The Letter Box Clattered…

You all know how I love the sound of my letterbox clattering and the other day was no different.

My singular item that day was a card from Anne, a friend I worked with in Dublin before I was married. We have remained in touch by letter, phone calls and the occasional visit. Anne married a couple of years before me and had a daughter Rebecca by the time I walked down the aisle. She later has a son a little younger than Elly.

The card from Anne was to wish me well during this special month of June. She was encouraging me to savour every day and particularly Elly’s Wedding Day. She enclosed a copy of a letter that she had come across on a recent spring-clean and enjoyed re-reading. As I read the letter tears rolled silently down my face! I think I might like to share it:

Waveney Hospital

Ballymena

Tuesday 9^th May

Dear Anne & Tony,

Greetings from the Grannymar Family!

Yes Elly arrived on Saturday at 4.25p.m. She is just gorgeous. At 6lbs 12ozs she was much bigger than I had expected. The Consultant had told me the baby would be small and I had expected a wrinkled little prune! Well there wasn’t a wrinkle in sight.

The Consultant took me into hospital on the Wednesday as my sugar levels were very high. They ran tests and X-rays all day Thursday to make sure the baby was big enough to bring on. The results were through on Friday and they started the ball rolling at 10.30a.m. Saturday. I must say it was all very easy and couldn’t understand why they kept asking to give me an injection for pain!

Poor Jack had the longest day of his life, waiting and wondering. He was up and finished breakfast before 6a.m. and wandered around in circles all day. By 4p.m. when there was still no news he decided to come on over and wait at the hospital, but by the time he arrived, all was over and he was taken straight to see his little daughter.

I will never forget the look on his face when he came across to my bedside. The tears just ran down his cheeks with joy!

I had a try at breast feeding on Sunday but yesterday I had to stop as my skin is so fair and sensitive. I will try again today but am resigned to the fact that it may not work out. I will at least have tried and what more can I do. Yesterday I had a touch of the ‘Blues’, but am back to myself again today. I was just overtired and slept very little on Saturday and Sunday.

Sister has just made rounds and together we decided to quit the breast feeding. I am much too sore and raw and would run into more trouble. It is better to decide now and not wait until I am home and on my own.

Mammy has phoned to say she will come to see us. Jack persuaded her to wait until next week when I am home and she would have more time with us. I am really looking forward to her visit.

Well now Rebecca, we can take out the little bootees and make good use of them. It seems no time since you were as new as Elly. How time goes by!

Anne I must finish and get some more letters written while Elly sleeps and the mood is on me.

Love to All

Grannymar

We all use emails nowadays for speed and ease. I wonder how they will last as records of events in years ahead.

Don’t give up the Pen and paper!

Ouch!

I have a habit of talking of how ‘we mothers’ never cut that cord. No matter how many miles Elly is away from me our metaphorical umbilical cord is still attached.

Having read an article in The Guardian this morning I am beginning to wonder if I should do something about it!!!!

But then in the not to distant future perhaps….

Aghhhhh!

Over the past few days several of my blogging pals have let off steam about things that were annoying them.

Now it is my turn.

This morning I needed to purchase something (light) so I decided to walk up the town. For various health reasons this walk is not always possible or indeed a good idea. In these parts we say ‘Up the town’ when in fact it is a mile downhill to the centre of our so called shopping area from where I live. The mile uphill on the return journey is rather taxing for me nowadays. I managed my outward journey quite well, but walking along the main street I was almost pushed under a bus! It was only a single-decker so maybe if it had hit me the damage may not have been so bad!!!

So how did it happen? There were shoppers about and I was aware of a young lady approaching with a baby in a pushchair. Being polite, and one of the old school, l I moved to the outside of the pavement to give her room. She paid no attention to me and barged on past. From the side of the pushchair (closest to me), 2 enormous packets of disposable nappies were protruding. The packages hit me as she passed with enough force to knock me off balance. I ended up in the road. She must have noticed or felt the bump!

As I struggled up the hill with more aches & pains than I had on the way down I pondered on the subject of ‘Babies’ & their transport. My gripe is the fact that a) she paid no heed to other pedestrians and b) that the pushchair/buggy/ stroller or whatever you want to call it was the size of an SUV! Maybe if I had to push a tank like that about I would become aggressive.

This evening I browsed the web and was horrified to discover that one of these gigantic pushchairs might cost £300-£400. The weight of a pushchair is approximately 13kg, that’s without the baby! The assembled size is about L130 x W58 x H106cm.

I then read several reviews about these means of transport and the consensus was that they were very heavy when folded and quite cumbersome when trying to lift into the boot of a car or onto a bus. You also need a fairly large area to store them as they takes up a fair amount of room! The sunshade was useless as it didn't shade the baby from the sun at all. Finally whilst it is lovely having pneumatic tyres, it is very frustrating when you got a puncture. One lady reported having had three!

Now don’t get me started on disposable nappies……