From Boob to Bottle

Yes my good people I've decided to make the move and try and put the little man onto the bottle. Partly because I wouldn't mind a night on the bottle myself but mostly because, well alright, it's mostly because I want a night on the bottle. (Don't you judge me! haha!) 

Prepare for self praise. I've done over 5 month's exclusively breast feeding (so formal, I'm going with 'feeding him myself.') I've done over 5 month's exclusively feeding him myself and I feel a sense of pride for doing so, also an overwhelming sense of pride in my son for being a dream and taking so well to it! Sleeping through the night since about 2 weeks, 6 hours at 2 weeks, 8 hours from 5 weeks and 10 hours from 7 weeks. One word.... lucky! I even had to check with the health visitor that I wasn't letting him sleep too much! He has 5 feeds during the day three to four hours apart, two or three nap times and bed at 9:00, so as you can see, we've done quite well. (With all this horn tooting smuggery I've probably created a monster who won't come off the boob until he's seven or something, then I'll be having to pay for therapy! I'll see if the horns being blown then!?)  However, now he's getting nosey and feeding time is less relaxed. Not for him of course but definitely for me. You see, he thinks my boob is a tumbler and that my nipple is some kind of bendy straw, just stretching  and bending it over to whatever he wants to look at, clamping his little gums firmly down on it at the same time.....OUCH! I've developed a condition called 'elastiboob' and my breasts now belong in some kind of baby feeding freak show, or could at the very least be used as sails in some new form of wind sport. 

Anyway, that's quite enough breast boob talk and horn tooting, especially seeing as I'm tooting my own, and let's move on to the milk that I've picked. After doing minimal research, i.e. asking face book friends and my two fabulous parent sisters, both my sister's have given me the right advice I feel. I have decided to go with Aptamil. Although with my little girl I went with Sma, (fed myself and then combination fed from 2 months) she was very easy to make the transition with, my boy however is reluctant to take even breast milk from a bottle therefore as sister Number 2 said this has the most similar taste to breast milk,  I'm going with it. I may still have to change bottles (Tommee Tippee at the moment) but if the taste is fairly similar and it looks to have more science going for it, (oh yeah, I'm absolutely down with the nucleotides and Omega's) then hopefully I've made the right decision. Watch this space people, watch this space. 

Anyway, wish me luck good people please, because although I'm trying to make light of the situation, nobody likes seeing their baby upset, and the last time I tried him on a bottle he was really upset, so I'm hoping to persevere and now he's a bit older, get a bit of a smoother transition. I can only hope.

Toodleoo!

Silent Sunday

No Comedy, just the beauty of being a mummy.

Oh Knickers!

Hello there one and all!

I was getting my little girl ready for school this morning when suddenly she said "Mummy, I've got a wedgie!" Obviously it's time I bought the girl some new undies, she's growing up way too fast for my liking. Then I thought to myself, I can't even remember the last time I had a wedgie and then I looked at the contents of my knicker drawer.

Just a little sketch to put the point across.
Well, I wasn't taking pictures of my knicker drawer!

Well it's no bloody wonder I don't have wedgies any more, you should see the size of my crackers!  Parachutes and tall ship sails as far as the eye can see. It's a wonder I haven't been carried off whilst blow drying!

   The reason? Well that's it isn't it, since having my babies I appear to have been purchasing yacht sails and wearing them as underpants. As a parent I do have to go for comfort as I'm sure a lot of you are aware, walking along on the school run picking lacey knickers out of your bum is not something your kid's want to be associated with. And no child  needs "Oh yeah, that's knicker picker's son!" being shouted at the school gates about them. School's hard enough! 

   I did however find 4 pairs of pretty patterned things obviously acquired before I started buying underwear from bosun's locker, and before baby number 2, when I had time to practise the art of seduction. All that's gone to pot now of course, the best we can hope for is a quick "are they asleep? Quick get naked!" and away we go! I mean, planning a lace encased evening of passion is nigh impossible! So alas I have become the queen of the cotton gusset. Practical, comfortable and minimal chance of a yeast infection. (We've all had 'em, and we know it ain't good!)

   I digress, the point is I'm utterly shocked about the size of my 'smalls' because this lead me to thinking at great length (or rather width) about another thing. Good God, you should see the size of my arse! Yes, not rocket science I admit.  Maths tutorial

                             large knickers = lard erm I mean, large arse.

   I shall HAVE to do something about this! I'm not completely massive but I could certainly do with losing a few pounds, to stop the chaffing if nothing else. I'm thinking about Slimming World. I managed to lose a stone and a half last time, put a stone back on like, but kept the half off. Now I think it's high time I re-tackled it! I don't mind being buxom, but for the sake of my health, and my knicker drawer, it's time to fight some flab! I'm going for it, lose 5 pounds and treat myself to a new pair of satin knickers. 

   With a cotton gusset of course!

  

 Is there anyone else who, with parenthood looming over you, have opted for the cotton? Can you be bothered donning silk G-strings instead of Bridget Jones' style bloomers? Do share, but not with too much detail please.

I'm going Bald!!

