Little walk, big effort

Another bad night. I think we woke him up when we went to bed, not a problem, he just needed settling. He then woke up again at 2.30 and was in full scream mode. No amount of settling seemed to work. Eventually we sorted him out - he was thirsty and wanted some water. All this will be so much easier once he can talk. Took us a good while to get back to sleep though.

He woke up in a good mood and had a good breakfast before going for his morning nap. We then decided to go out. We were supposed to meet up with Rachel, Errol and Olly today for lunch and a walk, but Errol had come down with a stomach bug overnight so it got called off - not having much luck this Easter are we?

We were going to do a walk round Wilderhope Manor, near Longville, so we went on our own. The book said that it was an easy walk, all I can say was that both of us were huffing and puffing and glad to finish it and get to the pub. Tom couldn't see what we were making a fuss about!

We had a leisurely lunch at the pub, Tom ate loads and charmed 2 old ladies (of course). He fell asleep in the back of the car and then went down in his cot when we got home. Matt and I collapsed on the sofas and watched 'The Colditz Story' - it was all we were capable of.

He had a good afternoon, playing with us both, we definitely had a lot more giggles than grizzles. Tom had another good dinner, before bath, bed and bottle.

Good news - Tom did 3 poos today which was fab, unfortunately they were all squirty. I think I will give the Dr a call tomorrow for advice. He is eating well at the moment and is very happy and full of energy so not much can be wrong.

Oh, weighed myself today - i am 6 pounds lighter than this time last week - something to do with being ill I think. Wonder if it will stay off next week.

I like Easter eggs

Not a great night. Tom kept waking every hour. I thought maybe he was hungry, but he wouldn't entertain the thought of feeding from me. Each time, I settled him, he would go back to sleep, but then be awake again an hour later. In the end at 2am we gave him some nurofen. We didn't hear from him again, so I guess it was what he needed. I'm really unsure as to what was wrong, he didn't have a temperature or red cheeks? His poo still isn't right, which is why I am still breastfeeding him - don't want to give him cows milk again until his system is fully recovered.

We had an ok morning, he was a little grizzly, but cheered up after a massive breakfast. He had a good long morning nap, waking up just as Auntie Jude arrived. She came laden with Easter gifts - including Tom's first ever Easter Egg (today's picture is him eating part of it - he loved it, took no time at all going down!) After his initial shyness, he played quite nicely - especially when Reg (the crocodile) came down.

He had a really good sized lunch and then we put him down for an early nap so we could go out for the afternoon. As the weather wasn't as bad as fore casted, we decided to take advantage and go for a walk around Granville. It was still quite windy, but Tom was wrapped up warm and didn't complain. We somehow found ourselves at The Shropshire for a mid walk drink (and Matt couldn't resist their flapjacks which are really good). There was a 10 month old boy next door to us (Hugo). He and Tom made instant friends, and before too long a crawling area was set up so they could clamber around. They played together really nicely - no punching, eye gouging or hair pulling took place.

We dragged ourselves away to walk home. Then a short play before dinner (another really good meal), more play, bath, boobie and bed. No poo at all today - where has it all gone?

Road to recovery

I had a very good night's sleep and felt 100 times better when I woke up which was great. Matt on the other hand wasn't feeling great! What a pair! Luckily he wasn't sick, but spent a good part of the morning on the loo!

Anyway, we both managed to eat some breakfast and both felt better for it, so decided to take it easy today and headed out to Shrewsbury to get some fresh air and visit Setonikai for some Japanese ingredients so we can get going making ourselves some Japanese nosh.

We both felt better and better as the day went on, we even managed a sandwich each which we both enjoyed. Tom was a little grizzly today, not sure why, not too bad. As usual he charmed everyone in the pub and played peekaboo with anyone who would take part. He even managed to play it with a lady on the park and ride bus - hiding behind a handrail?!

We had a lazy afternoon, Matt washed the car, I did some cake research on the internet. Tom spent the afternoon playing and looning around. He had an OK dinner, then a good bath, but then a bad feeding session (he got spooked by Matt coming in to ask about dinner and wouldn't go back).

We had a lovely dinner - roast lamb which was gorgeous, very tender and tasty - complete with rosemary from the garden.

Sick Mum

What a terrible night. I think the curry didn't agree with me and I spent from 3.30am onwards in the en suite being ill. Not a good start to the holidays! I thought I would perk up with some food, but I couldn't even keep plain bread down so I retired to bed feeling very sorry for myself, and we cancelled our plans for the day.

As it is a horrible day, Matt decided to take Tom to Cosford to look at the airplanes. I will let him take over from here as all I did today was lie in bed feeling sorry for myself.

