silent sunday

back from France

It's been a couple weeks since I have posted because we have been away in France, but I haven't forgotten about my blog! Things are very busy at the moment so this isn't a long post, but I wanted to quickly say that we had a blast in France. I even managed to convince Mr M to drive us over to Spain for a couple nights to explore San Sebastian. 

Nate did amazingly well on the whole trip and while we were away he started to get on all fours and rock back and forth (I think crawling is imminent!); he also started pulling himself up to standing. And what's even better, he slept through the night 3 times well while away (!). Typically, as soon as we got home he started cutting his top right tooth so his sleep has returned to being all over the place. I will do a proper update on all things Nate when he turns 10 months next week. 

Now that the holiday is over, I am ramping up my work days over the next 3 weeks and then I'm permanently back to 4 days per week starting June 3rd. I'm unbelievably sad that maternity leave is now completely and officially over, but I knew it couldn't last forever, nothing does. I'm just grateful for the time I had with my little man. 

And now I will leave you with few of my favourite photos from our trip. 

Fishing huts, St-Palais-sur-Mer, France

La Concha, San Sebastian, Spain

Sunset of La Concha, San Sebastian, Spain

Happy boy

Babywearing in San Sebastian

At the top of Monte Urgull, San Sebastian

Nate's first Merry-Go-Round, San Sebastian

Watching the Giraffes, Zoo de la Palmyre, France

Fun at the Zoo de la Palmyre, France

Crawling practice

silent sunday

nathan - 9 months old

Another month has passed and yet again it has gone quick, quick, quick! Nathan is 9 months old today, three-quarters of the way to being a one-year-old. I think 9 months is a big milestone because now Nate has been in the world for as long as he was in utero. I'm not exactly sure why, but this feels huge to me.

Nate's ninth month has been busy, with family days out and lots of activities. The weather has changed from snow in the beginning of the month to gloriously sunny days at the end. We visited Nate's uncle Rob in Coventry and I started back at work as well, so a lot has happened! 

On our trip to Coventry

So how is Nate doing? Well, Nate is now a clapping machine! He claps whenever he hears music or if we start singing "If you're happy and you know it". It's incredible to see him comprehending something we say and acting on it. I love it. He is also chewing on his cheerios now and actually swallowing them; last month he was only putting them in his mouth and spitting them out, so this is great progress.

If you're happy and you know it...

In terms of movement, Nate is focusing on refining his standing up skills. I am not sure now if he will crawl or walk first because he still cries after being on his tummy for a while. He just hasn't figured out the whole crawling thing. But he can almost pull himself to standing on the sofa. And he loves to stand and play with his new activity table. He does still lunge forward when sitting, but hasn't been able to get into a hands-and-knees position yet.  

Nate still loves to copy sounds and actions. He will try and imitate us when we are speaking to him and really tries to say words, but they all end up sounding like "ba ba". He loves playing with labels and poking round things like holes, buttons, even my nostrils (!) - I am a little weirded out by that one (but maybe it's a normal baby thing?)

Last week we decided that it was time to face Nate outwards when using our stroller. I kept delaying moving him from facing me because I loved staring at his little face when we went on walks, but a few weeks ago I could tell that he was trying to look around me to see what was going on, so I thought it was time. We took him to an antique's fair near our house on his first outward-facing journey and he loved it. 

Off to the antique's fair

We also only yesterday took him out of his baby seat in the bath and put in him an upright bath chair! We knew he was too big for his baby seat for weeks and weeks, but both my husband and I loved his little baby seat and I think we didn't want to admit he had outgrown it. I feel bad now that we kept him in the baby seat for so long because the first time we put him in the chair he had such a blast splashing and playing with his toys.  

"Can't you see I'm clearly too large for this seat?"

There has been no change to his sleeping yet. He is still up once a night, but what I find great is that he goes down very easily at 7pm and usually (but not always) wakes up around the same time for his night feed at 4am-ish. Although not ideal, the fact that the nights are pretty predictable make everything soooo much easier.  I have been told by a breastfeeding supporter that breastfed babies are generally able to go through the night without a feed once they are 10 months old. So I am clinging onto the hope that in a month or two we will all be getting a full night's sleep.

