Thursday, June 26, 2008 Little Libby Gets Her First Party Dress...

Libby at 8-10 weeks

Libby had her first set of jabs this week. She cried just after she had them and was very cuddly all afternoon when she wasn’t sleeping. At teatime she was a bit grizzly so I gave her some Calpol and it seemed to help. No adverse reaction to the jabs so was really pleased but I felt so sorry for her when she had them. I know she needed to have them but she’s so tiny and I felt quite emotional when she was having them done. But she only cried for a few minutes so it really wasn’t that bad. She has to have her 2nd set of injections in 4 weeks and then her 3rd set in a further 4 weeks.

I had my first night out with friends and we had dinner at a lovely Japanese restaurant and I had even expressed enough milk to have a couple glasses of wine. I was only out for a few hours and was home by 11pm but it was fab to get dressed up, slap on some make up and feel attractive. Since having Libby, I normally only spend 5 minutes getting ready after a shower every day. Your priorities do totally change but I am sure that once Libby is into more of a routine things will get easier.

Going out was a hassle from the point of view of having to express and throw away my contaminated milk throughout the night. Libby usually wakes up once in the night so I had to express after I had fed her my non contaminated milk else it would have been like experiencing engorgement again. I had built up quite a supply of milk in the freezer over the last week I had expressed once a day. I had been advised that you could keep it in fridge for 24 hours or in freezer for 3 months. I defrosted the milk either in the fridge overnight or at room temperate for a few hours. I bought some sterile freezer bags but you can also freeze it in containers. I like the freezer bags as you can write the date and amount of milk you have frozen. This is so handy for knowing how much to take out of the freezer and which milk to use first.

We also had our first long car journey away for my nephew’s christening in Warrington, Cheshire. My parents live in Gloucester and we decided to split the journey up by staying up there on the way up and by stopping there on the way back to feed Libby as it is conveniently halfway to Warrington. Libby slept most of the way and was fine with the traveling. She loved all the attention at Jacob’s birthday when she got to wear her first party dress.





I cannot believe that Jacob is already one. I am really trying to appreciate every week with Libby as the time just flies. I cannot believe that she is 10 weeks already either! It was nice to spend time with my sister, Neal and Jacob. Jacob is doing so well and is nearly walking. He is a cutie. I really hope that Libby and him grow up to be as close as I am with my sisters.

I also traveled to Poole with Libby to stay with my best friend Vicki. Vicki is heavily pregnant with her second child and her daughter Abby, who is 2, absolutely loved Libby. She was helping me change Libby’s nappy so I think Vicki is going to have a real helper there. I timed leaving once I had fed Libby and she happily slept all the way. It’s only about a 2.5 hour drive so the perfect distance to travel and for Libby to sleep most of the way. I was careful not to take too many things and Vicki had quite a few things that I could borrow to save me loading the car up.

I also suffered from a bad back over the last fortnight. It started in Centre Parcs, from lifting Libby awkwardly out of the cot and I just aggravated it with lifting her and carrying shopping as well as being in the car for long journeys to both Warrington and Poole. I ended up having some much needed acupuncture and it was brilliant. The physio gave me some exercises to do and within days it felt so much better. I decided to go back to yoga once it was healed as this has always helped keep my back strong and I had not had a problem with it over the last 6 years since practicing yoga. The doctor advised that I had to take it easy and not to overstretch as the pregnancy hormone relaxin was still in my body.

Ria is back on track...

Week 37

We are back on track to being sorted for our little princess to arrive… we now have a new and far more sensibly sized car for transporting baby and puppy about, and have had our beautiful hammock delivered so she has somewhere to sleep now. The spiral stand is really cool and the hammock looks so cosy, and - despite trying - we have discovered that puss cats can’t jump into the hammock, so no chance of being smothered by a fluffy tail.

I drove up to Bristol this week to see one of my best friends who has just had her baby, Charlie, she and he had quite a traumatic birth and he has been suffering from colic and stress related trauma. But the little fella was a real cutie pie while I was there and was happy and content to snuggle up in a papoose on Katie all the time I was there. I took pup, and have discovered (not surprisingly) that puppies and baby toys, rugs, hats, shoes, jumpers, and most amusingly moses baskets don’t mix! Noodle couldn’t understand why something as snuggly looking as Charlie’s moses basket wasn’t appropriate for her to sleep in! Still our house is more puppy proof so hopefully we can keep everything out of harms way!