Yes, Tom & I drove down to the RAF Museum at Cosford in driving rain and hurried into the cold war exhibition to (a) keep warm and (b) teach him about the Berlin Airlift, Cuban Missile Crisis, Mutually Assured Destruction etc. He was in the rucksack, and so was quite happy to sit there while I wandered round showing him the exhibits. The ladies in the shop were very taken with him, and reacted in the usual way; by going all coy and playing peek-a-boo. As he did with the staff in the children's play area and then with pretty much everyone in the restaurant. He demolished a whole jar of veg korma, another of apple & peach crumble, a biscuit and a good chunk of my bread roll, then fell into a deep sleep as soon as we set off in the car. I think he was in anaconda mode. I'll wake him up if he's still asleep after 6 months.

I was planning to drop into Asda on the way back, but he was still fast asleep and I couldn't find a single parking space anywhere (got very annoyed with a 2-seater convertible parked in the parent and child spaces), so put down in his cot and went out on foot. Inside Asda was predictably ghastly. Do people really need to panic buy because the shops are going to shut for one day?

Finally, we've finally found something that Tom seems to be afraid of. We have an 18" long inflatable tiger in our bedroom, and Tom suddenly seems scared stiff of it. I'm surprised he hasn't noticed it before, but he bursts into tears whenever he sees it, even from the next room. Very strange. We also have a "fluffy" tiger in the bedroom, and he's quite happy to grab that and chew it.

Anyway, Nik headed off to bed at 8.30, so fingers crossed she sleeps well and is feeling better tomorrow.

A normal day

Another good night. Tom had a little 5 second grizzle at 5.30 which woke me, but other than that it was fab. Matt hasn't sloped off downstairs once since we got back - almost I record I think. It is nice to wake up to my husband rather than a cold bed.

Today is Jungleland, so after Tom's morning nap we headed off to Hadley. Not many people turned up again, but Sammie as usual was full of good ideas and drive to get more interest. Tom wasn't really interested in playing but spent most of the day charming other mums to give him food, I lost count of the number of chips he got!

Came home, Tom had some more food (good sign that he has a good appetite) and Matt and I had Duck Tom Yam Gai which I made from the duck carcass after yesterday's roast. Felt quite proud of myself that I had managed to make it (have got in a lot of Thai ingredients as Thai food is generally quite healthy). Tom went for his nap whilst I got stuck in a book I got out of the library (Chocolate cakes - given me loads of new ideas). Oh - for those of you who read this who usually give me birthday gifts, please, please ask Matt as he has a very long wish list of cake things I want which is getting longer by the day.

The afternoon was spent in a rainy Telford running some errands. Then home, dinner (not very good), bath, boobie and bed. Only had one tiny poo today, so thought I would keep him off the dairy for another day, at least until we get a proper poo.

Sorry, forgot to take a photo.

Poo, poo, poo

Interesting night. Tom woke up just as I went to bed. I looked in to see him and found him covered in sick - yuck, poor little might. Stripped him down, gave him a flannel wash, put new sheet on the cot, got out clean sleeping bag and put him back down. He was in good humour and didn't really cry - I guess better out than in! I was sure I was going to hear from him through the night, through hunger more than anything else, but we didn't - what a star.

He was in a good mood this morning as well. However, he suffered from a large bout of diarrhoea which meant another full change of clothing. His insides are definitely not right, but he is cheery and full of energy - is that strange?

He had a big breakfast - weetabix and banana and a play before bed. When he woke up he had done another poo which was squirty but not diarrhoea so that was good. I put him in his pram and took him to baby clinic for a check over. They said that there is a lot of D&V going round at the moment and advice is to stop all diary including milk for 24 hours. So that's what I'm going to do but will continue to breast feed as that never hurts.

Got back home, had lunch and then went to Gymbabes. Although Tom's insides are a little bit faulty at the moment, he is in good spirits and is full of energy so I didn't think taking him to Gymbabes would be a problem. He had a really good session, he sat still(ish) for the singing at the beginning and then spent the rest of the lesson crawling up and down the tunnel and getting in the way of the other babies.

Had a quick drink with Rachel and Olly afterwards and then headed home. Tom had a quick nap and then we headed back out to Asda - need to get some more nappies and a different brand. I've been using Pampers recently, but forgotten that they aren't good for squirty poos. Got some Asda own brand which I think were much better.

Then dinner, bath (solid poo in nappy which was good) and bed. Hope he does ok tonight.

Oh, almost forgot, I discovered tooth number 12 today.

I'm disappointed with the Hairy Bikers

We all had a brilliant night's sleep yahoo. Matt woke me up once complaining of snoring, but I turned over and went straight back to sleep. Matt can't remember being awake a long time so it couldn't have been that bad. Couldn't believe it when the alarm went off at 7am, I was convinced we had forgotten to reset the alarm from yesterday and was quite upset to see it was actually time to get up (a sign of a good sleep I guess!)

So we are back to normal today (humpfh!) and that means the diet. I weighed myself first thing expecting to have put some weight back on - I am now heavier than I was when I started the diet - poo! Why does it take no time at all to put weight on and ages and ages to get it off, it's not as if I was eating really badly and I was active and burning the calories keeping warm (especially during the Northern Lights tour)

So, as Lucy was round today, Tom and I got out of her way and went to Tesco to buy some healthy food. Came home with lots of bargains: leg of lamb - half price, leg of pork - half price, Gressingham duck - half price - all too good not to miss (guess I'm going to be having lots of red days in the near future). I also bought a whole load of stir fry type veg and spices so we can be good with the left overs. We are going to have a Hairy Bikers special tonight - Kerala Prawns (one we saw them cook live) - very healthy for them as well (as long as we don't have them with the deep fried parathas they suggest).

