Summer days...

A lot has happened since I last had time to write.

Elizabeth was poorly with a viral infection. On Saturday 14th July we'd spent the day up at my Nan's helping them pack for the move and she went to bed as normal that night. When we were coming to bed at around 10.30pm we heard coughing and spluttering and rushed through to Elizabeth's room to find that she was lying on her back almost choking having been sick. I picked her up immediately, but she didn't cry. It was terrifying. We continued being sick while I rang NHS Direct. She seemed really hot, but we didn't have a thermometer so couldn't be sure. The nurse reassured us that as her lips weren't blue and she was breathing she was probably alright. The next morning she was covered in a red blotchy rash. We did the glass test to reassure ourselves that it wasn't meningitis, then I took Elizabeth to the doctor the next day who told us it was a post-viral infection rash. She'd obviously had the infection over the weekend, and the rash was a sign that she was actually getting better. Very frightening at the time, and the spots took about a week to disappear completely. We now have a digital thermometer!

Just after the viral infection came Elizabeth's first tooth - bottom left. We think it finally arrived on 18th July. We've been brushing it immediately after her bath ever since - she likes to sit with Daddy and hold her hand under the cold tap while I brush it for her - good as gold!

We had a hectic period from 16th July onwards when Nan and Grandad finally moved down here - some days I felt that I wasn't coping at all as I had so much to do with Elizabeth, and the house move. We're getting there though. Mum is now off work for the six weeks holiday and she is doing more, which has taken the pressure off me somewhat, but there is so much to do you never really feel you are moving forwards.

I've been allocated a caseworker from my union and submitted a further grievance about the fact that the hours I had been offered were retracted following the submission of my grievance. I am heartily sick of it all now, and really just want to leave work and focus on new ways of making money, but can't face the prospect of handing back all of my maternity pay, so the fight continues. My grievance hearing is scheduled for September 5th.

Elizabeth is now officially on the move - she went through a period of prolific rolling, but has started commando crawling now. We fitted stair gates at the lounge door and top of the stairs yesterday (August 19th) and had to lower her cot again on August 17th after she stood up in it and I thought she was going to topple out! She can clap ahnds and blow raspberries, and is such a happy character! We went swimming last Wednesday (15th August) with Claire and Cate and she went in a float/ring type of thing and loved it. It was a bit of a challenge getting her and myself dressed, but well worth going all the way over to Cannock for.

Elizabeth is also in a forward-facing car seat now. We finally bit the bullet after a month or so of wondering whether she really was too big for the infant carrier. She's so tall, and her head was slowly making its way over the top of the seat. We took both cars up to Mothercare to ensure we could get something to fit both, and opted for a Brittax Eclipse. I have it in my car for most of the time, but it isn't too difficult to fit it into husbands'. She started facing forwards on 22nd July.

She's nine months on Thursday and I can't believe when I look at her now how much she has changed. She can say Mama, Dada, Baba, Nana... and her eating is going from strength to strength: scrambled egg, tofu, apricots, porridge, toast, cheese on toast, cheese, yoghurt, peas, sweetcorn, papaya, guava, pomegranate, bread, cauliflower cheese, broccoli, plum, cod...

She slept through for one night on 11 Aug, but other than that her sleeping habits have been puzzling to say the least. She invariably gets up once, often twice, and sometimes three times a night. I'm still breastfeeding and tend to feed her at:

7am
10am
3pm
7pm
2am

It can be exhausting when she is up more than once in the night, but her feeds are so short in the day I feel that she must really 'need' the night feeds. Having said that she might also be teething again which could be why she is unsettled.

Thoughts turn to another baby... I have been seeing a chiropractor for two weeks now to try to correct the position of my pelvis which I think was put out of allignment when Elizabeth was born. I seem to be making good progress, and am thinking more about my posture, and am trying to avoid carrying Elizabeth on my hip. I've got to focus my attention on doing some exercise - there has been talk of swimming, and of going out on the bike... but nothing to report as of yet. This Summer the weather has been apalling - it is only in the last week that we've actually seen the sun. This just makes it all the more difficult to get out and get walking, which at least would be a step in the right direction. Every time we talk of a new baby we have to say it is all dependent on how I am etc, but we'd really like to start trying in the New Year.

My friends' babies are due in September and December, which will be great. I'm hoping that I will be able to share my breastfeeding experiences with them, and that they will be able to stick at it. My views towards breastfeeding have changed - I am now passionate about it and get very upset when anyone either suggests giving up, or questions the value of it. I also get angry about people who say things like they didn't have enough milk or it hurt or whatever, because there are so many myths about breastfeeding that people seem to genuinely believe, and there is also such a lack of support. I'm still going to my breastfeeding support group on a Tuesday morning, and look forward to it every week. The venue has now moved to the Methodist church where I used to go to playgroup - very strange to be back there after nearly 30 years!

I'm considering undertaking some training to enable me to become a breastfeeding counsellor - but wonder whether (a) I can afford the time and (b) would it enable me to earn any money? It sounds ruthless, but I can't really afford to work voluntarily at the moment!

Every day I love Elizabeth (Minky) more - she is absolutely fascinating to be with. I love watching her point at things, clap her little podgy hands together... she laughs whenever I follow her and her Dad up the stairs, and pops her head around his shoulder to look out for me. She laughs when her Daddy plays her guitar tunes while she's getting ready for bed, and she's getting more and more interested in her bedtime story. I hide from her while she is in the bath and play 'peek a boo' around the side of the bath (with Daddy watching obviously!). She grips on to my clothes with her little hands as I carry her around, and is starting to give 'open mouthed' kisses once in a while on her way to bed.

We can't remember what life was like before she came along - she makes everything worthwhile! We went out for our wedding anniversary and husband's parents baby sat for the first time. It was really wierd being out without her - good in a way, we had plenty to talk about and I've no doubt it did us good. The food tasted amazing, but that's probably because we haven't eaten out in about a year! It was great to go back knowing she was safe in her cot - and sure enough she was, clutching her navy and white striped star which she always does when she is sleeping (I wish I could find another one but Jo Jo Mamanbebe don't stock them anymore - she won't sleep without it!!).

She's napping now, and I've just planted out the rosemary cuttings that I 'stole' from our holiday cottage back in June and have been carefully propagating on our bedroom windowsill. Husband has just phoned from work - he's applying for a promotion but isn't too sure that he'll get it this time - the money would so come in handy!!

That's about all I can think of for now. I can't believe Summer is drawing to a close already and I'll have to think about getting a larger sleeping bag for Elizabeth. She's been under a blanket all Summer because she grew out of the 12-18 month Sainsbury's sleeping bags and the supermarkets don't make bigger sizes. I don't want to pay £30 each for one, so will have to look into cheaper options. She will also need Winter clothes including a warm coat, and we might have to look at getting a more absorbent night-time nappy. Her birthday will soon be upon us and I'll have to think about what nice things we could get her (on our very limited budget!). I can remember what I was like this time last year - wondering what the new term would be like, not realising how tired I would be, and in the throes of painting the nursery and trying to buy everything we needed from the never-ending list of baby things... Time has literally flown by, but then everyone said it would!