It's a Mum's life!

I've moved again!

2009-03-23T10:28:00.000Z

You can now find me here.

Moving!

2008-01-30T09:48:00.000Z

I've moved!

You can find me now at http://itsamumslife.wordpress.com

See you there!

Smile!

2007-03-27T15:27:00.000+01:00

I love this….just been reminded of it by a BBC news article….enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pv5zWaTEVkI

Commenting...

2007-03-27T15:26:00.000+01:00

…I love getting comments from people (even when random hugs from people I don’t know have almost made me cry recently!)…but I’ve realised I really don’t comment much on other people’s blogs…so my challenge for April (I know it’s still March but we’re going away at the weekend and I’ve got lots to do) will be to comment on as many blogs I read as possible (if I can think of something suitable to say) whenever I trail through my blog roll…

My sister is sending me mad, having got really grumpy at me and refused to speak to me for a fortnight when I told her I was pregnant (in an evening when I knew she would have the support of her husband) she’s now calling me every few days asking what would help morning sickness (am I really evil for being pleased that she was sick more yesterday than I ever was with the munchkin? I was only ever nauseous most days and sick twice in 9 months), can she borrow my bump belt now I need it no longer?

I’m still bleeding internittently and the last thing I want is to hear about her pregnancy. I’m fine with my pregnant friends round here, they’re all being wonderful and sensitive, but my sister just doesn’t seem to think? I’ve been tempted to call her and say just leave me alone for a bit, but I can’t think of a nice way to say it. Mr H has offered to have a word with her, but that doesn’t seem right either…..argh!

On another subject we managed to get the sick smell out of the munchkin’s carpet by liberally sprinkling it with bicarbonate of soda…thanks Mum for the old fashioned idea. She suggested that before I saw the lavender comments so I tried it first. I’ll try lavender next time around

Getting worse...

2007-03-21T15:24:00.000Z

…the munchkin has been sick again, this time over the carpet at the bottom of the stairs….urgh! Fun day for me to come….not!

…my sister has just told me she’s 6 weeks pregnant. I’m really, really pleased for her, but kind of wishing she could have waited another week or so before telling me. She’s already had two scans to check the baby is in the right place and has another next week to try and find a heart beat. She was telling me what the scan had shown, her baby is at exactly the same stage as ours was when it died…

Oopps

2007-03-21T14:30:00.000Z

We were disturbed in the middle of the night by some odd noises from the munchkin. She settled herself back down fairly quickly so we weren’t too worried, but when I went into her room this morning to get her up I was met by a horrible smell.

The little darling had been sick in the night and then fallen back to sleep in it! It was completely embedded in her hair. Thankfully Mr H hadn’t left for work at that point so her was able to clean the cot, carpet and bedding (and toys!) while I bathed the munchkin. It was so meshed into her hair that I had to wash it twice to get the smell out.

She’s a little subdued this morning, but not too much, and has just gone down for a nap in the travel cot (her room smells too bad for her to sleep in there). I’m not sure what caused her to be poorly, she had her pneumococcal (sp?) jab last Tuesday so it could be that, otherwise I don’t know. She tried a little bit of our curry last night (unusually Mr H got home in time for us all to eat together), but she has had that before. I guess we’ll never know.

On a slight side note, if anyone has any bright ideas for getting the sick smell out of carpet I’d be really grateful for them!

It's over

2007-03-17T14:22:00.000Z

I seem to have spent most of the last week either in hospital or waiting for calls to say whether there was a bed for me or not.

Having not eaten anything since midnight on Monday night I called to see if there was a bed for me at 8am on Tuesday, nothing I had to wait for them to call me, they called me back at 2 to say still no bed, try again tomorrow.

Try again on Wednesday, nothing at 8, wait again, put the munchkin down for a nap at 10, was called at 10:30 to say we have a bed, will you come now please. We got to the hospital at 11, spent an hour waiting in a waiting room before seeing a nurse who gave me a gown and some oh so attractive surgical stockings. mum (who arrived at lunchtime on Tuesday) took the munchkin home at this point for lunch and another attempt at a nap. At about 12:30 we (there was another lady waiting for an ERPC) were taken down to a ward (surprisingly nice, individual en suite rooms).

I wasn’t seen by a doctor until about 3, all she did was put a canula in to give me some fluids (having not eaten since 10 the night before) and tell me that I had to wait and see the anaesthetist before I’d be able to go to theatre. For some reason she couldn’t get the cannula into the back of my hand, she gave up and used my elbow instead (trying to sleep when you usually curl up into a ball but you’ve got a cannula in your elbow is a challenge!). Eventually saw the anaesthetist at 6ish, he was the first person to ask me about any allergies. I’m allergic to most adhesives (even the supposedly hypoallergenic micropore gives me an itchy rash) and also mildly allergic to latex (only a mild dermal reaction). He asked me a bit about the latex, but didn’t seem too concerned.

Mr H, Mum and the munchkin appeared to say hello during evening visiting at 6:30, but couldn’t stay long as they needed to get the munchkin to bed.

However, at around 7:30 the surgeon appeared to say that I’d be put at the top of Thursday’s list for surgery so they could have a completely clean theatre for me due to not wanting to take any chances with the latex. I’ve never had that much of a reaction so I was rather surprised but glad to be given more of an idea rather than just sitting waiting.

After 21 hours of not eating the Heinz tomato soup I was given for dinner (all there was on the ward at 8pm) was one of the nicest things ever! It was frustrating though, having sat on a bed all afternoon waiting to be sent to theatre only to be told actually it’ll be tomorrow.

I was woken at 6 on Thursday by the nurse doing her observation round (I can’t understand why they need to do it quite so early, especially when the evening round is between 10 and 11pm!) and was given another bag of fluids through the cannula. They didn’t start prepping me for theatre until 9 so the morning seemed to drag. I was taken down to theatre at 10 and got back to the ward at about 11:45. I was told at this point that hopefully I’d be able to go home at 4….

After a lunch of very soggy tuna sandwiches, which I somehow managed to keep down (the first time I’ve ever had a general anaesthetic and been able to eat afterwards with out being sick and needing a nice injection of anti-emetics in my bottom!), Mum and the munchkin came into afternoon visiting hoping to be able to take me home with them. However, that was not to be, the doctor came in a said that because of the possible latex risk I’d need to stay in overnight. I was not particularly happy having been told one thing, and then another. I could understand in a way why they said it, but still, after all the delays I just wanted to get home and sleep in my own bed.

I was finally discharged at 9:30 yesterday after a very short nights sleep. The nurses didn’t do the evening drug round and observations until 11pm and then woke me at 6 for the morning obs, even on a good day I’m a person who needs 8 hours sleep and I was very tired after the anaesthetic.

I’m really glad I’ve had the surgery now and that the pregnancy is over. We can now try and move ourselves on from it. We’ve been advised to wait 3 months before trying for another baby, but at the moment it’s a long way from my mind. It’s going to take a bit for me to feel better after all this. I’m still a bit emotional at times, and am very tired. Maybe in 3 months we’ll want to try again, but maybe a bit longer, it’s too early to say really.

Ups and Downs

2007-03-12T11:39:00.000Z

After a lovely weekend at my grans (Saturday night was the first night I have slept for 7 solid hours for weeks!) we went back for the second scan this morning.

As I expected there was no change. despite being sure of it it was still really hard when the lady doing the scan said that there was no change. We then had to head back to the EPU to decide what to do next, wait for things to happen naturally or book in for an ERPC. Since baby died about 4 weeks ago and nothing has happened yet we decided on an ERPC. If they have a bed for me when I ring at 8am tomorrow we’ll go in then. Mr H has booked the day off work to look after the munchkin, hopefully they’ll be able to be in with me some of the time, but I really don’t know. He took this morning off as well which was great. I don’t know how I’d have been if I’d been on my own.

I don’t react too well to general anaesthetics, I get very sick after them, so hopefully I’ll be early on the list for theatre, otherwise there’s a reasonable chance I’ll have to stay overnight (not ideal as MR H has important training on Wednesday).

I’ve been upping and ahhing over whether to ask Mum to come and stay for a couple of days, Mr H has too much on to be able to take much time off, he’s interviewing the students for industrial placements in his department one day this week as well as the training. I spoke to Mum this morning, she didn’t mention the possibility of coming, I don’t know what she’s got on at the moment, whether she’s busy or hasn’t thought of it.

One of the munchkin’s godmothers lives locally and has been here this afternoon to keep me company (she came bearing chocolates and a lovely scented candle for me), she’s said that if we need her after work for the rest of this week just to call which is fab.

I’m going to go now and put the munchkin to bed before packing a bag to take in with me tomorrow. Thanks again to those of you who left me the lovely messages.

———————————————-

Update - I’ve spoken to Mum, after a lot of thought she’s going to come down tomorrow if I go in to hospital then. She was very dubious about coming (after a breakdown a year ago she’s found committing to things hard and needs time at home after being away fro a bit - she was staying with my gran last week so was hoping to have a quiet at home week this week), but having realised what a state I’m in she decided that she could do it after all. I’m so grateful. I’m realising quite how alone I am here, there’s no one (apart from the munchkin’s godmother) here that could help us in any way.

Thanks

2007-03-08T11:38:00.000Z

to everyone who’s commented lately. It’s astonishing to think that there are people thinking of us that we’ve never actually met. I had a little cry when I read some yesterday. My first tears for the baby except that first Tuesday.

We’re going to my grans for a long weekend this afternoon, hopefully the quiet time and rest (if the munchkin will let us!) will help us get our heads together a bit more.

Hope you all have a good weekend. Thanks again. Bye!

Muddling along...

2007-03-06T11:37:00.000Z

It’s been a funny week since I last posted. I’m trying not to dwell too much on the miscarriage (I’m sure that baby has died) but still remembering that I have to go back to the hospital on Monday to have another scan. The munchkin has been funny, there’s been times she’s just been cuddly and there and other times when she’s been really demanding and I can’t seem to make her happy. We’ve been out somewhere everyday to keep busy and get out of the house for a bit which has helped a bit, but I seem to being seeing pregnant women everywhere. It doesn’t help that three of my friends at baby group are expecting, two due next month and the other is about 11 weeks. It’ll be easier once we know and can move on. Mr H has already been talking about us trying again in a couple of months, I think I’d rather wait a bit first. It surprised me as he wasn’t sure about this pregnancy anyway, we’ll have to see how we feel as time goes on.

Another problem with all the worry is it’s affecting my sleep. I’m waking up more tired than when I went to bed, dreaming lots and waking lots. I’ve been trying to sleep during the day when the munchkin does, but I’m not really one for sleeping in the day. Hopefully a change of scene at my grans at the weekend will help. We’ll see….

Maybe all over...

2007-02-27T11:35:00.000Z

I was going to write a good long post yesterday about the fab weekend I had meeting up with my group of friends from college, we haven’t all been together for 3 1/2 years at least but I spent the afternoon up at the Early Pregnancy Unit at the local hospital after a little bit of spotting and cramps on Sunday night.

I had to go back this morning for a scan which revealed that baby is measuring about 2 weeks behind my dates with no chance of seeing a heartbeat yet. I have to go back in a fortnight for a repeat scan to confirm a missed miscarriage.

I’m pretty certain that I have lost the baby, I’m not at all nauseous any more and don’t really feel pregnant. I’ve already got more energy and am not feeling so tired.

I just wish I didn’t have to wait so long before being 100% sure (unless I start to bleed properly). It’s going to be a long two weeks. I still haven’t many friends down here I can talk to and there’s not a lot I can go out and do to keep myself occupied. We’re going away the weekend before the scan so I can look forward to that (only going to my gran’s for some cheap away time and a change of scene).

I was very teary this morning, but feeling less so now, looking forward to Mr H getting home from work to gve me a hug though. The munchkin is being a bit of a minx, alternating between being wonderfully cuddly and being a fussy little monster who can’t do anything on her own. She’s just made me grin by managing to pull a bowl of grapes from the dining table and then sitting with the bowl between her legs stuffing as many grapes into her mouth as she could ( counted 4 when she made herself gag and spat them all out!). I do love her so much! I need to remember that lots at the moment.

I hate hormones!

2007-02-22T11:34:00.000Z

(though I suppose that if I didn’t have any I wouldn’t be in the state I’m now in…..any happy about)

It’s just that I’m spending so much time trying to dodge flying bouts of morning (read all day!) sickness that so far haven’t actually made me be sick, but made me so close and trying to snatch any rest I can as I’m so tired it’s untrue. I don’t remember feeling this rough last time. I was coping fine with teaching full time when pregnant with the munchkin, but now I can barely hang the washing out to dry with out wanting to spend the next hour lying down. Roll on 12/14 weeks when hopefully this will ease a bit.

I haven’t heard from my sister still, I really miss our chats, but she just doesn’t want to speak to me at the moment. I had a brief text to say that she and her husband had landed in Paris for their weekend away but nothing else. I hope she can come to terms with all this soon.

Well, I told her...

