Tweets - July 2015

1 July: That lovely moment when a fussy little person gives in and falls asleep.

7 July: Celebratory lunch. (Spot the sleeping baby).
Of course five minutes later sleeping baby woke up and insisted on sharing mummy's burrito.
Hooray for a baby feeding sign that isn't a bottle!

8 July: The hazards of painting one's toenails with a crawling baby.

11 July: Picnic baby
Baby got hats.

14 July: Everything is making me sad today. Might be a tad hormonal.
Today I saw Phoebe push herself up to standing for the first time. Not sure by if accident or design but a first.
My pickle has been chewing something brown she found on the kitchen floor. Coffee bean? Gravy granule? Who knows!?

15 July: Don't mess with Yoghurt Face.

16 July: The most beautiful sight in the world is a sleeping baby.
Thunder and lightning! ⚡️

17 July: If your question is of the form "why is object X in unusual location Y?", the answer is probably Phoebe.

21 July: Stand off: @robhu vs BMW driver who refuses to reverse. I think I know who wins this one and [it] isn't the beamer.
"What have you found Phoebe? Can mummy have it?"
Phoebe hands me a dead fly.
"Thanks baby."
#yuck
At least she didn't eat it. But what else has she picked up and eaten without my noticing? :-S

23 July: Chubby legs and little feets.

24 July: First time of wearing for this cardigan. Those are soot creatures and it has Totoros further down.
This week Phoebe has been mostly shaking her head and pulling herself up to standing.

25 July: Breakfast is going well, as you can see.
*sigh*

27 July: Phoebe looking particularly urchin-like.

Classic bum in the air sleeping baby. How is that comfortable Phoebe? 

My baby stands up.

28 July: I think she likes it. :)
One confused wasp. One calm Bekki.
Baby obstacle course

31 July: Suspicious baby at the park. (Yes, I have problems with horizontal).
I do not understand people Who Write Facebook Statuses Like This. Why the extra effort for unnecessary capitalisation?

Tweets - June 2015

4 June: Sleeping baby. Hungry mama.
Poorly baby finally gives in to sleep. Think I'll stay on this cool shady bench a whole.

8 June: Ginger beard and lilac hair. Brave look, dude.
Resignation letter written. :)
Crankypants baby is exhausting. She just had a mini meltdown because I had the audacity to suggest she not eat my laptop power cable.

9 June: Cousins

11 June: The perfect yoghurt moustache and beard.
Cambridge in summer. Time for my seasonal hobby of walking into tourists' photos just as they press the shutter.

15 June: Tried Phoebe with cherries again. She poked them suspiciously and then they hit the floor.
Have given her porridge with yoghurt and strawberries and a few sneaky bits of cherry. I think it's going to be messy.
Ha! Bits of cherry are being identified, extracted and disposed of on the floor.
One bit made it into the mouth and was spat out again. OK I get it Phoebe, you don't like cherries.
Ah, sweet sleeping baby.

16 June: My response to the Game of Thrones finale: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!
Help! I have a mobile baby!
Oh monkey!
Rob's shirt hangs around for weeks before it gets ironed. Slings get ironed the day they're washed. #priorities

17 June: About to sing at a May ball. I'm wearing a velvet jacket I made the year I started university (1998). I guess it's vintage, darling.

18 June: Today's toys: strip of cardboard from a dessert box; measuring tape (retracted); pieces of fluff from the floor (which double as snacks).
Not forgetting the ever popular piece of scrap paper, baby wipes packet, mummy's phone & whatever mummy happens to be holding right now.
She's tired, I thought. She'll settle easily and then I can go to bed. Maybe I'll be asleep by 8.
Nope.

20 June: 3:30am. Rob & I try to sleep perched on the edges of the bed while Phoebe rolls from side to side in the vast space between us, singing.

