Leaving on a jet plane

Our little family is heading stateside in the morning, to visit the grandparents and introduce Baby to our friends. Dad and I are both nervous about our first flight with an infant. We've got some bad karma, we used to be the people who hated getting on a flight with kids on it, and now we'll be the ones people pray not to sit next to!

Packing is interesting too. Now I get to overpack for two of us!!

I'll let you know how it goes.


-- Post From My iPhone

Bugaboo seduction

I am weak, and possibly a little crazy. When we were expecting and shopping for a pram/stroller I researched to within an inch of my life to make sure I got the perfect one for us. After a couple of months of research, of to-ing and fro-ing about which one was the one and driving my husband crazy, I decided on the iCandy Cherry. It's light, folds easily and looks nice and was well priced in the middle range.

Well, this week I caved and bought a new stroller. I discovered they had released a new Bugaboo Bee this month and I wanted it!! Ridiculous. The Bee had been on my original shortlist but I decided against it in the end because I felt it was small and wouldn't last as long as the Cherry, but the new model addresses this issue and has an extendable seat. I don't know what came over me but I lusted after it for a few days but kept telling myself it was silly, and then the husband (tired of feeling the deja vu of the first stroller buying saga) just told me to get it if it's what I wanted and suits our needs better.

So I went from this:


to this:

and despite myself, have joined the ranks of the North West London Bugaboo brigade. I feel rather like I have joined a cult!

So here's where I justify myself. The Cherry is a fantastic stroller and I loved it but at this stage the Bee seems to be more suitable for me now and here's why:

• The Cherry is light and folds easily but doesn't fold in one piece whereas the Bee does, and this is its main advantage. The Cherry is perfect when I walk or take the bus as I normally do but when I drive it's a bit more of a pain to mess around with the two pieces. So far it hasn't been a problem because when driving I just take the frame and use the Maxi Cosi car seat on it, but this won't be the case for much longer as I had just noticed my son will be ready for his next stage car seat soon.
  
• For the moment, I can still use the Maxi Cosi on the Bee but don't have to take the seat unit off as I do with the Cherry. This is a big plus for me as it means I have the choice of clicking the car seat on if Baby is fast asleep when we arrive at our destination and I don't want to risk waking him by getting him out, or using the stroller if he is awake and wants to come out of it.
  
• The Bee is also a small and ergonomic shape which makes carrying it folded or unfolded easier. The Cherry is light but larger and more cumbersome and I wouldn't be able to carry it up or down any stairs with my baby in it, whereas I could just about manage it with the Bee.
• If I need to fold the stroller for some reason, ie. to save space in a restaurant or at a friend's, it's easy to do so whereas with the Cherry it was tough to do with the two pieces unless I was using the car seat.
  
• I loved the Cherry as a pram when my son was still in the carrycot, I thought it looked nice and was a good, nippy little pram to go out and about in and I think I had originally really loved the idea of a more traditional pram that lay completely flat than an all around pushchair like the Bee. However now that he's outgrown the pram and moved into the stroller (much earlier than the six months that's recommended) I was no longer as smitten with our wheels and being the fickle person I am my head was turned by the Bee.
• The Bee has great suspension which I didn't think I would need in the city but the pavements around here are not as flat and easy to maneuvre as I had thought. I have run aground in the Cherry a couple of times on some hazardous sticky-out bits of paving stone on my street.
• The raincover for the Bee is much better It's softer and therefore easier to fold up to put in the basket - and living in England we have to pretty much always have it with us, just in case. It's also a lot easier to attach, with a hook and elastic rather than just velcro, and most importantly has a peephole flap which is useful for reaching in to adjust a blanket or hand a toy or whatever to baby without having to undo the side or reach in from underneath.
  
• It's shallow of me but while I loved the pram/carrycot I don't think the Cherry stroller looks as nice. I do also like the colour coordination and customisation possibilities of the Bee (and indeed all the Bugaboos).
• Again shallow, but I love the wealth of accessories available for the Bugaboos. This is not a good thing however, as they do not come cheap and it's a very slippery slope.
  
