Keep on Rolling baby

I had a choice of two titles for this blog, I went with keep on rolling (Limp Bizkit) rather than Proud Mary (Tina Turner) as Proud Mary goes from Tina Turner to the cast of Glee and then I get the urge to sing, ergo getting side tracked!

Well T has discovered rolling, aged 16 weeks and 2 days.

 Was rather amusing.

We'd bought an end of carpet roll which we cut into metre squares to put on the floor so T can have his 'tummy time' as we have laminate flooring, and it's nigh on impossible to find any kind of play mat that doesn't slip and slide everywhere.

So he was spinning round in circles on his front which he's been doing for a while, then my OH walked out the room, and T did a lovely roll off the mat onto the laminate flooring....and screamed.

It does warn you that they give themselves a nasty shock when they do it, so I cheered and clapped then picked him up and gave him a big cuddle.

Then we got him to bed for about half 8 (woo its getting earlier) and when he awoke at 3am, he was cheekily smiling up at me, which was lovely till I realised he'd obviously rolled over as I'd put him onto his front. So I clapped and cheered again (although he may have thought I was cheering at him waking me up, which would be bad, as I don't know at what point between 11 and 3 he'd rolled over)

After I'd fed him I put him back down in his basket and laid down in bed, and I could hear all this grunting and huffing and puffing, with the occasional pair of eyes peering over the top at me, followed by a bum sticking up in the air. After about 20 minutes of his exertions, I put him onto his back as clearly thats where he wanted to be. Then ensued a further 20 minutes of arms and legs failing about and shouting as T told the animals on the side of his basket all about his adventures.

Then thankfully fell asleep.

Don't think it'll be long before he starts crawling, he can push himself up into the right position, he just hasn't figured the rest of it out yet, thankfully, think operation childproof everything will need to be started fairly quickly!!

Oh what a night!

Uuuurrrggghhh

T obviously decided to get his revenge on me for thinking of putting him into his own room

*in a Stewie from Family Guy type voice*

" What the hell mother, I will make you pay, I shall never leave your side!!!"

(Family Guy makes you look at your own child a little differently, you do occasionally wonder the evil thoughts that go through their minds!)

So T went to bed at half 9, I couldn't sleep, so eventually drifted off at about 12:45 am

T woke up at 1:15am, so I draaaggged myself out of bed, gave him his feed, put him back down again, got up to redo his night bottle, got back to sleep about 2am.

T then awoke again at 5am, so dragged myself out of bed again, but T decided he would like to wind me up. He wouldn't let me put his bib on, he kept pushing against my leg and head diving out of my arms and then came the latest development...

He has now sussed hand eye co-ordination.

This may seem like an exciting development in my sons life, and whilst I am very proud, he displayed his newfound talent to me in the worst way possible at the worst time possible.

After his feed I was giving him a little cuddle, and he gazed transfixed at my glasses, out reached his tiny hand, then....SMACK, my glasses were walloped off my face. Cue much giggling from T. So putting it down to coincidence I put my glasses back on and went back to cuddling, again T got transfixed, out reached his tiny hand then...GRAB, he got hold of the front of my glasses and pulled.

So I took them off and spent the rest of the cuddle blind.

So does this now mean, that when I wake up on a night I should put my contact lenses in to prevent any breakages? Or should I do it blind?!

However, T went back to sleep about half 5, as did I, then about 6:30am he started stirring again. I physically couldn't lift my head from the pillow, I laid there for about 15 minutes as he had a bit of a whinge, started psyching myself up to get up and make yet another bottle, when my OH came to my rescue, and leapt out of bed to fix everything.

I slept in till half 9, mmmm lovely.

Nights like that are such a struggle, i've learned that I need at least 4 hours uninterrupted sleep in order to function, if that gets disturbed I'm a bit useless.

Thanks goodness it happened on a weekend, and fingers crossed it doesn't happen again tonight!

One smile from them erases all the tiredness you'll be pleased to know!

T's big move...

...isn't really happening, lol.

It's too haaaaaaard!

Have tried putting him down in his cot for naps so he gets used to it, but he's only sleeping for exactly half an hour at a time, which is no bliddy good!

So I have a new plan. As my OH is off both Saturday and Sunday next week, I will get T used to his cot with naps all through the week and then we can put him in on Friday night, then if I'm up with him all night the OH can take over Saturday morning so I can catch up on some kip.

There's two further issues with the big move;

Problem 1: T has suddenly decided to become mobile, so you leave him in his cot at the bottom in the middle, and once you go to him when he wakes up, he's at the top, face squished against the bars, arm hanging out the gap. This raises the issue of cot bumpers, they seem very sensible, would prevent him from hurting himself against the bars and preventing him from sticking various limbs through the gaps. However there is then the view opposing cot bumpers, which raises the issues of suffocation. T could pull them off, get tangled in them, squish his face against them too hard and suffocate...usual story of baby advice, loads of evidence for and against and you're left to make your own mind up. So for now we have decided against them!