2007-02-14T11:33:00.000Z

…and it was horrible. She’s devastated. She half expected it after talking to Mum on Sunday and getting the feeling that Mum was hiding something from her. I came off the phone in tears, she was so unhappy.

I just want my little sister to be happy, and there’s nothing any of us can do to help her. We can’t change our plans or put our lives on hold, we can’t wave a magic wand - ta-da - one baby, there’s absolutely nothing we can do. All the other girls on Mum’s side of the family seem to fall pregnant really easily, Mum fell with me and my sister within the first couple of months of trying, I discovered at the weekend that only one of my Mum’s siblings was actually planned (she’s one of 5!), my aunt fell pregnant on the pill, my cousin (a little younger than my sister) is expecting her third any day, all the others are no where near thinking of babies yet. When we can produce babies almost when we want to my sister is finding it so hard.

I just wish there was something, anything I could do for her.

Hmmm...

2007-02-12T11:31:00.001Z

Well, my nap didn’t happen as the door bell rang just as I was dozing off (thanks Mum for the clothes for the munchkin), the munchkin however slept for 1 1/2 hours and has just gone off again.

After speaking to Mum on the phone I have discovered that my sister’s period started yesterday….she’s going to be completely devestated. Mum thinks I should tell her today, I just don’t know, going to have a quick chat with Mr H when he gets in from work and maybe call my sister later on when her husband is home to comfort her.

Argh! I hate this!

Here, There, Everywhere!

2007-02-12T09:12:00.000Z

That’s how I’ve been feeling over the past few days.

Once we’d finally managed to defrost the pipes and be sure that there was no damage from it that was Wednesday out of the way, a busy day with so much to think about as well as giving the munchkin lots of cuddles to try and make her feel better.

Thursday brought a lovely covering of snow. We woke to 2 inches or so which stayed all day, after an interesting walk to the shops with the pushchair I let the munchkin have a little wander in the snow, she loved it!

She’d have loved to stay out longer but it was too cold for her. The local kids were really good about not throwing snow balls anywhere near her.

Come Friday I was coming down with a cold (which has got progressively worse and has today settled in my throat), then realised that my period had not really arrived having been due on Wednesday, spotted briefly that evening and nothing more…..hmmmm…..

Saturday morning produced a slightly unexpected positive pregnancy test, it looks like baby #2 may be with us sooner than planned (hoping all goes well)…..we weren’t going to start trying until after Easter. Baby’s current due date is 8 days before Mr H’s birthday and 13 days before the munchkin’s! Now it’s sinking in I’m delighted, we’ve always wanted at least two children (though Mr H didn’t want another October baby). I’m dreading telling my sister however, she and her husband have been trying for a baby for a year now with only an ectopic pregnancy to show for it and here’s us pregnant without really trying having fallen first month of trying each time before. I spoke to her on Thursday and we were being girly and discussing when we were due and I mentioned that by period had seemed to start on Wednesday and now I’m going to have to say well actually….

She was due on Friday and by speaking to Mum over the weekend I’ve discovered that she was at least late and probably going to test today, whenever I tell her it’s going to put a downer on her, either if she’s pregnant then she has to do it all with me (I think she’d much rather have a couple of months of attention without me taking any) or she’s not again and has to deal with the fact that I am….argh! We’re going to leave telling her until the weekend if possible, Mum and Dad know (I can’t hide anything from Mum) and are under strict instructions not to tell, I’m hoping that my sister doesn’t ask Mum anything outright as Mum can’t hide anything from either of us at all…..

Saturday’s news has also meant that my only means of attacking this cold have been paracetamol and hot honey and lemon (I hate not being able to take Day/Night Nurse), I’m wanting to spend today in bed, but Mr H is busy in meetings at work all day so can’t be home to look after the munchkin. I’m hoping to nap when she does……talking of which……bye!

2007-02-02T09:11:00.000Z

I don’t know what it is at the moment, but the strangest things make me quite emotional. We were watching one of the episodes of Dinnerladies on DVD the other night and as it ended I just started crying. Mr H just didn’t know what to do with me. For those that know the show it was the Millennium (Minnellium!) episode where Anita leaves her baby on the fire escape for Bren to find. I’ve watched that episode several times before but it’s never affected me in the same way.

I’m sure part of it is the broodiness I’m feeling at the moment, another part of me just can’t understand how someone can just abandon their baby. However I know it’s not a completely unusual occurrence. According to thisBBC news article 49 babies were abandoned in the UK in 2004, I don’t know what the statistics are for the US or other European countries. I know it is a lot more frequent in China, especially girls due to the one child laws and the opinion that it is better to have a boy, and I read somewhere recently about it being more prevalent in India as well.

But why is it done in the UK? According to the BBC site:

There are no firm conclusions as to why babies are abandoned. Some psychiatrists believe that mothers - especially young ones - can become overwhelmed by the presence of something that they denied for nine months. When the baby is born, the distressed mother can lose contact with reality for a brief period of time and may abandon her child.

Often the women can be suffering post-natal depression or feelings of inadequacy. In some cases, parents may see abandoning their child as an alternative to abortion or leave their baby believing the infant will have a chance of a better life. Economic, as well as emotional and social factors, can play a part.

I still find it hard to comprehend though. I know I was fortunate to bond really well with the munchkin initially despite the problems with breast feeding. I suppose I can see some of the reasons above, I just don’t think I can fully comprehend it.

Some countries have produced baby hatches or foundling wheels as a way for parents to leave their infants somewhere safe where they can be looked after for a period of time before the parent can return and claim the child or the child is taken into care and put up for adoption. In the US many states have safe havens laws whereby the parent can take the baby to a safe place such as a hospital or fire station where the child can be given into care anonymously and without there being any repercussions for the parent.

At the moment in the UK there is no facility for anything like this and a parent abandoning a child is seen as a criminal and could be imprisoned, I do feel this is harsh for someone who must definitely have problems in order to do this. Rather than the threat of prosecution hanging over these people they need help and support if they come forward, and that’s something I hope they’d have whatever.

That’s just my rather confused ramblings on the subject, what do you think?

Is this me?

2007-01-25T18:34:00.000Z

I saw this on The Natural Blue and since Mr H is something of a Simpsons fan (and fast converting the munchkin!) I thought I'd give it a go...

You Are Marge Simpson

You're a devoted family member who loves unconditionally.

Sometimes, though, you dream about living a wild secret life!

You will be remembered for: your good cooking and evading the police

Your life philosophy: "You should listen to your heart, and not the voices in your head."

The Simpsons Personality Test

What a week!

2007-01-25T11:40:00.000Z

I was hoping to find time to blog before this, but no chance. I've been so busy! Tidying, cooking, cleaning, entertaining the rellies plus trying to keep the munchkin calm amid the chaos. Her baptism service was really nice, the vicar was lovely, everyone arrived and got home safely and lots of food was eaten. Thanks Carmelo for the idea of veg sticks and dips....they went down really well. The munchkin's cake was slightly stressful as it didn't rise much though it was very light and tasty, a bit of umming and ahing over how to decorate it and it went immediately....has given me a bit of a bug for cake decorating though.....will have to make another one soon....next excuse for a cake I can come up with is Valentines...hmmm....sorry sidetracking...

Somehow it didn't seem too crowded with 17 of us here on Sunday, we just seemed to spread out around the kitchen and living room. At least we knlow we can do it again should we need to.

We had a great night out with Mr H's family on Saturday while L babysat for us. It was really nice to get to know J's fiancee a bit better and to spend time with the family, we haven't had a get-together since Christmas over 2 years ago. We see my family a lot, but the distance betwen north scotland and the south west of England is a long way, we'll see them all again for J and S's wedding though in April.

-----------------------------

My challenge now is to keep the house as tidy as we made it for Sunday, managing ok so far (but have had Mum here to stay until this morning and she's helped a lot). I really hope I can do it, it's much nicer living in a tidy organised house rather than our usual piles of chaos.

Further thoughts....

2007-01-15T11:33:00.000Z

Thanks for you comments Caramaena, I have thought about becoming a librarian, sadly there are no jobs opening up around here for that either, I guess I just need to keep looking out for them, hopefully something wil come up soon. For now I'm just busy thinking about the munchkins baptism on Sunday.....there are now 17 adults coming for lunch....we'd forgotten about some old friends of Mr H's mum (almost surrogate grandparents to Mr H), when I spoke to them this morning they were actually about to call us to find out where the church is...ooppss!

So now I need to decide what to feed everyone, and make sure that there is food for the two dairy intolerant folks coming.....I think we may end up having a fruit salad as a pudding option as all the other desserts I can think of are creamy!

What food do you like to eat at a buffet? So far we're definately having sausage rolls, salad and cold ham (ooo the excitement!).....any more suggestions?

Hmmm...

2007-01-12T11:31:00.000Z

Your Career Type: Social

You are helpful, friendly, and trustworthy.
Your talents lie in teaching, nursing, giving information, and solving social problems.

You would make an excellent:

Counselor - Dental Hygienist - Librarian
Nurse - Parole Officer - Personal Trainer
Physical Therapist - Social Worker - Teacher

The worst career options for your are realistic careers, like truck driver or farmer.

What's Your Ideal Career?

Ideas...or maybe telling me what I know....

More thoughts

2007-01-12T09:59:00.000Z

Thanks to Carmelo for your response to my last post....in reply to a couple of your comments....supply work is all well and good if you can either drive to the school or live somewhere with a good enough puplic transport system to get you there, I'd love to have a scooter, used to be a dream of mine, but the oulay would be at least as bad a learning to drive so it's a non starter (plus it wouldn't give me the freedom to takle the munchkin to other groups). Shift work is something I need to think more on, but like I said I need to get a lot fitter before I really look into police work so the munchkin would be older.....

.....Argh! I don't know....just about to have a nosy at the local rag and see if there's anything in there

What early night?

2007-01-10T10:14:00.000Z

Mr H and I attempted to get an early night last night, but ended up lying in bed discussing what to do about my loneliness. Thanks to being unable to drive and a dire lack of baby/toddler activities locally I've been seriously lonely since we moved down here. I survived initially by finding amy possible excuse to hop on the train back to Cambridge and meet up with my friends there, but now finances, and one of my best friends moving to deepest darkest Suffolk mean that it's not really an option except for the occasional visit. The only social interaction I have with other adults is the Wednesday baby group, for the rest of the week my day-time conversations consist of confusing conversations (of sorts) with the munchkin.

(Warning...confused outpouring of thought coming!)

Our only solutions were me learning to drive so I could get to other groups (at an outlay in excess of £400 for lessons not really an option) and getting a part-time job somewhere. I don't really want to go back to teaching, full-time teaching would leave me with no time for the munchkin and Mr H (thanks to planning and marking etc.), and part-time posts are hard to get hold of unless you already have your foot in the door. I had arranged a 60% timetable with my school in Cambridge had we stayed up there, but there's no way of doing that down there.

So that leaves me with a career change....so what do I do?

I very nearly applied for a paediatric nursing degree rather than education (I only settled on education a month before my application to Cambridge had to be in) and in a way I regret that. With a degree in maths and education I can be a teacher or.....a teacher, I'm not qualified for anything else. I could work in primary schools, but I really struggled with teaching literacy on my placements and didn't enjoy that at all. With mursing there are so many branches and areas I could have gone into....I'd still quite like to go back to university and re-train, but it's not something I could do living here, I'd need to live nearer the hospital(s) I'd be placed in, the local hospital is not involved in training and being unable to drive means that I can't commute anywhere else. It is something we could look at doing in the future, as we'd have to move house, but not at the moment.

What else is there? I have considered vetinary nursing or the police force. There is a vetinary practice locally that trains vetinary nurses and I may be able to get a post there, but could I do that part-time as I don't really want to work full-time when the munchkin is small.... I'm definately not fit enough to join the police at the moment, 2 1/2 years ago I suffered from a post viral illness that left me with a lot of fatigue, I'm basically fine now, but when I get any form of bug I'm knocked out for a few days and it takes me a couple of weeks to get my strength up to even walk the 2 1/2 miles into town and back. I'm trying to get myself fitter, but at this time of year as soon as I start getting going again, I'm knocked back down with another cold, I guess I need to just keep working on that one. I've also thought about becoming a librarian, I love books and reading and would like to encourage others to read more, but there are no jobs coming up locally there.

I'm left with going for any type of admin work going, I have had the odd look at the local paper and job websites, but there's been nothing part-time that I could get to (either by public transport, on foot or on Mr H's route to work). I guess I just need to keep looking.

Anyone reading got any ideas for lines of work for me? :-)

Good intentions....

2007-01-08T11:53:00.000Z

I started the year with good intentions for the diet and, thanks to PMT and a rotten cold, they've already gone a-stray. I've spent the weekend eating junk and more junk and lots of milk chocolate orange.....ooppss. I need to get myself back on track...I do want to lose some more weight before the munchkin's baptism on the 21st. Stressing about our families coming up for that isn't helping matters.

