Let the Adventure begin!

Baby weaning, ahhhh!  The thought of it fills me with dread.  Mental images of my baby and kitchen caked in bright orange mush with spaghetti draped over the chairs have been plaguing me for weeks.  I've put it off as long as possible but with the dreaded 6 month deadline looming in the way too near future, I've had to accept the inevitable; I can't breastfeed this baby forever! 

So yesterday, after I was given a horrified look by my health visitor when I told her that Baby Marshmallow hadn't started on solid foods yet (they ARE still recommending that babies are exclusively breastfed for 6 months mind you) I decided to see if Baby M wanted to join in at dinner time.  By the end of the meal my kitchen didn't quite look like my over dramatic mental images but I did have a baby covered in cucumber seeds and a table littered with gnawed on carrots and slimy cucumber carcases.  And one very proud baby, he LOVED it! 

We're going to try Baby Led Weaning this time around, I'll keep you posted!  

The Art of Multitasking

Why is it that women are always expected to multitask?  Because we have to.  Things would just never get done otherwise.  Yesterday I managed to mop the kitchen floor, start a new load of laundry and fold a load of laundry all while playing with Baby Marshmallow.  This has taken years of practice to master though.  Practice born out of necessity.  Example:

Baby M and I arrived back from dropping Livylu off at school yesterday.  He was screaming blue murder because it was milk o'clock and I was doing the wee wee dance.  My pelvic floor muscles are still on maternity leave and although tempted to invest in adult diapers, I am not quite that desperate yet.  Yesterday though I WAS desperate to use the toilet.  So, in that position what is a mother to do?  It's simple.  While unstrapping the child from the stroller, you simultaneously get a boob out, latch him on and race to the bathroom.  Everyone is happy.  Yes I could leave the baby to cry for a minute or just wet myself but why? 
Perhaps I should multitask now and do some kegels......

There's a baby in the gym!

Yes, that's right Baby Marshmallow and I went to the gym this morning!  It wasn't as successful as I had hoped, I only managed just over 2 miles before the milk monster started screaming, but it's hard running with full jugs anyway!  I was pleased that my 7 mile run on Saturday hadn't completely crippled my and have made a promise to myself to try and go again on Friday. 

Santa brought me a Nike + wristband for Christmas and the fact that I can compete with friends and track my progress is proving to be the motivation I need to throw my shoes on and get back  on the road.  Perhaps I'll manage a race or 2 this year! With 5 weeks of beautiful NJ summer weather to look forward to I need to get my bikini bod back ASAP!

New Year non-resolutions

First of all, Happy New Year! I'm not entirely sure where 2011 went but looking back it wasn't too bad of a year for us.  Baby marshmallow is now 5 months old and a very chubby bunny, Livylu is 5 1/2 and has a busier social life than me, my darling husband is working non stop to help me support my ebay habit and I am completely embracing my new stay-at-home mommy status!  Mind you I'm not completely work free, there is the small responsibility of the 5 other children I look after before and after school.  I look like Julie Andrews doing the school run, perhaps I should teach them to sing...


 

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2 more weeks

Well, it's official!  I'm 38 weeks pregnant which means that any day now I could have a new baby!  I'm extremely excited to meet my little one but at the same time I don't think that it feels real sometimes that I am going to have a baby.  Just about everything is ready, baby clothes are washed, bags are packed and family and friends are on standby to look after Livylu... all I need now is for baby to be ready to make a move! 

I'm only allowed to go 12 days over, which means that by the 17th of August I will absolutely have a baby.  There are a few problems with this though.  First being that I'm extremely impatient and will probably go nuts once my due date hits, second- my Birthday is on the 16th and I don't want to be in the hospital or preparing to go to the hospital on my birthday and third - my parents come on the 5th for 2 weeks, which means that they go home on the 18th... they could potentially miss meeting their grandchild! 

I belong to an online birth board and a number of ladies on there have been talking about ways to induce labor naturally.  I've done a little of my own research into this and am still both very skeptical and wary about some of these methods.  They range from aromatherapy to eating certain foods.  Some are simply Old Wives tales and some have medical backing.  I must say that I am more inclined to try to Old Wives tales than some of the others because I don't see them as potentially harmful or even possible.  For this reason I've had curry for dinner the past 2 nights!  Delicious, but so far ineffective. 

