Raising Olivia: February 2015

Fun Things To Do With Your Baby

As a stay at home mum (who currently has no car!) I am constantly trying think of 'easy' ways to fix my baby's boredom that a) don't cost a fortune and b) can be done in or near your home. I've searched on blogs, YouTube, magazines so here's a few of the most popular things that I've found so far!

Foil blanket

Yep, that's right I'm talking about the ones you get in first aid kits. I was a bit skeptical at first too but when you think about it... It's shiny and it makes noise, two things babies love! I ordered two off of eBay and paid about £1.50 for them. Just lay it out on the floor and let your baby play! Olivia LOVES it!

Home made maracas

'Why don't you just buy them a rattle' errrr because this is more fun! Not only does it give you a reason to go shopping to get the bits for it but I genuinely loved seeing Livs face light up just from something I'd made! I used a small fanta bottle for mine as the shape is really good. I just washed it out and filled it with dry rice. I've also bought some of those little edible silver balls to put in one and plan to use some food coloring with something to make them a little bit more attractive!

Washing up bowl

I like to call this one 'baby potion' as it pretty much consists of Liv sat in a bowl of water with a wooden spoon mixing the water up! I did have other things in the water but she kicked them out! To make it a little bit different for her I put things like sponges, cups, a whisk, a wooden spoon and some balls in the washing up bowl. Fill it up with warm bubbly water and either let them play by the side of it or whip that nappy off and get them in there! Just remember if you're doing this inside to put loads of towels down as water goes everywhere!

Ball pool

Okay, okay I know not exactly an original idea but Liv definitely loves it! We've got a paddling pool from tesco that I've blown up and stuck 100 balls in! I tend to use it when I need to her stay somewhere for five minutes while I make a cup of tea or something and she doesn't want to be in her seat, I just plonk her in there with peppa pig on and she's happy as Larry! I use the edge of the pool to sit her up a bit and she tends to stay there for a good 5/10 minutes!

Walking

Another non original idea but an afternoon walk can do bloody wonders! If I'm just going for a walk I put Livi in her sling, especially if she's being fussy and won't sleep as every time she's in it she falls asleep! Not only is it good for mama but getting some fresh air into your little screamers lungs genuinely does calm them down!

If you're like me and looked into things like this for baby entertainment please message me! I love finding new things to do with Liv and would really appreciate any other things that people do with their baby's!

4 month update!

Okay so it's that time again! Yet another month of Olivia's life has flown by. I know I've said it before but people really aren't lying when they say it goes quickly! I can't even remember having a squishy little newborn and now spend most of my days wondering how to entertain a forever growing little Einstein!

Olivia is now confidently rolling from her back to her tummy... Even though she hasn't figured out how to roll back yet so after about ten minutes of tummy time she screams the house down until I turn her over again and then of course within seconds she's put herself back on her front! She is also now having 3 small meals a day! I've had a lot of comments made over the past month about weaning Olivia too early... You want to know my response? KEEP YA NOSE OUT! :-) my child is one hungry baby, she wants food! So I've gone with my instinct! She has been having quite a variety as I've started her on the Ella's Kitchen purées and so far haven't found one that she doesn't like! She's also having a slight love affair with baby rice!

She has now grown out of her neck float and cries when I try and get it on her so I am currently on the prowl for a bigger one! But she does still love her bath time. In fact she loves it so much she decided to share it with her second favourite thing last night... Her poop!

Her screaming fits until half 10 have completely vanished (touch wood) and now every night she is bathed and in bed by half 7 at the latest! A couple of days ago I decided to just put her down in her cot with her teddy and dummy when she had finished feeding at lunch time with her lullaby star on and to my surprise within about 20 minutes she'd gotten her self off into a deep sleep. That night it then took her ten minutes and last night only took her 5! We're halving time every time apparently! She's then been sleeping until around 5 and waking up for a feed and then sleeping again until morning. Although night feeds and I will never have a good relationship I kind of can't help but just feel blessed that its just some more time that I get to spend holding my little girl and staring at her perfectness!