Problem 2: The noise factor for me.
I had a little practice run this morning, when T woke for his 6am feed, I transferred everything to his cot and popped him in that, laid my head down to sleep with the baby monitor at the side of my bed. So when OH got up at 7am I realised my problem. The nursery is next to the kitchen, and the nursery window looks out onto the dog run. In the nursery wall is a serving hatch which obviously links through to the kitchen. So at 7am, I heard OH, making his cup of tea, next to my ear, washing up next to my ear, tidying up; next to my ear. Then the dogs were let into their run which started with their usual morning barks at the trees, leaves, sky, whatever they fancy....next to my ear.

Urgh.

So it looks like when the big move eventually happens, i'm going to have to get up at 7am, else the baby monitor may be smashed against the wall!

So I will keep you up to date with how that goes.

Other than that it's been another PND ass kicking day, T, myself and my dad went to visit my Grandma this morning, who is losing her memory at a very fast pace.
After asking 'who's is that?!' whilst pointing at T, then us explaining he was my son, and she's met him about 6 times so far, we then moved to wedding talk. This resulted in my Grandma asking my dad what his role in the wedding would be 'erm I'll be father of the bride' said my dad, 'but you're not her father, you've got no kids' pointed out my Grandma. Needless to say there was an awkward pause, whilst we all digested this information (he is my real dad just for clarification!).
We left shortly after, poor ol' Grandma :(

Then T myself and my mum went to town to do some wedding shopping, and I got my other wedding dress (hoorraaaaayyy!) sorted the mens suits out yesterday.
I'm pretty much organised apart from the faffy bits. Am over the moon, we're easily managing to do the 2 weddings on our 3k budget. Perhaps I should write another blog 'Yummy Mummys' Budget Wedding Planning' What do you think?!

PND day 3 and what you actually use for the baby up to week 16!

Yesterday was uneventful hence why I didn't write. I think it was a draw in regards to me vs PND.

However I woke this morning feeling a bit blue :(

I think it's down to rubbish weather and an early feed, 3am, urrrgh.

I've set myself a goal to get T into his own room this weekend (just thinking of it makes me feel sad, but I can't keep him by my side till he's 19, his friends would think that was a bit uncool.)

So my task for today is to clean his room from top to bottom, hopefully get into town to pick up some finishing pieces and whilst I'm there look at wedding rings and dresses, that should snap me back into shape.

I've been chatting to a friend of mine who's due fairly soon, she was stressing about all the things that you need when you have a baby, so I thought I'd share what bits and pieces are actually required, well in the first 16 weeks anyways.

There's the obvious ones, clothes, nappies, baby wipes, creams, shampoos etc. Ask for your friends to get you these as gifts, we didn't ask but thats what people got us anyways and we didn't have to buy hardly anything for the first month!

Baby bath, fairly cheap if you look around, think ours was about 15 quid.

Moses basket, we paid 40 for ours, keep an eye out for the stands though as they all look really flimsy, my OH made ours. They trick you with the mattresses though (swines) they come with a bog standard plastic mattress, however after the first week we noticed every time we picked T up he was drenched in sweat, so we shelled out for an all singing all dancing mattress for 40 quid. Which is just a plastic mattress covered in a net with a bit of foam in it, surely you can buy them seperately for half the price!?

Travel system. Ours is a godsend, we got a car seat, moses baskety thing and a pushchair part, we've only used the car seat so far. The moses basket part seems a bit cruel, if your baby's awake he wants to see the world not just the sky! So we've not used that! These can be veeerrrrry expensive new, but there's loads of second hand pram shops around, we found ours and paid 200 quid for the lot, everything was almost immaculate, and it all comes off to be washed.

Then there is the most amazing piece of technology that I would insist every mother to be buys!

Angelcare movement baby monitor. It's amaaazing!
It comes with a movement mat which you stick under their mattress (it has to be on a hard surface or you're in for a few sleepless nights, so we just cut a piece of plywood to the size we needed and popped it in the basket) in a nutshell it sets an alarm off if the baby stops moving. So much easier than constatntly checking the baby to see if they're still alive by sticking your finger under its nose/putting a mirror under its nose/making loud noise/jiggling his hands to see if he wakes up!
If there's no movement for 15 seconds, it sets off a loud bleep, then if nothing is felt for a further 15 seconds it sets off an amazingly loud alarm!! It's awesome and the best thing we invested in, I can just go get on with my jobs whilst he's asleep without the overwhelming urge to dash in every couple of minutes and check on him.
They're between 60 - 80 quid but worth every penny!
 Also their customer service is exeptional, I thought we had a dicky monitor that kept switching itself off, so I emailed the Angelcare company, they sent a new monitor out within 3 days, didn't ask for proof of purchase or ask to send the old one back, very rare you find a complaint so easily resolved! So well done them!!

