Early Waking

Wow, it's one thing after another with these babies isn't it!!!

My new issue is now early waking. From about 8 weeks my daughter slept through the night, which is very fortunate. She went down about 9.00pm and woke around 7.00am. That then changed to going down around 7.00pm and still waking around 7.00am. Which was heaven after all the frantic feeding of the early days.

Unfortunately things have now changed again. Maria is consistently waking earlier and earlier. First it changed to 6.30am then 6.00am and now anywhere between 5.00 and 5.30. Grreaaatttt.... I have tried:

1) Putting her down later. Didn't work.
2) Introducing a dream feed at 10.30pm - that makes no difference either.
3) Tiring her out in the day with lots of outings and visiting. Nope that didn't work.
4) Limiting her daytime sleep to strictly no more than 3 hours. Nahhhhh....
5) Making sure she settles herself to sleep (see posting 'Should a baby be left to cry?') No, No, No.

What is worse is that even after I have fed her she still doesn't want to go back to sleep! It's official my daughter doesn't want to sleep unless it purely on her terms!

Any ideas as to how to get her to sleep 'til 7.00am are greatly appreciated!

Should a baby be left to cry?

My daughter is now three and a half months old and is currently rocked to sleep on nearly every occasion.

Having spoken to other mums and reading books such as Gina Ford Contented Baby I have come to realise this approach may cause me problems in the future. Unfortunately my daughter doesn't like to sleep. She will have a good moan about it - even in the pram when I am out and about (passers by saying 'arhhh, she's hungry' which really annoys me cos she isn't!). If I try to put her in her cot when she is dozy or not completely asleep she will normally cry until I pick her up again then she falls asleep. She has slept through the night from 6 weeks so I didn't think I was doing anything wrong. Until now...

She is starting to wake in the night and is not settling herself back to sleep. She may be hungry which seems to be the case but it has highlighted the problem of me only being able to get her to sleep by rocking.

Health visitors and Gina recommend putting your baby down in their cot when their eyes are flicking and they are dozy. Then if they cry (and you are sure they aren't crying for food, winding or nappy) then allow them to until they fall asleep (but not letting them cry for more than 5-10 mins). I never liked the idea of that but now it is becoming apparent that a) my back can't take the rocking anymore and b) she needs to learn to settle herself (especially if she wakes in the night and it isn't for food).

So what is right? I think it is all a question of choices. I love rocking my baby to sleep but I can't do it forever! I may have to limit the amount of time I rock her now... as hard as it is for me and her!

Feedback on Pliko Pramette... so far!

I thought I should give a bit of feedback on my Mamas and Papas Pliko Pramette.

So far I have used the pram and the Primo Vaggio car seat. I feel that the car seat is a) too heavy b) too upright for my baby (i.e she pukes every time I put her in it) and c) does not adequately shelter her from the weather when I use it as an infant carrier. Additionally fitting it in my car and threading the seat belt through the back of the chair is really awkward... oh and clipping the handle in place is difficult too. So all in all not impressed with the car seat. A lot of my fellow mums all seem to have a 'Maxi-Cosi', and they do look cosi too! Although I am not sure of the age they can be used until. The Primo Vaggio can be used until your child is 9kg (approx one and a half stone).

As for the pram - I use it an awful lot and nothing has broken! It is good in the shops as the wheels spin any direction, it is light and looks cool! On the down side the pram seems to dip at the head end (my mum continually complains!). I have checked the manual many times and it is not a construction error on my part. It just dips!?! Also it is not very cushioned so I have to place a blanket under my baby. Another negative it the pram has to be converted to the pushchair to collapse down which is awkward when sticking it in the car.

So if you are considering buying the Pliko Pramette make sure you consider these negatives... by the way a friend of mine bought a Bugaboo and complains about that too so maybe moaning is a mum thing!

Gotta go - screaming child!

Wow... 3 months old!

So I have been totally useless at blogging since the arrival of my beautiful daughter Maria. Free time is scarce and when I do have it I often like to pass the time washing up (that was a joke by the way).

Today I have mislaid my phone and unable to text friends in my spare ten mins therefore I have come to my blog to do a well needed blog entry!

