Operation Day

So Frankie finally went in for his operation on December 11th. I had decided to stay home and let daddy and granddad go with him. It sounds awful but I knew I couldn't see him be put to sleep. It would have broken my heart especially with all the extra pregnancy hormones I am carrying right now.

As it happens I got sent to A&E due to bleeding on the morning of his op so I was never destined to go anyway. As he set out to LGI I set off to Dewsbury & District hospital. What a pair we were!

He was supposed to be taken down at 12pm but hubby was told they were running late and he finally went down at 1.45pm.

I had told hubby he would be in bits when he was put to sleep but hubs seemed to think he would be ok with it. As it was, I was right (as always, ha) and hubby was in bits and cried his eyes out. When he called me and told me how awful it was I felt horrible and really guilty and had a bit of a weep when I got off the phone.

The operation went well. It turned out his testicle had died on its way down to the scrotum. They removed all the tissue and I am so thankful its over and done with, we all are.

 He woke for a little while then went back to sleep.

He then had to have some toast & water and a bit of observation before he could come home.

Here he is putting on a brave face

We were all so excited to see him. We had missed and worried about him all day long. He was in for lots of cuddles when he got in and all the poor love wanted to do was sleep.

He's recovering well, he's still a bit sore and bruised but he is getting there.

We have waited so long for it to be done it seems so strange that we no longer have it hanging over us.

Oh and there was no obvious cause for my bleeding. I had a scan two days later and bubs is just fine.

New Blog....

Hi guys. Please follow my new blog 'The Making Of Baby Number 5' for updates on my pregnancy.

themakingofbaby5.blogspot.com

 I would like to keep this blog about our whole family and don't want my pregnancy to take over it so I decided to start a new one to document the journey of baby number 5

Secret post! Exciting News!

Now I am sure my regular readers will have totally guessed by the title.
(Everyone knows I'm always broody!)

YES!!

You are RIGHT!

We found out last night (15th Oct). 

Well, we half knew on Sunday (13th Oct) after getting a very faint line on a cheap test. But, we didn't really believe it until we got a 'proper' test and got a dark (definately there, with no squinting) line!

It came as a total shock.

As, although we had planned to have baby number 5. We tried to conceive for a while but it didn't happen. It was causing us stress every month and Frankie was getting older so we both decided to call it quits and stick with our beautiful foursome.

Then, BANG, a few months later it happens with no trying at all :/

I actually have no idea where I am as I decided to go on the pill around 3 months ago. The pill has never agreed with me but I thought as we had decided to stop TTC I would give it another go. Right from taking the first one I had a constant headache. I took a second the next day and the headache grew worse.

 I flushed them that very day.

We had agreed to be careful. Obviously we weren't careful enough huh?!

The two pills I did take messed up my cycles massively. I have had two periods since coming off them and they were both longer and heavier than usual. On top of this my Iphone (with all my lady apps and cycle dates stored on it) broke. Goddammit!

So I really have no idea where I am. I am presuming it's very early days though, I think I am maybe 4 weeks-ish

The news is still sinking in, although I am over the moon. I am going to call the doctors after the weekend and book in with my midwife, then hopefully I will get a scan and find out what is going on in there :)

Happy Halloween!

Today is Halloween. One of my favourite times of year. Olivia really wanted to go to her friends party and sleepover so I have missed her spending Halloween with us. The main thing is she is having lots of fun!

We still ventured out and took the boys trick or treating. It was Frankie's first time and he loved it.

Charlie dressed as Slenderman!

Olivia was a punky skeleton!

Louie was a zombie mummy!

Frankie was a spider, a cute one though!

It's been pretty quiet at our house. Not many trick or treaters have called at all (unless we missed them while we were out).

Oh well more sweeties for me! :p

A quick catch up!

Hello folks! It's been a while since I got on here to update!

Well since Frankie's birthday (and my last post, sorry I'm rubbish!) we've had the summer hols come and go. Didn't they seem to fly by?!

So, yup. All the kids are back at school. Louie has settled into reception pretty well. He sure enjoys it better than he enjoyed nursery.We've had no tears so far, which believe me is an achievement!

Olivia has settled fine into year 5, and Charlie into year 6. Yes! YEAR 6!!!! Oh my goodness he starts high school NEXT year! We have already had his forms to apply sent home. How did he get so old?! How did I get so old?! *groan. Honestly I remember him being a babe in arms like yesterday!

