Joining the library!

The nice weather is well and truly over. Today we went back to the attachment parenting group, and I was given this fabulous sticker to adorn one of the bottles. It's not quite a giant banner, but it's a good start! Orn had her little greenhouse raincover on and stayed lovely and toasty, while my ankles froze (I'd gone out in 3/4 length trousers - I'm not ready to give up summer yet!).

We braved the terrifying Hobbycraft lift to get some yellow dye for stage 2 of "project rainbow", then went to the library for Orn to join! We've now got a couple of bookmarks (not sure we need those when her books tend to only have 6 pages), and a nice big certificate. I took two books out, so we'll have fun reading those. With the books only having a few pages they don't hold my interest for many reads...

Lazy Wednesday

Neither of us did much today. Orn had lots of naps, I did a few loads of washing and started Project Rainbow. That isn't as exciting as it sounds, it's just me dying a bunch of white sleepsuits and muslins a range of fun colours, today was Goldfish Orange!

In which we leap into the road...

We met a couple of the antenatal ladies and babies for a bit of a potter around Coombe Abbey Park and a picnic. Orn had a nice sleep on the journey, but woke up when we got there. She's currently going through a phase where she hates not being able to see what is going on, so I had to carry her around the park. Some Coventry Uni students were rehersing Alice in Wonderland, which was interesting. There were giant papier mache legs in one tree, and spiders in another. There's no bus stop at Coombe, so to flag the bus down on the way home you shove your arm out and hope for the best. We made it.

In the evening we went to Orn's first BBQ (second, if you count Daddy cooking some chicken and kebabs on a disposable outside the back door for tea on Sunday). She was much admired by people, so that was nice. I had her dressed up very girly to remind everyone she is a girl.

Smile!

At least someone is happy that it's time to get up!

One finger, one thumb, one arm, one leg, one nod of the head keep moving

The song is lodged in my head! This morning we went to Rhyme Time. Orn is a bit young still really, but I needed to brush up on my kid's songs. At the moment she still looks thrilled when I sing "Orny-orn-orn, Orny-orny-orn-orn" to the tune of Alouette, but I'm sure she'll want a bit of variety soon. I wasn't convinced by their version of "The Wheels on the Bus", I think we'll stick with "my" version.

I missed a parcel while we were out, it was the disposable Flip inserts I've bought for our summer holiday. It had been delivered next door, when I knocked to ask for it there was no answer but I could hear people in there. I did wonder what a bunch of students would want with disposable nappy bits, it's best not to ask. When I went back later, the guy swore no one had taken in a parcel. Luckily when Daddy was in the garden later the girl passed it over the wall to him!

Little baby, Big Bed

It's a tactic that works. Every time it looks like she's growing up, buy something bigger and put her in it. We finally got round to assembling the cot bed today, Monday marked a week since it was delivered so I really had to check all the bits were there!
Our room is now very, very full. I can't bear the idea of carting her off to a seperate room, it's going to be bad enough when she's out the basket (which will be very soon) not right next to my head.

"Things I wish I'd known before having a baby"

Today I went to the NCT group in Rugby, and the topic for discussion was as above. At first I thought there wasn't a lot, but after a few minutes realised there were loads of things.

I wish I had known:

• Breastfeeding is hard. For the vast majority of people it isn't as easy as shove a baby on your boob and it's fed.
• All those things you say there's no way you'll do (co-sleep - too dangerous! Sniff their bum to see if they've pooed - too gross!) you will. 
• You realise when you give birth you will have to show off your nether regions. You will show them to lots of people who don't seem to realise it might be a bit embarassing for you.

Things I did "know" but hadn't really thought through.

• I had illusions of my lovely, relaxed birth where I'd be wandering around, employing various massage techniques and it'd all go OK. In reality it was flipping painful, my "wandering around" was limited to walking back and forth to the toilet repeatedly, then having to have a little lie down on the floor, or being stuck on the walk back. I couldn't stand being touched, so massage was out!
• Everything is a contest.

There are more for both lists - I'll get back to you.

Orn had her first run-in with a bully. She was lying next to one of her little boyfriends, and I turned my back to get a mini brownie when all of a sudden there was an almighty Orn cry. A big baby had crawled up and smacked her in the head. Poor little Orn, at least it didn't bruise. I bought her a play gym on the way home which she absoutely loves (though this "surprised eyes" photo might say different!). She spent quite a while staring at the star thingy and cooing. Her favourite bit of music that it does seems to be "Eine Kleine Nachtmusic", it gets the most smiles. Later, in un-cute news she did whine and whinge for an hour while Daddy retreated to the bath. Maybe she was remembering the bully.

