Y Lloeren

We're Buying a House!

As usual, life has been difficult (mainly due to my depression) and hectic and I've not been up to posting lately. One of the reasons that life has been hectic is that we have been househunting. We saw 10 houses in all and narrowed our choice down to 2 - we went back to both of those houses and then had to make a difficult decision. The runner-up house was lovely and sat on over 3000 sq metres of land. It also had a several outbuildings and even a small second house that needs complete renovation. I would have been able to keep a few sheep and/or alpacas there easily. But it only had three bedrooms (all downstairs, the attic needed converting) and the kitchen was very small so there wasn't really enough room to live there while doing the work needed to make enough space for our needs. Plus the work needed would have pushed our budget to the limit.

So we went for this house. It has four bedrooms, a kitchen that is large enough to be a kitchen/diner, a good sized garden, a loft that can be converted to a craft studio for me and several outbuildings. It's in quite a large hamlet in the countryside. It's actually a little closer to where Rob works, a bit further away from Mum but not that much. Rhianwen will have to change schools but Meleri will stay where she is and possibly live with Mum during the week as it's her final year in collège and she sits her Brévet this year. She's hoping to get into a lycée that specialises in art and music so needs to focus.

Today, we signed the Compromis De Vente and handed over a deposit cheque. We have seven days as a cooling off period and after that if we back out for any reason other than not getting our mortgage then we lose the deposit. Also if the seller backs out then we get our deposit back plus they have to pay us 10% of the selling price. Things operate very differently here to the UK as you can see. Another significant difference is that the buyer pays all the fees except for the diagnostiques - these are reports done on things like lead paint, energy efficiency, the septic tank and termites. We opted not to go through an estate agency but directly to the notaire to find houses so there are no agency fees to be paid. The notaire does all the legal work for both parties which simplifies things.

The fees are around 8% of the selling price so a lot more than in the UK but the market is very different here as well. All of the houses we looked at were empty, several had been on the market for years. One we know has been on the market ever since my Mum came to here to live as we've commented on it many times. All but two of the houses had been lived in my elderly people who had either died or could no longer live independently. In the case of the house we're buying, it belongs to a lady who will be 97 in a few months (and appears very healthy, all things considered).

We're obviously very excited by all this and can't wait to get started on all the work that is required. To start with we'll be converting the attic and putting in a fitted kitchen. The whole house needs redecorating as well. The plan is to make it as light and airy as possible so that means covering up all those beams that have been varnished a horrible dark brown. I don't think that it's feasible to get them back to a natural colour so I think lots of white paint will be the answer.

In the meantime, I have a lot to do here now that the girls are back in school (hooray) and the house looks like a disaster area. Plus there's all that packing.

Hello?

It's been a while. I'm typing this on the Apple iTouch that Rob got me for my birthday. I've got through at least 3 cheap MP3 players now and we decided that I deserved something a bit more reliable. Plus the prices had finally dropped enough to make it within our reach.

Eluned is doing well and is still being breastfed. Thankfully we haven't had a repeat of the problems that I had with Rhianwen.

More soon.

Say Hello to...

Eluned Brianne Avril

Born at 2.40 pm, Thursday April 9th 2009 weighing 3.52 kg, measuring 50cm at 37 weeks and 2 days gestation.

On March 6th I went to see my GP as I’d had a weird chest pain all day - I’d had a cold for a couple of days and thought it was something to do with that - he sent me to Urgences (ER) at the local hospital as he was concerned it was either a pulmonary embolism or pneumonia. I had a variety of tests at the hospital and they decided to admit me to do further tests. As a precaution they sent me to maternity for some monitoring - that’s when they found out that I was also having mild but regular contractions - at that point I was 32+3 weeks.

