Back to work - not as bad as I thought

It's Monday night, and I've completed my first week back at work, in fact, I'm a third of the way through my 2nd week :)

I'm very lucky to have been able to go back to work part-time, doing just 3 days a week, leaving me with 2 weekdays and the weekend to spend with Squidge (and the hubby!).

I must say, the fear of going back to work was SO much worse than the reality.  The day before going back I was a complete mess, I felt sick and I spent a good portion of the day crying.  It didn't help that Squidge was ill either.

But once the day was over (my return to work day) it really was fine.  You know what, I'd even go so far as to say I'm quite enjoying it :)  I'm very lucky to have a job I enjoy and a wonderful company - if I was going back to a job I hated... well that doesn't bear thinking about.

Our new routine is very different from before, we're up earlier and home late, but with Squidge in our lives it's really ok :) Our new routine looks like this:

6:15am - Get up, wash, brush teeth etc

6:20am - Put makeup on (yep, I get up extra early so I have time for this...)

6:45am - Get Squidge up, change his nappy and get him dressed

7:00am - Grab his stuff (bottles, food, change of clothes etc) and head to his Grandparents

7:10am - Drop him off, head to work

7:30am - Hubby drops me off, and heads to work to get there for 8am

4:00pm - Leave work and walk to bus stop

4:15pm - Jump on the bus to head to Squidge's Grandparents

5:10pm - Arrive and give Squidge many squishy hugs :)

5:20pm - Daddy arrives to pick us up

5:50pm - Home, get Squidge's bottle and porridge

6:00pm - Squidge goes to bed

It's been lovely to be able to go to the loo without a screaming baby in tow, and to be able to make a cup of tea, and drink it while it's still hot, not having to hover over the kitchen sink in case I spill the hot lava it is.  It's also nice to have the option to pop out at lunch to get chores done, or sit in the chill out area and get some crocheting done :)

Do I wish I was at home with Squidge, hell yes, of course I do, but it's just not possible, so I'm trying not to dwell on that, and instead throw myself into my new routine, which really isn't all that bad.  So if you're in a similar position and dreading going back to work after maternity leave, try not to worry too much about it, I'm sure it won't be as bad as you're imagining.  

I know I've been terrible with blogging recently too - completely lost my mojo, however, I think it's back so keep your eyes peeled for lots of exciting blog posts coming your way very soon!

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The back to work blues

So it's the eve before going back to work, and to be completely and utterly honest, I feel like shit about it.  I know it's always going to be hard, for everyone, but today I had to get Squidge an emergency Drs appointment, he just wasn't well.  He'd been crying and crying and was running a temperature.  He'd slept terribly last night, and didn't properly settle until just after midnight, then waking up at 3am again needing cuddles.

After rushing him to the Drs and them having a good look at him, it seems he has an ear infection and a sore throat :(  I've never seen him so poorly, he's had 2 colds so far, and he was poorly with them but nothing like this.

He's the kind of baby that's always on the move, whether it's climbing the stairs (yep, that's a thing now!), crawling around the house, or using me as a climbing frame.  But today, all he wanted (all day) was to be cuddled.  He had a few tiny moments where he'd sit and play with his toys, and even climbed the stairs, but for 90% of the day, he was being cuddled and crying.  And by 'crying'  I mean screaming his little lungs out.

Thanks to the sore throat and ear infection, he's also lost almost all of his appetite... he's grazed on nibbles today and barely touched his bottles, not ideal when you're on a mission to fatten him up and get his little creases back.

He's also learned what the Calpol syringe is, and when he see's it he screams, turns his head away and tries to clamp his mouth shut :(  So getting medicine in him is a horrendous task.  We have tried the Munchkin medicine dummy (which I tried again today) but as soon as he tastes the Calpol he spits out the dummy.  We would have tried a spoon too, but he's been refusing food, let alone this.

Before going to bed, he spent 15 mins lying against me with his head draped on my shoulder, while quietly crying, it was heart breaking... enough to put me in floods of tears.  I wish we could afford for me to take a career break and look after him 24/7 until he goes to School, but the reality just isn't there.  So we're going to make the most of it, and throw ourselves into our new routine.  Squidge will love spending all the extra time with his grandparents, we're so incredibly lucky to have them.

I know once I get tomorrow over with I'll feel better, but right now all I want to do is spend tomorrow cuddling him and making him feel better.

