World Breastfeeding week 2012 - Our Breast feeding experience

The photo above is of me, at a matter of minutes old doing the most natural thing possible and thanks to what my mother learnt from her own breastfeeding journey and the support and advice she could pass on we're reached month 5 of exclusively breastfeeding Alfred and have the confidence to continue.  If it wasn't for my mother, telling me to follow my instincts and stick at it, I'm not sure we'd have made it this far so thank you mum, Alfred and I owe you big time.
The photo below is also of me, with my son only minutes old doing what generations going back as far as time itself have done.

 As natural as breast feeding is, I now realise it's as much a skill that has to be learnt as every other aspect of parenting. In ante-natal classes you're told how it all just falls into place and told about a video of a newborn crawling to get up to the breast. No one tells you it's actually quite frustrating, both Alfred and I had to learn how to breast feed. It sounds daft, learning how to feed, but it is hard work in the first few days. Initially Alfred could latch on, and could suckle but not together and despite trying different placements, it was upsetting to struggle so much. They also didn't tell us how tired he would be after birth, he was born in a birthing pool naturally after about 8 hours of labour. He was breathing fine but didn't cry (cue influx of doctors) was loving the cuddles but just wanted to sleep. Eventually the midwife got us to express and fed Alfred with a syringe. I had major mixed feelings at that stage, happiness that at least he'd eaten and was settled down, but also complete and utter terror that we may not be able to feed as we'd intended. When he woke up at about 4 a.m. and still wasn't feeding properly my heart sank, and after getting no real help at the hospital I was on the verge of devastated. Luckily I had my mum on hand to re assure and re position him so he could feed.
Over the next few days we spent a lot time perfecting it, my darling husband even took pictures of our most successful latch ons for "reference purposes" if we were struggling. My husband was fantastic throughout, supportive and understanding he knew when to leave us to work things out, kept us supplied with drinks and snacks and was just there. He only offered the breast pump once during a difficult feed, I think he got the hint...
A combination of events with the midwife meant that I was left feeling like an absolute failure by her on more tan one occasion, I vividly remember one of the early days sitting in floods of tears wondering if I was doing the right thing sticking with breast feeding, my mother told me how well I was doing, told me to stick at it and I'm so glad I did. At 5 months my little man cub has only had one mild cold, has beautiful skin, is developing perfectly, is active and hitting milestones. We have an enviable close bond, perhaps because he know every time he's a bit upset because he's hungry he's guaranteed close individual mummy attention. I will probably be breast feeding him for the next 7 months, for the knowledge of the benefits it carries, for the bond it builds and of course for the post feed, milk "drunk" cuddles;

Breast feeding has awarded me with such confidence now I've got the hang of it, I've fed him in so many places when before having him I thought I'd be too nervous to feed him anywhere. My husband finds it a beautiful thing, me feeding our son, so there are actually quite a few photos of feeding in strange and wonderful places.
Some of my favourites are below, thanks for reading and if you ever doubt your ability as a mama to nourish your baby, trust your instincts, and your own mama!

Post feed at Whipsnade view, by the penguins. Excellent view.

 At Truck (music festival) hardly anyone noticed that we were actually feeding Alfred! Loved the mama smiles you get from ladies who have babies

 I didn't know this picture had been taken until I uploaded my camera! This is on a steam train at Didcot Railway Centre, takes about 4 consecutive rounds trips to feed a hungry man cub.

At our NCT group, it's lovely to be in a room where no matter how you feed your baby you can feed them without judgement. Alfred has a tendency to get Boob envy though, so has to directed away from our breast feeding mamas!









(this was inspired by another blog, http://ht.ly/cJ1J1 , pop by and have a look)

