How could you be angry at this face?

I officially need eyes in the back of my head. My child was born with a radar that senses anything he is not allowed. I could put him in a padded room full of toys and he would find a way to hurt himself. In the past week, he has pulled a kitchen chair onto his face and gotten a black eye, been pushed over by another baby and gotten a nice egg on the back of his head, tried to walk between one piece of furniture and another, fallen and hit his nose on the corner and somehow (he was with his daddy and grandma and they have no idea) got a nasty cut on the back of his head.

I'm pretty sure I'm going to need a helmet for him soon.

He can pull himself up on anything (and I mean anything - my legs, the walls, kitchen cupboards) which means unless it's up really high, nothing is safe! He's changed settings on my Sky box, dribbled into the speaker on my iPhone, pulled all of my books off of the book shelf, all of the fake stones out of my fake fire, the list is endless. His nickname is Destructo-boy!

The other day, I left the room for two damn seconds and he'd destroyed my newspaper (and eaten chunks of it) and ripped up my post.

Desperately trying to hide anything valuable
xxx

A Survival Guide for New Mummies

This is only in my experience - I am a first-time mummy but I got through those early days of non-stop feeding, changing and cuddles. Looking back, there's a lot of things I wish I'd tried earlier!

Firstly, accept help! You'll probably get every family member, friend and random stranger offering tips and help. If they offer to cook you dinner, eat it. I rarely got time to cook in the early days, and my mother in law filling my freezer with soups and stews was a godsend. If somebody says they'll help with the housework - let them! I always said no, I was coping... I wasn't. My house was a tip for months. If you do insist on doing it yourself, invest in a sling! In fact, get a sling anyway. If you've got a colicky or refluxy baby, a sling is perfect for keeping them close and letting them sleep whilst you can get on. If your mum or other half says 'do you want me to come round and sit with the baby whilst you sleep' DEAR GOD SAY YES! You're not being a bad mother by accepting help, or not being with your newborn every second, a bit of sleep, even half an hour, will make the rest of the day easier.

Don't beat yourself up! If you choose not to breastfeed, it's your choice. Don't let anybody, including yourself, make you feel bad for it. If you can't breastfeed, some people can't, or don't like it, or don't get on with it. It doesn't make you a bad mum. You love your baby, no matter what way you choose to feed. I gave Lucas a dummy after a week. I was so dead certain I would never give a dummy but he was comfort sucking and I wasn't getting any sleep, it saved my sanity. We all have these set ideas in our head, but try to just go with the flow. For weeks, I really felt guilty for stopping breastfeeding, but I just forced myself to think 'happy mummy, happy baby'.

I know everybody says it... BUT SLEEP WHEN BABY SLEEPS! Nobody cares if you haven't hoovered, or there's a bit of washing up. It can wait. You could have a long old night ahead of you, and when you're up for what seems the fiftieth time that night, you'll wish you'd napped earlier.

Eat well. Even if you're not breastfeeding. You've just given birth, your body is recovering from pregnancy, and you need the energy.

Establish visiting times. I wish I'd done this. I had constant visitors for weeks and it's exhausting. If you want your first day with your baby to be just you, your partner and your baby, tell everybody that. Tell them to ring or text before they come, and you can say no if your tired! Most people understand!

If your partner isn't helping enough, sit them down and tell them. Many nights I've woken to the crying baby, gotten up to change, feed and rock baby back to sleep and heard Daddy Bear snoring away happily, and wanted to punch him. The whole of the next day I'd be furious at him, not speak to him, and our relationship suffered. Talking really does help.

And lastly (for now), coping with crying... Not all people agree with me, I'm not pushing my opinions on anybody. But if you've fed, changed, cuddled, sang, rocked, wished and prayed and baby won't settle (providing he's not ill), and you find yourself getting aggravated (I promise you it happens to everybody) put the baby down in his cot, shut the door, and sit in another room for a few minutes. Have a cuppa, or whatever you need, and go back in when your calm. All you'll do if you carry on when your frustrated, is frustrate baby.

Anyway, that's all for now.
I promise it gets easier
xxx

Happy Halloween!!

Okay, so I'll admit it - I'm nasty.

I saw hoards of vampires, monsters and witches coming towards my door... ran inside, turned off the lights and unplugged the door bell...

I was very unprepared for Halloween. I did not buy sweeties for the kiddies. I don't answer my door at the best of times, especially not to a six year old dressed as dracula high on E numbers.

I was rarely taken trick or treating. Mostly because I was not prepared to knock on doors and request sweeties. My brother was though, and I'd hide behind him and accept what was given to me. Even the odd old ladies that gave out things like cereal, pennies and toothpaste.

I did however dress up Baby Bear. He has been trussed up in a pumpkin outfit today, and was rather unimpressed. He kept trying to pull off the green leaves and poking at the eyes on his tummy!
Eager for Christmas so I can dress him in his Reindeer outfit!
xxx

I know, I've been slacking!!

I'm officially no longer a stay at home mummy!!

I went back to work, three days a week, ten hours a day. I've had a cluster feeding newborn, I thought I knew how long ten hours could feel...
Until I did a ten hour shift in a hospital on my feet after my baby woke up six times in the night, then having to get him ready and myself before his nana came to pick him up at 9 am, before going into work. Wow. A new level of tired, I'll tell ya! And fitting in making lunches for me and Daddy Bear, housework, food shopping, washing, making a week's worth of purees means 'tired' is my new favourite word.

