Author: Louisa Houghton

….since I left to have a baby. Time’s up, it’s back to work on Monday.

This blog is for you, Will. You have brought me more joy than I could ever have believed possible.

With all my love
Mummy
xxxxx

Feeling appalling after what was a really nice day until I got in the car to pick Will up from his first full day at nursery and suddenly felt absolutely dreadful. I’m reliably informed this is par for the course, Will is going to catch every germ going now he’s mixing with other children on a regular basis.

On a positive note, he had a lovely time – I was early and found him covered in fishfinger crumbs, woofing down a rusk – baby heaven! Will is such an angel, it was all I could do to hold back the tears – again.

My first foray back into work was also really positive, it was great to see the old team again and feel part of things (well, sort of). Knowing Will is happy at Little Sods is going to make going back much, much easier. We will be fine.

‘Peas in a pod!’

It seems so long ago that we were trying to get Will into a routine of some description, and I would do anything to try to get him to sleep at allotted times. Now our lives are lived in chunks of time, marked out (in my case) by either Radio 2 or the TV. A typical day goes like this:

06.15 – Will wakes up/the alarm goes off. Eddie and Louisa ignore both

06.30 – Eddie jumps in the shower before changing Will. Lou feeds Molly and gets Will’s milk ready

07.00 – Eddie grabs breakfast while Will has a roll on the bed

07.30 – Eddie goes to work, Wogan comes on, Will and Louisa have breakfast together

08.00 – Will is topped, tailed and dressed and then plays for an hour downstairs

09.00 – Naptime

10.00 – Drink and a snack for Will before we head out for a walk (if the weather’s nice)

11.30 – Lunch

12.30 – Naptime/Jeremy Vine. Louisa has lunch and rants at the radio (depending on the topic)

14.30 – Milk and a snack/Steve Wright (non-stop Oldies usually)

17.00 – Supper

18.00 – Bath/story

18.30 – Milk/Hollyoaks

18.45 – Hollyoaks ad break and Will cleans his teeth and goes to bed

18.50 – Louisa collapses in front of the second half

19.00 – Switch to 210/get dinner on/wait for Eddie to come home

It’s not what you’d call glamorous – but it works!

Will has always been a very chilled-out boy, and I can honestly say I’ve never really seen him get a bee in his bonnet (oh my God – did I really just say that) – until now. Being upright is his mission, he’s not fussed about perfecting crawling at all and is still happily dragging himself around like someone who’s had both legs blown off. However he drags with purpose, preferably towards a piece of furniture he can scale and, even better, a piece of furniture with the cat sitting on top. Poor Mol, she can’t get a moment’s peace (this morning Will managed to corner her and grab her tail in his iron grip. All respect to Molly, she didn’t go for him, just looked appalled and waited for him to be removed).

This afternoon at naptime I found him standing up in his cot, grinning from ear to ear. Time to lower the mattress another notch methinks.

…is looking like an appealing option, cat-wise, after I slipped on what can only be described as a deal-breaker this morning on the way down to feed Molly and Woggles.

Enough philanthropy I think. Woggles is now shut in the Den, whilst Tilly is in the sitting room – both at Mother’s.

Poor Will, another morning spent trussed up in his car seat. In the meantime his cold is absolutely streaming from eyes and nose, poor little mite, but he’s so happy to be crawling around he doesn’t seem to mind anymore.

We now have Woggles in situ, after Eddie and I took the decision to rescue him from his shrub outside the house in Kintbury. It’s not an ideal situation because I still have to go over there twice a day to feed Tilly, but at least now everyone’s got a roof over their heads. In the meantime I’ve started the great ringround in the hope that I can find a new home for Tilly.

All in all, it’s pretty exhausting. Will and I were in the car for a good 2 hours this morning visiting Mother (who is on the mend slowly), sorting out Tilly, buying more cat food and running various other errands. Poor Will was absolutely desperate to get out of that car seat by the time we got home. I feel like I am drowning trying to keep everything together. It’s not how I was hoping to spend my last fortnight of freedom! Now it looks as though Will is getting a cold which only means one thing – I’m next. G.R.E.A.T.

Today was another test of endurance with Will in nursery from 8.30am – 2.00pm. I didn’t sleep a wink worrying about it, but when I dropped him off he was very calm and happy playing with a truck one of the other children gave him, so I sneaked away and cried all the way home instead.

Fortunately I had alot to keep me busy, Mother has (unsurprisingly) left things in quite a mess and the cats are a particular concern. Unfortunately she hasn’t had either of them vaccinated for 3 years, so no cattery will take them, on top of which she’s decided to rehome Tilly but again, no one’s going to touch her until she’s had her jabs. So I spent the best part of the day ferrying Woggles and Tilly from Kintbury to the vets to get them sorted. I’ve also booked them into a cattery in a fortnight’s time when they’re both up to date and in the meantime will look for a new place for Tilly – she is terrorising poor Woggles who won’t even come into the house anymore. To add to all this chaos, Will and I are also responsible for going over there twice a day to feed them. It’s far from ideal, but who else is going to do anything?

I got back from the vets with an hour to spare and have done something I’ve been longing to do for years – I blitzed the house. I’ve taken about 6 full bin bags full of rubbish to the tip and made a start on the horror of the cupboards. I’m going to try and do a little bit more each time I go round now. Enough is enough.

Even better, all the frantic activity totally took my mind off worrying about Will, not that there would have been any need. He was happy as Larry and had been an angel all day. I am now the proud owner of his first ‘report’! Which toys he played with, what he had for lunch, how many nappies did he need – fantastic. I am SO relieved.

It’s unlike me, but I’m getting to the stage where I’m finding it hard to keep my head above water what with one thing and another. The latest news is that Mother has been admitted to hospital with a severely infected leg. She has been in pain for several weeks now and asked to go in a while ago, but the doctor said he wanted to try antibiotics first. Obviously they haven’t worked and now she’s hooked up to all sorts in The Capio.

Will and I went to visit her today and I couldn’t help remembering my own miserable sojourn nearly two years ago. She seems in good spirits, optimistic that they’ll be able to ‘fix’ her. So far she hadn’t seen the consultant, but he’s coming this afternoon and let’s just hope we get some answers. In the meantime Will had great fun exploring a new place and cheered her up no end (as did the flowers, Vogue, Vanity Fair, Radio Times and walnut filled dates)!

He is now fast asleep in his car seat, after I managed to dash from car to front door in the driving rain without waking him up – a MIRACLE. I’m hoping he’ll stay asleep for the return dash back to the car and trip across to Amanda’s for tea. An afternoon of caffeine, lard and a herd of hyperactive babies – just what I need.