Frankie also started nursery on September 3rd. He is doing morning sessions at a private nursery near the school. He starts at 9am and he finishes at 12pm. He gets to have his lunch there as they eat at 11.30am. They get such good meals there, like a proper dinner and pudding. He loves his food, so I imagine he absolutely loves it when they sit down to lunch and he gets these lush full meals thrust at him. The timing is great too cos it means I can get all the household stuff I need to do done. Then pick him up and, as he's all fed and watered, just have a nice playtime with him until its time to pick up the elders from school. In reality, he usually gets home and crashes out until 2pm lol.

He really shocked me as he has never ever EVER been left. Not even for an hour, infact not even for 10 minutes. He has always had either me or his dad there. I really thought we would have a hard time settling him. But do you know what? He LOVES it! We have not had one single tear and he pretty much pushes me out of the door! I am so glad about this as we had such a hard time settling Louie and it was so tough. I really didn't want to go through that again.

At first I felt a bit redundant and I would come home and do housework that didn't even need doing. I think I was just trying to keep my mind off how quiet the house was. It really was very strange. But I am now slowly starting to enjoy my free time.

So that's it. A 'quick' update that turned into a rather long one. Nothing too exciting to report though.  

Hubby is still on his security course. He's had some pretty fab work placements. He did a work placement at a rugby match, he did cleck fest and he very nearly did V-fest which would have been amazing, but sadly, it didn't happen. This weekend he is doing security at the MINT dance festival in Leeds. This looks a pretty awesome event. I would be lying if I said I wasn't a wee bit jealous!

That's pretty much it. We are still waiting for Frankie's operation date, so no news on that front which is getting a bit frustrating now. As I am sure everyone will understand that we just want it over with now.

Frankie turns two!

Today was Frankie's second birthday!

Unfortunately due to the weather forecast we had to cancel the bouncy castle we had booked :( It forecast rain but annoyingly it looks like it might brighten up again now.

He woke around 7am and after a few snuggles in bed, we woke his siblings and headed downstairs.

After present opening and breakfast we headed down to our local soft play for a morning of fun. It was a lovely fine morning so we walked, it takes about half hour and is a lovely scenic route.

After a couple of hours play we nipped across the road and had dinner at KFC. We then walked back home.

The cake lady we had booked to make his cake arrived with it around 2pm. It was amazing, everything I hoped for and more!

Frankie loved it and started singing Raa Raa as soon as he saw it!

 The kids had a couple of hours playing with Frankie and his new toys and watching TV then it was time for tea!

We had a very small party tea as we were still quite full from our KFC.

One final surprise for the kids was waiting when we cut into the cake, it was rainbow!

I really was chuffed with the cake, I think the lady did a great job. I sent a picture to the official Raa Raa facebook page and they replied!

We had a lovely family day and on Saturday we have family visiting and more presents and food to look forward to!

All the kids are shattered and 3 out of the 4 of them are already sleep. Think I might just join them...

Frankie's First Haircut

My little Frankie has such a head of hair. I knew he wouldn't let a hairdresser near him, but he also needed a cut. Badly.

I have had lots of practice in cutting hair as I had to do Louie's for two years. He wouldn't go to the hairdressers either until he was almost 4! I actually learnt how to do it through watching tutorial videos on youtube. I know it sounds crazy but I had to. He really needed his hair doing haha!

So on Sunday I realised I couldn't leave Frankie's hair any longer. I had to bite the bullet and cut it, Eeek!

Here he is looking overgrown 

So, I plonked him in his highchair, complete with a lollipop for a bribe and set to work with a gentlemans comb and a pair of scissors!

I should add they are hairdressing scissors that I bought on ebay when I used to do Louie's hair. I only paid around £10 and they have lasted years.

And yes I scissor it all, I really can't stand the shaved look!

So 15 minutes and a quick bath later, this is the result!

How grown up does he look?!

I was quite shocked by how different he looked, especially how grown up it makes him look!

It's great because he no longer has a constant bed head haha!

Comparison Pic

Hospitals & Worries!

At Frankie's six week check (almost two years ago now!). The doctor picked up that he only had one testicle. We were referred to the hospital for further investigation.

Over the last two years we have been to various appointments and scans. I think the hope is that by the time a child turns two an undescended testicle will have come down by itself.

