Parenting a 15 month old
It looks like I might have my blogging mojo back.. probably won't last long, means using my brain too much! Now lets try to form full adult sentences...
Pippa has been pretty quick to do most things so far; each tooth has come earlier than normal, she started crawling at 6m and was walking at 9m, shes too clever for her own good, picking things up really quickly and shes very (and I mean VERY) brave! It's easy to forget how young she is. Although this is the case, it's only really in the last few weeks I have seen her as a child rather than a baby, if that makes sense. Her body movements are controlled and shes chatting away, more and more of her babbles are turning into actual words now and shes certainly starting to negotiate and manipulate situations. She understands our household routine and preempts whats coming next. Although she is so fascinating to watch each day as she learns, explores and communicates, she tests the boundaries all the time which is pretty exhausting.
An example. Soon after her first birthday we started swimming lessons with we both absolutely love! For some of the activities, we sing songs and then the babies are encouraged to jump into the water after counting to 3. She absolutely loves this and never waits until 3 to jump in. I use my fingers as a visual representation of the numbers before she jumps which she now copies. This is all great and all but now she can climb our living room sofas (which we got away with for a long time as they are quite tall), she gives me the '1' sign (I was going to write 'she gives a finger' but that didn't sound right..) and she jumps. A full on leap of faith and it's just pot luck if someone is there to catch her.. Though, I'm not even sure she cares whether shes caught or not as I found out the other day when she jumped off and face planted the duvet we have on the living room floor (she naps there... a whole other issue I have no intention to explain). It happened in slow motion as I was preparing for a nappy change at the other side of the room and my heart stopped. A whole manner of horrific endings going through my head. she looked up at me, burst into laughter and proceeded to climb the sofa to do it again. Yes I filmed the second time but no, I'm not sharing the evidence, I don't need to give you lot another reason to call the social (if you are wondering what I am on about, this is in reference to a previous post)!!
I don't have too many expectations as I know it is super early but recently we have been experimenting with getting her to use the potty. When changing her nappy first thing, I noticed that she was dribbling a bit of wee so assumed she probably had a full bladder. Just as an experiment, I stuck her on the potty (we randomly picked one up in Lidl for like £3 something hence the organisation, not because we were super keen!) and low and behold, she peed in it!!! Very proud mum moment!! I assumed it was a fluke but after intermittently putting her on the potty every now and then, it definitely isn't just a one off. She will now say 'wee, wee, wee' when you ask her if she needs to go and she understands that that's what the potty is for and tries to go. Shes not yet telling me when she needs to go but still, I think that's pretty impressive for her age! Watch this space!!
Nap time is usually my 'me time'. Shes been a one nap a day girl for a long time now but until recently these naps have been well over an hour, a very welcome break to busy days. However, in the last few days she has been surviving on just 45 minutes, and today, just half an hour.... that is such a short space of time, I barely pissed and poured myself a coffee!! Well actually to be exact, I spent most of the time stopping 3 dogs barking, first at the postman, then at the Amazon man... then I peed and poured a coffee, sat down with my knitting in hand. She woke before I did a single stitch! Damn!!
I am still breastfeeding her at the moment, she is definitely a boob girl! Quite often now I find myself frustrated when she wants to feed because she wants it at times when I know she can't be hungry... Or maybe she can.... right after lunchtime, or after a whole banana and oaty yogurt biscuit snack. She wants it when shes annoyed or frustrated or just feeling clingy... And well to sleep, but that I don't mind so much, although I know plenty of people will shoot me down "you mustn't feed to sleep", "your make a rod for your own back" blah blah blah.
I swear my breast milk has anti-depressants in it or something. How to make a miserable Pippa happy again? Stick a tit in her mouth. I, however, am not in the business of bottling it and advertising it as an alternative to citalopram... so don't anyone go getting any ideas!!
