What we've been up to #1

It's been a little while since I've done an update on here (3 weeks), there'll be a proper baby update next Monday when Squidge turns 20 weeks old, but for now, here's what we've been up to :)

I've become friends with one of the mummies from the first-time mums club I go to on Thursdays, she only lives a couple streets away from me and our babies are only about 3 weeks apart.  This was the first time we met up outside mummy club, we went to the local church centre (there's a nice coffee shop there) for tea and cake (that's a coffee and walnut cake, VERY tasty!).

We also went to Weston-super-mare to visit family.  My cousin Alistair lives there, and my other cousin Julie (and her daughter) had flown over from Spain to visit, so we drove down to see them all, and so they could meet Squidge.  While we were there we walked down to the waterfront and went for a coffee to Smiths - it was a gorgeous day, Squidge was on form and really well behaved.  After this we went back to Alistair's house where they put on a lovely spread, the family sat around the table, chatting and eating cheese & crackers.  It really reminded me of when I was a young child and we'd go to family do's, but this time, I was the mummy :)  We had such a lovely day :)

latte at Smiths

L-R: Julie, Ruth (Julie's daughter), Me

We did our first Lidl shop.  We said a while ago that we were going to try Aldi and Lidl to see how they compare to having Waitrose delivered.  Well, we finally got around to trying Lidl after not getting on that well at Aldi.  Overall, the products felt better quality than Aldi, the shop was a bit nicer and they had a slightly better range of products.  Their veg looked much fresher than Aldi too. But price-wise, we spent £55 there, and still had loads we couldn't get (plain feta, puff pasty, creme fraiche etc) and had to go to Sainsburys, spending a further £30 - making our total shop that week £85.  Comparing that to our typical Waitrose weekly shop (£65), Waitrose is definitely coming out on top, add to that the fact that we get it delivered so don't have to go to the effort and use petrol to buy it, and the better quality products from Waitrose, I don't think we'll be going back to Lidl :)

It wasn't all bad though - these cookies were AMAZING!!!! Best cookies ever.  We also picked up some praline chocs for Valentines, they were £1.19 and simply delicious! We bought a few different cheeses to have with crackers too, and they were really well priced, they'd have been much more expensive at Waitrose.  If we had the patience to shop across Aldi, Waitrose and Lidl we'd probably be able to save loads of money, but we really can't be bothered with that :P

Possibly the nicest biscuits ever, and only 99p from Lidl!

 We went for a lovely Valentines walk around Roath Lake.  The last time we took Squidge here he was only a week old and slept around the whole thing.  This time he stayed awake all the way around and is quite a bit bigger than the last time he was here!  It was a really nice day, maybe a little nippy but nice - there were lots of other families with their babies and children out walking too :)

Squidge at Roath Lake at 4 months, 3 weeks

Squidge at Roath Lake at a week old

Happy Squidge time :)  He was having a happy day, something with feels rare at the moment - some days it feels like all we're doing is treading water, well, fire, trying to keep him from a full on meltdown, he'll be crying and whining all day - even these days are awesome though - they're really hard work, but I wouldn't change it for the world, I love having him in my life and I'm ever grateful that we have him and that he's healthy :)  It's not something I take lightly.

A smiling Squidge

 Napping at his Nana's - this is something we're battling with at the moment too, his napping is all over the place.  Take this morning for example, this morning he's decided to only nap on me, every time I put him down he's back awake again.  It's hard because if he doesn't sleep well between each feed (about an hour) then he really struggles with the feed, and is a lot more grouchy.  So I'm trying everything I can to help him nap :)

Sleeping Squidge

Post-partum hair loss... a few weeks ago I realised handfulls of my hair were falling out.  I'd just have to run my fingers through my hair, and excessive amounts would be in my hands.  Then, about a week ago I noticed that my hair line had receded and I'd gained some pretty big widow's peaks. After speaking to a lot of other mummies, it seems I'm far from alone.  I still feel really self concious about it and embarrassed as I feel it's really noticeable (the other widow's peak is worse), but I've been assured that it'll grow back.  In the meantime I'm wearing my hair down more and not pinning my fringe back to help not draw attention to it.

Receding hair line, post-partum

I've also been learning to crochet - I'm yet to master granny squares, but creating squares of rows I'm doing well with and have a little project under way - read my update here.

Learning to crochet

That's about it for now!  I'm looking forward to Squidge's 5 month update next Monday, I've already started writing it with some of his developmental updates :)

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