23 June: Yesterday a trip to the Dr to get chest pain checked out resulted in an ambulance to A&E, x-ray, scan and a diagnosis of pulmonary embolism.
Memo to self: next time you have chest pain maybe get it checked out before you've had it for a month, especially if you're short of breath.
Grateful for swift diagnosis, treatment that works with breastfeeding and lots of lovely medical staff.
I just need someone who speaks baby to explain to Phoebe that mummy needs lots of rest!
Reading. :)

24 June: Mama needs sleep. Baby says "naps are for wimps!". :( Hurry up Nana!
Sous vide salmon with philadelphia pasta and asparagus

26 June: It seems when I got braces I signed up for 12-18 months of @robhu singing Teenage Dirtbag at me. I don't remember that on the consent form.

27 June: Cuddling a sleeping baby: never not awesome.
This child has been feverish and cuddly all day. But now it's bedtime, she wants to party with my hairbrush. 

29 June: Most overused phrase this month: "Phoebe, what are you eating?"
(fluff or dried food she's picked up from the floor. Must hoover more).

Tweets - April 2015

2 April: Breakfast in bed.

3 April: Today Phoebe discovered how to splash on purpose. Bath time just got much wetter. Fun though. ☔

4 April: Phoebe's latest noise is a click made with her tongue. All the time.
For dinner tonight Phoebe is eating potato cakes, pork slices and broccoli. Though actually she's so far ignored the broccoli.
And the pork is a bit tough to chew so she's mostly eating the potato cakes which are just the right amount of squishy.
Now attacking the broccoli by her usual method of peeling off strips and sucking them.
She also likes to grab the frilly bits and chew the stem.

5 April: Sunday afternoon.

6 April: Are the bluebells out yet anywhere near Cambridge?

7 April: #selfielapse happy Phoebe
#selfielapse :-) https://instagram.com/p/1LQBGzzbl1/
Seven minutes of Phoebe.
Rob is learning to play the recorder.

9 April: Breakfast
A baby and her kazoo. Also, if you look closely, you can see her first tooth.
Mum skills: syringing out the correct dose of calpol while holding the wriggling and unhappy intended recipient of said medicine.

10 April: The weather is warmer and I feel like I've forgotten how to dress for sunny weather. This time last year I lived in dresses & leggings.
But dresses don't work for breastfeeding and I hate all my short sleeved  . Shopping required.
Going out for the first time in the big girl seat on her buggy.
I could have sworn the person getting onto the bus after me asked for "A return ticket to the real world please." #Cambridge

14 April: This is what you're currently missing by being at work, daddy.  

15 April: Phoebe in fabulously retro Little Bird dungarees.
Cucumber for the win!

20 April: Mummy in shades. Monkey in a sun hat.
Started an argument about 'chemicals' on a baby related Facebook group. This isn't going to end well, is it?
Someone posted this http://www.healthyfoodstar.com/this-powder-is-causing-cancer-in-10000-women/ …. I said the headline was highly inaccurate. Someone else said baby shampoo is full of carcinogens
Fear of chemicals makes me cross. You can make people scared of anything by invoking the c word.

21 April: Cot day two: getting to know the robot.
Shhh! Phoebe is napping. :-)

22 April: Blowing cross bubbly raspberries is probably not the most effective means of expressing one's displeasure. It is however very cute.  

23 April: Fabulous tulips.
Spring!

25 April: Woken up at 12, 4 and 6 when Phoebe decided it was morning. How did people survive babies before coffee?

Ducks are for eating.  

27 April: Berry smeared baby.  

28 April: How is my little person all smiley in the morning when she's been Howling McScreamybaby all night?

29 April: I'm being held captive by a minuscule dictator whose every whim I must interpret and satisfy or face her tiny squeaking wrath.

Strain to grab favourite toy, succeed. Throw it out of your reach. Melt down until mummy rescues it. Repeat.

30 April: Spoon for breakfast.
The frustrated baby gets her hand on the cup she's been trying to reach for the last 5 mins, only for it to roll further out of her grasp.
Poor frustrated Phoebe. The sooner she can crawl, the better for her level of happiness. Though mummy's stress levels will increase. :-S
Baby got all the kazoos!

