When Bug was born, well a month or so after, I bought some cards to mark her milestones. Who knew that I should have bought them when I was preggo? So we missed a few photos… But now I find myself attempting to dressing her up for her milestones, only for her to accessorise them with accoutrements such as vomit! Then I jump around, cajoling her into smiling, while hopefully the camera is in focus and I actually press the snap button.  Those photos are all well and good. But I want some real-life photos and babies aren’t renown for their on-cue performances! So how do you actually get that photo of her first tooth?!?  That’s one of the current milestones we’re trying to mark. And she’s not particularly given to opening her mouth wide, unless it’s to cry loudly! I may not be parent of the year, but I’m not about to start taking photos of her mouth while she cries! So, it’ll just have to wait until she smiles for a prolonged period, while I conveniently have the camera to hand! C...

I write to you from Hell… just kidding, I’m on the foot stool next to Bug’s bed. Not talking, not touching, just sitting while she lies with her head facing the other way. And every few minutes gives an attempt at a cry.  But at least she’s in her bed! She’s completely refused all naps in her bed so far this week. So this is a major win! I’m talking champagne, the I proper stuff… or at least a really large glass of whatever is open in the fridge.  Now bedtime is the stuff nightmares are made from! Bedtime used to be a pleasant routine, now it’s a panic-inducing labour. I’m pretty sure my blood pressure is through the roof, climbing from approximately 18:00, in anticipation of the dreaded sleep attempts! Last night was an early 22:00ish before she was down. The night before, midnight. And over the weekend, one night her refusals were so adamant that I got a sum total of zero hours sleep. By midnight it was clear the only way she’d sleep was in my arms. So Bug and I got the big ...

You get a whole nights sleep, you have a night out with the NCT gals, not every nappy is a poo, you begin to “settle” into a routine… And then teething!  It slobber-slaps you in the face and turns everything upside down! My super-salivating baby just wants to shove everything her mouth. She’s learnt to suck her thumb and I’m delighted, because she can’t throw it out her cot. But it’s completely thrown any semblance of a schedule out of sync! She’s not feeding properly and is waking up at night again. Her naps are all over the show. She’s clearly uncomfortable and that breaks my heart! And this is, apparently, just the beginning of the teething process!!! Send help / grandparents! We’ve got teething toys stashed throughout the house, including the freezer. So far the Matchstick Monkey Dinosaur has been a hit (just don’t try steaming the container, it will melt!)  What are your top teething tips? Lucky x Ps. That’s my milk drunk Bug

After vomming/ salivating on three outfits by 06:50 this morning, I tried to cajole Bug into her early morning nap. This is the nap between her first waking up and 8am feed. And she really needs it!  As we were watching the Olympics in our bedroom, I suggested she nap on our bed, snuggled next to me. While I watch the kayak/ canoes.  But no, she had other plans. Apparently they were for me to get up. And for her to fall asleep on my shoulder in a really awkward fashion. I had to perfect the counterbalance cuddle. All while putting the laundry on, making breakfast (not quite eating it), sterilising bottles and pump accoutrements, making the coffee and re-packing her changing bag.  But she slept, and I guess I’ll take that! Lucky x

This morning, while having a blood test, I was chatting to possibly the best phlebotomist about babies. I mentioned that I was considering getting an Elvie pump — the one that goes in your bra and you can be hands free and, wonderfully, not tethered to one space!  My next line was “it will mean that I can hang the laundry and pump at the same time!”  This may sound ridiculous, having this as a priority. But when you have so little time to yourself it becomes necessary to prioritise. And this can be hard - how do you chose between hanging the laundry or expressing milk?!? It’s currently my big dilemma! Then I met my sister at Garsons for lunch, thinking the cafe would be airconed - it isn’t, beware! We both had our babies plastered to us, while we produced a gleaming layer of sweat. I could go on, but I think you get the picture!  So, this afternoon, instead of being able to wallow in the sun and work on my tan, probably with a delicious glass of rosé, Bug and I are whil...

