26/08/2010 by stupidgirl_no1.

So this morning I watched Bryan get a vasectomy.  I was planning on sitting in the waiting room and doing the dutiful wife thing of driving him home but then the doctor said “come on in, its a once in a lifetime opportunity” and it seemed rude not to go.  I did check with Bryan that he was okay about it, and I did stay at the head end - same as he did at the birth!  Still saw quite a lot though, most interesting!  Togetherness is a wonderful thing.

I did manage to resist saying “sucks to be you” as the doctor went snip snip.  This is one of the helpful things Bryan said to me after about 2 hours of trying to push our big baby out, so it seemed only fair to say it to him.  My time might come now the anesthetic has worn off of course.  And we both knew I was thinking it - in a caring way obviously!

It was really rather interesting watching them at work, I don’t like blood and stuff but coped quite well - and Bryan was a Big Brave Boy and coped very well.  Considering I just had to sit on a stool it was quite nice of him to check if I was feeling faint at all part way through!

Anyway that’s that done.  I did drive him home afterwards, stopping off at Asda for a ton of painkillers and a Kinder Egg.  That’ll take care of him.  The nurse told us that Bryan shouldn’t bounce Owen on his knee for the next couple of days, and the doctor added that no one should bounce on his knee tonight, so I will be in charge of Owen for a wee while - at least I have the car today so can drive him home instead of having to try and amuse him on the bus, much easier!

I just phoned Bryan to check how he’s getting on and he’s lying on the sofa playing PS3 or XBox so I think he’s going to make it through today.

What a relief I feel though.  I know you have to wait till its confirmed that its worked and stuff but just knowing that we’re nearer to being safe and sound is a lovely feeling.  Felt quite bad when I was grinning estatically when we popped by his work to collect the laptop so he could work from home if needed.  I have been stressing about getting pregnant again though, just can’t face it all again.  And Owen is such a perfect little boy I couldn’t want for more even if I tried.  I love my family, just the way it is.  Togetherness is a wonderful thing.

Posted in body issues | 5 Comments »

12/08/2010 by stupidgirl_no1.

As you will know if you read my blog much, I don’t keep things secret much.  Only when there’s a really good reason - or of course if its someone else’s secret that isn’t mine to tell.  Anyway there’s something I’ve not blogged about and for ages we didn’t tell anyone but now I’m fed up of trying to remember who I’ve told and not told.  Also, I’m past being upset by talking about it and I don’t see the point in keeping it to ourselves anymore.

So I’m gonna tell you and then its done.  I don’t need responses or replies, I just need to unleash the secret so its not weighing on my mind anymore and making me feel guilty I haven’t told people.  Especially my Twitter friends who have been so fab and wonderful over the past couple of years since I met them.

Its not a nice or happy secret, so if you’re reading in great intregue or excitement, please stop now.  Its just one of those things that happen and it happened to us and at the time we couldn’t tell folk.

Anyway here it is - I was actually pregnant 3 times. 

Some people asked why we were taking so long getting pregnant - well we weren’t, we just didn’t manage to hold onto the first 2.  We lost both little beans about the 7 or 8 week point so they had not yet become much more than the size of a bean.  The first time I think my body just didn’t know what to do, the second time I think I got pregnant far too fast after the first time (when I asked the doctor when we should start again after the first one his answer was “when you get home”). 

The second time it happened Bryan and I looked at each other and declared “third time lucky”.  We then enjoyed Christmas and New Year before trying again.  Owen is our third time lucky baby and the moment I saw him I knew everything before had happened for the perfect reason of bringing the wonder of him into our lives.  I will never forget those 2 little ones I never got to meet but I will also never regret that Owen was the one that stuck in there!

Anyway I won’t go into details of what happened and how and when and stuff.  If anyone wants to ask me about it I really don’t mind, miscarriage is a statistically common thing in the first 12 weeks which we had been warned about by a kind friend.  But that’s why I was so happy when I finally got to tell people!  It also explains the hidden bit behind this blog post.  We’d had about 26 weeks of pregnancy before we could tell anyone that we were 12 weeks pregnant.  And that’s part of why Owen will be an only child.  We can’t go through all that again, I’m just so glad I had Bryan beside me all the way through, he was amazing.  I’m so lucky to have him and Owen and I’ll never forget that.

