- Sarah Leave a comment

Knitting Friday #5

After a little break for the Christmas holidays, I’m back with Knitting Friday. I’m afraid though I’m going for a massive cheat this week. Because all the knitted pieces you can see here….weren’t knitted by me! My mum is the one responsible for the knitting here. It’s a cuddly bear all-in-one for Toby which I bought the pattern and wool for ages ago but then I couldn’t be bothered to make it so I gave it to my mum. She very kindly obliged but she hates sewing things together so gave the pieces back to me!

Knitted baby bear suit

Come back next week to see the finished article – hopefully being modelled by Toby. Don’t forget to pop of to The Laughing Owls too. Becky managed to finish Little Owl’s jumper last week so I’m waiting to see if she’s started something new this week.

- Sarah Leave a comment

Inherited conditions

DNA

I’ve got all sorts of things wrong with me. I’ve got eczema and asthma, I’m allergic to any animal with hair, fur or feathers, pretty much all kinds of pollen, and dust too. I am in a permanent state of snotiness. I’m very short-sighted (-7.0 prescription at the last check, which means I can’t see past the end of my nose without glasses) and I’ve got a weird double crown so my hair sticks up like Billy Whizz (which I know is not really a medical complaint but it has blighted my life!). None of these things have been inherited from my parents and none of them affect my brother. Well actually, that’s not quite true – both he and my mum have the weird hair thing too. I guess I was just the unlucky one. Apparently breastfeeding can help to stop allergies developing but I was exclusively breastfed until I was about eight months, as was my brother, but I still developed allergies and he didn’t. I don’t officially have any food allergies but the one time I ate strawberries I came out in a rash and I’ve also fairly recently been diagnosed with Irritable Bowel Syndrome which is often linked to food intolerance.

I suppose I am fortunate really that none of my conditions are especially serious or life-threatening. I only get eczema on three fingers of my right hand, although I also have dry, itchy skin all over my body. Co-incidentally my husband gets the same sort of eczema on his hands – it’s tiny, intensely itchy blisters, which is now known as ‘shitty finger’ in our house! My asthma only really bothers me if I’ve got a cold or I exert myself in cold weather – it must be a couple of months since I last used my inhaler. My animal allergies do cause quite severe symptoms but animals are something that are pretty easy to avoid if you need to. My hay fever is on the severe end of the scale. I usually take prescription anti-histamines from about March to October. Last year I was really worried that I was going to suffer horrendously because I couldn’t take my usual tablets while pregnant but somehow it seemed pregnancy miraculously cured my hay fever and without any medication at all I hardly had any symptoms! I almost can’t wait until the first pollen of spring to see if the magic has stayed with me! Having to wear glasses all the time is annoying (and expensive) but it’s not going to kill me, and one day I might have enough money to have corrective laser surgery. I would love to wake up in the night and be able to see. I actually tried those contact lenses that you can leave in for a month once (although I only managed three days before my eyes were so dry and irritated I had to take them out) and it totally freaked me out opening my eyes in the night and being able to see the alarm clock clearly instead of the vague red glow I’m used to.

Anyway, apologies, I digress. What I actually came here to talk about was not really how all these things have affected me. Yes, they are annoying but I’ve lived with most of them since I was little and I’m really quite used to them by now. But then when I found out I was pregnant I began to think about these problems a little more. I’m sure everyone wonders which bits of you and your partner that little pip growing inside you is going to inherit. Will he have my big eyes (or my big bum!)? Will he have the hubby’s massive nose? Will he have the metabolism of a whippet like my dad and my brother or will be like me and my mum and put on a pound just by looking at a cake? But for me there were a few other nagging thoughts in the back of my mind – will he have eczema and asthma? Will he have allergies? Will he need glasses? And if he does…..will it be my fault?

As if we as parents didn’t find enough things to feel guilty about. I know of course, with my rational mind, that Toby’s eczema (yes, the first of my conditions has shown itself on my little boy, along with a constant snotty nose since he was born) could just be your bog-standard infant eczema that he’ll grow out of. But my irrational mind, the one that whispers to me when I’m lying in bed in the dark, tells me he has that eczema because of me, and like me he will be stuck with it for the rest of his life. My husband is awesome and always reassures me that it’s not my fault (my mum, not so much… ‘oh no, he’s got your eczema’) but I always wonder somewhere in the back of my mind. Maybe if I had managed to breastfeed for longer then he wouldn’t have it. But then again, maybe he would. I know there’s no point beating myself up about it. There’s nothing we can do except to live with it, treat it, and try to make sure that Toby is as comfortable as he can be. As far as all the other things go, I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

I know in the grand scheme of things, even if Toby ends up with all the same problems as me, he’ll still be fine. I am after all. But thinking about this has made me wonder how parents cope when they do pass something on to their kids – perhaps the chance combination of a faulty gene from each parent leads to something much more serious than a mild case of eczema or asthma. My sympathy goes out to those parents. We just have to remember that what is going to be, will be and we wouldn’t change our children for the world.