In Frankie's case this is not to be. The doctors don't think he even has a second testicle. They can't find one on the scans he's had, neither can they feel one (undescended) in his tummy!

This has been a worry since he was six weeks old and he will be two next week!

Today we had an appointment with a paediatric surgeon. They are going to operate. They will be doing keyhole surgery, and will put a tiny camera in to see if they can find this testicle hiding.

If they do find it and it is of good quality they will start to bring it down to where it should be. But they do it in two stages, so this means another op to finish the job 6 months after ther first operation.

If it is of bad quality they will take it out.

And if it isn't there they will make sure there are no traces of left behind testicle that may have twisted or died.

The danger of leaving one in the tummy is that when the child is older, say 18-20 it can turn into cancer. Yes! Scary stuff!

So he has been referred today for the operation in which will take place at Leeds LGI. There is a two month waiting list so it should be September time.

I am really nervous and feeling scared about it but I will really be glad when it is all done and dusted. We have worried about it for so long now :(

I must admit though. Sitting in the children's centre today, put everything into perspective. We are lucky we only have a small-ish problem. And out of four children we have done well to only have this one problem. There were some children there today much more worse off than Frankie and it broke my heart.

Starting Nursery?

We have the opportunity for Frankie to go to a private nursery for 15 hours per week from September.

I think this would be great for him as Louie is starting reception in September, so that leaves just me and Frankie at home.

As lovely as that would be I am not sure that I can provide enough stimulation for him at home. He's at an age where he constantly needs something to entertain him or he gets up to no good.

I have provisionally signed him up to start a settling in period in September, eek!

I am a bit worried he won't settle as he has never been away from me or his dad, EVER.

But I really do want him to settle, I think it will be great for him and he will have lots of fun!

Then I will be home alone...this scares me. What the heck will I do with myself?!

Olivia's second Cheerleading performance!

Last Sunday (June 9th) Olivia had her second cheerleading performance. It was again at the Dewsbury Rams Tetley Stadium. The rams were playing Barrow and her Cheerleading class performed before the game. Here's a video of their performance and one of them cheering the players out, see below-

Here's a picture, Olivia is on the right

Olivia had a great day and the Rams won! Yay!

I can't wait til their next performance!

Olivia's 1st Cheerleading Perfomance

On Monday just gone, Olivia had her 1st cheer performance.

Her Squad were cheering for Dewsbury Rams Rugby team in their match against Batley.

I have never been to a Rugby match before so it was a first for me too!

Here's Olivia in her training kit, ready to go-

All the cheerleaders performed amazingly well, and if they were nervous, they sure didn't show it! They looked confident and they were brilliant. I was so so so proud of Olivia and I can't wait for the next performance.

This is Olivia in her performance kit-

I am really really gutted that for some reason my phone did not save the video I made of the junior performance that Olivia was part of. I am waiting on one of the senior cheerleaders getting me a copy and when I have it I will upload it.

 But for now here is a video of the senior perfomance-

Olivia turns 9!

  

Yesterday was Olivia's 9th birthday.

We just had a chilled day at home. Partly due to money, partly due to the fact we had just had two of their cousins over to stay for a few days and we all needed a rest.

We bought her a Samsung MP3 player. She wanted a mobile phone but I think shes far too young, so this was the next best thing. It's really good, she has all of her music on it. You can get lots of games and apps. It has a camera/video camera too. She is very happy with it anyway :)

We also bought her a couple of art & craft sets. A Jacqueline Wilson box set of 10 books & Dork Diaries box set of books.

She also got a cute Panda bear from build a bear workshop. I had a one direction sound put into it so it sings one of their songs if you squeeze its hand. I also had a custom t-shirt made for it which says 1D on the front and has Olivia's name on the back. It's really cute! 

She also got some craft sets and money from her grandma & grandad and another one direction tshirt from her best friend.

She had a really lovely day and was spoiled. She was a very happy girlie!

Our Easter

Wow! What happened to easter this year? It was trying to rival christmas!

 Was it just me, or was everyones facebook, twitter etc full of pics of huge piles of eggs and toys etc?

When I was a kid we got 2 weeks off school and a chocolate egg.

People seemed to have gone to extremes this year. Kids had piles of eggs, toys, all sorts. It must've felt like christmas came early.

