More of Tabitha’s unconventional pastimes

A while ago I listed some of Tabitha’s more unusual habits. Well, it’s now a few months down the line and she’s added a whole load more to the list!

1. Organising the fridge. She loves nothing more than a good sort out of all the bottles and jars. If she can find some cherry tomatoes to scoff at the same time then she’d be in there all day!

2. Emptying all the pots and pans from the drawer and crashing them down onto the tiled kitchen floor… Then putting them all back in again and repeating.

3. Clattering the hand-held Hoover through the table and chair legs. If the Hoover’s not to hand then her yellow car or activity toy will suffice.

4. Pressing all the buttons on the stereo and pulling the fronts off of the speakers (although we’ve ruined this for her now by securing them in place with rubber bands!). If there are any CDs out then they have to be thrown on the floor.

5. Holding onto my finger while she steps up and down – and walks along – the small ledge of the fire-place (thankfully she mostly leaves the coal be now).

6. Putting my keys into the lower keyhole of the front door (note the upgrade from her finger).

7. Finding the toilet roll and ripping it into tiny little pieces – all over the bathroom floor!

8. Going to our bedroom and stealing pebbles from the plant pots in the window (again we’ve ruined her fun with this one by removing all the stones – we’re such spoil sports!)

9. Opening and closing the kitchen bin… Yes, she still has an obsession with that darn bin.

10. Changing the TV channel with the remote – she seems to favour the more obscure channels – and sometimes turning the volume up really, really loud!

11. Pressing and holding the button on the iPad so that it activates voice control. The amount of times I hear Siri saying “sorry, I didn’t quite get that…”.

12. Going to her room and finding a tied-up nappy sack – then dragging it (or maybe two if she’s lucky) along the corridor and into the living room.

Back to normal once again

And there it is – that sinking feeling of back-to-reality that I thought only came with having a boring full-time job. Turns out it happens when you’re a full-time mum too. Over the past couple of weeks we’ve had Tabitha’s 1st birthday, with loads of family around, swiftly followed by the four-day Easter weekend. It’s all been lovely, but it’s hard to return to normality without feeling a tad forlorn. Back to endless washing up, wiping up, putting washing on, messy meals, messy nappies, and just the general mayhem that a one-year-old creates (pulling the speakers apart and throwing all the CDs on the floor is a current fave)! But… It’s not all bad as there are two more bank holidays coming up in May, as well as our second wedding anniversary, and then in June we have a family trip to the zoo and then a nine-night holiday to Montenegro. Yes, that’s right, we’ve booked our first holiday abroad with a baby, which I am very excited about but also a little nervous! I must make sure I leave all my stresses and worries at the airport though as I want us to have a chilled-out break.

Also to report is that Tabitha’s been taking a few unaided steps! It happened first on April 4th, so a couple of weeks ago now. She hasn’t really progressed since then, but it is happening more and more and she’s slowly gaining confidence on her feet. I don’t think it’ll be too much longer before we have a proper walker. She’s completely stopped babbling at the moment though – whereas a few weeks ago it was ‘mamamama’ this or ‘budbudbudbud’ that. I guess she’s concentrating all her efforts on moving at the moment!

We’ve finally been swimming!

Today we’ve been swimming for the first time and Tabitha loved it! I thought she would as she loves bath-time, but it was lovely to see her enjoying herself so much. She had a huge smile on her face and was in hysterics when she splashed her hands in the water. I went with Magda and Mackenzie, and I think we’re going to make it more of a regular thing.

I can’t believe that it’s almost been 12 months since I finished work. This time last year, I was counting down my final few days before having 6 weeks of ‘me’ time before Tabitha arrived. That all seems like a world away now.

This week I was very interested to find out that a baby-blogger I follow, who ended up having her first baby on the same day as me, is 5 months pregnant with her second. That means her first born will only be 15 months when she gives birth again. I must say, I can’t even contemplate having a second yet. Tabitha is still a baby herself, it wouldn’t be fair on her to suddenly be the big sister. We will hopefully have another in time though, and it is both exciting and a little daunting to think that we’ll be going through all this again one day!

