Archive for October, 2007

Maternal Instinct

Last Monday when I picked Bernard up from his childminder, she muttered something about him perhaps being happier in a smaller group. He had had been awake since 5.30am and was, in my opinion, teething; she told me he had been whining all day, but there was definitely nothing wrong with him, and he was definitely not teething, definitely. I have spent several days fretting over his apparent irritable grouchy badly-behaved and stubborn nature, and wondering if it really is our own fault for not taking a hard-line approach to parenting.

This morning I noticed the appearance of his first molar.

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Karen · October 24, 2007 · Comments (2) · boob, rabbits

A busy day for a baby

Today started badly, at 05.30. Nothing can be good at that time of day, and an antsy baby is among that nothing. After all this time I still don’t know when to spend hours trying to get him back to sleep, and when to give it up as a bad job. In the end, it was a bad job either way, so we had done most of our chores for the day by half past nine.

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Karen · October 20, 2007 · Comments (2) · erzsebel du jour

The New Normal

Bernard was up a lot in the night. “Up” doesn’t exactly describe it, but there was a lot of it, anyway. I think perhaps his molars are starting to appear; he’s very bitey and seems to be in some discomfort. He didn’t eat any breakfast. Some nights and days are like that.

I lurk a lot on the iVillage Weaning Your Baby forum, where I dole out calming platitudes to mothers who are even worse at this thing than I am, telling them not to panic, their child will eat eventually. This, at least, is something I know. It took Bernard a little while to get going, and he still has days when he just ditches everything; but then he also has days when the ravenous beastie really surprises me, and I love that he loves olives.

Pete wrote a rather nice description of bathtime, as it is now, to go with how it was then. Reading it, I thought that this would actually be quite useful for parents-to-be: a series of general descriptions of events at, say one month, six months, one year; just to give a picture of how things change. At first, all seems to be chaos. There isn’t a moment to think. Everything is terrifying and you have no idea how to go about it. Then a routine starts to develop, and things are a bit easier because at least you know what you’re supposed to be doing, and can tell if something is out of the ordinary. Then after a while, you don’t even realise that you have a routine; it’s just what you do.

It might be heartening to know this, in those early weeks. Feeding would be a good subject, to reassure those mums who are feeding ALL the time and wondering if it will ever stop. It diminishes in significance as it gets easier, and one day you find that you can plan other things into your day; and eventually you realise that you have partially weaned without even noticing. There will be new challenges, but at least by now you’re aware of the pattern: what seems awful now will settle, and then just be part of life, the new normal that you have been waiting to get “back” to.

Karen · October 15, 2007 · Comments (1) · rabbits

Party in the Parc

Years gone by, I would turn up my nose at the very idea of spending nights in a place like Center Parcs. That’s a holiday for people who don’t want to get Out There, that is. Lazy and unimaginative, I thought. A bit harsh, no? Well you know how I like to look down on people.

Maybe it’s something to do with how you change when the pregnancy hormones kick in, but more and more people I know have had good experiences at Center Parcs. The fact that most of the people I talk to these days have young families may have something to do with it. At some point, a few weeks ago, I tentatively booked us a weekend at Center Parcs in Longleat.

And it was good, if somewhat like going on holiday to a food court. Read the rest of this entry »

Karen · October 11, 2007 · Comments (2) · rabbits, travel

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Karen · October 11, 2007 · Comments off · blogging

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