Month: March 2006

Huzzah! It’s FRIDAY! You may wonder why I’m so excited when all I do is stay at home all day anyway, but being Will’s Mother is so much harder than any job I’ve ever had. The relief I feel on a Friday comes from knowing Eddie is going to be home for a whole two days to help me out. It makes a huge difference.

Today’s been fun, we’ve looked at another nursery (absolutely hated it), and met Sam and Lisa for lunch at Camps. William was fast asleep when I got there and I felt like a true, smug Yummy with my new ‘Richard and Judy’ book and a perfect baby….Until one of the waitresses dropped a full tray of crockery right by our table. I could see William thinking about whether to scream or not – the lips thinned, the brow furrowed, silence continued and then the opportunity to bellow was just too tempting to miss.

In Will’s defence, despite being awake, he was still a model baby and lovely company. Chilling out on my knee while I knocked back a large latte and tuna melt.

He’s in the process of discovering his hands, is now reaching out for everything and his grip is like iron once he gets hold of your fingers. Alas he still refuses to look to the left when he’s lying flat, so usually ends up with me and all his toys on one side, frantically cooing/jingling/squeaking while he gazes off into the distance wondering where everyone’s gone.

It’s been a pretty horrid day all round. The weather is lousy, gray, cold and miserable. I’ve decided to start a diet and am now starving, and William has been fractious all day after refusing to sleep unless in the car.

This morning we went to see a nursery for him for when I go back to work. I can’t believe I’m looking into this already, but they get booked up so fast and I’d hate to fall in love with one and then find out he couldn’t go. At the end of the day we don’t have a choice, so it’s a question of making sure that we find a lovely place with nice people where he’ll be happy.

Will’s been in a funny mood all day, very restless and clingy. He absolutely would not sleep at all over lunch and I had to leave him just to have some lunch, returning to find him absolutely livid. In the end I gave up and brought him down and he instantly cheered up – as long as I was paying him attention! He’s so interested in everything now, today he even grabbed a little dangly thing off one of his toys and brought it up to his face to look at. He’s talking nineteen to the dozen (did I really just type that?) as well.

Neck control is still a work in progress, but he’s definitely trying, and we’re holding him upright much more often to help things along so hopefully it’ll improve over the next few weeks.

In the meantime, he’s still squeaking upstairs, but it’s not too serious. He is full, clean, winded and absolutely exhausted. It’s just a question of when he’s prepared to give up the fight.

…come a cropper when Daylight Saving kicks in and William has to go to bed an hour early.

Squeaks are coming from upstairs as he’s suddenly figured out he’s nowhere near exhausted enough to be in bed (still fighting sleep the entire time), but I’m a tough old bird and he’s going to have to stay put and try to settle himself. Such a pain when we’d just got bedtime on an even keel – now I feel like we have to start all over again.

Clocks going forward aside, we’ve had a terrific weekend and William’s been (mostly) angelic. Janie and Ian came over for lunch yesterday, we went the long way up to the pub beforehand to get William to sleep and managed to park the car so close to the window that we could sit inside and keep an eye on him while we had our drinks!

Oh dear…the squeaks are escalating 😦

A difficult day today, and I feel absolutely drained as I write this. William is an angel and I, a control freak – here beginneth the problem. You see, I’ve worked his routine around waking at 7am, but recently he’s been sleeping through until 6am. This is fantastic for Eddie and I in terms of sleeping, but makes the days very hard because now I’m an hour out all the time.

Today I just could not get William to sleep at lunchtime, the only way he’d even contemplate sleep was on my shoulder. Father came round bearing italian socks, and wanted to see what would happen if I put him down. Answer: I’ve never seen Will’s bottom lip stick quite so far out in the entire 10 weeks he’s been out and about. Enraged shrieks followed milli-seconds afterwards.

Feeding has also been very hard today which might be due to over-tiredness or maybe too much use of the bottle (Eddie feeds him each morning). I suspect the former, let’s see what tomorrow brings.

We’ve been up to all sorts over the past couple of days. On Sunday we had an NCT reunion with all the Dads, which was really nice because we girls see each other all the time, but the Dads haven’t been reunited since before the babies were born. A lovely afternoon spent with Eddie holding William for me while I grazed the buffet, had a couple of glasses of wine and caught up with the girls.

On Monday we had our last Baby Massage class – THANK THE LORD. Talk about a tortuous 4 weeks. NEVER again. This week I had to wake poor Will up from a 2 hour sleep (he’d passed out in the Baby Bjorn out walking and I unpacked him and left him fast asleep on our bed in his pram suit, happy as Larry) which he was less than impressed about. When we got there he just wasn’t having any of it and screamed his head off, so we spent another sesh banished to the corner feeding until it was time for coffee and biscuits.

Today it was the weekly gallop around Cannons, fortunately without driving rain this week and Will was such an angel that I actually managed to stay for lunch and a natter. I am so lucky to have the NCT girls, without them I’d definitely be rotting at home going mad with boredom. Next week – Tums, Bums and Thighs. I made the hideous mistake of standing on the scales again this week, I can’t believe I actually weigh as much as I do.

In other news, Will’s mysterious rash has finally been diagnosed as ezcma, poor little mite. So he has to be coated in various types of goo over the course of the day to try to keep it at bay. Added to that he also has cradle cap, so all in all I’ve got a greasy, scaly, flaking boy on my hands….

….but he’s still the most beautiful baby I’ve ever seen 🙂

William’s been up to all sorts this weekend!

A spot of birdwatching….

…trying to ignore Mother’s incessant wittering…

…chatting to Jim the Bunny…

A pretty busy one all round!

Have initiated my son into the joys of gambling! Found I had a spare £7.50 in my Paddy Power account and decided on the spur of the moment to put it on War of Attrition in yesterday’s Gold Cup. I had no idea if he was any good, breezed off to see the NCT girls for tea and asked if I could watch the race – just in time to see our horse romp home to victory (amidst much shouting at the TV)

Our winnings just about cover William’s new gro-bag and new outfit that I spent a fortune on in Reading the other day, plus a curry for his dear old Dad, currently crashed out after yet another tortuous week of travelling.

Will met baby Eliza today, she is so sweet and has the most amazing shock of jet black hair I’ve ever seen. Cordelia looks fantastic and has clearly taken to motherhood like a duck to water. A lovely time had by all.

Well, Putney anyway…we’re off to see Cordelia and Rupert’s new baby Eliza! VERY exciting.

Will and I had a lie-in until 9.30 this morning, both crashed out after playing for an hour and lost track of time. It’s the first sleep in I’ve had since he was born pretty much and I felt absolutely fantastic for it.

We went out for a walk with Honore and Lucy where I let the side down with one flat tyre and one squeaky one. Must get both sorted tonight – it’ll be the third repair job in as many weeks. Then we went back to Lucy’s for the most ambrosial lunch with Nina and Thomas. All very decadent and lovely. Will was his usual fractious self, but did manage to nap just long enough for me to woof down my food and a fabulous time was had by all.