Deciding When to Stop Breastfeeding

I stopped breastfeeding C at 13 months old.

It was always my intention to breastfeed until 12 months if possible and then her impending hernia surgery prompted me to continue a little longer.
Being is hospital with a baby is so much more flexible if you are breastfeeding.  The "null by mouth" time is reduced, as breast milk is softer on the stomach, meaning you are dealing will a hungry baby for less time.  Also the hospital are obliged to feed breastfeeding mothers, which meant no having to dash to the canteen for food.
Finally C turned 13 months in the spring.  The bug season was coming to an end and I felt brave enough to let her immune system take over on its own.

OctoAlert at The National Sealife Centre

On Saturday we got up bright and early to travel up to Birmingham.

We had been invited up to the National Sealife Centre to embark on their latest Octonauts mission which runs until the end of November.  It was particularly exciting because this was our first visit to the Centre and my first visit to a Sealife Centre since I was 12 years old!

7 Easily Forgotten Holiday Essentials for Babies and Toddlers

This is our 3rd or 4th self catering holiday since we became parents and although I like to think I am getting more organised, there are things (often the same things) that I nearly always forget. Some of them are because I am genuinely surprised the cottage doesn't supply them and others because they are things I forget we even use!

After this time around, I have decided to write myself a list so I can refer back to it when packing for our next holiday.

Here is my top 7 things (i couldn't think of 10) most easily forgotten when packing for a self catering holiday with a baby and/or toddler:

Not a Good Day

Today is not turning out to be a good day.
The culmination of a week of no sleep due to baby B still being really congested from his cold last week is taking its toll.
I am exhausted.
I have no energy for parenting.
I am being a rubbish mummy.

Dressing A Boy - Part 2

In July last year, when I was 5 months pregnant, I wrote a post about my thoughts on dressing a boy.
I spoke about my disappointment at the lack of comfortable and flexible clothing out there for boys and asked for advice of brands that did provide the type of clothing I was after.

Here I am, 9 months later, with a 4 month old bouncing baby boy and clothing him is proving an interesting experience.  Not least because of his size!
At his last weigh in baby B was 20lb and he is just growing out of his 6-9 months clothes.
The few 9-12 months clothes I bought him are going to be completely useless as I bought them to fit him next autumn/winter, not spring/summer.  I also bought them with an almost toddler in mind not a young baby.

Sibling Love

Today has been a rainy day.  Our first for a while.
Stuck indoors I was worried that the 3 of us might be climbing the walls but we have actually had a really good day.
Baby B is really starting to take an interest in C.  He adores her and his face lights up whenever she comes near.
As a direct result, C is becoming more interested in him.  She goes out of her way to get smiles from him and she enjoys trying to entertain him with toys.
Today they have been particularly loving towards each other.
It melted my heart.

Halcyon Days

In 2010, DH and I bought our house in the countryside.
I wouldn't go quite as far as to call it our dream home but it had the potential to be wonderful.
We had no children back then but we hoped beyond hope that some would come.
You see, this house wasn't just for us, in fact, for me at least, it was not bought with me in mind at all.
It was a house, a space, for our children.
A house where we could give them an idyllic childhood.
At the heart of that for me was the outside space.

A Life On Hold

Today DH asked me when I would be able to leave baby B for a full day.

I thought about it and concluded that he wouldn't be down to 2 feeds a day (morning and evening) until he was almost a year old and therefore I could not leave him "9 til 5" until then.

DH looked disappointed.
On pushing him for his reasons for asking, he stated that our work were having a meeting and social event in April that he knew I'd be keen to join.

Matilda Mae Remembers

Today I attended the Matilda Mae Remembers Service organised by Jennie to remember Matilda Mae and all babies gone too soon.  

Depression, Anxiety and the Power of Writing

This post was sparked by a tweet earlier in the week by the PSS Postnatal Depression Project on how talking about your feelings can really help you understand the origins of your post natal depression or anxiety.  From my own personal viewpoint, I agree with this statement wholeheartedly.  In my darkest hours since C was born I could have quite easily have gone to the Doctors and been put on medication however I knew that it was being able to talk to someone that really made me feel better, and that things would only really improve if I was able to get to the root of the problem and fix it.

