What would you do with three hours off?

I recently happened to find myself with three whole children free hours. I know, jealous right? This was the first time in 11 months that I have been alone, literally. How did I find myself child free I hear you ask. Did I abandon them somewhere just hoping to find their own way home? Not quite.

A combination of my parents working full time and O being solely dependant on me to feed him has meant that it was pretty impossible for me to leave him before. But O is less dependant on me now so it was a lovely surprise to get a random phone call first thing in the morning from my mother offering me some ‘me time’ and on her day off too. I have to be honest I jumped at the chance!

I thought the fact that LV was home from school might have thrown a spanner in the works, but I’d only kept him off as I thought he was getting conjunctivitis and in her own words ‘he can have bad eyes in this house too’. I actually think that it may be more hayfever related as they have stayed bloodshot and watery but they didn’t get gunky at all. I’ve given him antihistamines since and it has seemed to improve a little.

So after having the obligatory cuppa and gossip about all and sundry, I fed O just to top him up and left. When I pulled up at my house just a few minutes later I opened the back door as usual to get O out of his carseat, then had to pretend that I was looking for something so my next door neighbour didn’t think I was going off my head! At least it wasn’t the other way round and I’d left him in there huh?

So what exactly did I do with my three hours? Let my give you a run down.

1. I sat on the sofa to eat my lunch and have a cup of tea without worrying that this will happen again. There were NO toys strewn across the floor around me!

2. I watched an episode of Haven, from beginning to end, without having to pause it or pretend not to be watching it while playing with O.

3. I ate the last slice of lemon meringue pie without having to hide or share it.

4. I wrote this article about maternity clothes without stopping and it wasn’t even nap time. I even got to press the publish button too!

5. I peed, alone, without anyone looking at me, wanting to sit on my lap, or feed, or look between my legs, or try to climb the shelves, or eat the toilet brush.

6. I had another cup of tea, while it was still hot!

7. I made my bed. Nicely. Not just flung the duvet over it.

8. I took clothes out of the tumble dryer, transferred nappies from the washing machine to the tumble drier AND got new clothes in the washing machine all in one go, without having to carry a baby strapped to my back or anything.

9. I sorted the shoes and threw out a load of holey, too small ones that have been hanging round for way too long.

10. I swept downstairs, even under the dining table (go me!)

11. I took the dog out for a walk, just the two of us.

12. I gave the highchair a good old scrub which was way overdue.

13. I hoovered the rug.

14. I made another cup of tea!

15. I almost finished one blog post and started another one(this one)

16. I put another episode of Haven on and checked my emails and all my social media bits and pieces like twitter and facebook.

It’s good to bear in mind that numbers 7-13 took less than an hour and I didn’t rush. It would usually have taken me all day and many stops to wrangle something out of O’s mouth or feed him, or change him etc. etc. The writing is usually impossible during the day, if you read this post about O’s lack of sleep you will understand why.

So even though I had a leisurely afternoon I was actually quite productive. Yes I could have been much more productive and spent my time deep cleaning the kitchen, taking stuff to the tip, scrubbing the floors. But quite frankly I just didn’t want to and that’s the excuse I’m sticking with!

I really enjoyed my time alone but it was lovely to see my two smiling boys again!

                                             

Oh and I know you will read this so thank you Mam, shall we do it again sometime? 😉 x

Do you get many days off from your children? What do you like to do with your time? Or, if you have yet to experience your first few hours without your precious little ones, what do you imagine you would want to spend your time doing?

Why I don’t like disposables

This weekend O has been wearing disposable nappies/diapers.  I now remember why I hate them.

Let me first explain why he was wearing them.  With Ff being really poorly and developing this rash over her face I thought it best to be prepared for the worst and buy some disposables on Saturday morning just so I knew no matter where O was and who he was with there would be something clean for him to wear, specially as we were on wash day and there were barely any clean nappies left.

It took me ages to figure out what brand and size to buy, I settled on the Pampers size 4. Of course I also bought some wetwipes too, these were Pampers sensitive.  I know I was buying from a local shop but the prices just made me want to cry and I almost didn’t get them at all.