A day at home (or look at my nappy stash part 1)

Today we've been stuck at home. I had planned to go to the group in Earlsdon, but Orn has either been fast asleep or absolutely starving all day (12 week growth spurt? If babies are late do these fall when they "should" have been born?), and it didn't seem fair to take her out just because I wanted to leave the house. This morning a letter arrived telling me I'd had her tongue tie cut on the 8th, which is weird because I was there and I remember it, but in fun post PINK OWLS arrived (from here) :-D Along with the ribbons to make a taggy blanket...now if only I had some pins.

So while she was asleep, I thought I'd do a nappy inventory and here is a photo of the clean and dry parts of the "stash":

My favourites here are the Pop-Ins. The New Generation are so cute, and (boring but incredibly functional Little Lambs aside) they're my only nappy so far that haven't given a single leak. The original is a smidge more bulky, but just as good. The Bumgenius Freetime is also great (though has given me one leak), and people rave about the V4 pockets so I bought those last week (from Nappy Go Lucky). Not tried them out yet as the inserts have only had one pre-wash (plus the insert from the "Bubble" coloured one arrived with a broken popper so we're waiting for a replacement which isn't really a reason not to use it as she'll be fine with the newborn insert).

Yesterday marked the first full weak in cloth nappies, quite a milestone! In that week we've only had two (wee) leaks which I'm quite pleased with. Now, in order to actually save money, I just need to stop buying them!

And now, yet again, it's time to express. I wonder if cows get fed up of milking time?

Wednesday: Lunch with the Boys!

Yesterday was a busy day, and if I thought Tuesday was hot I'd seen nothing yet. We had an "early" start to the day - out at 9:40 to get the bus to the Bell Green Breastfeeding Support Group. I've not been since the tongue tie cut, firstly because it was the day after she had it done and she was a bit grumpy, then last week she was fast asleep when we needed to leave, and as it was only 2 days after her jabs I let her sleep. We waited 25 minutes for a bus (one must've been early, the next late), so it was a very flying visit. The very helpful BFing support lady had a look at her try and feed, and said she's still not really opening her mouth enough and suggested sticking my tongue out a lot to get her to copy. I'm forever blowing raspberries at her, but she won't copy me. A fortnight a go she did copy one of my antenatal course friends doing it though, so she can!

Flying visit over, we got the bus back to town for Ikea trip of the week number 2, this time to meet the ladies from the Antenatal course. It was the first time we've all got together in a month, and also the first time since one moved to NZ so that was a little weird. They're all growing so fast, and little D who was only a fortnight old last time we saw him has got enormous! Orn was a bit fed up by the time we left, so I didn't manage to get to the shops and buy pins like I had meant to, and I had to have her on my knee on the bus home as she'd only be quiet looking out of the window. Got her home and stripped her down to her nappy and she was much happier. Poor toasty baby.

Tuesday: Lunch with the Girls

Order of service for today was to go to Ikea and meet up with some of the local people from Babycentre, and their little girls! It was the first really, really hot day we've had and I'm not sure Orna liked it much. I had taken her out in a vest, t-shirt and some thin linen trousers but she was roasting by the time we got to town. At first she seemed to like it, but then had enough quite quickly, she seemed to struggle to keep milk down and had little sicks which is most unlike her!

She's still not at all interested in other babies, but seemed to enjoy watching the other Mums. In Ikea itself, she loved looking at the lights in the lighting section and they got smiles. Keeping her in the carrycot when she's wide awake is now proving difficult, especially on the bus. She likes to look around and will often stand happily on my knee but scream bloody murder when I try and lie her down again. Poor baby.

I also bought some wool to try and knit some babylegs. It'll be my first go with self striping, yay!

Snores to the left of me...

...snuffles to the right. Here I am, stuck in the middle lying on my side unable to get to sleep.

We need a bigger bed.

Orn's Big Bed

Orna's cotbed came today, it looks enormous. We're going to have to re-arrange bedroom furniture to fit it in! Luckily, she's still small enough for her moses basket, I like having her right next to me. It's so easy to scoop her out and feed her, or comfort her if needed. Last night I sneezed and it must have scared her and she ended up crying her little heart out, I could just reach over and move her in with me to calm her down. It's a shame we don't have a king sized bed so I could just keep her with us until she seems big enough to sleep alone, but in a double there's not really enough room for all three of us to get a good night's sleep.

