There's a lot to get through!
Jack is currently playing on the rug with his latest V-Tech toy, and trying his best to crawl. Yorkie is on hand to play/cuddle/fuss as required so I'm going to have a bash at updating this blog.
Let's see how far I get!
So in my last proper post Jack was just getting over a nasty infection and has just given it to me. We both got over it! Hooray!
My step bro Antoni and his lovely missus got married in Egypt in August. We'd been invited, but with Jack being so young we really couldn't risk taking him. So we went to house sit for mum instead, and look after her 4 (yes 4) cats! Along with Splash (Fizzy's brother) they now also have 2 boys from the same litter - a ginger like Fizz n Splash, and a calico type like Muppet - they have called Amber (3) and Opal, and a little girl who had been abandoned starving and dehydrated they've named Jet as she is mostly black. She's also insane. Nice, but utterly BONKERS! We took Muppet and Fizgig too so it was chaos.
You may have come across the phrase "herding cats"? It's one that's always made me chuckle. Well, at mum's (with the exception of Muppet who was getting on a bit and likely to get very upset) all cats go out at night. It's not mean, there is a conservatory where they can sleep in extreme luxury, eat to their fill, and have access to outside via a cat flap. They would, however, prefer to be inside. Especially when Muppet got to stay in. Bed time... we had to actually herd cats!
I thought it was VERY funny! Yorkie... not so much!
Jack had a great time at my mums. With our house still being in a bit of a state thanks to all the work Yorkie's been doing in the kitchen, there's not been so much floor space for him to roll around and get on with his toys. There's been some room, but not as much as at mums. He loved having all the space, and room to play with several toys, not just one or two at a time. He even started trying to roll over! But got board of that again and stopped doing it.
It's a shame that it rained almost the whole time we were there. I'd planned on taking Jack on walks across the Broad Ing to Towneley, trips to the parks up and down the village and all sorts of stuff. In the end the best trip out we had was to Riggs Garden Centre. Jack really liked that. All the bright flowers, interesting smells and textures, people to look at! I took him round in the sling though... and my god is he getting heavy!
The last couple of weekends in August where pretty busy. We spent the first one over with Yorkie's folks since it's fairly close to Chris and Nicky's birthdays and we hadn't been over with the presents yet.
We had a really nice time and got to see most people: Jenny (we stayed with her), Kate, Dave, Rachel and Garry with cousins Chris, Nicky and Alex, Bob and Rach. D-Dad and Co were at the caravan that weekend so we missed them. I was great to see the two babies play together, although maybe play is a fairly lose term. They stole each others dummies, poked and prodded each other and had starring contests! But they were learning from each other too. Up till this point Jack had not shown much interest in rolling over after that initial try at mums, but Alex was good at it. Alex didn't much like trying to stand up, but it's one Jack's best games. By the end of the weekend they were both trying to do what the other did!
Oh, and there are some photos floating about somewhere of the boys holding hands! Ahhh!
I got one of the best presents ever for my 29th birthday. A band new camera! Something I can continue to take hundreds of photos and videos of Jack with (and any and all other children we eventually have). I've gone a bit mental with the photos from this point onwards, so if you want to have a look at my flickr site and see them feel free, although most of Jack's photos are on 'friends and family' only - ask if you want permissions and don't already have them.
Yorkie took me and Jack out for what should have been Lunch. And just for a change I really fancied going to the Pizza Hut that we drive past almost every day, making my belly ache for pizza. We wont be going back! Bare in mind that my birthday was on a Tuesday this year, so it wasn't on the actually August Bank Holiday. We had to wait half an hour or more just to be seated. Once we were seated no one came to give us menus or take a drinks order. AT ALL! We asked for a high chair and waited another 25 mins for that. It didn't come, therefore we couldn't feed Jack and he was getting stroppy. We ended up walking out, hungry, grumpy, and with an upset baby. We went to the Toby Carvery in Morecambe instead and were seated instantly, high chair given, food and drinks order placed within moments of walking in the door.
The moral... So called family establishments SUCK! Stick to good old pub grub!
Yorkie's dad and his missus came over for a visit and the end of Aug. We'd not seen them in ages and it was really nice to catch up again.
With our previous experience of eating out still leaving us seething we made a bee-line for a nice pub and pub lunch on the Sunday!
