Friday, April 25, 2008 Ria starts maternity leave...

Week 34

Have had a busy week with my first insight into life not being at work! My maternity leave has started and although I was very nervous about filling the days and feeling useful it’s not been too bad! There appears to be a correlation with my emotional state and the weather… I’ve been happily spending hours walking puppy along the river without a care in the world in the sunshine, but not quite such a happy bunny in the rain!

Still, it has meant that I can do lots of classes that I want to at the gym, and am definitely feeling more positive as a result, I’ve been doing yoga, body balance or pilates most days and am quite reassured that I can still do most things relatively easily with only 6 weeks to go that’s good news! The best thing is that I’m also still in my jeans!!! Amazing, I was hoping to get to Christmas and still be able to wear them, but no problems at all, maybe I’ll go all the way!

I started Active Birth Yoga classes on Monday, which are a combination between ante-natal and pregnancy specific yoga, and they are brilliant. The girl that runs them is a midwife in Exeter, but also a trained yoga teacher, and she is training us to using principles of yoga and movement to be able to cope with the birth more easily, and to give birth in positions that are more conducive for both baby and mum.

We started by discussing birthing positions and why it’s easier to give birth standing, squatting or kneeling, due to the position of the pelvis and natures helping hands through gravity, and we discovered that the western habit of giving birth lying down came from Victorian times when the King wanted the best view of his Queen giving birth to the heir! Unbelievable, and goes to show how totally not sensible men can be!

We spent the 2 hours bouncing on gym balls, squatting on little plastic stools, doing yoga poses and practicing our pelvic floor exercises… it was great, and there was lots of getting to know the other girls, with massage, fairy lights and scented candles to chill us, lovely!

Wednesday, April 23, 2008 Jodi starts on Baby Led Weaning...

Iestyn at six months

Hello everyone,

Just a quick update from me as I should really be packing the suitcases ready for our first family holiday to Florida!

Iestyn has turned 6 months since I last wrote and I was surprised how emotional this ‘birthday’ left me. I really felt as if my little baby had gone and still can’t quite believe how fast it’s gone; yes there is a recurrent theme to all my blog entries but it’s true, time really has flown by!

So in the last month a couple of major events have occurred. The first is that Iestyn and I went to visit my sister abroad. I found the whole travelling alone with a baby experience very stressful whereas my little boy was impeccably behaved throughout the two hour coach trip, the four hours at the airport, the hour long flight and the hour long car journey! For me the stress came from needing to be three steps ahead of yourself at all times. Working out how many hands you would have free at any one time - especially when you have a tired and hungry baby, a pushchair and a large suitcase to contend with! Anyway we managed just fine and I’m sure it was all good practice for Florida although I wish it was another hour long flight instead of the 9.5 but at least I have Rhys to help me this time!

The other major milestone is that Iestyn is now eating solids! As I mentioned last time we have decided to skip the puree stage and go straight for the finger foods or the Baby Led Weaning method as it’s known. There are many supposed benefits of doing it this way; the child joins in with family mealtimes from the start, they are less likely to become fussy eaters later and basically as it’s a much more relaxed affair although it is very messy!

So, on the day before his 6 month birthday he was presented with a bowlful of steamed carrot sticks and broccoli florets. It took a while but eventually both hands went in and grabbed what they could and then shoved it into his mouth! Whilst not too much was actually eaten the first few times he certainly impressed us by knowing what he was supposed to do. He had the broccoli and carrot for the first three days, then roasted sweet potato and parsnip ‘chips’ for the next three days before being introduced to butternut squash and mango. So far I think that sweet potato is his favourite. It has been great fun for both of us so far although the change in nappies is an unpleasant side effect!

I’d best go and figure out how on earth I am going to fit everything in our flat, including the kitchen sink, into two suitcases. I’ll report back on whether or not it was relaxing holiday in a month’s time...

Monday, April 21, 2008 Charlotte learns about life with two children!

Ok someone tell me; where has the time gone?!! I’ve just realised that I haven’t written a blog for nearly two months now, and it really only feels like a couple of weeks ago since my last one!

Alexa has changed so much in the last couple of months. She’s now four months old and is turning into a proper little lady as the days go by! She loves having conversations with me by cooing and gurgling and gets so excited when she sees her brother Hayden!



I’ve been gradually weaning her off feeding from me and onto formula bottles over the last four weeks, so she is now completely on bottles. I’ve been feeling sad, guilty and relieved that she is now on bottles. Part of me is glad to start getting my body back (but the downside is the diet starts now so no more chocolate!), but the other part of me misses the close contact. However, having a two year old cheeky monster running around whilst trying to feed Alexa has not been the easiest thing!!

