London, From A Mum's Point of View

I loved London. The Big Smoke was one of the few cities in this country that I would have relocated to. Had the opportunity arose, I would have packed my life away and joined the rat race without giving it a second thought.

That was then, and now you couldn't pay me to give up my lovely home, or my beautiful son. Because living in London for me will mean leaving my son behind. Sounds harsh doesn't it? Well that's the conclusion I've made after my first trip to the city with my little boy. The mad rush, the escalators, the stairs. Where are the lifts? Forget people with pushchairs for a second, how do wheelchair users get around? Elderly people? Pregnant ladies! Is there a secret fund that pays for them to be chauffeured around the city? Oh wait, there's buses. You don't fit the criteria of the underground so you can't get to your destination as quickly as the rest of us. Go plonk yourself on a bus and see you in an hour. 

I don't expect most people to see where I'm coming from, especially as I'm only seeing it now. I was one of those blind dumb asses running around madly in love with London. Then I opened my eyes. I realised how rude people are, how inconsiderate they are. All they care about is getting on that damn tube and reaching wherever they need to be. 

My mischievous little boy must have picked up on the fact that mummy was stressing, so he was on his best behaviour. In actual fact he wasn't even bothered by London and slept through most of his trip, very unusual for him as he loves new places. Not so fussed by this one though. 

My rant aside, we did manage to make it to the Magnum Store in Covent Garden where we personalised our own Magnum ice creams. I went for brownie, honeycomb and coconut flakes. 

Baby A decided to wake up for M&M  World which he thoroughly enjoyed and we brought him a teddy bear from Harrods as a souvenir. 

Overall a good family trip away, just a shame that I didn't find the people of London and the city itself very child friendly. 

H x 

Life Changes: Returning To Work

Some of you may know that I am due to return to work shortly. This means that like most working  parents, we now face the difficult decision of who will look after our little gremlin while we are at work. 

We've explored most avenues and hit many brick walls. There's the busy grandparents who are adamant that they will be having bubba, but at 10 months old he is everywhere, and therefore can be quite a handful. Ask me, I spend my days chasing around after him and taking a breather when he finally goes down for a nap. 

We've spent weeks going round in circles. Yes he's definitely going to nursery, but then again maybe he'll be happier with the grandparents...but it will restrict them from going out and doing their things. My head has been a total mess these past few weeks. I knew we'd be taking out a second mortgage by sending him to nursery, and that's only part-time. So we bit the bullet and started settling him in at nursery two weeks before he would start, and what an emotional roller coaster that has been. For myself and my poor little boy! Five sessions later and there's still tantrums and years, from mother and baby. 

How can we justify paying a fortune for childcare when the little gremlin doesn't even settle. He's the happiest little boy who can entertain himself very easily at home. Always exploring, climbing things, going for all the things he shouldn't be going for, but never screaming and crying the way he does when he goes to nursery. Apparently this will happen for a good few weeks, or even months before he finally adapts to life at nursery. How cruel is that. As a mother I can't sit there and listen to my baby crying, I can't drive to work without worrying about how upset he is, let alone completing a full day's work and then getting back to collect him. 

I know that all mums go through this when the returning to work transition begins, I just don't know how they do it. I'm very weak when it comes to my son, I've even thought about packing in nursery altogether and relying on family members to pull together and look after him for a few days a week. That's fine as a temporary arrangement, but after a few weeks or months temporary arrangements just won't cut it. 

Nursery offers me the stability and guaranteed childcare, that's why I refer to it as a second mortgage. I just wish it didn't have to upset my little bubba so much in the process. 

I hope he can forgive me for abandoning him while he's still so young. 

H x 

I'm The Mum Who....

Thank you to firstooth for nominating me to write a post titled 'I am the Mum who...'

So here it is, dedicated to my little boy who in the space of 10 months has turned the least maternal person into the most devoting mum.

I am the mum who:

• Said I wouldn't spoil you, and then I took you to Toni and Guy for your haircut when you were just a few months old.

• Wasn't prepared for motherhood in the slightest, and now I can't imagine my life before I became a mum. 

• Cooks all your meals from scratch because I don't want to feed your jars 

• Cried with you when you had colic and were teething 

• Speaks to you when we are out, and people think I'm talking to myself, oops. 

• Is battling this separation anxiety so that we are both ok when I go back to work

• Has become a rubbish wife/sister/daughter/Aunty because I want to be the best mother

• Misses having a spotless house 

• Wondered what I did with all my time before you came along...?

• Forget to eat because I have 101 things to do that are more important 

• Is still baffled as to how a tiny being can impact our lives so much. You can't even speak yet, how do you influence my daily activities you little gremlin! 