Having planned a nice dinner on at Saturday night for all those of our generation coming down (Mum and Dad are taking the grans out for dinner) Mr H's siblings had other plans. Despite me texting to see if they'd be up for a murder mystery a week ago we only found out last night that G doesn't fancy it so they all (D, G, J and S) decided they'd go to the pub instead! Thanks for telling me! Not to worry that I spent ages on Saturday wandering around Cambridge trying to find a shop that stocked the dinner party kits and then forked out for one, and that I'd been planning what to cook. My fantastic sister (I know I don't say that about her very often!) has now offered to baby-sit for us so that Mr H and I can go out with his family since we don't see them very often and the last time we were all together was over 2 years ago. I just wish that D&G had told us they didn't fancy a murder mystery and then we'd just have had a young ones dinner. Don't get me wrong it will be nice to go out with Mr H's family, I just wish they'd talked to us.

I still need to work out what we're doing for food after the baptism. Everyone is definately coming back here (hmmm...15 adults in our small house...) and we're having some form of buffet, but apart from that I have no idea. We still haven't finalise the cake....fruit or sponge? I don't eat fruit cake, but a fruit cake will go further than a sponge cake....decisions!

Anyway, this post has taken about 1 1/2 hours to write in between cooking up veggies for the munchkin, feeding her and putting her down for a nap and it's my turn to eat now. Bye!

Looking up!

2007-01-04T12:10:00.000Z

Sorry about the negativity in the last post, I'd just had enough and was using my blog as a bit of a vent. Things are looking a bit better today. We've had a look at finances and worked out that we can absorb most of the cost of the repairs to the car relatively easily (phew!). We've also had a good think about meals and shopping, browsed Sainsbury's online (internet shopping definately has it's benefits!) and worked out where we can save money on our weekly shop. It'll probably end up with us going to both Aldi and Sainsbury's but they're close to each other not too far away. It's a shame they're not in walking distance of us as that'd help the weight loss too. Mr H had to do some shopping after work yesterday (no fruit, veg or milk in the house!) and managed to spend far less than he normally does when he pops in mid-week.

The munchkin is being her usual charming self apart from throwing up all over me and her and the bath mat just as I was about to do her teeth last night (she's been fine in herself ever since though!) and tearing up a book just after I repaired it from when she last got hold of it (I really need to lean how far she can reach now as I thought she couldn't get it).

She found yesterday afternoon a little hard however, the leisure centre where we hold baby group was closed when we all got there (despite telling me that we could re-start after the Christmas break on the 3rd) so since I live so close I invited everyone round for a cuppa....oopps... When I said this there were only three of us with one more expected....2 minutes later another three drive up and there ends up being seven adults and nine children (7 babies/toddlers and the older 2 of one mum) in our living room! It all got a bit much for the little ones and some of them got very grumpy, but it was good to have some adult company in the daytime for a little bit.

Now I've got the gloomy job of getting the Christmas decorations down, I love having them up but need to get them down by twelth night, and we're out on Saturday so I won't be able to get Mr H to help then. I think I'll have a hunt aound for a nice plant to put where the tree was so it's not going to seem so empty when it's gone.

Happy New Year! (or not!)

2007-01-02T11:31:00.000Z

We're starting the new year with a huge bill from the garage for the bloomin' car. That's all our Christmas money gone and more. Mr H drove it to the garage, got a flat just as he was getting there and then got a phone call at work to say that the spring (?) and tyre would cost £300. We're barely living within our means as it is, the only holidays we had planned for this year were cheap Travelodge deals or camping, but even they are looking hard to finance now, all our Christmas money was going to go towards them....argh! Mr H will have to bike to work a lot more to save on Petrol money and I'm going to have to look into budget dinners that are diet friendly (i.e. not the cheapest mince/cuts of meat.....Mr H is too much of a carnivore to go veggie and he won't eat baked beans!)

Sorry for the whinge...not really how I want to start the year, at least the munchkin is making me grin (see below) even if she's decided that since going up to see L&T sleeping through the night is a bad idea!

Hmm....starting early

2007-01-02T10:36:00.000Z

This is the book that the munchkin decided to remove from the bookcase and read this morning! She's spent the past 10 minutes flicking through the pages of it!

Hello again!

2006-12-31T10:58:00.000Z

Had a busy few weeks so blogging has been on the back burner....but hopefully now Christmas is over I'm back for a bit....but any one who reads regularly will know that I do come and go a lot so no promises about how long we'll be around for this time.....hopefully longer than last time, I love blogging and hate being so busy and tired I don't have time for a quick post.

I hope everyone had a good Christmas and managed to get some family/you time in there as well. After a lot of anticipation of a Christmas in Scotland with Mr H's sister and her husband (D and G) we ended up having a quiet one down here thanks to a bit of a break down in communications in Mr H's family (his brother, J, decided to try and organise it without finding out whether D and G were still free for us all to come up....ooppss!). It was nice so see the Christmas services at our church here, we've really settled in there now and are getting the munchkin baptised there in 3 weeks. We then headed up to see L and T for a few days as T turned 30 on Friday! L may be the youngest of all our siblings, but T is the oldest of us :-) They had a winter barbeque for all the family, it was great to see his parents and family again, the last time we saw them was at L & T's wedding in September.

We've now got a couple of quiet days before Mr H goes back to work on Tuesday (via the garage to sort out the suspension on the car which collapsed on Wednesday leaving us to go to L & T's by train). Hopefully we'll manage to get some couple time and a nice dinner or two in when the munchkin sleeps....

Hope everyone has a good NYE tonight....given the munchkin woke us for 45 minutes at 1:30am I suspect we won't manage to stay awake to see the new year in, but I hope you all have a good night. Bye!

Evidence!

2006-11-22T11:26:00.000Z

It's only taken me a couple of hours to work out how to do this! Apologies for the awful filming (and the angle!) I didn't think that I wouldn't be able to rotate the video once it was filmed. I hope this works! You might want to turn your sound off....Mr H is getting a tad repetitive on it!

Walking!

2006-11-21T18:50:00.000Z

The munchkin took her first proper steps around the kitchen earlier! So chuffed! Admittedly she was trying to get at the dishwasher as Mr H was emptying it....but still.

We've also discovered the reason for the waking last night, madam has a molar coming through. I gave her some calpol after her nap which helped sooth her (she woke in such a paddy) and she's just been put down to sleep with some infant Nurofen so hopefully we'll have a better night.

Zombie day :o(

2006-11-21T13:16:00.000Z

I have no idea what caused her to do it, but the munchkin woke at 4:15 this morning with absolutely no intention of going back to sleep. Eventually got her back to sleep again at almost 6, but that was after trying to cuddle her, having my hand on her in the cot, bringing her into our bed (where she kept putting her fingers into my mouth and banging her head on ours) and finally giving in and giving her 5 oz of milk. I'm so tired today, the munchkin has refused to nap this morning (so hoping she will this afternoon...I need a breather) so I've got very little done and I've got Mr H's sister, D, and her husband, G, coming to stay at the weekend. Argh.....so much to do.

Todo list for this afternoon:

put dry washing away
hang out washing to dry
run dishwasher
clear kitchen/dining room surfaces

Good start!

2006-11-19T11:33:00.000Z

Feeling quite pleased with myself....I've lost 3 lbs this week! :-)

I now need to keep this up.

Got to go, the munchkin's just woken so we're having lunch then going to Sainsburys to get some dinner ideas for next week. Bye!

All change!

2006-11-18T20:59:00.000Z

Well, I've said goodbye to my old template. I did love it, but wanted the flexibility of the new system. Many thanks to Jeni for giving me the old template, maybe one day I'll manage to teach myself enough HTML to create my own one.

My weight loss ticker also reappeared this week. I've decided to give Weight Watchers one more go, I know all the points counting works for me when I keep focussed and I really want to succeed this time. I'd love to weigh less than Mr H. He's 5'9" tall and weighs 8 stone 13, where as I'm 5'2" and weigh 12 stone 3 (or did when I weighed in last Sunday, hopefully it'll be less by weigh in tomorrow). That put my BMI at 31.3 (obese!), and Mr H's at 18.46 (underweight). I'm not sure I could ever get to that target, but with 7 lbs of him would be nice. My initial weight target is 10 stone, I'd love to get to 9 stone (middle of the healthy BMI for my height). At the moment I'm delaying trying to conceive #2 until I get my weight a bit more in control and am sure that my depression and hormones post implant are under control.

So far this week I've done really well, kept within my points (even when the munchkin was poorly and I was eating junk for the energy fix) and done a lot more exercise. Mr H, the munchkin and I all walked (or rode in the munchkin's case) all the way into town and back home again this morning. It's around 3 miles each way and isn't something I've managed before. It felt so good, especially when I pushed the pushchair all the way home laden with all the shopping (including a huge bag of potatoes). I'm going to try and find some excuse to walk into town at least twice a week and go for a shorter walk every other day. The local newsagent doesn't sell the weekly mag I try and get every week so that's one outing, reading group at the library in town is another....I'll have to work on the rest!

Beta Blogger

2006-11-16T11:17:00.000Z

While the munchkin sleeps I've been trying to change my blog template to the customise versions as I want some of the flexibility of it.....however I can't work out how to do it and still keep the elements of my personal design (by the fab Jeni.....who seems to have disappeared :o( ).....

Anyone reading got any ideas....or will I just have to lose my cute pushchair picture if I upgrade?

Oh, I need to teach myself HTML!

Poorly munchkin :o(

2006-11-16T10:06:00.000Z

We had a horrendous night last night. The munchkin settled well as normal, then just as H and I were settling down to sleep I heard her being sick. She'd brought up all of the tea and bedtime milk (which she hadn't drunk much of). This was followed by 2 hours of retching while she brought up every last bit of stuff from her tummy. She was so unhappy, really pale and listless in my arms, blatently in a lot of discomfort, it was awful not being able to do anything to help her. We nearly took her to A&E (no out of hours GP for under 2s here) but thought that was a bit excessive. Eventually she perked up a little so we brought her into our bed, she woke at 3 and would only settle with a little bit of water (which eventually stayed down) and then again at 7 when H got up.

The diahorrea (sp) kicked in this morning (everywhere!), she's asleep in her cot at the moment, I don't know how long for....

I now have almost a full load of washing that's covered with poo and sick to do as well as the load of washing that was put in last night....and I was finally tackling Mount Washmore....

I have no idea whether this bug has come from, it looks like a standard D&V virus, but none of the other babes she's been around are showing signs of anything.....it's a bit of a mystery.

Will hopefully update later. Hope everyone reading this is ok.

Professor Robert Winston

2006-11-14T10:37:00.000Z

I previously thought Professor Winston was a fantastic man who has done some great work, but having seen an interview with him this morning on BBC Breakfast I've found that I have to disagree with him.

He was talking about his new TV show about IVF which includes a feature on a couple who went through IVF in order to conceive a girl (they already have 4 boys). Professor Winston was saying that he thought that using IVF to choose the gender of a baby was perfectly acceptable in the UK and would do little to change the gender balance of the country. While I agree with that, I do feel that using IVF to choose the gender of a child would mean that there will be other embryos rejected due to being the 'wrong' gender. What would happen to these? I am very much of the opinion that once the sperm has fertilised the egg that there is a true potential of new life there and we should to everything possible to allow that to happen (that's why I'm against abortion and the morning after pill). Are the unwanted embryos destroyed? I can almost understand the use of embryo screening in order to prevent a child being born with a genetic/chromosomal abnormality that would lead to suffering, but I still find it hard when I consider the 'normal' embryos that may be produced and not allowed to develop.

I know this is kind of muddled, and I'm still trying to get my ideas completely straight, but I really wanted to try and get this out to try and help me. What do you think?

Nap....what's that?

2006-11-13T11:33:00.000Z

It seems like the munchkin has forgotten what a morning nap is too.....

She spent the best part of 40 minutes playing and chatting to herself in her cot before getting fed up when she heard me go upstairs to put the washing out to dry.....grrrr.....

Hopefully she'll sleep this afternoon instead. I have managed to get some stuff done though, the washing is all out (with a little "help" from a certain somebody), the dishwasher is running (though there's so much stuff somehow I'll need to run it again this afternoon), kitchen surfaces are clean, desk is now evidently wooden (though not completely clear...I need Mr H's help to go through some of the paper work) and the dining table is cleaned ready for card making (I can't use my fantastic bureau upstairs when the munchkin is with me as she'll trash Mr H's scalextric which is set out on the floor of the same room).

Oooppss

2006-11-13T10:04:00.000Z

Ok, well the desk's not clear, however the kitchen is tidier, the dining table is clear and the munchkin now has a storage unit for her toys (made by my fair hands.....with help from a flat pack from Homebase and Mr H's fabulous Ixo). I'm hoping to get the desk tidy today when I put the munchkin down for her nap.