After all that, and with my having to go back to work within only a few short weeks, it was time for Yorkie to get on with that damned kitchen! But the only way to get that finished was for me and Jack to clear off to my mums for a week so he could hack, saw, plaster, wire, lay flooring and what ever else needed doing for us to actually have a kitchen and, therefore, get our livingroom back.
It was nice for me to have my son pretty much to myself again. Don't get me wrong, it's great having Yorkie at home and helping out with looking after Jack (and good practice for Yorkie for once I went back to work and left the two lads to it!) I had got used to it being just the two of us through the day. Poor Yorkie missed his terribly though. For instance, he never calls me if I am away for a few days. I have to call him. The week I was in Burnley with out him he rang up at least twice a day. Not to speak to me though, Nooo, to speak to Jack! Very sweet!
And once I got back the kitchen was not QUITE finished, but close enough for now.
In the meantime, it was party time! Two 30th parties in September, Jacquie and Angie!
Angie's was first. Jenny was invited too after they hit it off at my hen do and had spent plenty of weekends together. I was still at mums with Jack that weekend, and the kitchen hadn't been finished enough for Yorkie to come over and look after Jack ready for us all going home together on the Sunday. So I left him with mum - and he cried pretty much the whole time I was gone! I feel so mean!
I did have a good time while I was out though, meeting up with people I hadn't seen for years, since high school in most cases. I was thrilled that Sparkie had come! He and Jenny got on really well too. The birthday girl got a little bit smashed though and we lost her for a bit, finding her again just as it was time for me to go back home before my milk filled boobies exploded!
And I'd only had one wine spritzer, which does not explain the bright red drunken expression I seem to be wearing in the photo...
Jacquie's was a family friendly do she shared with a friend and sister-in-law. Loads of kiddies and therefore I could bring Jack (although Yorkie got in a strop and wouldn't come). It was a really good night. Jack was as good as gold, dancing for the first half of the party and watching the flashing lights and balloons (he loves balloons) and then sleeping through the other half, only waking up at midnight when the music stopped, wondering where the party had gone!
Shortly afterwards I had to go back to work.
I'm finding the whole thing very hard to be honest. I'm tired most of the time. Jack still gets up once a night, and he's been teething. I've been given yet another new position in the company, and a great pay rise to go with it, and at the risk of sounding ungrateful at the wonderful opportunity, I could have done without the added pressure right now. It's taking up so much of my time, and I am still not really coming to terms with the fact that I am at work all day while Yorkie is at home looking after Jack. I want it to be the other way round. It feels wrong. And on top of that my SAD has kicked in. Since I've been (and still am) breastfeeding I have not been able to take my fluoxitine, I'm on trazodone (I think that's how you spell it) which is safe for Jack, and too weak to give me the boost I need over winter. But now it's too late to switch. By the time I'm off these and back on the others it'll be New Year and I'll be on the up swing, having suffered 2 months of absolute Hell.
The back end of September had nothing going for it aside from Jack's 6 month birthday. Half a year old already!!!!
Oh, and Conner's 1st birthday. Unlike Adam's (Conner's brother) Yorkie did not come home in a police van this time. But he did manage to fall asleep in a pool of his own vomit on the bandstand at Williamsons Park! Not a link to Conner's birthday to be fair, afterwards we went to Ray & Sarah's housewarming. Me and Jack left at midnight. He left at 2am with Mark & Gemma and come home at nearly midday. Not that I had much sympathy for his hang over, and made sure I took photos of hung over daddy with baby!
So it's just as well that in October I got to take a week off work to go to France to see my dad for his birthday, taking Jack on his first ever plane trip!
It was a lovely week, taking Jack to some lovely places like an aquarium, model railway and village fete. Dad and Fay loved seeing him, the first time since he was only 2 weeks old! Jack really came on in leaps and bounds too. We didn't bother to bring his cloth nappies that we've had him in since we came home from the hospital - too much stuff to lug about - and we think that they have been so bulky that they have hindered him in rolling and crawling. He'd been giving rolling a good try, but only from front to back, really struggling going the other way. After only a couple of days in skinny little disposables he was flipping over all over the place, and instead of just shoving his butt in the air, was really pushing up and starting to move!
