A walk in the park

On Tuesdays Ada and I catch up with the other NCT mums and babies. This past Tuesday we went to Allie's house and afterwards Allie and I went Southwark Park to take Poppy and Ada on the playground.

Ada was impassive about it all. Completely devoid of emotion - except perhaps a slight interest in what the other kids were doing. In hind sight it was probably because she was tired. Hopefully our next trip to the park will be more exciting.

Six years...are jus serious?

Dave and I got married six years ago today. Six bloody years. It feels beyond ridiculous to write that. It still feels like yesterday. So much has changed since then. I've moved jobs, we've bought a house. I've made new friends, lost some, turned thirty oh and had a baby. But I think the biggest thing that has changed from year five to six is the love that I feel for him. I was worried that having a baby would affect our marriage (doesn't every movie tell us this is what is going to happen?) and it did, but for the better. The love that I have for him is magical, all encompassing, never ending.

Hunny, I love you to the moon and back.

Cry baby

We've been having real success with Ada sleeping through the night. After day two or three of starting the crying it out method, she sleeps through the night - anywhere from seven-thirty pm until seven am (although the last couple of mornings have been around six am). It has made a huge difference in mine and Dave's lives. We've been able to actual sit down and have a meal together. Give Sophie some much needed attention (I have an incredible amount of cat-mum guilt). 

But day time naps are hard. And also different from her night time sleeping. At night, I find it hard to keep her awake past seven-thirty. Last night she almost fell asleep on me in the bath. 

She actually goes down really well for her morning nap around nine am and can sleep from anywhere between an hour to two hours, but I think that there are two reasons for this:

one - she has gotten up way to early (see: six am) and is already super tired.

two - we have been feeding her breakfast of apple and pear with baby rice or apple and peach with baby rice and she is full up.

But any other daytime nap in her cot is a struggle. She will eventually go to sleep but sometimes it's thirty minutes (in total, not continually) of crying for only a twenty minute nap. What's the point in that? And her crying? More like screaming. (Attachment parenting mums, look away now). She screams so loud, that I half expect police to knock on my door because they think I'm abusing my child. Urgh, I feel so guilty just writing that (thoughts on my never ending mum guilt to feature in the not too distant future). The thing is I know she isn't in pain. I know she isn't hungry. I know that she is tired. She. just. fights. every. step. of. the. way.

But after only fifteen minutes of crying this afternoon we achieved this:

The perfect weekend

This weekend wasn't particularly eventful, or even exciting. Dave came home early on Friday after being away for two nights. We went to the bank on Saturday (see: extremely boring), went out to lunch which was overpriced and not that great. We walked to the shops, caught the bus home all on a really hot day when all I wanted it to do was rain. Sunday I went to pilates in the morning and then we walked to Clapham Common for a picnic. I did a lot of embroidery in the evenings.

But it was perfect. It's all I need. I'm sure in the future our weekends will involve going out again (but seriously, I can't even fathom having a hangover right now), but for the moment I'm happy with how things are.

Growing up, sitting up

I was told by a fair few mums (see: more than two) that the first three months are the hardest but afterwards things get easier. And in some respects I found that to be true. But there wasn't a magical moment where bang! three months and she is all of the sudden an angel and our lives were smooth sailing. Ada was really colicky the first couple of months, a terrible day sleeper, and just generally a super cranky pants baby.

Whilst she isn't six months yet, for me, I feel like that age will be a milestone. Maybe it's that she is becoming a bit more independent - she can sit up by herself, she is eating solid (pureed) food, can go longer stretches of entertaining herself - that I can see light at the end of the tunnel. Maybe I'm becoming  more comfortable in my mum decisions. Maybe it's that it's summer. Maybe it's because she's sleeping through the night and not napping on me during the day. Maybe it's a a lot of different pieces falling into place. Whatever it is, it makes for a fun ride.

A snapshot of a pregnancy

And we keep on walking

Since having Ada I don't think I've ever walked so much in my entire life. There are a couple of reasons for this.

One - it's summer and the weather is (generally) pretty nice. I don't know if I'll ever have this time off during summer again, so I plan on taking full advantage of it. If the sun is shining we keep on walking

Two - she's asleep. Ada has the innate ability to sense when we've walked in the house when she's asleep in the buggy. She could have been asleep for ten minutes or an hour and boom! she's awake again. If she's asleep in the buggy, and the weather is nice, and we have nowhere else to go, we keep on walking

Three - it calms her down. Around five o'clock in the evening is the witching hour for us. Six o'clock we start our night time routine (feeding, bath, bed et cetera) but between five and six she is a bit of a gremlin. So we generally go for a walk to Kennington Park. And if she's happy, we keep on walking.

Four - it's cheap and I'm exercising. Now that I'm getting maternity pay (don't even let me get on my soap box about that) money isn't tight, per se, but I am watching what we spend. And even though I'm going to pilates once a week, that and walking is pretty much the only exercise we do. So given the choice between the bus or walking, we keep on walking.

Five - I can take cute pictures of her in front of London landmarks, like the London eye.