It's when I put the munchkin down for her nap that I seem to get the most done. She's abandonned her afternoon nap now and goes to sleep for another 1 1/2 - 2 hours in the morning. However I always seem to get sidetracked.....today I need to tidy the desk, load the dishwasher, put the washing out to dry and make some Christmas cards (I made all of them last year and really want to do the same this year, so far I've made about a dozen of the70ish that we need...).

I'll update later on what I get done as I've just put madam to sleep so I need to get going. Bye!

Domestic goddess....

2006-11-09T13:49:00.000Z

....well, in training anyway!

After months of feeding the munchkin lunches/dinners based around frozen cubes of mince/chicken casserole and mixed vegetables combined with rice or pasta (due to tiredness and a lack of inspiration) I concocted a meal of poached cod, mushrooms and peas (with the ubiquitous rice) yesterday. The munchkin loved it! She gobbled up the remains of it for lunch today. I feel quite good for doing that, challenge now is to top that tonight!

I'm not sure how possible that will be.....we need to do some food shopping.....I was supposed to be doing it this afternoon and then Mr H would pick me and the munchkin up and drive us home. However Mr H forgot to put the munchkin's car seat in the car and despite me calling him a minute after he left and him being so close to home he refused to come and collect it....grrrrr. It could be interesting seeing what he comes home with, I need to email him a shopping list, but as I was planning on deciding on the menus for next week while I was shopping (especially for the dinner I'm cooking on Saturday for my lactose intolerant best friend) I suspect we'll be shopping again on Saturday!

Next task for the budding domestic goddess here is to clear the desk....

I'm back!

2006-11-07T11:50:00.000Z

Hello!
It's been a long time since I posted on here. There's been a lot going on. My depression started to worsen and I began to get very lethargic and permanently tired. I decided that if I continued posting it'd just turn into a load of winges and I wasn't sure I wanted that time recording.
Well, I've now had my Implanon implant removed (possibly going to try for baby number two next year and want some normal cycles first) which has vastly improved my depression, enough that the doctor has agreed to weaning me off the anti depressants! Yay! Since then my energy and motivation levels have soared, maybe my body was trying to say to me stop tampering with me and let me do it myself.
So I'm back! There'll be more stories of the munchkin's exploits and maybe some about things going on in the world.
As for now....it's lunchtime in the H household so I need to go and cook.

Success!

2006-08-14T11:37:00.001+01:00

We spent the whole weekend traipsing around trying to find a stockist of the trailer we wanted, we eventually managed it in Fulham yesterday having spent Saturday visiting lots of bike shops within a 1 1/2 mile radius of Cambridge centre (we missed out the ones that we knew were too small to stock a trailer). The trailer is huge, but will be very stable and has lots of space for luggage. The next step is to order it online so we can finally get on the move and I can have a social life again! Yay! It was an exhausting weekend, but knowing we achieved something makes it a bit more worthwhile.

We're having fun and games with the munchkin now, as well as crawling she's on her feet and cruising everywhere. She's also started taking steps when we hold her hands, I don't think it'll be too much longer before she's walking properly.

Anyway, once again as soon as I start blogging she's woken up from her nap, so I'll be off now. Bye!

Sleep and cycling... (or not...in both cases!)

2006-08-08T11:23:00.000+01:00

Well, after saying that the munchkin was sleeping through the night we had an awful night last night. She was up for an hour at 10:30 and again up for 40+ minutes at about 4am :o( Not entirely sure what was the problem at either time. She definately has a tooth coming through, but they haven't caused her too many problems previously, so I'm not sure that was the problem. She had a very wet nappy at the first waking, but still didn't settle at all well after that was changed. Hopefully it was just a one off and we'll be back to sleeping through again tonight.

We did make it to Halfords on Sunday, but they had no helmets in stock small enough for the munchkin and they didn't have any seats that attach to my bike as Mr H wants (according to him the seats that attach to my seat post damage my bike frame over time due to the forces they exert...so he wants one that attaches to a pannier rack...but they then don't allow me to have panniers...which in turn means that I wouldn't have enough space to carry milk/nappies etc as I don't want to wear a backpack when the munchkin is sitting just behind me) [goodness...was the sentence long enough?!?]

So we're now looking at a trailer for the munchkin, Halfords don't stock the one we're looking at (Adventure AT2) so we're going to head into London for the day on Saturday to have a look at a big bike store that Mr H has heard about (Bonthrone Bikes) who stock the trailer and should know what they're talking about. Halfords is the only bike shop where we live that has much stock and still doesn't meet Mr H's standards...

If anyone reading this has any experience of bike trailers or child seats please leave me a comment and let me know what you have and whether it's any good as I'm still open to other ideas. Thanks.

Changes...

2006-08-06T11:40:00.000+01:00

Anyone who visits this blog at all regularly may notice the lack of my weight loss tracker....

Well, I've decided to abandon the WW plan and full on dieting at the moment. It's just been getting me down too much and I've been finding too hard to stay on track. I'm going to try to eat healthier food and generally try to eat a bit less, but not try and count points etc properly. I'll keep track of any weight loss by how my clothes fit rather than pounds as well.

We're also going out shopping this afternoon (hopefully) to buy a bike basket for my bike (surprisingly enough!) and a bike seat and helmet for the munchkin to enable us to get out and about more and to try and get me fitter. Mr H has been away on a stag do all weekend and I've been stranded in the house, I'll hopefully be able to get myself out to church and to see friends on that side of town in a couple of weeks (it'll take a little time to get my fitness up enough to be able to cycle 6 miles each way...).

It's been a bit of a manic week with lots going on. Mr H's brother (J) and his fiancee (S) came to stay on Tuesday night as part of their grand tour of the country on their bikes, it's was fantastic to see them and get to know S a bit better, but it meant we had to finally get the spare room / study clear enough for someone to be able to sleep in there. It took all weekend and all of Monday to get the house clean and tidy, with being poorly the other week we'd let things slip a bit so there was a lot of general bits to do as we'll as the final boxes to clear (or hide...only a couple...honest!). Together with that my family have been down on the local waterways. We met up with them on three evenings for dinner in various riverside pubs. It was great to see them (and get free food...Mum and Dad refused to let us pay for even one night!). Generally little sis and I got on better than usual, which was a really nice change.

Hopefully next week will be a little calmer, I may manage to get together with my friends from baby group on Wednesday. We're meeting at the soft play centre in town during the school holidays as it allows those with older children to bring them along as well without them getting bored. Maybe I'll cycle over... On the plus side as well, the munchkin is now sleeping through the night pretty consistently, she's still needing to go to bed between 6 and 6:30 and is sleeping until between 6 and 7:30am! I'm waking up feeling much more refreshed after an undisturbed night.

Anyway, I'm going to go now, just waiting for Mr H to get back from London and for the mucnhkin ot get up from her nap. Take care everyone!

Argh....trains!

2006-07-28T10:54:00.000+01:00

Well, the journey on Tuesday went ok, it was very hot and we did end up spending time sat by the doors, but it wasn't anywhere near as bad as it could have been. The journey home on Wednesday was a nightmare however. If all trains had been running on time we could (just) have made connections to get home at about 5:10pm, as it was it wasn't until 7:45pm that we pulled in! We were pushing it to be able to get the connection we wanted at Peterborough, but if the GNER train had come in on time we could just make it as I knew what platform to go for and how to get there onb the ramps. However the train arrived 5 minutes late, so that was one train gone. We had an hour long wait for the next train so we settled down in a shady spot to feed the munchkin and get some rest. Just before the train was due I went to look at the departures board to check it was running on time to see that it was cancelledd, as I saw the screen the platform announcer confirmed that it had been cancelled at Birmingham. Why did it take them so long to announce that? If they'd said it sooner I could have gone for a Stevenage train and got home sooner. Grrrrr! We had another hour long wait for the next train, which arrived 10 minutes late with only 2 carriages rather than the usual 4! It was only due to people being kind and moving suitcases that had been dumped by the doors that I was able to get the munchkin's pushchair onto the train. It was such a crush, not a pleasant journey, particularly in this weather. Standing behind me was a man with rather dubious personal hygiene, I ended up leaning over the munchkin's pram a bit to avoid the smell....

Ok, rant over....

We did eventually get home, but it was so much later than planned that our plans for a nice dinner to celebrate our third anniversary went out of the window :-( I was too tired for anything nice and ended up sending Mr H out to the chippy for a quick junk food fix. I did enjoy sharing presents with Mr H however. I was really impressed with him, he gave me some watercolour pencils and some pastel pencils as well as some paper and brushes. I just need to get my bureau sorted out now so I can get creative!

Spent most of yesterday recovering from our travels, didn't get a lot done apart for watch a phenomenal storm. Huge amounts of lightening very close to us and (finally!) a lot of rain. Don't get me wrong, it was worth going up to see R before she goes, but it was draining. The munchkin took a dislike to the travel cot Mum and Dad have....she had a grand total for 7 hours sleep in the 24 hours we were in Bradford! Mum ended up getting up at 6:30 on Wednesday to take the munchkin for a walk in a effort to get her to sleep.....some hope!

The plan for today is to head to to a local village on the bus (first time down here!) to go and meet my parents, sister (and her fiance and 1 of their insane dogs!) and two of my parents friends as they're going on a narrowboat holiday from there. It'll be good to see them again, hopefully we'll meet them for dinner in a couple of canalside pubs next week. They'll be in central London over the weekend, but are then coming back past us and up to Bishops Stortford. I'd love to go on a narrowboat in central London. Dad has his boat master's license so can actually take the boat on the Thames. If you're in London on Saturday/Sunday and see a narrowboat on the Thames that'll probably be them!

Anyway, I need to go and check bus times then get the munchkin ready to go out. Have a good weekend....bye!

Getting better....yay!

2006-07-24T21:06:00.000+01:00

We're all starting to feel better in the H household now......thank goodness.

The munchkin is getting more life back into her, she's getting her grins back and is back trying to get into everything. It's so good seeing her smiles and helps me feel better too.

I'm feeling much better too. Sadly, the tummy bug has caused my IBS to flare up, which is fun in the mornings, but hopefully that'll ease again soon.

I'm looking forward to going up to my parents tomorrow, the journey will be interesting with the temperatures we've been having, but we'll just have to cope. Hopefully we'll be able to get the seat with space for the munchkin's pushchair on the mainline train, but I'm not really holding out much hope, we're not getting on at the start of the route, so I suspect that someone who just wants to spread out will have it. We'll just have to be in the doorways, it's the only other space that the pushchair will fit in. It'll be great to see the girls again, we're going out for dinner tomorrow and meeting R (the one going to the US) for brunch on Wednesday before getting the train home. I can't believe we're travelling ~200 miles (each way!) in temperatures exceeding 30oC for one night.....I think I'm mad!

The wasp guy from the council arrived this morning...he couldn't find a nest where we thought we had one, but there was possibly one round the corner in the roof. He's treated all spaces where a nest could be situated and we haven't seen any wasps since, so hopefully they're gone. He thought the wasps may have been going into the outlet pipe from the toilet for a drink! They then may have got lost and somehow got into the bathroom from there....no idea how! Hopefully Mr H will polyfilla all around the pipes in the next few days to eliminate the chance of the evil beings getting in again.

We did have a highlight today....the munchkin pulled herself up on the settee and cruised along to try and get at the laptop!!! I was so proud of her, I was talking to mum on the phone at that point and just squealed . She could only do it because the airbed was next to the settee, she's too small to be able to reach the settee otherwise. It's only the past week or so that the munchkin has been willing to take any weight on her legs so I really didn't expect to see that today. I'm so pleased! I managed to get a quick photo of her standing there before she sat back down so Mr H could see it as he was still at work. It was another sign of the munchkin getting better. Even yesterday morning there were times when all she wanted to do was just lie and watch the world go by.

I need to go and get some sleep, need all the rest I can get before tomorrow's journey. Bye!

Week from hell!

2006-07-21T15:51:00.000+01:00

What a week we've had!

Monday....fine, found a couple of dead wasps in the downstairs toilet, ok, we thought, they're just dying in the heat

Tuesday morning....the munchkin throws up her morning milk everywhere, we find a wasps nest in the outside wall next to the outlet pipe from the downstairs toilet, next step close all the windows on the front of the house

Tuesday afternoon....the munchkin throws up again, the council eventually answer their phone and tell me that the earliest they can come and remove the nest is Monday!! we decide that the munchkin may be suffering from heat exhaustion (it's been averaging over 30oC in the house this week) so we went out to get an air con unit to get at least one room cool

Wednesday....the munchkin wakes up with diarrhoea (but no vomiting), I wake up with a tummy bug as well

Thursday...I wake feeling a bit better, Mr H comes down with the bug, the munchkin starts to get dehydrated as she starts to be sick again.

Today....Mr H and I both much better, the munchkin now on water/dioralyte only for a couple of days on the doctor's advice. She hasn't been sick since last night and the diarrhoea is easing.

It's been a horrible week, it was supposed to be a nice week, Mr H off work to get some rest and get stuff done in the house, however we've all been ill, it's been soooo hot, we've had wicked, evil wasps everywhere and we've had a to cancel a trip up north to go to the good bye bbq for one of my best friends before she goes away to America to teach for at least a year. Hopefully as the mucnhkin starts to feel better and gets some more life in her that'll help us perk up, but what a waste of a week...

