I was so positive when I left the hospital last night and I imagined how delighted my partner would be to see me this morning after the school run, sitting up in his bed and smiling....

Actually when I arrived at hospital he looked really ill, the shaking was back and he was as hot as he's ever been and visibly in a lot of pain. The Consultant came over soon after I arrived and explained that "we need to know what type of meningitis you have in order that we can treat it correctly, so we need to do a lumbar puncture". It wasn't the gentlest of announcements, but at least now we could stop dancing round the subject and admit he does have Meningitis.

Sitting with someone while they have a lumbar puncture is horrific. I made the stupid mistake of considering all of the parents who have to go through it with small children and that image won't leave my mind because I cannot begin to contemplate how awful that must be. It takes such a long time to get all of the fluid that they need and the pain gets worse with each ridiculously slow drip. There's also something so wrong about watching such a precious fluid being taken out of someone. And that's before you even consider the dangers associated with the procedure.

We got the first lumbar puncture results really quickly, only a few hours, but they weren't exactly as we'd hoped. Bacterial Meningitis is the really dangerous one that we all panic about and Viral Meningitis is actually a lot more common than you'd think and often doesn't even require hospital treatment, and if that's what he has and his temperature stays down he might even be able to come home. His results were very high for virus, but also showed bacteria, so, at 2.30pm today he started on his 3rd lot of IV antibiotics, plus antivirals and steroids...we'll get the remaining results tomorrow and they should tell us without any doubt. Keep your fingers crossed....

Because he may have Bacterial Meningitis he had to move from the lovely ward into a room by himself. I left him and went home to see to the kids for 2 hours. When I came back he had been moved and was alone. He had no phone signal in his new room, he'd been given the tea ordered by his bed's previous occupant and no anti-emetic. He'd hated his tea which he'd then hated again as it made it's way back out. He'd had nothing to read, nothing to look at and was confined to his room. No-one had brought him any water despite him having to drink to prevent headaches from the lumbar puncture and he's had the headache from hell for 2 days. He'd decided he'd had enough and was going home.

As soon as he saw me he started dressing and had his pyjamas off and a t-shirt and pants on in moments. Pretty impressive considering the cannula in his arm, the Lumbar Puncture and the fact he still can't bend his head down or lean forward. He can be stubborn, and obviously his judgement is still impaired, but 2 Nurses and I managed to convince him it was probably best to stay...well, okay it was mainly me and I used emotional blackmail. I don't want that responsibility and he didn't really want to go home, he was just really fed up and who can blame him? I know I get tetchy after a couple of hours with a headache, 2 days with blinding agony and I would think it's probably fair he vents a bit. I've got to say too that it's a measure of how much better he was this afternoon that he was able to try to abscond, I can't help but smile really.

So tonight's 2nd tea was what they had left in the WRVS shop - which happened to be a bacon and egg butty and a packet of fruit pastilles - and he was delighted with it. I'm hoping I've programmed him and I can use it in the future as a special treat.

By the time I left he felt a fairly normal temperature, he hadn't been sick and he was really chatty. He was ready for a sleep and his results tomorrow, however still struggling with the ridiculously Victorian visiting hours in his new ward of 3-4 and 6.30-8. I just hope he doesn't turn up home at lunchtime tomorrow with his drip stand....

As for me, it'll be hard to sit at home until 3pm knowing he's there alone and waiting for results, but I have loads to catch up on....I might even get that bedding review done....

Today I was going to finish writing up a post about some lovely bedding I'm reviewing but life very much got in the way of Blogging.

Instead of writing I spent 2 hours at the Walk In Medical Centre and then another 5 at the hospital. My eldest 3 have been absolute gems and looked after the youngest 2 beautifully the whole time. My first ever visit to the Walk In Centre and it was my partner who I took.

2 days ago he had a bit of a temperature, a cold and a headache, it was nothing special. By last night he was writhing in pain, but sleeping fitfully and he had a pretty bad night. He couldn't go to work this morning at all, but held it together to ring in sick. I went out at 8.30am on the school run and then to toddler group and came back at 10.30am to find him still roasting hot and vomiting. I gave him paracetamol and ibuprofen and expected him to feel a bit better. He didn't.

He was adamant he didn't want to go anywhere, but when I got back from fetching boy no.3 from nursery he was clearly still as bad and his thighs were really hurting him, with cramp style pains he couldn't ignore, so I did that Mum thing and took charge. I made him get dressed and took him to the Walk In Centre. He looked like a woman in advanced labour, writhing and moaning and couldn't sit still. His temperature was 38.6. I've been reliably informed this evening that above 38.4 an adult can fit from the heat alone. They gave him more Paracetamol and he just got hotter.