So there you go, secret no more.

Posted in Baby!, body issues | 1 Comment »

30/07/2010 by stupidgirl_no1.

Poor wee Owen.  As if a throat and ear infection isn’t enough to cope with, Mummy then decided that his favourite comforter was too germ ridden and needed a wash.  And then had the gall to try and put him to bed without it!  You what?!

Bunny Babbit is usually in Owen’s cot and is usually cuddled as he goes to sleep.  Last night though, he was in the washing machine getting dizzy and I felt like such an awful Mummy watching Owen searching his cot for him.  No matter how many other teddies I gave him, the crying continued until finally he managed to get to sleep.  Normally we put Owen in his cot and he may gurn for a wee minute but that’s it, last night he was crying like the world was ending.  It wasn’t enjoyable!

Tonight it didn’t take as long, although he was obviously looking for Babbity.  I think it helped that he decided he wanted to go find Daddy who was upstairs so climbed the entire staircase!  I was close behind him but he managed the whole of the stairs on his own - must have helped tire him out!

Health wise, he is definately getting over his infection.  Seems a lot happier.  However, I did have to give a parental signature today for his first Accident Report at nursery.  Poor wee chap!  He and one of the wee ones both wanted the same toy, and it ended up giving him a wee cut on his chin as they fought over it.  Apparently he hardly cried about it but it was bleeding for a wee while.  I’m quite glad I missed his first blood - not an essential “first” to be part of!  I probably would have cried more than he did!!  Talking of nursery, it was so sweet when I went in with him this morning.  3 of the wee ones came over to the door to say hello to him and one wee girl even brought him a yellow ball, was so sweet!!  He did look like he might cry when I was leaving though - makes such mixed emotions, you don’t want them to be unhappy but you do like that they want you with them!  He did look pleased when I collected him tonight, started waving at me with a huge grin as soon as he saw me!  He’s just mastering waving as a concept so every wave seems special!  As we got home we had a chat to one of the neighbours and as she was saying goodbye to him he did a 2 handed wave, which I hadn’t seen him do before, it was really cute!!  It may have been his wave of approving her suggestion that she babysit for us sometime - at least I may persuade myself of that now that the new A Team movie is out….oooooh!

Posted in Baby!, body issues | 1 Comment »

28/07/2010 by stupidgirl_no1.

I think I blogged yesterday during Owen’s afternoon nap.  Normally he naps for up to an hour, morning and afternoon.  Yesterday it was 1.5 hours in the morning, and 2 (that’s TWO!) hours in the afternoon!  If I hadn’t been distracted by someone threatening me with legal action, which was all a bit disturbing and upsetting, I might have been a bit panic stricken.  However sleep is often the best cure and he did wake up with a smile and seem a lot better for it.

He slept well last night as well, except a bit of gurning about 4am.  A couple of times I nearly went through with his sugar free paracetamol but then he went quiet again, so I just left it.  I don’t think we were awake longer than half an hour.  After our day off I’d apparently forgotten to set my alarm clock, so it was very kind of him to wake up 2 minutes before it normally goes off - and then to go back to sleep whilst I had my shower and breakfast.  Bless him, he’s so well trained and knows our routine so well!  When I went in to get him up he seemed his usual self, smiling and happy.  He’s not quite back to normal but there was no crying this morning, until we got to nursery and I went to leave.  Apparently he wasn’t too much extra trouble at nursery, just a bit sensitive and wanted extra attention.  Quite understandable for a wee sickboy really!

