready for school

Archie's 9th Birthday

Today Archie turned 9, now that's gone by in the blink of an eye.

He didn't really know what he wanted for his birthday other than an xbox which we said was far too expensive. So we decided we'd get a PS2 and a few games for him which he loves.

I didn't have the chance to make him a birthday cake with Rory around so we bought a tray cake for him. We had a mini tea party for tea which included chocolate covered toffee popcorn, which is yummy, sausage rolls, cadbury mini rolls, sandwiches, fairy cakes and mini scotch eggs.

Our mini tea party

Blowing out his candles

Introducing Our New Family Member

Me the day after our due date

Our family has grown from 8 to 9. Our seventh child, our fourth son, was born on Sunday August 25th.

Rory Thomas Stygle was born at 4:52pm, 9 days overdue, weighing 8lb 14oz.

I had given up hope of going in to labour naturally and had induction booked at 12 days overdue. I started getting pains at 11:03am and very quickly labour was in full swing. Our home birth looked like it was going to happen.

I had found the best place for me was standing holding on to the side of the wardrobe in our bedroom. Sitting or laying down was unbearable during a contraction. We phoned for the midwives to come out at about 12:30pm and they took their time coming out. I think they thought I had a while to go yet.

They got here and let me labour a little while they took pulse readings and listened to baby to make sure we were ok. I was then checked which was not an easy thing for me. I was 9cms already after just 2 hrs of labour. Baby was still really high so they let me get back to my wardrobe and said they'd check me again in a little while.

I was getting a lot of pressure in my bottom which was making me want to push. After an hour I was checked again and sadly baby hadn't moved at all. The midwives didn't feel comfortable breaking my waters with baby being so high as the chance of cord prolapse was too high and so they suggested transferring to hospital where they could break my waters safely. I agreed as I was getting concerned baby was stuck and needed help.

We waited for what seemed like ages for the ambulance to arrive and then we had a 12 minute journey from hell. Every bump set a contraction off and I clung to the gas and air for dear life just to get me through.

On arrival I was wheeled to the delivery suite and examined. Baby was still high but I was 10cms. They called in a doctor to give his opinion on what to do next. Do they break my waters or let them go naturally. He examined me and decided I should give a big push, which I did, and covered him in waters which seemed to pop everywhere. I was then told I could push. The relief from hearing those words was wonderful and I cried with happiness. I had gotten it in to my head that baby was stuck and I'd need help with either forceps or ventouse to get him out and the thought scared me.

I pushed for dear life and my word he felt huge. I now know why he felt huge as he had his right hand up on his head which had obviously been slowing his progress down the birth canal.

Rory arrived very blue but quickly pinked up. We waited for the cord to stop pulsating and then I cut the cord and not long after naturally passed the placenta.

Everything was fine for the next 20-30 minutes. He had his first feed which took a little while to do as he was very fussy and wouldn't latch well.

Then I had awful after pains. I knew these pains weren't normal and then felt a gush down below. A midwife was called and she took one look, cleaned me up, gave me paracetamol and suggested the injection to help pass the placenta which may help slow the bleeding. The pains weren't getting any easier and I ended up with co-codamol to help ease them. The injection didn't seem to work too well and I was then given an injection in my arm to help stop the bleeding, sadly this didn't seem to help much either. At 6pm I was then hooked up to a drip for 5 hours and had a rather painful clean out by a doctor which I can only say was nearly as bad as labour pains. I had lost a total of 1,200mls of blood.

Rory in his first outfit and his first cloth nappy

I wasn't allowed home that night which I understood so Darren made his way home at around 8pm and I was transferred to the maternity ward at just gone 9pm. I didn't sleep at all that night the ward was too noisy, Rory wouldn't settle unless I held him and he was feeding a lot.

Rory with Daddy

We eventually made our way home the next day just after lunch time.

Rory all set to go home

Jorja's 7th Birthday

Today Jorja turned 7, she's grown up so fast.

Jorja wasn't sure of what she wanted for her birthday this year until the week before her birthday. This made it a little difficult to get the present on time and so she didn't have her gift on the day.

Jorja with her card and gift from her great grandparents

Jorja's birthday cake

Blowing out her candles

I made her birthday cake using a Betty Crocker Devils Food cake mix and Betty Crocker chocolate fudge icing. It was delicious although a bit sickly for some of us.

Edited to add;

Jorja's gift arrived the next day and she loves it

Jorja with her tablet which is full of girly games