What I have learnt having my second child (and that everyone has told me!) is that however much you try to do everything the same with your second child, it is impossible because you just don’t have the time to do it, so you have to make compromises. With Hayden I could take my time and give him 100% of my attention, whereas Alexa has to fit in with our routine. For example, I would have her latched on to me whilst walking (or rather running!) round the house trying to stop Hayden from getting up to mischief, which he would inevitably do to get my attention! So feeding time was not as relaxed as I would hope it to be and sometimes quite stressful for all of us!

But Alexa is thriving, with her chubby cheeks she is always smiling, she really lights up my day! Already her personality is coming out and she seems more chilled than Hayden. Also, she has set times of the day that she likes to sleep and is happy to go to sleep in her cot. With Hayden he would sleep at all times of the day and never in his cot, so because I know when Alexa likes to sleep it makes things a whole lot easier. Alexa sleeps through the night and often wakes up after Hayden in the morning, because he gets up, has some milk and then goes straight in to see his sister and wake her up! And Hayden is going through the terrible two’s stage at the moment…but that’s another story I’ll tell you about in another blog soon!!

Wednesday, April 16, 2008 Ria is silently panicking...

Week 33

Had a scared emotional blip this week! I think it’s the realisation that baby will be arriving quite soon, and there is not much we can do about it than go with the flow and hope everything turns out OK. But emotional pregnant brain went into silent panic… firstly about the next 7 weeks and being scared about feeling incapable (shoe laces are becoming my worse nightmare!), baby entering the world (please let her slip out…yeah right!), and then the scariest bit what the heck we do with her afterwards! (eek!).

Jon is always very insistent that I tell him how I’m feeling, but I worry that when I say any of this out loud it sounds like I don’t want to be having the baby, which isn’t the case at all, I’m just petrified of the whole life changing responsibility of it all. And not being at work scares me too... I know it’s only supposed to be a job, but when you’re interacting with so many people all day every day, the thought of life being so different and focussed on just one tiny person is quite daunting!

On a more positive note, one of my best friends had her baby this Thursday, she was a week late with him and getting pretty fed up, but all along we were convinced she’d be having a boy and we were right! Charlie Ben has arrived into the world, and although I’ve not been able to speak to Katie yet she’s texted to say it’s great being a mummy, and I felt really proud of her and a lot more encouraged about the whole affair!

I start Active Birth Yoga classes tomorrow and am back off to the midwife on Tuesday to see if baby girl is more on track in terms of size, if not I have to go to have a growth scan as she was worried about the size of me and baby at this stage. Small is beautiful though!

Rosee is burning the candle at both ends...

32 weeks

If you'd have told me a year ago that I'd be starting a new job, moving house and having a baby all within the space of six months I'd have laughed out loud. But here I am, 32 weeks pregnant and I haven't left work before 7.30pm in the last fortnight, my house is full of cardboard boxes and bubble wrap and I'm barely sleeping for worrying about it all.

It wasn't supposed to be like this. I've got two weeks left at work and I wanted to wind down slowly, but a major crisis in our department which I had to solve ate nearly three weeks of my time and left me seriously behind. So now we have a huge deadline looming in a couple of days and it's all I can think about - when I'm not thinking about moving that is. Again, it wasn't meant to be so last minute. We were due to move last November, but a series of delays meant that it all happened at the last minute as well.

It's all a bit much really. I've been trying to relax by listening to my natal hypnotherapy CD. But I keep waking up in the night and not being able to get back to sleep, with all the work and moving spinning around in my head.It's all in hand and I know I'm wasting energy getting stressed - in two weeks I'll be done with work and we'll be in our new home, waiting for our new baby to arrive.

I just need to breeeeeathe.

Thursday, April 10, 2008 Ria's baby is heading south!

Week 32

Baby has moved south! I had a midwife appointment on Monday, all was well - blood pressure fine, blood tests back and fine…then the obligatory tummy squeeze and she has engaged already! Eek, with 9 weeks to go that is a bit early, but apparently not ridiculously uncommon in first babies. She also is a little concerned that my bump measurements are a fair bit smaller than they should be so she wants to keep more of an eye on things and I’m going back next week.