Owwwww!

2006-07-17T12:13:00.000+01:00

We had a fab weekend. Go ape on Staurday was amazing, though I'm now in so much pain when I move in certain ways. I'm on the short side of things so stretching to reach some of the hand holds was difficult and I've stretched the muscles in my tummy and arms, bending over yesterday was a struggle to say the least. It was a great day though.

Mr H thoroughly enjoying experimenting with his camera and took some brilliant pictures of us all, some not very flattering ones too (you try looking good in one of those safety harnesses!!). The munchkin enjoyed the walk (well being pushed around) and getting lots of attention from all the girls. The dinner out was lovely too, though there was a bit of a disagreement over the bill and how to split it. My sister seemed to have little patience for her friends who have less money than her; and who, in her opinion, seem to think she is made of money (she's just spent £2000 on a cooker and £8000 on her garden though, so definately does have more money than them who all but one live at home with their parents as they can't afford to move out!!).

Ok, rant over, I did enjoy the weekend, though it did highlight to me a bit how dissimilar my sister and I are. It was good to see her and for her to see the munchkin, though any longer than the weekend and I would have struggled (and I wasn't even staying at her house!). We've got a quiet week in store now, Mr H has the week of work as a break, and we're going back up to my parents next weekend for a leaving party for a friend of mine. We're going to try and get some of the DOY done in the house, there's a few bits that just need fixing and hopefully we'll be able to get some more of the boxes in the study unpacked. We'll see!

The munchkin's just napping now, but I need to go and make her lunch before she wakes otherwise it'll be too hot for her. Bye!

Fun weekend ahead!

2006-07-13T14:29:00.000+01:00

Could be an interesting weekend this weekend....Mr H, the munchkin and I are sharing a hotel room with my mum!!!! It's my sister's hen weekend which Mum and I have been invited along too, and Mum offered to pay for our room if we all shared, so off to the travelodge we go!

I'm not sure if Mum realises how often the munchkin wakes us (read me!). At the moment we have to get up and feed her twice a night, if she wakes properly she won't go back to sleep without a bottle of milk. We are going to try next week to go cold turkey on the milk front, so if she wakes in the night and won't settle on her own we'll just give her some water and hope that'll settle her. We think she's needing the milk as much out of habit when she wakes as out of hunger. We may need to try continuing with milk, but gradually watering it down over a couple of weeks. We'll see what happens.

The weekend should be fun though, BBQ tomorrow evening, Go Ape on Saturday (not sure how much I'll enjoy this...I'm not much of a sporty/active person!) and a dinner out on Saturday before my sister and her girlfriends go out on the town (Mum and I are going back to the travelodge then...clubbing's not our scene!). It'll be great to see Mum and sis again, the munchkin has changed so much since they last saw her, she's such a little girl now, not a baby anymore. When we last saw my sister we'd only just started weaning the munchkin and she wasn't even rolling, now she's self feeding and crawling all over the place (latest trick is crawling to the bookcase and pulling off the books!).

Anyway, I need to go and pack before the munchkin needs her tea and Mr H gets home from work. Hope you all have a good weekend!

Ouch!

2006-07-09T18:59:00.000+01:00

Well, it definately was a tooth coming through. It's rather painful now when the munchkin decides she wants to nibble on my fingers!

We had a couple of bad nights after I last posted, the munchkin was just too uncomfortable to sleep well. She was a grizzly monster on Thursday, a far cry from her usual placid, chilled out little self. I hope this isn't what we have in store everytime she has a tooth coming through.

One thing and then another....what'll be next?

2006-07-05T16:14:00.000+01:00

Big excitement in the H house last night....(can you tell we don't get out much?)....Mr H picked up the playpen and tent! It's so cool, the munchkin is quite happy in there while I get on with housework, and when we put the tent up last night just to see how it looked it was fab! It's definately worth the money we've spent on it.

The other mums at baby group were really impressed with the munchkin's newly discovered mobility, she's such a tiddler still (8 months old and comfortably fitting in 3-6 month clothes!) that it was a bit of a surprise to see her moving. It was so muggy this afternoon that two of the mums at baby group (they had teeny tots) left really early and the remaining three of us decided to come over to mine where we could safely open an outside door to get some air moving. The air is so stagnant today, it's really horrible. We've been forecast some big storms, but there's no sign of them yet, the sky is a pale grey, now sun, but no thunder clouds either.

So the munchkin is now crawling, that's number 1 on her list of achievements for this week. Number two appears to be the beginnings of a bottom tooth! There's a nice white lump in the middle which is visible when she giggles. What'll be next? Quite a week for the little lady.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, slow down!

2006-07-03T11:22:00.000+01:00

....somebody is crawling....baby-proofing needed!

The munchkin has been wriggling and shuffling around on her tummy for a couple of weeks, but we thought it would be a bit longer than this before she could crawl properly. She's still slow, but she can now get wherever she wants to! And she was only 8 months old last Friday!

I can't believe my little baby is now properly mobile. We were looking at some old photos on the computer yesterday and she's changed so much. Much as I can't face the whole idea of birth again I do miss her being a little baby.....that's not to say I don't love her to bits as she is now.

Due to a certain somebody's mobility we've decided to invest in a playpen. We can't fit a stair gate in at the bottom of the stairs easily, or even just round the coner from them so we decided to get a Babydan babyden. We've bought it very reasonably from Ebay, and we've got the tent to go with it to turn it inot a playhouse. Really looking forward to picking it up. These playpen's aren't cheap, but I've wanted one of them for the munchkin for ages and now with the inheritance coming through I can vaguely justify it!

Cough, sniffle, yawn!

2006-06-30T10:51:00.000+01:00

They've been the recurring sounds in the H household this week.

Mr H has been off work since last Friday with headaches and tiredness (probably the after effects of a cold and the worst hayfever he has ever had), he's gone back today, but is planning on doing a short day to ease himself back in.

The munchkin has been a bit snuffly, but yesterday came down with a full blown cold. We had a horrendous night last night. She went down for the night really well, woke at about 11 (just as Mr H and I were dozing off) and took an hour to settle back to sleep. We fed her, cuddled her, walked around with her and ended up given her a dose of Ashton and Parsons powders. They worked and helped her settle back down, but only for 4 hours..... She was up again, fed her, tried getting some Medised into her to help her breath and settle, but it only caused her to retch and bring back her milk all over my pillow! She hates medised, I think the bottle we have is just going to end up in the bin. It is a real fight to get it into her, I don't really blame her though. She doesn't understand that it'll help her feel better and it really does taste disgusting, incrediably strong fake strawberry flavour. She slept then until 7:30 and went down for another nap over an hour ago....she's still asleep now!

I'm ok, just could do with more sleep! The munchkin will no longer sleep beyond about 7:30 in the morning, so gone are my lie-ins! I just need to train myself to go to bed earlier....easier said then done...with going to bed promptly all my good intentions just fall by the wayside (a bit like the diet...will do a full post on that before too long....)

Aside from all that, things are pretty good, I've had the paperwork through for some inheritance (finally!) so we should be able to pay off some credit cards and still have some money spare for a holiday and to save up for anything we may need to spend on the house ( the windows will need replacing at some point in the next few years as will the flat roof over the downstairs toilet and porch). The weather has brightened up (though it's getting hot!) which always lifts my mood. We've managed to clear all(!!!!) of the boxes from downstairs now and it's so nice to be able to relax in teh living room with out seeing boxes of junk.

Anyway, need to go now, the munchkin has woken up and willl want some milk. Bye!

Good day! Yay!

2006-06-20T21:38:00.000+01:00

I've had a really nice day today, didn't particularly expect a nice day, but it turned out good.

Started the day with another meeting with the counsellor from the mental health team, talking to her made me realise how much better I am now compared to when I saw her last. We agreed that I don't need any more appointments with her but I'd call if I needed any more support.

Got home and put the munchkin down for a much needed nap (she won't sleep in the pushchair at the moment), woke her up just in time to go out and meet the girls (plus one other half!) to go down to the toy library. The munchkin had to eat her lunch on the way....she didn't seem to mind that though!

We arrived at the toy library to find to closed due to holidays..... we were a little surprised to say the least, it hadn't been mentioned when we were there a fortnight ago, and previously when the lady who runs it went away she let us know in advance. L offered her flat for a cuppa so we went over there. It was really nice to see our little ones playing (the munchkin frantically trying to crawl like the big boys!) and also great to spend some time getting to know people a bit better. I'm really starting to feel part of a group here now. Definately not feeling as lonely. We're hopefully going to rotate aroundn each others' homes after the toy library each week.

I'm feeling good about the house too; as we've finally managed to make it look as though we didn't move in last week (rather than 4 1/2 months ago!). We have homes for most things and only one room with many boxes in.

Anyway, need to go to bed....nighty night all!

Da-da-da-da-da

2006-06-19T12:23:00.000+01:00

What a day for her to start it....the munchkin started trying to say Daddy yesterday. Whenever she saw him and wanted his attention or he started playing with her she kept saying da-da-da. Definately the best Father's day present for Mr H. It all started in the creche at church, he came down at the end of the service grinning from ear to ear. He's feeling very honoured. No real sign of mummy or any derivatives yet :o( Oh well, I can just remind Mr H that a d sound is easier to say than an m sound so it's fluke!

We also discovered yesterday a food that the munchkin loves....pasta with vegetable puree, tried it yesterday and it went down so well. Less ended up in the pelican bib than most things. We're going to try it again today with some of the butternut squash puree I have in the freezer.

Bad mummy day!

2006-06-15T09:54:00.000+01:00

I had a bad mummy day after I posted yesterday.

I sat the munchkin on the dining room carpet while I cooked our lunch ( we have an L shaped kitchen diner so she was on the carpet where I could see her). I thought I'd put her in a place where if she lost her balance she'd fall onto carpet quite safely....but no! She toppled over forwards and caught her head on the tiled kitchenfloor....she now has a nice purple bruise on the side of her forehead.

Apparently I also failed to provide the munchkin with food that met her exacting standards at lunchtime after all that.... She spat food at me, threw it on the floor and generally didn't eat much of it...argh! Hopefully she'll do a bit better today.

For the moment she's refusing to go down for her first nap of the day, I've had to bring her back down from her cot for a bit, we'll try again later...

Messy eater...

2006-06-14T09:46:00.000+01:00

Ooppss...I didn't mean to leave it over a week between posts...sorry!

Well, things are pretty good down here. The munchkin is finally getting over her cold, it's just taken her over a fortnight! She's getting desperate to move around, she can roll, though not very targetted :o) and can twist herself around on her tummy.

She'd been refusing her purees for over a week so when I saw the health visitor last Wednesday I asked her what was best to do, she said the the munchkin was probably wanting to take control and feed herself, so she suggested moving her onto finger foods.. Well, what a mess they create! The munchkin is loving feeding herself and is also now sleeping better again....phew! She slept through from 9pm till 8 am yesterday. We did have to have a shower before putting her down at 9 as it was so hot she couldn't sleep, her bedroom was at 30 (!) so I'm not surprised she struggled to get so sleep.;

We picked up my bureau on Friday, it's lovely. We've had to re-treat it for woodworm (the seller did say it had been treated, but there were rather a lot of holes so we thought better safe than sorry) but apart from that it's great, lots of space for all my card making bits and pieces.

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On a completely different and sobering note, if you do pray, will you please pray for a friend of mine, V. She's a teacher and is having to deal with the sudden (accidental) death of a pupil in her class, she doesn't seem to be getting any help from the senior team at her school and is struggling to know what to say to her pupils. Please also pray for the family and friends of the boy who died. Thanks.

Yay...

2006-06-06T10:13:00.000+01:00

...we won the Ebay auction yesterday....so as of Friday (when we're going to pick up the bureau) I will have my own space and storage for card making. Hopefully it'll help motivate me to make more cards and come up with some new ideas.

Surprise, surprise!

2006-06-05T20:44:00.000+01:00

I ended up putting the munchkin down for the night a bit early, she was just so tired. Performed the usual bath, bottle, bed routine and put her down fully expecting her to yell and simply not settle. Well, I was wrong! She went down like a dream. Two nights of rubbish sleep and now she's gone out like a light and hasn't made a peep.

Leaves me a quiet evening to watch X factor again without having to keep popping up to check on her. Matt to win!!!

New look!

2006-06-05T16:02:00.000+01:00

Many, many thanks to Jeni for my new look blog. I'd been thinking about how to be a bit different for a while, but I'm still very clueless with html so couldn't really do much myself, but Jeni has given me this fantastic theme. Cheers!

One long shop!

