I believe we have hit the tantrumming stage. Let me give you an example of things that may cause a tantrum, on a monday, when he's had a cheese sandwich for lunch:
Having a nap/not having a nap, getting up, getting down, reading a book, not reading a book, reading a book but not turning the pages correctly, prevention of ripping the book, mealtimes, being hungry, feeding himself, not feeding himself, jelly, jelly with 'bits' in, putting wellies on over trainers, prevention from wearing wellies all day, nappy changing, when mummy prevents viscious leg kicking during nappy changes, being zipped into a sleeping bag.
There are many more. I am pretty tired! Mostly I'm ignoring the tantrums although that can be testing on the old acting skills when you are being kicked in the stomach.
Ach, how long does this stage last then?
I'm sitting with a small boy, perched on my knee and entranced with In The Night Garden. Personally Upsy Daisy sets my teeth on edge but I have a soft spot for OCD Makka Pakka.
Anyway, I have a small window of free time so I thought I'd do a quick catch up:
Our dining room/stairs/ landing is almost complete. The lush stair carpet arrived on thursday so then we could put up my rouges gallery of photos and it looks great. The tres expensive wood floor that we scrimped and saved for goes down on monday (and tues and weds!) and then we are done! If I ever see another banister or staircase spindle I may cry.
Jacob is now running about like a proper little boy. He has started saying 'hiya' in the last few days and that is pretty darn cute. He is also COVERED in bruises because a) he knows no fear and b)he can climb on the furniture now.
I'm loving being a full time mum. It was definitely the right choice for me.
Sure start is great. And free.
We have no money, we'll have no holidays for a long while but I'm content. Very.
I'm making curry for tea.
Next Wednesday is my last day working here. EVER. I resigned 4 weeks ago and will be a stay at home mummy. I think its the right thing to do, it feels right (and I guess you can't really ask more than that). I am now officially poor though, so feel free to send food parcels.
Hello internet
Chronic sleep deprivation seems to have eroded my blogging mojo but I'm doing ok. In an ideal world I'd like Jacob not to wake several times a night (4 last night) for long periods of time which he mostly fills with crying and screaming. Its absolutely delightful. I think it is the cold he currently has and some teething, although he is yet to get an actual tooth. If he could only tell me what the problem was!
Last night I cracked at 5am and got into the spare room bed with him and he fell asleep on my tummy for the first time since he was wee. Tonight I am reverting back to settling him in his cot which normally entails me sitting next to him until he calms down - I don't want him to think sleeping with me is the new 'thing'!
Anyway, if anyone is still reading after that -hmmm what else have we been doing? Sean is feeling a little better and waiting to have a barium meal next week, hopefully that will give us some answers to his general poorliness.
Apart from not sleeping, J is lovely. He can stand really well and has learnt to open drawers, cupboards and bash holes in the coffee table. I have 1 month left and then its back to work, but lets not discuss that.
I always seem to update this when things are a bit bad so today even though S is in hospital and had a very infected appendix out last night (could this have been contributing to his general poorliness? - cross your fingers please) I shall write a cheerful post...
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hmmmm
oh yes, Jacob can crawl!! The little toad can properly crawl quite a few paces but if he wants to get somewhere in a hurry he drops to his stomach and commandoes it accross the room at a suprising pace.
He is also obsessed with cables and electric items. We have put those socket cover things on all the plugs but he is draw to cables like a moth to a flame. Yesterday I was making his lunch and he was very quiet. I found him with the modem in his mouth with all the wires hanging out!!! He is a little monkey.
On Monday S had his second endoscopy. Since I had Jacob (so about 7 months) he has been feeling sick, weak and tired constantly. He has lost an awful lot of weight (which he certainly couldn't afford) and was really very poorly. He went to the drs numerous times but because he has stomach issues anyway they upped his meds and fobbed him off. It has really affected his enjoyment of the baby and its been hard work. Finally at his diabetic review about a month ago the consultant mentioned coeliac disease which fitted all of his symptoms. Apparently diabetics are much more likely to develop this so why it took this long is awful. Anyway, he had a blood test which came back showing it was highly likely he was coeliac but to get a proper diagnosis you have to have a biopsy. Also you have to continue to eat wheat before you have the biopsy so as not to get a false negative result. So he had 6 weeks of feeling sicker and sicker and losing more weight and having to still eat wheat until Monday. The technician performing the endoscopy said his stomach looked like it was coeliac disease and he is now on a gluten free diet whilst we wait for confirmation.
I'm so proud of him. He's rarely complained even though he's now about 9 stone (eeek) and feeling sick permanently and really tries to do everything he should. He's just worn out.
