*sniff* Bye bye clothes

Today I posted off the first two batches of Orna's clothes that I've ebayed. There are quite a few I am currently refusing to part with, but I have to be realistic, with no plans for number 2 and limited storage space we just don't need them. As much as I would like it, she's never going to shrink to fit back into them...

The white stuff was all the "newborn" things we got to take to the hospital that were so huge on her, the right hand side was trousers and dungarees we got before she was born (bye bye fluffy penguin), and some vests that were a present afterwards (amusingly, once we knew she was a girl).

We went to the NCT group in the afternoon, where Orn showed off with her rolling over, threw a big hissy fit then finally settled to sleep, then was in a good mood all evening! She did refuse an evening nap, but finally dropped off at 10:30, leaving Mummy and Daddy to have a nice glass of wine.

Thundery Thursday

We woke up to bright sunshine, then the clouds rolled in. It looked like the world was about to end, but as it didn't, we decided to get on the bus and go to a group. The minute I set foot out of the door the rain came pelting down, there was thunder, there was lightning. A river ran down the street - good job Orn was in her "boat". We changed buses in town and it was still very stormy, got to the library and it sounded like the roof was going to come down! It all cleared up towards the end, and I thought about walking back to town but decided not to risk it. We got two books out of the library, a board book edition of Peepo! and a baby's picture book about Hannukah (we thought this would amuse Daddy).

In town, we went into M&S and came out again to find a confusing amount of icy slush on the ground, we'd managed to miss a hailstorm with stones the size of golfballs!

Dexy's Midnight Ornster

I love dungarees, they look so cute! Granted, these 3-6 month ones are still a bit big, but adorable. We watched the video to 'Come On Eileen' to see how her outfit matched theirs, and she seemed to enjoy me singing along

New sling!

The ebay cheapie mei tai has served us well, but now Orna is bigger and wrigglier it can be a pain holding her in place while you put it on so I've been looking for something with straps and clips. I spent ages trying to decide between the Beco Butterfly II and an Ergo. In the end, I saw a genuine Ergo Sport on ebay and went for it. As Daddy is tall and stick-like, and Mummy is short and round, it suggested it'd accomodate both those frames. It arrived today, and by "bigger" they obviously meant people who attract objects to orbit them, it goes huge! It seems comfy though, and has the benefit of the waist strap acting like a girdle on the baby bulge.

It means she can help out in the kithchen ;-)

Swim 3

Today Orn woke up in a fantastic mood. Lots of smiles and noises as Daddy got her dressed, more chatting as we got ready to go out and then she seemed to enjoy swimming too. We went round and round the rapids, and as both Mummy and Daddy were there we each got a go on the big slide and in the jacuzzi!

After swimming, we went to have photos taken to enter the local paper's Baby of the Year comp, and as Grandma and Grandad D have been desperate to get some formal photos taken it seemed a good oppertunity. Now I just have to remember to go back and see if any are worth buying. We then went for Orna's first Nandos, she slept through most of that and let us eat, which was nice.

She's eaten like a little hungry hippo this afternoon, a big relief after the non-hungry days earlier in the week. She's also been a bit clingy which has made it hard to do things that needed doing (like washing or making tea). But then it has been a busy day!

Friday schmiday

Did our normal Friday jaunt to the NCT group. On the way to the train station I passed the 585, which happened to be being driven by one of the drivers who normally does the bus I got to work. He waved and smiled and pointed excitely at the pram, which was nice.

Orn and her "boyfriend" had a fist-chew off staring at each other (yay, she's finally noticing other babies!). Decided to nip around the shops afterwards and get the bus home, we must have missed one, then one turned up 10 mins late and announced he wasn't going all the way. Grrrr. Poor Orna was pretty hungry by the time we got home, and I thought my boobs were going to burst!

Project Rainbow COMPLETE!

This afternoon I finished dying the blue and the green bits. Orn is off her food, like yesterday so I decided not to go out anywhere just to let her nap and try and get her to take a decent number of feeds.

A picnic in the park

Today we met Orna's boyfriends (and their Mums) at Coombe Abbey for a walk and a picnic. We saw lots of squirrels (which Mummy liked), and Orna seemed to enjoy gawping at the trees and things. We then sat down for lunch and it all went a bit pear shaped, she screamed and screamed and wouldn't calm down, eventually putting her in the pushchair and moving her back and forth got to sleep. All was well, I finished my lunch and then she woke up and it happened again. She launched herself at my finger and chewed like billy-o, so I think her teeth were bothering her again. 25ml of galpamol and she settled beautifully.