Not much happened in the afternoon, it rained pretty hard so we stayed in. Tom had a good play and crawl up and down the hallway. He then had an ok dinner, bath, bottle and bed.

I made the prawns for dinner and was a little disappointed. The recipe was for 4 so I halved everything including the spice mixture and ended up with a tasteless mixture. I will make it again and use the full compliment of spice to see if it makes a difference.

Land of Ice and Fire

Having trouble getting my head round that we are back from holiday, and that we were only away for 3 nights. It feels as if we've been away for at least a week, could it really have only been the weekend, we fitted so much into our time there.

I don't think I can give you a blow by blow account, as a lot is forgotten already, and I am tired (only got to bed after 1am this morning and was up at 4.15 - ouch!) but will give a general overview instead.

Friday
Friday was basically a travel day. It seemed to take an age to get there. Our flight left from Manchester, then went to Glasgow to drop off and pick up before arriving at Rekyavik or rather Keflavik airport which is 45 mins out of town (the international airport is located at the ex American military base). Tom was ok, he slept between Manchester and Glasgow after a huge screaming fit and then fell asleep on the coach transfer to the hotel. First thing we noticed about Iceland was the air. It was soooooo fresh and clean. It really does taste different. We booked two day trips at the airport with our Japanese yen and settled in at the hotel. The hotel were expecting us and a cot complete with toys, baby towel and jungle themed quilt and pillow set were in the room ready for us. (Very nice touches) Matt got dispensed to the nearest shop to buy some breakfast and packed lunch items for Saturday. To give you an idea of how expensive the country is: 4 sandwiches, a packet of crisps, a small bottle of coke and 2 breakfast bars cost over £30. Their currency may have collapsed, and yes it is less expensive than it used to be, but it was still pretty alarming working out the cost for everything - we were very glad that we were using Yen left over from Japan.

We were lucky in the fact that our bedroom was directly over the restaurant. I had had the brainwave of bringing the baby monitor with us and it worked. We were able to put Tom to bed and go to the restaurant and bar with the monitor and listen out for him, so we had 3 adult evenings in a row - very pleasant and very civilised.

Saturday
Saturday morning saw us up at our usual time in order to get the 'Golden Circle' tour. This was a dream tour for me - being an ex geographer. All those texts I read and regurgitated suddenly came to life. First stop was a geothermal power plant (the largest in the world when fully operational) just outside of Reykjavik (99.9% of Iceland's power needs are provided by either geothermal or hydroelectric power). A manager took us through a presentation explaining how it is all done - must say it was all rather eerie. The power plant was set in a lava field and there were bursts of steam coming up from the ground all around. It is quite strange to be in a power plant which is buzzing but where the air is really clean.

Next stop was the Gullfoss Waterfall, one of the most famous waterfalls in the country. It was perishingly cold there and the wind cut you in half - it was very fast and very cold. The spray from the waterfall didn't help either. Tom managed to be out in it for about 30 mins but then started to complain (I don't blame him) so we went to the lovely warm souvenir shop and left Matt to take photos.

Next stop was Geysir, a geothermal area containing a number of geysers (the word geysir is Icelandic which I didn't know, but I am still a little confused as to how to pronounce it, even the Icelandic guide pronounced it differently thorough out the day). One of the geysers here spouts water every 5-10 minutes which was fab. Once again the wind was ferocious and this time we had to walk across ice to get to the view point, so we decided to take it in turns to look so we could keep Tom in the warm. It was perishingly cold, but I saw two eruptions as did Matt so we were both happy.

On the way home we visited þingvellir National Park which is the location of the world's oldest government and also where the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates are drifting apart, creating a rift valley. Iceland is getting 2.5cm wider each year because of this. The place was amazing, having never seen a real rift valley / fault line in the flesh before - it was very striking and because it was a valley we were able to get out of the wind meaning that Tom could enjoy it as well.

We got back to the hotel at 5pm tired after a really good day out. We went for a quick swim in the pool before giving Tom his dinner and some hai hai time in the hotel corridors and central staircase (he managed to go up a whole flight on his own). He then went to bed and we went to the restaurant for dinner.

The evening saw Tom and I in bed whilst Matt went off on his Northern Lights tour. (No luck for him)

Sunday
We decided to take it a little easier today. Tom had his nap in the hotel before we all got the bus to the Blue Lagoon (40 mins out of Reykjavik). We had lunch in the bar overlooking the lagoon before taking a dip ourselves. For a major tourist destination I was really surprised at the lack of thought to baby changing facilities (there were none). Tom wasn't the only baby there so you would think they would provide something especially as by law you have to shower naked and then put your swimming cossie on. You try doing that to yourself whilst keeping a curious crawling baby in check, and then put on a swim nappy and trucks on a squirming, wet baby - not fun and unfortunately a lot of tears!