We decided to keep him in them when we got home - but are keeping the cloth ones for baby 2, 3 and 4. Thinking well do the same, 6 months in cloth, then disposables. At least it's some help towards the environment....
Jack turned 7 months the day we flew home. And the changes in him over the previous few weeks were really starting to sink in. He's started eating real food! There's nothing that we eat at dinner that he doesn't want a bit off. We started off by giving him his own tea, then letting him have tastes of ours. Now he mostly has what we have for his evening meal, in varying degrees of blending. He's loving his finger foods! We've bought baby snacks for him that look like Wotsits and Snack-a-jacks but are actually organic baby foods, and he LOVES feeding himself with them while we spoon feed him the rest of his meal. This morning he had toast, bits of our poached egg (solid, not soft) and his own baby porridge!
This Halloween I had to spend my first whole night away from Jack. It was horrible! At work we were all expected to work the Sat morning, but we had made plans to go to see my in-laws for the weekend. So on the Fri Yorkie and Jack went on the train, with me joining them after work. So Halloween itself was a bit of a flop for me.
We did buy Jack a costume though, and bought and carved a pumpkin. I forgot to photograph the pumpkin this year, doh! But Jack ate it in a risotto... and I did get this photo to make up for it!
That weekend Jack got his first glimpse of fireworks! Kate and Dave bough some kiddie friendly roman candles and catherine wheels for all the grandkids. Jack and Alex watched from the warmth and safety of the livingroom. Alex fell asleep, but Jack watched every one, doing his little happy dance and looking round expectantly between the different fireworks.
Even when we've come home and loud fireworks have been going off almost every night for the last week, Jack's not been too fussed. He hears the bangs in his sleep and makes little noises, but doesn't wake up or scream or get scared. Brave little feller!
And that brings us back up to date. Currently (because it has taken all afternoon and evening to write this between looking after Jack) my boy is tucked up in bed - about due to wake up for a feed actually as it is 11.30pm. My hubby is out at a friend's 30th do (I was invited, but have no sitter, and really wanted to spend the evening with my boy after seeing him for only 20 mins yesterday thanks to work).
I'll try no to let this blog get so far behind any more. But I'm not making ANY promises!!!
Jack is currently playing on the rug with his latest V-Tech toy, and trying his best to crawl. Yorkie is on hand to play/cuddle/fuss as required so I'm going to have a bash at updating this blog.
Let's see how far I get!
So in my last proper post Jack was just getting over a nasty infection and has just given it to me. We both got over it! Hooray!
My step bro Antoni and his lovely missus got married in Egypt in August. We'd been invited, but with Jack being so young we really couldn't risk taking him. So we went to house sit for mum instead, and look after her 4 (yes 4) cats! Along with Splash (Fizzy's brother) they now also have 2 boys from the same litter - a ginger like Fizz n Splash, and a calico type like Muppet - they have called Amber (3) and Opal, and a little girl who had been abandoned starving and dehydrated they've named Jet as she is mostly black. She's also insane. Nice, but utterly BONKERS! We took Muppet and Fizgig too so it was chaos.
You may have come across the phrase "herding cats"? It's one that's always made me chuckle. Well, at mum's (with the exception of Muppet who was getting on a bit and likely to get very upset) all cats go out at night. It's not mean, there is a conservatory where they can sleep in extreme luxury, eat to their fill, and have access to outside via a cat flap. They would, however, prefer to be inside. Especially when Muppet got to stay in. Bed time... we had to actually herd cats!
I thought it was VERY funny! Yorkie... not so much!Jack had a great time at my mums. With our house still being in a bit of a state thanks to all the work Yorkie's been doing in the kitchen, there's not been so much floor space for him to roll around and get on with his toys. There's been some room, but not as much as at mums. He loved having all the space, and room to play with several toys, not just one or two at a time. He even started trying to roll over! But got board of that again and stopped doing it.
It's a shame that it rained almost the whole time we were there. I'd planned on taking Jack on walks across the Broad Ing to Towneley, trips to the parks up and down the village and all sorts of stuff. In the end the best trip out we had was to Riggs Garden Centre. Jack really liked that. All the bright flowers, interesting smells and textures, people to look at! I took him round in the sling though... and my god is he getting heavy!The last couple of weekends in August where pretty busy. We spent the first one over with Yorkie's folks since it's fairly close to Chris and Nicky's birthdays and we hadn't been over with the presents yet.