It’s happened, it’s been a week, she’s now sleeping in her big baby bed, in her room. And it’s been an excellent decision! We’re all benefiting from better sleep. We don’t wake her up, she doesn’t wake us up (as much). And sleep is becoming that friend we see a lot more of! It’s coupled with a feeding routine, which I’m pretty strict about. Mean Mum only feeds every 3 hours. Gone are the boobies-on-tap!  And Bug is learning that when it’s nap or bed time, it’s sleepy-time. Which can be preceded by a bit of crying. But she’s getting more sleep and is, generally, a happier baby!  So, for us, this has been a positive move. Although I have to be honest, when we made the decision that this was going to happen I did cry a bit! My tiny baby was no longer tiny… time to consider the next?!? Lucky x

Is that nobody comes too close and I can get away with only half brushing my teeth (no toothpaste, had Bug in my arms and wouldn’t have been able to rinse). And not wearing deodorant (again, the baby!) Also, still wearing some of my pyjamas, semi-disguised  as day clothes… But nobody can really tell cause they can’t get too close! Win! On top of that we had a very successful walk. The dog mostly listened and was easily distracted by treats. Bug slept the whole time and was seemingly nose-blind. And my back pocket doubled up as my coffee cup holder! Hands-free, here we come!  Oh, and because we were out walking for so long - two hours, until it was time for the next feed - the dog is exhausted! He hasn’t been this tired since his play date with best friend Amber! Lucky x

This morning they both wanted my attention. Bug wouldn’t stop crying and needed to be cuddled. And Indy wanted to play, non-stop.  Eventually I got Bug onto her play-mat where she likes to play with the baby in the mirror and smash her hands erratically against the dangling cow and dog. The cow is flying a plane that makes a noise when it moves.  Indy finds this fascinating. But only for so long. Then he remembered that he saw one of his dog-friends who was on-heat on his walk this morning. And started to hump me. A lot.  This presented a challenging situation. Do I stop oggling at Bug playing with her baby friend and risk tears? And stop the dog before he really got into his stride?  Or, do I just pretend the dog isn’t there? And hope he gets bored really quickly?!? Ultimately it was a little from column A, a little from column B. Don’t ask! Lucky x

Yesterday we had our 8 week check-ups and both of us cried (luckily masks are absorbent!)  It’s utterly heart-wrenching when your tiny baby screams. For me, science has provided us with modern medicine that will potentially save her life. So, she will be having all of her jabs. And then all of the cuddles afterwards.  We spent the afternoon having skin to skin time. Then I spent the night keeping check on her temperature.  Today I was selected as the only one acceptable enough to do everything for her. All plans went out the window. Instead, we’ve had amazing snuggles on the sofa together. All day.  Any semblance of sleep training is out the window, we’ll tackle that tomorrow! I’ve changed into pj’s already and bath time this evening will be late as I’m loathe to wake her…  it’s just one of those days!  Lucky x

Wait, what? Isn’t that an oxymoron? Does that even exist?!? I was struck down by a bug on Sunday night and it totally knocked my socks off! It punched me in the face and gut. I’m not sure if it was food poisoning or something that’s been going around. But it’s mean and very nasty!  It meant some serious Dadding needed to happen. I’m talking all the night feeds (thank goodness for formula) nappy changes and cuddles… at 3am etc! And it wasn’t just Sunday night, but Monday night too… Which gave me the most sleep I’ve had since the little Bug was born. It’s also made me realise that I need more sleep! So, from now on, Dadding will be taking place on the weekends and this Mum will remember what it’s like not to have to get up in the night. To guilt-free know that my husbands got this one!  I don’t expect the dark rings to magically disappear, but give me a few weeks and I may consider a colour photo!  What do you do to catch up on that most valued of commodities, sleep?  ...