Baby Rockstars are high maintenance

Man Cub is definitely developing his own personality right now and it's quite fascinating to watch. He's quite chilled out overall taking in everything around him. Everywhere he go he likes to look, and from the height of the Moby he gets a pretty good view of everything. Buses in particular are amazing, napping on buses is now out of the question as there is just too much to see, he does however go out like a light when we get off the bus. He's babbling away non stop at home, talking to his toys, the cats, his books and us but as soon as we are out it's like he's in "study-mode" and is just too busy watching to chat. I'm curious to see just how much of his world he is taking in, as he doesn't seem to be a passive observer type. He's already recognising certain people, other than family, and seems to find them in rooms at playgroups. There are two friends that go to more than one playgroup with us each week, and we often go swimming together, he seems to notice them over everyone else in the room. He's developing a musical taste too (very important in our house) and it's funny how that's growing. Classical music seems to be a hit, but seeing as how he's had that in the background since forever I'm not terribly surprised. Today we discovered that Weezer hits the spot, and lullabies in the car actually send him to sleep. Win. It doesn't detract from the fact that his favourite song is "B is for Boobie" sung to the tune of "C is for Cookie" from Sesame Street. He's a rock star like that.
We're enjoying watching our little man become his own little person but it's with a pinch of sadness too, it already feels like he's growing up too fast and he's only 5 months!! At least he's growing up lovely, calm, happy and sociable (and a fan of Iron Maiden!!).

Pigeonholing Parents, or how we fell into Natural Parenting

This is my happy, healthy babby. In 5 months he has changed 80% of my views on how I thought I would want to parent and has shown me a new way of raising a child. A lot of media channels have done biased articles on attachment parenting recently, which has led to quite a few hurtful comments at us when we're out. I don't pigeon hole, I don't think it's fair and personally I think that how a family raises a child is up to them.

We decide to try a bit of everything and work out what's best for us which, for the foreseeable future, means that my little man is exclusively breastfed. Formula just wasn't an option for us, I was determined to Breast Feed and fought hard to get it to work. I found it quite hard to bond with Alfred at first, even convinced myself that he didn't like me and if I wasn't feeding him then he wouldn't want to know me. This sounds ridiculous now but I'm sure many mother swill understand where those feelings came from. Being able to feed him myself helped alot, for a lot of the day we are sat down together sharing something that no one else has and learning that we need each other. I'll admit I grimace when he clamps and twists, but watching his little feet fidget as he nods off at the end of his feeds is something magical. He's still exclusively breastfed, despite my midwife at 10 days telling me I should feed him formula so that he put on weight faster. He's developing quite nicely at his own speed and certainly seems to be thriving on boobie milk.

 Hopefully he'll be good on just milk until 6 months, he certainly isn't ready for food yet. I suppose the approach we're going to take for his food falls mostly into the baby led weaning category but once again I despise the fact that you have to pick one style and label yourself. We're going to follow the Alfred method of weaning. He's interested in food, but he's been interested in food since about 10 weeks. If you offer him food he'll take it, drool on it, taste it then get stuck unsure of what to do with it. There's no attempt to bite or suck food, so I'm quite sure he's not ready yet. Ideally he'll be able to sit up mostly unaided before we start solids, so he can sit at table and swallow his food safely. He's so close with sitting, but 10 seconds and he's over like a drunk trapeze artist. He'll share what's on our plates when we're out, get an adjusted version of our meals at home and have boobie milk in between. There are even packages of frozen milk in the freezer for baby rice / porridge when the time comes. I haven't the patience to puree everything, nor do I think it is the way I want him to learn about food. I appreciate it works for some people, but everyone's different.

The main point of difference seems to be the way in which Alfred is transported around town. We have pushchairs and they are sometime very practical and useful, but 90% of the time it's easier in the Moby. We've already convinced at least one friend on their brilliance and she now too has a happy carried baby. The term "babywearing" is everywhere right now, it's a trend apparently. Mothers have been carrying their babies since time began but it's a new fashion... go figure. I have only ever seen two other people with Moby wraps (before the convincing of friend), one of whom is a friend from an NCT group and the other was a lady just strolling round town. Everyone else seems to have argos' latest wheels. We don't use the wrap to lord our views over everyone, we use it because it's a nightmare travelling on the buses near us with a pushchair, Alfred likes to be close and doesn't like being in the pushchair for any great length of time and I feel it's safer with him upclose when we're somewhere busy or new. Why oh why we get "look it's one of them attachment parenting things" baffles me. I choose not to judge other people's choice on how they parent so we should be mocked? If only they could see whats catching Alfreds poop!