I stayed in Maternity overnight but was moved to the cardiac unit for a couple of days - all the time I was had a variety of drips and was on strict bedrest - couldn’t even get up to go to the loo. The chest pain went away and all the tests were fine so I was moved back to Maternity as the contractions were continuing. I then spent another week in Maternity while they monitored my newly diagnosed GD, kept me on a strictly sugar free diet and tried to stop the contractions - I was at least allowed to go to the loo and take a shower but otherwise was on bedrest. After 10 days in hospital, they decided that I needed to be transferred to a different hospital as they didn’t have a neo-natal unit there and were concerned not only by the contractions but also the GD and the fact that I was taking anti-depressants which could lead to issues for the baby after delivery.

I ended up spending the next four weeks or so at the next hospital, they moved me to insulin injections which did improve my blood sugar results (which at one point were being checked every two hours!), the contractions continued and we started to lower the dosage of anti-depressants ready for the birth. At 36 weeks plus a few days, they stopped the medication which was meant to be reducing/preventing contractions with the aim of labour progressing naturally at around 37 weeks. I was also allowed to start moving around little more. An ultrasound at 36+4 weeks estimated the baby’s weight to be 3.6 kg and an induction was planned for 37+2 weeks. I’ve always been against inductions but at that point I’d had enough. The contractions didn’t seem to progress so the induction went ahead. I only need the gel - a pessary which was inserted for a couple of hours at about 8 am- to get things going. The first stage took some time but once I got to 5-6cm dilated everything got very intense - I used gas and air only for pain relief - and to everyone’s surprise Eluned was born about 20 mins later and needed just one push!

Her initial Apgars were fine but after a while it became obvious that she was very sleepy still and she was taken to the Neo-Natal unit.

When she arrived at the Neo-Natal Unit (Thursday pm) she was put into a warmer and put on a glucose drip as she was too sleep to feed. Her oxygen saturation kept dipping below 90% the first night so she had a little bit of oxygen then but she improved very quickly. I was able to cuddle her every now and then and I also put her face on my breast for contact. After 36 hours or so in the warmer she was taken off the drip and moved to a crib where she was still monitored (Saturday AM). She was fed by bottle although I found that she wouldn’t bottle feed for me- she just fell asleep. She started to nuzzle at the boob more and started to actually feed. I’d been trying to pump regularly back in my room but hadn’t had much success - I’d pump for 20 mins on each side and get only a couple of drops of colostrum. Sunday morning she fed really well and the paediatrician decided that she could come back to Maternity with me as it would be much more practical - her oxygen saturation was right up to 98-100% by that time also.

On the Monday morning, I was told that we could leave, pending a check by the paediatrician. When she was checked everything was fine except she’d lost more weight - 100g so I was told that we’d have to stay another day. Tuesday morning, she had again lost weight - 40g - but we were allowed to leave but she had to be reweighed in 48hrs (there is a service here called the PMI, they work a bit like health visitors in the UK).

Tuesday night and Wednesday, she fed a lot, sometimes with only 30-45 minutes between feeds. On Thursday, the lady from the PMI came and weighed her. She did warn us that her scales tended to weigh a little on the heavy side and that the difference between that weighing and the next would give a better indication of weight gain/loss. Once she was weighed though, it became obvious that even allowing for the scales weighing a little heavy, Eluned had gained at least 100g! I was so relieved! She’s being weighed again on Monday but I think that she’ll be fine. (The every 48 hrs thing is just not possible as the PMI don’t work weekends.)

On Names:
Eluned and Brianne are both Welsh (eh-LIN-ed bree-AN), Eluned is more traditional while Brianne is more modern in its usage as a name. Eluned is the 'just for her' name while Brianne is to honour my Dad, Brian, who died a few years ago. Avril was a last minute addition. French for April, it's also my grandmother's first name (although she's never used it and has been known as Peggy all her life). We'd been expecting a May baby so it hadn't seemed appropriate. The change in circumstances meant that we were able to add it.

Sisters, there were never such devoted sisters...

Meleri and Rhianwen are both absolutely enchanted with their new sister. The hard part is keeping Rhianwen from picking her up to cuddle! She get's regular assisted cuddles but obviously is too young for anything more.

