Saturday 30 May 2009

Things I love about being a Mum

Snuggling down in bed with my gorgeous baby boy, watching him suckle contentedly and look up at me with his biiiiig eyes.

Waking up to his gorgeous happy smile. (even at 5am!)

Making him chuckle by doing something I didn't think would make him laugh!

Hearing him chuckle at something his daddy has done to him. :)

Seeing him master a new skill and watching him do it over and over again.

Seeing him do something for the first time and knowing it won't be long before he'll achieve the next big milestone!

Watching him grow and develop into a lovely little boy. :)

Watching my little boy and my big boy together and knowing how lucky I am to have them both in my life!

Taking naps with Robert snuggled right up to me, the two of us all cosy and where he has milk on tap for if he wants it!

Listening to all the new sounds Robert makes, and some of the old ones too!

Laying on a rug outside in the garden, with Robert sitting upright on my belly, it's just so blissful!

Knowing that even though he cries, sometimes all it takes is a hug from Mummy to make it better. (and some Mummy Milk doesn't hurt either)

Knowing that I am the person who knows Robert best, with his daddy knowing him second best.

Sharing photos of my gorgeous baby boy with all my friends and family

Looking at his profile and thinking how it looks exactly the same as the profile he had at my 22 week scan!


Looking at him when he's asleep, where he looks like the most gorgeous angel.

Kissing him, snuggling him, looking at him, reading to him, playing with him, taking photos of him, dressing him up.

I could go on forever! But it's getting late, and I'm tired, so I will head to bed now. Hope you're all having a great weekend. :)

Friday 29 May 2009

6 months 6 days old - blocked sinus, weight loss

Sorry I've not updated lately. As some of you know I've not been very well this week, I've had a migraine since Tuesday (constant except for when the painkillers kick in and give me an hour's break), and a bad blocked nose. Anyway this morning when it had been three days since I first got the migraine I decided to go to the doctors, got an appointment for less than an hour's time from when I rang, and went along. She was a lovely doctor, and after examining me and asking me questions she said it was a blocked sinus, apparently there are sinuses above the eye which I didn't know, and that one was blocked and causing the migraine-like pain. She prescribed me a nasal spray to use for 10 days, and it does feel a little better even after only 1 use.

Robert was very good while we were at the doctors. The doctor was running late so we were in the waiting room for a while, and with no toys I was having to keep Robert entertained with the pack of babywipes, his sunhat, and a plastic cup! I got a lot of smiles from other women in the waiting room. Why is it that once you have a baby people become so much friendlier?

Anyway all week I've been taking long naps with Robert in the middle of the day to first and foremost get a break from the constant throbbing pain in my head. I'm soooo grateful that he's let me do this each day as even with the midday sleep (as long as 2.5 hours!) I've still felt absolutely shattered and in pain and just wanting to crawl into bed and close my eyes by about 9pm.

On weight loss news, I've lost another lb this week, which is great, down to 14 stone 6lb (from 15 stone 8lb 2 months ago). While it's not a huge amount, I'm pleased because that was with having a huge pizza between two of us last Friday night, a KFC on Saturday, and then a meal at the harvester on Monday. I am already feeling more slender, the size 18 jeans I got into a few weeks ago are already a little loose around the waist and thighs (although this might just mean they need washing!) I am soooo looking forward to losing the rest of the weight I want to lose (another 4 stone or so), and getting pregnant again! I can't believe how much I am looking forward to it! It won't be long before I will have to make Jonathan go up in the loft and get down my size 14-16 clothes! When I was a size 14, I went clothes shopping in Matalan with my mum, and bought loads of size 12 stuff with the intention of slimming down into them, which I never did! I will this time though!

Anyway, we are going to go and view the professional photos later this afternoon. I can't wait! I'm so excited to see how they came out!

Sunday 24 May 2009

6 months old - picnic

Hello!

First thing's first.. Cookie goes to... Alice! I'm guessing you know that face very well by now, Robert was looking at the telly. But I don't know what programme was on at the time, I can't remember, but it was something on Cbeebies!

Secondly, we've had our photo shoot yesterday! I think it went really well and I'm really hoping that we get a lovely photo of the three of us out of it. The photographer was nice and friendly (if a bit whacky!) and Robert was very good, only crying when we changed him out of one outfit into another! We get to see the photos on Friday, and then we'll see what we're going to do, and what we can afford!