Tweets - May 2015

1 May: All smiles and rainbows. :-)

3 May: Today's outfit is very pretty I think. Plus it has a chicken on it.

4 May: Sleepy. Nice day. Took the monkey swimming for the first time and she loved splashing and whirling in the water with daddy. Now zzzzzzzzzzzz

5 May: Mummy's phone! Gimme!
Wrapped up warm against wind and rain.

6 May: Uhoh! Phoebe has figured out how to join rolls together & get places. So far that's allowed her to pull washing off the airer & chew cables.

7 May: My favourite little person with her two tooth grin.
Raining. Hoping it stops later so I can get out to vote without getting wet.
Getting to know a new robot friend.
Pieces of roast courgette make a satisfying wet thump when dropped from a highchair.

8 May: Twitter full of doom. Best result of my night was Phoebe sleeping through the night in her cot. What sort of country will she grow up in?
Monkey on my back.

10 May: Starlit baby
One day I will rule the galaxy.

11 May: Crawling is getting closer. Just watched Phoebe  stretch forward from sitting and get all the way into a crawling position.
She stayed there for a bit and then got frustrated cos she wasn't going forwards (just backwards a little).
Feeling like checking out of the real world for a bit. Somewhere peaceful and calm and full of lovely things. Bed will do nicely.

13 May: Punk baby

15 May: Clever monkey slept through the night two nights in a row! Yay!
Turns out that monkey didn't sleep through. @robhu settled her at 2am. I was blissfully unaware!
Would you let this cute little monkey poke her finger up your nose?

17 May: I can't work out how to rotate this, so here's a Phoebe Hyperlapse, sideways.

18 May: Phoebe has been awake since 0520 and has been mostly shrieking since then. Currently in the bath as she covered herself in yoghurt.

20 May: Give a baby a box, distract her from pinching your arms or stealing your phone for at least 30 seconds.
Getting ready to go out. Realise I put on bright orange socks that clash with everything cos I wasn't planning to leave the house today.
The socks in question.

21 May: Playing my monkey bird song to soothe her to sleep. So lovely!

May 22: Definitely white bumps on Phoebe's gum. Upper right 1 and 2.
The monkey regards being dressed as a form of torture which should be forbidden by the Geneva conventions?

23 May: Mate, your piano seems to be on fire.
Bare chest, own language, stripper dress, lovely dancing and er, Old McDonald. #ESP
Oximated?
What does the Fox say for grown ups? #aze
I will go to bed and enjoy a babyless night's sleep. I will not watch the Eurovision votes roll in on twitter. I will go to sleep. I will.

24 May: "Turn the oven out" is a perfectly sensible idiom, even for an electric oven, right? @robhu was confused by it.
"Born and raised in London’s infamous E17"
Me too! Er, is it infamous? (we went to the same primary school).

26 May: Phoebe in the park

27 May: RT @theyarnyard
Fed up with "working people" rhetoric. What about the carers, the unwell, the at-home parents, the retired, the between-jobs?

29 May: Surrendered to sleep
Trying out a baby-sized glass.

31 May: My favourite little person. Even if I'm currently cuddling her back to sleep after another screaming fit.

The new Saturday morning normal

Recording a fairly ordinary morning because I want to remember these things. This is normal now. In a few months it'll be different. Phoebe is 37 weeks and 3 days old. She can sit up but not yet crawl, though I think that's coming. She wakes up a lot at night (though a lot for her is every 2-3 hours. I'm well aware for some babies that would be brilliant. Big hugs to anyone dealing with hourly wake-ups) and I'm very tired!

It's been one of those less good nights. I put Phoebe down to sleep at 715. She woke up at 8 and sat on the sofa watching Star Gate: Universe with us because I couldn't be bothered to fight. At 9 something we went to bed - Phoebe and I snuggled in the king size bed. Rob would be up for a few more hours playing StarCraftII and whatever else he does before sleeping on the sofa. (His preference incidentally. He prefers to sleep alone and not be woken up).