I put him in one before I left for the hospital and the first thing I didn’t like was how skinny he looked! He is on the small side still, barely creeping his way up to the 25th centile line in his charts.  Also the only trousers he owns, apart from wool longies,  are leggings and they are all really loose on him.  There’s no big butt to make him feel solid to hold onto and to keep him in the sling, it kept sliding up over his bum.  Maybe this is why some mums don’t get on with ringslings if they don’t use cloth?  Maybe just those with slimmer babies? I’ve never really thought of it before.

So I took him with us, obviously he’s still breastfed so there was no other option.  By the time we got there I took him out of the carseat and all I could smell was urine mixed with chemicals.  This was after 20 minutes. He isn’t a heavy wetter and you couldn’t even tell he had peed, the nappy was still bone dry and didn’t even feel like it had absorbed any liquid. In all it took us 2 hours to get home and I changed him as soon as we got here.  The smell of the chemicals was quite bad by this point.  Then I cracked open the wetwipes.  I remember wetwipes smelling clean and fresh but these ones don’t. I’m not sure how to describe it, but it’s almost as if they have taken out the fragrance to make them ‘sensitive’ but left them smelling rather unpleasant.

Even though Ff was home she was still very ill and being as we had these nappies open I decided it was easier to use them for a few days(dh doesn’t like my Disana tie on nappies and all the pockets had been used already) plus it meant I could give the nappies an extra good wash and an extra vinegar/bicarbonate of soda wash too. Over only three days using disposable nappies we have had:

• One case of poo up the back and getting on his vest resulting in a two man job to remove said vest without smearing it everywhere.
• One case of poo leaking out the leg hole and down the inside of his trousers, I hadn’t realised when I pulled them down and managed to get it over his legs and socks, and all over me!
• Two cases of dampness by the leg holes.
• Numerous attempts to pull the nappy off
• a bin full of stinky nappies, even though they were tied up in scented bags(even more icky chemical smells!)

In all I am so glad I use cloth. I use wool covers exclusively and I haven’t had a leak or a blow out since he was tiny and exclusively breastfed, not even had so much as a case of compression wicking.  I used disposables on my first three and I can honestly say I would never go back to using them daily, but I am grateful to know I can just pick up a pack in an emergency, even if they seem like more work lol.

Do you use cloth or disposables, or maybe a bit of both? Let me know how you get on with them.

Such an annoying question!

Now before I get flack for dissing formula feeding mothers let me just make a few things clear. I have no issues with how a mother feeds their child. I have had to formula feed 3 of my children from different ages and for various reasons, which I will go into more detail at a later date.  I fully understand and support that some women choose to bottle feed from the start, that is their right. Nobody should ever be shamed or made to feel guilty for not wanting to breastfeed, or wanting to for that matter!  Okay enough of my disclaimer and onto the actual post

One of the most annoying questions I seem to be getting a lot at the moment, actually since O was born is:

‘Is he sleeping through the night yet?’

Why are people so obsessed with if my child is sleeping 12 solid hours at night? But it isn’t even the question that annoys me the most. It is the fact that when I say he wakes a couple of times to feed people automatically feel the right to presume that it is because I am still breastfeeding and if I gave him formula milk he would sleep.

Yes he probably would, but they never seem to realise that they also ask this same question to bottle feeding mothers and their only reply to if their child still wakes is usually something along the lines of:

‘Well… it will come eventually’

or

‘It’s just one of those things’

I have even heard the same woman who, a few weeks earlier had advised that I switched to bottle feeding, then have complete sympathy with a sleep deprived formula feeding mother of a 6 month old and stating that their own child still wakes up at 5am every morning for a bottle and refused to go back to sleep at the age of two!

What they don’t seem to realise (and mostly don’t give me chance to explain)  is that yes, my nine month old child wakes at 1am then again at between 4 and 5am. But he also goes straight back to sleep. I don’t mean I feed him, then we go back to sleep. I mean I pop a boob in his mouth and within a minute we are both flat out again.  In the early morning I can usually lull him back to sleep till after 7am by keeping him snuggled up close to me, feeding if he wants.

I don’t have to wake up fully, get out of bed, make a bottle, give that bottle, burp baby then try and go back to sleep.  If he is already in bed with me I don’t even have to sit up. Just turn over with him on my tummy then pop him on the other side.  Obviously if he is in his cot I have to sit up and he has stirred more but he still goes off easily.