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9 month baby update

I can't believe this little man has been in our lives for 9 months already! As someone very eloquently pointed out, the 9 months out go a hell of a lot faster than the 9 months in!  And dare I say it, a week today, I go back to work :/  It's just one of those realities most of us must face... but at this point, I can't imagine leaving him for 3 days a week... we're even going to have to wake him up in the morning to leave as we'll be leaving so early.  Anyway, lets not dwell on all that, and lets see how he's been getting on this past month :)

CLOTHING

He's now officially out of 6-9 months clothes and is in 9-12. However, some of the trousers for 9-12 are still a bit big and fall down (thanks to him being very slender!), so now and then I still pop him in 6-9 trousers.  His head is massive though and is growing out of everything first... in the pic above the outfit is all 9-12 and all from John Lewis and it was his first time being sat in a trolley (he bloody loved it!).  Because of the heatwave recently I've mostly had him in romper suits, or just a short sleeved vest as it's been so warm in the house.

TEETHING

They're there!  The first one has *just* broken through (on his left) and he's had lots of trouble with it, his gum has gone really sore around it and he's been chewing things/fingers/dummies/anything, loads.  I've been giving him Nelsons teething powder, and Dentinox... but needless to say, his teething issues have really amped up recently and taken on a whole new level of evil. His top two front teeth are looking exactly the same, I've said for a long time I think we were going to get all 4 teeth through pretty much together and I still think that's what's going to happen.

SLEEP

His sleeping has been mostly great! This was the first nap he's had on me in months - he's got to the stage where he'll almost only sleep in his cot, and the occasional nap in the car or buggy... so I'm trying to get him to be better at sleeping in other places by having the odd rare nap on me (I've missed it so much!).  Each night we take him up to bed at about 6pm, he has his last bottle in his room and is usually asleep by about 6:30/6:45 and sleeps through until about 6:30/7am, so a good 12 hours. Recently he's had a horrible cold though and did wake up in the night from about 3am until 4am.  We gave him lots of cuddles, some Calpol and rubbed some Snuffle Babe on his chest and he eventually went back to sleep.  

As for his day naps, he's down to about 2 a day (occasionally he'll have a 3rd nap too around 11am). He typically has one about 8:30/9am for anything from half an hour, up to an hour and a half.  And then he'll have a late nap about 4pm for a good half hour or hour - I think it all depends on whether his teeth are keeping him awake, or if he wakes up to poop.

FEEDING & WEANING

He REALLY hated this cheesy salmon pasta, lol

Weaning is going really well, but it has changed.  We haven't gone down the BLW route, we've always given him finger food like cucumber, to have while we're spoon feeding him puree, but that's about as far as we went.  Just recently, he's actually started rejecting puree (even lumpy textured ones), what this means for me is spending about 2 hours cooking after he's gone to bed, ready for him to eat the next day... fun times! I know he could have some of what we're having, but so much of what we have he can't have, like tonight we've had fajitas (it has chilli in it - jar mix), so I make him special baby finger food like the croquettes and fritters above.  If anyone has any recipe suggestions just let me know!

PROGRESS MILESTONES

Where do I begin! Holy smokes, this has been THE month for progression!  He was quite behind a few months ago, it took him a long time to get rolling and we really had to help him with it, then all of a sudden this past 2 weeks he's coming along in leaps and bounds.

He started pulling himself up from sitting, to kneeling, to standing, while on the sofa.  His crawling has amped up - from dragging his body to full blown speedy commando crawling, as well as normal crawling (as of this week).  He's also trying to climb stuff, like the back of his grandparents sofa, our sofa... me! Whatever he can he uses like an assault course.  What's really cute is when he pulls his toy basket over to get toys out - he's choosing what he wants and what to play with, amazing!  He has also learned to take steps while holding on to our hands, and if he pulls himself up on the sofa, he can walk along it (albeit not well and very wobbly!).

OTHER BITS

* He no longer wakes up happy in the mornings, he wakes up screaming and crying ;(

* He still loves being sung to

* He's started saying Dada and Dad - and even saying it in Chris' direction

* He learned to wave (and high five), and subsequently stopped, pretty much

* I think it's linked to his teething, but he likes to do the loudest high-pitched screams possible, a lot

* He's learned to use his index finger to press buttons (xbox on, xbox off, xbox on, xbox off...)

There's loads more, but there's too much to remember!

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