The other thing I swear by is an Iphone App called infantdiary, I appreciate not everyone has Iphones but I was logging stuff in a notebook before i found it.
Basically when you're a new mum you obsess over EVERYTHING, the colour of poo, the consistency, the smell of their wee, how often they poo and wee, how much they eat, how often, how much they sleep and again how often. This app (or a notebook) is an easy way to keep track of everything, so I log what time he fed, how much he took (if you're breastfeeding its how long he fed for) everytime I change a nappy and what was in it, and everytime he sleeps, whether it was a nap or a night sleep you can track how long he slept for.
It may sound a bit obsessive but when you're having a day where your brains not functioning, when he starts crying you check on the app and it opens on a summary page and tells you how long since he fed, how long since his nappy was changed and how long he's been awake for. Perfect!

So I think that's where I finish sharing my worldly knowledge!

Hoepfully I'll be able to write a more eventful blog this evening or tomorrow evening. Gonna go blast my Ipod and do some housework now whilst baby is fast asleep (but still alive cause I have the Angelcare monitor, oh yeaaaah, lol)

Baby Blues and Paranoia

Thought i'd write this whilst it was fresh in my mind.

Baby blues, or the weepies. Make you feel like your world has ended after the silliest of events has occured, due to hormones flying around especially when aunt flo is in town can turn you into a giant snivelling mess, as I am now!

My baby blues has been triggered by the usual things, other half making a joke which normally would have me in stitches but due to it being the wrong thing at the wrong time I cried like the world was ending, crying when the baby won't settle within 5 seconds when I just want to sleep, crying cause the baby's crying.
Then the not so usual things, whilst the OH has been at work, i've cried because I couldn't get my cup of tea to taste right after 4 attempts, cried because I couldn't decide what I wanted for lunch, cried cause i'd ran out of shampoo...you get the picture.

I'm pleased to say this is all totally normal.

Although it doesnt feel normal, the trick is to have an understanding partner. One who understands how truly upset you are when you stand in front of him, tears and snot streaming down your face and snap at him for letting you sleep for too long. In his head, he'd been the best boyfriend in all the land, letting you have 3 hours much needed sleep once he'd got in from work. In your head the following; he obviously didnt want to spend anytime with me, he forgot about me, he knows fine well if i sleep now i'll be awake all night and he wont care cause he'll be asleep and i'll be all alone with nothing to do but wait till the baby wakes up for a feed.

Another example is when he came home from work one night and i'd had T throwing up all the live long day alllll over me, I was waiting for him to come in and offer to watch the baby so I could have a much needed bath, the offer didn't come as he came in popped his head in the door to say hi and that he was jumping in the bath. In his head, all is well cause she looks happy and content with the baby, i've had a hard day at work, i'll have a lovely relaxing bath. He then surfaced from the bath and came in all happy and clean and lovely to face the screaming fury that was me, how DARE he not telepathically know that I needed a bath when i'd made no mention of being covered in sick, or even asked if he'd mind that I went in first, if our relationship carried on in this selfish way of his I was going to be a single mother and I would have to move back in with my parents and WHERE ON EARTH WOULD T SLEEP!?

Perfectly reasonable.

The paranoia side of things, again requires a very understanding partner *blows her other half a kiss across the room as she realises how patient and understanding he really is* I went through a phase (which is still in place) that I was to be kissed and told I was loved everytime he left the house, as if anything were to happen to him whilst he was out, I would always know that he loved me, and he would have no regrets that he didn't tell me enough (see i'm so thoughtful) I then became adament that I was going to die during childbirth, so insisted that we took out life insurance, as it made me cry to think of him mourning me with no extra income, as if the loss of me wasn't enough. (I'd died but T had lived if that wasnt clear!) the ultimate one when i knew a)how bananas I really was and b) that I was with the perfect man, was the day before my parents were due to leave on a cruise. There'd been some almighty cock ups and in my head it was all coming together that clearly it was final destination 4, all the signs were saying that they shouldn't go. I received a call from my dad saying that instead of travelling down in 2 stages with an overnight stay, something had cropped up and they were going to do it in one stage in the morning. This was the final warning in my Final Destination film mind. So even though it was late and my OH had had a long day, he knew what was going through my head and offered to take me round, so I could make my peace incase it was the last time I would ever see them.

Crazy how minds work.

But hopefully this eases the minds of anyone suffering the same, or amuses those who are reading it!