We have our bad nights of course, as does everyone else, but I actually feel that I have the better end of the deal!

In fact, far from looking down on bottle feeding mothers, I pity them having to go down to the freezing cold kitchen to make up a bottle.  I applaud them for being sleep deprived yet managing to get on with their day even after being woken at 3am but not able to go back to sleep until 5.30am knowing that baby will probably be awake again at 6am.

To all those formula feeding mothers who wish to suggest that I, or anyone else, stop breastfeeding just to get a full nights sleep, how about you don’t? If you would still like to know if my child wakes at night ask away but please, unless you have breastfed a baby yourself, don’t offer me advice, just give me the same sympathy as you would have liked to be given yourself.

Do/did you get asked this question a lot?  Did you also get the same advice as me or similar? Or maybe you’ve had your own annoying questions or advice? I’d love to know.

Baby’s got bite

At the grand old age of (almost) nine months O finally has a tooth! The photo isn’t the best as I was trying to hold him and take it but you should just be able to see it.

Out of all of my babies he is the oldest to be getting his first tooth and you have even been able to see them inside his gums for weeks just hanging around, not in any rush to come through.

I should have realised something wasn’t quite right with him earlier in the week, he’s had slightly pink cheeks and has been chewing extra hard on his thumb. But he has been pretty good, and believe me I have had some horrendous teethers! E used to get a blood blister on her gum with every single new tooth that was about to pop out 😦

So fingers crossed, if this one is anything to go by , we shouldn’t have too bad a time at least with these first front ones anyway. Although by saying that I have now jinxed myself and he will scream for a week straight on the next one, guess I’d better get the cooling teething toys in the fridge pronto!

I have actually been dreading his teeth coming though. He isn’t the gentlest of feeders at the best of times and has often bitten my nipple with his gums hard enough to make me squeal, then him cry because I squealed. So I’m keeping my fingers crossed that he has gone past that stage, the last few days he has been blowing raspberries and trying to chat with the boob still in his mouth, very messy with the splashing milk but much less biting involved.

What ages have your babies had their first teeth? Or are you still waiting for them to arrive? Let me know your teething stories 🙂

Our Reflux Story – part 1

So we are still going through the hell that is infant reflux but I would be here all day typing our journey so far. I have decided instead to break it down into smaller more manageable chunks so this is the first part of the story:

With all of the other issues we dealt with during the first few weeks of O’s life, vomiting was one thing that happened very rarely. Now let me tell you that I have had some really sicky babies in the past and it was pleasant not to have to change him 3 times before breakfast or to need a never ending supply of bibs/muslin cloths.

But alas at 9 weeks out lives took on a more sicky smelling aroma when out of the blue, one day he started to be sick. All. The. Time. Now a lot of reflux babies projectile vomit but this wasn’t how it was with O. It would literally dribble out of his mouth continuously. I remember sitting waiting in baby clinic for an hour and I went through 3 muslin cloths drenched in foul, cheesy smelling liquid before he even got weighed.

He started doing the usual spitting up that babies get when they are winded but we also had feeds where he was still attached to my boob and he would be getting sick just because he fidgeted a little.  It would come pumping out around his mouth and we would both get drenched.  He would then get hungry quickly as he’d lost most of his feed and so the vicious circle would continue.

It was after he had been vomiting for a few days that the crying started. It wasn’t colic, even though the doctors insisted that it was. If you have never had a colicky baby you should really count your blessings.  Babies with colic will scream, for hours on end (usually in the early evening) it doesn’t matter what you do, you can hold them, change them, sing to them, lay them down in their bed alone. Nothing will soothe them.  But this child could be distracted, even if only for a few moments sometimes.  He was consolable.

We had tried many things help ease his pain including:

Infacol, this is an orange flavour liquid that helps all of the little bubbles in baby’s tummy collect into one big bubble which is easier to burp up

Gripe Water, which is a clear liquid made with dill and fennel among other ingredients which warms a baby’s tummy and is quite soothing.

Colief, with is a really expensive yet teeny tiny bottle containing the enzyme lactase.  This is sometimes given to colicky babies who may be suffering a temporary form of lactose intolerance.  It helps them break down the lactose until their immature tummy can take over, this is usually around 3 months old.  LV was lactose intolerant until he was 5 or 6 years old, so it made sense that his brother may be getting it too.