2006-06-05T12:32:00.000+01:00

We seemed to spend all weekend shopping...or at least looking for something, but failing to find what we want. We've been looking for some storage for my card making stuff. We were just looking for a filing unit to begin with, but by the end of Saturday we'd gone on to some type of bureau to give me some space of my own to work in. We didn't find anything suitable all weekend, despite trying second hand shops, Ikea and all the furniture shops in town( surprisingly few of them). We've ended up bidding for a bureau in Ebay, hopefully we'll be able to get it cheaply. We'll need to pick it up in Cambridge if we win it....what a shame....another excuse to go back and see some of my friends :-)

The munchkin has decided that evening are no longer for sleep. The past two nights it has taken her 2 1/2 + hours to settle properly and go to sleep. It's so draining, and especially difficult when we know she's tired and just fighting sleep. The heat in the house really doesn't help. The munchkin's bedroom has averaged 26/27 C when we're trying to get her to go down for the night. We had a fan on to keep the air moving, the windows open and the dehumidifier on to try and reduce the mugginess last night and it was gone 11pm before she settled properly (she goes to bed at about 6:30 usually!). She was wide awake by 9:30 this morning which was a bit earlier than usual as well. She has just had a really good nap though so hopefully she's a bit more rested and feeling a bit better again. She's been very clingy so far today, I'm guessing it's because she's been tired...we'll see!

It's Friday!

2006-06-02T16:48:00.000+01:00

Well, we had another good night last night. The munchkin was up at 11 and then not again until 6, a huge improvement on last week. She's still not right, lots of pooey nappies and off her solids, but still loving her milk so I'm not too worried. She's being a bit more clingy than normal too. At least it's Friday though and I get Mr H home for the next two days. Help with the nights....yay! Oh....and I get to see him and spend time with him when he's not tired from work!

I've been meaning to make some thank you cards for my girlies from back home this week, they gave the munchkin some gorgeous presents at the weekend, however with me being under the weather and her out of sorts as well I've not done them yet. Hopefully I'll get some time at the weekend when Mr H is here to help look after the little lady.

Sleep...wow!

2006-06-01T17:44:00.000+01:00

An amazing morning this morning....I didn't see much of it! Went back to bed for a doze after Mr H went to work (as usual!) at 8:30 and when I next heard the munchkin and looked at the clock it was 12:15! Couldn't believe it. We both obviously needed the sleep. I'm feeling better for it....and I've done one non-pooey nappy for the munchkin so she's a little better too, still a bit off her food and milk though. Hopefully we'll get some good sleep tonight (no doubt in several bursts as is becoming normal again.....doh!) and we'll both be feeling even better tomorrow.

I've managed to get a bit more housework done today compared to normal, which means that Mr H and I will be able to spend a bit more time together this evening once we have the munchkin in bed.

No sooner do I post...

2006-05-31T22:00:00.000+01:00

...than I disappear again! Sorry!

Well we were away again last weekend. We went back up to Yorkshire to see my folks and my school friends. It was great to see Mum and Dad (the munchkin loves her grandpa, and loves tugging his beard and giggling at him quacking at her) and fab to see my school mates. They took me out for a girlie night out (my first one since the munchkin was born), it was a great night, they did ply me with rather a lot of wine though....I did stumble up the steps a bit when I got home... It was quite wierd to be out without the munchkin, but so nice to go and in see her sleeping happily. Mr H seemed to enjoy having a takeaway curry with Mum (he loves his northern currys...) while they babysat the munchkin and was sitting watching a film when I got in (Mum had already gone home to bed). We managed to call in and see my gran on our way home. She hasn't seen the munchkin since November so she loved to see how much she'd changed.

Since we got back the munchkin has been a bit off colour, had a little bit of a temperature and today has been a poo monster. Every single nappy since we got up until Mr H got in from work has been wet and pooey. The first two of the day also leaked all over her sleeping bag in the first instance and her clothes in the second....fun....not! She did perk up after some Nurofen this afternoon which helped me, as I'm suffering with a cold too. Hopefully we'll have a good night tonight and all feel a bit better tomorrow.

I'm watching celeb X Factor as I type this, it's so funny! Some are good (Chris Moyles, Nikki Sanderson and Matt Stevens) and some are dire (James & Rebecca and the Chefs). I think Chris will win....Radio 1 have been plugging him all week and trying to get people to vote for him.

Can't believe James and Rebecca are through again...

Aaaaargh!

2006-05-25T15:04:00.000+01:00

One thing after another! The reason for the last of posts lately is the bloomin' laptop again. This time the charger died....and we didn't realise until the battery was almost dead. It took Mr H a little time to work out where to get one from, but here we are now....working again. Sadly we didn't have the desktop set up properly after the move (I know, that was 3 1/2 months ago!) and so I couldn't use that. We have now got it set up, but it's still not ready for internet use as the virus checker etc are not fully up to date yet.

The munchkin is brilliant at the moment, she's a real laugh. She's found her voice and is getting very vocal at times, and she's starting to roll all over the place.

I'm ok, my depression seems to be getting under control with the medication (yay!) and I'm feeling much more positive. Less positive is that I'm having to have another onlay (inlay?) put on my broken tooth which means another visit to the dentist (urgh!). At the moment I'm struggling to talk and dribbling lots after the preparatory work the dentist had to do....fun! I'm doing more card making and am currently trying to persuade Mr H to let me buy some bits from Ebay....

Anyway, need to go as someone has just woken from her nap....bye!

Rest of last week...

2006-05-15T14:43:00.000+01:00

...continued from yesterday...

The rest of last week was relatively quiet. I went to see the community mental health team on Tuesday. Didn't really get any suggestions for how to help myself from them, they're happy to see how things go with my increased medication and trying to get myself out and about somewhere each day.

The munchkin rolled over from back to front for the first time on Wednesday, she's nearly been doing it for a while, but had never worked out how to get her arm out from underneath her. Now, however she's rolling around all over the place. She keeps getting herself caught in her cot with her arm through the bars. While she can roll from her front to her back she finds it a lot harder and tends to want help to get back onto her back.

Thursday was a quiet day, Friday I went back to Cambridge to meet up with some friends. Spent even more money on card making stuff in Lakeland and Tindalls.....£160 spent in total last week alone!!!

We went into London on the spur of the moment on Saturday to look for some good marker pens for me and Mr H to use. Mr H for his work and me for card making....may mean us spending another £60 or so as Mr H wants Letraset Promarkers. Didn't manage to find any stockists of them though so we'll have to look online.

Yesterday was just spent doing the food shopping for the week and then chilling out (watching Bridget Jones 2 on DVD!). We just needed some rest after the week and weekend we'd just had.

Mad weekend

2006-05-14T20:59:00.000+01:00

I did intend to post on Tuesday when we got back from Kent, but blogger wouldn't let me in and then we discovered several viruses on the computer. We've only just got everything up and working again properly, we almost had to reinstall windows just to get the computer working.

Kent was good, if not mad at times! Saturday morning started with us having so go shopping first thing to buy Mam bottles and a steriliser for the munchkin. She refused point blank to drink from the steri-bottles we had bought for her and after 12 hours without getting much milk down her we had to shop! We did want to buy some Mam bottles anyway as the Tommee Tippee ones we have are leaking now, but we really didn’t want to have to buy a steriliser.

Most of the rest of the day was spent by the sea. I love being by the sea. We went down to Hythe and Dymchurch. Had fantastic fish and chips (WW….ooppss…) and a really nice walk along the sea wall. We followed this up by shopping J We went to the outlet centre near our hotel. Finally managed to buy a black jacket I like and get Mr H some pjs. Didn’t get anything for the munchkin though…would have loved to spend lots of money on cute clothes for her, but she really doesn’t need anything and we don’t have a huge amount of money to spare.

Saturday night was disturbed by an idiot in another room deciding to try smoking in a non smoking hotel. The fire alarm woke us all up at 11 pm (we’d gone to bed at 10 for an early night….we were shattered). The alarm turned off before we left the room, but not before I had the munchkin up, coat out ready and my shoes on. It took us an hour to resettle the munchkin properly to go back to sleep. It was incredibly un-nerving for me. The alarm was exactly the same sound as that when I was at college. It really mad me panicky. I didn’t enjoy my time at college (at points…some times were great and I have some great friends from there) and going back there was hard. It was ingrained in me how to behave when the alarm rang. We had drills every term and had to all be out of the building within two minutes or we had another drill within a week or so. These drills were all at night, between midnight and 1 or 5 and 6am. At the hotel last week I had my shoes on and the munchin out of her cot before Mr H was even properly awake, it was so ingrained in me to get out quickly.

Sunday, when we eventually got up (!) we went out to Bodiam castle. Had a nice lunch at the café there and a lovely wander round the castle in the sunshine. Back to the outlet centre to look at shops we hadn’t had time to on Saturday and we left with Mr H’s wallet £125 lighter after visiting one shop! There was a great paper craft shop, Mr H encouraged me to buy bits (he kind of regrets that!) and I managed to get some really nice and fun bits to experiment with for my card making.

Monday we just sauntered back home and crashed out. The munchkin didn’t sleep brilliantly away so nor did we.

The whole weekend didn’t help my weight loss…put back on the 2 lbs I lost the week before… I really don’t know if I’ll be able to maintain my weight (when/if I get there) without counting all my points all the time.

This is a long post already. I'll hopefully update on the rest of the week tomorrow.

Diet fun....

2006-05-05T10:36:00.000+01:00

I haven't posted about the diet for a while. Well, that's because I completely fell off the wagon when I went away to my gran's. I put on 3 lbs in a week! This week hasn't been great either with the munchkin being poorly and me feeling under the weather as well. I went a couple of days without counting points and eating what I wanted to some extent, I did manage to get myself back on track and go for a good walk so lost 2 lbs, but I'm still not where I was.

At least the munchkin is getting better now. After having a few days where we couldn't get a giggle out of her, she's really perking up and getting back to her happy little self. The cold seems to have helped her find her voice as well. She has a very interesting (and loud!) range of squeals now.

This will be my last post for a few days now as we're going away for the weekend. We're going down the Kent as it's an area neither of us have been to before. No idea what we're going to do down there...apart from stay in a Travelodge (managed to get a family room for £26 a night).

Have a good weekend! Bye!

Unwelcome present....

2006-05-03T12:07:00.000+01:00

....it seems like the previous owners of our have left us a present....cat fleas!

I'm not completely sure, but I'm pretty certain I saw one last night and one when I was changing the munchkin's nappy earlier today. It would definately explain the munchkin's rash (doctor asked if she could have been bitten by anything - I said no as I didn't think there was anyway she could have been...)and the fact I was bitten yesterday.

The challenege now is to find out for sure whether or not we have fleas and if we have how to get rid of them. Anyone got any suggestions?

Better night...

2006-05-01T20:27:00.000+01:00

...well the munchkin had a better night last night, up at 4ish and then up at 7:30ish. And even then Mr H took her downstairs and let me sleep on (I woke at 10 when he brought her up for a nap) She's still got a streaming cold but has been a bit perkier. However, her rash has worsened so we're going to try and see a doctor tomorrow and just check it's ok.

I'm feeling a bit better having had a decent amount of sleep; I think part of my problems stem from tiredness, I frequently struggle to get to sleep (at least once a week it'll take me up to 2 hours to sleep and it'll be over 30 minutes a few nights a week) and if we've had a tough night it's a real struggle to get up.

We've had a good day today. We've managed to get some more furniture where it's going to stay long term and put away some things in the loft...it's only taken us 3 months since we moved and we've still got loads to do! We'll get there eventually...

Happy half birthday!

2006-04-30T19:04:00.000+01:00

It's the munchkin's 6 month birthday today and she's celebrating it by being poorly :-(

She has a stinking cold, is very snuffly and has regurgitated all of her last 2 feeds (first one all over me - I needed a bath afterwards! and the second one all over Mr H's jeans!).It does worry me a bit as she's had a bit of rash for 10 days now that we could find no reason for, but maybe it was just the first sign that she's been fighting off this bug for a while. She had us up lot of last night needing cuddles and feeds and comforting before going back to sleep...and waking up again a couple of hours later.

Hopefully she'll sleep a bit better tonight and feel a bit better in the morning. It's nice that Mr H has tomorrow off so that I feel I can wake him if I need his help/support (he so rarely gets woken up by the munchkin...grrr)

Anyway, need to go and have dinner....been a bit held up by the munchkin....Bye!

My update...

2006-04-27T20:16:00.000+01:00

Well, I saw the GP all the other mums at baby group warned me about....he was not much good at listening though he did prescribe me cream and tablets to try and sort out the infection/excema on my foot, he's also upped my antidepressants and is pleased that the health visitor has refered me on to the mental health team. He was so grumpy, will definately try and avoid him in future...

I am feeling a bit better knowing that things are happening (and that the munchkin's birthmark is ok) and hopefully we'll find some reason why I'm struggling with things, it doesn't appear to be simple post natal depression

Birthmark update

2006-04-27T15:16:00.000+01:00

Well, the munchkin was a complete flirt at the hospital this morning. Grinning away at all the male doctors and student nurses!

Her birthmark is fine. It doesn't appear to be growing into her head as her development is completely on track. Phew!