We had a really nice time and got to see most people: Jenny (we stayed with her), Kate, Dave, Rachel and Garry with cousins Chris, Nicky and Alex, Bob and Rach. D-Dad and Co were at the caravan that weekend so we missed them. I was great to see the two babies play together, although maybe play is a fairly lose term. They stole each others dummies, poked and prodded each other and had starring contests! But they were learning from each other too. Up till this point Jack had not shown much interest in rolling over after that initial try at mums, but Alex was good at it. Alex didn't much like trying to stand up, but it's one Jack's best games. By the end of the weekend they were both trying to do what the other did!Oh, and there are some photos floating about somewhere of the boys holding hands! Ahhh!
I got one of the best presents ever for my 29th birthday. A band new camera! Something I can continue to take hundreds of photos and videos of Jack with (and any and all other children we eventually have). I've gone a bit mental with the photos from this point onwards, so if you want to have a look at my flickr site and see them feel free, although most of Jack's photos are on 'friends and family' only - ask if you want permissions and don't already have them.Yorkie took me and Jack out for what should have been Lunch. And just for a change I really fancied going to the Pizza Hut that we drive past almost every day, making my belly ache for pizza. We wont be going back! Bare in mind that my birthday was on a Tuesday this year, so it wasn't on the actually August Bank Holiday. We had to wait half an hour or more just to be seated. Once we were seated no one came to give us menus or take a drinks order. AT ALL! We asked for a high chair and waited another 25 mins for that. It didn't come, therefore we couldn't feed Jack and he was getting stroppy. We ended up walking out, hungry, grumpy, and with an upset baby. We went to the Toby Carvery in Morecambe instead and were seated instantly, high chair given, food and drinks order placed within moments of walking in the door.
The moral... So called family establishments SUCK! Stick to good old pub grub!
Yorkie's dad and his missus came over for a visit and the end of Aug. We'd not seen them in ages and it was really nice to catch up again.With our previous experience of eating out still leaving us seething we made a bee-line for a nice pub and pub lunch on the Sunday!
After all that, and with my having to go back to work within only a few short weeks, it was time for Yorkie to get on with that damned kitchen! But the only way to get that finished was for me and Jack to clear off to my mums for a week so he could hack, saw, plaster, wire, lay flooring and what ever else needed doing for us to actually have a kitchen and, therefore, get our livingroom back.
It was nice for me to have my son pretty much to myself again. Don't get me wrong, it's great having Yorkie at home and helping out with looking after Jack (and good practice for Yorkie for once I went back to work and left the two lads to it!) I had got used to it being just the two of us through the day. Poor Yorkie missed his terribly though. For instance, he never calls me if I am away for a few days. I have to call him. The week I was in Burnley with out him he rang up at least twice a day. Not to speak to me though, Nooo, to speak to Jack! Very sweet!And once I got back the kitchen was not QUITE finished, but close enough for now.
In the meantime, it was party time! Two 30th parties in September, Jacquie and Angie!
Angie's was first. Jenny was invited too after they hit it off at my hen do and had spent plenty of weekends together. I was still at mums with Jack that weekend, and the kitchen hadn't been finished enough for Yorkie to come over and look after Jack ready for us all going home together on the Sunday. So I left him with mum - and he cried pretty much the whole time I was gone! I feel so mean!I did have a good time while I was out though, meeting up with people I hadn't seen for years, since high school in most cases. I was thrilled that Sparkie had come! He and Jenny got on really well too. The birthday girl got a little bit smashed though and we lost her for a bit, finding her again just as it was time for me to go back home before my milk filled boobies exploded!
And I'd only had one wine spritzer, which does not explain the bright red drunken expression I seem to be wearing in the photo...
Jacquie's was a family friendly do she shared with a friend and sister-in-law. Loads of kiddies and therefore I could bring Jack (although Yorkie got in a strop and wouldn't come). It was a really good night. Jack was as good as gold, dancing for the first half of the party and watching the flashing lights and balloons (he loves balloons) and then sleeping through the other half, only waking up at midnight when the music stopped, wondering where the party had gone!Shortly afterwards I had to go back to work.
