What a week!

Somehow, it appears to be Monday again – which means I’ve spent another week neglecting my poor little blog.
But I have excuses! Lots of them!

Firstly: I had a birthday. yes, I am officially 29. And 12 months. Gulp.
(not to worry though, promise I won’t be going in for any of that ‘proper grown up’ stuff.)
Anyway, those of you who follow my twittery nonsense, will know that my Mr had the week off, and was cooking up a surprise for Saturday night… turned out to be a VERY big surprise, in the shape of a party! Had a fantastic time, still have no idea how he managed to keep it under wraps so long… sneaky little monkey.
AND, he even took care of the LD & let me sleep in till 10am the next day, and I escaped hangover free! Good Times 🙂

(some of my birthday loveliness :D)

Secondly: The rest of the week was spent enjoying some quality Daddy time 🙂 We went on a few mini-day trips, Daddy came to his first baby clinic (LD now weighing in at 16 1/2 lb!!), and we went to the teddy bear’s picnic at the childrens centre (so cute :D), we went out for an awesome lunch on my birthday, and even squeezed in not one, but TWO mummy & daddy jaunts to the pub! So yes, safe to say, it was a good week.

Thirdly: The Daddy went back to work Saturday, but to cheer us up, the LD and I went to lunch with Kelly & Piran, and Mrs OMG – yay! The lovely Kelly had scored us a free feed at Pizza Express, so Three Ladies, Two Babies & A Bump, had a thoroughly pleasant time, and will hopefully be doing it again sometime soon 🙂

And todaaay, my poor little man had his third appointment with the nurse for a dose of evil pointy needles 😦 He was a very brave little monster though, and now it’s all over till he’s one, hooray 🙂

So yes, that lot, is why I’ve been such a rubbish blogger.
Hopefully things will be back to what passes for normal now, and I can start catching up – I have a bunch of lovey awards to say thank you for, and my google reader is bursting at the seams… who do I see about getting an extra hour in the day?

Note to self:

Just incase I get all baby-brained in the next few months (which is quite highly likely), I am writing myself this note.
So if anyone catches me getting all misty eyed & nostalgic about being a preggopot, please point me back here!

…………………………………………………………………………………

Dear Leslieanne,

This is what’s left of your sensible pre-mummy brain talking, please pay attention!

Today, you took the little dude to the weigh-in clinic, and couldn’t quite believe that the tiny little person you brought home 15 weeks ago, now weighs over a stone. 14lb 4oz to be exact. We’ve certainly come a long way from those horrible few days back in hospital where he was struggling to put on any weight at all… in fact, that all seems like about a million years ago now.
But I’m steering away from the point.

At the clinic, there were lots of really tiny babies. As in, of the just a few days and weeks old variety, and you struggled to remember the Little Dude ever being that little.
Those dinky pink wrinkly bundles, with their eyes barely open, their arms and legs still curled up tight, their tiny little fingers… well, yes, they made you go aawww, and they made you smile.

And yes, one day, you’d very much like to give The Little Dude a little brother or sister to play with, but NOT YET!!!

So just incase you get too clucky too quickly, and before you launch yourself at The Daddy saying ‘I want another one!’, please remember:

1. Being a preggopot was hard work, and you promised yourself at least a 2 year break before doing it again.
2. There are no more free rooms in the house!! Do you *really* want to move again already?
3. You are *this* close to being back in non-preggo jeans. Let yourself enjoy being vaguely skinny again for a little while at least!
4. The Little Dude is now giving you a good solid 6 hours of sleep most nights – it did not start that way!! Do you really want to go back to an hour or two at best just yet?
5. The Little Dude is amazing. He is changing & learning & developing daily. He’s coming up with his own little personality & picking up new skills (and anything else he can get his hands on) all the time. He makes you beam with pride on an hourly basis. Do you really want to miss one single moment of the excitement because you’re too tired being all pregnant with numero deux? No.

Our time will come again, and it’ll be magical all over again, but for now, let’s just enjoy what we’ve got!

Still, can’t hurt to carefully pack away all the tiny little clothes the noodle is growing out of… just incase 😉

Busy Busy Week…

I am one tired mummy!

Partly because I did indeed jinx the little man’s sleeping through the night, which has been on again off again since (ah well, we’re making progress at least!), and partly because I basically haven’t stopped all week!

Weigh-day (little monster is a whopping 12lb 9oz now – over double the 6lb he dropped down to when he was poorly – yay!), mother & baby group, visit to Auntie’s (my little sister – can’t get enough of the little man :D), meeting up with new mummy friends, essential nappy-based shopping trips, and last night, a mummy & daddy trip to the pub while nannie looked after the baby. (Yeah, okay, that bit was self-inflicted tiredness 😉 – fun though, and I’m getting better at leaving the noodle for more than two minutes at a time!)

Plus of course all the usual nappy changing, bundles of washing, rounds of peek-a-boo, and all the other fun that comes with a new tiny person!