This afternoon's challenge is to see the GP and try and work out what to try to make me feel better and more on top of things.

Bloomin' blogger!

2006-04-26T22:19:00.000+01:00

Thanks Mrs Aginoth for letting me know that one of my posts has been posted 10 times!!

Blogger was refusing to publish the post and just kept refreshing the page. I gave up after a while (did check my blog inbetween) and posted again later on....grrrr.

Oh well, at least if blogger shows me the same thing again I know that the post will show up eventually! I'll now go an delete 9 posts!

Got the appointment for the munchkin's birth mark tomorrow so I'll post properly after then.

Sleep well! Bye!

Raspberries!

2006-04-26T09:44:00.000+01:00

Well, my alarm clock went off at 4:40 this morning!!!

The munchkin woke me up by blowing raspberries in her cot. Even without the monitor I would have been able to hear her! I thought she'd go back to sleep, but no...she got more grumpy and I ended up having to get up and feed her before settling her back down. She did go back to sleep for another 3 1/2 hours, but that was the end of a good night's sleep for me. I did manage to get back to sleep myself, but I'm not good with disturbed nights. I've started to get used to the munchkin sleeping through till 6 or even 7 which has helped make me feel a bit better.

I posted a few weeks ago about going back to the doctor for more anti-depressants and feeling better, well, that's changed. I've been finding it harder and harder to cope and have gone back to the point where little things could be the end of the world! The health visitor came round yesterday and has refered me to the community mental health team to try and work out what's causing my depression and what we can try to help. I was also supposed to be seeing the GP tomorrow to check my prescription, but I've just been given an appointment for the munchkin to get her birth mark checked out so I'm going to cancel that and try to see the GP on Friday. I know that finding out about the munchkin's haemangioma will help reassure me as there's a slim possibility that it's growing down into her head.

Anyway, I can hear raspberries again so I need to fetch the munchkin down from her nap. Bye!

I did intend to...

2006-04-24T20:43:00.000+01:00

...post sooner than this...sorry!

The washing machine is fine. Somehow it decomposed one of my bras which caused the grey residue. It would be one of my favourite bras (typical!)....but it does give me an excuse to go shopping!

We've also just spent the weekend at my gran's house with all of Dad's side of the family. She's not much of a computer/technology fan so there's no internet access there. It was great to see the family, though two weekends running with my sister was hard work. It was made easier by the prescence of Mum, she does help keep us calmer. It was great to introduce the munchkin to my uncle and cousins who hadn't seen her before Saturday. My uncle doesn't really like being a great uncle aged 50....it makes him feel old! He was so good with her though. The munchkin is a complete flirt she's far more likely to smile to laugh at a man or boy than a woman or girl!! At my gran's party on Saturday all the elderly gents who came to coo at her got grins, but of the women it was rather more hit or miss!

I decided to have a bit of a weekend off WW. It was going to be very hard to count points and no count would have been nigh on impossible when I wasn't involved in the cooking and we were eating out a bit. I did manage to eat less than I used to do which I'm quite pleased about. We did some nice walks down to the river and along some of the nearby fields.

I love spending time out in the countryside, I wish we could live there one day. At the moment, though, I don't drive and need to be able to get around to the suermarket myself. I am considering learning, but did start when I was 17 and hated it (I did have a very strange instructor though, he kept needing toilet breaks in the middle of my lessons!). I think Mr H and I will do some sums as we'll also need to get a second car. Although he'll be cycling to work fairly often (hopefully!), I hate the idea of driving (and parking) our big Mondeo. I am due some inheritance soon so we can afford to pay for lessons and get a car, it's whether or not we can afford the insurance on a second car.

Argh!!!

2006-04-18T15:18:00.000+01:00

The washing machine is on the blink!!!! No idea when we'll be able to get someone out to fix it. Mr H is calling then when he gets in from work (I'm not technical enough to be explain what's wrong and what needs doing...) Hopefully they'll be able to come tomorrow as we're going away for the weekend on Thursday and need to get some clothes washed for the munchkin. Mr H and I have enough clothes to get by for the moment (may need to wash some of Mr H's shirts for work though).

How people used to cope without washing machines I have no idea, but then I suppose they just didn't wash their clothes (or themselves!!) as often as we do today.

I'll keep you updated as to what happens....

I've been Tagged!!!!

2006-04-16T17:36:00.000+01:00

Kerry from Mean Mom has tagged me, so I'm going to tag these bloggers (ok, so there's only two....lots of the blogs I read are read and commented on by many and somehow I feel a bit scared of tagging them...not sure why....but Jeni and Jenny don't seem scary!) and keep the tag chain in cycle...

Parenthood for Beginners
Demob happy teacher

And here's what you gotta do...

Rules

1. Go write weird facts/things/etc. about yourself in my comment box and on your blog, then tag six more people!
2. Then leave a comment that says 'You are tagged' in their comments telling them to read your blog.

My weird facts:

1. I used to pick my scabs and eat them!
2. I don't drive (and can't get my pram on the buses that come by my house)
3. I'm double jointed; my thumbs, knuckles and elbows bend a lot further backwards than most peoples do.
4. I'm too short to reach the top shelves in our kitchen cupboards
5. I've very pattern orientated....if I can fill the munchkins bottles in an order that makes a pattern with the different coloured tops I will do....

That's all I can think of for now....

Where did the time go?

2006-04-16T15:50:00.000+01:00

Can't believe it's been almost a week since I posted last! Sorry to anyone who came looking for an update.

Weaning wise things are going quite well. The munchkin will eat butternut squash as well as carrot. She'll now tolerate apple and peach with rice (yay fruit!!!) and she'll eat pea and parsnip (surprisingly smelly green goo!).

My little sister and her fiance have been staying this weekend after going to a wedding not too far away from here. It's been great to see them but has reminded me of how we find it hard to get on with one another after any length of time.... We still bicker like little kids at times. I try so hard to be patient with her and try not to let her get on my wick but it's difficult. She's very prejudiced at times and doesn't really share my views at all.... We're about as different as 2 sisters with the same two parents can be... Oh well, they're going tomorrow...though we'll see them at my gran's birthday next weekend. Don't get me wrong, I love her dearly, it's just hard work spending much time together.

Anyway, better go, we've just finished watching Four Weddings (been typing as I watch). Will try and be back later. Bye!

Apples!

2006-04-10T12:07:00.000+01:00

Well, the munchkin doesn't like apple puree! That was our new taste today, cue much screwing up of her face and gagging noises! I'll just have to try that again in a week or so... She was quite happy with her carrot at lunchtime, maybe I'll try the butternut squash next....

Napping...

2006-04-09T20:21:00.000+01:00

...or not! Well the munchkin refused to go to sleep. Ended up lying on our bed with her in my arms trying to get her to rest (I know...not always a good idea, but I was getting desperate!), well that didn't work either, she just wanted to eat my fingers, chew my hair, pull my nose off and grab my glasses! We gave up after a while and just brought her downstairs again. It was raining by this point so I couldn't take her out for a walk. She had another feed soon after and went for a short nap after that. I just hope she sleeps well tonight, she's gone down fine so far.

We've made some good progress on sorting out the living room in the house today, it'd been full of boxes and pretty much un-usable since we moved in, but with my sister and her fiance coming to stay next weekend and probably sleeping on an airbed in there it needed doing. It'll be lovely to have proper chill out space. We're going to try and have it as a kid free room unless watching TV or a video/DVD...that's the aim anyway...

Sad discovery today in the process though, our last surviving tropical fish has died. NOt really a surprise, the only place the tank could go when we first moved in was in one spot that got a lot of sunshine (and hence grew a lot a algae), we're going to reorganise a bit and then restart the tank in a sheltered spot that shouldn't get any direct sunlight. Hopefully we'll manage to breed some guppies (been an ambition of mine for a while...is that sad?).

Summertime (well almost!) and garden

2006-04-09T15:35:00.000+01:00

Well, I didn't make it back on yesterday after all.

Mr H, the munchkin and I managed to get some time out in the garden in a brief bit of sunshine before we needed to bring her in for her bath. It was lovely.

It's the first time we've had a useable garden. In our old rented house we had a little patio with what must have been the world's biggest ants nest underneath it (we had suspicions the nest extended right under the house and out the front too, there were that many ants and an unhelpful landlord who didn't do much to help us get rid of them). The little blighters are rather off putting, especially when I'm allergic to insect bites and don't really fancy a week plus of ridiculously itchy lumps on my legs... We still have some ants here, though no where near as many of them.

This house has a dinky little lawned area right outside the door and a raised decking area with a shed and a gate that leads out to the road out of the estate. We need to do a bit of work on the garden. There's a raised bed at the side of the lawn full of dodgy ornaments and weedy little shrubs (and weeds!) that I want to completely revamp (possibly into a little vegetable patch....), plus Mr H needs to cut the grass (I have no idea how to use a strimmer [Mr H decided to get one of them instead of a lawn mower as the lawn is only small]...though I suppose I could learn...)

Anyway, need to go and put the munchkin down for a nap. enjoy what sunshine you can find for the rest of your Sunday. Bye!

Interesting day....

2006-04-08T11:32:00.000+01:00

...or maybe not!

We spent 5 hours wandering round Cambridge yesterday mainly looking at bikes for Mr H to cycle to work on. Now I'm all for him saving us money on diesel, but did it have to cost £530?!?!?!?

It could have been a lot worse I suppose, we were spending time together in the week (Mr H booked the day off for a break from work before we realised that with bank holidays and other annual leave days already booked he is only working one 5 day week in the next 6 weeks!!!), we were having time away from home and getting fresh air and exercise (well walking several miles with the pram).

All I managed to buy for me was a new purse to replace my one with a broken zip (not as easy as it sounds actually, most of the purses I found were far too small or far too big and usually woth out much space for cards (I have far too many of those, can't seem to reduce the numbers anymore either!).

The munchkin was really good, she didn't nap very well (probably why she didn't sleep brilliantly last night) but was calm and happy being admired by random people in shops.

The challenge for today is to get Mr H to have a break. Since we moved he's spent time every weekend fixes things, installing wardrobe poles, blinds etc. So for today we're trying to have him doing nothing of the sort. We're not going out (bought some very nice looking food in M&S yesterday to eat today - big treat!) and we're going to chill. He may end up mowing the lawn though so that he can play with his remote control car! At the moment it would get all of 2 inches into the jungle!

Anyway, we're going to chill out in front of a DVD the I need to put the dishwasher on. Maybe back later! Bye!

Weighed in

2006-04-05T20:38:00.000+01:00

I'm now more than half way to my goal!!! Lost another 2 lbs this week. If I can lose another 2 in the next week that will be 2 whole stone lost since the start of the year....need to be really good and walk lots if I'm going to do that.....
BMI at start: 31.5
BMI now: 26.9 (getting to the healthy range!)

Summer's on the way!

2006-04-05T15:37:00.000+01:00

Just been out for a walk with the munchkin, it's been so cold lately that I put my big coat on as usual, however I ended up taking it off fairly quickly and walking round in the blazing sunshine with just a t-shirt on! That was in spite of a frost this morning. It's such a nice change. It's bright enough outside that I don't need to put the light on in the kitchen diner (has been a gloomy room since we moved in, just one north facing window, sheltered by porches on both sides), the sun's streaming in through the patio door into the living room. I'm just hoping this weather keeps up all summer, it'll be really nice to be able to spend time out in the garden with the munchkin, getting lots of fresh air and hopefully going on lots of walks.

Diet decisions

2006-04-05T13:13:00.000+01:00

I'm currently doing Weight Watchers Online following Full Choice, but I'm trying to decide whether to try the No Count or not. I like being able to eat anything and just add the points up, but I do still eat junk at times (some choc and crisps almost every day!!!) so I think I may eat a bit more healthily on No Count but I don't know......

I'm weighing in tonight so I need to decide today whether to try No Count this week or not....if I don't try it this week it will be a few weeks before I do as my sister and her fiance are coming to stay for Easter and then we've got my gran's 80th(!!) birthday party the weekend after and it'd be easiest just to eat whatever then.....

Maybe I'll try No Count the week after Nana's birthday.....I'll keep you updated!

Just finished....

2006-04-03T14:09:00.000+01:00

....reading Hannah's Gift by Maria Housden. I love this book, even though it makes me cry (the only reason I didn't cry part way through it today was the munchkin waking up and needing attention!). Hannah's strength and faith are amazing for a 3 year old. I like the way Maria writes about the effect Hannah's illness has on her own faith and it really challenges me about my faith. Anyway, if you get the chance to buy/read this book do, but be prepared to cry!

Memory...what's that?

2006-04-03T10:26:00.000+01:00

Just remembered that I needed to book a doctors appointment this week, my memory is like a sieve, I was supposed to call up on Friday to try and get an appointment with the nice doc I saw last time, as it is, I've just called now and got the locum, nice doc is on holiday. At least all I need is a repeat prescription of the anti-depressants that nice doc gave me a month ago, he can't really complain about that (sorry, have had experience of very unsympathetic doc at the practice before who didn't really listen/want to help much). Oh well, the challenge now is to remember that my appointment is at 10am tomorrow....