Having decided to have little one in our room for as long as we need to, we haven’t done very much to what will be her nursery, and everyone keeps asking if the nursery is ready, and I’m feeling a bit guilty that we’ve not done it! The room it will be in is our study at the moment, and we want to keep it that way as long as we can before we have to move the computer etc… but I have spoken to a girl I used to teach who is now at Art college and she’s going to come and paint Jungle book mural’s all over the room in the summer, she’s been commissioned before for something similar and it looks fab - as you can see from these pics:





We are really on the home straight now waiting for baby cakes to arrive, and I’m feeling fine at the moment, I had a few emotional stresses a couple of weeks ago, but now am really keen to meet her, I keep wondering what she will look like and when she’s going to make an appearance. Jon is so busy with rugby at the moment that we just hope she can hang on till a day when he’s actually in calling distance and not 6 hours up the motorway!

Wednesday, June 4, 2008 Tamzin is out on the town!

33 weeks

Went out on the town last Friday and managed to stay out until TWO O’CLOCK!!!! ROCK AND ROLL!! It was quite strange actually, I hadn’t been out for ages but it was my best friend’s birthday and we went out for a meal. I was expecting to be home by 11 but then Pete offered to go and relieve my Mum from babysitting while we went out, so I couldn’t say no!

We had a great time but I did feel very protective of myself! I was wearing a dress and it was obvious that I was pregnant but drunk people don’t really notice these things and there was a lot of them about! I did a lot of big elbows and arms out in front of me dramatically! It was fine until I started needing the loo and after the second time of queuing for more than 15 minutes and no-one letting me push in I couldn’t bear it anymore!! I put my coat on and stood waiting for my drunk friends! I felt like my Granny when she decides she wants to go – she doesn’t tell anyone she just puts her coat on and waits for someone to notice!! Selfish really but it’s the only time we have an excuse – pregnancy and old age! Got to make the most of it!!

Anyway I don’t know if it was the late night out, or if the baby was having a growth spurt but the last few days I have been more tired than I’ve ever been in my life and that’s saying something. I just didn’t have the energy to do a thing, it was horrible! All I wanted to do was sleep and lie around which is a bit difficult with a 14 month old Isla. Luckily she’s very good at entertaining herself, so I could lie down and she’d play with things and bring me books to read to her. Today I woke up and felt fine again thank goodness, but I’ve got lots of catching up to do now.....housework and tidying.....boring.

Monday, June 2, 2008 Charlotte is singing!

This month I have mostly been craving curries and hot spicy food. I thought that food cravings are supposed to occur when you are pregnant! When I was pregnant I went off anything spicy and have never liked really hot curries, but since I gave up breastfeeding I have been craving and enjoying hot and spicy curries and chillies - how bizarre!

Lexie is now 23 weeks old. During the last two weeks, I have been feeding her vegetable and fruit purees. She has enjoyed a variety of tastes, including sweet potato, butternut squash, carrot, apple, banana and pear. I have been trying her out with different foods every two days. For the last two days she has been trying pea, and it is the first one that she hasn’t appeared to enjoy. I think she is impatient too, because, although her milk does not seem to be satisfying her as it used to, she is far to used to receiving it at a fast rate. So trying to eat purees is much more like hard work and takes longer so she gets impatient!

When she reaches six months I will start her on the chopped fruit and vegetables as finger foods so hopefully by then she will be used to the tastes and textures of the fruit and vegetables and enjoy chewing on them. Her favourite so far is sweet potato and apple (not together of course!). It’s far more interesting for her and for me to be eating a variety of foods as I’m sure milk must get boring!




Hayden is doing well too. His speech is amazing and he picks up words he hears immediately. Recently he has been going around at his nursery saying ‘all right babes’ to the nursery assistants who all find it amusing! We have to be really careful what we say even more so now. As for the terrible twos, he is going through the tantrum phase. It kicks in mainly when he is tired, and during his tantrums he’ll lie on the floor crying and screaming for so long that I’m sure that he forgets what he is crying about! Alexa watches him with fascination, I’m sure she is storing up knowledge for the day that she can copy him. One way I can get him out of his tantrum is by singing nursery rhymes to him as it seems to calm him down. This has caused no end of amusement for Craig who has been known to turn up the radio when I sing in the car as he doesn’t appreciate my singing talents, but as I point out to him our children like my singing so it can’t be that bad!