He really was so ill. He started to lose track of what was going on, he couldn't answer questions and his face would go vacant mid sentence. He drifted between writhing and shaking uncontrollably, to looking like he was sleeping.

We went straight to A&E, straight through triage and out the back door into a cubicle where they asked him to undress and put on a gown. We couldn't have been quicker if we'd arrived in an ambulance, I really can't fault them at all, but you do know its serious when you arrive in A&E and 5 minutes later you're wearing a nightie which ties up the back.

Within half an hour he had a cannula in his arm and had donated several tubes of blood for testing. He had a chest x-ray to rule out pneumonia and urine tests which were all clear. He had his ears, nose and throat checked. His head, thighs and back were agony and he couldn't touch his chin to his chest and I know how serious that can be. Eventually the Doctor did say the word we were all thinking, but no-one wanted to say out loud - meningitis.

He was given 2 huge syringes full of antibiotics and put on a saline drip. 2 hours later and it was like I was with a different person. The fluids made him perkier and he could hold a conversation. He started to fret that he was wasting everyone's time and should probably go home. No chance, the Doctor told him at this point that he was staying and although he wasn't happy, he had no argument.

He'd stopped being sick and had drunk some water which had stayed put. He had a cup of tea and I took a picture because I felt he was getting so much better....I'm not going to post it because clearly now I can see that is a man who is still not well, and the photo doesn't even show the uncontrollable shaking.

Another couple of hours later and we were up on the ward, I was getting really twitchy by this time and worrying about the little boys, who would be going to bed soon as long as my eldest was following the normal routine.

Then he was hungry. He ate a sandwich and I waited 15 minutes and he wasn't sick. This is an excellent result. Visiting hours were almost over and he needed to sleep, so I really had to leave him. I took a photo because I wanted to show the kids he was much better. It didn't even occur to me at the time that they hadn't seen him at his worst.



I rang at 11.30pm because I would never have slept without it, and was told he'd been asleep since 8.30pm.

No lumbar puncture thank goodness, and so far a good response to the medicines, and that is where we are now. By the time you read this I'll hopefully have had a few hours sleep, got my family up for school and gone back to hospital, and hopefully they'll have found out what type of infection he has. Hopefully he'll be cooler and more comfortable.

Hopefully he hasn't got anything as exciting as Meningitis and his symptoms are all from a far less scary infection. I guess the bedding review post will have to wait a bit longer....

On Sunday I did something a bit different from my normal lazy Sunday. I picked up 4 other North Manchester Bloggers in my van and took them all to Laura Tired Mummy Of Two's house to spend an incredibly civil (honest) afternoon listening to the tennis and packing goodie bags (and oh yes, they're real goodie bags). There may have been a few beverages consumed (as chauffeur I was on the fizzy pop) but I was really quite glad I wasn't drinking alcohol because the talk was, somewhat obviously, mainly about Blog On and I wanted to take it all in.

Goodie bag!

I've been to a couple of events, I've met a few people, but this will be my first really big one, and I've certainly never been to any sort of Blogging conference before - I'm not even sure if conference is the right word! I have to admit to being a bit nervous (okay, a lot nervous). I'm excited about meeting some of the folks who's blogs I really like, and some who've been really friendly and/or helpful to me in particular.

I was really pleased when Heather from Notes From Lapland started this linky - even though clearly maths isn't her strong point because there were 5 bloggers in my van on the way to Laura's and I'm pretty sure she knows all of them (not Biblically obviously....probably). I however did pretty much reach my limit of known Bloggers last weekend, so it really would be great to get to know a few more before we get there.


This is me - I'm Jenny and I'm not usually covered in jelly, but this was taken at my Red Nose Day Jelly Bath. I am however usually harrassed, greying, overweight, not very tall and older than your average blogger, (in fact there are several blogs where I'm old enough to be the parent of the author) but I know I won't be the oldest person there! Woohoo!


I've 5 children and 2 step-children (5 of whom live with us full time and the other 2 bob in and out) - they're 3,4,13,13,15,15 and 19 and I am surrounded by teenage angst and pre-school tantrums everyday.
I'm from Derby and moved up here 6 years ago because it was where my partner lived, he's originally from Mull and came here via Glasgow, so our children are destined to have accents that don't match anyone else's forever.

I've been using the internet since before electricity was invented and I've had a couple of other blogs over the years, but nothing very public. I was previously well known in a few Internet areas under the guise of missusjen (and maybe a couple of other names), but 2 other people turned up using that name a few years ago so feel free to go and send them loads of messages assuming it's me (actually it will usually be me, but this way I get to choose whether or not to reply).