We are cloth bum converts. I'll admit I walked away from the Baby Show last October poo-poohing the idea of cloth nappies. Turns out the over engineered fiddley things that daunted us there just weren't right for us. We used disposables for the first two months, if only to get through all the cheap / free packs we'd acquired whilst pregnant. Then we saw a trial offer for miosolos, essentially they were free you just paid p&p. We gave it a go and haven't looked back. Turns out pocket nappies / all in ones work best for us in the day time (including the darling Spiderman one modelled above) and two parters with wraps work best overnight.We still use disposables now and again but they're a dying breed in out house in favour of cloth, turns out it's much easier for us, more economical (all our nappies are birth -potty) and miles better for Alfred's skin. No nappy rash since switching is enough for me. Which is good because my boy is still predominantly chemical free.

I am actually proud of the fact that at 5 months the infacol and calpol are still sealed in the cupboard. This boy is disgustingly healthy and touch wood is doing well without artificial junk. All of the lotions and potions that go on him are natural, his skin has been perfect since birth and he always smells lush. There is not even a hint of dry skin on him and the cradle cap is pretty much non-existent (thank you Burts Bees!). I wouldn't have thought this would be the way we would parent, wouldn't have guessed the crib would go largely unused as we shared a bed as a family. Ever since we started co-sleeping Alfred's slept right through, if we need to check on him in the nigh he's right there, if he needs feeding we're right there and there is nothing more lovely than your alarm clock being replaced by a tiny hand stroking your face until you wake up.

We parent naturally, choosing what feels natural to us regardless of what "trend" it falls into. And to all the people who sneer at us, check out my happy calm baby and leave us alone.

Our Brush with the 'lympics

We live in a London Borough, and as such we have a very particular view of the Olympics. Anyone who knows us will be aware we are not sporting types, the only games we participate in are video games and even they've taken a back burner right now. The fact that all the regeneration of sports facilities has meant the most inaccessible of our "local" pools got a revamp, whilst our actual local and perfectly adequate pool closed down is a bone of contention with me. Along with the "don't travel into London unless you absolutely have to" ... Londoners live here too ya know! And we're not all going to the games. Nonetheless Alfred's year of Birth is full of excitement and patriotism so we went to see the torch pass through our local area. The buzz and the atmosphere was overwhelming and quite fun. The torch itself was so brief it was barely worth the effort. Due to a 20 minute corporate stop-over it literally raced past, blink and you'd have missed it. But he can say he was there with his mama and his friends and he fell asleep. Yes, asleep. In amidst all the drums and whistles, and shouting and cheering Alfred fell asleep. He woke up when we got to the park afterwards though. Happy 'lmpics Alfred, you were there!

The birth of festival mama

For the last four years I've spent a July weekend in a field in Oxfordshire at Truck Festival , this year was to be no exception, despite our new addition. I think Alfred had more stuff than me and the mister combined but I decided I was taking no chances so took tonnes of clothes, blankets, toys and so so many nappies. Naturally he stayed clean all weekend so half the clothes didn't get used, the whole sha-bang was massively exciting so the toys were unnecessary blankets and nappies definitely got used though!
We left early on the Friday (after Alf's 5 a.m. feed) and he managed to fall asleep within minutes of being put in the car which was nice, just wish I could have switched off as easily ... Got to the in laws at about 7 (nice rush hour dodging by the OH) which gave us enough time for breakfast, rallying the troops and a guilt trip from the mother in law. I appreciate she doesn't see Alfred very much but it's really starting to get to me that I have to endure the "someone-sat-on-my-cute-fluffy-puppy-and-splurted-its-guts-everywhere" look. But anyway, I digress, we were one of the first lots to set up as we arrived at hlaf nine and were designated to the campervan section, which lies just outside the main camping field. This has always worked perfectly for us all,because although we love a festival, a beer or two or three and a late night, we also like to sleep. For this reason we take the trailer tent. I love the trailer tent, wholeheartedly. See below;