This news sent Jon into a blind panic who now is convinced that they baby is going to fly out at any minute, and is also trying to make me eat everything under the sun in an effort to make her / me grow! All very well, but I have totally lost my appetite and if I’m not hungry am not going to force myself to eat… an unknown idea to Jon as he can eat for Britain! Still we’ve only had a slight strop at each other about it, and I’m convinced baby will be helping herself to all nutrients before I get a look in so I doubt not eating enough is the root of our smallness!

The thought of her possibly arriving early has kick started me a little into wondering whether we are actually ready for her imminent arrival!!? The answer would probably be no! I have been flirting quite frequently with eBay for baby clothes bargains, and I’m sure we have enough now, but there is a fair bit more we probably need that I’ve not thought of… unpleasant things for me like maternity pads and nursing bras etc, but how do you know what size your boobs are going to be? I have never been particularly well endowed, and don’t like my pregnancy boobs at the moment, let alone uncomfortable engorged ones…so much to look forward to! Still, we had a tidy up of baby stuff and started organising it into baskets and shelves.



And we have just received a beautiful new baby carrier as a present from Jon’s sister… the only action it’s seen so far is carrying a toy monkey around, but so far pretty comfortable!

Tamzin is public enemy number one...

30 weeks

I’m feeling pretty good at the moment, back’s good, not too tired, I could even be said to be “blooming”, though I think that’s pushing it a bit far!

Our main issue at the moment is getting our new drive done. We live on a steep hill and our house nestles into the side and has wonderful views but the downside is that we have a long, steep path and steps up to the car park which is on the other side of the road! You can imagine the battle with baby, dog, shopping etc!! The thought of doing it with two babies actually defied imagination and Pete has been intending to dig a drive into the hill on our side of the road since we moved here, so work finally started last month.

When I say “dig”, I’m talking bulldozers and dumper trucks and structural engineers and lots of concrete, not spades and a bit of gravel!! As usual it’s turned into a much bigger job than Pete expected, we’ve had the village ‘society’ representative up to check it’s ‘safe’, (they really like to make everything their business around here) and we’ve held the traffic up on numerous occasions – so we are public enemy no 1 at the moment.

To try and keep people sweet I have been going to the top of the road (it’s a single lane, very windy, steep road, which a lot of people use as a rat run – much too fast!!!!) to divert the traffic and generally people have been very nice and polite; but the day I was actually revealing my bump I had two horrible old people get really unpleasant. I couldn’t believe it – and in my condition!!!!

Anyway, it is due to be finished by the end of April, two weeks before my due date.....we’ll see! For the time being we are using our very kind neighbour’s steps as there’s a gate between our gardens, however they are very steep and long and slippery, I’m getting slower and slower but I guess it’s keeping me fit!! I can see that in about a month’s time I shall be calling on my father-in-law to walk the dog in order to avoid the climb myself!

Thursday, April 3, 2008 Rosee is spending all her time on eBay...

Week 29

It's been a busy week baby wise. I've been feeling really tired, and a bit daunted about another eight weeks in the office, so I've decided I'm going to leave earlier than I originally planned. Of course, this means working out my holiday and maternity leave dates all over again, and I've now got less time than I thought to do things like create handover documents and fill in all the various forms. But I'm actually relieved. Even working four days a week is getting hard - I'm pretty big and not sleeping so well at night - our little girl is a right little wriggler!

Now I've only got a month to go it all feels a bit more manageable.When I've not been writing letters to our human resources officer, I've been spending my lunch hours on eBay, ordering the rest of the various bits and pieces our little girl will need. I love eBay for several reasons - it's cheap, you get everything delivered to you, and it's another way of being less wasteful - I have no problem with anything second hand, as long as it's in good nick.

There are so many baby things that aren't needed for long - baby baths, monitors, moses baskets. While I'm following the guidelines and getting a new cot mattress and bedding, pretty much everything else will be second hand. I just don't see the need to spend more for the sake of it.

One thing I have got brand new, however, is our baby's buggy. It arrived this week, courtesy of my parents, who wanted to get us something 'big', bless them. I spent ages researching all the various types you can buy and ways of keeping the cost down, as I've been a bit stunned by how much some buggies are. We've now got a kingfisher blue Britax Vigour 3+ three wheeler, with a matching carrycot attachment for the early months and I'm really chuffed with it.

It's got full suspension to keep our little one comfy when we're going for one of our long country walks, and comes with all the accessories that are often charged for as 'extras' with other buggy models. After getting it out of the box to make sure all the bits are there and in good working order, it's had to go up in the loft to make some space, but I can't wait until I can use it every day!

Kelly gets to grips with breast-feeding...

