© Originally published by Nin for |••• PeachyHollow •••| as Go Blue!

Last night we went to our Realtor’s client appreciation party. It was a complete hoot and we won some great things in the play-money auction- sadly we were a good few thousand moolah short of a trip to Mexico but we got some nice serving dishes and a fabulous sushi set. This year’s fancy dress theme was ‘A Little Bit Country’. Oliver went as a cow.

What was that? You want to see another picture? Oh go on then…

© Originally published by Nin for |••• PeachyHollow •••| as Mmmmmoooooo cow

There’s no question about which team we support in this house, and here at Peachy Hollow we like to start them early…
Go Blue!

© Originally published by Nin for |••• PeachyHollow •••| as Go Blue!

Friday could not have come soon enough. This past week has been exceptionally busy, plus on top of that Baby Oliver Peach has been having yet *another* growth spurt leaving me exhausted from all the physical demands of feeding. I literally slept away much of Wednesday and Thursday, not by choice, but by necessity. But on the plus side, my baby pudge is finally falling off and all of a sudden I’m now just a little over 2 lb away from my pre-pregnancy figure. Hurrah! Anyway, back to tonight… what better way to end the week than with a gentle evening boatride, followed by a dinner of fish and chips and then ‘Top Gear’ on the telly. We even caught a bit of Jonathan Ross too. Yay for BBC America!

Here’s hoping that BOP will sleep through night again soon- for the past few days he’s started waking up at 4am, hungry and in need of a change. Tonight before sleepytime he took a whole ten ounces of breastmilk from a bottle within the space of an hour so I’m quietly optimistic.

***edited to add***
It’s 4.30 am. BOP is souuuuuuund asleep but I still had to get up anyway to pump out my rock-hard  torpedo boobs. UGH!

© Originally published by Nin for |••• PeachyHollow •••| as TGIF

We waved goodbye to Granma and Grampa just a few hours ago. Soon they will be on a plane on their way home, looking forward to their next time they can see their little grandbaby which will hopefully be in just a couple of short months. Except at the rate he’s growing at the moment he might not be that little for that much longer. Up to now we’ve been using a washing up bowl to keep him fresh and clean, but I think we might have to graduate to a proper baby bath in the next couple of weeks.

Now back to real life… laundry, vacuuming and getting the house back together. All after a cup of tea, of course. Hopefully it won’t take more than a couple of hours and then the fun can begin- DrMrNin is out this evening and it happens to be a particularly good telly night, so I’m going to have a date with the remote control and a big bowl of curry, squippee.

© Originally published by Nin for |••• PeachyHollow •••| as All good visits must come to an end

And my baby’s bottom is *very* soft at the moment thanks to the  Gro Baby cloth diapers. I don’t even have to use cream, just a dusting of cornstarch each change, and that’s enough to ward off any rash.

Lots of things happening here at Peachy Hollow. Oliver has just had a MAHOOOSIVE growth spurt (elephant child), just had his first cold, and appears to be now budding his first tooth. Yes, signs of a tooth at three months, poor him. And poor me. The girls have just started their new school, my  family are over to visit (again), and we have humming birds in our garden *squee!* Proper updates to come soon. Right now I’m enjoying some quality time with my mummy and daddy xx

© Originally published by Nin for |••• PeachyHollow •••| as Softer than a baby’s bottom

Guess what, guess what, GUESS WHAT??!! I think I have found me one of the best, best, BEST things EVER! I’ve only gone and found myself a local tearoom *great big, fat squee*. After weeks of anticipation and planning my birthday treat the great day came and we headed into the city for tea and scones at the Crown and Crumpet and it certainly didn’t disappoint. Given that anything ‘English’ (especially things like afternoon tea) is a bit of a novelty over here, there is a bit of a risk of it being overdone – I only have to mention the words ‘chintz’ and ‘doily’ and you get the picture, and then to make it even more over-the-top add to that all the lace, net curtains, the obligatory grandfather clock against the wall and the fake red telephone box in the corner and it’s cringe, cringe and Cringe Even More. But the Crown and Crumpet was EXCEEDINGLY different… pretty and modern and fresh and a complete EXPLOSION of Cath Kidston, everywhere. A perfect blend of tea and kitsch, if you ask me. Not contrived at all, and run by a bona fide Englishman which made it even more special. It actually reminded me very much of a place we went to on our trip to the Lake District last year, which says a lot as it could very well pass as a tearoom back home in the Motherland, easily. The Doc and I had the Afternoon Tea For Two- hot buttered crumpets, finger sandwiches, tea and scones and jam, and some little cakes too. Marvellous. We will definitely go back. Well, it is our local tearoom after all.

