Parenting in Progress

2009-05-28T13:58:00.002+01:00

Thanks to everyone who has been following this blog.
I've not been updating it regularly for a while now and I'm not sure if I'm going to continue with it.
If anyone wants to keep up with pics and things of our wee family then look me up on facebook under Marion McCready.
I'll not close the blog in case I decide to keep it going after all!

2009-04-24T15:33:00.009+01:00

My wee Sorley seems so grown up now. That's him now aged two and four-and-a-half months though most people think he's three coming on four!
So we thought it was about time we gave him a wee brother / sister. Yep, I'm pregnant and due at the end of September. Don't know yet if it's a boy or a girl, we're going to have to pay privately to get a second scan to find out!

Some pics of the wee boy, as you can see he's as much fun as ever. Sure he has his moments but generally only when he's not well and not been sleeping well, otherwise he truly is a constant delight to us.

He really is going to love having a wee brother / sister to boss around!

I think he'll also be a great help, he tries to be very helpful most of the time as it is.

Though I think the 'sharing' all his toys might hit him a bit hard!

In saying that he loves playing with all his cousins and *most* of the time is happy to share his toys with them.

I'm very excited about the new baby. I think the second time around will be less stressful and more enjoyable now that I know what to expect and how to deal with it all.

2009-02-09T18:16:00.012Z

Today the snow came, finally! And as you can see, Sorley and I had some fun out in the garden.

Sorley in his spiderman outfit chosen by his spidey-mad big cousin for Christmas!

Sorley up to mischief in his new bedroom!

Sorley's first proper bed, a whale bed with Bob-The-Builder bed-spread. Sorley loves his new bed.

Hello, anybody out there??

2008-12-07T01:07:00.011Z

Yes it's been a while, I'm sorry. In fairness Sorley broke my camera months ago and I've only recently managed to get a new one.

He's a big, lively two year old boy now! At the moment he's into Winnie the Pooh and birds. Whenever we go out and he sees a bird he shouts 'bird, bird', and he imitates the soft toy bird he has that makes a proper bird sound.

He had a lovely birthday party with his cousins and friends and was like an animal on the bouncy castle! A friend of a friend gave us the big garden toy for nothing, he has so much fun on it. He loves to go down slides head first and he loves his food.

He calls dad 'dado' and says 'pah' for please and sorry. He's getting good at swimming, I try to take him most weeks to the local pool. When the phone rings he races to answer it, has an unintelligible conversation followed by a very clear 'ba-bye' .

Warning - Hunners of Pics

2008-07-11T23:35:00.002+01:00

Bremen July 2008

It's been a while since I've done a slideshow so I though I'd do one of our recent holiday to Bremen, North Germany.
We had a really lovely time and Sorley was an angel to travel with, he just took everything in his stride. Sorley's confidence has really grown with all the new experiences, and he had a really great time.

2008-05-03T01:10:00.009+01:00

In the last month Sorley's had a rotten cold, been canoeing for the first time and really come along leaps and bounds in his language skills.

He had a miserable time with the cold - fevers, hacking coughs, zero appetite and a permanently runny nose. Thankfully he's over it now, he's normally such a happy and good fun wee boy but in the midst of his cold the only thing that would stop him crying was his dummy and the Telly Tubbies - I kid you not. I limit his tv watching to first thing in the morning and he gets bored of the cartoons after a while but when he was ill, to keep the peace and to cheer him up as much as possible, the telly tubby dvd lived in our dvd player. Thankfully now he's well, the telly tubbies are well and truly back on the shelf and he's not reaching up crying for them!

So we got Sorley a life jacket and took him canoeing on Loch Eck which he seemed to enjoy. I sat at the front of the canoe with him sitting in front of me looking out into the water, he would chuck his plastic ball and we would canoe towards it and pick it up for him to throw it again!

About three weeks ago Sorley all of a sudden started saying recognisable words and I realised that he'd been trying to repeat the words I say after me but it only came out as babble before. So what does he say? Well some of his favorite new words are - a baw (a ball), more, appo (apple), yeah, hello, an extremely emphasised 'oh no' (which mummy said when he belted daddy's ornament off the floor!). He has also got the biggest frown possible which he gives me if I tell him off, and when I wag my finger at him saying 'naughty, naughty', he just laughs hysterically and wags his finger back at me!

It's hard to be angry with this little boy!

he was a poor wee soul when he was ill

a rather concerned look!

me and my mummy - sometimes when I'm in the kitchen he just stands at the baby gate shouting 'mum' and I shout back 'Sorley' to which he laughs hysterically - he's easily amused my baby is!

helping daddy out in the garden

not many places left sacred now!

enjoying his afternoon nap

So What Have We Been Up To??

2008-03-31T21:30:00.013+01:00

Well we've just enjoyed a couple of nice and quiet weeks after what seemed like a couple of frenzied weeks of activity before that.I spent my first night away from Sorley which was 2 full days and 1 night, and guess what - he and daddy survived! I was at a poetry festival in St. Andrews which I blogged about in my other blog here.

We were also invited to a wedding held in St. Conan's Kirk, a beautiful church on the banks of Loch Awe
The reception was in Ardanaiseig Hotel which is also on the banks of Loch Awe and where we spent the night, a beautiful place and the bed was big enough for Sorley to sleep comfortably long-ways between me and daddy.
This is Sorley in his kilt outfit for the wedding - ok I know the slippers don't match!

Some pics of my mischievous boy, pulling mummy's wardrobe to bits
Don't think this picture needs any explanation
look who's worked out how to climb onto the windowsill
who needs toys when you've got the good old pots and pans
sometimes he'll climb into his pram for a wee rest

So what's new with Sorley - he completely has his own little language now, it feels like he understands everything I'm saying so I have to be more careful what I say in front of him. He likes provoking me to reaction, I can't leave any shoes lying about or else he'll pick them up and lick their soles to see me shriek in horror. He sings along to most things, the hoover, the beeping of the 6 o'clock news - I mean everything!
My dog has turned into a neurotic mess because of all the noise Sorley manages to make out of anything.
Mostly it's been raining lately so we've not been out much but today was gorgeous so we had a picnic on the promenade, Sorley walked for a good while along the promenade then we went to the swing park where he found some 6 and 7 year old girls who adored him and played with him.
He loves meeting other kids, in fact he loves meeting anyone and is a right wee entertainer, not in the least bit shy. He also loves giving little girls kisses!!

2008-03-11T17:39:00.007Z

I'm pleased to report that his bum's back to normal - Sorley's that is!

And I've found the lead for my camera so here's some pics -

SORRY!

2008-03-07T21:36:00.002Z

Sorry I've not blogged in ages but I can't find the lead to transfer my pics from my camera to the computer. However here's a wee update, at last we had our day of snow in which Sorley and I even managed to build a snowman! He's teething at the moment and which is resulting in diarrhea and the worst nappy rash he's ever had, I hate seeing him in such discomfort but just using water instead of baby wipes, airing his bum a lot which means plenty of accidents for mummy to clean up. I tried egg whites suggested by someone at the mums and toddlers but his poor bum totally flared up again with it so it's just back to sudocrem.

To take his mind off it I took him on a wee trip across the water to Fun World which is a big indoor kids play centre, it was great, Sorley had a total ball of a time and I enjoyed it too. It was good taking him across on the ferry myself with the pram, it really wasn't that much trouble, plenty of people offered to help me carry the pram down the stairs etc. He had a good wander about on the ferry, when we got off Fun World is a 15 / 20 min walk along the promenade which gave Sorley a chance to fall asleep and work up energy for when we went in.

