a womans work...

so you wont be seeing me for a while... i have a little ironing to catch up on!
we had a lovely christmas day with jamies folks yesterday and were off to ireland at the weekend. will hopefully have more time to write and tell you all about it... if i ever finish the ironing :-(

Lounging by the pool

We're on our holidays! Rach and i are waiting for the pool to open so we can go for her first swim. Poor jamie is back at the apartment with the flu :(

Kate Rusby

So Jamie and I left the house last Thursday... together... without Rachel (and no we didnt forget her). With Jamie's mum and dad (gran and grandad) babysitting we went off to hear Kater Rusby sing her wee heart out. It was a fab night. Good banter inbetween songs and an amazing voice. She also had one of "those guys" - you know the ones - the side kick able to play every instrument under the sun... whistle, violin, guitar, stringy thing, and backing vocals. Made me want to learn some form of musicical instrument, until i remembered how utterly frustrating it is to try and learn - all those hours of playing badly.
Here's a snapshot of Kate - the recordings pretty bad, she doesnt have a lisp in real life!

great ambience

i had my friends from Whitehead over yesterday. it was really great to see them and to introduce Rachel to them. We wandered about town a bit lunching and coffeeing etc. In the evening I abandoned the hubby and child to go out with the girlies. We ended up at a tapas restaurant (after much deliberation and voting!). The food was lovely and much laughter was had :-)
It was so good to have them around... makes me miss them more though!

reclaiming the land

so i have managed to reclaim my blog back from the wee one. it seems like i might be emerging from the constantness and overwhelmingnessosity of being Rachel's mum. Last night i went out for drinks with a friend... on my own... without the baby. She had fun at home with her dad while i went out on the town. That sound sa bit glamorous but it was really great to meet up with kath for a few drinks down on grassmarket. the place is completely different and deserted now the festival is over. Just wait till the students get here and it will be mad!
Been listening lots to yvonne's new album - a thousand questions why - its mighty fine. would recommend it to a friend! if you want a copy you can get it at YvonneLyonMusic.com
Got a bbq on the beach tomorrow - i love BBQs! hope the weather is good :-)
sorry no pics to share with you today.

A new blog

I have been really bad at updating you all on little rachel. i realise that lots of you will be missing out on her little developments so i thouhgt it only fair that she starts to tell you a bit about it. She's got 3 months worth to catch up on so it'll take her time to get caught up. its very hard to fit round all that sleeping and eating!
Anyway... have a wee look and add her to your favourites page.
i dont know how to add links to posts so click on the link at the side.

the address is www.WeeRachel.blogspot.com

what next?

so im a little confused about what to do with this blog. i have lots of news about rachel and very little of my own. should i let rach start her own? give mine over to her? or just give up blogging all together?
answers on a postcard... or the comments section whichever is easiest :-)

cousins

iain (my eldest brother) majlinda, alban and emma are up in edinburgh this week. theyre staying at a caravan site round the corner from here. its not great weather for a caravan holiday but its so good having them nearby. rachel has been having lots of hugs and kisses. cara has been enjoying the extra attention too.
iain has been trying to explain what a cousin is to alban with the aid of a, now very detailed, family tree. its a pretty complicated concept for a 4 year old... im only just getting to grips with it


uncle iain

uncle alan

my brother Alan came to visit today for a wee while. It was great to see him and Rachel loved his singing! Hope it wont be long till we see him again ;-)
Rachel had her first trip to ikea today - i could tell she was gutted she was too wee for the ball pool. she had a shot in one of the cots though!
The health visitor was round today an she has put on weight - she's now 3.44kg (thats 7lb 8 to the rest of you). im so pleased shes been putting on weight despite vomiting most of her feeds.
As for my news... I have my mum over for a few weeks so the house is being kept tidy and clean. its great to have her around. Jamie started back to work yesterday :-( poor Jamie.

ickle feet

i have put some pics on my bebo site - http://bebo.com/weeali8
i havent worked out how to turn them round yet or how to upload from the proper camera so im afraid you're stuck with my phone photos. this is one taken when in hospital. Rachel loves to lie with her feet in the air. its very bizarre but very cute.
we're getting more used to having her around although her recent hobby of projectile vomiting after every feed is getting a little tiresome - especially at 4.30am when shes chucked her milk all over her bed. great!

yay! she's here!!

little miss rachel hope wilson has arrived in the world

apologies for the lack of blogging (although i know you have all loved looking at the pic of our car!).
i will try and fill you in on what you've missed another time when im not so tired - give it 18 years or so.