She is now sleeping in her cot as well. Not in her own room yet as I convinced daddy that she needed us for a little while longer! I also bought a video baby monitor this month which has been absolutely brilliant as I'm now not worrying about her as much!

I still haven't taken the plunge and left her over night yet and honestly I don't think I will for a long time. A few times I've been criticised on this but at the end of the day I'm not a big drinker anymore and don't really enjoy nightclubs... I'm just a home bird at heart and would rather be snuggled up knowing my girl is in the next room rather than worrying about her all the time. I love taking her out to restaurants with us as she is always so well behaved and Callum and I are abit boring now with working and a baby so don't tend to do much else during the evening! Plus the fact Callum works such poo hours that why would he want to not spend all his time at home with her? To be honest if I'm not going to enjoy the time that I'm not with her what's the point in getting someone else to look after her cause I'll only be sat miserable anyway! (Don't hold me to this, I've not had toddler tantrums to deal with yet so things could change!).

Just to add to how absolutely bloody brilliant this month has been, Olivia has also been chosen to become a brand rep for a beautiful shop called SybAndTeds. If you have instagram (https://instagram.com/sybandteds) go give them a follow as they've just launched their website (www.sybandteds.com)! We're super excited about this and I am so proud of my gorgeous little girl! I know everyone thinks their baby is beautiful but its lovely to hear other people telling you that they are as well!

Tickety Toc is still her favourite programme along with the dreaded Peppa Pig. She has had Bing on a few times but they tend to say stupid things on it like 'I bwaked it' rather than 'I have broken it' so I'm not in any hurry to put that back on!

I've also taken the plunge and stopped putting scratch mits on her when she goes to bed as they are such a pain in the washing machine. She currently has four scratches on her face... Let's see how many it takes before she has them back on!

Her favourite things to do at the moment include rolling over, chewing her hands, purring (yes like a cat), pulling my lips, having her hair played with, playing her giraffe rattle and hugging teddy off to sleep!
All in all one very happy, healthy baby!

10 Things I Wish I Could Tell My Teenage Self

Okay so I only became a 'non teenager' less than a year ago and already I could list hundreds of things that I wish I knew when I was growing up. Admittedly I probably did get told these thousands of times by my parents and older relatives and friends but just chose not to listen as I thought they were either being old prudes or just unfair and ridiculous. Obviously I can't list everything that I wish I could tell my younger self or I'd be here forever so here's 10 things that I wish I could go back and drill into my brain!

1. My first thing I'd like to tell my teenage self is probably something most girls will now regret doing to themselves and probably some daring boys too... 'Leave your hair alone'. I cant even count how many times my mum gave me the lecture about my hair. Telling me how I would ruin it, how I would stop it from growing and telling me how bloody ridiculous I looked! Did I listen? Of course I didn't but looking back I so wish I had of. I've dyed my hair a fair few times over the years experimenting with blonde, purple, the dreaded dip dye! I wore extensions for years and had the odd dodgy cut as well! Not only does it look stupid most of the time it completely ruined my hair for years! From the age of around 16 up until I was heavily pregnant my hair just stopped growing! It was so damaged and in such poor condition and it was all my own fault. Now personally I prefer the natural look... I don't dye my hair or wear extensions and instead of investing money into things that damage my hair I invest in things to protect it.

2. Your mum is not a bitch because she won't let your boyfriend of two months sleep over. 'But mum everyone else is allowed to sleepover with their boyfriends' lets face it no they weren't. In fact I think I probably knew one person in the whole of my school year that was allowed their boyfriend to stop over and I now think their parents must of been insane. Not only does it now make me feel physically sick thinking of some of my exes it also makes me feel relieved that I had sensible parents that would of rather walked over burning coal than let me sleep over with these boys! It's not cool to being the school slapper and it certainly isn't cool when you get into a serious relationship and you know everyone that the person has slept with! Calm your teenage hormones down and get the boy to take you to the cinema, there's plenty of time to sleep with each other when you're not taking your GCSEs.