Labour Problems

All the talk of the Duchess of Cambridge's labour and delivery has got me thinking of my own impending delivery
Ok, so I might not be at the stage of putting together a birth plan yet but I am slightly concerned I have no idea how to go about this labour.
As many of you have read from my previous birth story, it did not go exactly as I had imagined.  It has however given me plenty of idea of how I would not like to do my next labour.  Unfortunately it has not given me many ideas of how I would like to do it.

20 Weeks Pregnant

This week I am 20 weeks pregnant and today was my Anomaly Scan.
My appointment was at 4pm, the latest I have ever had scan, which meant a long wait beforehand.

I suspected by this time there would be a long delay to be seen however it was actually only about 20 minutes.  We made the wise decision to leave C with my parents as a fractious, hungry toddler would not make for a pleasant experience.
We were ushered into the room and informed that there would be two sonographers carrying out the scan, one trainee, one trainer.  This was fine with us and the trainee began the scan.

A Very Late Early Birth Story

Watching someone give birth on television last night made me realise that I never actually blogged C's birth story. Although 15 months ago, I feel writing it down now might help me focus what to put in my birth plan this pregnancy.

I am sure many of you saw my tweets during labour last year and therefore are familiar with how the situation unravelled however hopefully this will piece it all together and fill in any blanks.

Silent Sunday 130609

13 Weeks Pregnant

Last Thursday was my 12 Week NT Scan.

I was very good that morning and didn’t check baby's heartbeat with the Doppler. I had nothing to gain from doing so.  The scan was going to happen regardless and the result would be what it was.

The scan was at lunchtime and luckily the morning passed quite quickly.

We entered the hospital and checked in at the X Ray department to be directed to the correct ultrasound room.  We were directed to Foetal Medicine, the main department of the hospital where all things pre-labour are done.  We sat down at in the waiting room. It felt very strange to be back here. Last time I was sat there was 24^th February 2012. I was waiting to be examined after my waters had unexpectedly broken at 35 weeks pregnant. What I did not know at the time was that less than 24 hours later I would be holding my little preterm baby in my arms. It was very surreal to be back.

Unlike the last visit, we did not have to wait long to be seen.  We were ushered into the ultrasound room and I made myself comfy on the table.  The sonographer put the wand to my stomach and there on the screen was baby bopping around.

Everything looked good and after a bit of wiggling on my part, the sonographer managed to get an NT length of 1.6mm.  She concluded that I was measuring not 12 weeks 4 days as per my normal cycle length, but 13 weeks 4 days! If I am honest I think the reality is probably somewhere in the middle.  I do not think it is possible for me to be a whole week ahead as I am pretty sure I know when I ovulated, give or take a couple of days.   Of course it doesn’t really matter.  This baby will arrive when he or she is ready. It just makes it more complicated when people ask how far along you are.  For the time being I have decided to go somewhere in the middle and say I was 13 weeks exactly on scan day.  This would give me an estimated due date of 27^th/28^th November.

We then went round to have my NT bloods taken.  Being lunchtime I expected it to be packed and have a long wait, however I was astonished to see the waiting area almost empty and when we took a ticket from the machine we were the next ones to be seen.  I must have been in and out within 5 minutes which is unheard of!

In the car, I could tell that hubby was unnerved by the change in my pregnancy dates.  As I have previously mentioned, he was convinced this baby was going to be another girl based on a variety of factors, including dates.  If my dates were wrong it would mean the odds of being a girl were considerably less.  I am not sure why the thought of having a boy terrifies him so much.  Maybe he feels there will be more responsibility on him with regards to his upbringing.  I really don't think this is the case as the majority of little girls I know are "daddy's girls" and the boys "mummy's boys".  In any case, what we be will be and we will find out at my 20 week scan in the middle of July.

Cheeky Wipes

Last weekend we attended the Baby and Toddler Show at Bluewater and after watching Cheeky Wipes demo their reusable baby wipes we decided to purchase a Cheeky Baby Wipes All-In-One Kit.  

The cost of the kit on the day was £30. Although a substantial upfront cost, we were going through £3 packs of disposable baby wipes at lightning speed therefore I knew it would not be long until we got our money’s worth.

The All-In-One kit contains:

25 - Cloth baby wipes, 15 cm x 15 cm
1 - Fresh Baby Wipes container
1 - Mucky Baby Wipes container - with mesh bag insert
1 - Fresh Baby Wipes waterproof out and about travel bag
1 - Mucky Baby Wipes waterproof out and about travel bag - with mesh bag insert
1 - 10 ml bottle of Lavender & Chamomile Essential Oil
1 - 10 ml bottle of Tea Tree & Tea Tree Lemon Essential Oil

On opening the packaging when we arrived home I was initially slightly disappointed that all the cloth wipes were white as the demonstration we viewed at the Baby and Toddler Show had included a variety of fun coloured cloth wipes.  