My older 3 got 2 eggs each from us, a knitted hen with a creme egg inside, and a little box of mini eggs. My kind friend also made them all a sock puppet. They are so cute.

Frankie is only one and hasn't yet acquired a taste for chocolate so he just got one egg and a crochet easter bunny. My kind friend also made him a sock monkey.

We had my husbands parents over for a roast dinner, which we do on a sunday anyway. We had our niece and nephew over to stay for a couple of days too.

Hope you had a lovely easter!

Lantern Land

This is just a little update on the Lantern Land event at the kids school.

It was Thursday evening just gone. Unfortunately Frankie had to stay home with daddy as it was so cold with all this snowy, icy weather we have been having! Charlie didn't want to come as he hadn't made a lantern this year. So it was just Olivia, Louie and myself that went.

It looked lovely, the lanterns look so pretty all a-glow. Many parents attended and it was a busy event.

We had a walk around the lantern 'village' then stopped off for some yummy hot chocolate topped with cream and marshmallows, and a homemade biccie, yum!

We then listened to a short talk given by the teachers and a song from the children. This was followed by a lovely balloon release into the night sky.

We were there around 2hrs and it was sooooooo cold. I couldn't feel my legs on the way home, but its such a lovely event and so worth braving the cold for!

Back in school for the day!

Last Thursday Olivia had her class assembly. Following the assembly there was also a lantern workshop in her class room. The lanterns we were making are for an annual event the school holds, called Lantern Land. The children all make lanterns in the shape of houses and decorate them with shapes. They are made from 'withy wood sticks'. This involves a lot of bending and taping. Once the lanterns have taken shape the children cover them in tissue paper.

The school will then hold the event. They set up all the lanterns in the playgrounds and put candles inside each one. This makes them glow and represents our lovely community. We get to walk around the lantern village and it truly is a lovely event. Plus we get hot chocolate and cake!

So last Thurday I went to Olivia's class assembly, then headed to her classroom straight after for the lantern workshop. The kids went out for playtime so I somehow ended up in the staff room with a bunch of teachers having a cuppa! That really felt a bit strange!

After playtime we got straight on with the lantern making. I had to pick Louie up from nursery at 11.40am so he came along to help with the lantern building.

When the kids went for their dinner, Louie and I hopped on the bus into town and had a cheeky McDonalds for our lunch.

I then dropped Louie home to his dad, as he didn't want to come back to school. I headed back to Olivia's class and stayed until hometime.

Lantern Land is this coming Thurday so I will update with some pictures of the lantern community.

My (Not So) Little Frankie Kade

My dearest little Frankie, you have not so long ago passed the 18 month stage. Time has gone so quickly and all of a sudden you are a little boy, rather than a little baby.

Your speech is coming on leaps and bounds, you are babbling lots but can say quite a few proper words too! Your favourites are 'Mummy', 'Daddy', 'Hiya', 'Yummy', 'Bye', 'Oh Dear' and 'Doooey Doooey Doooey Doooey'.
We are not quite sure what Doooey means but you say it lots!

Your hair is getting so long and you are getting the hippy look just like your big brother Louie had. You have the biggest, most beautiful blue, blue eyes I have ever seen. Your Grandma says they are like dinner plates.

Your 'naughties' are still- trying to push our TV off its stand and climbing on your kitchen. You also like to pull the WiFi plug out which really annoys Charlie when he is on Xbox Live!

 You love Baby Jake and it's the only thing that will make you sit still for 5 minutes!

Each morning you wake us up with a kiss while shouting "Hiya Hiya". It is way too cute.
 You seem to have passed a tough period of teething and peaceful nights are again resumed. You nearly have all your teeth and you put them to good use with your love of food. You are an amazing eater, you eat pretty much anything, and boy do you love your food!

You are our amazing little bubba and we love you lots!

Cheer School

On Monday Olivia started Cheerleading class.

She absolutely loved it (I highly suspect this is because it gives her chance to air her big gob! :p)

She is attending classes with the Panache Cheer school at our local Sports Centre. Her coach seems lovely and it looked like lots of fun.

She will have the opportunity to cheer with her team on the pitch at Dewsbury Rams Rugby Club. That is a pretty fab opportunity for any kid!

She is quite nervous about cheering on pitch but I am sure she will be fine once shes had a couple more classes.

Happy Snow Days!