So yeah, you lot all enjoy your cold flimsy pop up festival tents and we'll chillax in our double beds with mattresses and eat our mahusive breakfasts made on propers hobs and grills :oD It makes camping with man cub dead easy too. I wasn't drinking this year, not too different from last, haven't really missed it or felt a need for it and quite happily my man cub comes first. OH was, so we took a bed each (we co-sleep with man cub and merry papas don't work well sharing with tiny man cubs). Fully expecting Alfred to mess up we were very tentative with everything but as it turns out he loved it, he adapted well to wearing ear defenders and being around strange smells and people. He slept through Tim Minchin's set quite peacefully! Completely contrary to what we expected, at 8 p.m. he just fell asleep in the sling and when I took him back to the tent at 11 he didn't even wake up as I got him changed and cosied up for bed. Friday night was COLD. I had visions of my MIL up panicking about the baby, who by the way was so toasty. Admittedly in the morning he needed some clever unwrapping from all of the blankets but this clever mama kept him at the right temperature all night :oD Of which I am quite proud! And thank you cloth nappies for no elaks on the trailer tent mattress!

Saturday was lovely and chilled out, being the responsible parents that we are, Alfred started the chilly morning in a nice cosy pram suit ...

 

I hadn't anticipated quite how much attention a 4 month old in a Tigger suit sttracts, apparently he was quite adorable. Saturday was a scorcher, all that surprise sunshine hit us like a brick between the eyes! Alfred napped under a muslin most of the day (highly effective sunscreen in combination with shade and hat) and as such was the only non burnt group member by the end of it all! He loved the music, and the balloon we acquired and all the people. Me, I love being able to lie down and breastfeed in public, theres certain freedoms being a field offers. Once again bedtime was a dream, I stayed long enough to British Sea Power then took a very sleepy man cub to bed. Despite the fact that we were in a tent he slept throuh till 7.30!! Turns out those blackout things would have a waste of money.

Overall we had a fantastic time, Tim Minchin was my favourite but also really enjoyed Gabriel Minnikin, Federation of the Disco Pimp, Clock Opera and the Villagers. Saturday highlights were Yellow Fever, Black Hats, The Low Anthem and of course British Sea Power. It was so easy to enjoy it with a little man cub and we're 100% back next year. Thank you Truck Festival!

Playgroups and Prizes

So we got back from our favourite playgroup this morning (last one for the summer :o( ) to find a little "we've left your parcel with your neighbours" card. I was hoping it was my new trainers as my current ones are a bit too slummy mummy now, but it wasn't it was from huggies. We now have free toilet rolls, nappies, tissues, baby wipes, andrex washlets, kleenex facial wipes, cars & disney stickers, fluffy andrex puppy, fluffy piglet toy, apron bib (weaning here we come), baby biscotti (with a very useful long date on them), bath toys and baby hair & body wash, phew.I'd almost forgotten that I'd entered the competition on twitter a little while back but boy am I glad I entered! Above are the entire contents of our goodie box (baby not included...)  and what's in the mystery blue box....?

A lovely hayfever rescue kit, ideal considering we've got a music festival next week and I'm not allowed to take my normal super-strength hayfever pills (breast feeding my baby is muchos more important). This has actually helped make this morning an overall positive experience. After two days stuck at home we've had a lovely peaceful time at playgroup, a box full of freebies and a snippet of sunshine. Life is good. Now we just need to win enough cash on the lottery to get that house up and the road and take our minds of OH's impending redundancy. Wish us luck!

My tiny cowboy!

Today I feel I have acheived awesomeness. Having a baby has re ignited my passion for sewing, it started with embroidery as I made blankets and hats for him before he was born. Lead onto the awesome cross-stitch samplers that were finished after he was born so as not to jinx anything and has now culminated in creating whole outfits for the little blighter!! I touched on costume making for MCM, but to be honest that was just a basic alteration of a baby carrier and shop bought yellow clothes, what you see above is a full on mummy-made cowboy outfit. I didn't make the jeans though, we have so many trousers it would have been a waste to make a pair just for the sake of it. I started with the shirt the other day which, I can very proudly say, only took 3 hours from start to finish. It was so simple I'm going to make him some more shirts for day to day wear as he looks adorable in them! I found a simple pattern online and because he's just a wee babby found a piece of brown gingham check in the remnants box at the fabric store that was big enough to do the whole piece, with some left over. Why do I love the remnants box? Because at 50p a piece it means I can go all out and make a full blown cowboy outfit including cowprint waistcoat (yep, remnants box again :o) ) which took me an impressive half hour just adapting the shirt pattern pieces.
Then came the hat. I am so proud of my hour to make cowboy hat! It has pipecleaners in the brim so it can be bent into a cowboy shape, but because it is all felt it's nice and lightweight, definite bonus with a boy who is not too sure about things on his head. The longest part of it was seam stitching by hand, but I think it's well worth it! When I went to try the whole ensemble on Alfred there was very nearly a drool related incident so, after raiding the stash, he had a red & white fleecey lined dribble bib to save the shirt. Goes quite nicely I think. You can't see them in the picture but there are felt cowboy boots, far from perfect but perfectly cute and adequate for a baby who can't even crawl yet!