We've been invited to a wedding in a couple of weeks so I bought Sorley a wee kilt and shirt to wear, it's so cute and my mum is going to buy a wee waistcoat to go with it, hopefully by then I'll have found my camera lead and posts pics of the handsome wee boy.

I had a lovely Mother's Day on Sunday there, at the mums and toddlers they helped Sorley make me a card and gave all the mums mugs with creme eggs in them all wrapped up in pink which was really nice.

The wee rascal's now at the hair pulling and slapping stage when he gets really tired - mainly aimed at me, having read up on it it seems they all go through this. What I do is firmly say no and put him down or even walk out of the room which seems to work. What all the books say is nip it in the bud now when he thinks it funny and it's not really sore or when he gets bigger it'll be a nightmare to deal with!

Despite the sore bum, most of the time he's such good fun and makes me laugh all day.

2008-02-19T12:17:00.003Z

Look who dropped the nappy bin on his toe

and mummy just stands there taking pics!

Took Sorley to a different mums and toddlers group today and what a difference. I've discovered that the majority of the town's mothers take their kids to this group. There was loads of kids, many around Sorley's age and he had a great time. Everyone kept an eye on their own kid and there was very little in the way of mishaps. The people who run the group are friendly, everyone chats whilst watching the kids and there is even a singsong at the end for all. What a relief to find this group, I'm definitely joining it.

Sorley had a wee fall at my mum's yesterday on her driveway, the poor mite's face is scratched all down one side and my mum was pretty terrified about bringing him home to me! But he's okay. The clever boy can now blow his nose if I hold a tissue to it.

I'm thinking about going back to uni this year, the original plan was to have another baby then do a post-grad course at uni that will actually get me into a job. But thinking about it I really don't think we could afford for me to do another year at uni once we've had another kid. For the course I'm looking at I think I'd have to be at uni for two full days and two half days in the week which means I'd take Sorley up with me for the two half days and put him in the creche up there and for the two full days he'd spend the morning at childcare (my husband's cousin had just qualified for childcare) and the afternoon at my mum's until J could pick him up at 4pm. So sounds like a good option, just got to work out funding then apply for the course!

A Day in the Life of...

2008-02-15T22:33:00.014Z

It's been a while so I thought I better update and add some pics (especially for aunty Sheetal!!). Sorley has really grown up in this last month, he's been paddling on the beach, walking up the glen and climbing anywhere he can get to. Also mentally, this boy misses nothing!

He wakes up in the morning normally between 8 and 8.30am - here he is sleeping.

Breakfast time!
He used to eat weetabix happily but recently decided he doesn't like it anymore - he swats the spoon saying 'no' and I end up covered in it! Tried numerous other cereals and giving him dry cereal with a cup of milk but none of that worked. So now he eats toast with cream cheese (cream cheese is his favorite food at the moment) with a cup of milk and while his hands are busy with all that I shove spoonfulls of weetabix into his gob!

In the morning we head out in the pram walking the dog, shopping or going to the mums and toddlers group. There really are some right little thugs at that playgroup, every week he gets pushed over or another little boy deliberately blocking his way etc, it doesn't help that all the other boys are around 3 or going on 4 years old, and some of them are tall for their age. Of course I keep an eye on Sorley at all times and he does, for the most part, love running around and playing but he knows now that not everyone wants to be nice to him and I feel a little sad that he has to learn this so early on.

Lunchtime is normally sandwiches and sometimes soup as well, he'll eat banana, cream cheese or egg mayonnaise in his sandwiches and today I discovered he'll eat sliced ham also.

In the afternoon we play in the garden or go for a walk or go visiting. Walking on the forest path up the glen really helped Sorley's balance for walking outside so now he runs around our back garden quite the thing!

In the evening he runs around the house pulling everything out of everywhere, playing peek-a-boo behind his pram, or climbs all over the furniture in the living room. From the second this boy is awake he is never still for a moment. He really is so much fun and completely wears me out!

NO!

2008-01-26T00:09:00.000Z

You guessed it, the favorite word is 'no'! Not nah / nay / nih but the queen's english perfect no! When did this first come about? When asked non-stop for kisses by demanding grannys. Now the answer is the same whenever and whoever asks my son for a kiss. And if you don't take no for an answer and keep asking eventually your get a smack across the face as my mother found out!

The sleeping problem turned out to be just a blip and he's back to his usual 9pm-8.30am. Sorley's also made the change from 2 naps in the day (before lunch and before dinner) to one long nap in the afternoon.

Started taking him along to a local mums and tots group, the mums sat talking while the kids, mostly aged 2-3 year-olds whizzed about on scooter things. Sorley ran about after the older boys and while watching him I noticed that the son of the woman who runs the group was going up behind Sorley and hitting him on the back - this was going on in another room from where the mums were and I was standing in the doorway between both rooms. Perhaps I should have told the mother what her child was doing but after listening to her go on about being unable to control her son's temper tantrums I decided to deal with it myself. So I swiftly walked to where the children were, pointed my finger at the child in question and simply said 'oi, don't do that' in a strict tone accompanied by an evil eye. Well the child was sweetness and light towards Sorley and myself for the rest of our time.
Sorley was oblivious to it all and had a great time!

2008-01-12T22:53:00.000Z

Walking today with new wellies and reins!

To say Sorley enjoyed his new found freedom is an understatment! It was pretty cold outside so after about 20 mins I took him back home and he cried as if it was the end of the world so husband took him out for a while longer and brought him home when his wee legs could no longer hold him up.

The best part was watching him discover the joy of jumping in puddles!
I really want wellies now.

2008-01-12T00:10:00.000Z

His first wellies

Sorley had a great time stomping around the garden with his wellies on. Tomorrow I think we'll take him for a proper walk down town now that I've found the reins, he's a hundred percent steady on his feet and has a huge amount of energy.

He had his MMR jag a couple of days ago which he coped with extremely well. I did extensive reading up beforehand because of the 'scare' and feel fully satisfied and comfortable about allowing him to have the jag.

check out the jammies!

Sorley's sleeping pattern hasn't quite recovered from the festive season and the last few nights he's been waking up at 3am, we bring him into bed and he plays, tosses and turns for 2-3 hours and eventually sleeps. We can't really go on like this so if he wakes up tonight and cries, it'll be heartbreaking, but we're not going to bring him into bed and hopefully he'll fall asleep fairly quickly in his cot. He still sleeps in our bedroom and can be hard to ignore when he stands in his cot and shouts MAM/DAD instead of the usual dada/mama! But I'm hoping he won't wake up.

How messy is your computer desk

2008-01-10T01:24:00.000Z

Inspired by eipwek's before and after pic of her computer desk I've decided to come clean on the guddle of my computer desk which I've long since given up on keeping tidy as the perpetrator of this crime is not me, or Sorley...

2008-01-06T23:51:00.000Z

The month of December was fun while it lasted but I'm glad it's all over - the trauma of birthday then birthday then wedding anniversary then Christmas then New Year was all getting a bit much for me and for the little boy also.
Husband's back to work tomorrow so everything will, at last, get back to normality.

I didn't take so many pics because we had borrowed a digital video camera over Christmas but here's some -

The presents being carefully guarded by Clyde...and these are just Sorley's!

