Edward hit the six months mark on Thursday, and we started the day with some melon and some cucumber. He sat down to eat his breakfast with us, and tucked in to the cucumber, although I don't think he was actually eating much (the melon kept slipping out of his grasp!). Since then he had cheese on toast and apple for lunch, with some peach as well, and for his tea he had carrot and apple... Today he had toast for breakfast, some cheese, grapes, apple, melon, and for tea: pork, carrot, brocolli and apple and melon. He seems to really 'get' the idea of grasping the food in his fist, and as long as the food is big enough and not too slippery he gets on ok with it. It is quite rewarding finding all the chewed up bits and pieces in his bib - although with Elizabeth I would have found that quite disheartening. He seems to 'choose' what he wants, and actually seemed quite distressed tonight when his melon wore right down to his fingers!!
Exhausting night last night, with Elizabeth awake twice and Edward once before it even got to 1am. Felt shattered this morning, and had to push on and drive in to work with them both to try to clear the office of my files and text books, as they are 'mothballing' the JMC South site next month and everything has to be out. It felt a bit weird to see it all completely empty, and won't even see colleagues now as they have all been scattered across the super college that is Birmingham Metropoliton... The end of an era, but I suppose for me it ended a long while ago!
Birthday bbq for husband this weekend, and prospect of moving forwards with decorating our room. We have two Malm chest of drawers from IKEA, and the new M&S rose curtains have arrived. Got to put up shelves, decide on paint colour for main walls and feature wall, do that, get light shade, sort out drawer contents...
Am also trying to get into the Ebay swing - have sold the old Baby Bjorn sling for £10, and am now listing 'vintage' buttons and hopefully moving on to 'vintage' fabric - remnants from my, ahem, sewing business from two years ago!
Friday, 28 August 2009
Saturday, 22 August 2009
final week of exclusive breastfeeding...
We're here at last, nearly six months down the line, and on Thursday Edward will be starting on solid food!!! I had him weighed this week and at 24 weeks he was 9.52 k.g. or in real money 20lb 15oz, just slightly down onto the 98th percentile, after being above it for the last few months. Am quite excited about embarking on the BLW journey, and keep umming and ahhing about how seriously to stick to the tenets - will I give no purees, or some purees and mostly chopped up bits of veg... time will tell. Have still got to look up a few more bits and pieces in Kate's book, but really we're set to go!
It has been a hard, hard week. Emotionally I've been very down, ground down by Elizabeth's at times intolerable behaviour. In the middle of the week I was fed up of hearing myself moaning about how hard it is, how tired I am, how impossible I find things... Husband told me perhaps I was in danger of making myself negative by thinking negatively, so have tried my utmost since then to think positive. I started a Mumsnet thread asking for people in a similar boat with a baby and a toddler to join up to support each other, as that really helped last time I was in crisis when Elizabeth wasn't sleeping through. I've also been out - out with the Mummies last week, and out with Theresa from Group this week who confided that despite outward appearances, she too finds it impossibly hard at times! Was quite surprised, as you only really see the surface-level details when spending an hour or so with people, so it really was unexpected.
I've ordered a new parenting book from Amazon which I'm hoping will inject some fun back into our daily grind (or sorry, life). Things have been a little easier with Elizabeth the last couple of days - she has had lots more conversations with me - about her pretend Mummy and Daddy, and lots of "Why does that do that?" type questions. She dropped her afternoon nap earlier in the week, so although I lost any possibility of 'me time', it also took some of the pressure off the 'morning session' so now we can have lunch then go out into Shifnal, or off to Sainsburys or whatever as Edward will sleep in the car or in his buggy. She's been settling much quicker at night-time now, so she obviously needed to drop the nap. Toilet training still going well, so much so that I'd say we've cracked it. I tend to make her sit on the toilet every once in a while rather than her actually telling me she needs to go, out of my neurotic fear that she won't, so I guess that will be the next step. Edward's sleeping has been a nightmare though. Last night, for example, he woke up at 11pm, then 2am then 5.50am and stayed awake then until finally dropping off at around 9.40am... Am exhausted!!! His reflux is no better. No better at all. Since the projectile vomitting subsided he's just remained the same - sick when put in car seat, when laid on floor, when sitting up on your knee, when over your shoulder... he does it less in his cot, but there are still days when I have to change the sheets three times!!! His night-time nappy leaks when he is feeding twice or more at night, so he wakes at 5am sopping wet from his sleepsuit through his sleeping bag and all over the sheets! Must ask my NappyLady advisor if she can recommend anything about that!