I started The Brick Castle because I was reviewing toys and had nowhere to store my reviews, and a sleeping blog where I'd ranted and moaned the everyday wasn't really an appropriate place, so I started over. I'm glad I did.

See you there....

As part of this years Keep Britain Breastfeeding Scavenger Hunt I was lucky enough to be able to offer a Babasling of their choice to one lucky winner who shared with us the most strangest or most interesting place they have ever breastfed their infant.


One of the major aims of the week was to share advice, support and experiences with new Mums and Mums-to-be, and show them that breastfeeding is possible for almost everyone, at almost any time and in virtually any place - and definitely NOT confined to toilets and car parks. It IS the most natural thing in the world and the rights of you and your child to nurse are protected by law. Just because you CAN do it anywhere does not mean that no place is unusual or funny however - lets face it you can eat, sleep or pee anywhere, but some places are definitely far more noteworthy than others!

Slings are a great way to carry your child hands-free so that you can get on with all that other boring stuff you have to do every day, and you can also feed your child discreetly and easily while out and about.

I'll be hosting a guest post from Pippa at RedRoseMummy soon, who yesterday completed the 5k Race For Life while carrying her daughter in her new Babasling (well done you!).


We've had a group of fantastic entries, although sadly no-one supplied us with photo evidence of them at the top of Snowdon or on the Big Wheel in Blackpool.

There were tales of feeding at the Town Hall while registering the baby, feeding in supermarkets and Ikea while browsing, on the train ride at Drayton Manor, at a school play, in the swimming pool and feeding while a passenger on long journeys on planes, trains and in the car - something I did once try but wasn't very successful at! The park and countryside were the most popular entries and I have to say sitting outside in the shade on a warm day feeding your baby is one of my all-time favourite and most peaceful things.

It was pretty much impossible to choose a winner, so we put all of our favourite entries into a hat and picked one out.

Our winner is Libby, who fed while flat on her back on the Osteopath's couch, and also while labouring with no.2, which I have to say is very impressive and not something I think I'd have been able to sit still long enough to manage, and I wouldn't have wanted to hold a toddler long while in labour either!

A special mention from me goes to Gemma who writes at MyMillsBaby, who fed behind the bins in McDonald's car park after being asked to leave when her husband had the car keys and was still inside. It's an awful experience and exactly the type of thing which Keep Britain Breastfeeding week is hoping to help prevent in the future. No-one should be made to feel like that ever.

Thank you for all of your entries, and thank you for helping to show new Mums and Mums-to-be that breastfeeding is normal and everyday, and we don't have to hide it away because it's something we can be proud of. We are giving our babies the best start, and something that will affect them positively for the rest of their lives. It should be normalised, it should be nothing special, it just be what we do with our children whenever and wherever they're hungry.

Our 3 girls and our 3rd boy - who are hopefully under no doubt that Breastfeeding is the natural, simplest, cheapest and best way to feed your baby.

When I first was writing this post I added this video, then I took it out because I thought everyone would have seen it by now, but the first two people I've spoken to haven't seen it - so I'm putting it back. Very well worth a watch - Hollie McNish - Embarrassed..


 

Sunshine and Snowballs is written by Margaret Wise Brown and illustrated by Charlotte Cooke. It is a very sweet rhyming book with 32 full colour pages full of beautifully drawn pictures. It shows the contrasting weather throughout a year and introduces the concept of seasons.

The language is simple and pretty, perfectly accessible for a 2 year old to enjoy. The pictures show boys and girls equally, so although this is a sweet book, it isn't feminine. It is full of drawings of children playing and having fun. It's a very happy book.


The tempo and rhythm for each page really matches with each of the pictures incredibly well and a great example of that is this page, which is my personal favourite and very striking compared to the rest of the book.


My boys really like this book. There is so much to see on each page, and so little text that the words lead the story and then the pictures run away with it. I love this book, it's beautiful, really beautiful.

There are two ways to read that title.

I AM definitely getting older, some days I feel like I might fall apart. I have a hernia and grey hair and wrinkles, but that's just what you can see. I'm definitely older in mind too.

My children are getting older, all of them. This morning I packed Boy no.3 off on his first ever school trip to a farm.....


And 2 hours later boy no.1 left for The Beat-Herder Festival...


They're all moving on.

This year sees a lot of big landmarks and September is a big step for several of our children.

Boy no.1 has now left College and is awaiting his results to see where his road is going to take him in September.