In the evening, we went out to Taybarn's (classy!) for Daddy's Birthday (having been unable to go out on his actual Birthday as we were testing out the washing machine). We planned to go to Nando's but there was a huge wait for a table, something we can't really do with a baby in tow.

2nd Jabs

Poor Orna had her second immunisations today. When we got to the clinic she was smiling away at the nurse, needless to say that vanished with the poke of a needle. She seemed much better this time around, and had stopped crying by the time we left the building. She was mostly OK, but wanted lots of cuddles and got upset if put down. She did have a nice play on her gym in the afternoon while I baked some cakes for Daddy to take in on his Birthday tomorrow. She had a bit of an upset time in the evening, but settled quickily. Before we tried to get her to have her night time nap I took her temperature, and it was a bit raised so tried to get her to take some Calpol. She was really not impressed, and I was surprised because it used to be delicious. It looks like when they took out the sugar and the bright pink colouring they also removed the flavour.

New washing machine comes tomorrow, so we spent much of the evening re-arranging furniture to create a path to the kitchen. Easier said than done with a clingy baby! 

 And if we were left with any doubt about her teething...

Happy Father's Day! RIP washing machine

Today was Daddy's first father's day. Orna got him a card and some chocolate (a Cybercandy Mystery Parcel). We had a day of veging, I red Orn a bit more of The Enormous Crocodile and washed a load of nappies. We then did a load of our clothes, and the machine screamed and clunked on the spin cycle. We emptied it, I ran it empty on slow spin and it was fine. We then decided to run another proper cycle, and the clunk got much worse. Daddy opened the door to be greeted by stinky smoke, and so we decided it had gone to the junkyard in the sky. I spent an hour handwashing all the itty bitty baby clothes that had been in there that now stank of plastic, and that was that!

My teethies hurt!

She's definitely teething, there are two obvious lumps in her top gum, and various "shapes" all around her gumline.

That and she'll chew anything that stays still long enough:

New toys!

I've been finding lugging the camera around along with the bag of changing stuff a bit much, so I wanted to buy a new, smaller camera. We went to Jessops to buy one, and got passport photos done for Orna at the same time. They weren't really set up for babies, they have a white screen and a stool, I sat her up on it with just a hand behind her and she looked so proud. The man said that he'd taken pictures of a 15 week old recently, and it was tricky as it was small and floppy. He seemed shocked when I said Orn is only 13 weeks, what a strong girl she is.

We then popped to get her some plastic tat, I bought her a Fisher Price plastic noisy camera, the seahorse that everyone is raving about to help babies sleep, a kicking piano thing to encourage her to use her legs (I'm not sure she needs encouraging!!) and a noisy plastic triangular thing. No doubt I'll regret those soon enough! I took her out in the carrycot, and it didn't take too long for her to remind me that she does not appreicate lying flat and being unable to look around. I decided we'd get the bus home, as the pram was now laden with stuff, it ended up being 15 minutes late and was only a single decker (at school kicking out time!). Getting off was interesting, and involved 5 or 6 people getting off first to let us out, then getting back on. Oops!

Today, you are 3 months old

And I can't believe it. How can someone change so much in such a short space of time? You started off as this tiny, fragile thing and now you're a proper tiny person. No longer content to just lie down and let the world pass by, you need to sit up and take in everything. I wish you'd stay small a bit longer.

I'm dreading leaving you to go back to work, I don't want to miss any changes, I don't want to miss any firsts. Blah.

11lb 12oz

That's 6 whole pounds put on, taking into account that she dropped after birth. Wow, that's a whole lot of milk.

She also rolled back-to-front for the first time. She's been trying so hard for the last couple of weeks, but her pesky arm kept stopping her. Clever girl.

Swim 2

After failing to go for a swim in Coventry last week (I realised it was half term, and would probably be hellish) we went today. I preferred the Pingles pool, it seemed more fun, but liked that I could wheel the pram right up to the pool edge. Orna seemed to enjoy it more this time around, there were proper smiles. I braved dunking her under a couple of times, she looked a bit surprised but did open her eyes and do the cool "baby underwater" swim. I must look in to the next size up swim nappy as it was a real fight getting it on to her! She screamed bloody murder when changing her back into her clothes, I think I was a bit slow.