Having been pregnant for nine months and trying beforehand, it didn’t come as a surprise. But what has come as more of a slap-in-the-face-shock, in the nicest way, is the sheer exhaustion of being a new mummy!  When parents say to preggos “get as much sleep as you can”, as a preggo my response was, “well I’m up eight times a night to wee, but that’s not because I’m choosing to do so. I’m trying to sleep but my baby has found my bladder and treats it like a new, fancy trampoline!” What they should have said was “you’re not going to get any sleep for the foreseeable. So value being able to sleep whenever you want to now. When your baby is born you’ll be on their schedule - if they wake every hour, so will you. If they take two hours to fall asleep, you’ll be awake for that, trying desperately to encourage that most valued of commodities: sleep.”  On the plus side you become almost narcoleptic, able to sleep anywhere, any time… if your baby allows! Before Baby a luxury might rese...

Earlier this week we had to make the hardest decision anyone with a pet will ever have to make. You have to be totally selfless, even though you’re fully aware of the devastating consequences. I’m typing this with tears streaming down my checks and my nose running. Over the last few weeks Chewy had slowed down, he wasn’t his beansy self, but we knew this might happen and just took everything slower. On Tuesday we went for our walks, he ate all his food and got as many treats as he could. On Tuesday night, he climbed into our bed. His breathing was heavy, the lymph glands in neck had hugely swollen and he was struggling to breathe. He was disorientated and wouldn’t eat or drink. He kept wanting to go outside, but wasn’t able to stand. I slept next to him on the floor, in the other bedroom and came downstairs when wanted to. Eventually at about 5am we called the vet. She confirmed our worst fears. We booked an appointment for 7:45 that morning, we had a little time to say g...

My darling dog has cancer About two-and-a-half weeks ago, on a Friday evening after the Husband had been away for work for the week, the three of us, He, Chewy and myself were sat on the sofa, having a catch-up. The Husband mentioned that Chewy’s glands (lymph nodes) were really big. A bit of back-story, he eats EVERYTHING! He has a keen eye for what we’ve termed a ‘poopsicle’ and happens to chance upon these seemingly tasty snacks rather regularly on his walks. He’s also partial to stale bread that some unwitting fellow has left out for the birds. Or the remainders of a teenagers discarded dinner. Let’s not mention the rotting snacks the fishermen leave behind during fishing season… I think you understand then, that we often have a dog with a bit of a dodgy tummy*. We’re no strangers to probiotics. So, obviously we squeezed probiotics onto his handcrafted meals, and kept and eye on what was going on. But coupled with the swollen glands, we called the Vet and they r...

We'd initially thought to give ourselves some time to live in the house before decorating, you know, to get to know the space and how it'll be used... two months in and the dining room is first up! It's pretty obvious, we're going to be eating in there! It was an easy decision (we both agreed with each other) the walls were going to be a dark blue, both have pretty much floor to ceiling windows next to them, so we weren't too worried about the space feeling dark.  Farrow & Ball's Hague Blue was our first choice... so we got a sample. And samples of Stifkey Blue , Drawing Room Blue and Pitch Blue , you never know what it's going to look like on the wall... although the colour samples are a pretty good indication.   With a sort of naughty-child feeling the sample patches were painted onto the wall. It felt quite rebellious just painting stripes onto the wall, clearly ruining the paint already there. But also quite exciting, taking the first of m...

Some-how we’ve navigated the quagmire of housing options, unravelled the tangled knot of estate agent ‘truths’, avoided injury / illness from some of the houses we’ve seen and eventually found something that we both like, in our price range! Seriously, I’d like to take this moment to thank firstly the home owners whose houses will probably be on the market for quite some time to come. A few come bubbling immediately to mind. The one where the whole family was sitting in the living room, so we went upstairs. Past the underwear left out to dry on the dust laden radiators. Only to see a small room, luminous pink room and a master en-suite that we couldn’t even get into. Really, there were two double beds crammed into the room, which meant that the door couldn’t open properly. And to actually get into the room you’d have to climb onto and over the bed(s). We didn’t stay long in that house and we definitely didn’t keep the information sheet that the agent gave us. Instead we wished...

