Tuesday 22 November 2011

santa's reply.........


Last weeks blog contained a copy of our eldest daughter’s letter to Santa, this week I bring you Santa’s reply. Our eldest woke up one morning to find a red envelope sitting on top of the fireplace with her name on the front. Squeals of delight and endless questions of ‘how did he know that? Magic dust over the floor as she shook the letter in excitement it is a memory I will hold forever.





Dear ……………..

Thank you for your recent letter, I love receiving letters from all of the boys and girls from around the world. You are right, I have a naughty and nice list, I watch all of the boys and girls and only visit the good ones. I was watching when you decorated the house with toilet roll and when you used all of your mummy’s soap and even when your sister tipped over all of the flour, you must try to be a good girl for the rest of the year and yes I love bubbles; so does Rudolph.

            I have seen that you have been doing very very well at school this year, well done on your spelling test last week you were brilliant. I will remember about your roof being slippy and will be sure to tell the reindeers to be careful, thank you for telling me.

            Please tell your mummy I am very sorry for the mess I cause in your house and will try very hard to shake off the magic dust before I come in but im glad that you like it. I love sitting down in front of your fireplace to eat your lovely cookies and mince pies, you really are a great baker; I’m getting hungry thinking about it.

            I have looked over your list and I have checked it twice, you are right it is a very long list. I will see what I can do with the list but as it is so big I’m sure I wont manage all of it but I will try my best; the elves are very busy working hard to make all of the toys for all of the children in the world.  

            Remember to be good and try your best at everything you do, good luck in your competition but remember it’s the taking part that counts. Make sure you go to bed nice and early on Christmas eve and straight to sleep; I know when you are sleeping and when your awake.

                                 Merry Christmas



                                  Santa xxx

Tuesday 15 November 2011

Bribing Santa


The girls recently spent the night with their grandparents while hubby and I spent the night in a hotel, an enjoyable night for everyone; the girls are ‘granddads angels’. After picking the girls up I was handed an envelope to post, addressed to Santa, the North Pole. I thought I’d have a read, Christmas is close and I’m open to all present ideas (well at least I thought I was) Below is my eldest’s daughters letter (with help from granddad) and in it if I’m not mistaken she is trying to bribe Santa, well I for one have learnt something new, Santa will except the best cookies in the world to over look the not so good behaviour, the elves will work extra hard for your child if he/she leaves them a little something for Santa to take back.

It truly is amazing how the weeks leading up to Christmas our daughters behaviour goes from average to brilliant, I for one will not be knocking it though. The Christmas shopping will begin very shortly but it’s safe to say Santa will not be able to get everything on her list, I’m sure Santa can manage some of it but he certainly will not be trying to get an Ipad amongst other things on the list.

Happy letter writing to my readers







Dear Santa,

I think I have been a very good girl most of this year; I know you only come to good boys and girls but when I have been naughty it’s not always my fault. That time in the bathroom with all of mummy’s shampoos and soaps was an accident, well sort of we wanted to make bubbles; do you like bubbles?  Oh and the time when we put the toilet roll all over the living room and kitchen wasn’t naughty either because we were just decorating. I think my sister has been very naughty but please don’t put her on the naughty list because mummy says its not fair if only one of us gets sweets and the other doesn’t, I think she will think the same about presents. Daddy said she’s too young to understand but I think she does because that time we tipped the flour over the table was her idea.

  I promise to be very very very good for the rest of this year and to bake you the best cookies in the whole wide world. I will tell mummy to get the best carrots Morrison’s have so I can fill the reindeer’s tummies up as well. You must be careful because our roof is very slippy, daddy says he will fix it in time but mummy is always telling him to fix stuff that he doesn’t. Santa you make mummy cross when you leave your magic dust and footprints all over the house, I do tell her it’s not on purpose though. Mummy shouts at the hover when it doesn’t Hoover the magic dust up properly so maybe you could bring her a new hover so she doesn’t get cross. I love your magic dust, I love how it sparkles everywhere, and sometimes it gets it my hair, well it does when I put it there, I don’t want mummy to clean it up but she says we have too.

            I have thought long and hard about my list this year Santa and I know it’s big and I might not get everything on it but I do really really like everything and I couldn’t choose; I will be sure to leave the elves a present for their hard work.

Please can I have?

·         Everything Barbie in the book mummy has

·         A go-kart without pedals

·         An I pad like granddads so we can be the same

·         Lots of Lego

·         Magic kit

·         All of the Disney stuff that I saw in Disneyland

·         The soap maker I saw on television

·         Puppy in my pocket

·         The Phineas and Ferb collection

·         A sledge, just in case it snows

·         Some board games

·         The laser pen drawing game

·         A princess castle

·         Pottery wheel

·         A music player like daddy’s

·         A reading pad like mummy’s

·         A wagon so I can pull my sisters around

·         A new bike



Thank you, I will be waiting for your letter back, Lots and lots of love

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Tuesday 8 November 2011

Widowed by the ‘war’


We’ve all seen the adverts and the social media are constantly talking about it, Call of duty modern warfare three has arrived. I think I’ve got a headache already, I spent the whole of yesterday searching for the best deal because “babe your better at it than me” I finally found the deal the hubby was looking for and with all the excitement in the air; I went for a nap. Just when I thought I had escaped the call of duty talk; my house was full of family members all discussing teams, clans, strategies and who was going to better. I tried to defuse the debate by putting in my own input “it doesn’t really matter whose better” the crunch line “it’s just a game.” I thought they were going to hang me there and then so I escaped to the kitchen, is it too early for vodka?