Matching clothes

Daddy bot, Mummy bot and Baby bot

A few weeks back, I accidentally managed to dress Orna and I in co-ordinating outfits. We both had green t-shirts and blue trousers. We went out and about like this, I only noticed when I got home and had a bit of a worry people would think I did it on purpose. One of the "problems" with buying clothes for someone else is that you're naturally going to buy stuff you like, and normally you buy clothes for yourself that you like too after all! Two of my big "likes" are dinosaurs and robots. Unfortunately I can't get away with dinosaur and robot clothes for myself, but now fortunately I have an outlet for it! Before she was born, on a shopping trip to mothercare I noticed a bunch of robot socks in their sale reduced to £1. I immediately bought them, and when I got home announced I was a bit sad that they didn't make robot socks for adults as I'd love them. Pairing up washing later that day, I realised I do, in fact, own two pairs of socks with robots on.

Lazy Friday

This morning, I'd planned for us to go to the Coventry NCT Bumps and Babies group, but it turned out we were far too lazy. It's in the arse end of the city, and starts at 9:30 - an ungodly hour (considering we'd need to set off at 8:30 to get there in time. Every other week we go to the on in Rugby, which has about the same amount of travelling time, but sensibly starts at 1pm, much better.

As it turned out, we had a lie in and it was awesome. Orn got in to bed with me when Daddy left for work, had half a bottle and zonked out until 9:30. I woke up about 8:30 and thought I really should move and express, but in the end I was too tired to sit up until later, and didn't manage until 10. Oops. Orn has had quite a sleepy day today (until now!), she had a couple of nice long naps and I got two loads of laundry done. I did mean to change the bed, but didn't find time for that.

I've also been nappy shopping today...I bought the pink owls and a second purple turtles, and a couple of Bum Genius v4 (but shhh, I've only told Daddy about the pink owls). I really like the Freestyles I have, and some people swear by the pocket ones so I thought I'd ive them a go, and finally I traded in some Tesco vouchers and bought a funky Totsbots one. I did think we had enough nappies; current stash is 10 Little Lambs bamboo size 1 (and 10 size 2 for the future), 2 Totsbots easyfit V2, 2 next generation close parent pop-ins (purple turtles and blue turtles), a dream-dri close parent pop-in, an original close parent pop-in, 3 itti bitti tuttos and 3 cheap ebay pockets. Now I'm doing full time I'm finding at the end of 2 days we start to get a bit short, without a drier the little lambs can take 2 days to be fully dry.

Now, with Orna dozing and a fridge full of milk in waiting we're having a sneaky bottle of wine. A nice end to the week!

Crazy Hippy Club

Or not, as it turned out. A couple of days ago (Monday, I think) I was having a search online for a local nappy library. I don't really know why, I think I have enough nappies and I know what I like, but when she's bigger and sleeps through I will need to try out some other options for night nappies. But I digress; I happened upon Coventry & Warwickshire Attached Parents, who meet weekly in a library in one of the posher bits of town. Attachment parenting is something I've had a bit of a read up on, and although in its full form it seems a bit OTT, I think it's far more the style of parent that I want to be than something like Gina Ford.

Dr Sears appears to have been the person that coined the term (thought might not be, I'll admit I've not read that much), and there's something about the principals of it on Wikipedia. I didn't prepare for pregnancy, it's a bit hard to do that when you didn't really get to the trying stage, but we certainly prepared for birth and, as much as you can when you have no idea what is coming, for parenting. I'd like to think we're doing all the nurtring, respond with love and so on. I'll fully admit to being frustrated when there's a session of crying for no apparant reason (dry, right temp, fed, cuddled) but we still plod on trying to comfort and sort her out - she's a baby, it's not her fault. Luckily, we've ended up with a little person who is almost always happy, in some ways though that makes inconsolable crying harder - we're still learning how to deal with it at 9 weeks, and because it's out of character the need to stop it is enormous and the stress when you can't is a bit much.