Phoebe woke at midnight (sent back to sleep by ten minutes of mummy milk), 4am (longer this time, both breasts, a nappy change and some time talking to the baby in the bathroom mirror) and at 6am when she was crying inconsolably and not even milk or the mirror could settle her enough to go back to sleep. So, I gave up the idea of sleep, opened the blackout blinds and we spent a couple of hours with me dozing, her playing on or next to me, intermittent milk and the occasional crying session (her, not me) until around 8, we were both hungry and I was in need of coffee.

Breakfast involved first emptying the kitchen of drying washing (leaving it in there overnight with the dehumidifier running is the easiest way to get it dry without filling the house with damp) and moving the highchair and a dining chair into it. Rob woke up at this point and moved himself to the bedroom. Which was probably a good thing as it means he gets more sleep and isn't grumpy about being disturbed.

Phoebe and I ate breakfast. Banana pancakes and strawberries for her, muesli with banana and yoghurt and blessed coffee for me. I spread cashew butter on some of the pancakes which tasted yummy, but of course became smeared all over Phoebe's hands, arms, face, hair etc. So, a bath became necessary. The monkey likes baths and I like giving her baths. She had a lovely time eating her ducks and I got most of the mess off (though I found cashew butter in her ear later). But she also managed to do a sneaky poo which I didn't notice until emptying the bath. I thought I'd noticed her poo face, but couldn't feel anything at the time (I put emollient in the bath water for her dry skin, which makes it cloudy). Goodness knows how long it had been there. Oh well.

I got her out, dried her off and smeared her with newly prescribed emollient cream. Then she sat in her cot for a while playing with (i.e. eating) a board book and a muslin square while I tidied the bath and the kitchen and got dressed. There were only a couple of squeals when she fell over. She's good at sitting, but can't get up if she topples over. The cot went up on Monday and I've been trying to get her to sleep in it without success, so it's great that she was happy to play in it, even without me in the room.

Eventually she got cranky and tired, about 9.30am. By then she'd been awake for 3.5 hours, so she was ready for a nap. I fed her to sleep sitting next to the cot, but she squeaked when I tried to put her down in it, so we moved to the sofa. Now I'm sitting cross legged typing as she sleeps. Except she's stirring. I think nap time is over. Oh, back to sleep. But I'll post this now.

Phoebe at 8 months

My dear chocolate smeared daughter,

Today you are 8 months old. Your daddy decided that since it's Easter, you should have some chocolate and decided to give you a flake to eat. The above is what resulted. Guess who had to clean you up?

You are generally delightful at the moment. At least during daylight hours. At night, you can be unsettled and wake up frequently. You are still sleeping in the Moses basket in our bedroom, at least in theory, although in practice you spend most of the nights and your day time naps in the big bed. When we can convince Daddy you really are too big for the basket, we'll move his computer to the living room and set up your cot. But for now, you're within arm's reach at night.

You're enjoying food. You've got much better at handling it. You can pass pieces from one hand to the other and turn them so they're easier to get into your mouth. I haven't yet found a food you don't like, though if you're tired more goes on the floor than into you. Chicken seems to be a favourite. Tomatoes and strawberries you're possibly allergic to. We'll avoid them for a bit. Of course you still like your milk.

You're fortunately not very mobile yet, although you're getting there. You've been rolling from front to back for ages, but only in the last few days have I seen you roll from back to front and connect up movements to get somewhere. A couple of times I've left you sitting and come back to find you lying on your front, intent on reach some object or other. You fall over sometimes. There was a big bump today as you fall backwards and hit the floor a little too hard. You cried and I scooped you up for a cuddle. The bumps make me sad, but you're learning about gravity and how to overcome it.

You chatter a lot, especially when happy or eating. So many noises! Lots of bah! Bah bah BAH! None is attached to any meaning yet, but you enjoy testing your sounds and babbling away to yourself. Daddy thinks you're noisy, but I like it.

You like watching people. In the sling when we're out, you become Serious Baby and stare intently at strangers on the bus or wherever we happen to be. They try to make you laugh, but you resist. Your giggles are mostly only for Mummy and Daddy.