We have never used a dummy with her but I am very much that substitute. To be honest, although I am currently complaining, I am proud that we haven't used one and believe that it would have been unnecessary to do so. I'm not shaming (what seems to be) the vast majority of people who use dummies, I'm just saying that this was right for us not to.... though, maybe I am judgemental of that mother I saw in A&E that one time with a child in school uniform with a dummy in her mouth. But to be fair I was also judging her less than polite vocabulary used to communicate with her child in public and her inability to get her head out of her phone when her child wanted her to play with her... anyway! Lets get back on topic....
Before breastfeeding myself, I was impressed when mums told me they breastfed for, say, 2 years. It's just not that common to feed for that long in our culture sadly. Don't get me wrong, I am still impressed but I also see that there is so much more to it than people understand, I believe. Now I am this side of it and have had fleeting thoughts about how it would be nice to give up, I wonder how mums manage it. The boob is so much more than milk to her. I feel like if I was to give up now it would be because I am selfish and she would feel lost as I believe she is still too young to understand why. I can also see that we would have an absolutely distraught baby in the middle of the night and would end up with no sleep at all... well, we would because I would cave and she would get a boob and all would be right i her world. I always said that I wanted to be done with feeding before she was old enough to ask for it.. Well not only does she whine 'boobie, boobie, boobie' at me repeatedly, but usually succeeds at ripping my clothes off! Something only my husband should be doing, but were lucky if we get any opportunity between all the illnesses, tiredness and fairly often, the physical cock block we have in the bed with us!
Despite the previous lengthy complaints I have bored you with so far (congrats if your still with me and thank you for reading!) I absolutely love being able to stay at home with her. Thank you to my dear husband for earning enough money to make this possible. This has been the right thing for us as a family and I truly cherish this time as I know it can't last forever. I might complain that she keeps me on my toes all day but shes so cheeky, funny and full of life that even on my most exhausted, pre-menstrual days, she never fails to put a smile on my face. Although feeding can be tedious at times (like tonight for example where I couldn't extract myself from her for over 50 minutes), I love the bond that we share over it, nothing can compare. Even though it's exhausting when I am the only one who can settle her in the evenings or overnight, or when she follows me round the house moaning the 'mum, mum, mum' mantra for hours on end, I love that I am her world. As she is my world. I would kill for her.
'I'm her person' and 'she's my person'.
as Meredith would say to Christina
Pippa has been pretty quick to do most things so far; each tooth has come earlier than normal, she started crawling at 6m and was walking at 9m, shes too clever for her own good, picking things up really quickly and shes very (and I mean VERY) brave! It's easy to forget how young she is. Although this is the case, it's only really in the last few weeks I have seen her as a child rather than a baby, if that makes sense. Her body movements are controlled and shes chatting away, more and more of her babbles are turning into actual words now and shes certainly starting to negotiate and manipulate situations. She understands our household routine and preempts whats coming next. Although she is so fascinating to watch each day as she learns, explores and communicates, she tests the boundaries all the time which is pretty exhausting.
An example. Soon after her first birthday we started swimming lessons with we both absolutely love! For some of the activities, we sing songs and then the babies are encouraged to jump into the water after counting to 3. She absolutely loves this and never waits until 3 to jump in. I use my fingers as a visual representation of the numbers before she jumps which she now copies. This is all great and all but now she can climb our living room sofas (which we got away with for a long time as they are quite tall), she gives me the '1' sign (I was going to write 'she gives a finger' but that didn't sound right..) and she jumps. A full on leap of faith and it's just pot luck if someone is there to catch her.. Though, I'm not even sure she cares whether shes caught or not as I found out the other day when she jumped off and face planted the duvet we have on the living room floor (she naps there... a whole other issue I have no intention to explain). It happened in slow motion as I was preparing for a nappy change at the other side of the room and my heart stopped. A whole manner of horrific endings going through my head. she looked up at me, burst into laughter and proceeded to climb the sofa to do it again. Yes I filmed the second time but no, I'm not sharing the evidence, I don't need to give you lot another reason to call the social (if you are wondering what I am on about, this is in reference to a previous post)!!