I've gone off the point again, anyway, I decided I'd go along to the group. As I explained to one of the Mums later, I'd been worried they were going to be breastfeeding teenagers and wearing hemp dresses hand dyed with woad. They weren't, it was all OK, they were normal. They listened to the nightmare I'm having with breastfeeding, joined in with horror when I recounted our hospital experience and the NG tube threat - something others seem to have seen as "normal", and didn't think I was nuts with my insistance to make sure I could express milk for every feed and stay away from formula. They think co-sleeping is normal (we don't do it full time, but if she's upset and won't settle I don't hesitate in popping her in the big bed (if it were a proper big bed there'd be no reason not to do it full time!)), and best of all, none of their babies had pierced ears - a big improvement on the last local baby group I went to!

Mini Hippy Milestone

Not a mini hippo, sadly, but those fellas are cute.

We've had our first 24 hours in cloth nappies! I've been using them during the day at home for 4 or 5 weeks now, and started using them on trips longer than an hour last Friday, but had so far avoided them overnight. Daddy does the night changes while I express, and whapping on a disposable is much quicker. I also wasn't too confident in how well they'd last so had been putting it off. I'd recently bought some eco disposables to make myself feel a bit better about still using them, but they seemed to give her terrible nappy rash. It'd go down during the day, then flare up overnight. She only sleeps 5 hours max without a change, so I didn't think that was the problem. I thought if we try a few nights in cloth it might help clear it up. I got the "cabbage" assembled before bed, so all Daddy had to do was take the old one off, wipe, and put the new one on, ta-da. We do need to get a wet bag for upstairs, as a damp nappy in a sandwich bag isn't a great look, and would be a bit icky if there was poo.

The mattress for her cotbed arrived to, along with a changing mat for upstairs (we've been using the one that came free in the Advantage Club changing bag), some dinosaur babygros (yay!), mobile, bedding, and some Olive and Henri clothes. The cot comes next week (and will FILL our bedroom), but as she's nearly head to foot filling the moses basket it was time to get one. I'm not looking forward to moving her in to it, having her in the basket by my head is so handy as if she grumbles I can just scoop her out and have her in bed next to me - I'll have to actually get out of bed in future and get cold feet.

I failed to go to the breastfeeding group this morning, I had planned to go and update on her tounge tie, but she was fast asleep until 9:15 (we need to get the bus around 9:50), so I didn't like to wake her and get her ready. Ah well, next week!

9 weeks old

And my god has it flown. She's changed so much in such a short time and is just so much bigger and stronger. She smiles all the time, and makes such funny little sounds.

Current worries are flat head, as much as the internet says this is normal I'm slightly freaked out and have now been insisting on ridiculous amounts of "tummy time". Unfortuntely today it appeared to be "cheesing" time too, so we're on t-shirt number 2. I'm now convincing myself that she doesn't turn her head to look left enough (she generally sleeps looking to the right) and this is the reason for it. When we were back in hospital, a doctor commented on her lovely shaped head, I thought that was odd at the time but have since seen some funny-headed babies that need to settle back down after their squeezing out squashedness! At the breastfeeding group I went to a couple of weeks back, a lady there had Cranial Osteopathy done on her baby boy as he could only look in one direction. I'm highly skeptical over that sort of thing; sentences like "Osteopaths work to restore the structure and function of the body to a state of balance and harmony, so helping the whole person." make me think my, what a load of crap. Some people swear by it, but I find it hard to put faith in something that doesn't make obvious scientific sense. However, I'm now paranoid - can she only turn her head one way? Will something I think is b******s help? Has becoming a mother driven me insane? 
 

First Jabs

Today it was time for Orna's first vaccinations. The day started quite well, she had a long sleep we went to bed around 11:30, and we woke her for a feed at 6am (and yet again, I realised I can't go that long without expressing or I might explode! I did get a phenomenal 310 ml out), then she dropped back off. She had another little feed around 8am after Daddy left for work, then we slept until 9. Our appointment was at 10:15, and by the time I'd expressed again, got her ready (in a lovely turqouise baby gro), changed her nappy from the enormous poo (I suspect this was a delaying tactic to try and miss her appointment) it was 5 past, so we got our scampering legs on and legged it to the doctors. The (slightly snotty - what is it with NHS receptionists?!) receptionist said she'd check if the nurse would still see us, and she did. As soon as we got into the room, I lifted her out of the carrycot and sat her on my knee and she threw up on herself. Orn isn't normally a sicky baby, so again I think a distraction tactic! Spare babygro on (red with white spots, no way near as pretty as the turqouise number), she had the jabs. Her surprised face when the needle went in was adorable, the crying face when she realised what was happening wasn't, I did feel like a mean Mummy. She settled on the walk home, but about an hour later we had half an hour of inconsolable crying (cuddles, food and changing all didn't work!) until she took a bottle and then had a sleep.