Buying a house is like online dating. I say that having had experience of both. Before having met The Incredible Davey (he requested a superhero pseudonym, we shall refer to him as TID henceforth) I discovered that in order to be an effective online dater, you need to date like a man... by having at least three men who you're going on dates with at a time (not all together). It means that if one isn't as responsive as you'd like or you decide you don't like another, there are still two more to keep you amused. And the same applies when looking for houses! The similarities in the two experiences are uncanny: 1. You do both online. 2. It's brutal. 3. You need to be prepared to have your heart broken. 4. It takes hours of trawling to find one that you might like. 5. The photo's are often misleading. 6. You can 'try before you buy' but just the tip. You don't really know what's under the 'bonnet' until you're entrenched in the rel...

For a while now I've been wanting to get back into the garden! I miss spending hours pottering about, languidly watering plants and admiring them and their growth spurts. This desire has been somewhat stilted by living on the first floor and not having my own garden. We do, however, have a tiny bit of balcony space outside the back door. And after watching everyone else's flower boxes flourish throughout the summer months, I thought that as it's now autumn it would be a great time to get planting! To be honest I can't remember exactly how you're supposed to assemble the balls. I can't even remember the name, so after a brief and unsurprisingly unsuccessful effort on The Google I re-hydrated the moss and used a combination of herb-plugs, moss and potting soil... Taa-daa! Having managed a few layers I opted for a centre-piece instead of a full ball, featuring fresh basil, parsley, chives, thyme and rosemary! Even the strawberries tha...

Over the Christmas period we discovered that The Boyfriend, DC is actually really lactose intolerant, and not in a it's-currently-trendy-to-be-allergic-to-something way, he writhes in agony for at least 24 hours after ingesting dairy! So my challenge has been to find lactose replacements (while secretly snacking on the odd chocolate that falls my way when he's not looking!) that are both appetising and lactose free, which is not as simple as it should be! Last weekend I was asked to bring dessert, so went off to scour the shelves of M&S... DC had said that I could get two options, fruit for him and something creamy for the rest of us. But, for me, this is just unfair. If I couldn't eat something and everyone else could, I really wouldn't want them to be having that in front of me! After 20 minutes scouring the shelves, I hit on jelly, albeit with fruit in it, and sorbet, finished with a sprinkling of blueberries. About 15 min into this search it finally hit me t...

Give them two or four little hours… Well Dinah Washington , I’ve just bought a pair of heels and am yet to wear them for either two OR four hours. That may be because they’re slightly too small (although a 6)… I’m optimistic that they’ll stretch soon, hence have been wearing them on a daily basis since the beginning of the week in the hope that soon, ideally by the time I go for dinner this evening, they’ll be perfect (read: my toes won’t be numb after 30 minutes.) They look even better in real life! In the same purchase I acquired a pair of snakeskin pumps. Now my tendency is to wear flats, but I’m a lady and so love a pair of pretty heels! So how could I resist a metallic bronze pair, on sale! They were calling out to me, they needed a home, it would have been cruel to leave them on the website. So I housed them, both. The flats will get me to and from the party, the heels are to be worn while everyone can remember their shiny beauty (at the beginning of the night)! ...

Okay, so I'm a little late to this party, but as they say, better late than never. I'm kinda 'old school' I like my protein in meat form, ideally a steak cooked on the rare side of medium-rare (in particular, one from Roxie's , who do a most fantastic 250g fillet steak, for a very reasonable £14.45...) So to eat quinoa, pronounced 'keen-wa', just feels a bit odd!  A tantalising steak from Roxie's, who wouldn't want one? However, I'm told that great things can be done with it (quinoa, not steak). A particularly loved and often visited website in our office, is that of nutritional life-stylist, Madeleine Shaw (and yet this is still the first time I'm eating quinoa!) I've made her sweet-potato bread before (add rosemary and extra baking powder and it's delish!) Reasonably tasty, but probably vegetarian! But I digress! Today I have had my first bowl of M&S's super green soup with quinoa and some other ingredients (b...