Orn's First Graduation

Today, Mummy graduated (probably for the last time), despite finishing well over a year ago! Daddy should have done, but an admin boob meant that he wasn't eligable for this ceremony but would have to wait until January. We borrowed some robes to take a nice family photo anyway.

She was good as gold in the ceremony, a little screamy baby had to be taken out and I'm fairly sure Orn was egging her on as I could hear the "hrrrrrrrrrrrrr" noises she makes.

Afterwards Grandad and Grandma S took us for a pub dinner, and she stared around a bit and made friends. Unfortunately by that point she was so wound up that she wouldn't stay in her car seat, and was a nightmare to get to sleep when we got home! Still, it's not every day you get to see your parents wear large winged costumes.

First Cinema Trip

Today we went to the cinema for the first time to see Ice Age 4. The Odeon do a "Newbies" showing for people with babies, so it doesn't matter if there's a bit of crying. We sat down and she was transfixed by the screen, but after about 15 minutes wanted to stand up and look around in the dark, then had some food, then had a bit of a scream and needed swaying to sleep (it was probably a bit stimulating and she didn't want to drop off). She slept through the rest and woke up when we left.

Lunch at Ikea (soup and chips, om nom nom) then a quick whizz around the shops which she slept through. I'm wondering if all this daytime sleep is because of the jabs yesterday as it's a bit unusual. Dropped the Baby Einstein CD back at the library (since she wasn't impressed) and the Hannukah picture book. Nice to know I can take books back to central library that were taken out from another one.

Jabs #3

Well, what a "fun" night! After a fairly promising early bed (bath at 9pm, in bed after with not much of a fight) Orna decided to wake up every 3ish hours, eat about 10ml, then go back to sleep. Unsurprisingly I was exhausted this morning, and we both fell asleep after I pumped. I set an alarm to do it again at 9:30, but when it went off felt tired and just closed my eyes for a second. I woke again and it was 10:17, our appointment was 10:30, so I grabbed some clothes and she went in her PJs.

We made it there 5 mins late, so not too bad. She was happy and bouncy when we went into the room, smiled at the nurse, but as soon as the nurse bent over to say hi she burst into tears and buried her head in my armpit. It was fairly clear that she remembered what was going to happen, poor thing. She cried for a bit afterwards, and the nurse said if she didn't get a temperature her legs would be sore, so if she seemed particularly out of sorts give her calpol to help with that.

She was OK when we got home, had a big eat, then a nap while I ate my lunch. When she woke up she was a little bit grumbly, and every time she bounces she cries so I think her legs are hurting. We red a couple of books; got all the way through Elmer, had a few nursery rhymes, and then half way through Mr Percy's Magic Greenhouse before she seemed tired.She's napping again now, so will hopefully be a bit happier when she wakes up. 

My copy of Elmer, the dedication reads "For Emma who loves books, and her mum who loves patchwork". The date is Oct '92. David McKee visited my school, I think for some sort of book week, but don't remember it very well given I was 7!

DIY Sunday

Today I built some of Orn's furniture. I ordered some stacking storage cubes that I thought looked rather cute, they have a little window in the front that you can put pictures in. All her clothes are now conviniently stored in our bedroom, but we need to find a new home for the bin...I also managed to blow the cover on the latest nappy I've bought by suggesting Daddy feel how soft it was. Oh well.

The rain continues, so we've not gone out. Come on summer, let us leave the house! We were hoping to go to the Festival of History next weekend, but it's been cancelled due to the torrential downpours. 

Managed to freeze another 500ml for the milk bank, so that's good too. I'm so paranoid about getting bugs in it though!

Friday, I'm in Love

As predicted. Night from hell. 45 mins of solid screaming, 200 mls of milk, lots of cuddling, bouncing, and only standing stopped her crying. Eventually a bit of milk settled her and we all got to sleep.