I don't have too many expectations as I know it is super early but recently we have been experimenting with getting her to use the potty. When changing her nappy first thing, I noticed that she was dribbling a bit of wee so assumed she probably had a full bladder. Just as an experiment, I stuck her on the potty (we randomly picked one up in Lidl for like £3 something hence the organisation, not because we were super keen!) and low and behold, she peed in it!!! Very proud mum moment!! I assumed it was a fluke but after intermittently putting her on the potty every now and then, it definitely isn't just a one off. She will now say 'wee, wee, wee' when you ask her if she needs to go and she understands that that's what the potty is for and tries to go. Shes not yet telling me when she needs to go but still, I think that's pretty impressive for her age! Watch this space!!
Nap time is usually my 'me time'. Shes been a one nap a day girl for a long time now but until recently these naps have been well over an hour, a very welcome break to busy days. However, in the last few days she has been surviving on just 45 minutes, and today, just half an hour.... that is such a short space of time, I barely pissed and poured myself a coffee!! Well actually to be exact, I spent most of the time stopping 3 dogs barking, first at the postman, then at the Amazon man... then I peed and poured a coffee, sat down with my knitting in hand. She woke before I did a single stitch! Damn!!
I am still breastfeeding her at the moment, she is definitely a boob girl! Quite often now I find myself frustrated when she wants to feed because she wants it at times when I know she can't be hungry... Or maybe she can.... right after lunchtime, or after a whole banana and oaty yogurt biscuit snack. She wants it when shes annoyed or frustrated or just feeling clingy... And well to sleep, but that I don't mind so much, although I know plenty of people will shoot me down "you mustn't feed to sleep", "your make a rod for your own back" blah blah blah.
I swear my breast milk has anti-depressants in it or something. How to make a miserable Pippa happy again? Stick a tit in her mouth. I, however, am not in the business of bottling it and advertising it as an alternative to citalopram... so don't anyone go getting any ideas!!
We have never used a dummy with her but I am very much that substitute. To be honest, although I am currently complaining, I am proud that we haven't used one and believe that it would have been unnecessary to do so. I'm not shaming (what seems to be) the vast majority of people who use dummies, I'm just saying that this was right for us not to.... though, maybe I am judgemental of that mother I saw in A&E that one time with a child in school uniform with a dummy in her mouth. But to be fair I was also judging her less than polite vocabulary used to communicate with her child in public and her inability to get her head out of her phone when her child wanted her to play with her... anyway! Lets get back on topic....
Before breastfeeding myself, I was impressed when mums told me they breastfed for, say, 2 years. It's just not that common to feed for that long in our culture sadly. Don't get me wrong, I am still impressed but I also see that there is so much more to it than people understand, I believe. Now I am this side of it and have had fleeting thoughts about how it would be nice to give up, I wonder how mums manage it. The boob is so much more than milk to her. I feel like if I was to give up now it would be because I am selfish and she would feel lost as I believe she is still too young to understand why. I can also see that we would have an absolutely distraught baby in the middle of the night and would end up with no sleep at all... well, we would because I would cave and she would get a boob and all would be right i her world. I always said that I wanted to be done with feeding before she was old enough to ask for it.. Well not only does she whine 'boobie, boobie, boobie' at me repeatedly, but usually succeeds at ripping my clothes off! Something only my husband should be doing, but were lucky if we get any opportunity between all the illnesses, tiredness and fairly often, the physical cock block we have in the bed with us!
Despite the previous lengthy complaints I have bored you with so far (congrats if your still with me and thank you for reading!) I absolutely love being able to stay at home with her. Thank you to my dear husband for earning enough money to make this possible. This has been the right thing for us as a family and I truly cherish this time as I know it can't last forever. I might complain that she keeps me on my toes all day but shes so cheeky, funny and full of life that even on my most exhausted, pre-menstrual days, she never fails to put a smile on my face. Although feeding can be tedious at times (like tonight for example where I couldn't extract myself from her for over 50 minutes), I love the bond that we share over it, nothing can compare. Even though it's exhausting when I am the only one who can settle her in the evenings or overnight, or when she follows me round the house moaning the 'mum, mum, mum' mantra for hours on end, I love that I am her world. As she is my world. I would kill for her.
'I'm her person' and 'she's my person'.
as Meredith would say to Christina
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