thank goodness for the micro-blogging sites - given that I don't have the time of energy to write a whole proper post these days. :-)

6.45am on a sunday and I am watching teletubbies. One day someone will have as their claim to fame that they were the baby in the teletubby sun. Now that beats going to school with nerys hughes.

we returned from a nice short break in somerset with the in laws and other ellis family members. a huge lovely house where you can try and convince yourself you are part of the landed gentry. We didn't really achieve much - such is the way of going on holiday with a four month old - but we enjoyed the company and the break. It was liberating to be without too much technology - and made me realise how much time I waste on the internet when at home 9as I am doing at this present time) however I also realise how much I use the internet - not only as a tool to "do" things, but to keep me company in the daytime when i am isolated at home. In a timely fashion I enjoyed watching a programme last night where a family had all their technology stripped away and then returned to them in order of time over the last few decades - http://www.bbc.co.uk/electricdreams/about.shtml
All this has made me realise I need to do less surfing and do more activity. I could write soooo much more but on that note, the boy has woken and I must go.....

weaning begins

baby news month 4... so today we tried baby rice (well Ben tried it, I had stir fry thank you very much!). Seemed to go down ok so that was another step towards a grown up little boy. Ben has also discovered the delights of his feet, and that he can reach them and hold them very cute but seriously distracting when trying to feed him.

Ok so I'm totally biased but.... how gorgeous is he - and how great a photographer is my hubbie. This was taken at about 6.30am one morning this week when I'd chucked (not literally) Ben in a new outfit after the other one was a bit damp - he's had really bad cradle cap/eczema on his head so I threw on the matching hat even though it looked a little twee. Then I threw him at Paul to look after whilst I grabbed some cereal adn he took this photo!

Apart from being seriously cute in photos this week Ben decided he now quite likes being on his front and pushes himself up, he also has taken to arching his back in a stroppy toddler fashion - oh deep joy.

Teeth? teeth? for goodness sake...

the little man as produced two teeth. couldn't tell you exactly when as I am one seriously unobservant mother but I think it was only in the last day or so. He has been chewing on everything under the sun, and had red cheeks this week which, I appreciate, looking back, allows for more signposts than a Midsomer Murder's storyline but I was of the (clearly erroneous) opinion that teeth didn't come for bloody ages.

apparently not. they can come now according to Master Ellis. Guess that explains the grumpy moods this past week (I just though he was practising for his teenage years). he has one very obvious tooth come through on his bottom gum and another one next to it on its way. so I shut the proverbial gate following the bolting of the horse and bought some teething gel - the look on his face when I put it in his mouth was hilarious - god only knows how he will respond when I start feeding him proper food soon.

That's the next mental challenge. god -you just get over one hurdle and its straight onto the next. Now I've got my head around cloth nappies we now have to start reading up on weaning and purees. what a minefield. still, I will aim to be the earth mother and spend my life pureeing avocado for my little darling (though he will never know that mushrooms exist as long as he lives in our house). guess that's the next ebay obsession - weaning equipment. still - given I have raised a fair few funds in selling stuff on ebay these past few weeks I have a pot of money to play with. PLUS I have my winnings from the races. ah the justification.....

In other (non baby) news - is there any such thing ? - it seems possible that a work opportunity may have landed right in my lap. It may be too early to tell but there's a chance I could land myself some part time HR manager work nice and locally without even dusting off my cv. keep your fingers crossed for me folks, its possible that Fate may be working its magic once more.....

a year ago this weekend....

I found out I was pregnant, and then had to go out in cardiff on a hen night dressed as geri halliwell. Hey ho!

How life has changed this past year but in ways I couldn't have ever imagined would be so wonderful. I'm sat in on a friday night with no real prospect of ever going out again, no likelihood of getting through a whole bottle of red wine on my own again, planning a week in somerset with the inlaws rather than a long-haul jaunt to the Far East or Australia, and spending my day changing nappies rather than talking employment law. but I love it :-)
Our little boy is so fantastic, he makes me smile each and every day and I'm really enjoying being a mum.

sleep and visitors

Well we returned to the world of swaddling having bought a bigger piece of swaddling material - and it's having a positive effect. He's still up in the night but its only really once and we're feeling a lot more in control. He was really giggling at times this week which is great. I had a visit from the nappy lady this week - who works for the local authority promoting reusable nappies. She confused me a little and I need to do some more reading up but I now have a pile of different nappies to try out and possibly look to buying some to prevent a landfill disaster of my own making.
Paul's parents came this weekend and were brilliant at looking after Ben and giving us a little time to ourselves.

am getting into the swing of things a little bit more now, and have been out and about doing things and meeting up with people. One thing I have noticed is that Ben doesn't do shopping. He's ok with supermarket shopping but if I take him in his pram into a small shop, he invariably starts to cry, and then as soon as we come out he cheers up. I thought it might be that he gets hot but even if I take off his blanket etc to make sure he is cooler he still grizzles. I think it's something his father has taught him to reduce my spending habits. grrrrr

Ben has really brightened up over the past 10 days and is noticing more, smiling and laughing and interacting with us. It really is brilliant and makes this parenting lark much more fun! He is settling down well in the evening, which means we now have some time to ourselves but unfortunatly this doesn't seem to continue through the night, so we're suffering from a severe lack of sleep. Still - it will pass and hopefully by the time he is 18 he will be sleeping through!