After convincing myself that she is starting to teethe, we went in to boots and stocked up on teethers and teething gel, then got some baby ibuprofen and paracetamol (hoping to avoid using these).

Shouty Sunday

That's her shouting, not us. The sun shone this morning, we stayed at home and got a few loads of laundry done. Poor Orn has been quite unsettled, chewing at her fists and anything she can get her hands on (our hands, our arms, muslins, toys) and dribbling like mad. Holding the teether we have to her mouth and letting her chew seems to help, but she's not dextrous enough to hold it in herself yet. I think we will have to resort to teething gel, since the Anbesol liquid is out of stock everywhere. 

Getting closer! If only that arm would move.

She's making progress on the rolling back to front, she spent a fair bit of the time on her mat with her head and sholders on her side,  but waist down managing to get onto the front. If she could only figure out how to pull her arm in she'd be over. Lots more grabbing at hanging toys (and licking and chewing them), it's amazing how quickly changes happen.

Big Girl's Pushchair

Slightly unsure about it!

We all had a nice lie in this morning, and didn't get up properly until 10am. Shortly after, the post arrived bringing the new cheeky wipes box for upstairs, and some more pop-in nappies (the plan is I will now sell the itti bitti tuttos we're not really getting on with). 

Today we had the first trip out in the proper pram. Given that the carrycot leads to grumpiness when she's wide awake I thought she'd enjoy having a good look around. We went to pay some cheques in and had a general wander around town. We were hoping to do "Orn's first feeding the squirrels" but there weren't any around which was a bit sad!

Fuzzy Friday!

I'd just managed to get back to sleep this morning when the door went (7:52), and a postman brought me one of my first batch of jubilee orders. Some lovely smelly bum butter and washing stuff, a couple of funky badges for nappies and (shhhh) a second Albert and Lovelace. 

 This afternoon we were off to the NCT group, and as it was really cold, rainy and generally grotty I decided to crack out a snowsuit for Orn and see if it fitted. She didn't seem entirely thrilled with being tucked up all cosy, but eventually cracked a (toasty!) smile. Today's discussion was cloth nappies, only 4 other mums and babies turned up but it ended up being quite a nice little chat. Orn spent a little while desperately trying to roll onto her front (something she has continued to do at home this evening) but she's not quite managed yet. 

She's been a bit of a grump this afternoon, again I'm wondering if it's teeth. I can feel something a little bit sharp under her top gum so she can probably be forgiven for being out of sorts. Must buy some teething powder or liquid in town tomorrow.

Wing Wah!

Orna's first chinese meal (well, first time to watching Mummy and Daddy eat Chinese). I started off slightly on the wrong footing with one person who told me it's a shame I'm not breastfeeding. This was after I explained the issues we'd had, and that I was managing to express all her feeds so I was less than impressed to be told that. Yes, it is a shame FOR ME but not for anyone else, and it's not actually the end of the world (and I can see that now!). I do find it rather patronising for others to present the view that it is. Even if I had switched to formula feeding it's rather unlikely she'd have burst into flames or dropped dead (I hear it's not poison). Still, I managed to stuff my face, as did Daddy (who when I had said I was thinking of going to a baby thing meeting for lunch had pulled a rather sad "how can you eat that without me?" face so he came along too).

I got the bus there, and Orn decided she wanted to stand on my lap and stare out of the window rather than stay in her carrycot. It might be worth moving her to the pushchair proper a bit sooner than I had planned.

Wet Wednesday

A nice lie in for us both today, Orn woke up properly around 10:30, in time to wave Grandma and Grandad D off. I had planned to take her swimming, but when I looked up the opening times I realised it was half term and it would probably be a bit noisy and busy, so I decided we'll go next week instead. Today she had fun looking in the mirror on her ladybird sorter toy, and then spent a while chatting to the baby in her hanging mirror which was rather cute. A not so cute grumpy half hour in the evening where nothing would settle her followed. She's been quite clingy today so I didn't manage to dye the green and blue bits, but there's no real hurry.

I had a root through all her 0-3 month clothes, and she's worn everything we bought and that was bought new for us with the exception of one pair of feetie leggings (not bad going!). Not worn all the stuff we've been lent/given second hand but there are only so many days in a week.