This is primarily in aid of a friends 4th of July party, but also largely to satiate my love of costume making. So, if you read this post your review below. I think I've done quite well and armed with a stack of patterns ready to go I think my little 'uns gonna look rocking this summer!

I'm no expert and nor are you!

It's always been important to us that Man Cub learns to enjoy or at least tolerate days out, especially in Central London. There's such a wealth of fantastic (and free) things to see and do, all within easy reach of where we live that it would be a waste to never take him into town. Personally, I think we're doing pretty darn well. He's been into central London quite a few times now, twice in the last week! We started him off on Grand Designs Live and MCM ComicCon in May, both of which went down really well despite them being quite busy and quite long tube journeys.
Last Saturday was the City of London's 'Celebrate the City' event which was brilliant, predominantly free and open access to a lot of places you would normally bypass. We visited the market outside the Guildhall, via the Cheapside Fayre of course, where Alfred got absurdly excited about the blacksmiths who had street furnaces and were demonstating their skills very well. The market itself was worth the journey alone, free ice cream, bargain fruit from Kent and other people with their babies in slings!! It sounds mediocre but where we live we get nothing but strange looks and snide comments about the fact I carry my baby. I do of course then sit smugly as those looking at me with such disdain cannot board the first, second or third bus they need because there is no space or are struggling to get through shops and along busy pavements, we stroll past with our Moby all snug and hands-free and a million times more portable! It's sad that it's only in central London we see other baby carriers, even then I've never seen another Moby lots of Asian mothers with Mei Tai carriers and more Baby Bjorn carriers than you could shake a stick at, so maybe we're still a minority. Carrying Alfred on Saturday meant that we were able to get around the Clockamkers museum and the Guildhall Library, where we saw Shakespeare's First Folio and his genuine signature. We also breezed around the amphitheatre underneath the Guildhall Art Gallery and marvelled at John Singleton Copely's
'The Defeat of the Floating Batteries at Gibraltar, September 1782' which is giant and beautiful. We also got to go through the Founders Company Exhibition at St Lawrence Jewry, which is single handly the msot beautiful place I have fed Alfred so far, I wish everywhere we stopped for food had such a glorious things to look at! What was even nicer here is that the vicar came up and asked if we needed anything and offered to find a space to change Alfred if I needed to. It's little kindnesses like that that make the day better! The best bit of the day was the tour of St. Brides' Church, Crypt and Charnel house, perhaps the strangest place Alfred's ever eaten. All in all everyone had a good day, especially Alfred.
Yesterday my Dad and I went up to London for an Auction and general wander. This is where someone announced, quite loudly as I got off the train, how unwise it is to bring a baby into London. Is it? Is it really? We always get on at the end of the line so we're seated, he's always in his sling so we don't take up any extra space and he's effectively harnessed the entire time, in any case he thrives off the attention and adores watching the world zoom past. So why exactly is it unwise to restrict my child's access to the capital? Should I wait until he is older and all the loud noises and smells are strange and scary? Perhaps I should only let him see things in books or on TV? I don't think so, Alfred loved the National Gallery yesterday, thank you Titians exhibition curator!, and cleary enjoyed it more than he does looking at pictures in books. He's four months old and has already seen Buckingham Palace, fabulous hidden city gems, artworks by Van Gogh, Monet and some of the most famous renaissaince art works in this country. So no, badly dressed office worker lady, it not unwise to bring a baby into London. It is stimulating, educational and fun and keep an eye out because we'll being doing it a whole lot more!!