We took Tom in with us, but once again it was windy and he didn't particularly enjoy it. We found a lovely heated relaxation area overlooking the lagoon, so we played tag team again - one of us playing with Tom in this area whilst the other played in the lagoon. The lagoon was massive, much bigger than I was expecting. It was lovely and relaxing though and both of us managed to enjoy ourselves. Tom went in again at the end and loved it - he was splashing and giggling all over the place which was lovely.

We got the coach back to the hotel (Tom was asleep in seconds - the tour company provided a baby seat for each excursion which was a god send and meant that Tom slept really well whilst on the tours), then hai hai, dinner, more hai hai, bottle and bed. Matt and I had another lovely meal and then Matt went to bed and I went on the Northern Lights Tour. I did actually get to see the lights, but unfortunately nothing too spectacular, I saw a very faint arch of green light over some mountains but that was it. I videoed it for prosperity, but it didn't come out - much too faint.

Monday
As you know we had to get up at silly o'clock to get our flight home. We landed at Manchester at 11.30. Had lunch at the airport and then came home. Tom was a diamond. He got up without a fuss, we didn't hear a squeak from him during the transfer even though he stayed awake. He slept for the first hour or so of the flight and then behaved well in the car on the way home. We put him to bed a little earlier today as he has lost quite a bit of sleep. We will see how it goes (might mean that he wakes up earlier tomorrow?)


Anyway, we all had a good trip and we fell in love with the place. We are already making plans to go back and explore some more.

No aurora. Yet

Sorry for the lack of posts thus far. No free wi-fi at the hotel.
Had a lovely bus trip yesterday, which took us to a geothermal power plant, a rampaging waterfall, a geyser field and a national park where Iceland is actually splitting in two and growing at about 2.5cm per year. It's not as if they're short of space here.
It was a beautiful day yesterday, but perishingly cold in the strong wind, even more so during my evening tour to see the northern lights. Conditions were perfect, but they didn't appear. Nik's going tonight, so perhaps she'll have better luck.
It's certainly a starkly beautiful country, and even with their recent currency troubles, it's still eye-wateringly expensive.
We're off for a soak in the Blue Lagoon today, followed by a bit of a look round the city centre.
Will post photos upon our return.
Our bus leaves the hotel at 5.00am tomorrow, so we're really looking forward to that.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Reykjavik

Off to the Arctic

We're now at Glasgow Airport, en route from Manchester to Keflavik. Tom is sitting in the middle seat and being fed some beef stew by his mother, who has the window seat. He slept for the whole of the (short) flight, which was just as well, as he screamed the plane down fora good ten minutes before we took off. Over-tired. The rain is lashing down outside here, so that'll have to improve as we head north. Hope to be able to report in again from Reykjavik.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Busy Day

Another good night. We could hear Tom tossing and turning when we were downstairs, but we didn't hear from him at all last night. AND I apparently didn't snore, which meant that Matt and I woke up in the same bed - yahooooo.

Tom woke up in a good mood, he was chattering away to himself in the morning on our bed. Unfortunately a massive squirty poo was waiting for me this morning when I went up to get him and he did another later on in the day. I'm now wondering if it has something to do with the cows milk I've been giving him. It's strange though cause he's been having cows milk with no problem since his birthday so why would it suddenly be a problem? However, he seemed to recover when I gave him breast milk, and now he's gone downhill again since I've been giving him cows milk again. Shame I don't have any more breast milk in the freezer.

I put Tom to bed for his nap early as we have Bosom Buddies at Jungleland this morning. I went up to get him after over an hour and had trouble waking him. He wasn't happy with me poor love, but he forgave me soon enough and had a good time at Jungleland.

Came home, Tom had lunch and then went to bed for 1 hr 45mins when I had to wake him up again as we had an appointment at another nursery. We went along (Earlyworld in Stafford Park) looked ok, but rooms were smaller than Leapfrog, however, they did have a soft play area and grass in the outdoor area. Came back, talked it over with Matt and have decided to go with Leapfrog, just think they were slightly better, plus they are nearer. Phoned them up and have booked Tom in for his induction the week after Easter. They aren't able to guarantee us a place, but think they will be OK. If it goes wrong Earlyworld did have room for the moment.

Came home, had a play, then dinner (he managed my risotto and sweet potato puree which was good), then play, bath, bottle and bed. (We have given Tom some Lactofree milk today - which we normally use for the cat to see if that makes a change). We also did some quick packing for tomorrow and then dinner for ourselves. Matt is now out having drinks with Mike (one of the NCT dads) and I have been scooting around the house tidying and collecting things that we need for Iceland and not yet packed.

I have taken a pic today, but have packed my camera, so will update on our return (don't want to risk forgetting my camera after I have so carefully packed it!). If we are able to get a wi fi signal in Iceland we will try to blog with the iphone.

