Visiting London

What a lovely weekend we all had!

On Saturday hubbys mum came over to look after the boys for the day. Hubby and I started off heading to Colchester to collect his grandparents from home and we took them into London to visit his brother, wife and new baby Nelson.

I would not want to live in London but driving into it and through the city is something magical. We past many of the sites, we went over the River Thames via Tower Bridge along side The Tower Of London.

The blue bullet-shaped glass building in the background is a business centre called The Gherkin and is right in the City of London. This is the business capital of Great Britain. There are some very interesting and different types of building in London. There are so many modern architectures that some are simply just amazing to look at.

We had to get across London to where hubbys brother and his new little family live.

We approached London from the right where Dagenham is marked on the map. We then drove through the city (right in the very centre) to Wandsworth (a little South East of the centre next to Wimbledon in bold). This is around a 10 mile journey. However, the traffic in a major city such as London is much to be desired and the 60 mile journey from Colchester to the outskirts of London took 50 minutes - 10 miles from Dagenham to Wandsworth took over 2 hours!

London is a bustling place 7  days a week and we went on Saturday knowing that it was better than travelling on a Sunday. It is easier to do it by train but hubbys Grandparents are in their 80's and would not have managed the bustle of the Underground stations or the endless corridors of the tube and they wouldn't have been able to stand on the trains.

Once we got to their flat we were warmly welcomed . My brother in law is a budding cook and cooked us all a lovely lunch. A rich beef stew with mashed potatoes, broccoli spears and with some french bread to serve. It was delicious. I don't normally eat mashed potatoes but they were a treat.

I got the first (and the most) cuddles with baby Nelson. He is so much like James was a newborn. Very blond, bright blue eyes and so sweet. He didn't mind the strangers around him and was happily clasping my finger as I gave him cuddles.  Tomorrow he will be 3 weeks old already. Where has the time gone?

It appears that the birth was not as straightforward as I was led to believe. He was born by Caesarian Section despite the labour beginning well. His poor mom had two epidurals that did not work! Ouch. She also had a severe reaction to the epidural which meant that her legs ballooned with water and for the first week she had to have daily injections to prevent any clotting. She is now back to normal and says that if she'd known it would be like that she'd have agreed to the C Section alot earlier but the original plan was a home birth and she was already disappointed that couldn't happen so she was holding out for a natural delivery. Unfortunately neither happened  (Sorry all those pregnant friends out there) BUT they did get a beautiful little boy which is the utmost important thing in the world. As much as we want to be in control and have the perfect birth, sometimes, for some people it doesn't work out that way.

I thought I would become very broody again very quickly but it didn't happen. Whilst it was lovely having baby cuddles, it was once again a rare treat.  He really is a beautiful little man. It made me more aware of just how quick my boys have grown up and that we are lucky to have them all like this and that's made me more happy with what I have. I love the idea of another baby but the practicalities outweigh the "dream" and I am closer to getting a little bit of "me" back again. I would never change my kids for the world but every now and then you do question what and who you are beyond being just a mother. After 8 years of not working, I feel like I have lost a fair amount of my identity and look forward to getting back to work so I can have another side to my life and feel less of a one dimensional being. I love my family and home to bits but every once in a while it would be nice to do things for me a little more and once James and Liam are both in school full time, then I can see that happening a little more. I also want to bring in an extra wage to help out more.

Yesterday was another trip into Colchester. We started our christmas shopping and have got a fair amount of it done already. We only have my dad, hubbys dad, my grandad, Nelson and hubbys nan to buy for then we can start on the kids! We've got a few things on order so it will be a bit of a week for waiting about for deliveries but it should help out a fair deal.

I hope everyone else had enjoyable weekends too.