On the bus home he was charming ladies, young and old with his smiles, and I think there were even a couple of waves (waving is still a new and not quite mastered skill).  I was sat next to a bearded man who was saying hello to him - well I think Owen grabbed at him, as he’s prone to do.  Anyone sat near us is obviously there for his entertainment.  Anyway part way up the road the man took Owen’s hand and rubbed it on his beard.  Owen looked rather unsure, so he did it again.  We then got the most hilarious facial expressions - it was as if he was smiling and grimacing at once, in the most adorable way.  He would move away and then reach up for another touch of it and the face would appear again.  Most of the people on the bus, well at the front as it was a bendy bus, were laughing at him as well.  It really was quite hilarious - and it was lovely afterwards as well as several people said goodbye to Owen as they got off the bus - and he loves attention and being waved at.  Quite a tonic for me too after a stressful few days!

Posted in Baby!, body issues | 1 Comment »

27/07/2010 by stupidgirl_no1.

So Owen is ill.  I mentioned at the weekend that he wasn’t quite right.  We thought it was just teething as he does now have 4 teeth.  But no, yesterday I had the first phone call from the nursery.  They were asking if they could give him sugar free paracetamol, which I of course agreed to.  When I collected him Angela said even the other children were giving him funny looks as they are not used to him crying.  The medicine had helped but he was certainly not himself.

Usually on the bus he’s standing on my lap, watching and smiling at everyone and everything, this time he just sat on my lap and did the sleeping with his eyes open thing.  No one got smiles.  We got into the house and I put him on the floor to take his jacket and shoes off - usually this is when he shoots off to play with toys.  Nope, just sat there and looked sad.  Poor teething baby I thought and made his dinner.  He cried through much of that.  Daddy took him for his bath whilst I popped to Asda to get some more sugar free paracetamol from the Minor Ailments Service so we could take a bottle to nursery.  When I came home they were obviously still bathing Owen.  Then when Bryan lifted him out he started crying.  It seemed that picking him up hurt, and he seemed to be reluctant to move his right hand.  We took him downstairs and tried to get him to crawl.  Nothing.  Right, that’s just not right, time to phone the doctor.  I really love NHS 24, I wish we never had to use it but they are so lovely and helpful - well apart from when I mentioned his arm and there were questions about trauma and I could tell they thought we’d abused him and hurt his arm.  Yikes.  I was told we had to see a doctor that night, which I was actually quite relieved by as Owen was obviously in a lot of discomfort.  They phoned us back with an appointment at G Docs, the out of hours clinic, at 8.10pm.  So off we all trundled, Owen in his PJs wondering why we were in the car at bedtime.

The doctor gave him a through examination and declared he had a ear and throat infection.  The arm thing must just be that achy feeling you get with flu, think we all know how rotten that feels, poor wee mite.  The really interesting thing she told us is that when a baby is ill it often regresses back a step so because crawling is a new thing to Owen he will have stopped doing it as he’s ill, not necessarily because it hurts to lean on his arm as we were afraid it seemed to be.

She gave us a prescription and told us we had 15 minutes to get to Sainsburys before the pharmacist shut - off we raced.  Got there in time - and they didn’t have any of the stuff we needed!  DOH!  They also told us all pharmacists in Aberdeen shut at 9pm.  Drat.  Owen was so tired with it being 2 hours past bedtime that he was asleep before I got back to the car in a strop.  So we went home and put him to bed, when he woke up gurning near bedtime we gave him some sugar free paracetamol - and he slept right through till 7.45!  Bless him!

I arranged to be off work today once he was in bed and arranged with Bryan that one of us would go to Asda pharmacy at 8am and get his prescription before Bryan went to work.  Sorted.  Until I got to Asda and the pharmacy opened at 9, I’m sure it said 8 on the website!  Grrr!

At least it gave Owen and I a reason to go for a walk and get him some fresh air, maybe not ideal to do before his breakfast but he napped most of the way there and back so it was fine.  Today mostly he has napped, eaten, and of course, taken drugs. 

He does seem to be quite a bit better already, when I phoned nursery this morning they said usually 2 doses of the medication is all it takes for them to bounce back so I’m hoping when he wakes up from the current afternoon nap he will be feeling quite a bit better.  His naps have certainly been longer than normal today so I’ve managed to answer work emails and do some household chores.

