Our Christmas and New Year 2017

I hope that you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Year? Christmas is always one of my favourite times of year and I think it’s even more special now that I have children. I have to admit that this year had a few downs as well as ups. Certainly, some sad and scary moments, but Christmas itself did end up being lovely. This is what we got up to.

Sad and Scary Times

Yesterday I wrote a blog post about the fact that two days before Christmas we had to make the terrible decision to put our cat to sleep. That day was such a difficult day and sad, but also for more than one reason. At the same time, while my husband was at the vets, I had my 16-week midwife appointment. I will write more of a pregnancy update next week. But unfortunately, at my 16-week appointment, the midwife couldn’t find my baby’s heartbeat. She was lovely and kept trying, but it was a really scary couple of hours as I then got referred for an emergency scan that morning at the hospital. After dropping my children back at home as my husband had returned and there was no-one else to have them, I drove straight to the hospital and was grateful to be seen straight away. They believe the baby must have just been in an awkward position as they thankfully found the baby and heartbeat straight away. But it was a horrible couple of hours I have to admit! In fact, the whole day was pretty horrendous if I’m honest.

I had booked cinema tickets for my son and I to see the new Star Wars film earlier in the week, and after a chat with my husband and son, we decided to go anyway. I think it was the right choice as my son was very upset about the loss of our cat, so it served as a good distraction and it was also a good film.

A Positive Day & Bronchitis

The Saturday before Christmas we were determined to do something positive for Christmas after our sad news of the day before. We had a booking for a Santa’s grotto experience at our local theatre – South Hill Park and had decided to book a table for a restaurant afterwards.

The kids had a great time visiting Santa, they got to do Christmas crafts and they were very impressed that Santa knew lots of things about them like the things they liked and the names of their best friends.

Afterwards, we headed to a restaurant, had a lovely meal out and family time.

I had had a cold throughout the week, but during the afternoon I had slowly begun to get more and more wheezy. So much so that the walk from the restaurant to the car left me really out of breath and when we got home my husband put the children to bed, while I sat down and tried to get it under control. When he came back down, he looked at me and said you need to call someone your breathing really isn’t right. A long story shortened, I ended up in urgent care diagnosed with bronchitis. I was prescribed antibiotics and given inhalers to help with breathing. I was also advised that being pregnant I was high risk of the bronchitis turning into pneumonia so I needed to take it easy. Which meant we had to revisit our Christmas plans a little as we were hosting for both families.

Lovely Family Days & Generous Santa

My family came to the rescue as I was unwell. My Mum and my sister, in particular, came over and Christmas day and told me to sit on the sofa while they helped my husband who was cooking Christmas dinner. Seeing as I couldn’t even walk upstairs without taking an inhaler, I was very grateful for their help. We ended up having a lovely Christmas and Boxing day with them. The children loved having their cousins to stay in their bedrooms, we did all the things you do at Christmas – eat delicious food, open presents, watch a Christmas movie and play board games. Santa was also very generous and I was very excited to get a Dyson hairdryer for Christmas. On the 27th we had my in-laws over and had another fun day with a buffet, more presents and board games too. Overall, despite being unwell and the sad news in the days before we had a lovely Christmas.

Quiet New Year

Unfortunately the Bronchitis left me unwell for the whole of the Christmas holidays, in fact, I am still croaky and wheezy now 3 weeks on. So the week between Christmas and new year was a quiet one – I actually didn’t even leave the house. We played with toys, what films, the children and my husband went for walks to get out in the fresh air. On New Year’s Eve we all watched The Neverending Story together (which the children loved), had a takeaway and made non-alcoholic cocktails. It was a quiet one, but we still had fun and I even managed to see the New Year in!