The rocking horse

The sweets

The face he now pulls when I point a camera in his direction

Our lovely new furniture acquisition called a 'Monks bench' which solves our seating problem, doubles as a toy box and really takes up very little space in our living room

Who's a handsome boy then

We took Sorley out to the Christmas Eve midnight joint service with the local churches where he was an absolute angel, got him up at 9 on Christmas Day to open his presents and then went out to the Christmas day service in our own church where he was also an angel despite having not got to bed before 1.30 am the previous night. We spent Christmas at my mother's which was lovely.

What's new with Sorley? - he now says 'ta' and thinks that gives him a right to grab anything he wants, he shows a fit of temper when he doesn't get what he wants by jumping up and down and slapping my knee (I really have to try hard not to laugh it's so funny)! Ever since my dad told him off for pulling at the fireplace by saying 'ah ah ah' Sorley says it incessently, says it when he's doing something he knows he shouldn't which is quite handy when I'm not in the room so I know when he's up to mischief, he says it to me and his daddy when we don't do or give him something he wants.

His favorite food is still garlic bread and now it's also little pork sausages which he polishes off quite the thing.

A New Decade

2007-12-13T16:33:00.000Z

You may have noticed, if you have checked my profile in the last week, that I've now reached the grand old age of 30!!

Yep it was my birthday on Sunday, well actually it felt like my birthday all week-end. We went to Glasgow on Saturday and visited Kelvingrove art gallery and museum which I've not been to since they did it up. It's a stunning building and the wee boy loved running around the long halls looking at stuffed elephants, tigers etc. Here's some pics from the museum!

Then we had dinner at TGI Friday's which was fabulous and I has a champagne and raspberry cocktail, well it was my 30th!!

Then we went to a pantomime at the Kings Theatre

and saw this -

It was hilarious and Sorley was mesmorized all the way through it.
We stayed the night at a hotel literally minutes from the theatre.

The next day we shopped, walked around Glasgow and even got to hold a Golden Eagle!

It was a perfect birthday and I got lots of lovely pressies including a painting of Everest, a silver ring with 3 little diamonds, a drawing set with a wooden model figure, a set of pastels, a leather hat, a little silver hip-flask and money! I sure am spoiled!

The Big Day!

2007-12-03T22:19:00.000Z

What a day, the wee boy was spoiled rotten!!

He had a great time, woke up to his trampoline, new books, clothes, money, a talking JoJo doll, activity table and a lovely large wooden bead frame! Then in the afternoon he got a bounce and spin zebra which he loves bouncing on (I'll get some pics to post up later), a toy hamster which runs madly in a plastic ball, a lovely wooden noah's ark with animals set, more clothes, and a ten shilling note which will be worth a pretty penny by the time he turns eighteen. I think thats everything he got!!

We made it an animal themed party and ordered a box of assorted animal noses that all guests had to wear - cruel I know!

I didn't actually take that many pics of the day because we had a video camera but here's a few -

The Night Before - daddy putting up the birthday decorations!

Sorley getting ready to bounce to the banjo music

Some party food

The Cake!

Reading his new book!

dad's got a dog's nose!

Quack Quack!

The grandparents, aunty and Sorley's wee cousin!

Birthday cards!

Sorley at the end of the day, shattered and eating mrs noah!

After Sorley went to bed hubby and I popped open a bottle of champagne that my sis-in-law brought over from Australia when I was pregnant with strict orders not to open until bubs 1st birthday - well we made it! Cheers sis!

We have survived
our first year of parenting!

BIRTHDAY BOY TOMORROW

2007-11-30T12:52:00.000Z

I really can't believe it, my baby's now a toddler and is turning ONE!
He's had a rough week - his front top teeth have been coming through and really caused him pain so it's been out with the bonjela and calpol.

He has gradually weaned himself off breastfeeding, the only feed I can get him to take now is the first one in the morning. So I started him on Goats milk out of his sippy cup and you could see he was pretty impressed with milk out of a cup that he doesn't have to work for!

Today I've been rushing around in the dreich (wet) weather picking up last bits and bobs for the birthday party. Funny to think that a year ago today I was in the middle of what turned out to be a 35 hour labour, despite what everone says I have not forgotten the agony!! But it's not going to put me off having more - just not anytime soon!

Because the wee nipper loves to jump and bounce so much we bought him a junior trampoline for his birthday, I can't wait to see his face when he gets a shot on it to morrow! Tonight will be decorating the livingroom, blowing up balloons, puting candles on the cake, right now hubby is practicing 'happy birthday to you' on his banjo for tomorrow.

It's a bitter sweet feeling, I look forward, God-willing, to the wonderful years ahead watching my little boy grow up but if this last year is anything to go by I know it's all going to happen far too fast.

2007-11-28T00:21:00.000Z

I've been tagged by Eipwek!

Here are the rules:
1. Link to the person’s blog who tagged you.
2. Post these rules on your blog.
3. List seven random and/or weird facts about yourself
4. Tag seven random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs.
5. Let each person know that they have been tagged by posting a comment on their blog.

(1) My Birthday, Wedding anniversary and Christmas are all within 3 weeks of each other making December officially my month, though now it's mine and Sorley's month seeing how he held off to the 1st of December to be born!

(2) I was in a labour ward playing cards with my mum and mum-in-law inbetween contractions when I should have been attending a graduation ceremony for my masters degree!

(3) I'm passionate about poetry - reading and writing!

(4) I love, I mean LOVE, good food - the way to my heart is definitely through my stomach - just ask my husband!

(5) I only ever wash my dishes in boiling water - if the water is cool enough to handle without rubber gloves then it's definitely not hot enough for washing dishes!

(6) It feels like a waste of a cup of coffee if I have no chocolate biscuits to dip in it, though in order to beat the belly my new mantra is 'coffee for coffee's sake' - I say this aloud to myself when making a coffee to help resist the biscuit temptation, sometimes it works!

(7) I have a collie-cross named Clyde after the river that flows past my town.

I tag:

katya
husband's Blog
message in a bottle
the funny bone
jeanette
michael manning
heidi

Tried with another pic just to be sure!!

2007-11-16T22:33:00.001Z

It's official - he looks more like me!

2007-11-16T22:28:00.000Z

2007-11-11T22:28:00.000Z

Sorley's transformation from baby to toddler has happened so quickly, I really can't believe it. He's so steady on his feet and runs about whereever he gets the chance.
Some pics for you -

On waking

In the bath

Learning how to climb

Dancing

and laughing

Coming up for 11 months old!

2007-10-29T22:11:00.000Z

Here's a video of the boy walking, a sock in each hand - he finds it easier to balance when he's holding something!

Ok you've had all the smiley cute pics - here's the face of a boy who wants mummy's camera -

When we hear the front door opening, I say 'who's that' and now Sorley replies 'dad' every time!

2007-10-27T00:34:00.000+01:00

Just a wee catch up...he's walking!

A couple of weeks ago he took his first steps and now he is able to walk the length of our livingroom before falling over. Life has been busy and I'm spending less time in front of the computer.

His daily menu is now:

brekkie - b/f, then 1 crushed weetbix, a slice of toast and juice (fresh apple juice diluted with water)
mid-morning - usually jaffa cake and juice
lunch - mostly sandwiches with brown bread cut into triangles (egg mayo, cottage cheese, mashed banana) followed by 1 large fromage frais and a snack (bread sticks, chocolate buttons)
mid-afternoon - snack and b/f
dinner - meat or fish in a sauce with 2 vegetables, then 2 fruits (pear, kiwi) and sometimes custard or angels delight
supper - mashed banana, chocolate buttons, and b/f before going to bed

Sorley loves his food, he loves cottage cheese, garlic bread, homemade stew, bolognese, salmon...I'm really amazed at the amount he eats. Still only Sorley-2-teeth which is good news for my boobs! He also had his first haircut the other weekend, I wasn't going to be sentimental enough to keep a cutting but when in the hairdresser, and the woman asked, of course I said yes!