Fingers crossed we’re through the worst of it.  Its horrid watching your wee one suffer and not being able to “fix it”.  Listening to an album of Disney songs on Spotify has helped, I even let him watch a bit of TV as sitting still seems to be his favourite thing.  The cats have been giving him attention too which is nice and has made him smile a couple of times.  They have each had a good brush during his naps so they seem quite chuffed I’m off work, George is curled up asleep beside me now, I did wonder if they missed me now my maternity leave is over.  Expect they like the peace and quiet though really!

Posted in Baby!, body issues | 1 Comment »

07/07/2010 by stupidgirl_no1.

As promised, some time ago sorry!

Well the boy has obviously been growing up!  He now weighes 1.5 stone and is nearly into 1 year clothes!  He has been wearing 9-12 months clothes for quite some time so I guess its not surprising but he is still only 8.5 months old, bless the wee lump!

I’ve started buying clothes for him.  We’ve been really lucky and been given a lot of hand me downs and presents so far so we’ve not actually needed to buy him any clothes.  We did buy him a couple of things but now we’re going to have to buy everything as the hand me downs are drying up!  Knew this would happen as he gets older and sizes last longer - at least we get the chance to get our money’s worth out of stuff from now on apparently.  Anyway I’m taking advantage of any vouchers and special offers I can - is a fun challenge to see what barguins I can get!

So what have we been up to?  Well before I went back to work we used to go to Kids & Co every Tuesday morning (babies play, Mummies gossip!) and Mainly Music every Wednesday morning (singing and dancing and having a fab time!).  Both groups were at our local church, neither was very religious but it was nice to feel part of the community and to see the same lovely folk each week.  In the modern way, I added as many as possible on Facebook so we can keep in touch now I’m back at work.  The last couple of weeks I was able to take Owen to Jo Jingles which started up in our area.  This is another music group but instead of all singing and dancing together each child sits on its own mat and gets given various things to play with. 

Owen loved both music classes and I’ve always sung to him quite a bit - hence him learning how to clap his hands!
Video here if the embedded version doesn’t work!

We went to a Bookstart Rhymetime in our local Library and Owen got his first Library Card.  Proud Librarian Mummy!  Not that I’ve let him borrow any books yet as he tends to suck them lots and so I only let him do it to his own books.

Other than that our days were made up of going for walks, doctors check ups, and visits from friends.  Lunches out were managed occassionally although any leaving the house seemed like a huge mission back then!  What to take?  What would Owen do?  Would we get home safely?  Quite funny looking back on it now when I jump on a bus with him every day to get home from nursery!

We had a family holiday - well a long weekend in Edinburgh.  My lovely friend Jennie let us use her flat to stay in so we had a fridge and cooker which made it easier with Owen.  We bought a travel cot so he slept in that in our room, he’s such a good sleeper it wasn’t a problem all sharing a room again.  Other than I had a cough so risked disturbing him!  I got some medicine on the way down from the Minor Ailments Service at the local pharmacists so that helped!  Of course that was mid May and its the cough I’m still suffering from!  Was lovely to catch up with our Hillside buddies, and I took Owen into my old work to show him off.

An amazing thing happened on Friday 28th May - Nicole and I actually had an evening together, just the two of us, with no husbands and no babies.  Much as we love them it was nice to have some girlie time together, just the 2 of us.  We couldn’t remember the last time it had happened but hopefully it will happen again soon - ooh must see about arranging that!  We spent some time getting “prettified” and then went out for dinner.  It was a really lovely night - and we did scrub up nice!

I’ve already blogged about going back to work.  Its still going well, with Owen still loving nursery so that’s cool.  My trip to Brighton was great, the conference was really good and the night out was awesome.  My usual “posse” was quite depleted at the conference so I did that networking thing and made some new friends which was good.  I may have also been snapped by the official photographer drinking Champers before noon with James!  Check out my cool bag though!  @Jaffne made me it, she’s so cool!  You can see some of her craftiness here.