3. Just to add your mum is also not a bitch for not buying you ridiculously strong alcohol when you're 14. Looking back I now think having just a bottle of Blue WKD and being pissed out of my face is quite hilarious but I can't imagine how different things could be if my mum had of actually let me drink vodka and wine. I was taught to drink alcohol in moderation, that you don't have to be hammered to have fun, to know when to stop drinking because I'd had enough and because of this I've always been a very fortune drunk. I've never woken up not knowing where I was, I've never had a one night stand, I've never had a fight or argument when drunk and never gotten into trouble. At the time this pissed me off but now looking back I can honestly say I haven't missed out on anything. It genuinley horrifies me to think of my baby or even my little sister getting stupidly drunk. You're young, make the most of it!

4. PAY ATTENTION AT SCHOOL! I'll be the first person to stand up and say that you do not need millions of qualifications to have a brilliant life but it has certainly helped me getting jobs just by having good grades. It might seem more fun to sit with your friends playing Whack A Mole on your new ipod touch rather than listening to your english teacher or convincing poor Mr Dziendziel that he had to send you home because you've taken your earring out and its slightly bleeding so you now can't concentrate and have to go home immediately (sorry sir)... but honestly looking back I now wish that I'd of just bloody got on with it! It honestly took me to move across the country to realise that lessons aren't for gossiping and playing with your friends hair, they're actually for learning. Shocker. I was predicted pretty much all D's when I was at Portland and within 6 months managed to get ALL of my gcse grades up to A*s-Cs. Because of this I got an unconditional place at college at my first interview and got my first full time job! You're not at school for very long so just suck it up and pay attention!

5. Be nicer to people. I genuinely wish I could take back a lot of my time at school and do it over again. The amount of people I used to sit with my friends and bitch about and make fun of is really not nice. The petty arguments I had with people just for the sake of it and the amount of people I stopped hanging around with because other people thought they were uncool is ridiculous. Rather than being mean to someone to impress your friends, hang around with the people who you never needed to impress because they already knew how fab you were.

6. Spend more time with your parents. Although you might think that going to school for 8 hours a day and finishing at half 3 is tough, just remind yourself that soon you'll either be in education with a job or looking after a baby full time hours away from your parents and you will miss them!!! I now thoroughly enjoy spending time with my mum and wish I'd of made the most of it in the past. They're not going to be around forever so take full advantage of the shopping trips, the walks, the car journeys and the family times at home.

7. Don't waste your life chasing after boys. I myself am very guilty of spending pretty much my entire school experience, thinking about boys, talking about boys, crying over boys and going out with boys. What a waste of 5 years! Okay so the person I've ended up living with and having a baby with was one of my school boyfriends but that is so rare. You more than likely will not spend your life with your school boyfriend so if he wants to cheat on you, be mean to you or be a nob, just wave byebye to that silly teenager and go have some fun with your friends instead! Chances are half the boys you were with at school turn out to be ugly losers anyway so I wouldn't worry too much if they don't fancy you anymore or go after your best mate. You're better than that so let them crack on with it!

8. Take advantage of all the school holidays, teacher training days and snow days because once you're not in school these things no longer exist. Holidays become something you have to work your arse off to get, teacher training days... where are they now? and snow days turn into 'noooo I need the money days!'. So sleep in a little longer, stay out a little later and enjoy being able to do what you want when you want because when you enter the real world these are the things that you miss the most!

9. Don't take everything so seriously. Honestly no matter how bad it seems having to do homework, getting a detention or telling your mum that you've lost your house keys again isn't that big of a deal. Your friend might be a two faced bitch that you never want to talk to again but is copying your New Look crop top and telling people that they look better in it than you really worth causing a world war over? Nope.

10. Last but not least I'd tell myself to love myself more. You are not fat, you are not ugly and your acne will fade. Enjoy being able to fit into size 8 jeans whilst eating 3 McDonalds a week. Enjoy being able to run around a field being silly for hours and not feeling like you're about to have a heart attack but lastly enjoy being yourself!