• I found it very difficult to get hold of iCandy accessories, the company seemed to be very unreliable with ordering times of up to eight weeks and poor communication on delivery etc. Bugaboo accessories are much more common and easily available.
• Now this is the shallowest thing of all but the straw that broke the camel's back when it came to finally caving and buying it was, they have an iPhone holder!! Yes, I'm that shallow!!

And so it was that I bit the bullet and ordered my shiny new Bugaboo Bee+ with a blue canopy, a grey seat liner and the iPhone holder. And then during a bought of insomnia I got up in the middle of the night and ordered a footmuff and sun canopy by torchlight!! See? I told you it was a slippery slope. And I am clearly unhinged!

So if anyone is in the London area and is looking for a barely used iCandy Cherry stroller (without the carrycot which I have given to a friend who just had her baby and bought the Cherry too) in red (Licorice), drop me a line. It and its accessories will be found on ebay shortly.

Ouch! That's sharp!

My five month old cut his first tooth today. What a bittersweet moment. And what a big week for the little fella, a haircut and a tooth all within a couple of days of each other!!

He's been a little out of sorts the last couple of days, not his usual happy and easy self. He's been showing the classic signs of teething for at least a month now - dribbling, chewing on anything he can get his hands on, funny poos, disturbed sleep, etc - but the last couple of days he's been unusually clingy as well as generally moody. Tonight during a particularly reluctant bedtime routine I was giving him his bedtime feed and he gave me a hard bite which hurt more than usual, it felt sharp. So I rubbed the bottom front of his gums with my finger and sure enough felt a little sharp edge and when I looked I saw it. It's hardly noticeable but definitely there. And it definitely wasn't there this morning.

I can't believe my baby is growing so fast. And I can't believe what a sentimental fool I've become but I don't feel quite ready for all this. Just when I've begun thinking about weaning and researching high chairs! It's all going to happen so fast.

Baby got a haircut

My baby boy just turned 5 months old and I'm wondering where the time went. At 5 months he just had his very first haircut this evening, completely unplanned. There is a palpable lump in my throat now!

My little boy has a lot of hair, he was born with a shock of dark hair and it just grew and grew and is one of his best features. We get lots of comments on it. But it was getting too long and I had been wanting to trim it. I got beaten to the post though. Today we went with Daddy to get his hair cut and got talked into cutting baby's hair too. Daddy wanted it done, he thought it was too long and unruly and as we're going to Southern California next week it would be a good time since it will be hot there. I just didn't feel prepared but went along with it and sat wincing as I watched my beautiful baby boy's beautiful baby hair fall to the floor. He does look cute but so different without it and now I'm worried I barely recognise my own baby.

*sob*

Separation anxiety... and relief

After several nights of broken sleep and the insanity that follows, we decided we had to take some real decisive action to find a solution. There is a little bit of translation needed for this as the UK/US terms for baby beds are slightly confusing. Since birth Baby had been sleeping in a crib (cradle in American) in our room, but we also have the nursery set up with his cot (crib in American) which we were planning to move him to when he outgrew the crib. I had been putting him down in the cot for naps recently, to get him used to it, and he seems to like it and settles well in it. He also has a lot of toys and things in it now. So we decided it might soon be time to move him into his own room but I didn't want to do it while he was up so many times during the night, it's a bigger effort to feed him then.

In the last week or so he had got worse and worse with bedtime, not wanting to settle down at all, waking up crying soon after being put to bed, and waking frequently through the night. This is after he had been sleeping through the night since he was around 2 months old, he used to settle himself when we put him down in the crib awake and then sleep until morning. But now he seemed uncomfortable and he is definitely showing teething signs so we put the frequent waking down to that. Plus, all his friends seem to be doing the same hing. The only time he would sleep for a decent stretch is if I brought him into the bed with us, but that is definitely not something we want to make a regular thing of.