The night out with Twitter folks was really good, apparently after speaking to folk for about 3 years you do know them quite well, even if you’ve never met them.  I have some utterly awesome friends, just a shame Brighton is so far away!  A couple of them that I was looking forward to meeting didn’t make it but one special chap I didn’t think was coming did so that was fab.  You know who you are folks! 

And yes, I went on the Carousel - twice - once with a Law Librarian Carousel-Virgin and once with 2 Twitter chums.  Hurrah!

So yeah, life is good!  Hope yours is too?!

Posted in Baby!, body issues, Trips out, General waffle | 3 Comments »

05/07/2010 by stupidgirl_no1.

So I’d been warned that babies at nursery bring home germs and that Mummies often catch it worse.  I have proven the theory.  Hurrah - or something!  For several weeks I’ve had an annoying tickley cough, so last Monday I saw a doctor and got some medicine.  On Saturday morning I was changing Owen out of his night time nappy and nearly fainted.  No it wasn’t that bad a nappy - indeed I didn’t even get it open before putting him safely back in his cot and going to get Bryan.  We phoned NHS 24 and they arranged for me to see G-Docs, the out of hours doctor up at the hospital.

Got there and he found I had low blood pressure which got lower when I stood up - not good.  He decided it was either that the medicine was lowering my blood pressure, I was getting a virus or I was pregnant.  At the use of the P word I burst into tears.  It is rather unlikely as I have a coil but we did a test all the same - phew, negative!  The advice was to stop taking the medicine, go home and rest “eat, drink, watch Dr Who”.  Well, 2 out of 3 ain’t bad…

We had a quiet Saturday afternoon, with me going to bed at 8pm, and I woke up far worse.  Sunday was mainly me sleeping, drinking water and coughing.  Happy Birthday Bryan - here’s the baby, I’m out of it.  Poor man!  He made the best of it and took Owen to the beach where he had his first ever paddle in the sea, they then went to the supermarket and did the week’s shopping and came home with a get well card and a shell from the beach for me.  I hardly ate all day, which is most unlike me as any of my friends will know.  In the afternoon I called the lady who had done my maternity leave cover  and arranged for her to work the next day for me.

Anyway its now a week later (forgot I’d started this post, sorry!) and I’m almost back to normal.  But I’ve missed a bit of the saga - on the Monday I went to see my GP, I have now been diagnosed as having vasovagal.  And no, that’s not a “nasty girl thing”, its a tendency to faint.  It makes perfect sense really.  When I get overly hot and/or dehyrated I have been known to get fainty.  Week 25 of pregnancy I really did faint and thought it was just a pregnant thing.  Several years ago seeing Oasis, I blacked out and came too with the sound and lights technician peering at me, and found I had been dragged into his wee box before someone bounced on me.  When I did my work placement in London I went to a concert at Wembley one night, after spending my lunch hour buying a ticket, only to end up on the floor as Bjork sang on!  So now I have a name for these episodes, and know that I have to be careful and not let myself get too hot and too dehyrated.  Really not sure why having a name for it makes it less scary, but it does, so that’s me happy!  Well until I faint again!!  But now I know to watch for the warning signs, and when they come I need to sit or lie down and drink water.  Simples!

Posted in body issues | 1 Comment »

30/03/2010 by stupidgirl_no1.

Update as promised. 

Owen is certainly growing well, as Daddy’s biceps will show!  He is now 5 months old and is quite tiring to hold for long as he’s a “decent size”.  He is really interested in anything and everything, especially the cats!

On the 18th March (5 months to the day after he was born) he had his 6 month check with the health visitor and weighed 18 lbs 8 (8kg 390).  He is now 68 cm long.  She was pleased to tell me he is growing in proportion.  She asked loads of questions about how he was getting on and apparently he can do everything he should for his age plus some!  She also said we’d proved ourselves to be “good parents” and so are deemed as needing little guidance and assistance.  I felt so proud I thought I’d burst! 