The curses of Mother Nature

I have had one sad little man cub today, and thanks to natural instinct I have had no sleep with which to prepare myself for such a day. Last night was a constant chain of intense baby sneezes, not the cute tiny little sneezes but oh dear god has he given himself whiplash sneezes, and tragically sad noises at the obvious distress he was in. The unwelcome arrival of mucus resulted in bouts of snoring / gasping for air, cue mother nature waking me up at every single snort. By morning everyone was exhausted and quite fed up, especially poor Alfred but we motored on and went out regardless. I've been quite lazy in terms of going out this week and as my Mum's off for a couple of days we decided sitting around the house, feeling sorry for ourselves wasn't going to cut it, so we went to Ikea. Normally everywhere we go Alfred goes in his Moby wrap, I'm shamelessly lazy and the wrap makes life a whole lot easier but given the combination of a baby leaking drool from mouth and nose, mass of bug bites on my back and the inevitable items that would need carrying home we decided to take the pushchair. I have learnt that my pushchair, although lovely, is quite large and I perhaps need to care less about others on public transport in order to enjoy my journey more. Alfred fell asleep on the train in his carriage, a bloody miracle on the Metropolitan line!!, and remained asleep most of the travelling. Halfway round Ikea, he seemed to all of a sudden feel himself again and little smiles came back. Whatever ailment he had seems to have passed quite quickly so we're going to brave playgroup tomorrow.

Aside from that this week has been a bit more subdued, foul weather predictions kept us away from going up to London to see Trooping the colour. We stayed at home where it wasn't chilly, windy, over crowded and at high risk of rain and watched it on the TV. Evidently it is a very exciting bit of programming, I ended up having to build a baby nest so Alfred could sit up and watch and I could actually get some stuff done.

Sunday was Alfred's first fathers day, he cheaped out on the present so I had to pitch in, but I think his daddy had a lovely time. Playing with miniature trains and going for a nice walk around a big ol' lake. The in alws attended too which was nice as they got to spend more one-on-one time with him than they did at the christening, we like to keep these things balanced!!

Monday was disastrous, to the point I ended up pitifully standing in the foyer of my Mother's office building one remark away from full blown weeping. Between the car failing is again, getting stranded half a mile out of town, at a swimming pool that was closed so we couldn't swim, with no pushchair or baby carrier, feeling nauseous from too much tea and melting because I had my swimming costume on underneath my street clothes whilst trying to balance screaming baby and swimming bag (with no nappies other than swim ones I might add) it was too much. Luckily Alfred's daddy saved the day, closely aided by a half price steak and chips lunch.

Tuesday we managed our weekly mammoth walk (about 1 1/2 hours long along a canal) with ease, even though we'd walked the long way to and from playgroup at lunchtime. This is quite impressive for me, even moreso that I refrained from rewarding myself with the lovely cake in the kitchen when I got in! Wednesday we had another photoshoot, Alfred was in one of my favourite outfits, that his Great-Granma sent over the states for him. I really hope the pictures turn out okay, but we have to wait until next Tuesday to find out.

So yeah, that was our week, it feels much more exhaustive than it sounds. But we've learnt valuable lesson this week, like any problem can be solved with a panda, a hug and mummy's boobs.

I think I'm raising a nerd . . .

I should have seen it coming to be honest, having read profusely to Alfred since he was a few days old, watching Star Trek with him and explaining all the gadgets, playing XBox with him and taking him to Comic Con ... it shouldn't be surprised he is showing some nerd tendencies. No interest in fluffy teddy bears but a full blown adoration for books. It's now to the point even just looking at his bookshelf as we choose a book is a very exciting event, it doesn't even have to be his books. My dad was showing him the Medal Yearbook this afternoon, not on most people's shelf admittedly..., and lo and behold a big dribbley paw was reaching out to touch it and all sorts of gurgles and coos were emerging from his mouth. I am quite aware it is just the pictures and the one-to-one time he's into but I love how excited looking at a book gets him. The above book was only bought because he spent a lot of time chatting to it in the shop whilst I was browsing, it's quite a good book to be fair aside from the picture of dismembered teddy bear heads (four of them). And it seems to amuse him enough to justify it's meagre cost, it lasted long enough to clean the living room and start the ironing this morning, check me out talking like a real grown up (it's all a lie fyi).

