It's been too long, a lot has happened, not least of all a new baby!

This post may be an outpouring, so be warned! It's been over a year since I last posted. At first I stopped posting because something amazing and to me unbelievable had happened. I'd got pregnant! And naturally, with barely any effort (other than the obvious!). I was so shocked I daren't mention it in something as permanent as a blog! But as the pregnancy progressed and beyond the cautious first 12 weeks the thought of posting became a scary prospect - would I jinx things and suddenly wake up all Bobby Ewing style and not be pregnant. So I missed out on posting the chronicles of this surprise pregnancy and apart from the initial awful 15 weeks it was a wonderful pregnancy and resulted in a wonderful son! 

He is now almost 6 months old and is the most adorable little boy. Very chilled, calm and so smiley. I did a complete 180degree turn during my pregnancy. Initially I was all for a planned c section, to avoid a long drawn out and painful, labour which I'd endured with my DD. At about 20 weeks I started pregnancy yoga and relished my weekly sessions of stretching and deep breathing and it gave me and hour a week of clear thinking, away from running a household. But it didn't stop my fear of birth so I looked into hypnotherapy, natal hypnotherapy to be precise. I diligently listened to the CDs and read the book and it transformed how I wanted to birth this miracle baby. I decided on and planned a home,  water birth, however my unborn son liked being in my womb too much so off to hospital we went. Thankfully though I'm very proud to say I enjoyed my labour which was a very peaceful and beautiful experience shared very memorably with my wonderfully supportive husband. I may write a separate post about the whole birthing decisions as I have become quite evangelical about natalhypnotherapy. 

I've reaslied that I've done myself a disservice not writing my blog. While it provoked some harsh comments at times which put me off writing, on the whole it is a wonderful way to document my life, it's a diary to myself really and that's what I need to remember when writing. I've read another ladies blog on and off with a great title "write like no one is watching" and it think that's great advice. And I need to also remember that one of my original objectives of this was to keep my brain ticking over. Too often it s stuffed full of to do lists for all the other members of my family and I need to remember to look after my own to do list. So here's to a renewed vigour when it comes to blog writing. I've certainly got lots of things to document with the excitement of my growing family, with its up days as well as down days.....weaning anyone?? 

Will normal service resume?

Why is life always so busy? Despite now not working I still seem unable to fit in my blogging as much as I'd like. It heartens me that somehow people are reaching my blog and reading it, but then I worry that I am in fact letting these faceless readers down by not posting regularly enough.  When I think back over the last 5 or so weeks I have good reason to not have been as active. There was recovery from DD's birthday, which I'm learning can lead to a delay in Christmas prep which in turn delivered almost the same last minute panic of the previous two years. Add to that the continued renovations to the basement, Christmas itself and throw in a little bit of potty training, and here we are - mid January.

The potty training I'm pleased to report is faring well. All the advice I should of listened too is right. Little ones will learn when they are ready to learn and no healthy child starts school still wearing nappies. It's a relief to not be chastising myself for forgetting to change another heavy, full nappy. It's a joy when my daughter takes herself off to the loo and then triumphantly announces another success! But I am getting a bit weary of wee soaked clothes and trips out into the cold to the washing machine that's still in the shed!

However the relocation of said washing machine is a light I'm beginning to see at the end of the tunnel that has been our building work! By the end of January I should be able to safely go downstairs without getting covered in dust and more importantly normal laundry services should resume! I had a feeling of joy this week as I spent time negotiating with carpet factories, tile ware houses and trades people. A bit of a buzz to remind me of the parts of my old life I enjoyed - the sense of good feeling that you'd got a good deal, the satisfaction of saving money by spending money!  I felt a small quiver of excitement! But I will be glad when this work is done. Having to look respectable first thing in the morning in case you bump into a builder, plumber or electrician is wearing a bit thin! But the sense of achievement when we get this new 'space' to add to the rest of our gorgeous house will be great.

Since my last post we've started a new schedule with the nursery of daily three hour sessions in the afternoons! And second week in I'm so glad that we didn't start our new life this way as I'm not loving it at all. Although there is no distance at all to get to nursery, those three hours fly by. It also means I am  preparing and supervising every meal time. How I long for the last few months when I was able to drop DD off for breakfast at school and not have to return to pick her up till tea time. It was only two days a week but I got so much done! One day for housework and one day for ME! Somehow having only three hours a day just isn't cutting it. 

And for DD too! Everyday we are dealing with cries of "I don't wanna go" but I know she's enjoying it once she's there. The other day I picked her up to be met by a green moustache under her nose! Her carer explained they'd not realised what she was up to until too late and they'd tried to revove the mark on her face with a wipe. What they failed to inform me of was that under her coated arms and gloved hands was a tattooed lady who needed scrubbing with force at bath time! She thought it was hilarious - the pen marks not the scrubbing! It's all about pushing boundaries and self expression I realise, but without that two day break, I'm seeing less and less of the funny side. DB has seen this coming and, bless him, he's taken to taking DD out early on a Saturday and only returning at lunchtime. Again this I'd only a few hours but something about not having to prep and supervise just one meal a week is pure bliss! Thank you hubs! 