It was actually just what I needed to hear as we’d just had a couple of incidents which had knocked my confidence.  Firstly we were in his first “road traffic incident”.  We were going into town, stopped off to see my friend for lunch on the way.  She offered us a lift into town and we declined the offer politely as we didn’t have a car seat so it wouldn’t be safe.  Oh the irony.  We then got on a bus which ended up getting the rear end of a trailer through its front door.  It was quite a jolt but Owen was in his BabyBjorn carrier, strapped to my front, and slept through the whole thing.  It really shook me up as it made me realise I can’t keep him safe from the world, even when I’m with him.  Still no one was hurt and as I say, he didn’t even notice. 

Unfortunately he noticed the second incident.  I had gone into the kitchen to puree some apple for his lunch.  He was sat at the back corner of the sofa, between the cushions, with his toy laptop on his lap, happily “working away”.  I’m not very good in the kitchen so took longer than I should have and there was a horrid *Thud*.  Somehow he had managed to get to the edge of the sofa, whilst still playing with the laptop, as I was listening to its noises so I knew he was okay.  Anyway poor wee guy had a grazed nose and as I got to him started crying at full gusto.  I felt soooo bad and awful, and no, he’s not been left on any raised surfaces since.  Anyway I phoned the lovely and helpful folk at NHS 24 and talked it through with them, then got him an emergency appointment at the doctors that afternoon.  Luckily babies bounce well so he was, and is, totally fine.  But what a horrid scare.  So yes, he can move, roll over, wiggle around etc now.  Well done Owen for that development!  And at least he fell from a low sofa onto a carpet and not from his high up changing table onto the wooden floor beneath.  I used to leave him up there and start the bath running or get more nappies out of the cupboard or whatever, but not anymore.  Look on the bright side and learn a lesson for the future, that’s what I say.

Breaking news, as this just happened yesterday - we now have permission to stop using Owen’s splint!  He has been growing steadily, so much so that he is now in 6-9 month clothes and we’ve been struggling more and more to get his splint on at night.  Yesterday morning it had come off totally so I phoned the hospital and they’ve agreed he can probably live without it.  He has a check up appointment on 14th April so hopefully at that we’ll get the all clear on his under developed hip.  He certainly loves standing, bouncing and using it!

The only downside is that he’ll now be able to roll over in the night but as he’s in his cot with sleeping bags now anyway it shouldn’t be a problem.  Still, when I walked in this morning and he was lying on his tummy I couldn’t help myself have a little panic.  Hopefully it’ll be fine though, I’m sure he’s not the first baby to ignore the SIDS advice.  He started sleeping in his cot after we’d been away for a week as he was filling his moses basket.  It’s lovely being able to put him to bed in his own room and know you’ve got the rest of the evening to yourself, and don’t need to sneak in when its your bedtime!

I mentioned pureeing apple, well that was due to the fact that we are weaning Owen onto solids.  In February he got back to the point of needing fed every 3 hours, day and night.  I spoke to the health visitor and we agreed it was time to wean him.  The WHO guidelines like babies to get milk exclusively for 6 months but Owen was a big baby to start with so I’d always been told we would have to wean him early.  So on 25th February we started weaning him from breast milk to formula.  The aim was to get him sleeping through the night so we increased his bottle feeds until by mid March he was just getting one breastfeed at bedtime.  Soon that seemed redundant, and given all the problems we’d had with feeding I was happy to stop it so 17th March was his last feed - and neither of us have missed it. 

I managed to feed him on just breast milk (apart from the first couple of weeks when we were struggling) for over the essential first 4 months and I am proud of myself for doing that, I will admit.  However I am sooooo pleased to get my boobs back and be able to wear a normal bra (or none at night!) without breastpads!!  Yikes!  My first beer was some treat too!  I stopped drinking in June 2008 when we started trying for a baby and I only had the odd glass of champers on special occassions, until he slept through the night when I had a wee half vino a couple of times but was always worried he’d wake up and need fed before it was out my system.  Last night I was out for dinner with a gal pal and had 2 bottles of Miller when we went back to hers - no guilt or worry - just sheer bliss!!!