My year of pregnancy and becoming a mummy

Okay so today marks one year since finding out I was pregnant. One year since I sat on the toilet ringing Callum shaking. One year since my life completely changed. I never thought I'd feel so many emotions and have so many things happen to me in a short 12 months. I sold my first car, moved out of our first home and into Callum's parents, moved into our second home, left my job, decorated a nursery, grew one heck of a baby, had one heck of a baby, visited my family loads and started an absolutely fantastic life.

I found out when I was 4 weeks and 5 days pregnant. Had my first scan around a week later and another 10 days afterwards. All we could see on the scan was a small heart beat and a very beautiful, mangled little tadpole.

6 weeks and 6 days scan

6 weeks pregnant

The next time I saw my baby I was 11 weeks and 6 days pregnant (I actually turned out to be 12 weeks and 6 days when I got there) and they were so much more developed. Kicking and wriggling around everywhere. 6 days later I then had a very heavy bleed (everything was fine for anyone who hasn't read my previous post!) so got to see my little baby again and hear their heart beat for the first time!

13 weeks pregnant

12 weeks 6 days scan

At 15 weeks I then heard the baby's heart beat again and at 17 weeks found out that we were having a little girl! We also got to see her in 4d which I really didn't like and just thought she looked like an alien out of Men in Black. You know the tall, skinny, sandy coloured, creepy thing? I was still completely adamant though that I was having a boy!

16 weeks pregnant

17 weeks and 3 days gender scan (yes she was fist pumping)

At exactly 19 weeks at half 6 in the morning whilst catching up on holly oaks I first felt her kicking and ran up stairs to Callum to wake him up! A few days later he then felt her kick and within a few weeks you could see her kicking! I had another scan at 21 weeks where my mum and Noah came along with me as I was completely petrified of going and it then being a boy after spending a fortune on baby girl clothes!

21 week scan

22 weeks pregnant

Over the next few weeks I became very big, very fast! I moved house, left work, decorated the nursery, got my first set of cankles! Turned 20, Callum turned 21 and baby girl was now so big I couldn't sit down for 5 minutes without her bum, hands or feet poking out of me somewhere!

26 weeks pregnant

29 weeks pregnant

31 weeks pregnant

37 weeks pregnant

At 38 weeks pregnant I then got to see my baby again for the last time before giving birth as I was sent for a growth scan as she was already measuring at 41 weeks! The scan went fine but the next day I realised I hadn't felt her move in nearly 20 hours. Call me crazy but when I was pregnant I literally read up on EVERYTHING that could possibly go wrong with your pregnancy so not feeling her move completely freaked me out! I also had extremely bad cramps so after ringing my midwife I drove myself down to the hospital because we thought I was in labour! (Yes I drove myself, yes it was stupid and yes the midwives all gave me a bollocking!). After being on a monitor for nearly 3 hours it was decided that I wasn't in labour and that I was still only 1cm dilated so got sent home to rest!

Just to add to anyone who's pregnant and reading this... You should always keep an eye on your baby's movements! If you're worried don't hesitate, ring the bloody midwife!

39 weeks pregnant

Of course my due date came and went and I continued on walking around with my cankles and copious amounts of Volvic lemon water. Until I was finally induced at 8.40am on the 23rd of October. All of my contractions were in my back so I didn't even realise I was having them until about 5 hours later and had only taken pain killers up until then! The pain then became unbearable and gas and air became my new best friend! Not only did I feel pissed but I'd stopped hurting for a few hours with it as well! At half 1 in the morning I had finally dilated to 4cm and got taken through to the delivery suite and given my first epidural! I then had a couple of hours sleep and got woken up at 6am to have my waters broken. Within the hour my epidural had worn off and I was in complete agony so after shouting at quite a few midwives (I was in labour so it's okay right? Sorry midwives!) I was finally given a second epidural at around 11am. It was then pretty much a waiting game. At half 1 I was told that I was 10cm but the baby's head was laid in a very awkward position and if I was to push I would snap her neck so I had to wait a further 2 hours to start pushing. Apparently they were looking at doing a c section on me... I was completely oblivious! At around half 3 I began to push and after what only felt like 10 minutes (it was actually nearly an hour) I finally gave birth to my beautiful 8lb 11oz chunk, Olivia. It's now been a little over 15 weeks since her arrival and I can't believe how much of a personality she has developed already. As soon as anyone tells her she's beautiful she has a ginormous grin on her face. She loves high pitched voices, kissing noises, her teddy comforter and adores her cousin Noah. Her hair is getting so long and thick and so are her legs! This year has been an absolute whirl wind and I can't believe that it's been a whole year since finding out I was going to be Olivia's mummy. I can honestly say, I would not change a single second! We have had one amazing year.