• Hope you fulfill your wildest dreams, and even some of mine that I probably won't get around to fulfilling! (No pressure) 

• Finally understands what unconditional love is.

Most importantly, I'm the mum who now appreciates what my parents went through whilst bringing up me and my siblings. I now understand that when my rents say that parents only want what's best for their children, they actually mean it! 

Dear Mummy-to-be

I wish I had realised how much my life would change after I became a mum. I like to think that I made the most of the time that I had to myself, although there's a few things I probably would have done while I had the time (sorting out the spare room is just one of the jobs I will probably never get round to doing now)

It's taken me a while to actually think back to this time last year and recall what I did with my time. 

I never really took much notice of people when they told me that I wouldn't get as much time to myself after I have a baby. I thought they were exaggerating, that's how gullible I was. 

So here's a list of things that I enjoyed doing before I was running around after my little gremlin. 

If you're a mummy-to-be please take note. Enjoy! 

• Indulge in long soaks in the bath. If you're struggling to sleep then this bath soak from Mum and Me will work wonders for you, it has camomile in it and really relaxes you if you have a bath before bedtime.

• Have as many lie-ins as you can. I've always been an early bird, one of those annoying people who's body clock wakes them up super early even at the weekends. Boy do I miss my rare lie-ins now. I won't scare any sleep lovers by revealing my daily wake-up time....

• Catch up with your girls. Have movie nights, dinner, or just a good ol' chinwag. It's nice to see your friends, even nicer without a cheeky gremlin in tow who steals all the attention. 

• Date nights! What's that again? Oh yeah I remember now. Squeeze in a date night as often as you can. Cook together, eat together, go to the movies, go out for a meal. I don't mean to sound so bossy but surely you can feel my frustration. If not for yourself then do it for me! Hubby's long working hours + bubba's early bedtime = no date nights for us. So enjoy them while you can, it's easier to arrange a date night when you're not worrying about babysitters etc. 

• Pamper yourself. Get your hair done, treat yourself to a facial, paint your nails. Indulge in some beauty therapy, if that's your thing. You'll look and feel fabulous, more importantly you'll look every inch the yummy mummy once your bundle of joy comes along. 

• Retail therapy! This is probably the last thing on your mind, but if you like to get dressed up and look nice (which most of us do) then buying a few outfits for your post baby wardrobe is a sensible idea. No need to spend a fortune, just a few pieces that you can slip into when you are out with bubba. Take it from someone who has had just a few wardrobe related meltdowns since becoming a mum. It's nice to have something new, and clean to wear when you're out and about showing off your baby (who happens to have reflux, but that's another story for a different day) 

• Finally, devote time to your hobbies. Whether that's reading, painting, cooking, baking, sunbathing. Whatever you like doing in your spare time, do it  while you have some spare time. Newborn babies require a lot of your attention and if you are anything like me then you will probably forget what you enjoyed doing before you became a mum. Luckily it doesn't last forever, once babies get into a routine then you will have time to do the things you love.

Hope this has helped, and not scared any mumy's-to-be too much!

H x 

The C Word

This one is for new parents, or anyone who is interesting in reading about just one of the challenging aspects of becoming a new parent.
I had never heard of colic before, I never imagined that newborn babies could cry so much, and so loud. I have never felt so helpless in all my life.
I went through childbirth, my little boy was circumcised, he endured the pain of teething, but it's the colic that was the hardest thing to deal with, for us first time parents and our newborn baby.
I'm not an expert on colic, but having done my research I feel that I know my fair bit.
For the best part of eight weeks my baby cried, constantly for several hours every night. His face was bright red, his screech was so loud and comforting him seemed impossible. He was healthy, taking down his milk without a problem (despite having reflux) and was a happy baby during the day.

My advice for dealing with colic:

• Massage your baby's tummy. Move the legs in the bicycle motion.
• Invest in Dr Brown's bottles: Online retailers
• Ask your doctor about colief
• Ask your doctor about Infacol 
• As soon as your baby turns 4 weeks start giving them gripe water 
• Keep soothers, comforters, massage oil at hand so you are prepared when colic related crying strikes
• To avoid exhaustion, sleep when your baby sleeps. This way you can be ready for your ear drums to burst when the little one decides to have a colic crying fit. 

The following websites have some great (professional) advice for colic:

babycentre.co.uk
netmums.com
Bupa.co.uk 

The first few weeks of parenthood are exciting, amazing, tiring and very challenging. That's in any case, with colic the tiredness, stress and exhaustion is doubled. There is no quick fix for colic, but the suggestions that I have given helped me to be in as much control of the crying as possible. Sometimes it reduced the crying, other times i didn't make any difference. But I was in control, I was doing something and I didn't feel like a useless mum while my baby was crying his eyes out.

On the off chance that someone has found an instant cure for colic, please let me know.