Baby food attempt 2

Round two and I'm using something a bit sweeter.

Carrot, sweet potato and red pepper. This turns into a lovely shade of orange. Looks like its full of E numbers but I can assure you it's all natural.

Two and a half ice cube trays later and we are done. 

Also made mango and pear purée and just blended it without cooking first. Maybe I could stir it in with baby rice or porridge. I will see what it tastes like first!

I also made broccoli, pear, apple and parsnip purée but have no photos of that one. It was a bit like a pale green slop with darker green bits in. Tasted alright though! 

S at ten moment, once all the ice cube trays have frozen, I'm popping them out and putting them into freezer bags with labels on for future use. That way, I can keep cooking and keep bagging!

Homemade baby food

Now that the allotment is in full swing, we are starting to be able to use some of the veggies we have grown. 

Mark planted seeds with the plan to feed the boys so currently we have growing:

Courgette

Potatoes

Green beans

French beans

Butternut squash

Carrots

Sweet corn

Leeks & onions

Raspberries

Black berries

Strawberries

Apples

This lovely selection is what we are getting every day:

All this can be used to make food for the boys rather than paying between 50p - £1 on jarred food in which for mains alone we would be using a minimum of 12 jars a week. 

Doesn't this look much better than glass jars full?

My first attempt was mixed courgette, potato, French bean and carrot purée with apple to sweeten it up.

After boiling all together for about 20 mins I drained them and put them in the food processor.

The end result was a rather attractive green slop!

 Now half way through this my mixer decided to burnout so I went manual with the potato ricer!

 

But a very good result! I put the mix into individual ice trays and put in the freezer.

Next was a sweet version using apples, black berries, raspberries and a few strawberries. As before I boiled them and whooshed them up (in the new food processor I got an hour earlier after taking the faulty one back)

This was a much prettier colour. Now because of ally the seeds I had to pass iit through a sieve after blending. The result was fabulous!

This went into an ice cube tray to freeze. This will probably be added to baby porridge.

With not too much effort I had created a few simple meals for the boys. I plan to do one with sweet potato this week and also another combination so I can switch between 3-4 different meals for them each week.

One final test - the taste test. I kept some of the green mush in a bowl for the evenings dinner. Try actually really liked it - thank god! 

Domestic goddess win!

Camping trip number two

This time we went to North Wales. Abersoch to be exact. Mark has family that go saling there so we went to see them and spend time on the beach.

We camped for two nights and the weather was lovely. Can't wait to go again. He are some pictures of our trip. ( apologies that all my pictures are outside the template - I'm working on sorting it)

My two bumbo buddies.

Breakfast in the great outdoors.

Mark and . . . . . A boy!

Chilling out in our vests!

 

Sam is great at standing now. Shame he looks totally drunk!

Paddle in the water for Finley.

Now fin is a little bigger than Sam. However theis picture really doesn't capture his good side. He does have a very cute face.

Family portrait.

Sunning it up.

Mark by a lake in snowdon.

I think they will definitely be outdoor boys. We are planning another short trip in August for. Night wi some of my family. The will be these two and my nephew who's 3.5 and niece who's 6. I expect it will be very loud! X

My very overdue birth story

From the moment we found out I was having twins, for some reason, I know that I would behaving a c section. I never really thought about giving brith naturally because I knew I wouldn't have to. Not because the c section was elected (I didn't know I would officially have one until I was 32 weeks). But for some reason, my intuition was bang on.

The night before. .

I was pretty nervous more so about the spinal than anything else. I was petrified about  having a needle in my back - who wouldn't be?

So my bags were packed and  we managed to get a decent nights sleep each. It was pretty normal really. We knew that this time tomorrow we would be parents to twin boys. But there's nothing that can be done to prepare yourselves until they are actually here.

We arrived attested hospital around 7.45 - and checked in at the maternity desk. "Ah your the twin lady?" Yep, that was me. I was shown into an empty room with 6 beds in it. This was where women in the first stages of labour were kept. 

I was told I would be seen by the anesthetist, the surgeons and also the maternity nurses to check the heart beats and my blood pressure etc.

Luckily this was only to be my bed only until I went into surgery. After that I had my own suite.

At ths time I didn't know if I was first in or somewhere down the list. I had all my details checked and the heartbeats per minute worked out. The surgeons came to see me and said " right your first in, we will be showing you down in about 10 minutes". Say what now? Ok. This was it. 

Surprisingly I was ok about it, not scared or anything. More like I'm about to go in for an exam or step onto stage. I was prepared for it but the was one more step to go and there was no going back.

I had to take off all my clothes and put their gown on. Take in two baby grows, two nappies and two vests.

In an adjoining room we left all our bags and pillows that we bought and I went into the operating room whilst Mark was asked to wait outside. 