PS Oliver liked it too. They even let us have his stroller next to our table.

© Originally published by Nin for |••• PeachyHollow •••| as EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEPS!

As part of the buildup to WineChris’ wedding, @drmrnin and I stayed with friends in the city on Friday night- the same friends who threw us the baby party in their house with the supercool view out of the back window.  It was the first time Oliver had stayed away from home and I was curious as to how he would react, but he was as good as gold and even managed to sleep through the night, fancy that!

More details on the wedding to come… Oh and yes, I did finally manage to find sometihing to wear in the end, by the way xox

© Originally published by Nin for |••• PeachyHollow •••| as He had a bath in San Francisco

So let’s see… Baby, baby, baby, blah, breastfeed, baby, blah, baby, baby, blah, blah, baby. It’s all that I seem to talk about these days. There *is* actually more to my life than that. We have a wedding this weekend, for example. WineChris (not to be confused with FilmChris) is marrying his lady love and DrMrNin is going to be best man, so there has been a flurry of clothes-related activity going on in our house to make sure we’ve all got suitable attire. Except the flurrying is mainly to do with me as I have *nothing*, I repeat *NOTHING* to wear. Well, nothing that a) fits and/or b) is wedding-appropriate and/or c) is breastfeedable in. DANGIT, there I go again, just when I was going on about something else I turn it all round back to babies again. Sorry. But seriously, it’s not that I’m short of clothes, I have a WHOLE ENTIRE CLOSET full of them, a whole closet that I paid good money to import the contents of across the Atlantic but it’s all for narrower hips, slimmer thighs and a less than ample bosom. I repeat, *NOTHING* fits. Hopefully by Christmas it’ll be a different story but by that stage I’ll have rather missed the wedding, somewhat.

So anyway after more time than I wanted to spend trying to find something to wear this morning, I get all ready to pop Baby Peach into the car to head to the local library for Baby Storytime and Songs. It’s nice and cosy with a few other local mums and Oliver seems to like it in his own little not-really-knowing-what-it’s-all-about sort of way. So there’s me, shower: check; clothed, check; MAKEUP (woohoo): check; then there’s the baby bath: check; early morning feed: check; MASSIVE FULL-ON THERMONUCLEAR MELTDOWN OF FIRSTBORN* SON…..CHECK. Let’s just say we didn’t make it to the library this week. Ah-ha! I thought (I’m good like that), I shan’t waste the day now that I’m up, dressed and WEARING MAKEUP. So I decided to go to the shops to see if I could find a couple of cheap tops to see me through my booby phase for the coming few months and to also ger DrMr a belt for the wedding on Saturday. Lunch for me, lunch for him and an equally unenjoyable baby screaming fit later and we finally make it into the car and drive out to the store. And you probably guesssed it, the moment we stepped foot across he magic eye that triggers the automatic door, the bawling re-started. Followed by the howling. Which was promptly followed by the SCREEEEEAAAAAAMMMIIING. Chernobyl exploded all over again and then DEFCON ran out of alert statuses. Not nice.  So I grabbed what I could, bought it quickly and then ran back to the car with Grumpy McGrumpster still hollering LOUDLY all the way.

And then to top it all, when I got home I found Maddie with a whincing toothache and had to take her to the emergency dentist for a filling.

Not a fun day at all. But at least I had managed to put on some  makeup.

*actually thirdborn if you include Chester Kitten and Toby Kitten.

© Originally published by Nin for |••• PeachyHollow •••| as Thursday

This week DrMrNin’s parents are in from Michigan and Oliver is having a very happy time being spoilt rotten with love and attention. And toys.

He loves his new jungle gym.

Yes he does!!

Thankyou Grampa and Granma xx

© Originally published by Nin for |••• PeachyHollow •••| as Seven Weeks

Yes, six whole weeks! It’s hard to believe that so much time has gone already. So many things have happened, so many first things have happened.  It would take far too long to put them all into words of course, so I will let the photos speak for themselves. But here are a few of Baby Peach’s firsts that are of notable mention…

In his first week:
His first proper bath
His first time meeting his British grandparents
His first trip to San Francisco

In his second week:
His first little bout of baby acne (which thankfully disappeared again soon after)

In his third week:
His first boat ride
His first 4th of July with a baseball game and fireworks (even though we spent most of it in the car, hiding from the noise).

