Carry on camping!

Very soon Little Man (LM) will be experiencing the joys of outdoor living as we are going to take him camping!

We have been camping for many years and were thrilled the first time we took our dog camping and she loved it as much as we did. We are hoping LM will take the dogs lead.

The only niggly concern I have is how I will keep LM warm when the temperature drops at night. Initially we were going wild camping with no facilities - however due to me being a ridiculously over concerned mother we are now going to a site with electrical hook up. I am now feverishly reviewing the best type of fan heater to buy and use in the tent to keep us warm and toasty.

My other concern about the night time chill is the fact that LM is still regularly breastfeeding throughout the night. So I am concerned that a very delicate part of my body could freeze and fall off ;)

Anyone else camped with their little one? Any top tips you would like to share?

Make mine a sandwich

Today Little Man (LM) enjoyed the sensory experience of sand. LM enjoyed the feel of sand on his toes, sand in his hand and of course sand in his mouth.

LM feels that you can't fully embrace new experiences without mouthing / eating them. I expect to find sand in the house for the next week at least, I am also on tenterhooks to know what his nappy will look like.

However, LM doesn't realise whatever he does will never top our dogs ability with sand. Pup loves sand, loves to dig in it, roll in it, bark at it. For at least a day after her beach visit she will poo sand. Also when she shakes her coat we have the delightful sound of tiny grains of sand scattering everywhere, be it in our tent, our car or our house.

Pup is truly the sand master, padawan LM has much to learn.

Tummy time for mummy?

Little Man (LM) has mastered the art of pulling himself up. He hasn't yet mastered the art of picking stable objects to pull himself up on - so I am his constant companion on all aspects of pulling!

I must say that I appreciate LM continued work to help me tone and shape my arms with the many varied stress positions I end up in. If I could just work out how I could tone my tummy at the same time that would be perfect ;)

Co-sleeping - I can't stop!

Last night we thought we would try the gentle progression of Little Man (LM) sleeping in his own cot in his own room - GULP!

At the moment LM sleeps in our room in our bed, so its quite a change.

With LM out for the count, full of breast milk, I carried him into his room and carefully placed him in the cot. Went back to my bedroom and immediately checked him on the video monitor. Looking forward to my first night sleeping without LM, I got comfortable to go to sleep (after checking the monitor again). I closed my eyes, heard a noise and checked the monitor again (LM was fine). Pulled the covers up to get warm after checking the monitor again.

It was at this point I felt a pang of "I miss my baby". What a ridiculous situation! Our house is not the biggest of houses and LM and his room is but a few steps away, but I felt lost without him near me. Trying to ignore these feelings I turned to get some sleep (after checking the monitor) and at this point LM woke up.

Me and Hubby (H) watched as he grumbled and rolled onto his front, sat and then grabbed onto the bars crying and complaining. I sat up to go and get him, H laughed and called me a soft touch.

I walked into the bedroom and there was LM in his sleeping bag, standing up in his cot holding onto the bars (that's quite an achievement I don't think I could have done that!). Bringing him back into the bedroom and our bed he soon settled down and both of us slept like the proverbial baby.

So rather than LM not being able to sleep unless co-sleeping maybe its me with the problem! We will try again tonight - if I can handle it!

Legs that would give Chewbacca a complex

When I was pregnant something magical happened to my legs, the hairs on the them hardly grew and those which did were sparse and barely noticeable. This was great and made maintaining them a breeze even with an ever growing bump.

Once I had had Little Man (LM) they continued in being kind and still hardly any hair grew.

However in the last month or so my legs have turned against me and hair has come back in an abundance. So now my legs are being needy and I have to somehow fit them in with everything else in my life and with less sleep than before.

Hmmmmm wonder if I can get away with wearing jeans and trousers for the rest of my life?

Did anyone else have interesting changes in their body whilst pregnant?

Stressful few hours

Well yesterday started with a bang, well a thud actually. Little Man (LM) had decided that overnight he would work out how to pull himself up and over the side of the cot. The day before he was able to just about sit up - he had moved along in his development milestones at an increasing rate!

He does't sleep in the cot (he co-sleeps with me) and I only placed him in there whilst I popped to the bathroom. So after a call to NHS Direct and a visit to the doctors LM was given a clean bill of health. Not a mark on him - he must have pulled off the perfect wrestling move of landing on his back and therefore saving his precious head.

I spent most of yesterday a teary mess feeling like I must be the worse mother in the word, LM on the other hand was his usual cheery self. After a call to my mum and a chat with some friends I was made to feel a little happier and told that unfortunately these things can happen and the more mobile LM becomes the more the risk.

So not the best of days, topped off with the nursery (we thought we had sorted for when I return to work) no longer able to provide care on all the days required. I'm not in the mood to sort this out today!

Limpet boy

With having a slightly snotty nose and with two teeth coming through, Little Man (LM) is now stuck fast to me (sometimes quite literally with his snotty nose! Nothing like a snail trail on your shoulder, when wearing a black top).

I love the fact that this little person takes great comfort by being constantly by my side - makes me feel all warm and fuzzy. However on the flip side its rather exhausting. With his lovely long legs and the fact he is big for his age, he is quite a heavy little soul and my arms aren't as strong as they need to be (although I am hoping this will help with my bingo wings!).

I also have the struggle of wiping LM's nose and chin from the constant stream of drool - it makes me laugh how much he hates it and the grumbly noises he makes as well as him trying to turn his head away. Even with him not feeling 100% you can still see his little personality coming out and he remains cheeky and smiley as always.

Yawn!! Where's my coffee??

Bleurgh! Another night of Little Man (LM) waking up at 3am on the dot :(

I blame the blooming clocks going forward it seems to have affected him worse than when they went back.

So from 3am to about 6am he is very restless and wont settle. LM has never slept through the night and has always woken for milk (EBF), but normally he falls straight back to sleep on me (co-sleeping a whole different future blog post!). But at the moment he won't settle and constantly fidgets, moves, cries, wriggles and moans until he near enough passes out with exhaustion - I feel like doing the same!

I think that with his two front bottom teeth coming through is another reason for the sudden nightly disturbances, as apart from this he doesn't seem to have experienced any of the usual teething issues.

So another day of feeling like a zombie, willing him to take his afternoon nap in the vain hope I too can get a bit of shut eye.

I'm dreading tonight already :(