Oh - interesting story from today, Mum and Dad are in London this week after visiting Jake for his birthday. They were in the restaurant at the V&A, found a table which was just being vacated by none other than Pat (Matt's mum). Not sure who was more surprised!

Sleepy boy

So we had a good night last night. Tom only woke up once at 2am - I went in, he was sat up, so I put him back on his back and that was the last we heard of him. It's the first night in ages that we haven't given him Calprofen which is brilliant.

We had a good breakfast and play before another 2 hour morning nap. This was a good thing as it is Gymbabes catch up session today at 12.45, so a long morning nap keeps him going so he can cope with physical activity around about the time he is usually going for his nap.

We had a good Gymbabes session, Tom as usual hogged the tunnel. He refused to do any climbing, content to just crawl along watching other babies and occasionally trying to steal their toys etc. We had coffee afterwards with Olly and Rachel which was good, Olly's been ill for 9 days, so Rachel has got a bit stir crazy (don't blame her - I would too). Anyway all is now good and Olly is walking really well.

Came home, put Tom to bed for an hour, then dinner (not great) a play (including time on his car which he wouldn't move), bath and bed. He had a red cheek when he went for his bath and we have heard him moving around in his cot this evening, including one cry so not sure he is completely mended yet...

I like to throw

Another strange night. Once again Tom didn't sleep that well between 7 and midnight. Kept waking up and grizzling. I gave him a shot of Calprofen at 10pm as he was hot to touch. He carried on grizzling for a little while, but he eventually settled and went to sleep. He was awake again around 2am, went in to settle again and that was it until I went in to get him at 7am. He seemed ok at 7am, no red cheeks, good mood etc, however, his nappy wasn't great again.

Breakfast was a little hard work, but we got there eventually and he ate enough. I put him down for his nap at 9 and decided to wait for him to wake before getting him up. By the time it had got to 11 I had itchy feet, so got him up - surely 2 hours is more than enough, he normally only has 1 hour. He woke up with two bright red cheeks, but in good humour, so we had a play. Today's trick was throwing bricks from his walker down the stairs. He has spent the last couple of days throwing things away - food, stacking cups and now bricks. Finding that they go down a long way through the banisters was lots of fun.

He had an OK (ish) lunch. It started off well - eating one of my cottage pies, but before too long it turned into full grizzle mode. I sat and ate my lunch with him, which got his interest up, so he ended up helping me (Ryvita and cottage cheese - not exactly haute cuisine)

By 1pm he was sleepy again (how?) so I put him back in his cot. He slept for another 1.5 hours before I woke him up. Both cheeks were back to normal - phew, he fed from me briefly and I discovered a solid poo - yahoo.

Matt took him out in the drizzle to Asda for a couple of purchases (he's winding down and has some free time). I spent a good hour or so doing more on my cake marketing. I'm trying to think of a name to market myself at the moment - haven't come up with anything good yet. I also need to bake a cake to put my sugar flowers in - they look a little poor on their own and will pass for a wedding cake if I put together. I might bake a fruit cake and then use that as a 'dummy' for photos - they last forever.

We had a happy afternoon, Tom was definitely feeling much better this afternoon. He had an OK dinner, didn't try anything different, just a couple of Ella's sachets. We then had a happy bath (new trick, throwing all toys out of bath onto carpet) before bottle and bed. Haven't heard from him yet and I had by this time yesterday, so fingers crossed he's having a better sleep tonight.

Video below: Tom throwing blocks down the stairs!

Bad morning, good afternoon

It was a strange night. Tom woke up crying at 11pm, he was completely unconsollable. We tried the gel and dummy trick- no luck, gave him some calprofen - no luck. The screaming was really bad. No amount of hugging was helping. In the end I thought that maybe I wasn't helping, so I put him back in his cot and left the room. He carried on screaming for about 15 seconds, then it died down to a whimper. All was quiet within a minute. He did cry again but it only lasted about 10 seconds. That was it, we didn't hear from him again Lesson learnt, leave him be if he doesn't show any sign of wanting a cuddle.

This morning wasn't the best. He ate his breakfast really well and had an early nap. When I went in to get him, the smell was there, so I changed him - solid poo - yahoo. I gave him breast milk for his last drink last night (still have some in the freezer) as breast milk is easier to digest than cow's milk, I was hoping it might help with his digestion. Not sure if it was the catalyst, but I was happy. Tom, on the other hand wasn't very happy. One cheek was very very red. I got him up and took him to Asda to pick up some bits. He wasn't too bad there, but once home he went into full grizzle mode. Nothing would help him, teething gel, calprofen etc, so I gave him his lunch (very unenjoyable) and put him to bed.

I got him up at 1.30 ready for Gymbabes, and found a different baby. The red cheek had gone and he seemed happier. Got to Bridgnorth dead on 2pm and joined the Gymbabes class. He was a diamond, had a lovely time. Hogged the tunnel as seems to be usual - definately his favourite piece of kit. Had drink afterwards with Amanda and Sam before coming home.