**Image Credit: Image by Duncan Hull (http://flic.kr/p/7JQMHY)
- Sarah 6 Comments

Living Arrows 1/52

I Heart Snapping is a collaboration between several photographer-blogger-mums. It’a all about using photography to capture those special moments in your children’s lives. I mentioned in my 2014 plans post that I wanted to take some better photos for the blog and learn how to use my husband’s DSLR. To that end I have decided to join in with I Heart Snapping’s Living Arrows project; one photo a week but it has to be a good ‘un, taken on the proper camera. No iPhone snaps allowed for this one! Hopefully over the year this will be a record not only of Toby’s growth and development but also a record of my improving photography skills.

So without further ado, here’s the first one…

Baby at Christmas

living arrows
- Sarah 3 Comments

Daddy’s beard (The Ordinary Moments #8)

After a wee break for Christmas I’m linking up with Katie at Mummy Daddy Me again this week for some more ‘Ordinary Moments’.

I know a lot of my ordinary moments have featured Toby and his dad, but I guess that’s because I see them every day and that what is my ‘ordinary’. And I just think they are so adorable together!

Daddy's beard

This is them watching TV – Toby loves watching telly. It doesn’t matter what’s on he’s just fascinated by it, always craning his head to try and get a look if he’s facing the other way. And he just loves getting his fingers stuck in Daddy’s beard! Normally we buzz the hubby’s hair and beard every fortnight but until today he hadn’t cut his beard for a month. It was pretty long and Toby was starting to really grab and pull at it. So today it got a trim but he didn’t seem to mind – as soon as he sat on his daddy’s knee up went the hand, straight into the beard. He doesn’t even seem to be aware he’s doing it half the time! Bloody adorable.

mummy daddy me
- Sarah 2 Comments

Plans for 2014

2014 plans

I know we’re a few days into the new year already so I thought it was about time I wrote about some of my plans for 2014. These are not resolutions as such, just some things I hope to achieve in the coming year.

1. Continue to lose weight.

I’ve not been back on the scales yet but I’m pretty sure I’ll be back to square one after my Christmas eating! I’m not going to do my usual trick of just giving up though. My Fitness Pal was working well for me before Christmas so I’m going to carry on the calorie counting and hopefully try and fit in some exercise too – even if it’s just making sure I get out for a walk with Toby in the buggy a couple of times a week. After years of faddy diets and crazy exercise regimes I know exactly what I need to do. I’ve found a really simple way to lose weight. Shall I let you in on my secret? Here it is: Eat less, eat better, move more. That’s it. You can have that one for free!

2. Watch our spending.

I’m to used to having two pretty decent salaries to go at so although we’ve never been well off, before Toby came along we didn’t have to worry too much about our spending. I’ve always been quite money savvy and make sure I find the best deals for things like the mortgage and car insurance. Where I’ve been getting a bit slack though  is with the supermarket shopping. Now we only have one salary and maternity pay though I need to be a bit more careful. I always used to plan our meals for the week before doing the weekly shop, and I still have been, in my head. But without a proper list I always seem to forget something, and when I go back to Tesco for one thing I always end up spending twenty quid and a lot of baby clothes manage to find their way into my basket! So from now on it’s back to meal planning and proper lists and hopefully, therefore, a reduction in our day to day spending.

3. Continue blogging.

I’d like to try and post more regularly and I’ve got lots of ideas for new posts. I want to write some more about cloth nappies; I know I found reading other peoples’ experiences helpful when we started out using them. We’re also just starting weaning with Toby so there’ll be plenty about that too. I still want to join in with Silent Sunday and The Ordinary Moments and maybe find some other linkys to join to. I really want to work on the design of my blog too – I’d love to get a custom illustration done. If anyone knows someone who could help with this without it costing the earth please do let me know! To this end I’m also going to look at going self-hosted this year. I’ve got my own domain name already but I think moving to wordpress.org will give me more options design-wise.