Our two 15 year olds will enter their final year of High School and take their GCSE's

Boy no.3 will start Primary School

Boy no.4 will start Pre-School (Nursery)

And I'll have no babies left at home!

I've seen a lot of 'moving on' blog posts recently and I think the imminent holiday is the cause, but it really feels like we'll all be taking a really big step in my house. It's going to be an exciting and fairly scary year, but fortunately, as Mary Steenburgen says in Parenthood, "I happen to like the roller coaster"....

What boy no.3 looked like after his trip to the farm....


A true likeness of what boy no.1 looked like after last years trip to Beat-Herder..... I'm NOT picking him up in my van this year!


(Photo credit to Beat-Herder Official Photography)

Snapsterprint will print your pictures and text onto T-shirts, Hoodies, Mugs, Water Bottles, Caps and many more gifts, as well as a selection of items perfect for parties, and we were given the opportunity to test a range of personalised party items and a mug!

The ordering is really straightforward, it only took me about 40 minutes to put together all 4 of the items I chose.

Ordering is really simple. In my case to start with I was ordering Mini Banners, so I clicked on the 'Party' range from the left hand menu and chose from the vast array of different theme groups - we chose 'Tots' because I wanted something suitable for a youngster's birthday. My son had absolutely no trouble deciding which theme he wanted - 'Calling Earth From planet Robot'.
After choosing a theme you choose your item, in this case 'Mini Banners' and then you personalise it by adding your own details and photo's. It's very intuitive and allows you to reposition your words and photo's really easily, even altering the angle in which they appear.


There are 20 Mini Banners in a pack, which costs £3.95. They are printed on 'premium silk coated 170gsm paper', which I found to be really good quality, good and strong and doesn't rip easily at all.  My 3 year old took one of the banners upstairs to show some of his siblings and it's still entirely in one piece and useable. I think they'd be great for scattering on tables at a wedding for example, or for use around the room as decoration.

My next item was A4 posters, and the ordering is exactly the same process. A4 Posters are supplied in packs of  20, but there are various options available, (up to 1 x A0) for £3.95.


The colours are bright and clear and the paper has a good amount of gloss, so that it will resist a sticky toddler finger, but isn't going to glare when you take photo's. They'll be great as my son is having his party out of the house, so we can put them up to decorate the room and alert his guests as to where we are!

My final party item was the Invites, which are supplied in packs of 15 for £4.99, and I rushed mine, which is why I didn't notice that the word 'Party' fell off the bottom! Never mind though, a few strategically placed '......' and I will be able to write whatever I like on the back. I have to say I was a bit disappointed with the invites, mainly because I messed up, but I think I expected them to be openable, which is why I didn't just write my whole message on the front as I should have done! But this is why people do reviews - so that I make the mistakes and you don't have to ;-)


The invites are printed onto premium silk coated 250gsm board and inclusive of matching envelopes (which were missed from my order).

My last item was a personalised mug. They are a 10 oz. Orca Ceramic Mug, which is dishwasher suitable. I chose a photo from my Sea Life Centre review, because it has 6 of the children on it and is the perfect shape to go around the mug.



It's a pretty good representation of the original, and the colours have translated well. Mugs cost £5.95 and can be printed with a photo wrap, text or design of your choice.

I think that Snapsterprint offer incredibly reasonable value for money. The personalised products they sell add a real special something to a party and I love the themes, there were several that I really liked. The paper quality is excellent and the printing very tight, there's no blurriness or mismatching of colours etc. I shall certainly be looking at them again when we eventually get around to getting married.... or when the next teenager reaches 18 - whichever is soonest...

With a family as large as mine we're used to making our own entertainment. A family ticket doesn't ever stretch to 2 adults and 7 children, and going anywhere costs an arm and a leg. Even a take away with 5 teenagers involved is likely to come in around 50 quid....

We've had 2 weeks of GCSE exams and meetings and all kinds of stress, so we thought it would be a great thing if we could all have a night of fun and relax a bit, eat some special food and have a laugh. Money Supermarket's 'Big Night In' was a challenge that suits us perfectly - with no babysitters within 80 miles, staying in is the new 'going out' and we knew we could have a great night in for £50.

I decided on an 'International' theme for the evening, so arranged the menu accordingly, with Spanish Tapas, Chinese Egg Fried Rice, Indian Onion Bhaji's and 'make your own' Italian Pizza!


I found a great recipe for a pizza base in 'Mama's Italian Cookbook' and prepared the dough a couple of hours before we needed it, chopped and readied loads of toppings and made a simple tomato pizza sauce...



Then I let them loose in MY kitchen!