Thirdly, oh I love the nice weather! If only every day can be EXACTLY like today - sunny, no clouds, and about 22 degrees with slight breeze. :) The three of us went out for a picnic! We packed the blanket (we need a bigger blanket really, but this one will do for now), and a packed lunch (some extra fruit for Mister Drooly), and set off! It was the same place we went to a while back where we accidentally took the wrong route down a very muddy path with Robert in the baby carrier.

We sat and had some of our food in the big field near the carpark.

Robert sat and chomped on a pear (whole) while we chomped on some sandwiches. Then we moved on because unfortunately there was no shade and we were all rather hot. We found a spot under some trees where we laid down the blanket. It was very quiet there actually as it was off the walking track and fairly far away from the car park and the first field, so it was nice to just sit and have some quiet time as a family!

Robert is now sitting so well, he will actually sit unaided for as long as he wants, or if he loses concentration or something.

Here's a picture of me and Robert I absolutely adore! I was giving him some kisses on the cheek as Jonathan snapped us, the ones where I'm kissing him actually look like we're snogging! It looked a little odd, but this one just before I found precious. :)

Here's my funny man pulling faces at me while I snapped him! lol

And a biiiiig grin!

My cutie pie :)

Anyway, we finished the rest of our lunch there, Robert ate some banana, and then I nursed him. I asked Jonathan to take some pictures of that because I just love breast feeding photos!

Finally - one last piece of news....

That's right, Robert's first toothy peg! He got it start to come through yesterday, bang on 6 months!

Anyway, gotta go now, it's the Britain's Got Talent semi-finals!

Friday 22 May 2009

6 months tomorrow, photo shoot, garden photos, etc

Soooo much to talk about! Where do I begin?!!

I suppose, looking at the photo archive, the first would be TOES. Robert has discovered he has toes. And feet. And those darn pesky cloth things covering them have to come off!

He doesn't try to eat them very often, but occasionally I'll find him sucking on a toe.

Secondly... here's a photo of Robert, I want you guys to comment with a guess as to what he's looking at. :D

Thirdly.. Hmmm well I guess I'd better say that I ran out of my anti-ds about a month or so ago, and didn't know how to renew the prescription. So on Wednesday I finally got around to getting a new one, so I'm back on them. It's turned out to be kinda like my glasses. I stopped taking them, and at first I couldn't even tell the difference, but gradually things got worse and worse again. So yeah I'm on them again, and I don't know if it's a placebo effect but I am feeling a lot better already, even though it's supposed to take a while to come into effect supposedly. ;)

Anyway, it was such a nice day yesterday that I decided to take Robert into the garden, lay him down on a blanket, and become paparazzi woman!

And to be honest, I'm astounded by how they came out!

Again I'm going to pick only some of them because there are 22 photos from the garden collection!

It's hard to pick my favourites from that bunch!

We have our pro photo shoot with him tomorrow lunchtime, I just hope they're really fab! More fab than the garden ones, or I suppose we'll just use up the vouchers we've got and then be done with it ;)

He's six months old tomorrow!!!! Can't believe it! Half a year gone... WHOOOSH! Crazy how fast it goes!

Tuesday 19 May 2009

re: last entry

Just a quick add-on to yesterday's entry...

YES I did cut it myself! lol! (I gave Robert a loofah thing to hold and put in his mouth to keep him occupied while I did it!) I did have to get the scissors back out again to chop off some stray long bits I missed!

That is all! ;)

Monday 18 May 2009

Haircut! Eeeeshk!

Five days until my little boy's half-birthday! Eeep! How scarily quick has that gone!!

As some of you know already, today I gave my little baby boy his first haircut! Sooo sad to chop off his newborn locks! I finally relented as it has been getting sooo long and scruffy.

Gone is...

And in is...

He's suddenly grown up! And he's sitting so beautifully now! He sits for ages completely unsupported before losing his balance! He'll even self-correct by putting a hand down, and pushing himself back!

Look at the nice straight back! My clever boy!

There is also this photo I wanted to share with you. I can't get over how cute and very "little boy"ish Robert looks here, concentrating on his little toy!

