9 months old.

I really feel like we don’t have a ‘baby’ anymore! Little man is 9 months old today.

He is really on the move. Not officially ‘crawling’ but rolling and wriggling and doing 360s!

Constantly trying to pull himself up on things, especially in the bath and is continually frustrated with life not being able to get where he wants to go.

So 8 months was hard! I would say after the newborn stage, 8 months was the hardest yet! The 8 month sleep regression is definitely a thing! But at the same time, I have that growing confidence where you know ‘it’ will pass and it has. I’m also lucky to have a great mothers group to whinge to and its nice to know I’m not alone, its normal and it gets better!!

I think the much talked about ‘separation anxiety’ has hit, but its still new enough that I find the fact he actually likes me and doesn’t want me to go anywhere endearing…I will report back in a week on that..I can see it getting old. Right now though, after 8 months I was starting to think maybe he just really didn’t like me…and now I know… HE LOVES ME!!! 

Having said that he does love lots of things. His Dad (his eyes light up when he sees The Man now), baths, baths, baths, arrowroot biscuits, wafer crackers and cruskits …he is crackers for crackers! He is on a pear ban currently as he is an addict and I am sick of cleaning up number 3s (poo explosions). He also loves chewing on my iPhone and getting his mitts on the iPad, turns out its an excellent surface for dribbling.

Next week we are off to Masada mother & baby unit to get this sleep thing sorted. Of course we’ve had a brilliant week this week, with only 1-2 night wakings but he’s been feral enough during the day to make me feel like the visit is justified. I will blog about our time there for sure.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thats all for now, have a great weekend.

– Jen

Mess is Mine – SOTM August 2014

Sadly last year was a bit busy for me and I totally missed out on Vance Joy taking over the world…or the airwaves anyway! First I heard of him was when I looked to see which song got #1 in Triple J’s hottest 100. I know, so sad. Had other things on my mind!

Since I have been listening to Triple J regularly this year I was on the ball for his next album and heard this the first time it got played!

I really like it, and I’m betting everyone else will too! Another #1? Maybe not, but I reckon it will be up there! The song is Mess is Mine by Vance Joy.

I love this video, its quirky for sure but of course I love it because, well – Melbourne. Melbourne folk where do you think that bit under the bridges with the trains is at the start? It kind of looks like its around Macaulay Station in Kensington? What do you think? I’ve screenshotted it here:

– Jen

 

Argh…

I can’t even think of a good title for this post. Argh will have to do.

I am so tired and disappointed I haven’t been keeping up to date with my blogging. But sleep will always be a priority over blogging. 

Anyway, a little update.

Obviously little man hasn’t been sleeping well. We went from 1-2 wake ups a night to… a lot. I think its his teeth, but honestly I have no idea. Its been going on for almost six weeks with no more teeth to be seen so maybe he’s just torturing me.

We are off to ‘sleep school’ down in Melbourne next week after I rang them and begged them to get us in earlier (we were in for late August). I initially think the begging didn’t work because I went with the calm/polite approach not the sobbing/wailing they probably usually get.. but last week I got a call and immediately felt relief wash over me. 

Even now, after a not so good day today with 2 x 45 minute naps and much of the ‘errrrrrrr’ noise that Crangus makes when he’s hungry/tired, I’m not too fazed, only one week til I get rescued.

What else? OH! I got a coffee machine. This may or may not be related to the above sook about lack of sleep. Who needs sleep when you have coffee on tap! It is AMAZING and has been so much fun tinkering with. So far my coffee is a step above the old JenLax™ I used to make at The LAN MIne but probably not quite braggable yet. I’ll get there – the machine can do it but the problem is with the user!

I am all out of things to blog about…need to go to bed. But I do have a ‘song of the month’ post to do too. Stay tuned for that. Hopefully I will get back to blogging more (and finishing that pesky 50 things to blog about challenge too).

– Jen

#36 A thank you note to a ‘thing’

// Over 50 days (or so) I am doing Fat Mum Slim’s 50 things to blog about challenge – in no particular order.

Today’s post is #36 a thank you note to a ‘thing’ like coffee or trashy tv.

I could say thank you to coffee but thats a bit of a cop out. I say that every morning!

So my thank you is to Foxtel. Best thing ever getting it put on while I’m home all the time. There is so much great trashy TV to watch. When I’m so tired and just want to sit down and chill out without having to think there so many options!

