Introducing Baby Plum

Here she is!

Baby Plum.

Born Friday 20 August at 1523, weighing in at 8lbs 14 (too many afternoon teas?!)

In the end she came along on her own ... after a 3 mile walk along the River Wandle in South London on Thursday ... I have to say that I was relieved not to have to go through being induced. We are both back home now after a couple of days in hospital.

Isn't she a beauty?

41+1

Today I have ...

Put my second £2 coin into my new money box ...

Made my little brother a birthday cake ... he is 30 tomorrow! He's popping round tonight for a curry (hurray! Mr Plum hates curry ... and I'm in desperate need of one!)

Picked some blackberries from the bottom of the garden ... only managed 1/2 a pound ... before being scared off by the wasps! I'm hoping that Mr Plum will pick me some more this evening. I need to make jam!

Admired 3 of my recently picked courgettes. Aren't they impressive? I think that the recent rain must have been very good for them!

Taken delivery of my new knitting book "Knitted Nursery", had a walk around the park and am now at home with my feet up watching old episodes of Friends while drinking tea and eating cake!

Feeling fat and fed up at 40+5 weeks pregnant ...

Hello!

Yep ... still pregnant (and yes, I know that the first baby is often overdue ...) and just feeling huge at the moment! I just want to have this baby NOW!!

I found out at my midwife appointment on Wednesday that naughty Baby Plum has decided to disengage herself ... silly girl! I have now got to go and see a consultant next Wednesday ... not sure what he will do - and there is a chance that I will have had the baby by then anyway (I do hope so!). Only one of the girls from antenatal has given birth now ... another one who was due on 1st August was booked in for an induction tomorrow - but has just sent me a text to say that she has started having contractions! Hurray!

So ... what have I been up to since Tuesday?

I have watched an awful lot of "The Tudors" which I really enjoyed (once I got over the historical inaccuracies and put my John Guy "Tudor England" aside!) ... I have also made good progress with the teddy bear I am knitting for Baby Plum ... today I met up with another friend from antenatal (who is due tomorrow!) for a coffee in the local Starbucks and then came home and did some baking! I do enjoy my "Baking Fridays"!

On this week's menu we have Victoria Sponge and Mary Poppins' "Strike Me Pink Raspberry Cakes" the recipe for which can be found in the wonderful book by Jane Brocket "Cherry Cake and Ginger Beer" YUM!

I also took delivery of my Terramundi money box this morning which I picked up for the bargain price of £6 on ebay (the rrp is a rip offingly £20 or so!) ... and have put in my first £2 coin!

Don't you just love it when ...

a friend finally returns the DVD you lent her about 4 years ago!! To be honest, it had been so long that I thought that maybe I had lost it when we moved house ... or had lent it to someone, but couldn't remember who! Anyway, on Saturday "Bright Young Things" was returned to me! I love Evelyn Waugh, and especially "Vile Bodies" ... so am sitting on the sofa amongst a nest of cushions as I just can't get comfy at the moment (yes, no sign of Baby Plum yet ...), with a cup of raspberry leaf tea (so sick of drinking it!), and my Debbie Bliss "Simply Baby" book and DVD playing ... trying to decide what to knit next .... and wishing I was a 20's flapper off to supper at The Ritz!

A Thrifty Tip from The Thrifty Mrs

I like to think of myself as a relatively good saver ... being a civil servant in London with a mortgage, and baby on the way ... doesn't leave an awful lot of spare cash, but I do save what I can. I find it easier to save when there is a certain goal in mind (wedding or a baby!) My current goal is being able to afford to take a whole year's maternity leave (luckily I do get 6 months on my full salary, then 3 months on statutory maternity pay, but then this drops to a final 3 months on nothing ...) so I need to squirrel my pennies away so that I can spend as long as I can at home.

The Thrifty Mrs posted a tip for saving a little bit extra on her blog yesterday. I often put my coppers into a jar ... but this will take ages to amount to anything. So following her tip for today, I will be putting any £2 coins I get into a jar (I may even invest in a money box which would require smashing to get any money out so then I can't be tempted to dip in to it!!)

I thought that I would give myself a 6 month target for this ... and will smash the money box on 8 February!