Had an OK afternoon. Spent some time on the phone with Jake (his second birthday today), his talking has really come along, he managed to say Hello Auntie Nik and Bye Bye Auntie Nik which was really nice.

Once again, he didn't have a very good dinner, anything with any texture is still evil! He then had a little play before an early bath (he was obviously tired), bottle and bed.

Matt is out with the guys tonight - curry in Shifnal.

Oh, I weighed myself this morning, after one week of Slimming World diet I have managed to loose 2lbs. Was a little dissapointed as you are supposed to loose loads in the first week. However, when I think how long it takes Tom to put on 2lbs, I guess it's not that bad. Fingers crossed the motivation remains with me, only problem is that we are off on holiday on Friday so all the good work might go to pot...

Sorry, forgot to take a photo today.

Severn Valley Walk

Blimey, it's the end of the weekend already - time really does go fast when you are having fun.

Saturday morning found us swimming at HLC. All went well until Tom was given a woggle to swim with. He didn't like it and cried. The cry then turned into a scream and he wouldn't be consoled, so he ended his lesson early. As soon as he was out of the pool he was fine - typical. He and Abi spent a good hour playing with each other in the breakout area, crawling up and down, grabbing food from one another etc. All very entertaining to watch.

We then dropped into Wellington to The Beacon for lunch. We decided to have a big lunch today as dinner was going to be a rushed affair. So, pasta for me and chilli for Matt. We then did a quick round of Wellington in the drizzle which wasn't particularly fun.

Came home, Tom had a nap and we sat in the office, Matt catching up on photos and me on cake duty trying to get some marketing material together.

We had a shortened afternoon, we had to get Tom in bed for 6pm rather than for 7pm as we were off to see the Hairy Bikers in Wolverhampton and wanted to get Tom settled before we left. Didn't want Michelle (one of the NCT mums who very graciously offered to babysit) to have to do anything other than listen out for him. We managed it.

Hairy Bikers was brilliant, at one stage I was crying with laughter! It was a show with them bantering and cooking inter dispersed with some film footage (most of which were outtakes) Was a lovely evening, so nice to have a 'proper' night out, doing something other than going for dinner.

Got back home at 11pm (what dirty stopouts). Michelle said she had a good time, had had to check on Tom a couple of times, but nothing too bad. She said she got lots of work done (she's a primary school teacher). We left her a whole array of drinks, she didn't touch any naughty girl.

Sunday dawned lovely. We decided to make the most of it and go for a walk. Ended up parking at Maws Craft Centre and walking on the railway path towards Bridgnorth. Was a lovely walk, very secluded, alongside the River Severn, just us and nature. We walked along to the restored station at Linley (which is also opposite where Rachel and Errol live - although being a Sunday, the bridge across the river to their house was closed- private toll bridge) Sat down on the grassed over platform for a picnic in our t-shirts. We had Tom in the pram as he is still producing squirty poos and we figured him being in the rucksack wouldn't help matters.

We stopped off for a quick drink in a pub on the way back (figured we did 8 miles in the end), beautiful setting, rubbish pub. Got home at 3pm, Tom went for his nap whilst we tried to catch up on house work. 4.30pm saw Jude and Richard popping round, then at 5.30 we had a skype chat with Grannie and Grandpa London. Tom decided to do a big sick up whilst on line which caused some merriment.

Then bath, bottle and bed.

We are both a little worried about Tom. He has been having these bad poos, then of course today he was sick. He isn't very ill, but he definitely isn't himself. I still think it is a big dose of teething, just hope it passes soon, I want the old Tom back. Will give the Dr a call if it goes on for much longer, especially as we are off to Iceland on Friday.

Poo

Tom had us awake and seeing to him when we went to bed, but settled down and surprisingly we didn't hear from him until I went in to get him at 7 (I felt sure we were in for a bad night).

He had a good breakfast and a very good play - full of energy and then went for a nap. When I went into his room to get him up, I could smell that his nappy needed changing. I opened him up and found a lake of poo. The biggest to date - oh my god! I ended up having to get Matt up to help as he was putting his hand in it and then trying to eat it! (It got all over his cheek - yuck!) We ended up hosing him down in the shower to get him clean. It confirmed the fact that he isn't 100% at the moment. Let's hope it's his one and only!

As you all know, I am going to try to set up a celebration cake business. However, it has been proving almost impossible to get organised whilst looking after Tom 24/7. It has got better since he has been sleeping properly, but still it has been almost impossible to find time to put together some marketing material, cost analysis etc. As Tom is now over one, we've decided to enrol him into a nursery, starting with 2 mornings a week. It should be good for his social skills and will give me time to try to get organised.

I made a couple of calls earlier this week and made appointments to see two nurseries today. First one was in Hollinswood (where Abi goes). I really didn't know what to expect, having never seen a nursery before, I was also a little clueless with questions to ask. A member of staff showed me round. I wasn't wholly impressed. The baby room was tiny and included cots, so babies would have to sleep in the same room as play was happening. They had an outside play area, but it was shared with the attached school, meaning it couldn't be used during school playtimes. Food was brought in from outside caterers (I know not to trust them!), they didn't even have a dedicated change area, meaning babies had to go to the disabled toilet for changing. They did have programmes of structured play etc, but I left feeling uneasy about the whole set up.