So yes, I don’t feel at all guilty about being a lazy bum today, we deserve it!
And as the little man is *finally* down for his nap (third time lucky), mummy gets a chance to blog & catch up with google reader 🙂

AND, a chance to share a rather lovely special offer with all you lovely mummies 🙂

Do you have hundreds of photos on your computer that you keep meaning to print but never get round to?
Have you ever used Photobox? If not, now is a great time to try them, because, not only do new customers get 40 free prints anyway, but until 2pm Monday, they can also order up to 50 more prints for just 1p each!
Or in other words, you can print 90 photos for 50p plus p&p (which is a very reasonable £1.49).
As a new mummy, I’ve taken quite literally hundreds of photos since the little dude arrived, and I always use photobox to print them – they are great quality, excellent value, & they deliver really quickly – can’t recommend them enough.
Click here to judge for yourself.

And now, as the daddy has kindly offered to see to the little man’s next feed, the mummy is off for a long soak in the bath… bliss 🙂

my little baby bowling ball :)

So Wednesday, is baby clinic day , or as I keep calling it, weigh-in day.
(curse you daytime tv – too much biggest loser!! :P)

I think it’s a bit of an odd practice really – for a couple of hours a week, a local church hall gets turned into a little baby cattle market – bring ’em in, strip ’em off, plop ’em on the scales! It’s lucky we can’t remember it all as adults – can you imagine how many of us would be in therapy for the shame & embarassment?!

Anyway!
It was our second visit (because of the little ‘un’s weight loss problems early on, we had more home visits than usual), and completely different to the first. Last week, the pile of red books was huge & we waited quite a while, today – in & out in 10 minutes!
And, I’m pleased to say, the little dude is now weighing in at 9lb 2oz – making him officially slightly heavier than the girlie 10 pin bowling ball I use when we visit the local lane 😀 (you wondered where I was going with the post title, didn’t you?!)

That said though, he’s currently snoozing next to me, rocking a rather funky stripey tee that’s allegedly for babies up to 7.5lb. go figure.
baby clothes sizing properly baffles me. and i can’t even blame one particular company – I have ‘tiny baby’ clothes from boots, mothercare, next & h&m kids – all for up to 7.5lbs, all of which my 9lb 2oz bowling ball baby still fits very comfortably into.

definitely going to have his daddy’s build. which is all well & good, but by the time he fits into all the gorgeous 0-3 month summer stuff i bought when he was still a bump, it’ll be nearly Christmas! 😛

anyone else had this problem? or any reccomendations of where to buy for beanpole babies?!

milestones a go-go!

Wow. That was a busy week. And full of little dude milestones!

We had our 6 week check at the doctors – all fine & dandy (and mummy took advantage of the free prescriptions perk to wage war on the evil forces of hayfever, yay!).

We went to our first weigh-in clinic (for LD to get weighed, not me – perish the thought!!), and he’s now up to an almost chubby 8lb 9oz – woohoo! He’s still really not looking all that chunky though – I think his weight’s all in his length – going to be tall & skinny like his daddy. (and probably able to eat what he wants when he wants without gaining a pound – like his daddy – jammy so’n’so’s!!! :P)

Also went to our first mother & baby group – exciting! I was a tiny bit scared to be honest – had NO idea what to expect – and was dreading a situation where everyone already knew eachother & I’d be left feeling like a lemon!!
Needn’t have worried though – I wasn’t the only newbie, everyone was lovely, and it was nice to chat to grown ups for a couple of hours 😀 Think the noodle was a bit overwhelmed though – he’s never really met another baby, then suddenly he was faced with a dozen of them! They were mostly quite a bit older though, and many were quite mobile, so I was a little wary of putting the noodle down to play for too long – just incase he got squished! I think he enjoyed it though – no screaming anyway!
They’ve got someone coming to teach baby massage next week, so I think we’ll go give that a whirl too.

And the biggest milestone, for me anyway, not sure the little dude even noticed!, was that the daddy & I went out!
Just the two of us!!
No baby!!!
The daddy’s mum came down for a visit & practically threw us out the house when we suggested maybe going to the pub for an hour or two! (yeah, chuffed to pieces to have him to herself for a while :D) so, off we went to our local pub’s karaoke night.

So. Weird.
We used to go once a week like clockwork.
Then it lessened a little as I became more and more of a preggopotamous, then stopped altogether when LD was born.
So yes, it was strange to be out anyway, then throw in the feeling of having lost a limb because my little boy who has been no further than a couple of metres away for the last 6 weeks is suddenly nowhere to be seen, and it just gets ODD!

But after the initial shock, I chilled out and had fun. (I even had a pear cider – woo! – just the one though, not going to risk a drunken baby!! :P) It was nice to catch up with people, and most importantly, to spend some time with the Mr that didn’t involve nappies or baby sick 😛
Still, I was SO happy to see my little man when we got back. Felt like I hadn’t cuddled him for weeks!!!

Wonder if that bit ever gets any easier?