Flipping heck!

After a few weeks of complete lack of interest or motivation in rolling, Baby has suddenly become incredibly active and starting shuffling, spinning and rolling around in his bed at night. I keep hearing bangs and crashes and go into his room to find him with a leg up on the bars or him sleeping on his front (often also facing a different direction than I'd put him down in). I've been flipping him back over onto his back when I find he's turned over as I'm nervous about leaving him sleeping on his front. The advice is conflicting so I'm not sure who to listen to. I know generations of babies slept on their tummies and are fine and many believe if they've turned themselves over it's ok to leave them but I can't help but worry when you hear others say it's not safe to let your baby sleep on it's front. I guess it's more sleepless nights for me until he gets stronger and I get less neurotic!!


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Holy sh...

This is going to be a TMI post and anyone who is particularly squeamish about number twos should stop reading right now.

Baby had to be CUT OUT OF HIS CLOTHES yesterday. Yes, you heard me right. We had a toxic leak so toxic and so leaky that I saw no way of dealing with it other than screaming at Dad (who was thankfully home at the time) to get me the scissors and I cut up a brand new bodysuit which was covered in hazardous sludge literally from top to bottom. Oh yes, it went all the way up and across his back up to his neck. Oh. My. God!!!

Weaning fun

Well, we finally recovered from the jet lag after about a week or so. And then bravely embarked on weaning adventures. Baby has been interested in food for quite some time, watching us eat and reaching for food, so we knew he was ready for solids and once he reached six months we celebrated his half birthday with some real food.

I'm following Baby Led Weaning, which gets mixed reactions but seems to be working for us. We've discovered that our little monkey hates being spoon fed but likes food as long as he gets to play and explore and feed himself. And he's good at it too. It is very cute to watch. So far he's been eating some fruits and vegetables as finger foods but when I attempt to give him yoghurt, fromage frais or porridge he acts like I'm torturing him. However, if I give him the spoon he will attempt to feed himself and then it's not so bad. It's cute but messy and takes forever. I pray for the patience to continue with this once the novelty has worn off and the willpower to fight off the urge to just pin him down and shovel mush into his mouth (which is the whole reason I chose to go the BLW route instead of the traditional phases).

Let's hope we don't have to repaint the walls soon!

Time zone madness

Baby is still on California time. Check out the timestamp on this post. We've been back a week and are still suffering from severe jet lag. If you thought sleep is a problem with a baby, try living with a baby who is jet lagged. He's up most of the night wanting to play at the moment then finally goes to sleep around 4am which is bedtime in Cali. This means of course he sleeps until lunchtime, wants a feed and then wants to sleep again. It's not just him though, we're all suffering and it seems quite unusually persistent this time. I have had a few nights of not sleeping at all until morning. This morning I managed to wake us both up and get out if the house early to try and help us adjust back but poor little guy was just dazed all day. And sleepy. I hope we get straightened out soon.


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Where am I?

It's 4am and I am wide awake, and my body thinks it's dinner time. Curse you jet lag! And as if that's not bad enough we only just got the little monkey to sleep a short while ago. Jet lagged baby = not a pretty sight! We've been back a couple of days and last night he went to sleep around 4am and woke up at lunchtime. I, however, was up the entire night without so much as a snooze until 7am.

And as if on cue, I just heard a squeak on the monitor. I'll post about the trip after I've recovered.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

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.