Just for a change.....

2006-04-02T15:22:00.000+01:00

....we're on white goo in this house now.

We started trying the munchkin with baby rice yesterday. She seems to think it's ok, though I think she'll prefer a bit more flavour. We'll just have to wait until we try adding in veg next week!

She's actually managing to nap properly today which is nice. She's even sleeping through Mr H drilling in our bedroom next door to hers as he put up the new wardrobe rail (how the people who owned this house before coped with no full length hanging space, I have no idea!).

Birthday trip out.....or not!

2006-04-01T21:03:00.000+01:00

Well, we didn't make it to London after all
I had my first ever migraine last night (at least that's what we think it was) and was feeling too tired this morning to face the tube and all the crowds. Another time!

Had a quiet(ish!) day at home instead. Saved up some WW points (partly from not being able to eat dinner last night) and have enjoyed being able to eat nice food (bagels with cream cheese and smoked salmon.......). We may be going out for dinner tonight (the munchkin will sleep in her carrycot - she just about fits in it still!!)

Got some lovely pressies from Mr H and the munchkin. Mr H was lovely and didn't buy any more chocolate to tempt me off the diet with, and just bought me a cute mini birthday cake so I won't be tempted by it all week (it may be gone by the end of the weekend!). There wasn't any one big thing that I wanted so I was given lots of little bits, books, dvds, bits for card making and a scrap-booking starter kit (the challenge will be to find time to do it!).

well, we're going to have to go out for a walk. The munchkin is refusing point blank to go to sleep in her cot, having only slept (during the day) today for about an hour (usually 2+ hours by now!).

I wrote this at about 4pm.....blogger wouldn't load it before we went out....grrrr.....anyway, we ended up at Ikea. Never been there before. Bought some nice wine glasses and some plastic bowls and beakers for the munchkin. Trying to feed the munchkin now and get her to bed now before I fall asleep. Never realised how draining a migraine was :(

More orange goo!

2006-03-30T14:56:00.000+01:00

It was the turn of the carrots to get cooked to a pulp today. We seem to be in orange goo central here. Guess what the other veg I bought at the weekend to puree is? Sweet potato! More orange goo! Oh well, as long as the munchkin happily eats it we'll be ok! I hope she likes them.

We've finally decided hwat we're going to do on Saturday. We're going to try and brave central London with a buggy! Should be ok, both Mr H and I are quite up for walking and we've downloaded a list of step free tube stations to help us out, just have to hope the weather's nice otherwise it'll be a bit horrible and we'll end up on the tube more and more. Thankfully the buggy has a carry strap so Mr H can carry that while I carry the munchkin if we need to. It would have been nice to go back up to Bradford to see all my mates but all of those who are teachers aren't on their Easter holidays until the week after so they wouldn't be around. Never mind, hopefully we'll see them at one of the bank holidays in May.

Ooppss (plus a bad mummy moment)

2006-03-29T19:04:00.000+01:00

I've gone a bit overboard on the whole buying baby food thing......we must have in the region of 100 jars, cans and cartons of various types of goo! I ended up spending some time this afternoon categorising them into pure fruit/veg, fruit/veg with rice, sweet/breakfast things with milk, savory things with milk and things with meat/gluten. The munchkin can have the first two of those anytime but we need to wait until she's actually reached 6 months before giving her milk, gluten or meat.

I did have a bad mummy moment as I was doing this though I dropped one of the glass jars....well of course it broke and thge glass went everywhere. The munchkin was happily playing on her mat in the dining room but some of the glass got as far as her!!!! :-O Not a happy H here then! Managed to remove all the glass from around the munchkin and moved her away then swept all the glas into one safe spot for Mr H to clear up when he gets home....

Orange goo...

2006-03-28T19:32:00.000+01:00

...well that's what pureed butternut squash looks like! I made my first puree for the munchkin today. Seems to be ok, it's in it's ice cubes trays in the freezer at the moment. Hope she likes it when we finally get around to weaning her. Will probably be starting that on Sunday or Monday. It depends on what we do at the weekend. We may be heading back up to Bradford to see family and friends or we may be popping into London for the day on Saturday. I haven't decided what I want to do yet.

You may wonder why I said I, and not we....well that would be because it's my birthday on Saturday! It means that I get a little more say in what we do. Bradford will also depend on Mr H's energy supply as he'll be driving and whether or not any of our friends are around.

First ever comment - Yay!

2006-03-28T13:30:00.000+01:00

Wow, somebody has read my blog!!!

Hello Mrs Wookie! It was even more blissful when the munchkin did it again last night! It feels odd having 2 almost completely undisturbed nights of sleep. The munchkin woke briefly at 5:30, muttered to herself and went back to sleep. Couldn't believe it!

Anyway, just cooking lunch. Hopefully back later.
Bye!

2006-03-27T19:20:00.000+01:00

What do you think of the avatar of Mr H? Doesn't give him the credit for how skinny he is though! He's not very happy with it, not enough choice of clothes (!!) but I think it's ok.

Lovely day yesterday!

2006-03-27T15:45:00.000+01:00

Well Mr H surprised me. We had a lovely day yesterday. He did the night feed (didn't even bring the munchkin back to the warmth of our bed, but sat on the chair in her room), made me breakfast and lunch (and helped make dinner). He (or rather the munchkin!) also gave me the orchid (lovely one in a vase) and a box of Bendicks mints. I'd managed to save up enough WW points that I could enjoy a few chocs as we sat and watched Batteries Not Included (fab film, even Mr H liked it!). It was just a nice simple day and made me feel loved.

The munchkin even played her part and slept through! Couldn't believe it when we woke to the alarm at 7:30 without being woken in the night. Was just about to leap out of bed and check on her when I heard he muttering to herself and blowing raspberries in her cot! I feel so much better for getting an undisturbed nights sleep (even though, once again, it took me ages to get to sleep).

2006-03-27T14:36:00.000+01:00

What do you think of my avatar? Ok, so I'm no where near that skinny at the mo (here's hoping!), but it's as near to me as I could create! The one accessory that the avatar creator was missing though was a pram/buggy. I'm so rarely out of the house without it that if I'm going for a walk in a pretty park like this then the munchkin would be with me!

It's 9:20pm and....

2006-03-25T21:19:00.000Z

...I want to go to sleep! Can't believe I'm so tired this early in the evening. Would have quite happily gone to bed at about 8pm. Mad, but never mind, am reminding myself that the clocks change tonight so I'll be getting an hours less sleep than it seems like when I eventually get there. I've sent Mr H upstairs to put the washing out while I try to stay awake down here. We much prefer going to bed at the same time if we can manage it. I find it hard to get to sleep if he's not there, and I like my goodnight hug!

The munchkin so far hasn't settled too well, we've been up to her twice since we put her down to sleep to sooth her and put her mobile on to help her get back to sleep. Hopefully she'll sleep reasonably all night. With it being Mothering Sunday tomorrow I'm going to try and persuade Mr H that he should do all night feeds and nasty nappies for those 24 hours. Wish me luck! I do know he's bought me an orchid for tomorrow. He decided it hide it in the downstairs toilet (also known as the fridge!). It's so cold in there that I very rarely go in, but today I was pretty desperate, in the middle of cooking lunch and had to run. I'm chuffed he remembered as it's the first year for a while he's had to think about it (his mum died in 2000).

What's a nap?

2006-03-25T17:23:00.000Z

I wish the munchkin knew the answer to this question!

She's refused point blank to sleep properly today. She did about 20 minutes in the car this morning (on the way to Homebase) and another 20 minutes or s on the way back home. She then screamed herself silly about her nap this afternoon and eventually slept for less than half an hour! She really needed at least 3 times that so we're going to have a grumpy munchkin come bedtime tonight. At least it's the weekend and Mr H is around to help out.

Mum went back home yesterday. It was so nice to see her (though didn't get any time for blogging). She's been finding everything so hard lately but seemed to be coming ok here. She loved spending time with the munchkin (her first grandchild) and seeing how much she's changed in the last 6 weeks. It's so easy to get used to Mum being here, she seems to fit into our lives really well, it was odd when she'd gone yesterday, even though she'd only been here 3 days. She babysatr for us on Wednesday night so that Mr H and I could have our first night out together since the munchkin was born. It was so lovely to spend time with him, and only him. Don't get me wrong, I love the munchkin to bits, but it was great to spend some time being me, rather than her mummy.

We ended up at Nandos, much nicer food than McDonalds and the points were ok. I managed to save up loads of points on Tuesday afternoon by walking around town and all the way home again (did about 3/4 of a mile more than we needed to as I got us lost!). Despite having a big dinner then I still managed to weigh in at 1lb less than the week before. Yay! I'm slowly getting there, some of my clothes are starting to get too big and I'm fitting in some of the smaller clothes my sister sent me.

Back later....

2006-03-21T10:26:00.000Z

...well, a lot later!

Can't believe it's been a month since I last posted. Can't even claim to have been all that busy either....just exhausted.

A lot has happened since I last posted though.

The munchkin has now developed an ear-drum bursting range of squeals. They're horrific and there seems to be no stopping her once she gets started apart from putting a bottle in her mouth (not always appropriate as I'm sure you'll understand!). I think she's imitating the other baby girl that we see at the mums and babies group we go to. All the boys sit/lie/crawl/commando crawl(funny!) silently, while the other little girl sits quite happily then squeals randomly every so often. The munchkin only started it on Thursday after her the other little one doing it on Wednesday.....I'm sure there's some sort of correlation there..... Mr H hates it though, it is funny for a while, but does deafen you somewhat.
I've been diagnosed with post natal depression....at least it gives me a reason for being so tired, weepy and grumpy. Am now on anti-ds so hopefully they'll kick in properly soon and I'll start to feel somewhat better than I have been. (actually that may be part of the reason I haven't posted....just not felt like it.....I don't know!)
Mr H has been given a pay rise and a bonus for the one month he was working before Christmas. Means we should be able to go away for a little bit on the summer.....probably still can't afford to do anything more than camping though :o(
The munchkin has grown so much we're going to have to move her into 3-6 month clothes next week....just as she turns 5 months old! She's so small (except for her head!), but given the I'm fairly short and Mr H isn't all that tall and is very skinny it's not really surprising that she's little too.
I've now lost over 1 1/2 stone since the start of the year. Am very pleased with myself. Am now doing WW online as I couldn't find a class near here that I could get to, but it's actually working really well so far. The online database is making it easy to find the points values of what I want to eat, and it means I actually keep track of what I'm eating better as the laptop is always on and nearby.

Am just waiting for Tesco to deliver a rather large order of food and baby milk (that stuff is so expensive....wish I could have breast fed!) and then Mum is coming down for a few days. Will try and post when she's here, she'll happily look after the munchkin and let me get on with whatever. She's also going to baby sit one evening so Mr H and I can go out for dinner somewhere. Our challenge is to find somewhere that sells food low in WW points.....hmmmm....still working on that one. Shockingly McDonalds is coming out best so far! Help! What is the world coming too when McDonalds appears to be the best way for me to eat out when I'm on a diet. Am going to do everything I can do so as not to end up there.

Anyway, must go, need to feed the munchkin before the Tesco's delivery turns up as otherwise, no, doubt, she'll want feeding 2 minutes before he/she turns up and I'll have to stop feeding her to sort out the frozen stuff and she'll throw a paddy!

Atishoo....

2006-02-21T14:11:00.000Z

So much for I'll be back later....the munchkin and I both have a cold, well she's getting over hers while I'm coming down with my second in less than a week. :o( Cue one not very happy H.

Hubby can't even get away from work early to help look after the munchkin, he's got too much on at the mo, but I just want to curl up in bed.

May go for a bit of a walk later, will help the munchkin sleep (though she's napping at the mo and I daren't move her off her playmat) and hopefully the fresh air will help me perk up.

Got to go, the munchkin's just waking up....maybe back later. Bye!

Domestic Goddess?!?!?!?

2006-02-19T21:17:00.000Z

Hmmm, well, so far this evening I've managed to cook hubby a lasagne (from scratch - well cheated on the white sauce!), load the dishwasher, sort the washing and do some tidying.....makes me seem quite domestic goddess like (tis for me anyway!), until I tell you that hubby looked after the munchkin and put her to bed, there are still umpteen boxes around the house from the move (the only room without any is the kitchen-diner - correction there's still one at the bottom of the stairs!)....

I'm desperate to be more domestic goddess like, but with sleep deprivation and boxes I can't unpack because hubby hasn't had chance to fix the bookcases that got damaged in the move (useless, flippin' flat-pack stuff) I'm certainly failing at the mo. I am a lot more motivated to cook in this house though, much bigger kitchen and infinately better cooker so I'll get there eventually.

More later if I get a chance need to unload said dishwasher and sterilise the munchkin's bottles while hubby puts the washing out to dry. Ta-ra for now!