A handmade cottage: Introducing my little girl

Frankie May

Hello all. Well it certainly has been some time since my last blog post. You may have noticed my posts have been a little sporadic since the autumn. Well I can now tell you it's because I was pregnant with our little girl ... and Frances 'Frankie' May was born on 24th March 2018, weighing 7Ib15oz. Those of you that follow me on Instagram and Facebook will already know all of this because I've been bombarded my followers with many a piccie of her :-)

One day old

Hubby and I decided to wait until she was born before sharing our news. I was making lots of lovely things in the lead up to her birth (although we didn't know if we were having a boy or a girl) so everything I made for the nursery was nature / woodland themed. It was so hard not being able to share my creations with you at the time! but sharing a breastfeeding pillow might of given it away just a little.

32 weeks pregnant

I had a lovely pregnancy ... well actually the 'all day' morning sickness for the first three months was pretty horrendous, as was the relentless heartburn in the last three months but aside from that, the small window in between was lovely. The birth unfortunately was tricky. Like many women I had hoped for a natural, hypnobirth delivery in water but what I actually had was a traumatic emergency C-section which resulted in a two week stay in hospital due to an infection. Frankie was a strong little soul though and she thrived from the start, it was just mummy who was in the wars, but we eventually made it home safe and sound and that's all that matters.

On our first outing at a friends house

Arriving home was hard ... they say nothing prepares you and 'they' are absolutely right. Landing home with a body full of jumbled hormones and a bubba is mind blowing to say the least, and not in a lovely 'oh-isn't-this-so-magical' kind of way but more like a 'oh-crap-what-do-we-do-now' kind of way. Thankfully that feeling didn't last too long and slowly but surely we found our feet. There are so many voices out there and so many opinions on various ways of parenting, it can be totally overwhelming for new parents. By all means, read as many books as you like but I personally found Frankie to be the best teacher - no one can guide you as well as your own baby, so between that, leaning on friends / family and going on instinct we're all doing ok ... that said I do highly recommend the very funny book 'Hurrah for gin' by Katie Kirby. I don't have time to read at the moment so I read a page whenever I run for a wee :-)

Frankie is 3 months now and we're completely in love with her. She laughed for the first time tonight. I laughed and she laughed back. Then I cried. Thankfully she didn't. She's such a happy little soul most of the time .... wind issues permitting! and despite the lack of sleep and occasional scream-the-house-down witching hour (I don't know why they call it that ... it's never one hour ) I love spending each day with her. Hubby has been amazing from the start, especially when everything fell to him in the beginning as I could hardly move, I would have been lost (and hungry) without him. Ralphy is doing OK and is slowly getting adjusting to the new 'bald dog' that has taken his place on the sofa. I'm contemplating getting his bark removed * as no sooner has she gone to sleep, he barks and she jumps out of her skin. Hubby has the same affect when he sneezes or sniffs! which is unfortunate as he has hayfever :-/ ... it's surprising she sleeps at all.

So there it is ... the reason for my tardiness. It wasn't an easy journey to this point but I don't think it is for many people, so I feel very blessed with this little family of mine. There's movement on the monitor so I better end this here. I'll be sharing more crafty things and some of the things I've made for her when I can. Feel free to hop on board to my Facebook or Instagram if you're not already and I'll try not to bore you with too many baby pics ... though I suppose it makes a change from doggie pics?

I hope you're all well and having a lovely summer.

JM, FM & R x