Anyway, back to the boy!  So the transition from breast to bottle was easy for Owen, but he still wasn’t sleeping through the night so on 3rd March we started him on some baby rice as well as the Hungrier Baby formula.  I was trying to hold out for as long as possible before introducing food, in line with the WHO guidelines but he was just too hungry so on 14th March we started him with his first “proper food”. 
 If the video won’t work you can view it here.

It’s a messy game feeding a wee one but good fun and interesting to see the reaction to different foods.  He now gets porridge with fresh banana for breakfast, a couple of vegetables mashed together for lunch then a fruit with baby rice for dinner - as well as 5 bottles of formula through the day.  And hurrah, he sleeps through the night!  7.30pm - 7.30am ISH!

As far as general development goes he really is a pleasure to be around, always smiling.  He now giggles as well, which is adorable.  He is teething a wee bit, maybe just movement under the gums, but he doesn’t cry about that just chews anything he can get his hands on and drools a lot.  Gel filled keys are always in the fridge to help when needed and he does love the coolness against his gums when they are bothering him.  He can sit up on his own now although he needs a hand near his back as he sometimes leans too far backwards or to one side and topples over.  He loves being held up so he can “stand” and bounce on your lap.  He can hold things and pick things up, he holds his own bottle sometimes and his favourite game today was taking his socks off and putting them in his mouth!

Obviously I may be slightly biased in my love and proudness of him but I’m telling you - he is totally gorgeous and adorable!

Posted in Baby!, body issues | 3 Comments »

13/02/2010 by stupidgirl_no1.

Or should that be blogged too soon?

So I though we’d got the hang of breastfeeding at last.  Turns out he was sucking rather than latching (and yes there is a difference, who’d have thought?).  He is fine and still well fed but I am now in lots of pain.  I kept thinking it was just due to the change from using breast shields but it has got to such a level that I now admit - we can’t breastfeed “properly”.  Ah well, back to breast shields.

So now I’m quite disappointed in myself, all over again.  I just want to be as perfect a Mum to him, as he is a son to me.  I guess I just have to be satisfied that I am managing to breastfeed at all, some ladies can’t.  Tomorrow he turns 17 weeks and we are into the zone of “you can start weaning now if you like but its best to wait until he’s 6 months”.  Goodness knows I am looking forward to this whole fiasco being over, will be so much easier when he’s on Sugar Puffs and burgers!!

In the meantime I must share this video that is just adorable.  It was what I was woken up by this morning but is still cute, I’m sure you’ll agree…

If it doesn’t work here just go to my flickr page to see it.

Posted in Baby!, body issues | 2 Comments »

11/02/2010 by stupidgirl_no1.

…to paraphrase Professor Higgins in My Fair Lady.

To what do I refer?  Well I’m afraid this is where I started talking about my boobs again!  If you were brave enough to read my blog entry about breastfeeding you will know that Owen and I were not managing to proceed in the traditional manner.  We have been using breast shields, which works fine but you do get some leakage and you need to sterilise them in between every feed. 

Well, at the weekend, during one of his feeds, I glanced down at one point and there was Owen feeding, and there beside him was the shield!  I did a double take, then checked that I could feel milk leaving me, and sure enough he really was feeding without a shield!

Trying not to get too excited prematurely I squealed at Bryan.  Anyway the next couple of feeds he would knock off the shield now and then, until now I don’t even get the shield out, I just sit down with Owen and away he goes!

I’m still trying not to get excited and think we’ll never need a shield again but I had such lovely supportive comments from various people after my main blog on the topic that I just had to share my glee - and here’s hoping it lasts!  Of course this Sunday he will be 17 weeks old, which is the minimum age for weaning, so not much longer that he’ll be feeding!  I will try to hold out for the recommended 6 months exclusively on milk, but it depends if he gets super hungry before that and needs more.  At least when I’m weaning him off brest milk onto formula it won’t be a new thing as he had formula for the first four weeks or so until we got established feeding.

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