We've determined that we're going to try to pay off as much as we can of our mortgage... Spent some time this week researching affiliate marketing and husband has got a £30 voucher to use with Adwords, so we've got an advert and when you search for satellite tv on Google our ad comes up. It has had about 103 clicks now, but nobody seems to be buying Sky through us. I'm going to try to do a baby blog and link to e.g. Mothercare etc, and am also going to explore personal tuition and e.g. CV help and UCAS application help, and see if that gets me anywhere. We're going to take every bit of extra cash and pay it off the mortgage... It has been so disheartening to see houses on the market that we just can't afford, and realistically won't be able to with my salary as it is.
Thoughts have turned more than once to having another baby. My weight is back under 11stone for the first time in ages, and I was planning to start aqua aerobics this week (got there, but the instructor was off sick, so will try again next week, am going to go twice a week). So, am feeling in better shape, and am wondering whether we could manage to have another baby next September?!! Am I mad?!! Part of me thinks we should leave it longer as we're barely coping as it is, but another part of me thinks unless we get on with things, we won't be able to fulfill our dream of having four children, as the gaps will be too long, and I'll be too old... and then we'll have teenage children and babies, and it won't work!!! It is a frightening propositition - the idea that Edward could turn out to be as difficult as Elizabeth was, and I'll then have three of them at home to manage... but we'll wait and see until around Christmas time!
We've had a busy few weekends with a reunion of my Leicester University friends following on from Edward's christening, and although we're in a mini-lull at the moment, next week is husband's birthday bbq, then we've got a birthday party, and a christening down South for which I've had to buy.... disposable nappies!!! We're going to stay in a Travelodge so disposable nappies r us, and cost bloody £9 for two packs, couldn't believe it!!
So - here I stand at the 6 month point, half-way through my maternity leave give or take, feeling like I've got much less time left, wondering where on earth the time has disappeared to... Why am I so tired?? Will life ever return to normal again!!??
It has been a hard, hard week. Emotionally I've been very down, ground down by Elizabeth's at times intolerable behaviour. In the middle of the week I was fed up of hearing myself moaning about how hard it is, how tired I am, how impossible I find things... Husband told me perhaps I was in danger of making myself negative by thinking negatively, so have tried my utmost since then to think positive. I started a Mumsnet thread asking for people in a similar boat with a baby and a toddler to join up to support each other, as that really helped last time I was in crisis when Elizabeth wasn't sleeping through. I've also been out - out with the Mummies last week, and out with Theresa from Group this week who confided that despite outward appearances, she too finds it impossibly hard at times! Was quite surprised, as you only really see the surface-level details when spending an hour or so with people, so it really was unexpected.
I've ordered a new parenting book from Amazon which I'm hoping will inject some fun back into our daily grind (or sorry, life). Things have been a little easier with Elizabeth the last couple of days - she has had lots more conversations with me - about her pretend Mummy and Daddy, and lots of "Why does that do that?" type questions. She dropped her afternoon nap earlier in the week, so although I lost any possibility of 'me time', it also took some of the pressure off the 'morning session' so now we can have lunch then go out into Shifnal, or off to Sainsburys or whatever as Edward will sleep in the car or in his buggy. She's been settling much quicker at night-time now, so she obviously needed to drop the nap. Toilet training still going well, so much so that I'd say we've cracked it. I tend to make her sit on the toilet every once in a while rather than her actually telling me she needs to go, out of my neurotic fear that she won't, so I guess that will be the next step. Edward's sleeping has been a nightmare though. Last night, for example, he woke up at 11pm, then 2am then 5.50am and stayed awake then until finally dropping off at around 9.40am... Am exhausted!!! His reflux is no better. No better at all. Since the projectile vomitting subsided he's just remained the same - sick when put in car seat, when laid on floor, when sitting up on your knee, when over your shoulder... he does it less in his cot, but there are still days when I have to change the sheets three times!!! His night-time nappy leaks when he is feeding twice or more at night, so he wakes at 5am sopping wet from his sleepsuit through his sleeping bag and all over the sheets! Must ask my NappyLady advisor if she can recommend anything about that!
We've determined that we're going to try to pay off as much as we can of our mortgage... Spent some time this week researching affiliate marketing and husband has got a £30 voucher to use with Adwords, so we've got an advert and when you search for satellite tv on Google our ad comes up. It has had about 103 clicks now, but nobody seems to be buying Sky through us. I'm going to try to do a baby blog and link to e.g. Mothercare etc, and am also going to explore personal tuition and e.g. CV help and UCAS application help, and see if that gets me anywhere. We're going to take every bit of extra cash and pay it off the mortgage... It has been so disheartening to see houses on the market that we just can't afford, and realistically won't be able to with my salary as it is.
