Monthly Archives: February 2008
Mummy Claire & Freddie
February 29, 2008 – 10:08 am
A few of you have noticed that there’s no images of Freddie with his mum. You might be wondering why that is… Perhaps she’s got the baby blues or her figure just dropped on the floor after the birth … ? Thankfully, although pregnancy and parenthood brings mental challenges and physical changes (which we’ll no doubt be sharing with you at some point), none of them have been too scary and after three weeks of quality time with Freddie, we’ve managed to settle down and enjoy the new lifestyle, so here finally are some happy pictures of Freddie with his Mum at three weeks - Full collection in the galleries. Enjoy! X
Buggy persuits
February 28, 2008 – 10:23 pm
Meeting a destination at a specific hour (OF THE MORNING!) with a baby is no simple task. Freddie and I woke to brave a public demonstration about natural nappies this week - Needing an additional two hours prep time to achieve this goal made getting out of the house something of a military operation. Amazingly though, we arrived on location spot on time - “Sergeant Majooor!”
I marched through the main entrance of the venue; Stoke Newington Library and proudly wheeled Freddie up to the enquiries desk to ask where we needed to be for our ‘Nappuccino‘. A young, shy looking library assistant wearing the archetypal beige knitted pullover led the way. He took us through a heavy wooden door which immediately faced a tower of dusty archives. Slightly confused as to what this might promise, I distracted myself from any doubt by negotiating our buggy through the acute angle at which the door was barely able to open. We found ourselves on the other side of said door sandwiched between stacks of heavily loaded metal shelving and the boundary wall. My guide trotted off through the narrow passage ahead whose pathway was further challenged by an assembly of cardboard boxes, files and loose documents balanced amongst piles of newspapers from yesteryear… As he did this I watched the back of his shrinking head in disbelief realising that I had little chance of success in following his steps…
Determined to reach our final destination, I decided to take on the obstacle course by convincing myself that other mothers had made it through with their buggies and as a result were sitting waiting for the talk to start. As I took considered backward steps, reversing our ’second-hand, already taken a few knocks three-wheeler’ through the chaos, I managed to pick up and drag various paper piles with me until eventually the library assistant turned to see my struggle. I looked at him with a bemused, perspiring smile and decided to assert myself with the following statement: “Gosh this is tricky” until something akin to ‘health and safety’ or … ‘circus’ sprung to mind. He reacted with a nervous disposition and suggested we turn back. (You mean this route has not been tried and tested by the buggy brigade? You want me to befriend that door again?) He instructed me to walk around the outside of the library to access a side door which he will now open… and off he went. So there I was, abandoned in the middle of a stuffy back room with lovely Freddie, snugly unaware in his buggy with paper tags twisted in the wheel spokes - (What the hell was I doing in there with a three week old baby?! … Actually, WHAT THE HELL WAS I DOING THERE . ?)
I jostled my way around the heavy door for a second time. As I reappeared in the public domain befuddled, I managed to catch the eye of a passing gent and acknowledged his curious gaze with a clown like expression which I felt matched the Alice in Wonderland adventure I’d just left behind. I quickly gathered myself, reformed a sense of pride and picked up a smooth gliding speed across the seemingly expansive aisles and headed for the exit.
Finally a sign with an arrow entitled ‘Nappuccino’ clearly indicated where we needed to be. I followed instruction and found the gathering which was a little low on numbers but whose hosts were friendly and welcoming. Breast feeding I might be, but with the offer of herbal tea or filter coffee after such a bazaar experience, I’m afraid I took the shot.
Three natural hazards
February 20, 2008 – 11:39 pm
It’s been a while since my last post. We’ve been settling into our new life with Freddie and enjoying ourselves in the process. It has to be said, we’ve been helped along enormously by the fact that Freddie is a sleep monster! This guy loves the horizontal lifestyle, waking only to feed on the cream of the breast - Ahh, the good life. Sadly we seem to have missed out on the opportunity of complaining about sleep deprivation due to expected but non existent crying through the night. Naturally as parents of a new born we’ve managed to turn this good fortune on it’s head and find the fault.. why isn’t he crying? some thing’s wrong! He must be seriously traumatised or suffering exhaustion from the birth… The visiting midwife smiles and says, “he’s a baby what else would you have him do but sleep?”
The list of Fred activities besides sleep and ‘going to the mountains’ aka breast feeding extends to one other key item; ‘nappy soiling’. Welcome to the fascinating world of cost effective(?) risk management - HA! - There’s no telling when the mystery trumpet player will strike with his mustard. Abstract as that may sound, there’s great value in the humour which arises from the often absurd situations of having a new born baby in the house. There’s absolutely no theory or structure to the when and whereabouts of the next poo, fart or wee and all three of them have there own surprises and dangers:
The poo is a yellow ochre (hence mustard) slightly sticky, seed like texture, which smears over baby’s bum and back (only… if you’re lucky) enough to need several good wipes. Try juggling this goo like substance with part dressed flying limbs jabbing distraction at you. If you can get away with keeping the socks on AND clean, you’re a god damn pro. Next up, the fart, often louder and bolder than thought humanly possible attributing to the only remaining logical explanation; that a yet to be introduced trumpet player left the band and found refuge somewhere in your flat… Equally misleading, the fart does not strictly speaking require a nappy change, but as this stink bomb is not dissimilar to the sound and stench of the mustard delivery, us parents are often left confused - Should we change him and risk waking him up or leave well alone and risk nappy rash? It’s a trixy business in which baby has the upper hand!
The wee. This is the most entertaining of the three hazards. Often delivered as a surprise attraction half way through a nappy change ie; once the area has been cleaned, the skin cream applied and the new nappy laid in place ready for fitting. Suddenly you may find you’re presented with an impressive fountain of wee released from the equivalent of an uncontrolled water hose jetting over baby’s outfit, your clean shirt and the glass of boiling water waiting beside the changing mat, patiently cooled in preparation for sterilising baby’s weepy eye and newly formed belly button whose dried up umbilical cord recently fell off. Perfect.
Bear in mind that all nappy soiling hazards are further complicated by the fact that there are no hard and fast rules to when baby will do his business. You might think it would make sense to change shortly after a feed, but I can guarantee that as soon as you’ve changed him, he’ll fill it again within minutes. So a cost effective practice this is not. We have been flying through disposable nappies. I’m dying to get into natural nappies after the first month, I’m aware this WILL cut our costs in disposables, but then I’m not sure if our washing machine is up for the challenge… ?
max write 3rd
February 13, 2008 – 9:53 pm
10th day Freddie is way bigger and he has lost the umbilical cord! we have some friends (Alice and Helen.) coming today,
(11yr old 36yr old.) his face went all red. He made Funny faces and it was really funny for us. bye bye stinkers see you next time.
max.