she was born on the 1st june - 2 weeks early because of my preeclamsia. we got out of hospital last wednesday. granny wright came to visit for the weekend (and she did lots of housework too :-) Aunty Elaine (Jamies sister) was over form switzerland for a day or two. Rachel also had her first visit to church which was a little overwhelming... for me!

jamie is off work for another week and a half. he's got a gig on monday in glasgow so he's practising for that.

i have lots of catching up to do with lots of people - will hopefully get more sorted soon - just managing from feed to feed at the moment. thankyou to everyone for their love and prayers and cards and pressies

the era ends

so this is the new car... very sensible dont you think?! poor jamie hs to hand over the keys to his celica on thursday. the end of an era - no more sports car - no more 6th gear :-(

an end of another era... i finished work on friday. i had a lovely send off with homemade cakes and a really cool card and pressie. went for coffee with some of my colleagues after. its just really hard to realsie that i wont be back in the place for the forseeable future. it'll be good to have time to get some stuff done around the house.

jamie has started a new job despite his recent bout of shingles :-( the gigs went well though. 5 weeks to go... maybe :-)

33 weeks... and counting!

we had a scan on Friday. The baby is lying in a good position and moving around lots. We were able to see its face. I dont know if you can make it out on this pic - i think it looks a bit scary. It stuck its tongue out at Jamie - the start of cheeky antics to come no doubt.
now only 7 weeks till d-day. Its all coming a little too fast in some ways - but not soon enough in others!!!

im glad this week is over. I have never had so many appointments in my life. Anti-natal classes were a bit dull. I was assessed for a disabled parking badge and got one - dont know whether thats something to be happy about or not?! On the whole the docs are pretty pleased with how im doing. Surprised even. I like to shock people :-)

im away round to Dr Sarahs for a coffee and to disturb her revision. It really will be my fault if she fails these exams!! Jamie's busy practising for his gig tonight. Hope lots of people come.

the legendary cactus and chocolate pizza

on saturday night some of us (us being "the group with no name") went to mamma's pizza place. What a place! It took us at least 30mins to decide on toppings. They had everything from marshmallow to banana to - yes you guessed it - cactus and...chocolate. we decided it was worth going for it and ordered half a pizza of the most random mix - cactus and chocolate. I have to say that cactus tasted pretty normal. I think it had been pickled or something. The chocolate however was very difficult to eat. A big pat on the back to Stephen who managed to eat several pieces.


ben enjoying his cactus and chocolate pizza

after pizza we went to the lot to see jamie play. It was a good night. jams set went well despite attempted sabotage when stephen kicked a bottle of beer over... narrowly missing the edge of the balcony and the amps below! neil was entertaining as always. Looking forward to acoustic cafe on saturday.



jamie on stage - photo by Stephen Naismith :-)

I'm off work this week on annual leave. Got my first antinatal class tomorrow. Im pretty nervous about going. Will keep you informed!

general mutterings

its been a funny old week. It started with conjunctivitis - an annoying itchy/goey eye thing. I then developed a cold - a head cold. I ahvent had one in years so i really cant complain. This is the first tiem ive not been able ot take decongestants or other medication though so i'm still feeling bunged up. Then at the start of the week I developed a chest infection. It shouldnt take long for the antibiotics to clear it up - but in the meantime breathing is an annoying neccesity. So all in all feeling a little under the weather. It is nice to have normal diseases mind you.
Not much new on the baby front - im getting big! And bulky. Cant cut my toe nails so hoping to talk jamie into that one :-) nice!
Have been getting requests for bump pictures - will see what i can do.
Jamie's got a couple of gigs lined up - one this Saturday supporting Neil Alton and a longer set at the Acoustic Cafe the following saturday - so he's busy practising and has had his hair cut (image IS everything).
As I type the TV is being hung on the wall. Some of you will realise the momentus occasion that this truely is. Lets hope it doesnt fall off :-)

Keeping up with the Joness

Karen and Nathan



we went to visit our friends Karen and Jeremy and little Nathan yesterday. Its been a while since we saw them. Nathans getting big and he's got the cute-ist smile. You can read all about it on Nathans blog too!! Karen is due a baby in August so we were able to chat babies etc.
Jake and Cara had fun together. Cara enjoyed having someone to chase around with and is sleeping now to recoup the extra energy she used up.