But enough about me, I'm sure you want to hear about Baby Bear!!
He's amazing. He makes me laugh every day.
He's 6.5 months old.
Has two bottom teeth.
Crawls.
Pulls up to stand.
DOES NOT sleep through the night (and the next person who asks may get a punch on the nose)
Gives cuddles.
And generally lights up my day!

He has the biggest brown eyes, and I do worry about when he older, I really worry I'll never be able to say no to him...

Loving being a mummy
xxx

Introducing Meat

So I've been making purees in preparation for my return to work, so family don't have to worry about feeding Baby Bear. At the minute he's still on fruit and veg purees, as well as finger food bits such as cucumber and rice cakes. He loves his food, and is a brilliant eater.

He's six months in just over a week, so I can bring meat and gluten into his diet. So I've been stocking up my freezer by pureeing basically what me and Daddy Bear eat. So far this week I've done him a pork and apple casserole, chicken and potato and a shepherd's pie with a root veg top (which I just taste tested, it's really nice!). I've been putting aside a small amount of meat and veg, as I'm a bugger for adding salt for my own food, and cooking him up his own little meals. I've actually really enjoyed doing it, I did wonder if it was too much hassle and I should just give him baby jars, but I like knowing what goes into his food, and it's really not that hard! I know it's not for everybody, but I'm going to try to keep it up!

We are still teething like a demon, today was especially hard as Daddy Bear wasn't home at dinner time, and I ended up having to cook my dinner, sort out BB and get him bathed and in bed by 6.30. It was hard, I'll tell you! I'm used to having DB either bath BB or help me with dinner. I can do it on my own, provided I can put BB down to play or stick him in his highchair with a few toys. But no. My suddenly clingy boy would not let me put him down without dissolving into tears... so I put him in his sling and did it all! Dinner was mediocre, and his bath was a little shorted than usual, but he had his bath and bottle and went straight to sleep. Thank god. He's still not taking a nap in the afternoon and it's making the evenings hell! I'm really hoping this is just down to his teeth...

If anybody wants the recipe's I use for purees let me know
xxx

Goodbye Sleep, Hello Teething

Seriously? I got like a week of nice nights with Baby Bear.

And then, out of nowhere....

Came the teething monster......

He's dribbly, off his milk, refusing solids, not napping and incredibly miserable. He whinges, 24/7 until Mummy Bear is at her wit's end. A bit of Calpol soothes him if I'm lucky, but the moaning is endless!

Yesterday imvolved waking half hour earlier than usual, bottle, a small amount of mashed banana, whinge, half hour nap, whinge, bottle, whinge, play with an empty wipes pack for 20 mins, whinge, half hour nap, refused lunch, cuddles, whinge, play, whinge for hours and refuse anymore sleep, dinner, bath (the only time he was awake and not moaning) fall asleep on bottle!

All of my family member's who said hey, wait until he's three months old, it suddenly gets really easy, lied. To be fair, it is easier, he sleeps usually at least 4-5 hours, if I'm lucky up to 12 hours at night. He laughs, smiled, plays, tries to crawl, sits unaided. He's usually a pleasure, but the teething monster and me are not friends!

I got my rota for work, I go back in two weeks. I'm bricking it! I haven't worked since JANUARY!!! I don't even know what to do anymore. And I'm absolutely dreading ten hour days on broken sleep. All I can hope is that he cuts this tooth and goes back to normal before then!

Enjoying time off while I can!

xxx

Sighh....

It honestly feels like I'm never going to get a full nights sleep! I've started going to bed around the same time Baby Bear is, just to get a few extra hours in! He's been good a handful of nights lately, and although it is improving... I really miss the days of maternity leave, when although I was huge, had heartburn and a bladder the size of a brussel sprout, I went to bed at around ten, woke up maybe once of twice to pee or guzzle down some Gaviscon, and woke up around nine. Maybe a sneaky nap around two in the afternoon...

I try to be in bed around 8pm now, although sometimes I wait until ten pm for his dreamfeed. A good night for us is two or three wakings after this feed. The worst have been twenty minute sleeps between cuddles, putting the dummy back in and patting his back. o

I've restarted the Gina Ford routine but I've had a few really busy days and getting good naps in has been a nightmare! And bad naps during the day = lots of waking in the night. But I'm going to continue following it, as the days I have he's pretty much slept through the night, and I go back to work soon. Work + broken sleep = zombie mummy bear.

Daddy bear is getting very grumpy with the lack of sleep (although he sleeps through half the night wakings anyway!!) but continues to tell me it's not me. I've had many a morning, sat sobbing in bed because he has hardly slept and I don't know what I'm doing wrong :(

He's now on three meals a day, which consists of

Banana porridge - it's an Organix one which stinks and comes up really thick so you have to make it runny as it goes stodgy within minutes.

Some kind of root veg mash, and a cube of apple or pear puree for dessert

Hipp nighttime porridge, sometimes with a bit of fruit puree mixed in.

I still give him his bottles first, he takes a good 7oz of milk four times a day, and since introducing breakfast he only takes 3-4 oz during the night rather than a full bottle. I still want milk to be his main source of food.

Hoping and praying things get better before I go back to work
xxx