Last weekend just passed we went to a wedding and took Maria. It was her first weekend away and I have to say she was very very good considering how old she is. The problem really was with her parents! It took us all day Friday to pack. When you pack for a three month old you literally have to pack everything INCLUDING the kitchen sink. The car was packed with everything from Calpol to Cheeky Monkey (Maria's fav toy... or is that daddies?).

We hit the road missing the rush hour traffic by a full five minutes. Yay. As soon as we got to the end of our road we were sitting in traffic. The traffic continued on the M25 and then to the M40. Four hours later, after a feed and freshen up in Macdonalds (not just Maria) we arrived in Ettington near Stratford on Avon. Maria's routine was completely shot to pieces but at least the journey was cry less as she slept most of the way. Peace comes at strange times!

The wedding went well and the only thing I forgot was the washing up liquid to wash up Maria's bottles. Minor thing. We had to drive half an hour to find civilisation (a shop that is) and found some good 'ol Fairy Liquid. I am glad we travelled up early in the end, even if it was a bit of a mission.

Right, Miss Maria is stirring and I am not even dressed yet so best I stop wasting time on this!

I will try and update a bit more regularly now as Maria's Gran is in Egypt and will want regular updates on her grand daughters progress!

Also Net, if you read this today, thanks for lending me your dress! Will talk soon xx

Apologies for the delay in postings!

OH MY GOD... parenting is seriously HARD work. This is why I still haven't written the all important 'birth posting' yet... I just can't seem to find the time.

Fear not though, I have started it and will post as soon as my child decides to unlatch herself from my breast. Sorry to be honest but its the truth!

So, posting on the birth to follow (kinda) shortly... if you want a bit of info in the mean time go to my husbands blog at www.firetop.co.uk.

Maria Madison Peskett - Welcome to the World!

On Sunday 2nd July at approximately 11am whilst making bacon sandwiches and applying brown sauce to them my waters broke. No it wasn't a gush - more like incontinence!

I called up to Matt who was thrilled as waiting around for 'something to happen' was proving to be quite boring for us both. I telephoned the hospital who surprisingly asked me to visit the hospital for a check up. I was surprised by this as I know that normally they just tell you to stay at home and wait for the contractions to start but they said as they weren't busy to come to the day unit for a check up.

When we arrived at the day unit it was confirmed that my waters had broken and they also told me that my baby's head was not engaged. Doh. I had been aware of this previously but had been hoping this was quite normal and would change once my waters broke. No such luck. I was told I had to stay in for observation which was not good news... it didn't fit with my 'vision' that I had unintentionally started to create.

The following two days was spent on Burstow ward waiting for a spot on the delivery suite to become free so I could be induced. It was a tiring two days as it was spent in a noisy ward with crying babies, slamming doors and emergency buzzers. Additionally I had been experiencing tightenings throughout both nights which I had hoped was labour... lol - I now know those tightenings were nothing compared to the real thing which is a shame as I was thinking I was well hard and had a really high pain threshold... as if!

Finally on the third day I was found a bed in the delivery suite and told I was to be induced. Baby's head still wasn't engaged and I had been informed that this normally resulted in a cesarean section. Great, after all my fears it looked like my worse nightmare could again be a reality. I cried. I was knackered after not sleeping for two nights and now I was to face labour with only two pieces of dried toast in my tummy! Eak - I was told I couldn't eat because of the possibility of Cesarean. Great. I had packed tonnes of my favourite sweets and chocolate to see me through labour and now I had to watch Matt eating it all! GGGRRRRRRR!!!

As I recollect the events leading up to the birth of Maria I realise that I have started to 'bury' a lot of what happened that day as it was not the experience I had wanted. I think child birth is such a lottery... it can go easy as pie or as difficult as dog sh8t (is there such a term!?). I was a bit unlucky.

You may have read my husbands blog entry of the birth (www.firetop.co.uk) so I will just summarise and say that it was a difficult birth and one that had no relation to my birthing plan that you are told to write (a stupid idea if you ask me). The midwife actually laughed at my Fairy-Tale-Birthing-Plan... the only part I was able to keep to was bouncing on the birthing ball!