4. Go back to work.

My employment situation is quite complicated and as I’m a teacher working for the local council I can’t really go into much detail here. Basically I was on a temporary contract before maternity leave so I still don’t know if I will have a job to go back to, or if I do then I don’t know where it will be. If everything works out though I should be going back to work in August and hopefully back to the school I was at last year. I initially thought I would want to go back to work part time (and that would still be my plan in the long run) but I’ve started to think that, due to new year’s intention number 5, I might be better going back full time for a year. Which brings us to…

5. Baby number two!

I know Toby is only six months old but we’ve always said we want two kids and I’d like them two years apart. The main reason for this is that my brother is exactly (to within one day!) two years older than me and we got on really well growing up. So, if we want our kids two years apart then I need to be pregnant again towards the end of the year. And if I go back to work full time then I’ll get full maternity pay instead of it being reduced to part time pay. I know I might change my mind when it gets a bit nearer, and we might choose to delay things a bit, but at the moment this is the plan.

And that’s it. I think I’m going to leave it at five. Of course I want to have lots of family time with Toby and the hubby – hopefully that will include our first family holiday abroad too! I know this year is just going to be amazing watching Toby grow and develop. The first six months of his life has been the most awesome, overwhelming and brilliant six months of my life. I can barely imagine how exciting the next year is going to be!

- Sarah 6 Comments

Toby’s first Christmas

Baby's First Christmas bauble

Throughout the run up to Christmas I read lots of blog posts about ‘Baby’s first Christmas’ and to be honest I was slightly baffled by the efforts some people seemed to be going to when their babies weren’t old enough to even be aware of Christmas let alone remember it. Toby was just over five and a half months old on Christmas day and I knew for him it would just be another day. He quite liked playing with our fibre optic Christmas tree but apart from that Toby had no idea anything was going on. And so I didn’t really see the point of doing anything to make his first Christmas ‘special’. Some people may think that’s a bit mean-spirited of me but I think it’s just that I’d rather save the fun stuff for when Toby is old enough to get excited about it.

We did make one concession to it being Toby’s first Christmas and that was to stay at home on Christmas day rather than go to my parents’ house like we usually do. That was a bit of a political decision too really – my in-laws usually go on holiday for Christmas so for the three years we have been together the hubby and I have always gone to my parents and there hasn’t been any worry about offending anyone. However, this year my mother-in-law is recovering from an operation on her neck and can’t travel so they were staying at home. My parents live in Blackpool and my in-laws in Manchester while we’re up here in Scotland so visiting everyone in one day just isn’t possible. By choosing to stay at home we didn’t have to decide which set of grandparents Toby would be with on his first Christmas morning. Instead we stayed with my parents on Boxing Day so we could see them and my brother and sister-in-law too and then we went to visit hubby’s parents for a few days after that which worked out well for everyone in the end.

I did buy a ‘My First Christmas’ bauble from Mamas and Papas but it does have the year on too so it’s a nice keepsake and something we can put on the tree year after year. We didn’t get Toby too many presents either. A couple of toys and books and some clothes. Seeing as Toby wouldn’t know what he was unwrapping (he did manage to help a bit with pulling the paper off though!) I didn’t tell the hubby any of the presents I’d bought and he got Toby something that I didn’t know about. That way at least someone got a nice surprise when the presents were opened. I don’t think I would have even bothered wrapping them this year if we had both known what was inside!

Playing the keyboard
Toby playing with his present from daddy

We still had a lovely Christmas day together and I got the chance to practice cooking my first Christmas dinner. But for Toby it was still a normal day. I did get him some new pyjamas for Christmas Eve but I didn’t bother with a Christmas Day outfit – he’s just moved into his 6-9 month clothes so there are lots of things he hasn’t worn yet. We managed to fit most of the day in around Toby’s usual routine pretty well though. And after weeks of waking up at least once during the night Toby gave us the best Christmas present he could – he slept from 6:30 pm on Christmas Eve until 8:30 am on Christmas Day without waking up at all! So then after we all got up and had our breakfasts we opened a few presents. Toby then went back to bed for his morning nap, we opened some more presents and I got started on the prep for dinner. After nap time we opened the rest of Toby’s presents, had lunch and a bit of a play then it was back to bed for Toby. The plan was to have our starter while he was still asleep but he woke up slightly earlier than planned. He was quite happy having a play on his baby gym while we ate though. Then we put in him in his new highchair while we had our main course and we gave Toby his first solid food to play with. We are planning on going down the baby led weaning route (more blog posts on that to come!) and although Toby isn’t quite six months yet we thought Christmas dinner might be a nice time to give him something to have a look at. So he played with a few carrot and parsnip sticks (although none made it into his mouth) while we ate our dinner. After that it was bed time for Toby and we eventually had our dessert (sticky toffee pudding – yummy!) at about half past eight.