In his fourth week:
His first proper smile!

In his fifth week:
His first time sleeping 7hrs through the night!
His first trip to the zoo…although he slept the whole time

This morning, at exactly six weeks:
He looked at me with all intent and purpose, and gurgled his first word: ajooo.

© Originally published by Nin for |••• PeachyHollow •••| as Six weeks of firsts

In the late evening of June 10th 2009, I had a baby. In the early morning of June 11th 2009, my life entered into a flat spin and I started to rapidly jettison all activity from my day-to-day routine that didn’t revolve around changing diapers, breastfeeding, burping, changing more diapers, eating and snatching opportunities to sleep.  Free time suddenly became a luxury commodity during which moments I would jump at the opportunity to change my underwear, maybe even brush my teeth if things were going really well. Understandably, blogging wasn’t exactly that high on my agenda. Although I did manage to tweet every now and then.

But fear not, Internet, I am back.

So umm yes, a lot has happened in the past few weeks. First the baby, then I hurt a lot, then I began to get better, then I got worse again. Then, thanks to the support and encouragement of friends (*love* facebook) I was able to work out what was typical and atypical in my postpartum recovery and a couple of trips back to the midwife later with referrals for bloodtests and physiotherapy and I started feeling a lot better. My lovely midwife also mentioned that there would be some very clear milestones that I would experience- one at around one month, one at six weeks, then others at six months and one year. And as if by magic, at around three and a half weeks I started to turn a corner. Oliver was becoming more predictable and rather than run around after him 24/7 I started being able to take the lead. He also became increasingly more settled, perhaps as a result. Little trips outside of the house started to become less of an anxiety and I was able to decide where to go within limits of my new-mother-comfort-zone instead of going somewhere and hoping that he wouldn’t start screaming for titty as soon as we got there (for us ‘on demand’ feeding equated to 24 hour feeding in the first few weeks).

Interestingly it was also around this time that I made a few changes to his baby lifestyle: at two weeks he had begun to get a bit colicky and a friend suggested he might have reflux, so I started sleeping him bolstered up on my $11 maternity wedge that had kept me comfortable in the final few weeks of carrying him. Overnight our lives changed, he was no longer screaming continuously and inconsolably between the hours of midnight and 4 am. Well worth the $11 in that case. I also noticed that he had been particularly colicky at night whenever his last feed of the day was on the left, so I started pumping to investigate my milk supply. Sure enough my left boob was like a dripping tap compared to the fireman’s hose that was my right. Poor little Oliver Peach was having to work extra hard to feed on less juice, tiring himself out before he was full, and sucking in air in the process. So from that moment on, I made sure that his last feed of the day was only ever on the right. I also started pumping after each nursing session to boost my supply (and also stock up some emergency feeding supplies in the freezer) and again Baby Peach reaped the benefits. Another one of his little issues was that his day and night were completely switched. Again on the recommendations of friends, I started getting stricter with establishing a routine for him, switching on-demand feeding to a regular 2.5 hour meal schedule to stop him from snacking little snacks and not filling himself up properly, building up across the weeks to a 3 hour routine provided he didn’t get hungry in between and start screaming. I also made sure he had very distinctive day and night clothing, changing him between the two at the same times each day, and only swaddling him at night. Sure enough, within the space of a week, his night was during the night, and his day was during the day. RESULT!

The final week that my parents were here I was finally able to relax and take things a little easier, and for the first time I started to enjoy my baby. The first of the big milestones. Finally Oliver and I were able to start to get to know each other and then we started to bond. It had been a concern of mine that I hadn’t felt that wave of unconditional motherly love the moment he had been born, instead feeling more shock and disbelief, but according to close friends, my midwife and my doula this instant love doesn’t happen all the time. But Oliver and I know each other now and the bond is now there, very much so. He really is a sweet little thing. Although he broke me from the waist down whilst he was being born, it was/is only temporary and knowing the little person who he is now, I would go through it all over again as he was completely worth it xx

Now that we are approaching six weeks I can already tell that we are hitting another milestone. Life is getting much, much easier and things just keep getting better. Yes, I’m a mother, a loving mother, and although there are moments where it feels like an effort, I can at last say that on the whole I am thoroughly enjoying it. Squee!