My favourite by far at the moment is Million Dollar Listing (New York). Its so bitchy and trashy!! I think Frederik is maybe my favourite agent! But probably because he reminds me of Mugatu from Zoolander.

Check out this video of the three agents..

I also like the Real Housewives of Melbourne (I’m waiting for season 2), Seinfeld, Super Nanny, One Born Every Minute..too many to list really.

Of course then there are lots of educational shows too…like er well like Deadliest Catch.

What about you? What crazy thing are you thankful for?

– Jen

 

#9 Your most excruciatingly embarrassing moment

// Over 50 days (or so) I am doing Fat Mum Slim’s 50 things to blog about challenge – in no particular order.

Today’s post is a cracker #9 Your most excruciatingly embarrassing moment. We’ve all got one.

The hard thing about this post was not thinking up something to blog about but deciding WHICH embarrassing thing to blog about. So I picked just a few.

When I look back on most of my life so far I cringe. You know that real stomach tensing, squinty face feeling you get. “Ahhhhh I’m SUCH a dork”.

Thankfully I know that my family and friends just know that being a huge dork is a part of who I am. And if anything I’m good for a laugh..(at).

So. Is my most embarrassing moment the time I was riding my brand new road bike home from the bike shop and fell off? After spending 45 minutes practicing clipping in and out, in and out in and out in the shop with no trouble I proceeded to topple in slow motion onto on a quiet street about 500 metres from home. I got stuck, like a turtle, with both feet still clipped in and was just lying on the road unable to move. I heard a pedestrian say “oh my god” and run over to me and all I could say was “I’m stuck! I’m stuck”.

So embarrassing. But not ‘that’ embarrassing.

What about the time when I was, actually I can’t remember how old I was. Maybe 13 or 14 and I went to the movies with a bunch of friends and it was the start of SHARK WEEK  only I didn’t know. You see where this is going. Only it gets better. So I think the pants I was wearing were a bone kind of colour. So it was pretty obvious that the…sharks were circling. I remember being in the bathroom at the movies thinking “DON’T PANIC…come up with a plan”.

Maybe you could ask that stranger if you could borrow her kids jumper to tie around your waist to slink home in. Oh god Jen that’s so stupid. That’s not going to work!!

And of course we weren’t all just going straight home after the movie, we were supposed to be going out for dinner or something.

In those days no one had mobile phones and probably shark week was a relatively new concept to me, certainly not something I was carrying the required equipment for.

I can’t remember exactly how I got out of the bathroom but I think I got out and said to one of my friends urgently “IhavetogohomeNOW”.

But of course to go home I had to call Mum from a PAYPHONE and try and explain in hushed tones while my friends loitered outside the payphone wondering what on earth was wrong with me. I was FAR too much of a dork to explain what was going on.

Just the thought of it makes me do this face (see photo).

But that’s still not the most embarrassing thing that has happened to me.

In fact, if it weren’t for the man the most embarrassing thing could have been kept a secret but he has told EVERYONE he knows this story, so I might as well share it with you.

This story also involves the movies. I can’t remember what movie it was, but I remember about halfway through the movie I felt cold….down there.

Oh god. I’m making the face again. This is so embarrassing.

I wriggled around a bit and tried to figure out what that sensation was. It was almost like my pants felt wet.

I ignored it. Every now and then I’d think, geez it kind of feels like my pants are wet. But the logic part of my brain (which does not operate effectively) said, well that simply cannot be. Continue to ignore this feeling! Ignore your body!

After all it is not like anything like this has ever happened to you before! (FACEPALM!)

As the movie is finishing I am slowly acknowledging that something IS.NOT.RIGHT.

It was then that I snuck a feel of the back of my pants.

They are indeed wet.

Oh god. Why is this happening to me.

Alright calm down. There must have been a bit of water or something on the seat. Worst case, coke.

WORST. CASE. COKE.

Then the smell hit me. I couldn’t quite place the smell.

At first.

Then I realised.

It was pee. There was pee on the seat and I had sat on the seat for the whole movie and now there was pee on me and OH MY GOD!!! Some kid had PEED on the seat. I’m just assuming it was a kid…

WHY!! WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY!

Then I had to tell the man. “We need to go home now”.

The Man: What? I thought we were going to go to Nando’s!