And such a cute profile! Ahhhh. :)

I decided to phone up the photography studio we have a voucher for today, and they've given us a slot to come in and get Robert's photos taken this Saturday - the very day he turns 6 months old! I plan to give him lots of practise sitting this week, and on his belly. I've got to make a list of things to bring with us, I think his crazy blue sunhat is a must...

As well as some nice toys like his inchworm and his musical teddy... And then some nice outfits. It's such a shame he's nearly outgrown my favourite outfit for him! I hope I can get away with him wearing it one last time on Saturday!


(this one)

It won't be too much longer til he's in 6-9 month clothes, and we can put him in that South African rugby kit someone bought him (lol)!

Might check to see how baggy they are on him actually, if they're not TOO baggy I might pick something out from those for him to wear.

Anyway that's about it for news I guess!

Hope you had a fab weekend!

Sunday 17 May 2009

Photos of Robert

Ahhhh! I took some fab photos yesterday! (If I do say so myself! hehe). How come my little boy is so photogenic!??!

I made myself a lovely little image from one of them, and the thing I like most about it is how I've editted the photo! I think it just looks fab and he looks so gorgeous!

He's got such huge grins all the time! And is easier to make laugh, I keep hearing him laugh at Jonathan now which is lovely!

I'm in the process of editting lots of Robert pictures now, because I'd love to get some printed out for a proper photo album/book, and there's probably about 1000 photos to pick my favourites from and colour correct etc.. So a big job!

Friday 15 May 2009

Almost 6 months old - photos!

Sooo, I was thinking of having a nap with Robert, but Jonathan decided he was going to, and started snoring, so I guess I'm not afterall! So you lucky ladies get to read my ramblings instead!

I'm a bit peed off right now. I'm one of the two admins of a newly created forum for mums (feel free to join by the way). Anyway one of my friends made a thread about Baby Led Weaning (she knows we're doing it with Robert), and anyway I post a big wall o' text about it. Someone replies saying "oh, we're not doing that because of choking, and you don't know how much he eats, and there's higher salt" etc. So I reply saying it doesn't matter if they eat a lot of it at first, it's about exploration and learning about textures and tastes etc. Anyway she goes off on one asking why I'm getting narky, that it's her opinion, and personal preference (which I stressed as well so I don't know why she was being so iffy!!), and anyway, she started off at me in another post so I'm now just thinking sod it, I'm not going to respond to her anymore since it's just getting out of control. Even though it was a thread about baby led weaning and now it's derailed onto "oh, what puree pots do you give yours?" and so on... Ho hum... Hmm just realised that's probably not the best advert for the forums. Ah well lol.

Anyway onto different news, we've started to put Robert into his pushchair bit - so he's looking forward. He does seem to love it!!!

(No, he's not *really* waving in this photo!)


He enjoys looking around him and what's good is that if he gets tired, we can fully recline the seat so he's laying flat to sleep!

Something else I think is lovely is his new ability to play with things while on his belly.

Also: look how well he is sitting up!
he can sit straighter than that, but he can sometimes stay sitting unaided (but with cushions around him incase he topples over) for several minutes! Big clever boy! And he's not even 6 months old yet!

Other new things:

He is blowing raspberries. He's able to spin around on the spot on his front, and also push himself backwards! He is now also becoming more adept at rolling over in all directions, and from all positions (ie front to back and back to front, and both ways not just his "usual" way)

He is also learning to pick things up from the floor in front of him while he's sitting!

The other day I decided to let him play with some cornflour mix. I put *ahem* a little too much food colouring in it! And I'm thinking he probably ate a fair amount - his sick for the rest of the day was pink! Ewww!

Oh! And it's almost taken 6 months, but I have FINALLY managed to get one of Robert's HUGGGGEEEE smiles on camera! The ones he does when he finds something funny and about to laugh, or just really enjoying himself!

Anyway I'm so glad it's friday - it's been a long old week. So happy Jonathan's here for the next two and a half days!

I also remembered a couple of days ago that I was in the process of transferring entries, so I did a month's worth each evening for the last two evenings. I'm now up to February 2009 so not too much more to do! I also cried when I read back one of my old entries, a letter to Robert I wrote when he was about 4 weeks old. Sooo sweet! (And I wrote it! haha!)

Anyway, I'm going to go now. I need to do some bits before the boys wake up!

Monday 11 May 2009

A close mum!

Ah the start of a brand new week!