After Tom's lunchtime nap, we went to Leapfrog Nursery in Priorslee (where Jessica goes). It was completely different. The staff were a lot more professional, my show around was fantastic, very knowledgeable lady, they had separate rooms for eating, playing and sleeping. A dedicated nappy changing room, a room for storing milk, all food is made in house (I saw some and it looked good). They also had an outdoor area for each stage of development. There were lots of nice little touches, each baby has a photo box (a box covered in photos of their relatives, so if they are feeling insecure, they can hold it / hug it), they have their nappies changed every 2.5 hours, food of some sort every 2 hours and drinks every 2 hours (better than Tom gets at home!) Anyway, I came away feeling much better about the whole thing. Will make some phone calls on Monday to arrange to whizz round some more before making a decision. I'm hoping that some time away from him will also refresh me.

That's about it for today, we were going to go for a walk around Priorslee Lake after visiting the nursery, but it started to rain and we didn't have the right gear on us, so we went to Asda and picked up a curry instead.

Tom's in bed, he's been grizzling every hour or so, but just a little yelp, so we are hoping he will eventually settle and have another good night.

I can drive my car

Another good night, Tom had a yelp when we went to bed, but that was it for the whole night, what a good boy. We did slightly better as well, although Matt disappeared downstairs at 3am as he couldn't sleep.

Tom had a good breakfast, nap and then we went off to Jungleland for Bosom Buddies. Tom still isn't quite himself today and spent most of the morning sat quietly on my lap which is very unusual.

Came home, gave Tom his lunch, but he refused it. All I could get down him was a bit of rice cake with Philadelphia - as you can see from the photo, he did quite enjoy it. Once done though, he dropped everything on the floor and Jodie licked all the cheese off.

Tom woke up during his afternoon nap today which is highly unusual. I managed to settle him back down though. I spent his nap time loading Photoshop on my laptop and started to edit some cake photos ready for my portfolio. Felt really nice to be doing something constructive about my 'new business'. I haven't had any orders for a while, so really need to start getting my name out there.

The afternoon saw us in Asda getting some bits, we then came home for dinner. Once again Tom wasn't really interested, I managed to get some rice cake down him, a sachet of puree and a fromage frais laced with blueberries. I also changed a nappy this afternoon, he had a squirty poo, so something definitely isn't right with him. However, he isn't too out of sorts, I still think it is teething as his hand is constantly in his mouth.

After dinner, Tom spent some time on his car. Until now, he has only gone backwards on it, but today we had a breakthrough and he managed to go forwards. He did a couple of lengths of the kitchen. I got the camera out to video it, of course he stopped, but you sort of get the idea.

Not much to report

Sorry for lack of blog yesterday - cake course got in the way and nothing of note happened anyway. In fact I'm thinking that maybe I won't blog every day now that Tom is one, if nothing of note happens then I'll just write drivel anyway!

As I said, yesterday nothing much happened. We were supposed to meet up with Kamila and Stella, but she blew us out, so we spent the morning running errands. I decided to buy retrospective birthday presents for Oliver and Sam after the fab birthday party on Friday, as neither baby managed to turn up for Gymbabes on Monday, I decided to deliver them in person. So, went to Oliver's first, to find Rachel still in her dressing gown (oops), Oliver had been unwell over the past 24 hours (severe diarrhea poor thing, spent a lot of time in the bath being cleaned) and then to Sam who wasn't in - I think down in London.

We then popped into Asda for some bits before returning home for lunch (Tom didn't eat much at all). Didn't do anything in the afternoon other than play. Tom launched into full bellied crying at dinner time, he ate his dinner, but it wasn't great. The screaming got louder and louder, until in the end I got Matt up to help. He suggested some teething gel, it worked immediately.

He then had a good bath, bottle and bed. I went to cake course for the last lesson, Matt reported that Tom wasn't at all settled on my return, waking every 20 mins or so for a little grizzle. I went up to see him, gave him some more gel which seemed to work. However, when we went to bed, we could still hear him cry. I went in to see him, he was crying in his sleep, but I woke him up, he was really really hot, so we gave him some Calprofen. Both of us were expecting to hear from him during the night, but as you know, babies aren't predictable. We didn't hear from him at all. Matt and I didn't do as well, both of us were worried about him and as a result didn't sleep - typical!

Today was also a bit of a non event. We went to aerobics in the morning, where Tom had a play in the creche and that was pretty much it. For some reason I was a bit down in the dumps today, which meant that I found it hard to stimulate myself, let alone Tom. Not sure why, but we all have our off days. Tom also rejected a feed from me this afternoon which didn't help.