2-4 weeks

Our midwife has now signed Libby at 2 weeks old over to the health visitor and it was quite sad as our midwife Tamsin had been a great support but I guess we will see her again with the next one!!

From 2 to 4 weeks old Libby has changed so much as she has started to fill out a bit more. At 3 weeks old she had regained the weight that she had lost and was a whole pound heavier than at birth. Thankfully she was feeding well and my milk was doing its job! At 4 weeks old had put on 10oz in a week to reach 9lb 2oz and was known as a right little guzzler at baby clinic. I was so pleased that she was doing really well. At times in the first couple of weeks I had thought twice about carrying on breastfeeding as the sore nipples had been excruciating and the actual breast feeding was so demanding and physically draining. It was also so important to remember to eat and drink so that I had a good milk supply.

But after the first 2 weeks breastfeeding became much more enjoyable. At 4 weeks it seemed completely natural and I was now at ease with it and really enjoyed it. Libby needed me to feed and that made me feel so important and I just loved the cuddles from breastfeeding. It was really cute when she would pull on my bra or top or touch my breast. I was really pleased I had persevered with it.

Libby tended to feed around every 2 hours at 2 weeks but this increased to every 3 hours at around 4 weeks. I was pretty flexible and just fed her when she wanted it. Initially she sometimes whinged for it after an hour and a half so I started to use a soother which helped her go to 2 or 2.5 hours. Whenever she didn’t want it she would just spit it out but using a soother also helped her to calm down if she was ever overtired.

The sore nipples finally eased off at 2 weeks thanks to the Lansinoh ointment. I started to express my milk at 2.5 weeks. I know that most midwives advise to wait until feeding is established but I thought that I would give it a go and see. Libby occasionally used a soother and it did not seem to cause any teat or nipple confusion so I thought I would try expressing to feed her with a bottle. My sister-in-law lent me her electric breast pump and off I went. It was a very strange sensation at first and I felt it bit like a cow milking but once used it, it was actually ok. The trick is to gently increase the pressure/suction so as not to be too painful at first. My first attempt achieved 20ml and I was so impressed and within a week I was expressing 60ml and guessed that this must be what Libby takes during a feed. I decided not to freeze any for a few weeks and just to express once a day so that Tim could give Libby her last feed at 11am which gave him some special bonding time and meant I could try and get to bed a little bit earlier. You can keep breast milk for 24 hours in fridge or 3 months in freezer. I didn’t express at any fixed time and either did it in the morning or late afternoon. This worked fine for me and I wished I had expressed from the beginning as I really think that it would have helped immensely with engorgement.

I now can distinguish Libby’s cry from the other babies’ cries in our group. As long as she has been fed and not overtired Libby is very chilled and does not cry that often for a baby- we are so lucky. At night time, she never cries, she just stirs and makes a few low grunting noises, I feed her and then put her back down and she goes straight back to sleep. She can also sleep anywhere – in her bouncer, pram or in the car. I am touching wood as I type this for the fear that this could change…hopefully not.

At 2 weeks old she got her first cold. Poor Libby was quite mucousy and had a snuffly nose so the midwife advised to get some saline nasal drops and these seemed to do the trick. I also placed a towel under her moses basket mattress so her head was slightly elevated. It was horrible as there was nothing more I cold do except wait for her to get better as she was too young to take anything.

When Libby was 3 weeks old we went along to the local baby group with my mates from ante natal. Although it was a challenge to get there for 1030am the first couple of weeks, it was well worth it. They do a free baby massage class there which I can’t wait to try with Libby once she has had her 6 week baby check. Initially it took me about 2 hours to get myself ready and Libby fed and ready before I could leave the house but the more I got out and about the easier it became and I suddenly was able to leave the house at 9:30am looking more respectable.

At 4 weeks she started to do her first non-wind smile but didn’t give them away easily. I couldn’t wait for her to smile regularly and to start to coo. She is such a strong little thing and holds her head so well for a 4 week old, we are so proud. I think that she is going to be sporty like myself as apparently I was the same as a baby. She has to be a bit like me as she looks totally like her dad!! When I hold her against my chest she even pushes herself off it a bit. I think she is going to be a stubborn little madam too – but both her father and myself are stubborn, so this is very likely!

Tuesday, April 1, 2008 Jodi's little boy is growing up fast...

Iestyn is 5 months old

Another month has passed by in a flash but it’s been a very busy one all the same.