Me: My pants are wet, we need to go home, lets go
The man: What? Why are your pants wet what do you mean?
Me: We need to go. We need to go right now.
The man: You’re being funny, let me look, oh they are wet!
Me: *Eyes downcast* I think I sat in wee.
The man: *Eyes wide*….BAH HA HA HA HA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA 

He then proceeded to tell everyone he knew. Everyone we saw after that.

Even to this day “tell them about the time you sat in the chair with piss on it”.

Some people I haven’t even met before say to me “oh yeah The Man was telling us about the time you went to the movies and sat in wee”.

To this day when I go to the movies and sit down I still run my hand over the seat.

Just in case.

You can never be too careful.

Please tell me your embarrassing stories and put me out of my misery..

– Jen

#31 Brain dump – whats on your mind right now

// Over 50 days (or so) I am doing Fat Mum Slim’s 50 things to blog about challenge – in no particular order.

Today’s post is #31 – Brain dump, what’s on your mind right now.

You might have noticed I’ve missed a few ’50 things’ posts. Well tough titties, we’ve had a rough fortnight with gastro and some big sleep regression going on. But back to today’s post…

Oh what isn’t on my mind!!

Today its parenting. Sorry to bore my bike/running friends. While up with a screaming teething baby about 6 times a night for the past fortnight, last night I got thinking..

What kind of parent would I be without the Internet?

I’m not talking so much about not being able to google things, more about what I’m exposed to on ‘the socials’ (blogs, Facebook, twitter and instagram). There is so much ‘advice’ out there and I find it’s some of the gentle parenting pages especially who give me unrealistic expectations of myself!

Which leads me back to my question. Without the internet and the knowledge that things like ‘gentle parenting’ even existed what kind of parent would I be?

I thought about it and came to this stunning conclusion!

Wait for it…

I would be exactly the same only I wouldn’t feel guilty about it!

For example, although I know that stopping breastfeeding when I did was best for my health (both mental and nipple), the guilt still plagues me! A gentle parent would have perservered, and would never have stopped for ‘themselves’. So if I didn’t know all of this uber breastfeeding stuff existed then the guilt just wouldn’t be there!

Having said that I did make it to 6.5 months which I can’t really fathom after how terrible the first 6 weeks were.

But, as I reason with myself – you need to look after yourself to look after your baby.

I’ve unfollowed some of the pages and accounts because I just don’t need to read about ridiculous things like how holding your child upside down stops them having tantrums.

THIS WAS A REAL THING I READ. You know what I think happens when you hold your child upside down when they’re having a tantrum?

You get kicked in the face.

Having said that, before I lose any readers that support upside down parenting there is holding your child upside down, and then there’s lots of good advice I might not have otherwise known that is realistic! And if you are one of those people who hold your child upside down when they have a tantrum please send me a video!!

But seriously, I get so confused.

I’m hoping the whole 8 month sleep regression IS a real thing and its just that, and that in a couple of weeks it too will have passed and things will return to normal-ish.

I don’t mind getting up to feed him once a night (although I don’t honestly think he’s hungry even then) but 2-3 times a night + multiple resettling attempts is getting old fast!

In any case in 5 weeks or so we are booked into Masada in Melbourne for some help. Very much looking forward to some support. And, getting back to the point of this post I wouldn’t have known they existed if it weren’t for the internet!

Would love to hear your thoughts though! Has the internet and all the advice out there changed the way you parent?

– Jen

Interview with a husband

I got the idea for this from another blog I’ve been reading – Mummy Wife Me . Thanks for the idea Renee!

But here he is, let me introduce you to ‘The Man’. We’ve been married for 5 years this year and together for 10. He is my almost exact opposite, logical and well..logical. I regularly wonder if one day he will divorce me due to my complete and utter illogical existence! Although as you will see, this is not what annoys him most about me!

Jen: Can I interview you for my blog?
The Man: (Flicking through Lego instruction manuals) Sure.
Jen: Okay. Ready??

Jen: What is the best part about being married to Jen?
The Man: I don’t like this interview, this is weird. Wait, Are you writing that? Okay, the
best part…I think Jen brings out the best in me. You do, you give me
confidence. Are you sure you don’t want to interview someone else? Are you writing this?
Stop it. Stop it. You’re being weird.