He's still not that happy and we have heard the odd grizzle already tonight. I have noticed that one of his bottom molars is now completely through, but the two upper ones are still moving. He is all snotty, so we are pretty sure it is teething that is the problem at the moment.

Me and my sister

We didn't have a very good night last night. Tom woke up just as we went to bed, then again at 12am, and then between 1.30 and 2.30 he was awake crying every 10 minutes or so. I was just about to put him in bed with us when I didn't hear from him again. Not sure what it was, although I suspect it was teething as I noticed that the whole of a bottom molar is through today.

He had a massive breakfast, so it hasn't affected his appetite. In fact it was his biggest yet, he had 1.5 weetabix, a whole banana and a slice of toast. That's equivalent to an adult isn't it? I, in contrast had half a grapefruit. I am trying to go on a health drive and today was day one. I weighed myself this morning, am too ashamed to share with you how much I was, but it is the heaviest I have ever been (excepting when I was pregnant) so I really do need to do something about it. Let's hope I can find continued motivation to make sure I am successful.

I put him down for his morning nap as usual, but I'm unsure as to if he did actually sleep. Matt looked in on him after 10 minutes and he was sat in his cot playing with his toys. I peeped in 10 minutes later and he was still playing. When I went in to get him after an hour, he was still sat up and playing with his toys and didn't have a red cheek or look vaguely sleepy.

After a book session we strolled round to Asda, I needed to get some healthy food, so raided the fresh fruit and veg section as well as getting in some cottage cheese etc.

Came home, had lunch (Tom ate very well again), then nap for him prior to our journey to Bridgnorth and gymbabes. Tom wasn't the best behaved baby for the songs at the beginning, wanting only to wriggle and grizzle, but once let loose on the gym equipment he was pretty happy. Today, he concentrated on the tunnel, he must have gone through it at least 10 times. It was only us and Rachel and Mae today, not sure where everyone else was, but we had a lovely time and retired to Costa afterwards to recover.

Tom fell asleep in the car on the way back, but soon woke up when he knew dinner was on the way, once again he ate very very well. He then had a good bath, bottle and bed. We haven't heard from him yet...

We're all going to the zoo, erm , yesterday

Saturday morning saw us back at HLC for Tom's waterbabies class. He did ok, but waterbabies have been a little naughty and have now booked 10 babies on the course. If you could see the size of the pool, you would know why this is a problem. Only 8 babies turned up and there wasn't room to move in the pool, I have no idea how it would work with 10. I feel sorry for the teacher as much as for us. When HLC have the pool open for baby swimming sessions, they have a maximum of 6 adults. Matt has written to complain.

Anyway, Tom had a good time was mostly smiles. After some Hai Hai time with Abi (they are now more or less crawling at the same speed) we then went on our way to Chester to meet up with the Watsons at the zoo. Now we got the journey up completely wrong. Decided to go to a pub about half way for lunch. Tom was just about to fall asleep when we got there, unloaded him and food etc, to find the pub was closed! Then went to a tea room which was about 3 further miles down the road, it was also closed. We stopped at the next pub and were lucky. By this time we were running late, so ordered the easiest thing on the menu and managed to feed Tom quickly and were back on our way within 30 mins. Tom refused to go to sleep after lunch, which meant he didn't have any nap at all. (With hindsight, we should have stopped at Long Lane for lunch)

Got to the zoo dead on 1pm which was good going. Considering we were with a 5 year old, 3 year old and 3 month old, and stopped for a coffee we did actually see quite a bit and we all got to see our favourite animals. Tom stayed awake for the whole thing which was fantastic, and he did manage to focus on some of the animals. In the end he was awake from 9.30 to 4.30 which is the longest ever. He did fall asleep after about 5 minutes once back in the car, and I managed to transfer him from the car to his cot at the Watson's without any protestation.

By now his routine was shot to pieces, so we just ran with what we thought best. So, Tom stayed up and had his dinner with Maggie and Tamsin and then had a bath with them as well which went very well. He then was put in a cot in the box room and that was it until I went to get him at 7am the next morning.

Sunday was a lazy day. We took Tom for a walk in the village to the playground so he could have some fresh air. He enjoyed the swings as usual and was cackling away. We then came back and enjoyed a Mother's Day fry up courtesy of Cameron followed by plum crumble courtesy of me. A strange combination, but it worked well for us.

Matt and Cameron bottled up the cider, before we made our way home. Oh, almost forgot to say, I got a Mother's Day card and a gift (a giraffe puppet - I have a feeling that Tom was craftily shopping for himself!).

When we got home, Matt spent some time with Tom in the lounge whilst I was preparing his food in the kitchen. He used the new puppet to say hello to Tom, Tom responded three times in a row by saying 'ello', could it be a coincidence? I definately heard him. When I came into the room Matt tried again, but Tom would only giggle - is it another case of rolling - he would only do that for his Dad for about 3 weeks before he would let me see him.

Today's pic - me with 3 month old Jenny who I had a number of lovely hugs with. How things change. I didn't go near Maggie or Tamsin when they were babies as I was still very scared of babies then, now I can't get enough of them!