She's been in a lovely mood today, lots of naps, lots of eats, and is now having her usual evening nap. Freddie the Firefly went down a treat, and I caught her picking up a book so had a look at "Round, square!" and "Big, small!". She reached out and turned some of the pages herself, I'm not sure how intentional it was, but it was very cute.

Thundery Thursday, again

Today, Orn and I started building an ark.
Well, not really, but it'd be a good idea. There was a bit of sun in the morning, it didn't last. I'm still feeling grotty, but she's pigging out so must be better.

The highlight of our day was an evening trip to Tesco, I bought Orn "Freddie the Firefly" since she seems to love her other Lamaze toys. Freddie has been surface washed and is dangling from the door waiting to dry. Orna is having another "I DON'T NEED TO NAP" night, which means we're in for a rough one at bed time. Poor thing is suffering with her teeth.

Wet Wednesday

Will the rain ever stop? We'd quite like to go out at some point, please.

Everybody bounce now

I'm poorly

Now I know how Orn feels! Woke up with a sore throat, which I assume is what she's had. I'd quite like to nap until it goes, but that's not an option. Some new nappies arrived, and a hoodie with ears, that cheered me up.

The weather has been rubbish, but we did venture out to the post office to send more clothes I'd sold on ebay (waaaah). All the short sleeved 0-3 vests, the adorable tiny little newborn footless sleepsuits that she outgrew in 30 seconds and the most girly 0-3 sleepsuits.

I also rammed her into her "Little Farmer" outfit for another comparison photo...*sniff*

1 day, 6 weeks 1 day and 17 weeks.

 Aaaand sorted out breast milk donation, hopefully the bottles will arrive soon and I can get started!

Walk-in Round 2

After another refusing to eat day I decided that we needed to see a doctor, so off we toddled to the walk in clinic. It said there'd be a 3 hour wait, but I assumed that a little baby who hadn't eaten properly for 3 days who had a temperature would be a priority. Oh how wrong I was. Eventually, we were seen and it seems to just be an upper respiratory infection. She was given a pad to wee on to test for a UTI, but just at the point I thought "I should take that out before she poos on it" she beat me to it...
Hopefully tomorrow will be better!

Poorly Day

This is the second day she's really been off her food. She's also been clingy and whingy, though generally a silly noise gets a smile. She's had a temperature too, so has needed a couple of doses of calpol (god it's horrible nowadays).

In better news, she's trying to blow raspberries which is very cute. She's not quite got the hang of it (and wouldn't do it for Daddy), but tongue certainly goes between lips and creates bubbles and lots of dribble!

Great Alne 2012

Today we went to Great Alne show, Orna's second hamster show! This time I was judging, and she spent some of the day sat in her snug watching me judge, which was rather cute. A hamster friend (not a friend who is a hamster) brought her 2 week old who was heavier at birth than Orna and she was just so small. It's hard to believe my great big standing monster was ever that tiny. Everyone assured me that she was at her first show at 2 weeks old! I also had the amusing experience of sitting in the car expressing while people stood around me and chatted.

In the evening we went to Orna's second BBQ, where she was so excited to see what was going on she refused to sleep. She's too nosey for her own good.

Rockin' Robots

I have a minor robot obsession. I love them, I wish there were more acceptable adult clothes with them on. Now I have my little doll to dress up, here she is with "Rusty" and "Betty" on her robot blanket and sporting her robot nappy wrap (she also has a robot print nappy).


We've had a lazy day today, catching up on Ally McBeal. It's been nice and peaceful!

Sad things

When I was pregnant, I joined a forum for people due in March 2012. We were all going through the same thing at the same time, had the same worries, shared the highs and lows. As time went on, and we got closer to due dates there became many more highs than lows, but it can't always be happy times.

One lady in the group had a son who was born very ill, and never managed to leave hospital. Sadly, little Milo passed away yesterday, and some of the other Mums have been fundraising in his memory to support the work of the hospital he was staying in.

http://www.justgiving.com/march-mums

A message for you, Rusty

*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!