I've started learning Hebrew, a local Jewish woman is teaching me. I just love the sound of the language and the different alphabet. I'm also thinking about joining the local mountaineering club (which do mostly hillwalking), they mostly go away for week-ends which is a little annoying as I don't want to be away from my boy that long but the thought of spending Burns weekend in Glencoe sounds fantastic!

2007-09-21T23:13:00.000+01:00

I'm suffering a bit from blog-fatigue at the moment and I'm not the only one, it seems to be doing the rounds.
However here's a catch-up on the light of my life - he's got teeth! Finally, two front teeth at the bottom, so far I've had no nasty experiences whilst b/f but I've been assured that will come when the top teeth come in!
He's changing all the time, he loves blowing raspberries on my neck, every day now he practices standing without holding onto anything and can last up to 25secs and I've finally got round to start teaching him sign language which he thinks is fun.

Here he is exploring the front garden

Now he goes to bed around 8pm and sleeps through to 8am. He naps mid-morning and also mid-afternoon for around one and a half hours each time.
He loves to feed himself and his favorite food at the moment is cottage cheese sandwiches which I give to him cut into little triangles. He's doing well in everyway - eats well, sleeps well and he's never even had nappy rash, I get the feeling that I have a pretty easy time of it with him.

Here he is playing the drum with daddy, Sorley loves music and wobbles about in a wee dance when we put music on.

And here trying out the hat daddy bought him for winter, yes I know the bib looks pretty manky!

Lastly, playing with daddy's new and very weird ceramic drum, still wearing the hat, poor kid!

2007-09-08T21:26:00.000+01:00

OH CRAP!!

Tonight for the first time Sorley pulled himself into a standing position without leaning on anything. Not long till this boy's walking!

9 months old

2007-09-05T22:05:00.000+01:00

The days of the jolly jumper are numbered!
Sorley's getting bored of his door swing. It's a good job I captured on film the spinning moments when I did because now he's not much interested in hanging in our doorway, preferring the freedom to crawl about and explore the livingroom and practice standing by himself.

That's him now 9 months old. Got his length measured the other day and he's verging on the 98th percentile which means out of a hundred boys born the same time as him, he'll be the 2nd or 3rd tallest - he is 73 and a half cm. I certainly already knew he was a tall boy as he's in 12-18 month bodysuits!

He eats well, last month when my cousin was visiting with her little girl we all went out to dinner. I ordered a kids meal for Sorley which was fishfingers, potatoes and beans, mashed it all up for him and he eat around three/quarters of the entire meal! If I'm eating out for lunch I order a baked potato and tuna because Sorley adores it and I can share it with him but now I'm going to have to order a separate meal for him because these days all I get to eat is the potato skin and salad!

He's being saying mum and muma for a while now and is just about getting the hang of 'dada'. He still comes out with the occasional 'madmum' and the other day 'dada' came out as 'dude', so mum and dad is now officially madmum and dude!

I was invited by the religious, moral and philosophical education department (in my day it was just RE!) at the local secondary school to give an introductory to moral philosophy talk to the fifth and sixth year higher class. I actually quite enjoyed it. I practiced my talk on Sorley but I'm not quite sure he was paying attention!

Here's a pic of Sorley with his big cousins one who is going into 2nd year uni, the other starting her 1st year at uni, and wee S who has just started primary school. It's nice to have this pic of them all together. And yes I know there's a weird looking monkey behind them!

2007-08-29T23:21:00.000+01:00

And once again...

Okay I promise these are the last videos of spinning Sorley that I'll post!

2007-08-27T14:41:00.000+01:00

It's awful watching the forest fires sweep through Greece, I can't believe that people would do this deliberately. I wonder if there are Classical Civilisation students travelling around the Peloponnese, as I did four years ago ( the subject of my Diary of a Classical Journey blog which I've still to finish typing up), getting caught up in the devastation. Thankfully the firefighters and volunteers managed to divert the fire and save the ancient site of Olympia though the number of deaths caused by this madness is, of course, the real tragedy.

This week, as the Community Outreach Team organiser for my church, I organised a stall at a local gala event to raise awareness of the fastest growing global crime - people trafficking i.e. the buying & selling of people around the world.

It's horrific to read the statistics and stories of human traffiking that goes on today. Here's a few stats: -

* 600,000-800,000 men, women and children trafficked across international borders each year. Approximately 80 per cent are women and girls. Up to 50% are minors. US Department of State Trafficking in Persons Report 2005

* An estimated 1.2 million children trafficked each year. UNICEF UK Child Trafficking Information sheet, January 2003

* Trafficking is the fastest growing means by which people are caught in the trap of slavery. Anti-Slavery

* Human trafficking is the third largest source of income for organised crime, exceeded only by arms and drugs trafficking. UN office on drugs and crime

We collected signatures for a petition against human traffiking that will be presented to the U.N. and national governments at the end of 2007 - if you want to add your name to the petition here's the link.

Now onto a lighter note.

A pic of the handmade oak chair with Sorley's name inlaid in brass.

Isn't it beautiful, a real family heirloom.

Pax is latin for peace, very appropriate as Sorley's middle-name - Solomon - means peace. Variations in the Hebrew include the Jewish greeting Shalom, and Jerusalem which in Hebrew is Yerushalayim - city of peace.

More of the boy on his swing - just to show that he really does wind it up by himself and then lets go into a spin!

Have you ever seen a baby spin like this?!

2007-08-22T01:08:00.001+01:00

Every night after dinner I put him in his door swing, put on some banjo music and off he goes! It's easily his favorite part of the day - he bounces for a while then winds up the swing only to let go and spin on one leg. It's hilarious to watch, it will be a sad day when he's too big for the swing.

CATCHING UP

2007-08-19T21:34:00.000+01:00

Yep it's been a while! For two reasons: it's been a busy summer and I'm trying to spend less time in front of the computer.

Anyhow husband's back to work which means I can get back into my usual routine. Although having hubbie around the house should mean that I have more time it feels like I have less, the routine goes out the window and I always seem to be catching up on endless chores and never quite on target.

How Sorley's changed in the last month: wow where to begin, well he's now an adept crawler but doesn't really have an interest in crawling, it's a means to an end and the end is to reach a part of the room where there's an object he can grab hold of to pull himself up to standing position.

8 1/2 months old and since this boy's worked out how to stand up himself he barely spends anytime sitting, literally he stands all day. He's even started letting go of furniture, or what ever he's holding onto, to try and balance by himself for a couple of seconds. He's really not far off walking which is quite scary, have to seriously start thinking about baby proofing the house...argh!

Our livingroom's had a makeover - nice new tartan (yes tartan!) carpet and a new 2 seater couch. We've moved our large wall unit into the spare room to give Sorley more space to move around in the livingroom.

Today was a very special day - it was Sorley's Dedication at church. We Baptists don't do Christenings. To me, the choice of whether to be baptised or not has to be made by Sorley when he's old enough to make such a decision. So today was about myself and husband dedicating Sorley to God and promising to bring him up according to Christian teachings. It was a really nice service, loads of family come along which was lovely and then we had a buffet afterwards at one of the local Indian restaurants. Sorley had a whale of a time, fussed over by all the family and got to eat plenty garlic nan bread - his favorite food.