Me, my girl and swaddling

If you know Olivia and I personally then you will know how much of a mad woman I am when it comes to bedtimes. I can't even think about her staying up late, it honestly drives me insane! I am a firm believer that children should be in bed (in their own bed! But each to their own) at a reasonable time so that you can have some time to yourself without constantly looking after your child. Plus when you've been looking after a baby by yourself for 13+ hours, even an hour when they're in bed makes a huge difference to your mental state! Livi has always had a good routine apart from a couple of weeks here and there but usually she's in bed by 7 and happily stays there until around 4 or even longer. We've tried pretty much every approach to getting her to sleep from rocking her, feeding her off, leaving her to it, holding her hand (livis favourite), leaving her to get exhausted... We've tried it all! Apart from swaddling! When I was in hospital and then after with seeing the midwives none of them even mentioned it. I slightly remember Keena swaddling Noah a few times but apart from that I've not really seen any of it in person. I've spent hours researching different techniques for giving your baby the best chances of a good nights sleep and this one just keeps cropping up. I've watched a few videos on safe swaddling and age appropriate swaddling so now decided to give it a go! Not because Livi doesn't already sleep well but I just want her to be able to have the best sleep that she could get!

I started on Monday night after spending the afternoon practising how to swaddle with Liv. She was already tired from where I try and keep her awake until at least 6, so I did her usual routine... Bath, boob, bed but this time swaddled her up before I fed her as she usually falls asleep as I'm feeding her and I didn't want to disturb her after she'd already settled. After a bit she seemed to be getting a bit warm laid on me whilst swaddled so I wanted to get her down as fast as I could but where I'd normally lay and rub her hands until she falls asleep I couldn't tonight so had to wait until she was in a deep sleep to be able to lay her in her cot! Yep that's right, new to her cot and swaddling all in 24 hours! I'm a dare devil lol. She laid down great, started trying to move her arms but after a few seconds settled when I gave her her dummy. I decided to stay in with her for a little while as the baby monitor ran out of batteries and Callum hadn't got home with some yet and didn't want her waking up and getting stressed. I then went to bed at around half 9 and by this time I usually would of had to put Livs dummy in at least once for her but she spat it out shortly after putting her down and hadn't stirred at all since! Although she was definitely in a deeper sleep she did end up waking up at 12 and where I couldn't rub her hands for her to get back off to sleep she did end up waking up for a feed and I then had to sit up with her until she again was in a deeper sleep. She then continued to wake up at half 4 and 10 to 6 so night one was a complete flop.

Night two I can't really comment on as we made an un expected visit to my mums and although the little witch didn't sleep until 10! She did eventually go into a very deep sleep for nearly 6 hours being swaddled! The third night was also a nightmare, Livi kept trying to rub her eyes which resulted in the blanket being pulled up over her face and me having a mini panick attack every time I checked in on her!

By Thursday night after 3 unsuccessful nights I complete gave up with the idea of swaddling. Olivia was not only not enjoying it but seemed to be getting angry as I was getting her wrapped up (probably because she knew she was being put in a baby straight jacket!) which was causing her to become a bit more fussy when going to sleep. So personally for me swaddling is a no go! If you're going to do it it's probably best to start off when your baby is first born and doesn't know how good it feels to be free when you're asleep! Happy swaddling!