Trying to find time to write this blog is about as easy as......well not very easy at all. I have to say though I am writing it for me not necessarily for everyone reading it. When I was at work I always had a huge to do list and I would get a great deal of satisfaction from crossing things off it. So this blog is now on my very short to do list but somehow the to do list never gets done:
Get through the night on not much sleep
Get up the next day with energy to be a good mum and attempt to be a reasonable wife to my husband
Get a shower and wash my hair
Get DD to school looking half decent without shouting
Eat some breakfast
Try to load the dishwasher and washing machine
Feed/dress/cuddle/play/change nappies for Alex
Occasionally vacuum
And depending what day it is - sometimes go to an activity/docs or meet a friend
And maybe if theres time to make a phone call or check my email/bank balance (more than 1 task a day is generally impossible)
Collect DD from school
Have some kind of clue what we might eat for dinner/prep for it.
Get Alex to bed ( DH does DD's bedtime)
Read DD's bedtime story of Alex is down okay
Eat meal with DH
Have approx 1-2 hours on sofa with DH before getting to bed at no later than 9.30pm
Deal with any adhoc catastrophes that arise.
Next day - do it all again.
Actually thats quite a long list now I have written it down. Not sure what the point of that was but anyway there you go - my day Monday to Friday at the moment. I am sure my brain would function much better if I could have more than 3 hours sleep at one time but fingers crossed he will start going longer soon.
We have a shocking nights sleep on the saturday night - I may have totalled about 4 hours and I feel severely wrecked on the Sunday. Not sure why but the baby boy is up every 2 hours to feed at 12, 2, 4, and 6am. Its a killer. Maybe its a growth spurt. And DD wakes up about 6am so thats it, our day has started early. I am desperate to get a nap but there doesnt seem to be an opportunity for one. We take DD to our friends birthday party in the afternoon - we all go as ours friends will be there too to chat to. (NCT group friends still going strong for 5 years now). DD has a lovely time and meets the boy she says she is going to marry. Obviously the perfect boy for marriage in her eyes will probably change when she is in her 20's. They crawl around the floor together pretending to be dogs and hide from their 'owners'. DD has met this little boy before as they are friends of friends but today they clicked for some reason. His mum & dad have recently had a baby girl so the age gap is similar - she is only a few weeks older than Alex. Can you believe at the tender age of 5, DD's husband-to -be comes up to me and asks for her email address?? So DD says, mum give him my email address. Honestly. So I say I say to her you don't have an email address, you are 5 years old, he then asks for her phone number. Well actually I already have his mums number because we chatted earlier and as we know each other vaguely already we arrange to meet up at some point. We have both found ourselves with a new baby at our age (40!!!) and suddenly not at work and at home with baby time to kill. DD talks about her new friend all the way home. Must be love.
On Monday 14th I meet a friend from work for lunch and we catch up which is good. Pret a manger yum - and Alex stays asleep which is a bonus. Then I dash to M&S to get the Valentines special dinner for £20. Except they have pretty much run out of everything so I just grab whatever looks nice. me & DH manage a very nice evening - both kids asleep by 7pm so we indulge in M&S finest and have some pink sparkly stuff.
On the Tuesday I manage to get a last minute appointment for Alex at a Cranial Osteopath. He is sleeping like a baby ( pardon the pun) in the car but when we arrive at the (very peaceful) holistic treatment centre he opens one eye and starts bawling and rooting for milk even though I fed him before I left home. Despite rocking him he bawls and bawls. Its difficult because my appt is in 5 minutes so what do I do? Let him cry or risk being late for my appt cos he is clamped to the boob?? Anyway after another minute I can't let him cry anymore so I feed him in the reception. He is slightly pacified after a few mins and thankfully she is running a bit late so I have time. She asks lots of questions so she can fill in some details. He is still crying but when she takes him from me he starts to calm down,. Maybe she is some kind of horse whisperer for babies. Its £38 for the first appt and at first I wonder what the hell I am paying for. All she is doing is sort of stroking and tapping his head so gently you can barely feel it. Then she looks at my forehead and then wants to see a photo of DH too so she can look at his head shape. Jesus, does she think Alex's head is made from clay and she is going to mould it the right way I wonder. No she just wants to see how his skull bones should look she says like she must have read my mind. When she is done she takes a photo and compares it to the one she took at the beginning. Bloody hell, there is actually a difference. Come back in 3 weeks for a bit more. She warns me that he might feed a lot more than usual for the rest of the day - the procedure generally makes babies more hungry. She is right too, I have just paid the bill at reception and he is crying for milk already so I have to feed him before I even get out of the door. And when we get home he then feeds approx every 30 minutes until bedtime and cries inbetween. So unlike him as he is generally a very placid baby. He cries all the way to school in his pram when we walk to collect DD and then I have friends and kids around for tea after school. Thankfully they are happy to pitch in and help me get tea for the kids (we have taken it in turn each tuesday since they were babes) and rock Alex. The kids entertain themselves so no trouble really. I barely am producing enough milk to keep him happy because of the unexpected demand........
The nights start to get a bit better as the week goes on. And on Wednesday he sleeps virtually all day and night - praps the head doctor has helped with his sleep too. On Wednesday afternoon I meet the mum of Emma's new boyfriend (from the party) and we push the babies around the local forest walk. Its good to chat to someone with a new baby too and its a pleasant way to spend the afternoon. Tea and cake at the coffee shop after too yum.
On Thursday its the last baby massage class and its a total disaster. Something crazy has happened to my milk. Its gone into some kind of mentalist overdrive and it is literally pouring out. Poor baby boy chokes, gags and splutters at every feed including at baby massage and he howls the place down, understandably. Turns out becasue I had to feed him millions of times after the cranial thing on Tuesday, my boobs now believe they are feeding triplets or something and the milk supply has increased too much. Mother nature is very clever really but in my case I don't need all this milk. I do have a breast pump but of course if I use it, they will produce even more. So we have a very stressful couple of days trying to feed without drowning the poor boy in milk. I get some advice from my friend who is the guru (in my opinion) of boob feeding and she helps me out with some info how to reduce supply. (Thank you - you know who you are!!!). In the meantime (and close your eyes if you are of sensitive nature) I actually have to hold each boob over the sink and hand express it - like milking a cow. I could bottle this stuff and sell it.........
All in the name of 'breast is best' for my little boy. The things you do for love eh?
Wish me luck - next week its half term.........gulp !!!
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