Thoughts have turned more than once to having another baby. My weight is back under 11stone for the first time in ages, and I was planning to start aqua aerobics this week (got there, but the instructor was off sick, so will try again next week, am going to go twice a week). So, am feeling in better shape, and am wondering whether we could manage to have another baby next September?!! Am I mad?!! Part of me thinks we should leave it longer as we're barely coping as it is, but another part of me thinks unless we get on with things, we won't be able to fulfill our dream of having four children, as the gaps will be too long, and I'll be too old... and then we'll have teenage children and babies, and it won't work!!! It is a frightening propositition - the idea that Edward could turn out to be as difficult as Elizabeth was, and I'll then have three of them at home to manage... but we'll wait and see until around Christmas time!
We've had a busy few weekends with a reunion of my Leicester University friends following on from Edward's christening, and although we're in a mini-lull at the moment, next week is husband's birthday bbq, then we've got a birthday party, and a christening down South for which I've had to buy.... disposable nappies!!! We're going to stay in a Travelodge so disposable nappies r us, and cost bloody £9 for two packs, couldn't believe it!!
So - here I stand at the 6 month point, half-way through my maternity leave give or take, feeling like I've got much less time left, wondering where on earth the time has disappeared to... Why am I so tired?? Will life ever return to normal again!!??
Wednesday, 12 August 2009
Update
Toilet training
We got back from our second holiday on 30th July, and since then Elizabeth hasn't worn a nappy in the day. I gave up waiting for her to ask to go to the toilet while wearing a nappy, and just decided to go for it. We've had one or two accidents, and she did wear a nappy on the day of the christening, but other than that, no problem. I was most worried about going out in the car (but we've travelled to Leicester no problem, and to Weston Park) and about going out (but we've been for a picnic, to Pirates, to 'new group' etc and no problem). It can be difficult with Edward in tow having to take her to the toilet, and the most awkward think is that she's constantly saying she doesn't want to go... so I can never quite be sure. Trying not to be too neurotic about it, as she's managing pretty well, and it is AMAZING not to have to wash and dry two sets of nappies on a daily basis.
Edward's weaning
August 27 approaches, and instead of having a huge puree fest I think we're pretty much decided to go down the BLW (baby led weaning) route. It seemed quite scary at first, but now that I've read a friend's book on it, it seems to complement breastfeeding on demand, and waiting until 6 months before introducing any food, so we'll see how it goes. He's been in his highchair at mealtimes to get used to it, and seems fine.
Sleeping through
We've had more than a handful of nights when he's gone through from 7pm until 6am. Not consistently though - sometimes will wake up at 2am, or 4am, but maybe there is light at the end of the tunnel?!! The dreaded cluster feeding in the evening seems to have subsided, he tends to feed around 4pm, then perhaps 5pm and 7pm, and that is it, whereas before I'd be pinned to the bed for about an hour and a half, getting down by 8pm if I was lucky, 9pm or 10pm on bad nights!
Feeling out of control
Hmmm, this is a difficult one. I still get really stressed out, and end up shouting a lot at Elizabeth because she is so wilful and spirited and challenging... usually if we have to be somewhere... just the pressure to get things done, and she'll be refusing to [put on shoes, walk downstairs, put on coat, leave Edward alone etc etc] so I get really stressed. Find it hard when we're out - have to take her to the toilet, see to Edward (always sick still - don't know when that will end), feed, get Elizabeth to do some of the things I say... maybe my expectations are too high, but I don't really know how to lighten up. Had expressed an interest in the triple p parenting course but the health visitor hasn't got back to me (again!). Do find it hard that I can't ever have a break from it, and don't seem to be able to get on with the things that need doing let alone the things that I'd like to do. Work looms again, which isn't too bad in itself but the patchy childcare issue rears its head and am sure will lead to more stress for me.
We got back from our second holiday on 30th July, and since then Elizabeth hasn't worn a nappy in the day. I gave up waiting for her to ask to go to the toilet while wearing a nappy, and just decided to go for it. We've had one or two accidents, and she did wear a nappy on the day of the christening, but other than that, no problem. I was most worried about going out in the car (but we've travelled to Leicester no problem, and to Weston Park) and about going out (but we've been for a picnic, to Pirates, to 'new group' etc and no problem). It can be difficult with Edward in tow having to take her to the toilet, and the most awkward think is that she's constantly saying she doesn't want to go... so I can never quite be sure. Trying not to be too neurotic about it, as she's managing pretty well, and it is AMAZING not to have to wash and dry two sets of nappies on a daily basis.
Edward's weaning
August 27 approaches, and instead of having a huge puree fest I think we're pretty much decided to go down the BLW (baby led weaning) route. It seemed quite scary at first, but now that I've read a friend's book on it, it seems to complement breastfeeding on demand, and waiting until 6 months before introducing any food, so we'll see how it goes. He's been in his highchair at mealtimes to get used to it, and seems fine.