The results were really very impressive, incredibly tasty and even boy no.3 ate every single bit of his own personal creation! I even made myself a cheeseless pizza, which I was delighted with and shall definitely be making again.


After pizza we all snacked on the Tapas and Bhaji's while we played games...

All the children have had a time where they've been really interested in Pinata, and boy no.3 at 4 years old has just recently seen one on the TV and thought it was amazing, so we thought it would be a perfect addition  to the evening. It's a Mexican tradition, and a few sweets could be a great dessert and treat for our special evening.

We had no idea just how solid these things are. What in the heck does it take to smash one, because we couldn't do it!?


We even tried moving it so that no-one could miss!



After about three quarters an hour of endless bashing and vented frustrations I gave in, opened the lid and took everything out....

Inside, as well as oodles of sweeties, I had poured a huge bag of foam letters for the next game. I challenged the children to make as many country names as possible in 10 minutes - mis-spellings were disallowed!

Boy no.2 with a great effort

The winner - girl no.1 - even though Mordor still wouldn't have counted even if she'd found all the letters!

We then settled down with our sweeties and the remains of the Tapas and watched a movie together. It's one we've seen before, but we love it and the first 10 minutes are the most poignant 10 minutes of any film ever, so I've been looking for an excuse to buy it for ages, even though it makes my eyes itchy (or possibly I just sob like a fallen infant). I claim it fits the international theme because it is about a man who travels the world finding adventure. My other half claims I cheated.


Our final game for the evening took place after the 2 little ones had gone to bed (very late and very tired). We played the 'sticky note on your forehead game' - which probably has a name, but I don't think I've ever known it! To carry on the International theme we had to be countries and guess which we were by asking 'yes/no' questions.

Morocco and Japan - some countries are definitely easier to guess than others!

We then packed all the teenagers off to bed and the two of us settled down with a coffee and the final part of our evening, a film which we first saw at the cinema in 2006 when we were dating, long before we all lived together - and it's Russian - plus as a bonus we have an extra DVD for next weekend!


For our £50 International Big Night In we bought ~

Veggie Tapas £6
Home Made Onion Bhajis £1
Home Made Egg Fried Rice £2.20
Home Made Pizzas x 8 £11.25
Pinata £8
Sweets £2.50
Sticky Foam Letters £2.50
Post It Notes £1
Up Blu-Ray £9.99
Night Watch DVD £7.99
We spent an extra £1 on a relatively early night..... ;)

And the Pinata? Well he's a bit bashed, but still very much in one piece and with us....

Mister Maker Watch And Make Volume 5 is one of the newest releases from Abbey Home Media.


I'm sure parents of any child under 5 need no introduction to this CBeebies character who uses everyday objects often found around the home in his fabulous craft projects. This DVD runs for over an hour and a half and contains 5 episodes of the TV show including -

• Mister Maker Makes a Splattered Space Picture!
• Mister Maker Shows you the Perfect Boredom Buster!
• Mister Maker has Fun with Bubbles!
• Mister Maker Makes a Brilliant Wrap Picture!
• Mister Maker Makes a Space Age City!

We're familiar with Mister Maker, having before particularly liked one of his junk modelled cars and the almost infamous 'Beans On toast'.  There are tons of craft ideas in here to keep you and your children busy for weeks, if not months.
This DVD was great and my 4 year old is very keen to try the 'Splattered Space Picture', which is incredibly simple to make, but very effective, using splattered paint to create a starry backdrop, and simple brown paper ripped to rough shape to make craters and volcano-type mounds while his little brother was particularly taken with the 'Wobbly Eggs', created using a plastic 2 part egg which you would buy containing a toy and then usually just throw away.
My favourite is the 'Fun With Bubbles' Octopus, with bubble wrap tentacles!

I like Mister Maker because everything is simple to make and doesn't cost a fortune in materials. It also doesn't require the artistic talent that I lack. I can rip paper as well as anyone (maybe) and following his tips and guidance I can make a pretty cool space picture that's almost as good as anything my 4 year old can make!

You never know, maybe I'll post a photo if I become confident enough in my own abilities!

Abbey Home Media have kindly offered 3 x Mister Maker Volume 5 DVD's for me to give away to my readers. You can find the competition by clicking on this link.

We give this DVD 4/5 and will definitely be spending some time this weekend buying tissue paper and googly eyes!

The DVD includes 5 episodes and has a running time of 95 minutes approx. It contains simple and fun craft activities suitable for young children to complete at home using mainly items that would be otherwise thrown away.


We really like it, and to see our full review and thoughts please click this link

For chance to win a copy of the DVD please complete the Rafflecopter below..

a Rafflecopter giveaway