The Reception

Well we had our little ‘reception’ and Sammy was welcomed into the community, as were the rest of the family. There were quite a few local folk there and the Mairie had gone to the trouble of getting a lovely quince tree to plant in Sammy’s honour, hoping that “he will put down strong roots here and grow well”. They are making a plaque bearing his name to go beside it. Plus they gave me a beautiful bougainvillia bush and an Anne Geddes My-First-Five-Years momento book. And the champagne flowed – not that I could take full advantage being a breastfeeding Mum contrary to one of the newspaper articles that said Sammy was unaware of the fuss, oscillating between bottle and sleep!!!!! Goodness, he even had a feed halfway through the evening and I don’t *think* my boobs look bottle-shaped (I asked Ben and he agreed that they do not look bottle-shaped normally, only in certain lights). That indignation aside, we were in 4 papers – news here in the rurale is slow. Ben’s Mum is with us too. Check the scowls on Rowan and Brodie’s faces!

Fairy Godmothers

We now have Granny Sheila staying with us for a fortnight and that is just wonderful. I can concentrate on feeding and cuddling and don’t have to worry that Ben is over-burdened. It’s like having a fairy god-mother in the house as I think of something that needs done but find that’s it already being handled. Rowan and Brodie are also enjoying having her here for an extended period of time though I’m not so sure that Sheila’s voice will make it back unscathed as she is constantly harangued for yet another story.

We have become small celebrities in our little village. We went down to the Mairie’s office to register the birth and, lo-and-behold, no births had been registered there since 1966 as all the women give birth in hospital in Le Mans and it gets registered there. So cause for celebration - the Mayor himself raced over and they opened a bottle of champagne - and lots of books and flowcharts to refer to to guide them as to how to fill in the paperwork!!! And on Saturday morning the Mayor popped in chez nous to say that they’d organised a ‘reception’ for us and the Press would be there and all the prominent members of the community to welcome Sammy. Oh gosh. So that’s this Friday. Better see if I can find my best frock!

Sammy Arrives

Samuel Haydn Freeth-Thomas arrived Friday 6 March, 10.43am, 6lb 8oz / 3kgs. 37 weeks and 3 days, so another early bird. Beautiful day, beautiful homebirth, and lovely days since just staying at home looking wonderously at our perfect lovely new addition in my arms rather than in an incubator. Spring is definitely everywhere.

So the story went like this….. The Thursday we needed some things from IKEA so we tootled off to Tours (80 miles away) and I had to waddle SO slowly round the store. After, we stopped at Buffalo Grill for tea and the waitress asked how long I had to go and I said 2 or 3 weeks but wished it was sooner. She wished us Bonne Chance. Got home at 10pm and fell into bed, asleep I’m sure before I hit the pillow. Midnight – ping, waters broke. No contractions until 2.30am so we then called Joelle, our midwife, as she lives 2.5 hours away. It was actually a rather peaceful and cosy night with the boys fast asleep and just Ben and I lying on the sofa. There was a frantic moment for Ben when the contractions speeded up and Joelle hadn’t arrived so he was desperately scanning the net for guidance on how to deliver a baby. But things calmed down again much to his relief. Joelle arrived at 5.45am and was just so lovely and laidback. The boys woke at 8am and were happy to be allowed to go out in the garden to play in their pyjamas. Fortunately it was a lovely warm day as things might have been a bit more stressful if they’d had to play indoors (Ben’s Mum, flying in to be on stand-by for child-minding during birth wasn’t flying in until the following Tuesday). 9.30am things got going in earnest and just over an hour later our gorgeous Sammy Sausage squeezed out. The boys came in to see him and were quite interested to actually see the placenta and the cord that attached Sammy (Rowan had talked a lot about this throughout the pregnancy – how does a baby get its food when it’s in your tummy etc etc). Brodie adores him and keeps bringing toys (Lego) for him to play with and Rowan has raked out baby Lucy (my nappy demo doll) and keeps changing her clothes and putting her in the car seat, arranging boob feeds for her etc etc.