   That's right people, I'm losing my hair. I'm telling you, it's not like I haven't got a high enough forehead to begin with, I've now been graced with an extra half inch for goodness sake. It happened after my first baby too. Everything is great for about 3 months, then suddenly the bath water drains a hell of a lot slower and you start picking rather long hairs out the crack of your butt. Oh believe me, it's every bit as attractive as it sounds.
 I googled it, (postpartum hair loss, not hairy bum picking) something about your follicles going dormant because they don't rest while you're pregnant, hence the luxuriant locks you get during pregnancy. Children have a lot to answer for, it's a good job my boy is cute bless him.

   Mind you, it's probably a good thing this hair loss malarkey, it's prompted me to get a long overdue haircut. (Just trying to find the silver lining here!) It's about time I had a spot of pampering so I have booked in for the weekend. A cut and colour with a compulsory fringe to camouflage the receding hairline. They better do a good job as well, they're charging me 70 quid! Still at least it only takes about 8-12 months to rectify itself and start growing again. I can then go back to not bothering with haircuts and looking like a bedraggled, land bound mermaid, with only hair and shells to cover my lady lumps. Oh yeah, that's how I roll!

   Well readers, that is about the gist of today's session. Short and sweet, much like my hair will be after the chop! 

    If this is happening to anyone else.... just thank whatever gods you believe in that it isn't your teeth! That's what I'm doing.

Toodleoo!

New Allotment. New Baby. New Anti-Wrinkle Cream Needed.

   Blimey it's been a while, and believe me a lot has happened. First things first.
   This is actually something I was supposed to post in November last year, being smack bang in the middle of pregnancy number 2 we managed to acquire one! An allotment that is. One of my little family's dreams, small though it may be, has come true! We can now plant and nurture the cauliflowers that our hearts have long desired!

Planted and ready to grow!

It was not the best time to begin the project. Being half way through a pregnancy was not an ideal time to start picking up forks and digging for your life, but my husband was also excited about it and my daughter has proved a dab hand with a hoe so they were in charge at the beginning. I just picked out seeds and did a bit of research, When should I plant said cauli? For example.

Back breaking work needed!

The Burnett allotment project is now well under way since I had my baby, (Boy, gorgeous! More on him later) the top half is half planted and half waiting for planting, but the bottom half... WHOA! That half is going to need some T.L.C. There is a serious weed situation that needs dealing with....pronto!

Me and my Boy

My new arrival, as I mentioned previously, was a boy. A simply gorgeous boy if I do say so myself and I love the little fella to bits. He's such a good baby I don't know how I got so lucky to be honest. My daughter loves him as well which is great. There's no friction at the moment. A spot of jealousy at the very beginning, when visitors came round. My girl hardly ever spoke to anyone so the surprise on visitors faces when she struck up conversations, (drawing attention away from the wee lad) was really rather amusing.

Another boasting parent moment I'm afraid. My daughter is doing so well at school I'm brimming with pride! She knows all her alphabet both normally and phonetically, she spells out small words by herself and coming on leaps and bounds with her confidence! Chest. Swelling. So. Proud.

   Well, I reckon that's all I can (hopefully) hold your attention with for the moment. Plenty more has happened, but I shall save the 'failed to dilate' story for another time.
Toodleoo!

I Love It How A Plan Never Comes Together

 Well here I am typing at 5:15 in the morning. My little girl woke me up from a not so deep sleep at 3:30 for a wee, then she went back off only to wake again from a bad dream at 4:15 bless her. I went in her bed with her for about 30 minutes but you just really cannot get comfortable in a single bed at my age, so I crept out of her bed and came down stairs for a brew. Then I spotted our new family laptop and decided to have a wee shot on it, hence finding myself on my blog.

 With the early rise and all I've been having a think about the baby coming and such. I have absolutely nothing at all ready and I'm not even sure If I'm on the right pay level to acquire maternity pay, obviously I'll be getting it from somewhere but it's a form filling nightmare which I really need to look into. I'm halfway through the pregnancy now and I haven't got so much as a baby grow out the spare room. (Inner scream! far too early to subject the neighbours to my neurosis yet.) If there is anyone out there who is as completely unorganised as myself, please let me know. I need tips on how to become mother number 1! Well, we all know there is no such thing as that, but I'd like to improve nonetheless.

 (Another wake up from my daughter, not having a good night bless her.)

 I had a little flick through Emma's Diary, but that's really just list upon list of things that I need, haven't got and got no cash to buy. I really should've been more prepared for this. You think, "well I managed last time, we brought everything we needed." Yes, but we didn't already have another mouth to feed! Holy mackerel this is a pickle but the main thing is not to panic. (Queue panic attack anyway!)

 I think I'm going to have a scan through the spare room and see what unisex things I can salvage from my girl being a baby. That shouldn't be too much of a problem because I know I saved all the white's, the things that weren't stained with poo anyway. And there is definitely my lovely moses basket that I can freshen up. I'm definitely going to get a new pram/travel system because our old one is knackered. I'm not a driver so it was very well used. It was a pram/buggy/car seat, the works and I used every attachment to death.

 As far as feeding goes I'm going to breast feed, I did with my first and I shall with this one. It's cheap, always on hand, (or boob!) and I make it so I may as well use it for as long as I can. Well, six months anyway, when I wean onto food, I wean off the boob.

 This shouldn't be too hard to accomplish should it?

 Famous last words! I am the original disaster area so I'll keep you posted as to how my plan comes together, and it doesn't always, I'm not the bloody A-Team after all.