Christmas dinner with baby
Christmas dinner!

So for us there was no disappointment, no anti-climax. Toby’s first Christmas was exactly as I expected it to be. It was a bit strange for me not to be with the rest of my family for only the second Christmas in my life, and I actually had a little bit of a cry in the evening because I realised I’d missed them, but overall we had a lovely time just the three of us. I’m not sure what we’ll be doing next year. The idea of going to my parents’ is actually quite tempting – at least then I might get a bit of a break. Although our Christmas day was great we still had to do all the things we do every day; nappy changes don’t stop for Christmas! I even had to do a nappy wash because we were going away the next day. And I had to cook Christmas dinner! At least at my mum and dad’s someone else would do the cooking and there would be other people to entertain Toby for a bit. I might even get my traditional Christmas afternoon nap myself! I know next year will be totally different anyway. Toby will be 18 months old and I’m sure he still won’t understand what Christmas is about but he might be able to open his own presents and maybe enjoy playing with some new toys – or the wrapping paper and boxes anyway!

If you had your first Christmas with your baby I really hope you managed to have a good one. If you want to read more about how babies’ first Christmases don’t always turn out how you planned then Donna has written a great post over at Redhead Babyled. And if your baby’s first Christmas wasn’t quite how you’d hoped then remember there are lots more Christmases still to come.

- Sarah 3 Comments

2013: A year in review Q&A

ohsoamelia

I was tagged by the lovely Donna at What the Redhead Said (Thanks Donna!) to complete this blogging Year in Review post as started by Kerry at Oh So Amelia. I’ve only been blogging here since October so I don’t have a huge number of posts to choose from for some of the questions but I’ll have a go!

There are just a few simple rules:
1. In your post, be sure to link back and thank the blogger that previously tagged you
2. Answer the questions below and tag at least 5 other bloggers and;
3. Include the badge in your post

So here goes!

1. Your top 5 new favourite blogs to read in 2013 

I only really started reading parenting blogs when Toby was born in July and I’m sure there are loads more out there waiting for me find them! These are the blogs I read every post on and that inspire me to carry on with my own blogging.

Redhead Babyled – I’m not saying this just because she tagged me, honest! I’m always impressed by the quality of Donna’s posts and I’m amazed at how she manages to blog so often – if I managed half as many posts I’d be happy!

The Laughing Owls – Probably the first parent blog I started reading. Becky is a fellow teacher and knitter – it’s great to read a blog of someone with similar interests to me.

Hurrah for Gin – Katie’s posts make me actually laugh out loud. And she’s very friendly on Twitter too.

Life With Munchers – I was amazed to find this blog hasn’t been going much longer than Toby Goes Bananas – it looks so professional! There are posts about lots of different things too which always makes for an interesting read.

Make Do & Push – I just think Hannah and her blog are cool! And I was really pleased when she chose me to feature on her ‘What’s in your changing bag?’ feature.

2. List Your 5 most read blog posts in 2013

Toby Goes Swimming

A breastfeeding story

Living with a reflux baby

In the news: Paid to breastfeed

Toby is 4 months old!

3. Name one blog you wish you had found sooner

All of them! Seriously. I wish I had started reading some of these blogs while I was still pregnant. There’s so much great advice and experience out there.

4. Your favourite blog post of 2013 

Silent Sunday: 17th November 2013 – I don’t have that many blog posts to choose from yet and I know it’s cheating a bit that I didn’t actually ‘write’ this one. I just love the picture though. Toby is concentrating so much on what his daddy is telling him!
5. What would you like to improve (if anything) on your blog next year?

I’d like to blog more regularly and try and build my readership. I’ve also started learning how to use the hubby’s DSLR so I’d like to have better photos on the blog too.

6. Name one blog you have a blog crush on

Just a Normal Mummy‘s posts are hilarious. I wish I could be so funny, but then it wouldn’t really be ‘me’ writing.

