Tuesday 6 March 2012

February Photo A Day

My life lately according to my iPhone! Follow me on Instagram @evenstarx :)

#febphotoaday

1. Your View Today 2. Words
#febphotoaday #yourviewtoday #febphotoaday #words

3. Hands 4. A Stranger
#febphotoaday #hands #febphotoaday #stranger

5. 10am 6. Dinner
#febphotoaday #10am #febphotoaday #dinner Forgot to take a picture of actual dinner so dessert instead!

7. Button 8. Sun
#febphotoaday #buttons

9. Front Door 10. Self Portrait
#febphotoaday #selfportrait #febphotoaday #selfportrait

11. Makes You Happy 12. Inside Your Closet
#febphotoaday #makesyouhappy #febphotoaday missed yesterday's so here's #insidemycloset - work clothes in this one!

13. Blue 14. Heart
#febphotoaday #blue Mitch's eyes #febphotoaday #heart #valentine

15. Phone 16. Something New
#febphotoaday #phone I missed yesterday's #febphotoaday so here's my #somethingnew - Alice at less than a day old

17. Time 18. Drink
#febphotoaday #time #febphotoaday #drink

19. Something You Hate To Do 20. Handwriting
#febphotoaday #somethingyouhatetodo #febphotoaday #handwriting

21. A Fave Photo of You 22. Where You Work
#febphotoaday #favouritephotoofyou Not because I think it's a good picture of me - just one of my favourites x #febphotoaday #whereiwork

23. Your Shoes 24. Inside Your Bathroom Cabinet
#febphotoaday #shoes #febphotoaday #insideyourbathroomcabinet Been away so a few days behind!!

25. Green 26. Night
#febphotoaday #green #febphotoaday #night

27. Something You Ate 28. Money
#febphotoaday #somethingyouate Chicken wrap nom #febphotoaday #money Our piggybank!

29. Something You're Listening To
#febphotoaday #somethingyourlisteningto

With love and light xo

Dear Alice - 10 Months


Dear Alice,

This month you are 10 months old!

You have literally just started to cut your first two teeth. They are little but definitely there, and very sharp. You have been a little grizzly but mostly a trooper with it really.

You are so big! You were weighed last week and you were 20lb 6oz. You are both heavy and long for your age and have had to change into your 12-18 month clothes already.

Your sleep is getting better, both in the day and at night. You are taking a long morning nap of about 1.5 hours, and a little afternoon nap of about 45 minutes. This past few weeks you have also started sleeping through at night. This is a miracle! I am not holding my breath that this will last but it's absolutely lovely. (I started writing this last night and just to prove a point you were awake lots last night!)

DSC_0145

We went on a holiday to Pickering with lots of family. We took you to the sea life centre and you loved looking at all the lights and trying to touch the fish through the glass. I think you're favourites were the rays and the penguins.

Your walking and pulling up is getting a lot better - you can walk aslong as you're holding on to your little cart with one hand, and you can pull yourself up with no help at all. We've had lots more tumbles because of this!

You're copying everything we do, and it's amazing to see the little cogs ticking away in your head. You'll copy someone blowing on your spoon, or putting blocks away, or banging on your drum.

You're also copying noises but you still don't quite understand what you're saying. Amelia kept saying "duck" when we were on holiday and you've now inherited the word but only because you like the sound!

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You also enjoy games much more, and you can play peekaboo with a cloth on your own. You get very frustrated if I stop playing games with you and keep giving me the toy back so we can carry on!

We love you lots and lots :)

With love and light xo

Monday 5 March 2012

Milk Weaning - The Story So Far...

The past few weeks we have been part weaning from breastfeeding. I've been trying to avoid writing about this for many reasons.

I guess the main one is the "I told you so's." There are always people who think you should have done this months ago. There are also people who think you should never do it and let babies wean when they're ready. I think every baby is different, and I think every way is hard. This has been working for us so far.

The other reason is that I don't want to sound like I know what I'm doing! I don't - simple. It's easy to come across as preachy - "this is the way to do it". This is only one way of doing it and definitely not the right way - just a way!

Anyway - with that out the way - this is what we've been doing.

I've been dreading returning to work. For all the obvious reasons related to leaving Alice, but also because she was incredibly dependent on me.

We were still feeding to sleep for all naps. Alice was still breastfeeding 5 times a day, plus once in the night (we only got that down from twice a month or so ago). However this was fine by me - I was in no rush to tackle it and we were happy. I'm pretty much happy to plod along with the whole attachment parenting train, and I loved most of it. (Bits I didn't love included no sleep!)

So I decided it was time to adapt it a little. We've been kind of loosely using the No Cry Sleep Solution, mixed with a lot of Dr. Sears, and a bit of Lizz is just making this shit up. It seems to be working for us!

I started off with the 10am nap. I know Alice didn't NEED milk then, just kinda wanted it, so I started trying to rock her down to sleep. This started off as a nightmare, then got easier. I count to keep my sanity and know that I've not been up there forever!

After about a week of this I attempted the afternoon nap. This is the least successful - Alice hates afternoon naps! Same again - trying to rock to sleep. This is still a work in progress and can be a bit hit or miss.

So at this point I'm 2 weeks in and have managed to drop all feeds between 9 and 5 - hurrah! I'm feeling better about returning to work, and everyone's happy! I could stop here and be happy. She is getting much better at getting herself to sleep - probably 50% of the time she manages it.

However - I'm all about following Alice. And the past 3 days - she's dropped her 5pm breastfeed too. Andddd has been sleeping through. This is like a pure miracle. Literally I could weep.

I'm not expecting this to continue forever, but at the moment we're down to 2 feeds a day. Both milk feeds have been replaced by snack times instead. There is light at the end of the tunnel.

Breastfeeding is hard. No-one tells you how hard it is. Or time consuming. Or isolating at times. However - future Lizz remember this - it gets better!!

With love and light xo