Latest scan - 29weeks

so heres the latest scan pic. Not much different from the last really but it was cool to see it again. All is well. We still dont know if its a boy or a girl and hopefully wont till the birth. Its been kicking lots and lots which is fun... but not at 2 in the morning. Anyway I better go mop Jamie's brow - he's got the flu :-(

bbc radio scotland

just a quick wee blog to say that jamie's portrait song was played on Iain Andersons show last night - very exciting. Yvonne had passed his cd on. I've tried to copy the link but not sure if it'll work...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/radioscotland/view/show.shtml?iain

you can click on the "listen again" icon and it should take you into Mon 26ths program.

yvonnes new song - everythings fine is just before it about 6mins in. He said jamies song was "very very good". its very exciting. were still a long way off walking into a shop and hearing your song being played - but one step closer :-)

Our last scan

So this is the last scan we had - a few weeks ago. For those of you who cant quite make it out the baby is lying on its back facing up with its head on the right. It looks like its blowing bubbles but apparently its not (seeing as theres no air in there).

Its only another 3 months to go and its getting pretty exciting. We bought some paint for the spare room today. All we need to do is clear out some of the junk in there. well i say junk... its all prized posessions lovingly stored for years. Am going to have to be ruthless.

I hope you liked Yvonnes video. See what you think of Jamies portrait on Leah Robb's site www.leahrobb.com - she's a budding artist and you can see the real thing at the traverse theatre. I really like her stuff and the thoughts behind it. Can you see which ones Jamie???

wanted to post something to get rid of the annoying pram pictures that have been filling the screen for sometime. unfortunately our computer is a little messed up just now so no new pics. the new computer should be set up soon and that means back to bloggng and all things tinternet. Till then... check out yvonnes video for "everythings fine" - i think its brill - its on her myspace www.myspace.com/yvonnelyonmusic and click on video link under her pic.

not much news to share with you. was back in ireland at the weeend there. It was really good to see family and friends. Made me miss being close to them. I guess I should be thankful that theyre not too far away.

we're trying to get organised for the baby - it would be so much easier if we new when it'll arrive! I have my hospital bag stuff ready (still need the actual bag to put the stuff in) and some very cute little clothes and nappies etc. for the first wee while. Again that would have been made easier if we new girl/boy and what size it'll be! There is so much uncertainty! Guess you gotta love a surprise :-)

icandy

one of the strangest things about being pregnant is having to become knowledgable about baby products. Having read every magaine and book posible and visiting numerous shops we have finally ordered a pram... the icandy apple...

its a pram and a buggy. ours will be red and black. we also ordered a car seat - turquoise and black. Its all very exciting... for me. I realise on typing this how dull it will be to everyone else... its all down hill from here!

22 weeks

well last Friday brought the latest scan. The baby is now 22 weeks. The picture isnt very good but you can make out the head and belly and knee and its wee arm giving a thumbs up. So all is ok. They did some measurements and its head is average sized for its age. Its tummy on the other hand is massive - in the top 5% of tummys for its age. It must take after jamie ;-)
We dont know what sex it is yet (hence calling it "it") and we dont really want to now either.
Whichever it is it likes Jamie's singing and dance music... that is if trying to kick its way out of my belly is anything to go by!

Mr Hoppy - Mark 2

for those of you who followed the tragedy of the chocolate bunny earlier in the year (see April 06), I just had to post to share my joy. I received for Christmas a chocolate reindeer. It must have evolved from the same family as the chocolate bunny as it has the same red bow with the bell. I'm really looking forward to eating him (ears first of course!). As you can see from the pic Cara has her evil eye set on him. he is stashed safely in a very high cupboard so fear not. Only chocolate hungry humans stand between me and my reindeer - and most humans know better than that!

2 weeks off

i just got signed off today for 2 weeks. i hate not working it makes my mind go a wee bit funny (well funnier than normal). poor jamie comes home and i have 10,000 words stored up to use on him. cara is good company but she gets a little annoying when i'm trying to sleep. sadly neighbours is going through a dodgy plot phase so i dont even have that to perk up the middle of my day.
still... if resting for a while means that i will feel better than this then bring it on! anyone within travelling distance that fancies popping round for coffee (your making it) then come on down... but dont be disappointed if i fall asleep on you (not literally!).

Guess who's back... back again...

the baby at 8 weeks - its a lot bigger now just havent uploaded latest scan pics

Happy new year to you all. I have been more than rubbish at keeping this blog up of late. My excuse is that i am with child and therefore have too many other things to be doing.

I am due in th emiddle of June - currently 18 weeks gone.

You're probably pretty glad that I haven't been keeping up with the blog or you would have had several months of me whinging about vomiting etc. Still you have 5 months of that ahead of you by the looks of things as I'm still being sick. I can however pass on my handy hint that I learned this week:

• dont eat minty food/sweets if there is any chance you may vomit - it is comparable with shoving an entire tub of vicks up your nose and it will sting for at least two hours (even chilli stopped stinging after 30mins!)

Had a brief stay at the hospital this past week because of breathing problems. Was on an obstetric ward so saw lots of little babies - made it a bit more real - only 5 months to go!