He got loads of lovely gifts which are all special but the most amazing gifts were those given by his God-parents. Kenny made him a beautiful solid oak chair which has his name inlaid on it in brass. I'll post a pic of it later as it's in the bedroom where Sorley's sleeping at the moment. Sheetal has written him a storybook in a beautiful hardback notebook and has filled the entire book with the story and drawings to illustrate. The amount of thought, work, skill, and love in both their gifts has taken my breath away. Sorley is a very fortunate little boy and I feel very blessed to have such good friends.

Still no teeth, but I can see the white lumps under his gums and he's very good at chewing food with his gums.

Okay picture time -

Trigger Happy Me with the Camera

2007-07-21T16:20:00.000+01:00

Busy here as usual, hubby's away down south instucting on a tracking course so I'm on my lonesome, with my wee boy of course! Husband phoned the other night and I put the phone to Sorley's ear to listen to his daddy - big mistake, he was grumpy afterwards having heard his daddy who was nowhere to be seen.

Last week we went up to Glasgow for the River Festival. It was great fun though extremely busy, 85,000 people apparently . Here's a pic of the iconic SECC building also nicely reflected in the building behind.

There were tall ships, loads of boats - all free to go on board, a funfair and stalls lining both sides of the Clyde.

We were there with Sorley's God-parents, here's Kenny posing on one of the ships and this is Sheetal with Sorley.

Sorley and I spent the last couple of days staying at my dad's where we had a nice wee holiday. Sorley's play mat and toys travel with him everywhere he goes!

Here's a pic looking over to the Isle of Arran.

And the wee boy playing in the travel cot.

I entered Sorley in the local paper's bonny baby competition, his picture was in last week's paper, he managed to smile for the camera only when daddy did his giant chicken impression much to his embarrassment and the photograher's amusement!

Just finished reading Bear Grylls' account of his Everest ascent - a great read and very amusing. I didn't know until recently that he is a Christian, I loved his 'Born Survivor' television series and he even has a blog here.

Summer of Fun

2007-07-12T23:10:00.000+01:00

Went up to Glasgow yesterday, Sorley's first time on the train and the metro - he had a ball - loved the underground. Went to meet the Galgael community - a very interesting organisation/charity: -

"Galgael's work is preparing the ground for a pioneering community regeneration project. Using Govan's unique past as an inspiration, Galgael aims to unite the whole community in the construction of a timber Gaelic-Norse longhouse and a Scottish longship known as a Birlinn - the first to be built in Scotland for 100's of years. It was the longhouses depicted by Govan's 10thC Hogback tombstones that inspired the idea to build one".

Check out their website. This is just one of their many on-going projects which seek to bring people in the community together, teach them new and old skills and fundamentally give people on the outskirts of society a sense of purpose, achievement as well as the opportunity to learn a trade.

Here's my boys sleeping on the train, it was a rather long day. Sorley started to fade quickly in the evening so went off to his bed a little earlier than usual.

I LOVE TOMATO SOUP

2007-07-07T01:18:00.001+01:00

So the wee boy's onto 3 meals a day and essentially eats what we're eating. This has resulted in nothing short of a revolution in husband's and I's eating habits. One of the main stresses for me in becoming a parent has been the responsibility of catering for this baby so that he gets the nourishment necessary to maintain healthy growth.
For the most part of the last decade I've lived mainly on junk food and although I made considerable effort during my pregnancy to make sure I was consuming all the 'right stuff' it tended to be a pick and mix of good foods throughout the day as opposed to 3 healthy square meals.

So for the first time in my life I have created a weekly meal planner. Trying to fit a variety of 5 fruit and veg into meal times every day is a little more complicated that it first appears.

However, in case anyone is interested (it is a baby blog after all!), here is a rough guide to my 7 month old's weekly diet:

breakfast alternates every other day between baby porridge and baby muesli with mashed banana or fresh strawberries or whatever other fruit is available.
Lunch - cauliflower cheese with buttered bread which does 2 days; tuna with peas and rice for 2 days, soup and bread for 2 days, and one of his favorites - avocado mashed with banana. All lunches are followed by a 2/3 fruit puree (i.e. banana, pear, kiwi).
Dinner - (which we all eat) chicken twice a week with brocolli and potatoes in varying sauces; oily fish (salmon / mackerel) once a week with peas, potatoes and cheese sauce; spaghetti bolognese twice a week; and stew with carrots, courgettes, onion, lentils with potatoes twice a week. Each meal is followed by baby yogurt or custard.

Of course I'm not going to stick to this exact menu every week but it is my standby guide for making sure Sorley gets his essential vitamins and minerals etc and it is a great stress relief for me to have such guide to work to.

2007-07-07T01:13:00.000+01:00

Create your personalized map of europe

As seen on The Funny Bone - my pitiful amount of globe-trotting which up till now has been restricted to Europe.

Happy Holidays

2007-07-04T23:06:00.000+01:00

Husband's now on his holidays - he's a school teacher so this means a looong summer holiday! We've no specific holiday planned - all our money goes on baby stuff (literally) however we are saving up to go on holiday to Canada next year.
This summer we're going to do some day tripping instead and today we went to Loch Lomond Sea Life Centre. What a great day out.

Above - Sorley in the car on the way to Loch Lomond.

He got really excited looking at all the fish - Sorley I mean, not hubbie! Yip he's still wearing a bib wherever he goes - for the drooling.
There were otters, sea horses (which incidentally until I was around 16 years old I them believed to be mythic creatures - okay stop laughing), sharks and lots of colourful coral reef type fish that looked straight out of Finding Nemo...no I didn't take that pic it's from Finding Nemo.

Sorley had his first taste of slush puppy as daddy blew the ice into his mouth through a straw, we really are quite sad aren't we! There's mummy in the Giant Flounder, such a chore playing with all the kiddy stuff!

And of course the view (rather cloudy but was actually very warm) down Loch Lomond.

Picked up an Indian takeway meal on the way home and boy does Sorley love his garlic nan bread! Was saying to husband the other day that I can't actually remember the last time Sorley cried - I don't mean the 2 second waaaaaa when his dinner's done but real greetin crying. It really has been months, he's such a contented wee boy, we're very fortunate. Earlier this week he hit the seven month mark and still no teeth in sight so the peace and quiet may change when they start to come through!

Nose Flute Demonstration

2007-06-26T23:06:00.001+01:00

This is the funniest thing I've ever seen on youtube. Go on humour me and watch the full video!

Too many pics to pic from!

2007-06-21T23:12:00.000+01:00

I'm sure Sorley thinks my ears are detachable, he sure pulls them hard enough. What a grip he has and no part of the face is safe from his little hands. Also he has developed a worrying liking for chewing on daddy's nose!
Last Sunday was Father's day, here's a pic of a boy who adores his daddy and a daddy who adores his boy, in the words of a friend - you'd think he was the first man to have a son!

So we visited both grandpa's and has a nice day. Picked up a wee chair for Sorley since he's grown out of his bouncer and he just loves being at doggy height!