And with that I must sign off. Hopefully not too long before I pop back again. Thanks as always for reading. X

Good Housekeeping - the irony

So my blog has been viewed over 2000 times! Yay! Fabulous news. Hope its not just my mum pressing refresh all the time!

Its also a good time to celebrate this new venture as this week I am featured in Good Housekeeping magazine in a feature in their January issue giving readers some ideas/nudges to make changes to their lives for the better (today's top tip - I bought my copy of the mag in Tesco today for £2,99 instead of £3.99!). The irony that I have become a 'housewife' is not lost on me, just not sure I'm a good one yet!

I was interviewed at the end of September and went to London for a photoshoot at the start of October, so was still full of the joys of my new life. Happily I can still hold my head up high and agree with the sentiment I had then. I can't quite believe where the last year has gone and how much we, as a family have packed in, but here we are counting down to Christmas and the New Year. If what I am doing can 'inspire' (slightly uncomfortable with that word and me) then so be it - if you need a nudge to get on  and take a leap into the unknown, then here I am nudging you. I can't quite believe I didn't agree to moving up here sooner. I'm still feeling blessed.

I wish my parenting was as blessed as the rest of my new life. With the change to a new year for my DD, she seemed to be replaced with a child I did not recognise. Not sure if this is a result of all the food colouring i had in her birthday cake. Not heard reports yet of the other kids being more of a handful since the party? But I'm quite sick of counting to three, of threatening that Santa/Father Christmas isn't going to visit us, of resorting to shouting. Ugh! And with no work to escape to, the rosy glow for this new life certainly got a bit tainted this week. So I'm seeing that there are benefits of being a working mother. I think that by having that 'escape' it gives you, as a mother, a good 'time out' to consider what's been going on at home. You can also discuss things with fairly impartial work colleagues and get a different take on how you can change the general high tension at home before bed time! But its about that balance that I just wasn't able to achieve.

As it is I'm not yet too ingrained into the local mum network to vent too greatly when at the various playgroups or church we attend and having DD in tow limits how much I can vent. This morning was a blinder. DD suddenly went from a fairly happy child to one determined to show us up. All because I drew a squiggle on the back of drawing DD had done in little church. On rejoining the main congregation and typically just as the priest got to the fairly serious, quiet part of mass, DD chose that time to tell me (and all the congregation) that she had "a sore botty"! As I struggled to get her under control (my hushes, hushed right back at me) I realised with some new clarity why most parents sit at the back of church with their kids. Unlike me, being fresh and new to the community I've chosen each week to sit near the front (more to do with my eyesight than anything else). Thankfully we managed to get to the end of the mass without me self combusting but as we left DD was handed a Christmas cone of chocolate treats from one of the other mums! Argh - more treats on top of all the ones she'd had for the last week due to birthday well wishers. She's never going to learn.
So I confiscated them! Up to the top shelf of the larder - away from little arms. But with the promise that she could have them back IF she showed some improvement in her behaviour for the rest of the day. 'Like mother like daughter' I think the saying goes - I'm a chocoholic and if someone confiscated MY chocolate, if killing that person wasn't an option, then doing whatever they ask would probably do it!
So for the first time in a week (I know that doesn't sound long - but I'm used to an angel child) DD said her pleases and thank you's, did what she was asked to do the first time she was asked, ate all her food, didn't fuss at bedtime and was altogether a delight. Is this what its going to take then? Holding back chocolate? We'll have to see how things progress.

I'm really looking forward to Christmas this year. We bought our first 'real' tree yesterday and I'm waiting to bring it in and put it up, but I still have three boxes of books to unpack to make room in the corner for the monster we bought. I have the lovely mental image of how the room will look especially now we have our new gorgeous sofas. However my mental image did not include a smelly mound of cat vomit right in the middle of this new purchase. Bloody animal. We've had leather sofas for the entirety of her life and she has never, ever vomited on them. But a few weeks into lovely, soft, cozy fabric sofas, and not only have we had the horrid vomit, but mud a plenty! A hazard of living in the countryside? Or just a hazard of having a half finished basement? Christmas is a time of traditions and it seems that we started one last Christmas in the form of 'painting'! Not some wonderous masterpiece, no I mean wall painting! It looks like the basement will, structurally, at least be finished in time for Christmas, allowing us the two week break (from what in my case?) to have the time to paint.
But that's not the bit of Christmas I'm looking forward to. No. I'm looking forward to two whole weeks with my dear husband. What a novelty - adult conversation for the majority of the day as opposed to just a few hours in the evening. And both of us on hand to deal with the no doubt over excited DD who totally 'gets' Christmas this year. That part of her age I love.

Now dear readers (or reader if it is actually just my mum hitting refresh) thank you for taking the time to   get my blog to over 2000 page views. I hope some of what I write is of use or at the very least enjoyable and thanks for letting me air the clutter in my brain.