Jen: What is the worst part about being married to Jen?
The Man: You can beat me up hills…(on the bike)

Before I got too quick…

Jen: What is Jen’s most annoying habit?
The Man: Ummmmmm (still looking at lego manual) ummmmm leaving the dishwashing liquid on the sink instead of putting it away.
Jen: Really? That’s the most annoying thing?
The Man: Yep, really I’ve told you about it a bazillion times and you still do it. I’m not sure if you know Jen, I’m not an easily annoyed person!

Jen: What is Jen’s most endearing habit?
The Man: Endearing?
Jen: Yep
The Man: Ummmmm I don’t know how to say it…its like you are very, its not like you wear your heart on your sleeve…you empathise with people is maybe what I’m trying to say.

Jen: What was the first thing that attracted you to Jen.
The Man: The fact that you liked Futurama
Jen: Really?
The Man: No, just your personality. Easy to talk to. We had a lot of similar interests, although you’ve grown out of your lego interest..I’m sure that will come back.

Jen: What do you enjoy most about being a Dad?
The Man: Watching him grow and change and do everything for the first time. Its pretty cool.

Jen: What do you least enjoy about being a Dad?
The Man: Ha ummmm. Probably when he’s upset and you can’t do anything to help him or calm him down. I don’t like that. Its not logical!

Jen: What was your favourite thing to do with Jen pre-kids?
The Man: Did we do anything together before kids? I’m not joking. Did we? I used to like it when we went for bike rides together. Before you got too quick.

Jen: What do you miss doing with Jen now you have kids and limited time?
The Man: Riding
Jen: *Eyebrows* Bike riding?
The Man: Bike riding yes.

Jen: What is your most hated household chore? Do you even do any household chores?
The Man: Whatever! Yes I do plenty of household chores! And its cleaning the bathroom..
Jen: Eyebrows
The Man: And yes I’m fully aware I never clean the bathroom

Jen: What is your least hated household chore?
The Man: Vacuuming, I find it very logical.

Jen: What’s your favourite thing to cook?
The Man: CHICKEN SCHNITZELS HOMEMADE SCHNITZELS. Or roasts.

Jen: What do you think annoys Jen most about you?
The Man: Um. That I’m very logical and that I use logic in everything.
Jen: Yes, correct. That’s annoying.

Jen: What do you think Jen loves most about you?
The Man: I’m not sure she does! Honestly I do not know. I think maybe because I make her laugh. Everyone calls me ‘Hilarious ‘The Man’.

Jen: Why do you think Jen is lucky to be married to you?
The Man: Phhh. I don’t think I need to dignify that with a response. Its pretty self explanatory
Jen: Eyebrows
The Man: I mean, I think I’m lucky to be married to Jen, I definitely got the better end of the deal

Jen: What do you think is the secret to a happy marriage?
The Man: Ummmmm. Being able to support each other when you need to. Oh and communication. Which I think we still need to work on.

Jen: Thanks The Man, that’s all!
The Man: Oh really, did I answer them right? Did I win?
Jen: Yep. You won.
The Man: How could I win Jen that doesn’t even make sense.
Jen: Sigh.

There you go. I think thats a pretty good insight into our banter. Yes, I do love the fact he can make me laugh most of the time, even when I think I’m cranky.

– Jen

 

The grossest thing that has ever happened to me as a parent (so far)

Babies are revolting. Sure, they are sold as these sweet smelling newborns but really…especially eight months on – they’re revolting. Especially boys. Boys are gross.

So in eight months I’ve been puked on – regularly. As a mother of a reflux baby I am actually USED to getting vomited on. Projectile, chunky, warm, dribbles – I’ve had it all. And I’m okay with that.

I’ve cleaned up lots of poo too, a few number threes and a few really big poos which made me wonder how such a small baby MAKES something so big.

But what happened this week has trumped all the spew and grossness of the past eight months.

I actually asked people on Facebook what was the grossest thing their baby had done and most of the comments involved poo.

And so does my story.

Our story takes place in the bath. And yes I know, some of your stories involve poo in the bath.

This poo however was not one or two nicely formed…logs floating around (or sinking depending on the diet of your little one).

Nope! This poo was large in volume, and well …runny.

Oh that’s disgusting you say! Disgusting!! How can you bear to write about such disgustingness!

……

It gets better.

On this particular occasion Angus had a friend in the bath. A good friend. The very best friend a baby boy can have. That’s right.

