The baby

When Annie was first born, every mummy told me to treasure the precious moments as they will go so fast. Boy, weren’t they right? Our Annie is now nearly 17 weeks old, trying to roll over and desperate to crawl and walk. She has been swimming and absolutely loves it, so that will be a frequent outing for us. And goodness, it’s an outing. Taking a baby swimming takes a lot of planning! No longer can I just hop in car, shoot for a quick swim and then hop back to work. It is a day’s worth of event now!

Christmas was a grand affair at my parent’s house – their first grandchild was thoroughly spoiled! Her favourite present was definitely her baby bouncer (where she boings in the doorway) and the wrapping paper of course!

So, the great vaccine debate…..Ludo (hubby) and I had resolutely decided that Annie would not be vaccinated. This was for a number of reasons. The first being that our nephew regressed at 18 months, the second being that we have a high incidence of OCD, depression and other mental illnesses in our extended family, the third being that we felt they are just full of horrendous stuff and I couldn’t bear to put that into her little body. Lastly, I am beginning to doubt the vaccine theory at all. However, all of our decisions were based on Annie being a naturally home-birthed, fully mummy-breast-fed baby. Neither of those happened and with me needing (and wanting) to continue with work which entails a great deal of travel, and Annie being exposed to a lot of very poorly people through our voluntary work, we had to make the heart breaking decision to give her her first round of baby vaccinations. We gave these at 12 as opposed to 8 weeks. We will give her next lot spread out and on a delayed schedule and, at this point in time, Annie will not be receiving any further to her being one year old.

I had always thought everything so black and white and ‘research’ driven, but being a mum just isn’t like that. There are so many shades of grey affecting everything we do, and all we can do is make the very best decision based on the information we have in our hand and not look back.

As many of you know, I didn’t ever start my maternity leave and was even on my blackberry whilst in labour! Work isn’t ‘work’ for me, it’s a way of life and I am just as passionate about the progress of our families and my incredible team as I am passionate about my own family. I have really struggled, however, time wise, but the team have been brilliant... I have been able to really spend my Annie time with Annie, and my work time working. Annie is in an amazing routine, so I have plenty of time to work (which I often do instead of sleep….must work on that one ;), but now I need to find time to be a wife as my poor husband is being significantly ignored!

Another dilemma we’ve had this month is when to introduce food and how. I am currently looking into baby-led weaning (and yes, yesterday I let Annie have a suck of my apple) – does anyone have any thoughts ? (other than the crazy mess it will produce)….

And finally, NCT groups and baby groups. Our experiences thus far have been far from desirable.

1. I find it nigh on impossible to make anything on time and
2. how are mums already comparing abilities of their weeks old babies?!

No, Annie can’t roll yet. Yes, I know she’s late in this area. No, I’m not bothered. She is 16 weeks old, for goodness sake. I find myself saying, ‘but she slept through the night at 2 weeks’ and ‘she can do cause and effect toys’. Grow up, Lu! No, I don’t know how much she weighed and no, I can’t tell you the time or colour of her last poo. But I can tell you when our last snuggle was, and the feeling she gives me when she looks into my eyes and I can also tell you the number of rolls above her knees (three).

Well, that’s it from me for this month, however next month I will be happy to bore you with my return to work and the amazing support our families have given me. I will also let you know our food decisions, whether we vaccinated again and I will let you into my car dilemma (I am refusing to get a ‘mumsy’ car and instead keeping going with my 3 door, completely impractical car which doesn’t fit my german shepherd in, let alone Annie, her paraphernalia & a german shepherd….)