Now when I put him to sleep at night we both lie on the bed listening to music and facing each other. He prefers to lie on his left side and falls asleep staring at me with his hand on my cheek, it's so lovely and such a precious time. When he's asleep I lift him into his cot and that's him for the night.
He still loves meals times and very often bits of potato and yogurt can found behind his ears. Being a right little boy he hates getting his hands and face cleaned though he loves splashing about in the bath.
Sorley still has traces of slight baby eczema on his elbows and behind his knees. The best thing I've found is Johnson's baby lotion from the natural range. I was originally prescribed a form of steroid cream when it was bad on his cheeks which worked when I used it but when I stopped using it the eczema came back. I was unhappy about using the steroid cream regularly and tried a variety of prescribed lotions but constantly came back to the Johnson's lotion, now I use it all the time and the eczema has completely cleared up on his cheeks. The health visitor told me that another mother had the same experience so it seems the Johnson's lotion really works.
S is now the habit of pursing his lips tightly together like here and making MMMMMMMMMM noises, he also does babababababa...perhaps not too long before mamamamama comes out!
Finally, here's a pic of my new shoes - Holey Soles - they are the most fabulously comfy shoes in the whole wide world. They're like wearing feet massagers and are perfect for mum's walking their prams and believe it or not there're even fashionable, snapped on celebs feet in Hello or some other such mag.

Check out choccy cheeks!

2007-06-12T23:59:00.000+01:00

Yes he's had his first chocolate ice-cream and I think he liked it! It's been hot and very humid over the last week, the bedroom has been 26 degrees at night even with the windows open. Took the boy swimming at the weekend and he loved it, decided it was time to try a quick dunk under - he wasn't too impressed with that. Joined the gym which has been good, they even have a tv on the cycling machine which makes exercise a little more palatable.

Sorley's getting big and sitting up a lot more as you can see

We've been having plenty fun in the back garden.

Check out the hand on cheek, must be a pram thing!

Still no sign of teeth though everything he touches goes into the mouth and he will grab anything within reach. He's been quite tired today which probably means he's going through another growth spurt and will be unrecognisable by the morning. He enjoys going to the mum to mum group but is not sure what to make of the baby girl who steals his teddy. Ouch...just got bitten by a midge, time to shut the windows and go to bed.

2007-06-06T17:23:00.000+01:00

As seen on eipwek's blog, some things maybe you don't know about me:

1. WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE? Some great,great auntie I think, she didn't have kids so a bunch of people called their daughters after her, I think that's the story anyway.

2. WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU CRIED? a couple of weeks ago when someone pretending to be nice to me was actually being really bitchy (don't you just hate that), it wasn't until afterwards when I pondered over what she said that I really realised how mean she was being.

3. DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING? very much, hubby thinks it's a scrawl but I'm very proud of my handwriting!

4. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE LUNCH MEAT? bacon sandwiches for sure!

5. DO YOU HAVE KIDS? My very handsome 6 month old son.

6. IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU? too right!

7. DO YOU USE SARCASM A LOT? not as much as I used to, think I'm losing my touch.

8. DO YOU STILL HAVE YOUR TONSILS? Yes

9. WOULD YOU BUNGEE JUMP? I don't have any plans to but never say never.

10. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CEREAL? Dorset cereal company muesli

11. DO YOU UNTIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF? only if that's the only way they'll come off (mah hillwalking boots for instance) but I try to buy shoes without laces.

12. DO YOU THINK YOU ARE STRONG? sure am with this growing lump of a baby hanging off my arm all day

13. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ICE CREAM? marscapone

14. WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE? not sure, I'm not a particularly observant person but possibly their hair

15. RED OR PINK? red

16. WHAT IS THE LEAST FAVORITE THING ABOUT YOURSELF? right now it's my wobbly belly

17. WHO DO YOU MISS THE MOST? my dog Lenny who we had to get put down a few months ago

18. WHAT COLOR PANTS AND SHOES ARE YOU WEARING? slimming black trousers and blue hillwalking boots

19. WHAT WAS THE LAST THING YOU ATE? Munchies ice-cream bar, shared with Sorley who went totally ga-ga over it

20. WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW? the ticking of the boiler switch in the kitchen

21. IF YOU WHERE A CRAYON, WHAT COLOR WOULD YOU BE? forest green

22. FAVORITE SMELLS? mulled wine, Indian curry

23. WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO ON THE PHONE? Mother-in-law

24. DO YOU LIKE THE PERSON WHO SENT THIS TO YOU? Yes I've been following her blog from before she was preggers and now she has a gorgeous little baby girl

25. FAVORITE SPORTS TO WATCH? boxing and European cup final football

26. HAIR COLOR? blonde

27. EYE COLOR? blue/grey

28. DO YOU WEAR CONTACTS? no, I am a little shortsighted though and wear glasses ouside when I remember

29. FAVORITE FOOD? Indian and Mexican

30. SCARY MOVIES OR HAPPY ENDINGS? happy endings

31. LAST MOVIE YOU WATCHED? Driving Lessons

32. WHAT COLOR SHIRT ARE YOU WEARING? mostly green with black, yellow, white

34. HUGS OR KISSES? kisses

35. FAVORITE DESSERT? lemon cheesecake

36. WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING NOW? Reflections on Everest

37. WHAT IS ON YOUR MOUSE PAD? Dell

38. WHAT DID YOU WATCH ON T.V. Eastenders, sad I know

39. FAVORITE SOUND? my baby laughing

40. ROLLING STONES OR BEATLES? The Beatles

41. WHAT IS THE FURTHEST YOU HAVE BEEN FROM HOME? central Turkey

42. DO YOU HAVE A SPECIAL TALENT? hmmm it's not really a special talent but I write poetry

43. WHERE WERE YOU BORN? Stornoway, Western Isles, Scotland

As with eipwek I'm not going to tag anyone but if you do do it let me know!

New Blog on the Horizon

2007-06-04T09:51:00.001+01:00

I've started a new blog with my husband dedicated to our thought/plans of moving to Canada. It's something we have been thinking about for a loooong time. We've yet to get out there on holiday but we are saving up for it and it will be our next holiday.
So anyone with thoughts, experience of emigrating or Canada and would like to share it with us please visit our blog and help us out!

Boys oh Boys

2007-06-03T11:48:00.000+01:00

Went through a bag of clothes that a friend of my sis-in-law gave us for Sorley and found this adorable Loch Ness monster hat! So we went for a walk up Glen Massan then went to visit my sis-in-law and Sorley got to sit on his big cuzs knee.

So I'm sitting here blogging while hubby and Sorley are at church - I've got a bit of a head cold and didn't sleep well last night so I'm thoroughly enjoying a hot toddy (whiskey, lemon juice, honey, hot water) and feeling rather jolly...!

6 Months Old

2007-06-01T22:39:00.000+01:00

It's been six months since this little boy came into the world, hard to believe.
What a joy he is, so full of fun and smiles. The days disappear into a routine of feeding, nappy changing, housework, playing, laundry etc. Sorley is such a happy, contented wee boy and apart from his food loves nothing more than standing on someones lap playing games and pulling at their face and hair!
He had his first taste of meat yesterday and wow did his face light up as if to say horray there's more to food than milk, fruit and veg.
I've decided it's time to join the gym and try and get back into shape so I have my induction appointment next week and looking forward to it.

Sorley drools non stop - a sign of teething though I can't see any teeth coming through yet, his pacifier helps soothe his gums and stops me having to change his bib for a dry one every ten minutes. Today I bagged a bunch of his outgrown 3-6 months clothes, it feels pretty weird like before I know it I'll be waving his off to school.
His hair's coming in very blond and his eyes have settled to a dark blue/grey.

His daily menu is something like this: -

I offer breastmilk before and after each meal but everyday he varies as to how much b/m he takes.

Breakfast - baby rice, mashed banana
Lunch - pureed potatoe with stewed apple mixed with pureed turnip, yogurt
Dinner - pureed potatoe with stewed apple mixed with pureed brocolli, mashed pear, a rusk
Supper - yogurt

I vary the fruit and veg with cauliflower, courgette, tried carrots but they gave him constipation, tried avacado but he puked it up and melon didn't go down to well either. I'll now be adding meat and fish to his diet and probaby won't be long till he gets our food and I'll no longer have to get up in the morning before he wakes up to make up and freeze in ice-cube trays strange concoctions of veg!