I'm finding the whole thing very hard to be honest. I'm tired most of the time. Jack still gets up once a night, and he's been teething. I've been given yet another new position in the company, and a great pay rise to go with it, and at the risk of sounding ungrateful at the wonderful opportunity, I could have done without the added pressure right now. It's taking up so much of my time, and I am still not really coming to terms with the fact that I am at work all day while Yorkie is at home looking after Jack. I want it to be the other way round. It feels wrong. And on top of that my SAD has kicked in. Since I've been (and still am) breastfeeding I have not been able to take my fluoxitine, I'm on trazodone (I think that's how you spell it) which is safe for Jack, and too weak to give me the boost I need over winter. But now it's too late to switch. By the time I'm off these and back on the others it'll be New Year and I'll be on the up swing, having suffered 2 months of absolute Hell.
The back end of September had nothing going for it aside from Jack's 6 month birthday. Half a year old already!!!!Oh, and Conner's 1st birthday. Unlike Adam's (Conner's brother) Yorkie did not come home in a police van this time. But he did manage to fall asleep in a pool of his own vomit on the bandstand at Williamsons Park! Not a link to Conner's birthday to be fair, afterwards we went to Ray & Sarah's housewarming. Me and Jack left at midnight. He left at 2am with Mark & Gemma and come home at nearly midday. Not that I had much sympathy for his hang over, and made sure I took photos of hung over daddy with baby!
So it's just as well that in October I got to take a week off work to go to France to see my dad for his birthday, taking Jack on his first ever plane trip!
It was a lovely week, taking Jack to some lovely places like an aquarium, model railway and village fete. Dad and Fay loved seeing him, the first time since he was only 2 weeks old! Jack really came on in leaps and bounds too. We didn't bother to bring his cloth nappies that we've had him in since we came home from the hospital - too much stuff to lug about - and we think that they have been so bulky that they have hindered him in rolling and crawling. He'd been giving rolling a good try, but only from front to back, really struggling going the other way. After only a couple of days in skinny little disposables he was flipping over all over the place, and instead of just shoving his butt in the air, was really pushing up and starting to move!We decided to keep him in them when we got home - but are keeping the cloth ones for baby 2, 3 and 4. Thinking well do the same, 6 months in cloth, then disposables. At least it's some help towards the environment....
Jack turned 7 months the day we flew home. And the changes in him over the previous few weeks were really starting to sink in. He's started eating real food! There's nothing that we eat at dinner that he doesn't want a bit off. We started off by giving him his own tea, then letting him have tastes of ours. Now he mostly has what we have for his evening meal, in varying degrees of blending. He's loving his finger foods! We've bought baby snacks for him that look like Wotsits and Snack-a-jacks but are actually organic baby foods, and he LOVES feeding himself with them while we spoon feed him the rest of his meal. This morning he had toast, bits of our poached egg (solid, not soft) and his own baby porridge!This Halloween I had to spend my first whole night away from Jack. It was horrible! At work we were all expected to work the Sat morning, but we had made plans to go to see my in-laws for the weekend. So on the Fri Yorkie and Jack went on the train, with me joining them after work. So Halloween itself was a bit of a flop for me.
We did buy Jack a costume though, and bought and carved a pumpkin. I forgot to photograph the pumpkin this year, doh! But Jack ate it in a risotto... and I did get this photo to make up for it!
That weekend Jack got his first glimpse of fireworks! Kate and Dave bough some kiddie friendly roman candles and catherine wheels for all the grandkids. Jack and Alex watched from the warmth and safety of the livingroom. Alex fell asleep, but Jack watched every one, doing his little happy dance and looking round expectantly between the different fireworks.Even when we've come home and loud fireworks have been going off almost every night for the last week, Jack's not been too fussed. He hears the bangs in his sleep and makes little noises, but doesn't wake up or scream or get scared. Brave little feller!
And that brings us back up to date. Currently (because it has taken all afternoon and evening to write this between looking after Jack) my boy is tucked up in bed - about due to wake up for a feed actually as it is 11.30pm. My hubby is out at a friend's 30th do (I was invited, but have no sitter, and really wanted to spend the evening with my boy after seeing him for only 20 mins yesterday thanks to work).
I'll try no to let this blog get so far behind any more. But I'm not making ANY promises!!!
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