The girls at 33 months and 7 months

  
The past four weeks have been taken up with Christmas and new year celebrations, with visits to both Clacton and Stoke. Both girls have had colds over Christmas and as we started the new year both me and Tom came down with it too. This, combined with Polly’s overnight shenanigans, made the first week of 2016 rather difficult. However, it’s good to be back to normal again and this weekend just gone we took the girls swimming which was lovely. Tabitha was a tiny bit apprehensive initially but she soon overcame that and loved every minute. Polly had a huge smile on her face and enjoyed splashing and kicking in the water.

T A B I T H A

• Tabitha is now two-and-three-quarters! Her third birthday is just three months away.
• I’ve noticed that she no longer refers to herself in the third person but rather calls herself ‘me’.
• Since the new year Tabitha’s managed several wees and even a poo on the potty. It’s amazing what the incentive of a white chocolate button can do! I’ve not attempted her without a nappy for any length of time yet, but at least it’s a baby-step in the right direction. 
• ‘I might fall down’ is a phrase I’m hearing a lot at the moment, which is Tabitha’s pre-warning of displeasure at not getting her own way. 
• ‘My poor back is hurting’ is another thing she says all the time, to the extent that I took her along to the doctors just before Christmas to see if anything was wrong. However, I think it’s just another thing she automatically says when things are not going how she wants them to.
• Often when we ask Tabitha to do something or fetch something, she’ll pick up the nearest thing to her and say ‘I can’t my hands are full’.
• Unfortunately Tabitha’s going through a (hopefully short) phase of hitting (usually Polly on the head either with her hand or a toy), which we repeatedly tell her she mustn’t do. She’s also forever snatching toys out of Polly’s hands which drives me round the bend.
• Buddy’s not excluded from Tabitha’s brutishness either – she’s constantly bashing Buddy’s cage, closing her doors and terrorising her with big toys. Thankfully Buddy seems to take it all in her stride. Tabitha’s pretty obsessed at the moment.
• Over the past month it hasn’t been out of the ordinary for Tabitha to have a nap in the day (I think because we’ve been so busy). And her sleeping overnight is amazing now. It’s very rare that she wakes up in the night and sleeps in until about 8am at the moment. 

 

P O L L Y (Poll-Poll-a-ding-dong)

• Polly’s sleeping has taken a turn for the worst in the past few weeks, leaving me and Tom constantly exhausted. I don’t know if teething or a change of setting triggered it, but while we were up north Polly would spend hours at a time awake overnight. Since being back she has improved slightly but now always wakes for at least a couple of feeds (the first around 11ish, the second around 3ish) and often won’t settle straight back down after the second feed. I used to be able to settle her a lot more with the dummy, rather than have to do a feed, but that no longer seems to work either.
• I feel happier now that I’ve got Polly onto three meals a day and batch-cooked her some meals for the freezer (although now it’s a constant stream of milk feeds and solids throughout the day). She’s currently enjoying Annabel Karmel’s lovely lentils, salmon and sweet potato, and Mediterranean medley as well as porridge, weetabix, yoghurt and banana, yogurt and avocado etc. She now uses the highchair and Tabitha sits in her new Oxo tot booster seat.
• Polly now sits up very well unaided. She is still yet to crawl but can turn herself around 360 degrees on her tummy.
• She’s forever babbling dadadadadadada – especially in the middle of the night when she’s meant to be sleeping.
• She currently has two naps a day (both in the pram) and goes at least 3 hours between sleeps, if not longer.

 

December update

As the year nears its end, I find myself becoming more and more frustrated by the combined force of my children: Tabitha’s outbursts over everything and anything and Polly’s increasing reluctance to nap without being rocked in the pram. Months of disrupted sleep are finally taking their toll on me and I lose my patience with both girls far too easily. This is something I want to change – easier said than done when tiredness takes over – but I am going to make every effort to stay calm and collected in the face of turbulence, tears and tantrums!

With the festive season underway, we’ve been doing some nice Christmassy things including Kew after dark, seeing Father Christmas at the Lyric and a couple of Christmas fairs.

T A B I T H A (or The Poppet as she affectionately calls herself!)

• This month Tabitha has continued to slowly settle into playgroup. I always feel anxious in the lead up to dropping her off as she usually cries when I leave her. However, it gets better with every week that passes and she does enjoy it when she’s there. She’s becoming more confident and joining in with the drama sessions, and apparently when another little girl was upset she went and asked her if she was ok, which was very sweet.
• Tom, Tabitha and myself took a visit to the dentist – Tabitha’s second ever visit – and the dentist managed to get a brief look in her mouth. One of her teeth has a stain – at first the dentist thought it was the beginnings of a small hole, but she looked closer and is pretty certain that’s not the case. Tabitha does consume too much sugary food – she loves cakes, biscuits, chocolate… anything she can get her hands on really. 
• Tabitha is a nightmare to take food shopping now – grabbing at everything in reach and throwing random things in the basket. I tend to only go shopping with the girls when I really need to, so usually poor Tom has to go on his way home from work!
• On our way to our various playgroups, Tabitha spends a lot of time giving a hug and a kiss to inanimate objects – usually a bollard or a lamppost! She also likes to keep me supplied with stones and sticks – how kind! Luckily we’re never in too much of a hurry as we never get anywhere fast.