Now that Sorley's b/f less I think it's time to start planning a date with my husband, it would be nice to go out for a quiet meal and a drink. I went round to a friend's last week for a girls night in watching a video, enjoying a glass of wine etc it was the first night I didn't put Sorley to bed since he's been born, it was really nice to be out but I did miss those gorgeous smiles when puting my son down to sleep for the night.

He's now out of the cradle and into the cot and too strong to swaddle, I was worried about the transition from swaddling as previously he would only sleep swaddled, it took a few nights for him to get used to it but now he sleeps fine. I put him to sleep in a baby sleeping bag which is ideal because he gets a last and very excitable burst of energy when I put him in his cot and does starjumps lying down so being able to keep a blanket on him is impossible.

Feed me now!

2007-05-20T22:58:00.000+01:00

Had a fun day today - went to a dog show run by the Scottish Kennel Club at the Royal Highland Showground. The menu of the day was hounds and terriers, tonnes of dogs of all shapes and sizes, my husband has blogged about it here. My own personal favorite was the Scottish Deerhound - a large dog with a rather rugged medieval look about it. Husband, being a big dog fan, was in his element and I can see Sorley's going to take after him! Sorley had a great day - he just loves our 2 dogs and was so excited to see the masses of dogs at the show.

It was a long day with a lot of travelling but Sorley was just great as usual - he's such a social wee boy, he loves seeing new faces and going to new places and of course he is the centre of attention where ever he goes!
I like to take him away for daytrips and away from his usual routine every once in a while because I'm pretty sure it helps his mental development and broadens his perspective of the world. It's funny and such a privilege to be able to observe this little person become more and more his own little person. Sometimes it's as if at night when he's asleep God adds another little compartment onto his brain so that when he wakes up he's suddenly aware of things he was previously oblivious to.

As you can see he loves his grub, when he sees the spoon coming he opens his mouth like a little chick and eyes open wide in anticipation.

Here he is having a lie in after pushing me out my bed!

2007-05-13T20:06:00.000+01:00

It's been a busy week, Husband's birthday was on Friday so there was a lot of running around and blowing up balloons, Sorley had a great time - his first intro to balloons was so funny, he went nuts over them. Sorley went to his first ceilidh last night; he just loved the music (as all babies do but this one is used to daddy playing the banjo to him!) and bounced for ages watching wide-eyed as people flew past him in an array of ceilidh dances. It was a really nice night with no shortage of people wanting to hold my boy and lots of good food and chocolate fountains....Mmm.

It's hard to believe Sorley's five and a half months old. He's now asleep at night by 10pm and sleeps right through to around 7.30am which is great and it also means I get a couple of hours to myself in the evening. He's now onto three solids a-day on top of his usual breast milk but he is spending less time on the boob, though I'm certainly not in any hurry I think he'll naturally wean himself off before too long.

He's already learned to pose for the camera, here he is in his playgym.

2007-05-05T00:07:00.000+01:00

Wowsers - SNP victory in Holyrood and in my local constituency. Assuming my vote wasn't one of the 100,000 spoilt ballots, I feel it actually achieved something!

The weather has been stunning this last week, Sorley had his first barbecue yesterday. He's taken to squealing a the top of his voice for fun, anyone walking by our house must think we have a hobby in strangling cats!
This site is just too good - find out what Church Father you are (seen on George Szirtes blog), I'm St. Justin Martyr apparently, though I'm not sure the synopsis fits me!

You’re St. Justin Martyr!

You have a positive and hopeful attitude toward the world. You think that nature, history, and even the pagan philosophers were often guided by God in preparation for the Advent of the Christ. You find “seeds of the Word” in unexpected places. You’re patient and willing to explain the faith to unbelievers.

Find out which Church Father you are at The Way of the Fathers!

Election Fever

2007-05-02T15:06:00.000+01:00

Tomorrow is election day for the Scottish parliament.

Having done a politics/classics degree at uni I'm one of the few people, I'm guessing, who actually enjoys all the election buzz - the broadcasts, the interviews, hustings, leafleting, posters etc etc. Politicians take to the streets in force trying to convince every floater (floating voter) to vote for them.

Having, in the past, partaken in the madness and bustle of electioneering I feel kind of nostalgic, this time, however, I'm merely a bystander.

This election, for perhaps the first time, has some of the excitment of a 'real' (General) election as opposed to being a pointless exercise. This is to do with the apparent growing support for the Scottish Nationalist Party. If the SNP gain the balance of power our parliament will no longer be a puppet to Westminster as it has hitherto been.

I feel a kind of excitment about voting tomorrow, that my vote will acheive something. I've not had the same anticipation in voting since I came of voting age; even when I was the chairperson of my local branch of Scottish Socialist Party.

So here's rooting for the SNP!

2007-04-29T17:40:00.000+01:00

Just a quick post, all three of us have had the cold for the past week. Poor Sorley's had a bad cough, temperature, runny nose etc it's so sad to see my little boy struggling like that. Husband's had it quite bad also, now he's on antibiotics and had to start using an inhaler, I've got off lightly but not in the sleep department where I've been sitting up most nights with my boy trying to get him some sleep. Thankfully we're through the worst of it and all on the mend. I've glad my first experience of Sorley being ill with a temperature and the rest is now past, It's all a learning experience.
Some good news: yesterday my stepsister had a little boy and as I write this they are scouring the baby books for a name! Here's a pic of my cheeky boy before he got ill.

A day in the life...

2007-04-20T19:57:00.000+01:00

Mmmm loving his baby rice for brekkie and is now onto pureed potatoe mixed with breast milk for dinner. There is no problem in getting this boy to eat, when he sees me mixing his bowl he kicks his legs madly in excitement.

My dad and stepmum bought him the baby walker, really he shouldn't be in it until he's 6 months but he's doing his best to sit up and stand unsupported and he shows zero inclination to crawl.

So I have him wedged in with a teddy so he doesn't flop over while trying to eat the buttons and his feet don't quite reach the ground, though he often leans to one side just enough to be able to tiptoe with one foot on the ground! He just loves it, esp trying to eat that rather tempting big nose belonging to mr giraffe.

My grandparents gave us the door swing and this Sorley loves above all else. He bounces non-stop on my lap and just adores the freedom to bounce in his swing. When he's in it I put up a gate to keep the dogs out the way and they are his permanent audience, He'll bounce away for ages just staring at the dogs, occasionally giving me a glance and laughing when I catch him looking at me.

When I came down from the Isle 'o Skye...

2007-04-14T23:24:00.000+01:00

It's good to be home but what a wonderful holiday!
The first couple of days were rather cloudy but the weather soon cleared up and we got to see the spectacular scenery of the Isle of Skye. There are a lotto pics here, I hope you don't get bored ploughing through them! For some reason I can't get the slideshow on my blog so here's a link to the pics instead - photos

Also this last week Sorley has become a right character - he now has hyper moments where he giggles and kicks non-stop, there sure will be trouble when this boy gets on his feet! He also began to show the weaning signs so now at four-and-a-half-months I give him a jar of baby rice at night after his breastfeed. The NHS policy is to try to hold babies off weaning until six months but the health visitor says that she's never met a baby that's managed to wait that long. Sorley scoffed three quarters of the jar the first few nights and tonight he ate the lot and cried when it was all done. He just loves the organic baby rice, when I bring it out he goes nuts and squeals if I'm too slow in refilling his spoon!