Yesterday, Robert was a little so-and-so, which made me very very glad that Jonathan was around, and also he kept waking every 1-2 hours since we put him to bed around 6pm til when he got up at 8am this morning. Argh! It was definitely one of those days that make you think that maybe your kid will be an only child after all! But then you get a day that followed with one like today, where you think ahh yes, definitely 2-3 more! ;)

It was a LOVELY day. No real big temper tantrums that couldn't be consoled. (The odd sleepy-grump though) I texted the mum who lives 3 doors down, invited her and her two year old little boy over. She and I have so much in common! She is so lovely. She is 26 (I am 26 in July), she wants to lose weight, so do I. She had PND and scarily a lot of the symptoms and problems I had! She's just so friendly and lovely, and YAY a nice mum, so close! We went for a walk with our little'uns in their buggies down into town, and had a good long natter on the way. (btw, Robert's been in his buggy like a big boy for a few times now! He looks so teeny and cute in there! But what is good is that if he starts to get tired, we can fully recline it so he's sleeping flat on his back) She's invited us over to her house on Wednesday morning, it's lovely. :) I'm so excited about this new friendship. And so pleased that I'm not finding it too hard to make new friends! My Mum will be thrilled ;) (she was so worried about me being a recluse)

Anyway, dinner is cooking (a lovely pasta with sausages, bacon, mushrooms, onion and pepper in tomato sauce). Hopefully there'll be enough left over to freeze and let Robert try another day.

Friday 8 May 2009

More weaning photos!

Ahhh thanks for the comments! As always! I love reading your comments!

We have got so many more cute photos of Robert eating! There's something so cute about a baby stuffing his/her own face and getting food EVERYWHERE! ;)

There are so many, but I won't bore you with ALL the photos, especially all the photos of Robert eating the broccoli and cauliflower a few days ago. I'll try and pick my favourites instead!

He certainly has been getting stuck in!



Here's a photo of Robert looking completely different to normal (funny how babies can do that, occasionally take photos where they look nothing like they usually do!!) eating some cucumber.

And here's him just today enjoying melon for the first time. He did like it! Gave it a good old sucking!

We also tried him on some red pepper today, but he wasn't really very keen at all. He did try and put it in his mouth but it was more exploring it I think than trying to eat it, which he didn't seem to want to do. Then Jonathan gave him a banana, with some of the peel left on so it was easier for him to hold, and oh my goodness. Robert went for that like... I don't know.. but the boy certainly LOVES banana! He crammed it in his mouth, and managed to break off about 1/4 of the banana. He had so much banana there was a huge chunk just sitting there coming out of his mouth! It looked SOOO so so funny! I just went into hysterics laughing, which made Robert grin (complete with banana), which was just even more funny! I think in the end, he polished off a massive 2/3 to 3/4 of the banana (the rest I'm sure he would have eaten too but it was all in a mushy mess on the high chair tray, and smushed onto his bib, and on his cheeks lol!)

I'd like to try him on some toast tomorrow. It would be nice I think anyway.

Oh! I almost forgot to say! We went for his paediatrician checkup today, and the doctor seemed very pleased with his milestones. She wasn't concerned at all so far, and neither are we. Although we were a bit worried about the fact that over the last month Robert had only put on 8oz, and dropped below the 50th centile line, he was weighed again today where he was 4oz heavier! Putting him at 17lbs exactly.

What else? Oh yes! A new trick just this past day really - raspberries! Yesterday he kept sticking his tongue out at me, but today they have been accompanied by rasping sounds. Oh my it's sooo cute! He has been rasping all day and it's just so funny! I swear my baby gets cuter by the day in everything he does and also his looks. ;)

*Sigh* :)

Oh, and still broody as hell! Which is good I suppose, it will encourage me to lose weight! I asked Jonathan today, what he thought about when we would try for a second baby. I said, if I managed to get down to my target weight within a year, how would he feel about trying straight away after I'm down to the weight. He replied with the usual male "We'll see" lol ;)

I really am beginning to notice the difference. Another month or so and hopefully I'll be 2 stone lighter than I was in January, and then I'll definitely feel and look lighter I should hope!

Anyway, really looking forward to tomorrow, but also slightly apprehensive, wondering if I'll be worried all the time about him, as it'll be over 4 hours probably. Don't worry Sarah, I won't spoil Star Trek for you! ;)