P O L L Y

• Unbelievably, Polly has hit the six month milestone – where has the past half a year gone?! Weaning is well under way and she seems to enjoy tasting the different mushed-up fruits and veg I am offering her.
• Our gorgeous girl has won herself the title of Baby of the Month over at the Baby Website, and we’ve been sent a personalised blanket as her prize (which is being wrapped up for her Christmas present).
• As mentioned above, Polly is harder work to settle off to sleep at the moment, especially during the day. I often put her in the pram and rock her – something I really hoped I’d avoid this time around. Mind you, she’s nowhere near as bad as Tabitha was!
• She’s going through a really scratchy, grabby phase – getting a handful of neck or face in her pincer grip – I’m covered in little scratches!
• Polly still wakes up in the night – usually once or twice for a feed. Again, she’s nowhere near as bad a Peachy was at this age, but the constant sleep disruption is still unwelcome.
• I don’t think it’ll be long before our Poll-Poll is on the move – she can push up really high on her arms now and is desperate to get up on her knees too. She’s still not sitting up, but is getting sturdier with every passing day.
• She has also started to cackle like her big sister used to, which is very amusing.

  

It’s so much harder with two

Back in my pre-child existence I remember my friend – who’d just had her second baby – saying that it was so much harder now she had two kids. My reply was that I thought it’d be easier second time around as she’d done it all before. How naive was I?! It is only now that I can fully appreciate the truth in her words, and that’s before I’ve even spent a day alone with my two. If both of them are crying/needing attention – which is quite often – it is so hard to remain calm and collected, especially when the weather is as hot and exhausting as it has been. And when Tabitha is being a typical toddler, which of course she is going to be, I’m finding it really difficult to stay patient and not get frustrated with her. However, I must remember that it is a difficult and challenging time for her too.

I’m still breastfeeding Polly at the moment (although not exclusively and with the aid of nipple shields), and I will continue to do so for as long as I can, but I’ll be glad when she’s fully formula fed so I can get into more of a feeding routine. In all honesty I’m not a huge fan of breastfeeding, I find it tiring and time consuming – especially overnight – although thankfully not painful this time around because of the shields. I should really make more of an effort to get Polly to latch on without the shields, but the few times I’ve tried she’s fussed and pulled off straight away, so they have become a bit of a security blanket for me, even though they’re such a faff to use. I suppose if I persevered for long enough with the breastfeeding then maybe I would get to the point where I did enjoy it more, but for now it’s just something I have to do and I can’t imagine ever being the sort of mum who would breastfeed for months on end.

Polly is still sleeping on or beside me overnight. Co-sleeping is not something I ever thought I’d do, but I actually really like having her close to me and will miss it when she does go into her own bed. It’s helping us bond a lot more than the feeding is, although I know it’s a habit that needs to be knocked on the head sooner rather than later. We’re going to order her cot quite soon as she’s clearly not a fan of the Moses basket.

It’s been a boon having Tabitha’s old babygros and vest tops to put Polly in rather than have to go out and buy even more stuff. Even though it would’ve been nice to have a little boy, I am already feeling the financial benefits of having two girls!

 

One week old today

Well we’re already half way through Tom’s paternity leave and I am absolutely petrified about him going back to work. All Polly wants to do is feed or be held – it’s really difficult to get her settled in the Moses basket or pram; she hates being laid on her back. I don’t know how I’m going to cope with her constant demands and be able to look after Tabitha too. It’s a struggle to get out of the flat now, and that’s with Tom here. I really don’t know how I’m going to manage it on my own. 

I’m going to have to switch Polly on to bottles that’s for sure, although she’s clearly reluctant to take formula if I offer it to her as she knows I’ve got a better option. Now that she’s got the hang of breastfeeding she’d happily suckle away for hours if she could. I just won’t have the time to do that. I’ll also just have to leave her to cry more, as much as I hate to do so, but I really need her to be able to settle in her basket while I pay attention to Tabitha’s needs. It’s going to be a challenge that’s for sure. 

I must make the most of the next week until Tom has to go back to work, although I can’t relax – with every day that passes I’m growing more and more anxious that my Tom-time is running out.

Aside from that, this weekend has been momentous for young Polly – her umbilical cord has fallen off and she’s had her first bath (which went down well!).