 7. How often do you post? 

I was trying to post three times a week but have been a bit slack over Christmas. I don’t have (or want) a strict blogging schedule but I would like to post a bit more regularly as (hopefully) the blog grows this year.

8. Share your first post of 2013

My first post of 2013 was the first post of this whole blog – Let’s start at the very beginning

9. Name one thing you would be doing if you weren’t typing this post right now.

Looking at Twitter on my phone (or playing Candy Crush Saga – I know, OK!)
10. What have you loved the most about blogging this year?

I’ve just loved getting Toby Goes Bananas off the ground and all the lovely bloggers and parents I’ve met on Twitter.

So there you go. 2013 has been pretty short for me in blogging terms. I can’t wait to get cracking with 2014 now!

I tag the following bloggers:

Emma and Alfie

Mum turned Mom

Daddy Space

Me, The Man & The Baby

Lou & Nate

- Sarah 9 Comments

2013 // It was a very good year

2013. What a bloody brilliant year it has been. I could ramble on for ages but instead I’m just going to give you a few bullet pointed highlights, because who doesn’t like bullet points? In fact after four months out of the classroom I’m itching to make a PowerPoint presentation but for now, bullet points will have to do!

  • At the start of 2013 I was just three months pregnant. We had our 12 week scan in the first week of January and started to let everyone know. It was lovely how pleased for us everyone was.
  • The start of January also saw the end of morning sickness and I started to enjoy being pregnant. For the first time in years I was happy to wear clothes that hugged my figure and I took the opportunity to eat what I fancied without feeling guilty about it. (In hindsight this wasn’t such a great idea but I bloody enjoyed it at the time!)
  • At our 20 week scan in March we found out we were expecting a boy – and then we managed to keep it secret from most people for the rest of the pregnancy.
  • At Easter I went on a one week Spanish immersion course in Malaga which was entirely paid for my EU funding. It was a lot of fun and it was a great help for my Spanish too.
  • I came home from Spain just in time to celebrate my first wedding anniversary with my wonderful husband.
  • The summer term at school was hard work as I got more and more pregnant and tried to work out how to teach while sitting down. Teenagers, it turns out, don’t really have a lot of sympathy for tired pregnant teachers.

2013 - the year of the pregnancy bump

  • I made it to the end of term though and started maternity leave at 37 weeks pregnant, 19 days before Toby was due.
  • And then a week and a half later the Chief made his appearance after an uneventful and speedy labour. As far as births go I think I had it pretty easy!
  • The next couple of months passed in a whirlwind of crying babies (and parents on occasion), sleepless nights and dirty nappies. Shell-shocked pretty much covers it.

2013 - the year we got a new baby

  • By about October I actually started to really enjoy having a baby and life settled into something of a routine. This probably coincided with Toby starting to smile and laugh and generally be a lot more fun to look after.
  • The last few months of the year have been amazing. Toby seems to do something new every day and as we head into 2014 we are starting a whole new phase including baby-led weaning. We’ve given Toby a few bits of food to play with but nothing has made it as far as his mouth yet. I don’t think it’ll be long though. I can’t wait to see what the next few months brings – I predict we’ll be seeing teeth, sitting unaided, moving (one way or another) and hopefully a return to sleeping through the night (I don’t want to jinx it but he’s managed over 12 hours undisturbed sleep the last three nights!).
  • And of course I can’t forget that the last three months of 2013 saw the start of this blog. I’m having a lot of fun writing it and I’d like to thank everyone who has taken the time to read and comment. A big thank you too to all my new Twitter pals – I know I’ve not been at this long but I already feel like part of a community and I’m looking forward to getting to know more people (and maybe even meeting a few) in 2014.

And there you have it – my 2013 in a nutshell. I’ve had an absolutely amazing year and I’m so lucky to have shared it with my wonderful husband. It’s hard to believe I hadn’t even met him this time three years ago! He was an amazing support throughout my pregnancy – always there to rub my back or pull me up off the sofa. And since Toby was born he has shown me that he is just the best daddy ever. It melts my heart to see him and Toby  together, they love each other so much!

Happy dad and baby

I can’t wait to see what 2014 has in store for our little family. I’ve got a few plans of my own too but that’s for another blog post. So for now I will wish you all health and happiness for the New Year. And seeing as I am in Scotland after all – Happy Hogmanay.