The chef/chefess is tired!

Look at that - home made farfalle!

We have been so busy! I am sooo tired.

I am still chuckling over 'Can I give them back yet?' which makes people look at me on the train.  In particular I found myself chuckling at stories of the 'post-natal' period and in particular those first few nights in hospital when your partner gets sent home at 8pm leaving you there with a new baby, no sleep, no idea what you are doing, and highly likely, quite unhelpful night staff (well, in my case they were unhelpful, quite is being too polite!).  The description in the book was so apt - 'your partner gets sent home at 8pm to drink champagne, have some sleep and congratulate themselves on their amazing virility'.  Ha ha, so true.

And then I think about the following morning when I sat on the edge of the bed waiting for visiting hours to start....and the appointed hour came...and no visitor to relieve me and let me go and have a shower!  I forgot that it was a Bank Holiday and I'd asked him to go and get some supplies!  I remember watching the woman opposite me, on baby number 3, who merrily put a dummy in, swaddled her baby and wandered off for a few hours to 'go get some faaagggsss'.  There I was, wondering - can I leave her? What happens if I leave her? Will someone take her? I must not leave her.  Where is my husband? Where has my brain gone?

Then Arty was born. I went to have a shower and didn't wait for any visitors.  Poor Arty.

Anyway, I digress.  Peter and I have been very busy on the Jamie O Naked Chef challenge front.  Firstly, Peter made a Chicken and Ginger broth from the left over chicken (with noodles, ginger, chilli and other such lovely things).  It was very easy, very quick and very very yummy.  So strongly recommended for a mid-week meal! Yum yum.

Then we moved on - this time to seared scallops with crispy bacon and puy lentils.  What can I say? I've never cooked with scallops before so this was all a novelty.  The lentils were great (and went well with sausages later in the week!) and the scallops only took a few moments to cook.  Now then, the picture perhaps doesn't do it justice, and I'm sure Jamie O would be shocked, but it was really really yummy and really really easy!

Look - it's steaming hot it's so fresh!

And finally, we made pasta.  Why did make more pasta? Well, mainly because we have embarked on a vegetable box trial so we now have some vegetables to use up - namely courgettes, green cauliflower, fennel and other things such as cherry tomatoes (all gone), red peppers (think I might stuff these) etc etc.

So, we made some pasta (see the farfalle above) and made the tagliatelle with courgette, lemon and basil.

Hence, we are shattered.  Too much cooking.

But have had some culture too - a trip to see the Gruffalo live at the theatre which was great (despite the calls/screams for 'I want to see the Gruffalo again mummy') and today I had a meeting in an office with a great view over London.  Just a shame that as with the rest of the summer so far, the weather was basically pants.

Here is the Shard on your left and the wheel below.

I have a spotty and pooing baby!

How much poo?  I'm staggered.  He's barely eating anything and yet it still comes out!  Quite scary really, though it doesn't seem to upset him very much.  The doctor said 'give him flat lemonade' to help with rehydration.  He didn't like that.  He managed to clamp his mouth soooo tightly shut I thought someone might call social services if they saw me trying to find a way to syringe this liquid into his mouth!!! He's had some rehydration fluid today - doesn't like that either but I sneakily kept swapping between his milk and the fluid and so far so good.  Here's hoping he doesn't cotton on tomorrow!

I watched One Born Every Minute last night.  Why do I do that to myself?  I watch it and feel the stress levels rising - I'm amazed by the women who can give birth with no pain relief whatsoever, especially in about 3 seconds (OK, so I'm exaggerating).  Isobel didn't want to come out - it took forever.  I laugh when I hear midwives saying 'no, you're not in active labour yet, you're only 2 cm dilated' when you've been huffing and puffing and screaming in pain for 10 hours!  Only 8 more cm to go! Ha ha. Arthur was induced - well, they attempted to induce him, twice.  Did it work?  Did it hell.  There I was in the induction suite (sounds posh, it wasn't - it was very hot, as are most maternity units I think), and despite two lots of gel, huge amounts of vomit, lots of poking about looking to see if anything changed - nothing. Nada. And then there were the ladies who came in, just seemed to look at the induction gel stuff and were off, babies practically out in seconds! 

So, whilst watching One Born (and thinking to myself - never again), I heard one of the ladies on there saying 'I'll have failed if I have an epidural'.  And I thought to myself, how sad that is that the baby isn't even born and already women have somehow got this guilt complex going on that they have to have the perfect birth, perfect contractions, no drugs, gently humming etc otherwise they have failed.  In an ideal world maybe we would all just give birth whilst sitting in a pool of water surrounded by floating candles, relaxing music and the smell of freshly baked bread, but it's not ideal.  Someone said to me - think of all those women in Africa who just go into a hut and give birth with nothing, no drugs, nothing.  I know, I agree, I have huge respect for them.  But it's also worth thinking of the vast numbers who die in that process or whose babies die because they get stuck etc.  Anyway, I digress.  I suppose I just noted the whole 'guilt' thing starting so early.  I had an epidural.  Do I feel guilty?  No, I don't.  I had vomited for almost 2 days with Isobel and could barely scrape myself off the floor only to be told I was only 2 cm gone.  The midwife actually said - we need you to get some rest, you have a long way to go, and you need to have energy to deal with the new baby.  Isobel and Arthur are both here.  Both happy and both healthy.  And I'm here still, and healthy and happy (most of the time).  For me that was the end goal - to get the baby out safely and for me to be safe.  If that means I needed drugs, so be it.