Sleeping through
We've had more than a handful of nights when he's gone through from 7pm until 6am. Not consistently though - sometimes will wake up at 2am, or 4am, but maybe there is light at the end of the tunnel?!! The dreaded cluster feeding in the evening seems to have subsided, he tends to feed around 4pm, then perhaps 5pm and 7pm, and that is it, whereas before I'd be pinned to the bed for about an hour and a half, getting down by 8pm if I was lucky, 9pm or 10pm on bad nights!
Feeling out of control
Hmmm, this is a difficult one. I still get really stressed out, and end up shouting a lot at Elizabeth because she is so wilful and spirited and challenging... usually if we have to be somewhere... just the pressure to get things done, and she'll be refusing to [put on shoes, walk downstairs, put on coat, leave Edward alone etc etc] so I get really stressed. Find it hard when we're out - have to take her to the toilet, see to Edward (always sick still - don't know when that will end), feed, get Elizabeth to do some of the things I say... maybe my expectations are too high, but I don't really know how to lighten up. Had expressed an interest in the triple p parenting course but the health visitor hasn't got back to me (again!). Do find it hard that I can't ever have a break from it, and don't seem to be able to get on with the things that need doing let alone the things that I'd like to do. Work looms again, which isn't too bad in itself but the patchy childcare issue rears its head and am sure will lead to more stress for me.
Monday, 10 August 2009
two new teeth!
On August 8th I could feel two bottom teeth had broken the gums - his first teeth! He hasn't been too unsettled with it, although has been waking at around 4am and staying awake for an hour or so!
Have stripped down the bouncy chair ready to stow it into the loft. Not used since middle of June before we went on holiday, as he's too heavy now! He's now on his 'roll mats' - but always rolling off them!
Elizabeth has had a full week in 'big girl pants'. Since we returned from Devon really. Managed a picnic at Weston Park, new group on Friday, and a trip to Leicester yesterday without incident.
Have stripped down the bouncy chair ready to stow it into the loft. Not used since middle of June before we went on holiday, as he's too heavy now! He's now on his 'roll mats' - but always rolling off them!
Elizabeth has had a full week in 'big girl pants'. Since we returned from Devon really. Managed a picnic at Weston Park, new group on Friday, and a trip to Leicester yesterday without incident.
Thursday, 6 August 2009
hectic weeks are behind us!
We're back from our second holiday in Devon, and what a time we had. Without wishing to dwell on the negative, it was bloody hard work. Although great to have the whole family around, we're so used to our routine and way of doing things that having to live communally with limited space and with Edward back in our room proved very difficult. Late nights + early mornings, + toddler tantrums and night feedings do not a happy holiday make. The early days threw us so far off kilter that I was in hysterical tears begging to be allowed home. Our room was small, there was no storage for clothes, no bath for either of the children, and the glass doors let in light (and sounds) from the communal areas so it was hard to settle the children, and ourselves, to sleep. It was also hard to try to cook for 9 people whilst breastfeeding and maintaining the routines of both children, and getting out and about was nigh on impossible. On the plus side it was great to see Elizabeth with her aunts and uncles, loving the freedom and space, and quizzing them every which way about all things important to her. They both went in the pool, and Edward eventually settled but the first few days were horrendous.
Back we came to the serenity of our own home, determined to luxuriate in every minute of down-time that we were deprived of while we were away, and threw ourselves headlong into christening preparations. Friday - Sainsburys, check platters, check christening gown fits. Saturday - get glasses (hired from Sainsburys in Shrewsbury) and tidy house, paint bathroom ceiling, replace toilet seat. Bake cakes. We had a lovely day on Sunday. It didn't rain, lots of people came, Edward was amazing in church, fell asleep, didn't cry - looked deeply into the vicars eyes when posing for the picture afterwards. All went well. We cleared up relatively calmly afterwards, put the living room back to normal, then opened his presents and went to bed.
Our anniversay (4 years) yesterday saw us watching James Bond Quantum of Solice on DVD and quaffing a glass of wine while Elizabeth spent two hours banging around in her room. Edward has slept through for three nights out of the last four, so hopefully hes heading in the right direction!
Back we came to the serenity of our own home, determined to luxuriate in every minute of down-time that we were deprived of while we were away, and threw ourselves headlong into christening preparations. Friday - Sainsburys, check platters, check christening gown fits. Saturday - get glasses (hired from Sainsburys in Shrewsbury) and tidy house, paint bathroom ceiling, replace toilet seat. Bake cakes. We had a lovely day on Sunday. It didn't rain, lots of people came, Edward was amazing in church, fell asleep, didn't cry - looked deeply into the vicars eyes when posing for the picture afterwards. All went well. We cleared up relatively calmly afterwards, put the living room back to normal, then opened his presents and went to bed.
Our anniversay (4 years) yesterday saw us watching James Bond Quantum of Solice on DVD and quaffing a glass of wine while Elizabeth spent two hours banging around in her room. Edward has slept through for three nights out of the last four, so hopefully hes heading in the right direction!
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