OMG

Actually the title of this post is somewhat understated, it should read:

OH MY F*ING GOD!

You remember the little chap in Aint Half Hot Mum who used to shake his head going 'Goodness Gracious Me' well to fully appreciate the enormity of what I am describing he would have shaken his head so much it would have fallen off.

Isobel has just had the biggest tantrum I have ever seen, there is no scale big enough to measure it on.

She has just screamed for about 20 minutes.

Yes I do know that that is not good for health. Don't you think I would have stopped her if I could, well short of giving in of course.

What was it over? She wanted to go to bed in my bed; not her cot, not her big-girls-bed (a whole other post) but my bed.

I did everything: I walked away, I reasoned with her (yes I know but you have to try), I held her, I gave her space...

When she was ready I cuddled her and while she sobbed I talked about Friday in the way she had to me earlier:

Friday, Isobel will go to nursery and have her cornflakes. She'll play with her friends and have lunch. But, she won't have a sleep at nursery; mummy will come and pick her up and drive her in the car. Isobel will sleep in the car. Then we will go on the ferryboat and do some colouring. Then we will drive some more to go to Grandma's house and Grandma will give us a cuddle. Grandpa will come home from work and Jack will be on his bed. We will give Hayley her birthday present....

' *sob* I will have a bath *sob* at Grandmas while mummy has a shower *sob*'

And so ended the biggest tantrum n the world. Now she is in her cot reading Charlie Cook to her dinosaur.

I, on the other hand, am drinking a very nice, single malt in a measure that is directly proportional the size of the tantrum.

One week on and she's not a baby anymore

Isobel is now a fully fledged toddler, I'm threading the needle to sew on her walking badge as we speak.

In so many ways it's been a a very busy week. We have been to the Isle of Wight and come back with the following pieces of information:

Isobel can walk and walk and walk. She can even turn 360 degrees without falling down.

Bruises are easily come by but also relatively easy to go if you plaster them with Arnica and have very young skin. Scratches from playing peekaboo with a fence might be slightly more persistent.

Poor little girl suffers from car sickness, something we have discovered the hard way; I have washed the car seat twice in two days.

Isobel's feet have grown from a 3F to a 31/2G, and I had to order her shoes from Internet.

We have five new words: Bubbles - bubboos, again - gain, grandma - gamma, banana - nana, and my aunt is convinced she said Angela. (Yes, I have had a few more mummies too)

We have a book called 'Is this my nose' and I found Isobel sitting on the floor reading it and pointing to all the correct face parts - well if she were a Picasso painting.

Ice cream cones and key lime pie ice cream have been mastered. Yes, we had a 'hut day' at the seaside.

And most importantly of all, Isobel has spent time with her family, including her godmother.

Needless to say we had a lot to tell PD when we got back.

I cannot believe what a difference a week makes, I'm glad I didn't miss a minute of it.

One thing I didn't realise until I had a baby

Before Isobel I didn't realise there was such a thing as before 9am on a Sunday morning, unless it was as an extension of Saturday night of course.

But, yesterday we were so eager to get to Grandma's house that by 9am we were not only in Southampton, but we were boarding the ferry boat to the Isle of Wight.

By 10:30 we were surrounded by cousins and dogs having fun.

Not only are the days longer, they aren't coated in a post drinking fug, and actually I quite like it.

Get Up and Go

I always thought I'd be the kind of Mum who quite happily packed up her baby and took her wherever she felt like going. But actually I'm not.
You see I have created a lovely little bubble for Isobel and I, it stretches about from here to Richmond and back again. Kind of distances I can walk to, but don't always.

We have lovely friends within this radius: my NCT group who, some weeks, I see most days, Godmother Chirsty and lovely Nicola who lives next door. Not to mention those friends we meet for lunch. So we have always been out and about, just out and about in our local area.

When it comes to trips further afield my confidence wavers more than a little. That's not to say I don't do it, I'm just not quite as free and easy about it as I'd like to be.

Anyway, this last weekend we went to Grandma's and Isobel played with her cousins.

I'm hoping she'll soon get used to playing with other children and there won't be a need to retire quietly to the bedroom to restore peace. I guess living in a quiet house where only 2 people speak at once and only one soundtrack is playing doesn't prepare her for the onslaught of a full on family gathering.

Or, maybe she was upset because she couldn't have any of Auntie Amy's birthday cake.

(Happy 21st Blues, I'm really proud of you. xx)

My Family and Other Animals

Isobel has been reunited with her Grandma, last seen when she was 3 days old

Her Uncle Dan forgave her for being the third neice and not a nephew

My sister, Auntie Amy, and Isobel's cousin Isla were pleased to see us

And cousin Hayley baked chocolate cakes

and wrote a card for her.

As for the other animals, well there is plenty of time for great dane riding.

(We also had a girly lunch with Godmother Jen, but Isobel slept through it)

Thank you Grandma

My mummy has been looking after us, and it's been nice having her around for these first few days, and not just because she cooks amazing rare roast beef and yorkshire puddings.

It's funny how, whatever your relationship with your mummy is like, there are times when you just want her to be there.

I hope my little girl feels the same way about me...

Thank you mummy. xx

Elvis is in the Building

Actually it's a far bigger star than Elvis; Isobel Grace arrived yesterday at 5:20pm and both parents are smitten.

It started as any normal Saturday, except perhaps that RD and I were revelling in the fact that it might be one of our last Saturday lie-ins. At 9am while we were enjoying said lie-in, we both felt something 'break'; yes you guessed it, it was my waters.

Somewhere between trickles and dramatic gushes we had showers and wandered of to the hospital to be checked. As I wasn't having contractions we didn't even pack the bags in the car - we'd do that when we came home for breakfast.

At about 10:30, in Labour Triage my contractions started, after a scary dip in baby's heartbeat, and while I was still merrily breathing my way through my contractions RD was dispatched to get bags. While he was away things really started to kick off, he returned to find me leaning over a ball having a rather annoying tens machine applied. This was quickly dismissed in favour of gas and air - laughing gas, unfortunately the giggles didn't last long.

At 2cm, with a 'paper thin' cervix and a very low baby's head, I was shuffled off to the bath, dragging my trusty gas and air along with me. The bath didn't do the trick, so much for my 'Natural Water Birth' ideas.

I very politely, and I mean politely, I said please and everything, requested drugs. The midwife examined me and tried to reassure me that the worst was over - lies, lies, LIES.

Anyway, we trouped of to the labour suite at about 4pm, just as my Mummy arrived. Meptid was administered, but I was already shouting for the hard stuff - again politely (I believe I only swore once!).

Poor RD and Mummy at this point I really wasn't asking for any help, all that lovely massage oil I'd packed for back rubs between contractions, well there was no between contractions and all I wanted to do was chew on my gas and air and grip hold of the bed. But I was glad they were there.

The dishy anaesthetist arrived with the drugs - I've never been so pleased to see anyone in my life. As he set everything up and I tried to hold still, the midwife had a quick check of how things were going...

Baby's head was already there; the midwife fought off the anaesthetist and 3 or 4 pushes later Isobel Grace was born at 5:20pm.

(Thank heavens for the cone head design of a baby's head. )

Yes she was a little sticky, yes her head was a little coney, but she was beautiful. RD was moved.

I held her and fed her while we waited for the placenta; RD cut the cord and then she really was her own little person, but our little person at the same time.

The proud parents - yes that's us!


A very proud Grandma

Proud Dad

(Yes, she arrived just in time for Mother's day!)