Next week we are off to France for a 2 week holiday in the sun with my husband's parents. We are all so excited to get some quality family time and to show Nate some new places. 

silent sunday

working mum

Oh my goodness, I am exhausted! I have just finished my first week at work. It was only a short 2-day week and I can't believe how tired I feel. 

Typically, after many nights of decent sleeping, Nate had a bad night on Sunday before my first day back, and then an even worse night last night waking at 2.45am for a feed then at 5am...and not going back to sleep!  Maybe he senses that things are different and therefore is waking more? I'm not sure. 

And work itself was intense. They are short staffed (my boss quit a few months ago) and it's our busy period, so as soon as I arrived I was thrown a bunch of difficult tasks. I wasn't even given any time to sift through the hundreds of emails in my inbox. I was sleep deprived, so my mind was all fuzzy and confused and stressed.  I think I stared at my computer screen for 20 minutes at one point trying to figure out a spreadsheet that was actually set up by me last year...I couldn't remember anything, it was so bad! 

Luckily while I was scratching my head and drinking lots and lots of tea (and maybe the odd bar of chocolate), Nate was having a great time with his daddy. They did all sorts of outdoor activities and went to the store and the park. I was glad he was having fun, but I missed him.

When I got home, he seemed happy to see me, but it's hard to know if he really even noticed I was gone. We had a kiss and a hug, and then he went right back to playing with his toys. Although I was hoping he would have noticed me a little more, the fact that he was content without me all day gives me confidence that he will be okay at nursery when he eventually goes.

I have the rest of the week to spend with Nate now and we are going to have some quality mother-son bonding time before I go back for 2 more days next week. 

real nappies (and other thoughts)

I received an email today about Real Nappy Week (15th - 21st April) and it immediately reminded me of this time last year, when I decided to take the plunge and purchase a full set of cloth nappies.

It also reminded me that I haven't posted an update on how we are doing with cloth and what I thought about the Bum Genius Freetime nappies that make up the majority of our stash. So here is a long overdue update.

Overall, I love our cloth nappies. The Bum Genius Freetime nappies are fantastic. I highly recommend them; they are easy to wash and dry, simple to put on, and provide a nice snug fit. We also love the Tots Bots EasyFit nappy and the FuzziBunz Elite nappy (pictured on Nate above at 3 months old). I think if I were to start from scratch with my stash, I would purchase some more velcro nappies. Most of mine have snap enclosures and therefore aren't as adjustable around the waist as velcro. But other than that I love my nappies.

However, I have to admit that we do not use cloth nappies full time. We use disposable nappies at night and also when we are out of the house for more than a few hours. So I would estimate that Nate is in cloth half of the time. 

At first I felt really bad about not using cloth all the time, especially after spending so much money on my stash. But the thing is, since becoming a mother I have learned a lot about myself as a person.  And above all else, I have learned that I am not a person of extremes - I am a moderate when it comes to parenting and probably when it comes to most other things in my life. For example, I baby-wear, but also use a stroller; I co-sleep, but also use a crib; I use cloth nappies, but also disposable nappies; I breastfeed, but Nate has had formula a few times; I do baby-led weaning, but also feed Nate purees; the list goes on. 

Being the moderate, flexible, non-extremist mom that I am has its advantages, I can adapt to situations and do things how I want and in which ever way works best for us. I like to think I'm carving my own path into motherhood rather than following a prescriptive philosophy. But it also means that I don't fit completely into any of the mommy camps out there. I feel like I'm too hippie for the traditional moms and too conservative for the hippie moms. Maybe I should start a "left-of-center mom group for the slightly hippie non-extremists". Who's with me?

Okay, I have now completely deviated from the cloth nappy theme of this post, but hey this is my blog and I can't be bothered to do any editing on a Saturday morning.  

We are off to swim class now. Happy weekend everyone!



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