Looking back at Rhianwen's baby photos, she looks almost identical at the same age, here's a photo of Rhainwen as a newborn for comparison:

A Loom With A View

Yes, that's a cheesy heading but I couldn't resist. It's also not strictly accurate as I'm actually talking about two looms!

Back in the autumn, we went to one of the Emmaus branches in the region - the one at Hedé, near Rennes. I bought a few things there which included several cones of a very fine red yarn - possibly cotton - I need to do a burn test to find out - which I'm thinking to use held with some cones of black Cashwool in a single (that I picked up ages and ages ago for a bargain price) for a Habu-esque jackety thing, an armchair for our sitting room and two identical folding floor looms. I think I paid 30 euros for the pair!

(Damn - I posted this instead of saving as a draft.)

There are more pictures over on my Flickr account. I haven't a clue as to the manufacturer of these looms - there are no markings at all. They are four shaft looms though. The wood in some of the harnesses is warped but not in all and the reeds have some rust otherwise they're mostly just in need of a good clean. I'm hoping that we can make one good loom out of the two. Initially I may just use two harness until I get more confidence. The looms also came with a spare reed, a huge bundle of metal heddles, warping posts, some rudimentary raddles and some stick shuttles. At the moment they're still in storage as we've got enough on our plates just getting through each day. This is going to be a very long term project but we couldn't resist the opportunity when we saw it. There's no way we can even afford a basic rigid heddle like the Kromski Harp at the moment (I can still dream though...). I already had started a small collection of weaving books picked up at car boot sales, mostly in French but a few in English as well.

La Grippe

In other news, the family has been suffering from the flu. Rob and Rhianwen had it. Mum was ill with it for sometime, I was in bed with it all of last week and I'm still very tired this week, Meleri has just started it. Luckily we have also had 'une aide à domicile' that has started coming this month for around 7 hours a week. It has made so much of a difference. There are two different women who come, depending on who's available, they can acheive so much in a couple of hours, it would take me all week to manage it and I'd be exhausted. It also means that Rob isn't spending all his free time trying to catch up on housework.

It's Meme Time!

Maylin tagged me for this one. Here are the rules:

To participate you

Link to the person who tagged you.
List seven facts about yourself.
Post the rules on your blog.
Tag seven more people to do the same and link to them.
Let each person know they've been tagged and leave a comment on their blog.
Let the tagger know when your entry has been posted.


Here are my seven:

1. I went to uni at 19 and started a degree in Welsh but didn't complete it.
2. Some of that non completion was due to being a member of the Stage Crew. This involved setting up lighting and sound for discos and bands and a certain amount of beer drinking. I made many great friends who I still think about a lot although I sadly lost touch with many during the dark depression years. I also got to crew for several well known (at the time) indie bands such as Carter USM and Daisy Chainsaw, some brilliant cover bands and lots of great bands that never quite made it.
3. I was probably one of last people to be able to take UK age 16 exams (O'Level/GCSE) in four languages due to the introduction of the National Curriculm  - I did O Level French, Welsh, Italian and Latin. I also took all but Latin as A Levels. The closest I got to a science was Maths. I would have loved to have done Physics but it was in the same group as Welsh.
4. I did the classic 'Go to Open University Summer School, meet someone new and leave your previous partner' thing. The relationship didn't work out in the end but it's how I ended up in Nottingham and without it I would never have met Rob.
5. My hair is naturally red - I tend to describe it as auburn and never, ever ginger. The only exception are my eyebrows and eyelashes which are dark brown. As no one in Rob's family has red hair, we don't think that he carries the gene which is recessive so the forthcoming baby will probably not have red hair.
6. When I was born, I had a full complement of grandparents and one set of great grandparents - this lasted until just before I was 16. When Meleri was born we were able to get a great photo of five generations of women all through the maternal line.
7. I was one of three Emmas in my class all through primary and the first two years of secondary school (the same three as it happens), I think we were all Emma Ja(y)nes as well. I then moved secondary schools and my new best friend for almost all the time I was there was another Emma Ja(y)ne.

I'm not tagging anyone else but feel free to pick this up and have a go!