© Originally published by Nin for |••• PeachyHollow •••| as Milestones

© Originally published by Nin for |••• PeachyHollow •••| as Turning a corner?

As I sit and type this, my sweet little baby snoozes contentedly by me whilst the four hundred and fourteenth load of laundry spins around in the machine. Yes, we made it through the first two weeks. Numerous people warned how rough the first fortnight would likely be, but only experience has *really* revealed the truth behind this statement as it has been the sort of rough that was really quite unimaginable unless you’ve lived through it to tell the tale. As if recovering from the marathon of labour and delivery isn’t enough on it’s own, there is the whole issue of sleep deprivation to contend with too. Anyone who doesn’t believe that sleep deprivation is torture, I challenge you to look after a newborn and see how you like it, or if you’ve done that before, I offer you a refresher course just to remind you how hard it is, and hey you don’t even have the birth to recover from so consider it the easy route. As I keep pointing out, Oliver is a really, really good baby, and his demands are really quite minimal. His cries are different and distinctive and usually relate to two basic things. He sobs when he is hungry, and his shrieks can be heard all over the house and across the neighbouring counties whenever his diaper is wet. Except for when he’s hungry. Even at two weeks the boy has his priorities. My only complaint is that he is at his most active between midnight and 4am, but I can hardly hold that against him. He’s only seen daylight 14 times after all.

For me, the past couple of weeks have been a bit rough but as if by magic, things got a whole lot better today. Although the whole labour and birth thing was relatively straightforward (except for it being back- labour), it all went a bit pearshaped after that. It’s ironic really- I managed 17 hours of back labour with no pain relief whatsoever (just a yoga breathing technique) but then after 11 minutes of people yelling PUSH and him coming out, I end up on a pretty strong cocktail of painkillers including a shot of morphine in my back side. Yes, the whole process of childbirth was mild compared to the pain that came afterwards that left me writhing and screaming, begging for something, anything to take the pain away, even an epidural, or otherwise I really would have preferred to die. At the time they thought that I might have fractured my coccyx giving birth, but now it looks like I aggravated an old injury and the swelling that followed delivery was the thing that tipped me over the edge. This is cutting a very long story short of course, for there was also the severe blood loss (more than double the norm during delivery and more after) and associated anaemia, and the deep purple bruising that covered my entire back side and partially down my thighs that had been ‘rarely seen before’ (to quote my midwife) that warrants a follow-up appointment at two weeks post-hospital-discharge instead of four-to-six. Add to that the complete breakdown in the functioning of any of my inner workings between my waist and knees, plus the sleep deprivation and it all made for quite an ugly past couple of weeks. Reflecting back on it, it seems more and more apparent that childbirth has to be one of nature’s biggest jokes. Birth takes an awful lot out of you and it’s the perfect example of a situation where the best recuperation ever would be to lie in bed and sleep for hours. But no. Nature doesn’t allow that. Babies need to be fed. The sleep deprivation was probably the hardest bit of all. Except for that pain bit after he was born. Oh the pain. Even the morphine didn’t stop it, but it did make me sleepy. I will perhaps document the whole birth story at some point, but right now I’m tired of re-living it each time I have to go to the bathroom, so it’s going to have to wait for a moment where I’m feeling mentally strong

DrMrNin has been great of course, and having my parents here has been fabulous. I don’t know how I would have got through it without them. xx

© Originally published by Nin for |••• PeachyHollow •••| as Two weeks

Thankyou all *so* much for all your encouragement, reading your sweet comments brought tears to my eyes. He is such a good baby, really he is. He very rarely fusses at all. He only cries when his diaper is wet and it’s not his fault that his day is backwards. The struggle that I’m having is that although the birth bit went really well (depite the fact that I had back labour, I managed to do the whole thing completely drug-free, and only pushed for 10 minutes) I had a couple of complications afterwards from which I am still recovering. Just as one problem corrects itself, another thing goes wrong with me and I end up feeling sorry for myself all over again. It’s horrible.

But the other day my mummy and daddy flew out from England to be here and look after me, and that makes me feel a lot better. And Baby Peach is loving all the extra cuddle time. And extra pairs of hands means that I can sneak off for a little nap time in the afternoon.

© Originally published by Nin for |••• PeachyHollow •••| as Thankyou