Tabitha is being quite a joy at the moment: her sleeping habits (both overnight and in the day) have improved – they’re not perfect, but are much, much better than they were; she’s mostly very content during the day, playing with her toys and smiling and laughing; and she’s become a lot more cuddly, which is lovely as she used to wriggle away the second she got near.

Here she is practicing her standing. She is getting more and more confident with each passing day:

Tabitha at ten months

Tabitha has entered double figures! At 10 months old she:

– pulls herself up and lowers herself down with ease
– stands unaided for several (wobbly) seconds at a time and just today has attempted to make a step towards me
– walks confidently with her walker and around the furniture
– climbs up and down our two stairs with no problems
– can lower herself down off the sofa, bed etc.
– crawls at lightning speed
– loves pushing toys around the floor, especially her yellow car
– loves things that stack, especially her stacking cups
– can use a sippy cup without being helped (although she does have a tendency to spit more liquid back out than she actually drinks)
– is becoming more fussy about food – anything lumpy gets spat straight back out again
– is a nightmare when it comes to having her nappy changed
– is yet to say any words, but loves to cackle loudly
– weighs in at just under 21lb

Making waves

This week Tabitha has learnt to wave! I’m very proud of her and she looks super cute. I feel like it’s the first thing I’ve taught her to do, rather than something she’s learnt by instinct. She now waves at everything, including the TV, her reflection, Buddy the budgie, and of course me and Tom. We’re sometimes even treated to a double hander!

Waving aside, I’m finding the monotony of day-to-day life quite hard this week. I think I have a classic case of post-holiday/January blues. I don’t have much on at the moment, so the prospect of day after day spent either in the flat, or wandering the streets (weather permitting), is a tad daunting. Tabitha is so demanding of my attention and time too that I sometimes feel like I don’t get a second’s peace. I’m desperately trying to keep her in a good daytime routine – with regular naps etc – in a hope that she’ll start sleeping better at night, so I often walk around the quiet roads while she sleeps. She can nap indoors of course but it never lasts as long (mainly because it’s noisy with the building work), and also I think the fresh air is essential for us both each day. The thing is, while she’s asleep there’s no point going in and out of shops as it disturbs her (she’s such a light sleeper), so I find the quietest retreats possible. I’m currently sat in the cemetery – it’s where I often end up, it may sound morbid but I love the tranquility and it helps me gain a little perspective too.

I may find life a little dull at times, but it’s no where near as dull as when I had to trudge to work five days a week. When I think of the countless minutes, hours and days I spent bored stupid at my desk, willing the time to go faster, I know where I’d rather be.

Motherhood is my job now and I need to accept that not every day is going to be fun and exciting, just like a normal job wouldn’t be.

It’s (more of) the little things…

Tabitha is growing and changing at such a scary rate. The new things that she’s doing this week will be old news by next week. I don’t want to forget any of the cute little things that currently make me smile, so here’s a list of some of them:

1. If she’s crying for her milk and you show her the bottle, she immediately switches into a giggle of recognition.
2. She loves boisterousness: being swung around, or lifted in the air, having a shoulder carry, or having her tummy put on your head.
3. No matter how tired or grizzley she is, the second she sees her bedtime story book ‘What a Busy Baby’, her little face lights up.
4. She’s mastered taking out and re-inserting her dummy; it usually ends up the wrong way around, with her little nose being squashed, but she doesn’t seem to mind!
5. When she manages to pull herself up to a (wobbly) stand, she looks so pleased with herself.
6. She loves looking in the mirror, and seeing me and her smiling back in the reflection.
7. Her love of food and the ‘mmmm’ noises she makes when she’s eating.
8. She’s so full of energy. All the time. When we get her up in the mornings, she’s so full of beans, rocking back and forth on all fours on our bed (as if she’s doing her morning exercises!).
9. She’s started to bob her head from side to side when she hears a tune she likes.
10. How much she likes her squishy thighs being squidged, or a raspberry being blown on her belly, or a little tickle under the arm.

