well,what an amazing few weeks this has been, we approached the end of the pregnancy with a henna tattoo over the whole belly, and lots of excitement as we neared the finish date! mum had booked for the fourth oct, we were sure the babe would have made an appearance by then, but no, the fourth of october arrived, and still only pathetic contractions, nothing major! that morning we were having our customary morning family meeting in our bed, when i had my showing. Burst of excitement as the boys realised that meant that i was finally in labour, as mum arrived at the airport in UK. Salix ran down to the village to start the phone tree (!) the anticipation, instant adrenaline followed by (in my case) oh dear, i hope they dont all arrive and then it all stops, or it happens in ten minutes and no one is here! but no, the baby was on its way in a most sociable fashion, on a beautiful sunday morning, no wind, perfect for walks round the garden, waiting for the contractions to get stronger! i think Clare from the village was the first to arrive, the midwife hot on her heels, (Aunty) Saveria (with Noah) and Bonny, (Aunty) Tana and Florianne. Paul was busy in the garden throughout the day. we tried lots of positions throught the first stage, everyone encouraging me! and Ivor popped out (a bit blue in the face) at 13.42, mum arrived from carcassonne airport at 13.43 with Pete and Moses, ready to hold the newborn baby boy. Pete proceeded to dig the hole for the placenta, where we will plant a Yew hedge (that is what IVOR means). All the ladies present found the experience emotional to an extreme, positive, and really want to have their next babies at home (!) special thanks go to tana for taking photos when everyone else was lost in the moment (especially me!). apart from the blue in the face which had gone within a few seconds, it was a perfect labour, about five hours from start to finish, i was able to take the baby straight away and put him to the breast, something i really was looking forward to.
So Ivor made his debut, and i have been a feeding machine since with support from the family, some in-fighting over who is going to hold the baby!
The garden is looking deceptively empty, as the garlic (sets), onion (seeds), leek (seeds), spinach (seeds) and broad beans go in. the sheep are looking good, out on the garrigue most of the time.
descent du col coming up so the children and justin have been fabricating a contraption for falling down a very long hill without engine, hope they will have brakes and possibly turning power (...) there are some videos on utube!
we celebrated Divali with a fire, some singing, and a story, letting off some fire lanterns that floated off with our thoughts and scary worries about setting fire to the surrounding countryside - oops! thank goodness this did not result.
we are still hoping to acquire a minipelle (very small digger) to landscape the garden, dig our foundations... the project moves on, and now that i can strap ivor to my front and get back to work, i may have time to post you some photos... dont hold your breath!!!