We've had quite an alright week, it helps having other intensely bored friends from playgroups to while away the time with. We're managing to get out almost everyday, which anyone who has had a child will appreciate is an acheivement with your first at this age and in this weather. Swimming was good this week, Alfred had his daddy joining us as well as two ladies (and corresponding babies) from the NCT group we attend. I'm still getting used to only being in the pool for about half an hour, but it tires him out so much it's well worth it.

Alfred is currently working on his rolling and sitting up, so he's spending more time on mats on the floor as I'm not really feeling a test of the "babies bounce" theory. Between this and the constant stream of noises he chats all day he's quite high maintenance. He's a happy content baby, and relatively easily entertained but in need of near constant entertainment. I am very glad of such a vast library of books and a playgroup every day, I think we'd go absolutely bonkers without it. We definitely have our favourite groups though, namely Monday and Fridays groups. We still get strange looks everywhere we go because he never turns up in a pushchair, alwys in his carry sling, and occasionally he's in a cloth nappy too. I think once people actually talk to us though, realise I'm not some hippy teenager, it gets a bit easier. I don't think we'll ever really fit in at our Wednesday group though, but it gives us something to do!

I'm debating on taking Alfred up to London this Saturday, I'd quite like to see the Trooping the Colour procession, and excitement is apparently contagious with little ones. Now to balance the issues of potential rain and crowds with the awesomeness of seeing the troops trot by, oh and to find some mug to come with me!

Hello Hello

First post, new blog, welcome!

This will be slightly different from my other, very regularly updated, blog in that this is going to be crammed with baby talk. I don't intend to talk about man cub much on the other blog, as most people don't find any interest in other people's children, including me. There is nothing worse than someone who can only talk about what their immaculate darling has done, can do and how very clever they are. I like to think I have a bit more balance, or at least the ability to keep the two separate.

Who am I and who is man cub?

I'm Heather, I'm 23 24 and live in the greater part of London. I have a fabulous husband who I've been married to since April 2011 and intended to remain married to for a super long time, and a quite awesome baby boy, occasionally known as man cub. Man cub was born on March 3rd so at the moment he's just about 3 months old, so starting to get to the interesting stage, he hasn't done a whole lot up to now but with the advent of recognising people, sitting up and making conversationalesque noises he's much more exciting. At the moment our little family of 3 are living with my parents and brother. This makes for a super crowded house but we're hoping to move out as soon as OH can get a better paid job. Fingers crossed eh? It's good for man cub though, he gets all his family around him all the time and we get on hand help and babysitters!

We go to a lot of playgroups, this pretty much fills up our week, we have one every day apart from Thursdays which subsequently becomes a dull day often filled with the inevitable task of washing and such. Although it seems there's a wash going most days right now as we've just completed our switchover to cloth nappies. Now he's a bit more predictable (and less frequent!) it's just as easy to have him in funky poo catchers as crinkly paper, and my inner hippy is quite happy about this. My inner hippy of course doesn't have to suffer the whiff of the nappy bucket after a day or two . . .

We go swimming too, once a week so he gets used to it. I miss my epic swim sessions, find it hard to believe I'm only spending about half hour in the pool at a time now!! I hope he likes swimming, it's a nice thing to be able to do with him, and I don't want him to be one of those loser kids at school who can't swim and is terrified of the water. Monday mornings are nice for swimming, our local pool has an alright tiny pool, frustratingly close to the proper lane pool....

Apart from that we're a fairly ordinary mother and child pairing, frequently out and about with man cub in his moby wrap. Now he's enjoying days out I'm looking forward to just jumping on a train into central London and teaching about cool stuff. Kids are never too young to learn life stuff, like looking at dinosaurs or just sitting in Greenwich park reading books.

Maybe once a week, or after super cool events we'll write a little blog, it's advice of sorts to others out there. Proof even the laziest of people can parent without bottles, disposable nappies and even to a large part a pushchair at the moment (although, check back on that one with me when he's a bit more or a porker!). He's already ridden on many trains of varying sizes and antiquity, been to Grand Designs Live and MCM Expo and has only more excitement to come. This week has been half term so all our playgroups are closed, it's been a funny old week and in all honesty I'll be glad to get back to normal!! Starting with a splish and a splash Monday morning.