Maternity TV Watching

I had expectations of spending last January sat on the sofa with my feet up watching rubbish TV waiting for baby to arrive. The doctors, however, had other plans and induced me at 38 weeks. With Christmas and being induced early I didn't get any opportunity for sitting and doing nothing prebaby.

A new born baby sleeps a lot! It didn't feel like that at the time but looking back....... Usually during the day and not at night when the parents would like to be sleeping too. 1KB didn't like to sleep alone and preferred to be held during her naps - she still does, although we're less inclined to give into her as she is rather heavy now. This resulted in a large amount of time being spent stuck on the sofa under a sleeping baby. The more savvy will ensure that there is a TV remote, a bar of chocolate and a drink all within an arm's length. 

I therefore managed to get in quite a bit of tv watching. For some bizarre reason I decided that my usual selection of Law and Order and CSI was not appropriate and too dark for watching with a baby - even though she was sleeping. So my go to maternity tv was Gilmore Girls. I watched the whole lot almost 1.5 times as I recorded it on my PVR and 5* just kept showing it episode after episode.

Yesterday I watched the final ever episode again and feel that, that marks the end of my Gilmore Girls watching. A friend of mine watched the entirety of West Wing during her night time feeds. What are you go to TV series when you're ill or have spare time on your hands.

My sister is expecting and due her baby in January. She has yet to pick her boxset so I'm looking for recommendations. 

Any Other Woman - Stay at Home Dad

I'm over on Any Other Woman today talking about how O is now a stay at home Dad. Would love to hear your thoughts or feedback.

Thanks to the lovely ladies over there for giving me the opportunity to post on their excellent site.

Mr Right

(source)

This picture is so far from reality it made me laugh.

O is always right, I'm sometimes allowed to be slightly right, but never 100%.

Learnt and forgotten

I'm just going to randomly post this as if it hasn't been months since I last posted here. 

I was randomly emptying the dishwasher the other day and realised it would be much quicker if I could still stack five hot glasses on my hand like I used to be able to when I worked as a bar maid. That got me thinking about things I learnt through previous employments but have forgotten or can no longer do.

Lifting hay bales - when I worked as a stable girl I could lift a bale of hay or push a wheel barrow full of manure. I reckon I could probably now do these things again as carrying 1KB has given me upper body strength that I haven't had for years. I was also able to spend the day in the freezing cold without complaining because I loved being around the horses and helping children learn to ride so much.

Carrying glasses - working as a bar maid taught me a great number of skills; how to pour the perfect pint, how to total three pints of smooth without the till, how to carry glasses and how to give back as good as I got in terms of drunken abuse.

That is all I can think of at the moment. What about you?

Failing and Winnng

Failing

Friday morning I headed to baby group as usual. We're a little later than normal but nothing drastic. Park the pram at the back of the room and pull 1KB out her car seat getting an unmistakable waft as I do. So pick up the change bag and head to the facilities which happen to be in the disabled toilet. Lock the door behind me and lay 1KB down. She immediately starts crying as it is quite a noisy, hot and stuffy room. This is going to need to be quick. Lift her t-shirt and see that the contents of the nappy have exploded onto her vest. Thankfully only the vest is effected so she can go back into the leggings and t-shirt. Not going to be a quick process though. Take out the rather light packet of wipes clean her up using the very last wipe. Put a clean nappy on and start searching for a clean vest (she is still screaming). Pull everything out of the change bag - no clean vests, fine will put her in the sleep suit without a vest. Look at the size of the sleep suit and then at the screaming child on the change mat. Sleep suit is 0-3 months not going to fit a large 5 month old. Swear a lot. Put her back in the leggings and t-shirt pulling the leggings up as far as possible to try cover some of the belly rolls. Repack the 7 muslins, 5 bibs and 2 winter hats back into the change bag (clearly illustrating my child is a sicky baby oh and she is still screaming). Finally pick her up and the bag turn to the door, turn the lock and nothing happens. Turn it the other way nothing happens. Frantically turn it any which way I can nothing. We're locked in this hot loud smelly room with 1KB screaming. I pulled the disabled alarm cord. The janitor opened the door very quickly from the outside and I must only have been stuck for 2 mins but boy was I flustered. Went back to baby group and 1KB was immediately quiet.