I wasn't sure it would work but I wanted to let him sleep in the cot in his own room for a night and see how he did. We came to this decision two nights ago when we had had enough! I figured if he freaks out what's the difference, we're not sleeping either way! But you know what? That first night was perfect, he slept 11 hours. Hallelujah!! He is just much more comfortable, with more room to move I think. He likes to move his arms around and the crib had got just too small for him, we could hear his hands bang against the bars when he threw his arms out. Last night he did wake up for a feed around 2am but hey, I can live with that. What a good boy. I may have to get him a nice new cot mobile as a reward!

It was a huge milestone for me though. I had a "my little baby is growing up" moment in a big way. Of course I was a little anxious too. I mean, he was only in the next room and it's not like our place is huge but I had to have the baby monitor turned up high sitting on my bedside cabinet, right by my head! And you'd think I'd be catching up on sleep but I was up a couple of times in the night, sneaking into his room to check on him. I kind of miss him being at the end of our bed too. We would peer at him constantly and now the crib is empty. On the up side, Hubby and I no longer have to tiptoe around in the dark and whisper for fear of waking him when we go to bed.

Ah sleep, sweet sweet friend. Welcome back!

Teething pains

My little boy has been teething for the last couple of weeks and it seems to be increasingly uncomfortable for him. I've heard this in no way guarantees a tooth will appear soon, that they can go through the discomfort of teething pains for some time before they actually get teeth. That seems horribly unfair! He's getting all the signs though - dribbles that would make your average waterfall envious, strange poos that either look like he's been eating grass or mucus, rosy cheeks, some irritability, and putting everything in his mouth. He has also had disturbed sleep now, waking 3 or 4 times in the night when he had previously been sleeping through the night already.

One of the remedies that everyone seems to recommend is teething granules, a homeopathic remedy that I had never previously heard of. But everyone else seems to have not only heard of them but say they are the best thing ever. Even my husband came home telling me that, after talking to some people at the office! They sounded really weird to me but as everyone swore by them I decided to give it a try and picked some up yesterday. Anyone tried this stuff? It's like giving your baby a recreational drug!! I had to laugh. The stuff comes in little sachets so you rip it open and tip it out and it's this white grainy, powdery stuff. The packet says to just pour it into the child's mouth but my friends and acquaintances told me it's most effective if you rub it on their gums. So there I was rubbing this white powdery substance on my baby's gums. And he loved it! He smiled and laughed as I rubbed it and he licked and sucked on my fingers, wanting more. It was hilarious. There was my 4 month old with white powder around his mouth, grabbing my finger and licking it for more, like a desperate addict. I wondered if I should offer him a credit card and a twenty!!

I also want to get him a Sophie, I've heard great things about those too. I should have one in a few days so I'll report on that later. Other than that, let's wait for these teeth to come through. When they do I'm guessing that might be the beginning of the end of nursing for me?! Ouch!

Sleep, old friend, where did you go?

Since my last post about sleep and going backwards things have got progressively worse. Baby has been pretty unpredictable, sometimes sleeping through and sometimes getting up a couple of times during the night. And all my friends and my friends' friends with babies the same age are all experiencing the same thing. It's weird how none of us heard about this before. You hear about how it gets easier around 3-4 months and you think it's a linear progression but no, they go backwards!!

The last few days I've been doing 2-3 night feeds. Baby used to be difficult to put to bed in the evenings but slept through the night from around 11pm-12am. Then we got that licked and he started going to bed around 8pm, settling himself to sleep like an angel and sleeping through until morning (usually around 7am). Those were some good times! Then he started waking up once a night on some nights. Then he started to wake up more - like 12am, 3am, 6am. And just the last couple of days he has started to be difficult to settle in the evenings again, fighting his bedtimes. Linear regression!

It's a good thing they're so damn cute and loveable. We wouldn't put up with this crap from just anybody. Am I right?