Now this reminded me of walking onto a James Bond set with machines and dials everywhere. Dials one the walls. It was like there was going to be a nuclear explosion any minute and men were going to be shot down by the good guys whilst the timer counted down to a bomb that was plugged in just by where my head would be!

But that didnt happen. Something a lot scarier was about to start! I sat on the edge of the operating table whilst one person fitted the cannula into a vein in my hand. ok this hurt a lot - jesus christ  I thought, "whats the epidural going to feel like?" 

The bit I had been dreading was seconds away.  I leant slightly forward to expose my spine. I had a small numbing injecting first which really wasn't too bad. I've had worse injections during my pregnancy that's for sure. Next was the larger epidural needle. For those who haven't seen one before its very much like this: 

Oh yeah lots of fun! 

Anyway - as I'm  humming to myself to distract from the mad scientist behind me, I feel a weird sensation in my back. It wasn't pain, it wasn't uncomfortable. It was like something had touched a nerve a tiny tiny bit in my back. That was it - all done! Ok this was going to be a breeze.

I forgot to mention before - in the small room there were about 10-12 people there all who'd come to see me! Well not quite but  most of them were for me and 5 were for the twins. 

Anyway, as everyone is buzzing about getting things prepped. I am told to lie down on the table. I can still feel my legs but its starting to feel like I've been sitting down for too long and I've got pins and needles. 

Mark is asked to come back in and sits on a stool near my head. I can't remember what we talked about but the radio was on and everyone seemed very chirpy. I remember announcing that I can still feel my legs so please don't start yet. Apparently I would still feel touch but not feel pain. This, I still cannot get my head around. 

The screen went up and I would never see my belly in the same light again. I still could feel my legs but I was assured it would be fine. The table was tilted slightly to ease nerve compression - I really felt like I was going to slide off! Next the surgeon said that we are just going to go around the room and introduce everyone. How lovely I thought. It was more like a meeting at the pub then a c section! "Hi I'm John and I'm performing your surgery today". " Hi I'm Gemma and I will be looking after twin 1" Now as introductions go, it was very pleasant, however I am convinced that at this point in time they are probable poking my belly with a branding iron or other sharp instruments to see if I was numb. 

" um guys, I can still feel my legs, don't start yet - I don't want to be in pain" 

" trust me, if you were to feel pain you would have felt it by now!"

"Okaaaaaaaay - someone possibly had their hand in my stomach right now" 

This started at about 10am. At approximately 10.15 I heard a large gush! That was sac number one being broken. My first born child was seconds away from leaving the safety of my belly which he had been inhabiting for exactly 37 weeks and 5 days. 

He was out. He was crying. This was all a little strange but healthy and perfect. 3 minutes later, twin number 2 arrived. Again, healthy, crying and just as perfect.

It was all a bit chaotic and I really can't remember what was said. The boys were being cleaned up and weighed. Mark was taking photos and someone was hoovering inside my womb.  As I really didn't have a great deal of effort in this, there wasn't the enormous rush of love after you have been labouring for 48 hours. I was completely amazed by what had just happened and desperate to see my boys but really trying to make sense of what had must happened. Happier then you can imagine to see what we created and what i had been praying would stay safe and warm for at least 8 months. I had done it. They were bought to my face so I could see them. Then put back in their little plastic safe house whilst I was being sewn up. 

Twin 1 was Sam.

Twin 2 was Finley.

At 10.40, thursday 27th december 2012 we all left the operating room as a family of 4. 

Because they were just below the happy weight threshold they had to go to special care, however apart from that they were my perfect little boys.

The adventure had began and mark and I couldn't wait to get started x x 

All you need is love

As I sit with one boy asleep in the pushchair and the other balanced asleep on my lap, my arm killing from holding it the same position for nearly an hour, and needing the loo but not wanting to wake Finley up, I think how lucky I am and how proud I am. 

 

During lunch today I heard some most awful stories about children in disadvantaged countries and how they have suffered. Some of the most indescribable things had been experienced by children as young as 3, both boys and girls at the hands of their mums, their dads an other adults who supposedly should be their protectors.

I cannot begin to imagine how they can deal with what has happened, but for the lucky few there are people willing to risk their lives to rescue these vulnerable children.  They are taken  in by a school where they get the chance to be kids and are kept safe from their abusers.

So when my boys are keeping me up all night, are grizzly all day and have driven me to the point of needing to step away for 5 minutes out of frustration , I remind my self that they are only babies and try to tell me in their own way what they need. i do my best to provide that. There are children who have no one to protect them, no one to love them or provide the basics and no family around them. We do not know how lucky we are. 

Children need unconditional love, shelter and protection and I will give this to my boys every single day as long as I am breathing. I will love them forever and more. Shelter them from all bad things and protect them the same as a lioness does her cubs. I will always be Sam and Fins mother and they will always be my world.