As my labour was 'managed' (I was being induced with a drip) I was offered an epidural from the start to which I declined. I laboured for 6 hours with just the gas and air as pain relief. Gas and air is a bit like getting drunk or stoned... it's OK and I felt it helped me through the contractions (it could even be described as a bit of a distraction from the pain).

After six hours it was discovered that I had not dilated at all and my waters actually hadn't brocken (yay to the NHS!). At this point they were brocken and I was labouring again but was told it was looking like a C-section. The contractions were becoming very strong so I accepted the offer of an epidural mainly so that I could be concious should I need an emergency cesearean. I am glad I did as that is what I ended up having.

The epidural was FANTASTIC! As in it completely kills the pain of the contractions, for me the pain was it being administered. The pain was excruciating and I screamed out for the first time since being in labour! Looking back we think that the needle had been inserted in my spine before the anesthetic had kicked in (yay to the NHS!).

After another three hours labouring a new doctor came into the suite and decided to up my syntoxin levels stupidly high which resulted in my womb hyper-stimulating (through having to many contractions). This starved oxygen to my baby therefore her heart beat being lost.

The next half hour was probably the worst of my life. Alarm bells rang, people ran around me madly doing all sorts of stuff to me (all of which I couldn't feel as the epidural numbs you) all in preparation for my emergency c-section. Matt and I looked at each other both with tears in our eyes as the midwives and doctors gathered around me frantically searching for my baby's heartbeat. Luckily it came back and the rest is history!

Being a mum is time consuming and darn hard work hence it's taken me nearly a month to write this posting! I could go into loads more detail but I wouldn't want to put anyone off! Just make sure if you want children you are prepared to loose your life for a while! It will be worth it though...

:-)

One Week To Go... How I Spend My Time

Over the past week I have mainly been filling my time with social engagements involving eating. What I try and do is plan one activity/arrangement a day (no more, no less). This enables me to have the enthusiasm to get out of bed and dressed. Sad hey!?

So last Wednesday I went to Bumps 'n' Babes. This is another NCT arranged event which, you guessed it, involves eating. What happens, as the title hints to, is a group of NCT'ers gather with their baby or bump and eat, drink and talk about parenthood. When I arrived at 2.00pm on Wednesday afternoon in Viva in Dorking I was the only one there! Luckily I spotted a friend who happened to be there and before long a few of the members of my NCT group luckily turned up as arranged. It was strange to see the 'before and after' of it all... little babies being fed and us fatties staring in disbelief at the future to come. I did enjoy it though - especially the banoffee pie ;-)

Later on in the week I saw my boss for lunch (see, food again). It was nice to hear about my work place but I naturally feel quite distanced from that life at the moment. I can't really say I am missing it yet, but I know I will.

Something else I like to do a lot more of these days is sssssss......sleep (ah-ha, bet you were wondering what 'S' word I was going to say there!). I am being told to rest as much as possible at the moment as A) you won't get much time to rest once 'Bob' arrives and B) I have read that a well rested mum has an easier labour than a tired one. Makes sense really.

It is impossible for me to sleep right through the night now (it is true what they say that your body gets you ready for sleepless nights!). I usually attempt to get to sleep at 11.30 ish but this is normally not the case as I have to have at least three journeys to the toilet to empty my bladder before I can even attempt sleep. This means I lay there wide awake and listen to my X-box addicted husband playing 'Lost Planet' until I get moody and go downstairs and just have a random moan at him for no real reason apart from I can't sleep. Yeah, I know, it's mean! He is used to it! At this early hour of the morning (normally 1.30ish) he usually decides to come to bed too and that strangely helps me to sleep. Then it's interrupted sleep all night long until about 10.00 when my belly grumbles and 'Bob' must get the fright of his life as I bet it's a lot louder in there! So due to the very interrupted sleep pattern I have another 1-2 hours sleep at some point during the day.

Today I wandered around Waitrose in a little bubble of contentment as everyone around me seemed in such a rush. It is a nice thing to experience... not having a time limit, not really having much of a shopping list (not one that requires a trolley anyway!), not worrying about how fattening everything is that is being put in my trolley. My only real concern was not to get anything too heavy as I can't carry it. Then I got home, ate and slept.

So there you have it, just in case you were wondering what I am up to... ;-)