You and Daddy are a good double act. He plays you the kazoo, then hands it over and you play it too! You try to play other objects too, so maybe you haven't quite got how it works yet, but it's very cute. You laugh when he growls at you and throws you up in the air. Sometimes you watch him as he moves around the room doing things.

Breastfeeding has been much better. It's still a bit sore if I'm not careful, but on the whole, the horrible itching is under control. You tell me when you're hungry by bobbing your head at my breast. More like headbanging than the sweet bobs of a newborn now though. Sometimes you break off in mid feed and bob some more, for the fun of it.

You are fun. We're beginning to see your personality come through. You're wary of strangers, Mummy and Daddy are best of course, but after some staring, if you're in the right mood, you warm up to people. You like looking at other babies. Sometimes you stop what you're doing and listen to the noises the birds make outside our room and on the roof. You are very interested in the world.

Keep learning, little girl! I love you very much.

Your Mummy

Tweets - March 2015

March 1: It seems the best way to get comfy is to hang on to mummy with 1 hand while waving your other 3 limbs madly & rolling from side to side.

March 3: Unsettled teething (?) baby. Mama in pain from whatever the hell's going with right boob. It's going to be a long night. :-(

March 6: Good morning world. :-)

March 9: Showing off her latest skill: sitting unassisted.

March 10: This week Phoebe is mostly working on B sounds. A bah a buh a ber.

March 12: White blossom. Blue sky.

Happy hummus-smeared Phoebe.

RT @terryandrob
AT LAST, SIR TERRY, WE MUST WALK TOGETHER.

March 13: Can't help laughing when Phoebe aims two bits of broccoli at her mouth at the same time and misses with both.

Out for dinner. I think Rob's getting hungry.

March 14: Look what I made! (I went on a chocolate making course today, an early Mother's day present).

March 15: Phoebe tucking into my salad.

March 16: Phoebe in pink. Mummy in pink and purple.

So yeah. Sometimes I dress my baby in head to toe pink. But sometimes I wear all pink too. I like pink. As long as it's not compulsory.

Feeling slightly crazed after solo parenting for less than 48 hours. Come home soon @robhu !

Phoebe is in one of those overtired states that flips over into bouncing hyperness. Calm down and go to sleep please baby!

Nursing craziness included bouncing up and down with my nipple in her mouth and latching enthusiastically onto any bit of exposed skin.

March 17: Happy 17th anniversary of passing my driving test to me!

Someone likes meatballs.

March 18: Phoebe falls asleep with hands behind her head like a sunbather and legs in the air.

I touch her toes. She starts, wiggles, relaxes and falls into a deeper sleep with legs down.

March 20: Am I producing milk or double espressos? Phoebe is full of energy. Go to sleep, monkey!

Today Phoebe has been mostly: blowing raspberries; eating; pooing.

and saying Bah! We've had a lot of bababba bah today.

March 22: Starcraft watching baby. #sc2 #gsl

March 23: Watching Fawlty Towers with daddy.

Eating lunch in the photographers' lounge.

Monkey stole my sandwich!

March 25: This mini activity centre is brilliant. Something to do on every side and light enough that she can turn it herself.

I don't think that's quite how bonjela is supposed to work.

Phoebe has spent several minutes chewing on an orange segment. From time to time she takes it out, looks at it for a bit, puts it back in.

Out in the sunshine.

March 26: The dungarees Phoebe is wearing have 7 functional pockets. For someone who doesn't need pockets. The most I have is 5 on my jeans.

RT @StephieDoug
One of my favourite posts. The anger has eased but the memories are strong. When New Mums Get Angry   #sisterhood

RT @AstroKatie
Request to media: Stop characterizing the Germanwings co-pilot as “depressed”. Mass murder is not a symptom of depression.

March 27: Good morning world.

One happy monkey and her mama.

RT @Doulamaddie
Brilliant article! No I'm not a nipple nazi either!...

March 28: Late night selfie with daddy.

March 31: Windy morning rainbow.

Today started with screaming at 6am yet somehow we didn't get out of the house until 1030. So it goes.

Oh now I want to watch Buffy again. Every argument on the internet about Buffy.