For my birthday last week S bought me some Ugg Cardy boots (don't shoot me ok?!) in grey. I know they are ra footwear and are overpriced etc etc but I've been in love with them for months. So they arrived and they were too small. I tried to ram my feet in, but figured that boots that costly probably should be comfy too. Luckily we've sold them on ebay and the next size up have been ordered. I can't wait for them to come, I've been sloooooping about in my Primark 6 quid ones for too long and up here in the frozen north, warm footwear is essential. The other week I managed to buy a wool coat reduced to £16 from £70 in the sales so bring on the snow.
In other news - Prince Caspian is naff. We ordered it from Sky on Friday night and whilst Eddie Izzard's crazy mouse was slightly funny the rest was crappity crap. And those weird minotaur things give me the heebie jeebies.
7 days til my first wedding anniversary. Mental.
So am I a proper grown up now? Married, baby AND thirty? I still feel about 16 when I drank cider secretly in rough pubs, wore an 'oasis' t-sirt and went to see bands every weekend.
Anyway - the birfday weekend went as follows for anyone who is interested:
Friday: leg it down A1 to Cambridge to parental's house
Saturday:Dad makes me smoked trout and scrambled eggs for brekkie and then we leave the baby and head down to London with only the postcode of our hotel in the sat nav to guide us as we had no idea where we were staying. We arrive at the Tower on the edge of the bridge and check in to a swanky room with a lovely view of St Katherine's Dock.
We then meet 3 of my bestest girlfriends and their husbands/boyfriends at Borough Market where I buy lovely olives stuffed with garlic and some tasty looking biscuits. Then its lunch at Menhiers chocolate factory and it is delicious. S and I shared a load of olives, hummous etc etc and then I had game sausages and mustard mash with an apple and carrot relish. It was delicious. Washed down with prosseco and then a rich red wine. The girls had all clubbed together to get me a DKNY watch which totally overwhelmed me (i nearly cried a little bit -tragic!) It was so nice to spend time with my bestest mates who had made such an effort for me. Especially after all the caper at christmas with some of my friends up here it kind of reaffirmed that I'm a nice person and some people do like me a lot.
We staggered back to the hotel after the mamouth lunch to the hotel and after a swift turnaround headed to Victoria to see 'Wicked'. All I can say is wow - I thought it was amazing. And S who is in no way a musicals person thought it was great too.
Sunday: After a lie in (yay!) we pop to see my friends and their brand new baby and then it was back to the parents for a family sunday dinner. Jacob had been as good as gold for my mum and had eaten with no fuss at all (little toad!). Then we said goodbye to my sister who is now on a plane heading to Atlanta to live for 3 years. I'm quite sad, I'll miss her very much.
So, an excellent weekend (goodbyes aside) and I have some Ugg Cardy boots, a massage voucher at a posh spa, a remote control helicopter and some new cake tins too!
So, on Sunday I am hitting the big three ooooooo. Yup, I'll be 30. I am also leaving the bubs overnight for the first time ever and heading to London for a magical mystery tour. I am not even allowed to know where we are staying. My mother says she will just put the postcode in the sat nav (does anyone else think this is a recipe for disaster?!). I do hope that whatever we do it involves swanky cocktails and posh chips.
I'm a bit meh about leaving the baby. I know I need to but I've only ever spent about 3 hours not with him since he was born. MUST FOCUS ON THE COCKTAILS.
Right, I'd better go and tidy up cos the Health Visitor is coming round again. She's doing a follow up on the whole 'baby won't eat' visit of last week. He is maybe a tad better but is soooo fussy. I just generally repeat the following mantra 'he will not starve himself, he will eat if he wants, he will grow out of it' under my breath when he clamps his little mouth shut. Gah.
I was due to go back to work at the end of February and J is booked into nursery 4 days a week (sob). However, he is such a little monkey with his milk and screams his way through every bottle, taking about an hour each time and with meal times taking aaaages too I was feeling too scared to send him to nursery. The ratio of staff is 1 to every 3 babies and I just don't think they could spend the time making sure he gets enough to eat. Plus, I don't want to go back anyway.
So, I wrangled with my boss and am now taking the full year I am allowed!! Wooopeeeeee. The plan was always to just complete my mandatory 3 months when I start back and then resign, live on S's wage and be poor poor poor (with no new clothes, shoes or glitte/feathers) so now that three months will be in June/July/August which seems a much easier time to get to work in the morning. Also, hopefully by then J will not be having milk in the daytime anymore and perhaps (dare I hope) he may be eating better too.