She's definitely been in a funny mood all day, mostly her normal self but with sudden mood swings (smiley and happy, then a loud whinge, then back to smiley happy). At least she's not got a temperature yet, so we've avoided doping her up with calpol. I love the taste of the stuff, so an open bottle in the house is dangerous (does drinking calpol count as an addiction to prescription painkillers? It is available on prescription after all. How many bottles a day would get me put in the Priory?). Also, her size 2 little lambs bamboo nappies arrived - they look huge compared to the size 1s, it's hard to believe she's halfway to being the recommended weight for them! When the delivery man knocked on the door, I could hear him talking to someone. I opened the door and the little ginger and white cat that seems to want to come and live here shot in. I picked her(?) up and popped her back out, telling her she doesn't live here (though I'd quite like to steal her...).

Later in the day, Mummy ended up causing a "Daddy accident" with her nappy (this is where you don't check that the inner isn't poking above the PUL layer, and wee wicks up the clothes), so we had our 3rd change of clothes (a record!).

I also discovered there is a local "attached parenting" group, and am debating whether to go. I'm not sure if what we're doing really counts as attachment parenting - we are "baby led", not forcing her into a routine (beyond waking her if she goes more than 6 hours without a feed, a hangover from her weightloss means I'm a bit scared of leaving her "hungry"). I'm doing various slightly hippy things, cloth nappying, "babywearing" (though I hate that term) and I intend to baby-led wean. I've bought her quite a lot of organic clothes (something I don't do for myself!) and avoid using chemicals on her as much as possible. We'll see what Thursday brings...

Orna's First Swim

Today we got to do one of the things I've been looking forward through almost from the moment I found out I was pregnant. Go swimming! We decided to go to Pingles Leisure Centre in Nuneaton, as they have a proper baby pool (and also, because the name is rather amusing...). I ordered a wetsuit over a month ago, and after the first one being eaten in the post it finally arrived midweek. The swimming costume is one of the most garish things I've ever seen, but there was a fairly limited choice of colours. She didn't seem to mind much though. As the sun was shining, we had a little go in the outdoor pool, and after getting a bit chilly finished off in the jacuzzi. She seemed to enjoy it, lasting a whole half hour before starting to get a little bit whingy because she was hungry.

Before we went I did wonder how on earth a swim nappy worked and managed to keep wee out of the pool - I had looked at buying a re-usable swim nappy but thought that with the costume and wetsuit it was just another thing that would be grown out of really quickly, and also, how would it keep wee in? Turns out they are just poo stoppers (thankfully this was not put to the test), almost makes you wonder why they tell people not to wee in the pool...


It was also the first time I used shampoo on her, I'd been a bit dubious about smothering her in unnecessary chemicals but the week before bought some Nature Babycare ECO stuff. It seems nice, her hair is lovely and fluffy now! I wonder what firsts tomorrow will bring?

Orna's First Castle

Today we had glorious sunshine! We thought we'd pop out to Kenilworth Castle, there was an event on with re-enactors and so on so something different to see. Orn wasn't very impressed with a battle re-enactment (or possibly was very impressed) and whined until I held her up to see what all the noise was about. She was massively unimpressed with being sat on a horse's saddle - check out this sad face!

After that, we went on her first trip to Waitrose, much more her kind of place than our normal supermarket trips. Now she's in cloth nappies during the day, I thought I should get some eco-disposables for nights, and fortunately they had money off! I do have a 54 pack of size 3 huggies I bought hoping she'd go straight from size 1s to size 2s, but since the 2s still look enormous on her I can't see them being used any time soon.

We later had a Daddy Accident (failure to tuck all the nappy inside the waterproof outer leading to wicking), which led to her getting to wear the adorable skeleton outfit which was the first bit of clothing I bought for her. I naïvely got 0-3, thinking that would fit a newborn baby, turns out it's huge, especially for a tiddler.

Books are finally interesting!

I've got a few books for her, some came free from Bookstart, one from the Bounty website and another she got as a present. I've been holding off ordering more because a) until she likes them they're clutter - I read her the paper instead and she looks appalled and b) my Dad still has all my "baby books" in the attic and I don't want to double up. Today I was showing her one of the black and white shapes books and she just started to stare at it, a few pages even got smiles!

In other news, I made an Oreo cheesecake. Damn it's good.