            It didn’t matter what I was doing or where I went I couldn’t escape it, the girls were telling me daddy was getting a new game, the phone was ringing to ask about meeting times even the checkout lady in Tesco’s was talking about it, I had to ask myself if I had lost my marbles. With the girls in bed I was ready to catch up on my ‘trash’ television and do absolutely nothing until bedtime, it wasn’t to be; how did I not know that hubby had to get into his ‘war’ mode? God forbid he gets beat by his nephew/friend; he was going to practice (on the old one) until quarter past eleven – the only way is Essex had to wait.

Now I know I watch some terrible car crash TV but surely that’s better then hearing: capture the flag, the other team has the flag, enemy missile inbound.  I was starting to feel like I was in the war, the war (whispers) that is just a game. Hubby went off to the supermarket to get his copy at midnight (wtf) he stood queuing for over an hour, is one game really worth this? I honestly thought that once he got home he would go to bed, wrong. To be honest I think I was a little naive thinking he would go to bed but as he had to be up and out by half seven in the morning I thought he’d get some sleep. By half three I had lost the plot, his language was terrible and he was shouting, I was upstairs and felt like we were in the same room. I stamped down the stairs and very nicely (depending on your version of nicely) asked him to be quite. He responded in mumbles that quickly turned into “where are you, I need help I’m at the back”

Today is another day, the ‘war’ continued into the hours of this morning and no doubt I will have a tired hubby when he arrives home, I wonder though; would it be funny to hide his remote control tonight? I think this game is going to be here for the long haul, another year probably, I can only hope the volume stays low and the language kept to a minimum. Mums world needs to sleep and as I am now a widow to the ‘war’ I WILL be getting some sleep tonight.

I would like to take this opportunity to send my condolences to the other gaming widows that are no doubt out there, may you get a good pair of earplugs and an even better night sleep. My bed shall be spacious but no doubt there will a little body lying with me by morning, a silver lining to the ‘war’



Thanks for reading, please follow a tired mums world on twitter

Hayleythompson1

Tuesday 1 November 2011

The right to choose a caesarean section



Pregnancy is an exciting time but childbirth can be a very worrying and troublesome time for many expectant parents. Many common fears of childbirth include; Episiotomy, stillbirth, the pain, loss of sexual enjoyment after tearing, accidental bowl movements, medical intervention, the cord around the child’s neck, meconium problems and so many more. Fears are natural, some would say normal, so do these fears warrant a caesarean section?

            New government guidelines (to be published next month) will give all mothers to be the right to a caesarean section even if it is not medically needed and at the cost of the NHS. My question is this, should the NHS pay for women to have a caesarean section because they ‘don’t want’ to push or because of cosmetic reasons? A caesarean section cost around £800 more than a vaginal birth; in the current financial state of the UK should this option be available? If the UK reduced the caesarean rate by 1% the NHS could save a massive 5.6 million pound a year.

            A caesarean section is certainly not a decision to be made lightly; it is major surgery that can take months and months to recover from. I have three children; all born by caesarean sections and if I’m honest none of the births were a positive experience for me. My first C section was in October 2005, our eldest daughter weighed a whopping 10lb 4oz; with me having childhood hip and pelvis problems the doctors decided it was the best way for her to arrive. Due to complications and the weight of our first child the doctors thought another c section was best, in October 2008 my second daughter arrived. When I fell pregnant with our third child I had lengthy discussions with the doctors about trying a vaginal birth but he ruled it out again on medical grounds; our third daughter arrived in august 2010. Each experience (for me) was worse than the one before it and the recovery time longer.

 I understand there are a lot of reasons women might choose a c section and I’m all for choice but surely every case should be looked at on an individual basis; I totally disagree with a woman choosing this form of delivery because its ‘quicker’ or ‘easier’. As a generation, are we becoming more and more removed from the ways our ancestors did things? If I could have delivered my girls vaginally then I would have. I would have loved to be able to hold my daughter straight away and be able to look after her without the help of others.

Hospitals already struggle with the amount of patients they have, they like to have you in and out as quickly as possible to avoid bed shortages. Caesarean sections usually require a three day stay in hospital and I’m not sure our hospitals could manage with the intake of patients they could have because of these guidelines, and I also think a bed shortage is inevitable. A lot of doctors will only perform a caesarean if it is absolutely necessary, under the new guidelines these doctors can refer their patients to another doctor; some doctors will inevitably have more patents than others.

 One of the main things to concern me over the new guidelines is theatre space and lack of midwives. During a caesarean there are approximately seven or eight doctors/nurses/midwifes in the operating room; if caesareans birth rates dramatically increase where will the extra staff come from? In my local hospital they have two theaters on the maternity unit, one for emergencies and the other for necessary planned c sections, around 6 planned sections are preformed a day;  how will the maternity unit manage if that number doubles?, what standard of care can really be offered in such a busy environment?

I’m not a big fan of the new guidelines and I think they raise questions that have no answers.

Thanks for reading. Please follow me on twitter http://twitter.com/#!/hayleythompson1