MORE baby stuff

Oh god, I remember a time when this blog contained witty repartie (is that how you spell it?)and tales of international travel and living the high life (ok - the witty 'repartie' may not be entirely accurate but there was a fair bit of travel). Now it's nappies and Gina Bloody Ford. But to be honest, I quite like it like that so either you're going to have to get used to it or you need to delete me from your blog-roll :-)

So - latest is some pictures of Ben are up on Flickr - see the side bar. We've really noticed a change this week in him actually paying attention to the mobile in his room and the dangling "things" that hang from his playgym and his chair/pram. it's weird how these little steps are so exciting, but they are.

Beats interviewing and disciplining employees for a living anyway (for now anyway!)

More dull baby updates soon.

ps....

if anyone is interested I am more keen on the Baby Whisperer general approach which goes by the EASY steps - Eat Activity Sleep You - except Ben seems to have his preference to ESESESESES well, activity is for wimps eh!!

all baby related posts from now on.....

I keep trying to start a post and then get waylaid by the little man, such is the world of motherhood I guess - that and one handed typing and the inability to do capital letters cos that involves pressing two different keys at opposite sides of the keyboard at the same time. He's currently swaddled up nicely and asleep in the moses basket but that won't last much longer so I will need to be brief!

All going ok, the boys seem to be over the worst of their colds so we are back to "normality" although we've not really yet had normality after having a few weeks with paul on paternity, then Christmas, the everyone being ill. This is the first week that Paul has been at work all week and I;ve been on my own. The Snow has prevented me from getting our and about but I quickly learned to accept it and have just pratted about the house and played on the internet and watched lots of This Morning (I do like Holly and Phil I have to say :-))

So now Ben is 6 weeks old and he really is a little star. he's a very amiable soul and I can't imagine not having him around now. He has started to smile at us a little (ok so it could be wind but we're taking it as smiling) which melts you heart it really does. The breastfeeding is going ok too which I'm really proud of. We've hit the point where we start to dilemma about "routines" and whether or not we need to force one or allow things to progress naturally. I think we will be taking the half way point of trying to get into some kind of bedtime routine but other than that I can't really see how I can structure the daytime stuff when I am not a structured person myself. The one obvious thing to both of us is that Ben is not a morning person (can't understand why..... being the product of us two!!!!). If we can move bedtime slightly earlier then he may be more of a morning person - and if we are lucky we might get to the point of him sleeping a little more at night. It all went a bit out of the window when he got ill so we've been trying to get back on track this week with variable success - after returning to the swaddling, we had 2 good nights but followed by two not so great nights. Still, time will tell. We've been reading various books and posts on babycentre/mumsnet - and the only obvious answer is that there is no one answer. This we realised quickly in hospital when the doctor who was checking over Ben told us to put a hat on him, and then a midwife 30 mins later told us he didn't need a hat indoors! Everyone has an opinion eh!

So, in light of that, it was interesting to that there has been a debate about Gina Ford in the headlines following Nick Cleggs comments to the Times. It's certainly poles apart from my preferred style of child-caring techniques, thought I appreciate that for some it may work. But all credit to Nick Clegg for actually sounding like a human being and a real parent and actually giving an honest opinion. We've certainly not cracked it yet with Ben so I should be careful what I say in case I have to eat my words but Gina would definitely be a last resort on my list, well after all the other books I have bought from the charity shop/borrowed from the library (and that includes Ginas as I wanted to at least understand her approach).

So, back to Ben - it's not the end of the world that he's not a long sleeper - he's happy and healthy and only 6 weeks old. That said, if anyone has got any tips on how they got their little ones to sleep longer at night I'm open to all suggestions....

coughing sneezing and wheezing

we've had 4 lovely weeks getting to know Ben and trying to get the hang of this parenthood thing. Still not quite sussed it out and have realised that this will be the case from now on as theres no right answers.
Ben has caught the cold that I had earlier in the week - as has Paul. It's worrying being the parent of a 4 week old as it is, without the additional worry of them having a cold. He's snuffling and sneezing his way through the day, when he's not zonked out sleeping. It's partly nice cos we get to sit with him all day in front of the TV so we can watch him like a hawk but its also shattering as I am so worried at night time. Hopefully he'll get over it quickly and be back to his normal cheery self.