Busy doing nothing

I feel like I’ve not written much recently, although that’s not without wanting to. It’s just that, without repeating myself over and over again, there’s not that much more to add at the moment. Since our baby yoga and massage classes have ended, and the cold weather has slowly started creeping in, Tabitha and I have almost slipped into hibernation mode! Of course we do go out, but it’s mainly just a potter to the shops, or a walk around the streets, or to the occasional baby group or mother’s meet-up. Our days are mostly spent with Tabitha playing on the living room floor, or getting under my feet in the kitchen, or pulling herself up on to her wobbly little toes, or speed-crawling along to somewhere she shouldn’t be and me chasing after her! As well as, of course, fitting in 3 naps, 3 meals, an afternoon snack, 4 bottles of formula and several chaotic nappy changes. The days and weeks are just racing by; I can’t believe it’s less than a month until Christmas! Tabitha’s first ever Christmas no less. It will be an exciting time, and a busy time too, with trips to both families planned in and several catch-ups with friends as well. So, in a funny way, I’m relishing these quiet, dull November days, where it’s just me and Tabitha hanging out with nowhere in particular to go and nothing in particular to do!

The six-month milestone

We’ve done it – Tabitha has reached half a year old and what a six months it’s been! In her very short life we’ve moved home, made lots of new mum friends, been to various mother & baby groups and survived the hottest summer in years. Tabitha has gone from a tiny newborn who does very little, to a small person with bucketloads of energy and a great personality, and to celebrate we’ve bought her her first pair of Ugg boots!

Tabitha’s current favourite things include Huey her comforter bear, her dum-dum, Sophie the Giraffe, her disco ball, watching the tv (or any screen for that matter), giggling at silly noises, and her bed-time book (called What a Busy Baby).

She loves nothing more than rolling over onto her tummy, and will spend ages playing with all her toys in that position. She’s not quite crawling yet, but she can get herself around the floor by dragging herself on her tummy, so I can’t leave the room for very long anymore! She can push up on all fours but can’t quite muster the energy to move forward, so she slumps back down and resumes her tried-and-tested belly shuffle! There’s always a lot of huffing and puffing, and I don’t know how she keeps going sometimes, but she does! She heads straight for everything she shouldn’t too – our floor plants being a good example – we’re going to have to do some serious baby-proofing very soon! Tabitha’s so much more mobile than all the other babies we know her age, but yet she’s totally not bothered about sitting up for very long.

She has also started to make some very cute ‘aaah’ noises, which do quickly turn into a squawk if there’s something she’s not happy about!

The other big news this week is that I can feel Tabitha’s first tooth pushing through her bottom gum. I really hope this explains all the sleepless nights we’ve been having recently, as it has been horrendous. Sometimes she’ll wake-up 4 or 5 times in a night and this has been going on for over a month now. It’s no longer a case of just putting her dummy back in either, she often has to be fed some milk now before she’ll settle back down and there’s a lot of loud crying until she gets it. Our poor neighbours. The only consolation is that a lot of other mums that I speak to are going through the same thing, where their baby slept through the night for a while, but have now completely regressed. She is also staying awake a lot longer during the day now too.

I was hoping that the introduction of solids would help with the sleeping through, but this so-far only seems to have made things worse. The first stage of weaning is going well though, and Tabitha has so far munched her way through the various fruits and veg that I’ve offered her. I’m giving her a small amount of food three times a day now and I can’t believe how many dirty nappies she’s producing! Her digestive system is definitley working overtime! Her milk feeds are a bit all over the place though so I really need to work out a new routine for those. She’s definitely consuming less milk at the moment, but still feeding as regularly as before, well even more so now with the cheeky night feeds!

So, it’s on to the second half of Tabitha’s first year. I’m looking forward to seeing what she gets up to next!

I wish I’d known that…

As Tabitha is fast approaching the half year mark, it seems an appropriate time to look back at the past six months and reflect on six of the things that I know now, but wish I knew then:

1. The first few weeks are painful. And I mean physically painful, not mentally (although there’s of course that too). I was completely expecting the giving birth part to hurt (although I hoped by some miracle it wouldn’t), but I thought once that bit was over, my body would quickly return to normal. I didn’t expect to wince everytime I moved or sat down because my episiotomy had become infected. When you’re up and down all day and all night trying to calm a crying baby, this sort of pain really isn’t welcome. Nor did I expect to not be able to poo for five days because of said wound, or bleed solidly for 4 weeks for that matter.