Some of the other methods I've read about include:

Aromatherapy
    Certain essential oils are meant to help induce labor.  These include Clary Sage, jasmine and lavender

Raspberry Leaf Tea
    Is meant to help by softening the cervix and preparing the uterus, it is said to make labor quicker and less painful

 Nipple stimulation
    I believe is meant to release a chemical in the body called oxytocin which is said to encourage contractions

Sex
     Yes, apparently the way the baby got there in the first place is also supposed to help and get it out!  Not only can an orgasm help to start uterine contractions by causing the release of oxytocin but semen contains prostaglandins, which are said to help ripen the cervix.

Eating Spicy foods
    The theory behind this one says that the spicy foods will irritate the intestines causing them to go into spasm, because of the proximity of the intestines to the uterus this could help to start contractions.


I am at the point now where I am quite happy to allow things to progress naturally without too much encouragement.  Perhaps in another 2 weeks I'll start trying a few of them...

Am I in labor?

Ok, so yes this is my second baby but last time I was induced.  I didn't have any of the worries about where my waters would break and how I would get to the hospital so this time it's freaking me out.  I like to have a plan and know how things will pan out and while I know this is completely impossible with something like a natural birth I still want to know how it's going to happen. 

The thing is, even when I was being induced I didn't realize that the period-like pains I was experiencing were contractions.  I had read books and atteneded the antenatal classes but I still didn't think anything of it.

So now everytime I get a twinge I start wondering "Is this it?"  The last thing I want to do is take numerous unnecessary trips to the hospital but at the same time I want to make sure that I get there in plenty of time. 

Because I will be treated for Group B strep when I go into labor my midwife has advised me to call the hospital when I go into labor and to head to the hospital when my contractions are 15 minutes apart.  Ok, so there's a plan but unfortunately I'm not very good about keeping track of things... like my period for example.  Some people know when theirs will come down to the hour, I usually have about a 7 day window of when I expect it.  This very problem led to my midwife and I having conflicting ideas of when baby would be due... I am happy to say that the dating scan backed up my guesstimate. I suppose that I'll have to organize myself and make sure that I am able to time my contractions when the time comes, I know it will give me peace of mind and probably help me get there in time and avoid giving birth to my baby in the hospital parking lot. 

Thankfully I've found some great tools to help track contractions.  For those of us who have iphones there is a fab app that only costs £0.59 which will time your contractions for you.  Unfortunately my husband has decided that this ingenious piece of technology does not warrant buying me an iphone... I'm still trying though.  So, after some research I have found this:
http://www.thebump.com/calculators/contraction.aspx
a contraction calculator available on the internet.  Now all I have to do is make sure that I am near a computer when I go into labor!

My Relationship with Food

Food.  Sometimes I love it, sometimes I hate it.  Over the years I've had a crazy relationship with food.  As a child I was insanely picky.  I hated meat and would quite happily pick at the veggies and starchy foods on my plate while secretly hoping that my meat had enough life left in it to stand up and run off of my plate.  I remember negotiating the number of bites I had to choke down to earn the right to dessert.  That's right, I have a sweet tooth! 

My mom has always been interested in nutrition and cooking.  Dinners were always packed full of healthy foods and delicious, although I do remember turning my nose up at quite a few dinners as a young child.  Thanks to my mom I too really enjoy cooking and serving my family healthy and delicious meals.  I rarely use ready meals or prepared sauces or for that matter recipes... I try to make everything myself using fresh ingredients.  To me it's a creative outlet! 

I haven't always loved food though.  There was a time when I was at college that I hated it.  Or more so I hated what I thought it was doing to me.  Like many college freshmen I started to pack on the pounds.  What I found very frustrating was that I WAS exercising.  I was on the field hockey team and worked out pretty intensely every day.  I wouldn't say that I developed a full blown eating disorder but I certainly dabbled a bit and danced very close to the lines.   A health scare in my senior year thankfully pulled me out of my bad habits and since then I've been very health conscience. 

Do I limit what I eat?  Yes and no.  I pay close attention to portion size and try to plan balanced meals but I don't restrict myself from eating anything.  If I feel like eating chocolate I might have a few peanut M&M's as a treat, but I won't snack on them all day. 

Right now I'm eating for 2.  I'm not eating double, if anything my portion sizes are even smaller now!  I just eat more frequently.  I do indulge my cravings at times but for the most part I feel that I am eating a very healthy diet and providing my little baby with the best food possible. 

I think that over the years my relationship with food has grown and matured.  I not only see it as a necessity for life but also something to be enjoyed.