We had positive results for a few days with each of these products, the crying and writhing pain eased but the vomiting continued) but they soon came back with a vengeance. The only thing we introduced that really helped us all a lot? A dummy (pacifier).  I had been adamant that he wasn’t going to have a dummy, we hadn’t needed one on LV, we wouldn’t need one now.  But after 3 weeks of what felt like constant crying we were all willing to try anything.

He was 12 weeks old and he never had anything other than boob in his mouth so at first he would gag on it, but it kept him distracted trying to figure out what the hell this thing was.  after a week or so he got the hang of it and if nothing else it helped us to get him to sleep a little easier.

I will carry on our story soon but have you and your family dealt with reflux?  I would love to hear from others who are going through this problem.  Also has your loved one grown out of reflux? What helps/helped you deal with it or what tips do you have?

6 months old, how time flies

This is being posted a bit late due to O going through a growth spurt and life just generally getting in the way. It was supposed to be posted on Thursday 9th.

Today is a very happy day for us as O reaches his 6 month mark. He has gone from a tiny, pale 5lb 3oz baby struggling to breathe to a big bouncing boy who loves to gently caress your face before trying to pull your nose off!

We have had our struggles, he was a month early, birth was a bit traumatic for us both, special care, shallow latch, extended jaundice, weight loss, tongue tie, failure to thrive, early weaning, reflux, increased liver enzymes and possibly some other things that have slipped my mind but you get the picture. There was nothing major, but enough to keep our lives slightly stressful!

But now most of those struggles are over, his latch is still useless but we cope. All the other issues have or are slowly resolving themselves. Now we have days filled with giggles and hugs instead of blood tests and weigh ins.

O can’t quite sit up unaided for more than a few seconds yet but he is almost there and just yesterday he started holding his hands up for us to pick him up. He loves playing peekaboo and bouncing on a knee singing ‘mynd ar y ceffyl’ a Welsh nursery rhyme which literally translates to ‘going on the horse’.

This is the first time we got to see him a few hours after birth

And here is our big boy now on a family walk all bundled up in a sling with mami

I wonder what the next 6 months will bring…

Hello out there

So I have deleted this post more than once already and I’m still not sure of what I want to say!  Hello, would be a good place to start, so….. Hi!*wave*

I’m Katie and if you hadn’t sort of guessed from the name of the blog am a stay at home Mami of five.  Yes, I know our family is a bit bigger than the norm but it was our decision to have this many and it has been a manic, fun filled twelve years since we had our first, and second. Thats right, we had twins first and still decided to have more!

So a little about us. We are a bilingual family, myself and the kids all speak Welsh and English.  Hubby only speaks English, but understands more Welsh than he realises most days.  Having read a few blogs, I think I would be classed as ever so slightly crunchy.  I wear my babies, use cloth nappies, have breastfed all my children and would prefer to eat real food than processed.  However, in reality I will admit that I used a double buggy when e&ff were babies, a combination of sling/double/single buggy/buggy board when the three girls were little, only managed to breastfeed the twins until they were 12days old, only used cloth on the two youngest and processed food is my failing most days when the time goes by so fast – but it is something I am working on.

Hubby is an HGV mechanic and totally into his gaming, he even has a YouTube channel  where he uploads videos, mostly of minecraft.

The Kids

We have E&Ff first, they are 12 and every bit tween girls as they could possibly get, from complete silliness one moment to full on teenage strops the next. I’m sure one teenage girl is bad, but two?  Give me tantruming toddlers anyday!

Next we have LM our ten year old, she is about as daft as they come, the phrase sillier than a box of frogs comes to mind. I have been instructed by her to tell you that she is actually a sophisticated, smart and intelligent young lady 😉

LV, our first son, is seven, named after his dadi and determined to be just as tall one day although he would rather be an evil scientist when he’s older.

Finally we come to our last little bundle of joy, O is now four months old and full of very cheeky grins.  He is the object of the three girls obsessions and loves getting passed from one pair of open arms to another. 

So that is us in a nutshell.  What about you? What is your family like?  I would love to hear off you. If you have any questions or if there is a subject you would like me to post about let me know.