Winning

I got invited round for lunch with a new friend from baby group. On the day that 1KB has no vest and I now have no wipes I get invited on an impromptu lunch date! Luckily though we needed to drop by the supermarket to pick up lunch so I just bought more wipes and she went without a vest for the day (was only a small shop or I'd have bought a vest). Had a lovely afternoon sitting in her garden chatting and have been invited out again next week. Then to top off a good day I went for drinks (soft) with work colleagues and when I arrived home just before 7pm O had 1KB bathed and ready for bed.

Change bag has been carefully restocked with appropriate sized clothing and some muslins have been removed.

Appetite

I lost my appetite as soon as morning sickness kicked in (really should be renamed all day sickness). I was physically sick on average once a day from week 6 to week 16ish. Throughout the rest of the pregnancy my appetite didn't return and during the early weeks with 1KB it still wasn't back to normal. I was eating what I could (one handed) when I could and often it was just easier to tend to her and forget about me. However I can safely say that my appetite has returned in earnest so I now need to be a little bit careful - I'm not trying to lose weight I'd actually just like to stay where I am now and not put any on. Unfortunately food that is easy to eat one handed and satisfies an immediate hunger (don't often get a lot of time to prepare food) seems to be unhealthy for you - or in my case that is true. Grapes, apples or bananas just never hit the spot the way chocolate, crisps or toast do.
Anyone got any simple meals or snack suggestions that will satisfy my hunger? I have on a couple of occasions made myself the equivalent of a packed lunch - although we don't go anywhere. When I have some free time in the evening I make a sandwich to keep in the fridge so that the next day if 1KB is having a particularly bad day I can just eat while she feeds or sleeps in my arms.

It takes a village

They say it takes a village to raise a child and that may well be true and useful but when everyone in the village has a different opinion it can be bewildering and overwhelming. Thankfully these opinions have not been forced upon me but with so many options it is difficult to know what is best:
Breast feed or not
Top up with formula or not
Dummy or not
Own room or our room
In her cot or our bed
She is colicky or not
Give her gripe water, colic drops, fennel tea or not
Feed her on demand
Don't over feed her
Let her nap for long periods
Keep her awake
On most of these points I don't care I will follow instructions and there in lies the problem. There are no instructions and if you take one route there are hundreds of opinions and experts to tell you why they'd do it differently. You have to do what is best for your individual child and if someone would just tell me what that is I'll get on with it.

Reflux

We think 1KB has reflux - this is what the health visitor has suggested or rather asked me if that was what I thought was wrong. We're going to the GP on Monday although I'm not really expecting much more of a diagnosis. I'm getting the impression that infants and their digestive systems are quite the mystery.
I thought all babies were sick  and perhaps she was just greedy and took too much food. However as time has gone on and we're just not able to extend the two hour period I'm getting more and more resentful. She wouldn't need fed every two hours if she kept hold of some of the food I gave her and didn't throw it all back at me. All over her clothes, soaking numerous bibs and muslins, my clothes and our new carpet. 
I'm now realising that perhaps it isn't normal to lose that much of a feed and her screaming and writhing an hour after being fed is perhaps to do with her stomach churning and not simply that she hates falling asleep.
We've been prescribed infant Gaviscon which we happily started using - after figuring out how the heck to actually give it to a breast fed baby. But she immediately became constipated and the writhing in pain from stomach acid was replaced by straining to fill her nappy. The dosage instructions say that for her weight (luckily she has no problem with her weight gain) she can have 12 sachets a day - we've reduced her dosage to 2 sachets a day and she is still bunged up. We're giving tummy massages and hot baths to try and help her along. The two sachets unfortunately don't seem to be cutting out the vomit so we need to up the dosage.
Hoping the GP might have some advice that isn't simply different medicine to help with the constipation - there is a lot of advice on what you can and can't give babies but in my experience they'll give you plenty of sugar filled medicines. Or maybe we may need to decide which is worst constipation or vomit.