Grandparents round 2

Another unsettled day, Orn refused to eat for a lot of the day which was a bit worrying. She also slept a lot in the afternoon (all through her first trip to Taybarns!), and then refused to sleep all evening and got grumpy. I finally got her to nap at about 8pm, she then woke up starving at 11 and had a couple of bottles. In retrospect, a weekend of meeting people followed with one day off and then more visitors was a bad idea and is too much for a little baby. We'll have to remember that for the future.

Monday, Monday

Not a lot to report, Daddy dressed her this morning (successfully!). Got the red and purple bits of Project Rainbow dyed! Orn was a bit of a grumpasaurus, I think the busy-ness of the weekend caught up with her.

A party for Orna! (Shh, don't tell her it's the Queen's Diamond Jubilee)

Today lots of people came to meet Orna for the first time, and she was very lucky and was given lots of presents. She wasn't very interested in watching Queenie float down the river, but was in good spirits to meet Auntie H, Grandad N, Mummy's friend H and some of Grandma's friends that I've known since I was tiny. One made her a beautiful Very Hungry Caterpillar blanket, Auntie H bought her some clothes (non-pink ones) and Great Auntie J got her a memory photo album.

 We ate lots of cake so were well fueled up for the drive home. When we got back, I noticed she had learnt to "interlace" her fingers. She's been holding her hands together like a little Monty Burns for ages, but has finally worked out how to lock fingers. She's also suddenly started grabbing with intent. I put her on the playmat while we unpacked and she grabbed hold of Captain Calamari and wouldn't let go, and deliberately reached out to grab some of the other hanging toys. She has been grabbing necks of t-shirts, the bottom of bibs, hems of t-shirts/dresses and wires/string for a while but I had thought it was by accident as she would only look at toys. Who's a clever girl?

Visiting Grandad and Grandma S

Today we went for Orna's longest drive yet, made even longer by hideous amounts of Jubilee traffic. This time we managed to travel much lighter, the car didn't seem to be bursting at the seams, despite us taking cloth nappies this time! I packed the "pram legs", and it was only when we got to my Dad's I realised that we wouldn't need them at all and they were just taking up space.

Grandma S has made lots of lovely little cardies for Orn, so it's a good job the nice weather is over and she can wear them! We also dispatched Grandad to the attic to get all my "baby" books down so I have some more things to read to Orna - she doesn't seem bored of the books we do have, but I need some variety. Two large boxes later, he says "That's not all of them", it's certainly enough for now. One book, Counting for Bears (it's not called that, the name has just slipped my mind) I remember quite well. I do wonder if someone saw the comedy of "Nine bears bathing", one wearing a medallion (perhaps this is soap on a rope) when the book was written. Turns out the term Bear did not exist in 1985 when the book was first published.


We then went to Great Auntie J's house, to stay the night. Orn was massively unimpressed with FiWi's play mat that had been brought out of retirement for her, and the cats looked horrified about the arrival of a baby.

She's getting big...

The day started at 6ish when I woke up and realised it was long past time to express, shortly after Orn woke up and decided that it was time for some food. After she'd eaten she was feelig particualrly chatty and didn't seem impressed with being put back into her basket, yet was out (almost) like a light when I put her in my side of the bed. It's obviously much nicer than her basket! The post arrived, bringing the rest of the dyes for Project Rainbow. Yay!

Doesn't look thrilled, does she? I wonder when she'll start to smile at the camera, at the moment it takes ages to capture a smile as her face goes blank as soon as mine vanishes behind the lens. She's getting so big though.

This morning I booked her 12 week jabs (poor baby), and somehow time got away from me. This afternoon we decided to go to the NCT group in Rugby, today's topic was something along the lines of "The River of Becoming a Mother" (it was a bit airy-fairy metaphorical for me to properly absorb). Our task was to figure out where we were on it, and how we felt about it. H's Mum and I decided we were between rocky bits, having gone up a bunch of dead ends and, feeling fine about it. There certainly have been rocks, and I'm sure there'll be many more. I did mention that it feels weird that I am a Mum, and I sort of forget sometimes, but I seem to be alone there, ah well!
 On the train back she got a bit fed up again, but she seems to settle when held up to look out of the window and some old ladies called her a he, despite her purple t-shirt!

In movement progress, her normal slide up and down the changing mat and crashing at the top "bumper" was surpassed - she leaped halfway off!