His mother.

Yes, it was I who was in the bath when little man decided to ‘release the hounds’ so to speak.

Oh the screaming (from me).

The bath toys and I will be scarred forever.

And that’s all I have to say about that.

– Jen

 

#33 – Bad habits. Share yours and why you won’t give it up. Ever.

// For the next 50 days I am doing Fat Mum Slim’s 50 things to blog about challenge – in no particular order.

Today’s post is #33 – Bad habits. Share yours and why you won’t give it up. Ever.

 

I really need to remember to think outside the box with these questions. This one was quite simple in the end but this question has had me stumped for weeks!

I have MANY bad habits, biting my fingernails being the first one that springs to mind. But I have stopped doing it properly TWICE, once before our wedding and for some strange reason while I was pregnant and even got to little man being a few months old before I resumed nibbling.

I live in hope that one day I will stop permanently! So that’s not something I will say I won’t give up – ever!

Next bad habit. Procrastinating! I used to be terrible at this, or do I mean I used to be really good at this? I even took up guitar once to avoid uni assignments! I am all over this now though! For example my current challenge is staying on top of our washing, and I regularly create my own Mount Washmore of washed clothes to fold and sort. Pre baby I would ignore the pile of dirty washing until I was left with no clothes and now I aim for ‘washing basket zero’, the stay at home Mum version of ‘inbox zero’.

So what is it that I can’t give up?

My crippling social media use. I fully admit I love social media. Not sure how I’d be going at home all day with a baby without it!

I have given it up for probably 4-6 weeks a couple of times before, and could do it again but right now its going to count as my bad habit I’m not giving up! I’m not using Twitter much at the moment but am going gangbusters on facebook and instagram.

Facebook I use to stay in touch with my mothers group and also some friends that have recently had babies via a secret group so we can chat about mundane things like ‘WHY OH WHY WILL THEY NOT GO TO SLEEP’ without boring the rest of the world..to sleep.

I’m also linking my blog posts to my facebook page ‘jentopia’. I try and do most of my baby related status updates on this page to keep my personal page free.

I’m conscious though that as little man gets bigger I don’t want to be stuck with my nose in my phone all day, it would be awful for him to think I’m ignoring him. I’d say that as he gets mobile and starts crawling that I will start curtailing my phone/computer use.

So that’s my bad habit! What about you? Is social media overuse your bad habit?

– Jen

We interrupt your regularly scheduled blogging to bring you…

We interrupt your regularly scheduled blogging to bring you…SPEWSAPALOOZA 2014!

We’ve all been struck down with gastro and I’ve had no time to blog as I’ve been looking after a baby who looks like this all day (and all night). Also accompanied by a really annoying ‘urrrrrrrrr’ ‘urrrrrrr’ ‘urrrrrrrr’ noise. To make it more fun the man was away for work!

I ended up going to emergency on Friday as little man was just vomiting repeatedly and not taking any fluids on (just a few ml of water here and there).

 

I coped pretty well with him on my own all day until about 5pm when the ‘urrrrr’ ‘urrrrrr’ ‘urrrrrrr’ noise got a bit much and I phoned a friend, or my Mum to be more exact. And I didn’t call her, I texted her.

By about 6pm that night I started feeling very average myself and ended up opening the technicolour fire hydrant in the hospital carpark. Even more disgusting was that I got puke on my shoe (it’s okay, it washed out).

Thankfully when I’d started feeling it coming on the doctor also gave me some maxalon which I took when I got home and stopped me making anymore pavement pizza.

Mum very kindly came and stayed on Friday night and looked after us both and delivered me some delicious soup (see photo below) on Saturday which helped a lot! Unfortunately she is now praying to the porcelain gods herself. Three generations of germs! Sorry Mum!

Seriously though this soup is amazing. Add the soup to a saucepan then fill the can with milk, add to the ‘soup’, heat and serve with toast and butter. I’m sure its full of nasties but its my ultimate comfort food.

Little man is on the mend but is still mostly refusing bottles, I managed to get 60ml into him before bed tonight and that was a battle. I suspect he might also be teething which doesn’t help!

Anyway, a pretty good excuse not to be keeping up with my ’50 things to post about’. I should resume regular programming in the next couple of days!

Until then, stay well and try not to paint the town green!

– Jen