In the garden

Poor Mr Plum ... I think that even though everyone has said that it is highly unlikely that our baby would arrive today ... he was secretly hoping that I would wake up this morning and be in labour! Which ... I wasn't!

We have spent a few hours in the garden ... I haven't been able to do a huge amount as it is too much effort to kneel down (and even more effort to attempt to get up again!).

Here's the veggie patch ... the courgettes have been brilliant this year and are still going strong! I have a few green tomatoes - but I don't think they ever recovered from their neglect earlier this summer .... the squash are flowering so am hopeful that I will get some veg off them this year too!

My strawberry plants which I ordered from The Guardian arrived yesterday. They are late strawberries - so, you never know, we may get some fruit this year .... Mr Plum very kindly dug over this bit of soil and planted them for me.

Three cucumbers growing in the greenhouse ....

More tomatoes and peppers in the greenhouse!

Blackberries at the back of our neighbours half of the garden (which they never use). Mr Plum is currently out there hacking away at brambles at picking fruit! Hopefully we will get enough to make some lovely jam!

Late potatoes in pots which will hopefully be ready for Christmas ...

Lavender picked for sachets ...

Cup of tea and a piece of cake for me ...

What have you been up to today?

Scottie Dog Cushion

Today I made a cushion cover using the lovely Scottie Dog fabric I picked up in Worthing a couple of weeks ago.

We had friends over for afternoon tea and they ended up staying for a curry takeaway which was lovely (Mr Plum, who is not a fan of curry, had fish, chips & a battered sausage!)

I have had lots of texts from friends asking whether there is any baby news yet ... no, not yet!! Maybe the curry will kick start it?!

A Baking Day!

My fourth week of maternity leave comes to a close and I am wondering whether Baby Plum will make an appearance as scheduled on Sunday? I hope so ... I ache and feel HUGE and I was supposed to be going to see Sound of Music in Birmingham with my Mum on Saturday ... but am having to miss it as I don't think that I could sit through the performance without needing the loo every 5 minutes ... and it would be a bit of a trek to get back down to the ghetto and go to my maternity ward!! The first girl from my antenatal class had her baby girl on time yesterday morning which was very exciting ... who will be next? (I hope it's me!!)

Today I met a friend from work and her cute 4 year old son for a coffee to catch up on a month's worth of gossip ... well, all I can say is thank goodness I am on leave and not at work!

After saying goodbye to my friend I gave Mr Plum a call and met him for lunch in Marks & Spencers (very glam!) then headed home for a spot of baking!

We have a couple of friends coming round tomorrow afternoon so I thought I would bake a cake (cup of tea, naturally! My favourite cake of the moment!) and some cookies ... and once I got started ... I couldn't stop!!

As Mr Plum loved my Breakfast Muffins so much, I have made another batch of those ... and then remembered that I had some cranberries in the freezer - so have adapted (or, made up as I went along!) the recipe and made a batch of Cranberry, Orange, Apricot and Dark Choc Muffins as well!

After so much sweetness ... I also knocked up a batch of zero point weight watcher (!!) vegetable curry ... in readiness for Sunday - ha ha

A work in progress...

I thought I would share with you a current and ongoing knitting project ....

Inspired by the wonderfully colourful hooky creations over at Attic24 - I found this lovely pattern in my Vintage Knits for Modern Babies book. It is taking me a while to do and I don't think it will be ready for Baby Plum's imminent arrival! But I will keep at it!

I have recently joined the Ravelry online knitting community! It is brilliant ... so much info about yarns and patterns! And I have found a couple of local knitting groups which I will pop along too once Baby Plum is able to get out and about! You can find me over there (username is purko).

Another baby cardie!

I have finally finished off another baby cardie which I started back in April! This one has come up a little larger than the pink one I knitted, so I am hoping that it will see Baby Plum into the winter (she will be the cosiest baby around with all her cardies!!)

Bunnies!

Here are my six "Nana's Bunnies" made from 'Vintage Knits For Modern Babies' book ....

What do you think? Do they look like Miffy or Hitler?

Tomorrow I will be sewing them onto yellow ribbon (purchased on Sunday at my new local Hobbycraft!!) and stringing them across the cot ... when the baby is here and the cot is built!