2. Aching all over. During the past six months I’ve realised that my knees really don’t approve of me getting up and down from the floor all day. My back’s not too keen on all the lifting and lugging around I do, and my wrist doesn’t take too kindly to supporting the weight of a baby in one hand, while trying to do a seperate task with the other! Oh, and I’m constantly covered in bruises!

3. Breastfeeding doesn’t come easily. Before I gave birth, a lot of people said I should try to breastfeed, if only for a short while. I never really understood why they said ‘try to’ as I always assumed it’d come naturally (although to be honest I’d never really given it that much thought). It doesn’t come naturally. Well, it didn’t for me anyway. This wasn’t helped by the fact that every midwife, health visitor and official website says that breastfeeding shouldn’t hurt and that if it does you’re doing it wrong. It hurt a lot for me, and therefore I thought I was doing it wrong. However, everyone I’ve spoken to since says that it does hurt to begin with, at least until feeding’s established. I had sore, cracked nipples, excrutiating shooting pains and leaky boobs, so after a few weeks I turned to the bottle (formula not booze!). I then had to live with the immense guilt that comes from that.

4. Babies grow and change at a frighteningly quick rate. I knew babies grew, of course, but it shocked me just how quickly Tabitha changed in the early days. The newborn stage was a case of blink and you’d missed it. Since then every passing week brings a new trait or skill, and it’s wonderful to see her blossom.

5. The four-month sleep regression. I believed that once babies slept through the night, that was it, things only got better from there. This is not the case; I soon learned about the dreaded sleep regression as Tabitha’s nighttime habits took a turn for the worse. Since then we’ve had regular wakings in the night, usually for dummy re-insertion, or from her waking up having rolled over in her sleep, sometimes for a cheeky extra feed, or most recently from a succession of snuffles.

6. You fall in love so deeply and unconditionally that you’ll wonder how on earth you ever lived without them. Of course I suspected this would happen, but it’s always worth reiterating! Because, despite all of the above; the painful labour, the horrendous birth and all of the stressful and exhausting moments that have come since, I wouldn’t change a thing about any of it because I’ve got a beautiful, healthy baby girl, and that’s really all that matters.

Feeling hot, hot, hot

Britain is being treated to a heat-wave at the moment. It doesn’t happen very often in this country and so when it does, I find it difficult to cope with the soaring temperatures. It makes having a young baby so much harder. When we go out, poor Tabitha is laid sweltering in her black fleece-lined buggy (supposedly it is designed to keep babies cool in the summer – not the case), and the parasol works well until I turn a corner and then she is unexpectedly thrust into bright sunlight, so I’m constantly having to bend it back and forth. If we stay at home though, she (and me) gets cabin fever in our stuffy, airless flat. The fan is constantly on and the windows are open, but it doesn’t seem to make any difference. We’ve taken to cooling off under the shade of a tree in the park, which is nice. Night times are no fun at the moment either. Not only is it hard to sleep in this heat anyway, I’ve got a baby who is stirring much more regularly (I really hope this is because of the heat and not a new phase), so it feels like I’m awake constantly. I’ve been offering Tabitha cooled boiled water when she wakes up; the first night she drank it and settled back down quickly, but last night we had to give her an additional feed at 2.30am before she’d settle. She always wakes around 5am, no matter what – I think because of the light – so I may have to get some sort of black-out blind. I’m still really pleased to be bringing her up over the summer, but I wish it could be a tad cooler!

Chilling out in the shade

Talking of raised temperatures, Tabitha has had her next set of jabs this morning. Last time, she got a bit flushed, but slept a lot, so fingers crossed she does the same again. Poor girl cried for about a minute afterwards, but then promptly started laughing at the nurse, so it can’t have been that bad! She seems to be saving her ultra-cute giggles for other people at the moment – she cracked up at sister-in-law Priti the other day – no matter what I try though, I can only get smiles at the moment!