Ground hog 2 hours

1KB is on a two hour cycle. From about 7am she eats, plays, screams and sleeps in a two hour cycle - sometimes on a really good day we can stretch it to two and a half hours. You could almost set your watch by her. She will appear to be sleeping soundly but bang on two hours since her last feed she will begin to stir. If we go out for a walk or in the car she will sleep for longer however I don't always want to go for a walk every two hours.

I need to do something to elongate this cycle but I've no idea how - any suggestions? I feel like I'm living in ground hog hour over and over again the same happens.

Sing a song

I'm running out of songs to sing to 1KB. Songs with small actions are good. Our current favorite is the hokey cokey however after the 25th time a day it gets a little grating even if 1KB still smiles when I start. I hope it is a smile and not a grimace. She made her feelings clear when I sang Somewhere Over the Rainbow - she started screaming when I started singing and stopped screaming when I stopped singing.
What do you sing to your little ones or what songs can you remember from your own childhood?

Alien abductions

I have a theory that a least some of the reported alien abductions are from new parents. For a few weeks there at two in the morning by the blue/white light of the night light, with huge black eyes and oversized head you could mistake 1KB for an alien. Sleep deprivation could play a factor too though.

2012

A new start should be all about looking forward but instead I thought I'd start by looking back to the year that was 2012. 

Great minds clearly think alike because Gaynor from Our day by design posted a 2012 round up a few days ago. I promise I had already started drafting my own post before I saw Gaynor's.

January - nephew turned 2

February - went to Murrayfield with #2 and her boyfriend to watch Scotland vs England 6 nations match. Work was crazy crazy busy.

March - niece was born, celebrated husband's big birthday with a weekend on the edge of the Lake District.

April - a quiet month we had a visit from the in-laws.

May - found out that we were pregnant, took a train to the South of France, spent a week in France with my parents not telling them I was pregnant, battling morning sickness and not eating cheese, pate or drinking wine (they didn't guess I was amazed).

June - Good friends got married in a field in torrential rain, we camped. I was very tired and very sick. Did Race for Life with my sisters and Mum - resisted the temptation to tell them we were pregnant (we'd agreed to wait until after our first scan).

July - Had 12 week scan and finally told family and friends that we were pregnant, told work that I was pregnant and they'd need to find cover. Went to see an Olympic football match. Celebrated our 2 year wedding anniversary.

August - My birthday. Went to London for the weekend those that could did Go Ape and those that weren't allowed watched (I sulked). Spent a week up North with the in-laws.

September - Had 20 week scan. Celebrated the arrival of a friend's baby boy.

October - Another quiet month.

November - Celebrated a big birthday for my Mum, we had a photos taken (my Mum is obsessed by getting photos of us all), went for a cookery lesson (twice baked cheese souffles yummy) and had a half day spa.

December - I spent a lot of time at the hospital being monitored due to issues with my blood pressure. I finished work for at least 9 months. After much deliberation we headed up north for Christmas.

1KB

I haven't blogged for quite some time. So long in fact that while I've been away I have managed to be pregnant and had a daughter in early January without any mention gracing these pages. The pages that kept me sane through wedding planning but felt too public for my journey to starting a family.
However I'd like to start writing again. I also find myself in need of a community to support my sanity as my world changes so dramatically.
Being how I like to be mysterious/protect some anonymity I'll refer to my daughter as 1KB within these pages.

Saying something

I started reading my blog from the beginning. It is embarrassing. I have a strong desire to delete all the posts. I'm so far resisting the temptation.