Undeterred, I set about preparing the wipes for use.

First I needed to fill the Fresh Baby Wipes container with water to the fill line (approx. 3cm). Unfortunately there appeared to be 2 fill lines and I wasn’t sure which to use.  I therefore just estimated the 3cm (which seemed to be somewhere between the 2 lines) and hoped for the best.

I then added a few drops of Lavender & Chamomile Essential Oil.  This smelled lovely!

Next I filled the Mucky Baby Wipes container with water to the fill line. This was easier as there was only one line and added a few drops of Tea Tree & Tea Tree Lemon Essential Oil which contains antibacterial properties.  I then added the mesh bag insert.

I placed the pile of cloth wipes in the Fresh container and closed the lid. I then rotated the container so that all the cloth wipes were well covered.

We were then ready to go.  I have always been a bit sceptical about reusable items as to me they seem to often take a lot of time and effort to maintain.  Luckily however, setting up the Cheeky Wipes had been easy.

The benefits of the cloth wipes over disposable wipes were evident from their first use that lunchtime. They were so much more absorbent and the textured surface meant they picked up more food remains.  Instead of 5 disposable wipes to clean one small child, I used 1 cloth wipe.  After use I then just placed it in the Mucky Baby Wipes container.

Initially I had been planning on using the wipes just for food. I don’t have a poo phobia but I do prefer to be able to dispose of all elements of a dirty nappy in the bin and forget about it.  Reusable nappies and me would never have got along. Having said that the next dirty nappy we had, I realised that we were out of disposable baby wipes. I then had a dilemma whether to walk upstairs to get a new packet or use the Cheeky Wipes that were in the next room….

Laziness prevailed and I went for the Cheeky Wipes.  I wiped the worst off using the nappy then used the cloth wipe to finish up and cleanse. Afterwards the wipe went straight in the Mucky Wipes container with minimal fuss. I was impressed! Both with myself for being brave, and with the effectiveness of the wipes.

Cheeky Wipes recommend that the wipes are washed every other day.  This isn’t a problem as I SHOULD be doing a clothes wash every other day anyway. In fact this would be a good incentive to ensure the clothes washing did get done.  To wash the wipes you just remove the mesh bag insert from inside the Mucky Wipes Container, pull the drawstring tight and pop the bag in the washing machine. They then can be washed on a normal wash with other clothing.  I definitely need to practice getting the bag into washing machine without dripping water all over the kitchen floor!

Once finished there is no need to dry the wipes, they then just go straight into the Fresh Wipes Container and you begin again.

As yet I have not used either of the travel pouches. Dealing with reusable items while out and about is a level of “faff” I am not quite ready to deal with just yet however once I get into the swing of using them regularly at home this will be the logical next step.

All in all I am pretty impressed with the ease of using Cheeky Wipes at home and I am sure they are going to save me a fortune!!!

I have not been paid to write this post.

Inguinal Hernia Surgery

As mentioned previously, C had a large lump on her groin that kept coming and going.  I suspected it was probably a hernia. In January we took her to see our GP and although the lump was not visible for the Dr to examine, the photo I had managed to take a few days before was convincing enough for him to refer us to a Consultant Paediatrician at our local hospital. Unfortunately he was spread across all the hospitals in our region and only available in our local hospital once a month. We were therefore warned that it may be a couple of months until we got to see him. 

We eventually received an appointment date of 22^nd March.  In the meantime I was noticing C’s suspected hernia more and more frequently. In seemed most visible in early afternoon after a bowel movement however didn’t appear to be causing her any distress.  

A couple of weeks ago, a week after her 1st birthday, C was being grumpier than normal.  This soon deteriorated into howls of pain.  Nothing I could do would soothe her, it was quite distressing.  I should stress again that at no point until now had her hernia caused her any noticeable distress, therefore it was just a passing thought to check her groin at this point. I was shocked to see a lump swollen to the size of a golf ball and rock solid.  I ran into DH’s room where he was on a conference call and gesticulated wildly at him. After making his excuses to his colleagues and taking one look at C, we are in the car on the way to A&E.

35 Weeks Pregnant

24th-25th February 2012 
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