A quilt NOT made by me!

There have been quite a few surprises over the last three weeks since Theo arrived, and one of the nicest ones has been receiving quite so many cards and gifts from family friends, old school mates, colleagues and neighbours.

I really really hadn't had any idea how the birth of a baby produces so much post! I think when you get to your mid-30s you get so used to milestones being marked with greetings from just from your close family, that you never imagine you'd ever see a mantelpiece over run with cards or a postman who is still knocking on your door 3 weeks after the big day.

Yesterday, just as we were starting to believe the flow of post had tailed off, we received two lovely gifts for Theo. The first was a copy of one of my favourite childhood books, The Hungry Caterpillar, and a toy caterpillar that clips on to the pram, and the second was a wonderfully soft and snuggly raggy quilt made by my old friend Kim, who taught me to quilt in Canada.

Kim used to make quilts for all the new arrivals in the village where we lived in Alberta and I often joked I'd have to have a baby whilst we were there just to ensure we got one. Well two years later, Theo may have been a Scottish rather than Canadian baby, but he still got the quilt... lucky boy!

The coming home photos....

My mum has just sent me copies of some of the photos she took last week when we brought Theo home from the hospital. I love these two shots she got of my sister and I.

They'd both arrived on a flight from down south the night before, so as well as meeting Theo, it was also the first time my sister and I had seen each other for 4 months.

And proving that you can never have too many cameras being used at once, my mum also took this one of us making Theo look his best for his first photoshoot. That big silver disc is just throwing a bit of natural light back on him, not quite as menacing as it looks!

Poor boy has a lifetime of this ahead of him, so he had better get used to it...

Birth... announced

Theo's birth is announced today in the Daily Telegraph, as my birth before him was also announced 35 years ago.

Over the last few weeks this section of the newspaper has been well read by my family. My mum and I would discuss it daily as we struggled to settle on an option for a girl's name. It was also the Telegraph that first made us aware of the huge number of Isla's that are being born at the moment, so it's nice to think that like us, other prospective parents will also be reading it today.

Birth announcements in newspapers in the UK have fallen out of fashion a little lately, but they are still popular among traditionalists. If you are reading this elsewhere in the world, it would be interesting to know if births are announced in your newspapers too, or if it is (as I suspect) a very British thing...

Day 5

Wow, what a week it has been - It seems incredible how much the world has changed for us in the last 7 days.

We've had a bumpy first few days (and nights) at home, but today we seemed to have turned a corner and at this precise moment the house is quiet (2 dogs and a baby fast asleep) and tidy. (Why does tidy matter? I don't know.. but somehow order on the outside, reflects growing order on the inside)

My sister and mum have come and gone, their arrival on long ago booked flights ended up being timed to perfection. I am thankful in so many ways for their sharing of knowledge, and the many many practical ways they helped us get on our feet. In my dizzy hormonal state I could all too easily shed a tear of gratitude thinking about the gift of family. No one else can really support you so solidly.

I won't bore you too much with baby photos, but if you are interested, there are plenty more on Flickr in a set which will be regularly added to. We have yet to get one of him and me together, let alone one of the three of us, but we will soon.

Thank you all for your wonderful warm comments on the last post, it is lovely to celebrate his birth with friends old and new, far and wide.

We'll be back soon, in the meantime, have a wonderful weekend!

He's here!

Theodore "Theo" Stanley Richard Mansell arrived safely on Tuesday 30th August 2011 at 22:05 weighing 8lbs 11oz.

Home from the hospital today and enjoying some family time.

Will be back soon with more photos...

41 weeks + 4 days

For any of you sitting there thinking "there MUST be baby news from Scotland soon" I thought I'd better check in to let you know.... we are still waiting!

In the middle of a typically damp and cold August bank holiday weekend we haven't had too much to do other than relax and eat good food, so really is it any wonder that the baby is enjoying it far too much to make a move?

Over the last week or so I have been collecting some good stories about poorly thought through baby names. Take Mr & Mrs Hill the parents who named their child "Reef" and were happy with it for many years until they heard his full name called across a room and exchanged horrified looks as they realised they had inadvertently named their child "Refill."

Then there was the nurse who was due to have at baby near Christmas and had settled on the name "Holly" until she shared her decision with her friends who pointed out it made a rather unfortunate pairing with her surname "Cow".

And finally the school teacher who at a parent's evening was asked how "Gooey" was doing in class. Baffled, she racked her brain for a child of that name who she taught, before finally realising the parents had been suffering under the illusion that this was the correct pronunciation for a name the rest of us know as "Guy!"

It's quite a dangerous business this baby naming thing!

But anyway, I shan't be boring you with anecdotes too much longer. I'm going into hospital to be induced tomorrow night, so we should have baby news by midweek... or failing that quilts. Yes, maybe it will just be more quilts!

WIP Wednesday (24th August)

First off, I'm still here, and still pregnant... 41 weeks along! I've been walking a couple of miles a day, eating pineapple in every form, taking raspberry leaf tablets, bouncing on an exercise ball, and I even ate curry three nights running, and still this baby is going nowhere... Even after I fell down the stairs yesterday (not a scheduled part of the labour inducing plan!)

So tomorrow morning I'll be trying some reflexology to coax things along and on Monday I'm being admitted for an induction. I was so certain there would be some news by now that I even took my sewing machine in for a very long overdue service on Saturday, what a fatal mistake that was, I'm going stir crazy without it!

Still I did manage to finish a couple of things before I handed it over. Firstly the Sherbet Pips crib quilt, which is without a doubt my favourite quilt to date.

The style of quilting is more accidental than planned. For the first time I added some detail to the back of the quilt, but it didn't precisely match with the front, so I needed a style of quilting that wouldn't give that away... Accidental, but I love it!

For those curious about the pre-washing of the batting/wadding, it definitely seems to have made the end result less baggy/crinkly, although whether this is also partly a result of the intensive quilting I'm not sure, I will keep experimenting.

I also tried a non-quilting project, some newborn pants from a free pattern by Made By Rae. This pair were a bit of an experiment with leftover fabric, which is why the fabric doesn't match precisely (apologies to perfectionists!) they are also shown without the elastic added to the waist, which I was waiting for in the post.

I'll definitely be making more once I know how girlie or boyish I can go with my fabric choices. They are INCREDIBLY simple to make, so simple that even a sewer like me who likes to stick to nice two dimensional quilts couldn't muck them up!

Hope you've also had a productive week, here's hoping they'll be baby news to share by next Wednesday!