Iestyn is now 5 months old and what is his major achievement this month? Well he rolled from his back to his front 3 times when he was 19 weeks old which I am led to believe is slightly early. Whilst Rhys and I were so proud the first time (we kept holding our breath every time he got close) but soon realised that a rolling baby would require slightly premature child proofing of the house and we were no longer quite so impressed! The ‘good’ news is that once he mastered the art he seemed to lose interest in doing it and 3 weeks later he’s not repeated the feat!

Up until the last few nights, for the last few weeks, the night feed has reappeared on the agenda. I’m not too surprised by this as he’s getting nearer to the time he’ll be wanting food and he is growing so fast so it’s not a surprise that he can’t go 12 hours without food any longer. I don’t mind this at all. I’d be bothered if he woke and wasn’t hungry but he drinks his night time feed a lot quicker than any other and always settles straight back to sleep be it 4am or 7am the few times I’ve chanced my luck! However the last 3 nights now he has woken between 1:30 and 3am and I’ve ignored him as I don’t think it’s hunger so early and my little angel has called out for 10 minutes but then settled back down again and gone on to sleep till 7am, Maybe he’s realised that his Mummy is more fun the next day when she doesn’t have to get out of bed in the night!

The other thing I have noticed when telling others - be it friends, relatives or my health visitor about the start of night feeds again - is that the immediate advice is to start weaning. This really gets me angry as I know my boy is not ready to be weaned yet and I’m not sure he will be by the 6 month guideline either. Even if weaning him now guaranteed that I got a full night's sleep, I still wouldn’t do it. This is about his development, what’s best for him and not at all about how much sleep I might get. He is not showing any interest in my food at the moment, as his milk intake has increased so has his weight gain and he can’t sit unaided. Just some of the things I am looking out for, along with my instinct, to tell me when he’s ready. It is such an emotive subject and I’m so glad I have done my research on it so that I feel equipped to challenge the doubters. I am also not going to wean him the traditional way with purees and instead go for Baby Led Weaning where it’s finger foods from the start but I will leave that topic for next month’s entry!

The other downside of having children has reared its head in the last week. Iestyn had his first ever cold. I think he’s done very well to avoid any of the awful winter bugs that have been doing the rounds and he actually came through his cold nice and quickly just like his Mum. Yes, I experienced being ill whilst looking after someone else for the first time and it wasn’t much fun. I used every technique I knew of to try and make things easier for him. Olbas Oil everywhere, raising his cot at the head end, nasal drops before each feed to clear his nose and a wet towel over his radiator at night. Whether any of these are responsible for him getting over it quickly and not being disturbed by it in the night, I don’t know but I’ll certainly be implementing them all next time round! However, just as I thought we were completely over it, he’s woken with a sticky eye today so I’m bathing it with cooled boiled water and see if I can clear it without a trip to the doctors.

Other than all of that, this month has been fantastic. He is getting funnier by the day. He loves the head shaking game at the moment. He shakes his head from side to side, looks at me and waits for me to do it back and then it’s his turn again! He is also loving his nursery rhymes although I’ve had to change the words a few times to make up for my lack of memory or his preferences. For example Old MacDonald no longer owns a farm, he instead runs kennels these days as Iestyn loves the dogs woofing! Every month I think that this is my favourite stage with him but every subsequent month is so much better than the one before. I love being a Mummy!

Ria has her first blip...

Week 31

This week I have had my first pregnancy panic! It was induced (!) by our ante-natal class at the hospital, which was basically a tour of the labour ward, followed by a talk about problem labours and all the things that can go wrong and what is usually done about them. Bizarrely enough it wasn’t actually this bit that scared me but just the whole hospital experience and having a bit of a reality check.

Fortunately I got chatting to another girl who said she too had been absolutely fine about everything, until she started ante-natal classes and had been panicking since! I think it just suddenly dawned upon me the magnitude of what I was about to undertake, the labour, birth and everything afterwards, and I suddenly became very apprehensive, and a bit anti-baby.

Jon was feeling totally helpless not being able to do anything, but it was just an emotional blip I had to go through in order to deal with everything rationally again. I had a couple of blue days at school, where everyone seemed to be asking me about baby and how I was feeling and all I wanted to do was cry! But managed to get through it and am feeling a bit more positive about everything again, just the occasional jealous pang of non-pregnant people… that can bend down and take their boots off without making a big arse of themselves, can enjoy a Saturday night fuelled by cocktails and run as much as they like without feeling like a weeble!

It’s really not so bad, and one down week out of 30 is pretty good going I think, I only have 3 weeks of school left which will really help to boost my energy levels, I can’t wait to spend time in the gym, swimming and walking pup in the 6 weeks before baby girl arrives.