2007-04-06T11:44:00.000+01:00

Horray that's our holiday booked - next week we're off to Skye!
Here's a pic of the guest house we are staying in. It's not actually on Skye but a mere 15 mins away. What is special is that as you can see our accommodation is right next to Eilean Donan Castle; in fact I've booked the double room with the castle view. My husband has always wanted to visit Eilean Donan Castle because he has MacKenzie blood and it is a famous MacKenzie castle!

Below is a pic of the Isle of Skye, there is plenty for us to visit and I'm so looking forward to it. Especially since the weather has been fantastic and looks like it will continue into next week.
Our wee boy's first holiday! Here he is in his Nemo outfit that headless daddy bought for him!

2007-04-03T17:06:00.000+01:00

Been a busy week. When Sorley got weighed last Tue he had only put on 2 ounces in a week so there was definately a problem with his weight, the health visitor said that if his weight didn't improve I'd have to move him onto formula milk. Feeling a bit upset and confused as to what was going on I was determined to get to the bottom of it before moving onto formula.

I thought he wasn't feeding well because he was teething, or wasn't hungry or that my milk supply had run out. So after trying to feed him I then expressed an absolute tonne so there was no problem with my supply, I then fed him the expressed milk in a bottle and he gobbled it down no problem as if he was starving.

To cut a long story short S is suffering from a bad case of reflux, I had been feeding with him lying down on a pillow since birth and after every feed he was bringing most of it back up. So now I simply feed him sitting upright and don't lie him down for about an hour after each feed.

So I've spent the last week non-stop feeding a very hungry boy and S has put on a whopping 8 ounces and it's so good to see him back to his happy wee self. It has been quite stressful, not knowing what was wrong with him and such a relief when, after much prayer, the answer revealed itself.

We've also been blessed this week: last month we had to scrap our car, done nothing but pour money we don't have into it for the last year and finally couldn't afford to keep up with the repairs. However this week a couple in our church gave us a fine working car for nothing which they've just paid to put through its MOT and on top of that they gave us a further £100 to get the car serviced to make sure there is absolutely nothing wrong with it. How amazing is that!

Hubby is on his hols at the moment and it's great having a helping hand about. With S doing well we're thinking about going away for a couple of days next week and see some of our lovely country!

Here's a pic of my healthy boy: I've been there and he's got the t-shirt!

2007-03-24T17:17:00.000Z

When I got S weighed he had put on another 4 ounces within the week so he seems to be doing just fine!

Just back from taking our boy swimming for the first time, it was so much fun - here he is in his blow-up yellow seat thingy which we tried him in in the bath last night. He is so cute in his little trunks and was neither upset or over-excited in the pool - just looked around with a rather bemused expression while sitting in his yellow seat and at one point, while yawning away, looked ready to fall asleep!

We also had him out in his baby carrier, he was well excited to be able to see everything around him. So for S it has been a big week of new experiences and so much fun for us to watch him take it all in.

The last few days have been beautifully sunny and at times fairly warm, so good to get out and about in. Every day I walk either down to the West Bay promenade or along the promenade in the other direction and some days I do both! I grab a take-away coffee and sit on a bench looking across the Clyde and take notes for poems. Sometimes I think life can't get much better than this.

2007-03-19T11:13:00.000Z

Well yesterday was my first Mother's Day - how special!
I had a lovely day - my husband took me and my boy out to lunch, Sorley wrote me a lovely card - how clever he is - and since I recently took up sketching, bought me a full range of sketch pencils and a pencil case which was just perfect.
I'm not really a bunch of flowers person, I'd rather have a bundle of handpicked wild flowers to be honest. Not only was it Mother's day but also my stepfather's birthday and my mum and stepdad's wedding anniversary, and last week was my dad's birthday - wow what a week, why is it birthday's etc all tend to fall together?!

When I had S weighed last Tuesday he had only put on 5 ounces in a fortnight which I'm a bit worried about, however the nurse said he looks great (and he does) and he will probably go through periods of not puting on much and then go through a growth spurt, but I'm going to get him weighed tomorrow instead of waiting till next week and just keep an eye on him.
His is so active, he gets really exited and kicks his feet madly like an Irish dancer!

Here's baby not looking impressed with elephant teddy, laughing with daddy and napping in his cradle.

2007-03-14T09:59:00.000Z

The other night I had my first night out since Sorley was born! A friend called me up saying she had a spare ticket for the ballet and would I like to go. I fed Sorley right up to the last minute before leaving the house positively stuffing him full and went to see Swan Lake by the Moscow City Ballet Company and it was great! It was just nice for the first two hours to be out and enjoying myself and really enjoying the production - the dance, the music and the beautiful costumes. But by Act III I was watch watching every two minutes, thinking of my boy. I started to feel sick in my stomach thinking he might be hungary and crying for me, so I made a sharp exit and missed the best part of the ballet - ran to the nearest taxi rank and when I got in the door Sorley was sitting happily on his daddy's knee - hadn't missed me at all! Daddy had taken him up the hills with a friend in the dark with nightsights on (typical kind off stuff my husband gets up to!) and Sorley slept for most of it.
So it was nice but I think I'll wait until he's 6 months and part weaned before I leave him again!

2007-03-09T15:41:00.000Z

Sorley had his second lot of jags on Wednesday, squealed for a couple of secs and then he was as right as rain! This boy will barely sit now - he wants to stand all the time, the other mums at the doctor's surgery couldn't believe how well he balances on his feet with mummy's help of course. I wouldn't be surprised if he skips the crawling stage and goes straight to running!

Look at this cheeky little face (no not mine!)

2007-02-28T17:56:00.000Z

Horray - Sorley has started napping in his cradle during the day instead of me having to hold him all the time - gives me a little time to myself.

Hard to believe how big he's getting, he now recognises our constant visitors (like my mum!!) and gives them big smiles and coo's. He looks rather suspiciously at strangers except those with very smiley faces which he can't help but smile at!

Husband preached in church on Sunday morning, we stayed in for most of the sermon but baby started heckling his dad so I took him out for a feed! Everyone remarks on how good and content he is, we are so very lucky to have such a good baby. Someone told me that if you are calm and relaxed throughout your pregnancy then you will have a calm and relaxed baby - I really think this is true.

Hard to think what I've been up to recently, the weeks seem to just disappear, I guess just the routine of baby stuff - he sleeps - then feeds - then plays - then sleeps... and so on, in between I do the usual housework . Though I've been doing at lot more cooking - got some fantastic recipes from the link on my blog, even made a delicious apple crumble for hubbie in attempt to cheer him up after Lenny. Most people but not everyone has been sympathic with the loss of our dog - those who have had to get a pet they loved put down know exactly how awful it is, I guess those who haven't just don't have a clue.

Back to baby massage tomorrow, I was the only mother in the class still breastfeeding. At first I had no idea how much breastfeeding would tie me down but I'm so glad I persevered - it's a really precious time between me and my baby.

I finally got my glasses - been needing them for ages, so here's me four-eyes and Sorley!

That's Sorley woken up after 45min nap, must go feed...

2007-02-23T14:42:00.000Z

Anyone who has been following my blog knows how much I love my dogs. Well last week we had to get our large Russian Black Terrier Lenny (Lenin) put to sleep - he simply was getting too aggressive and we just can't risk it with our lovely wee boy. The kennel club said he was too aggressive to rehome so just had to take him to the vets and get put down. An awful experience for my husband and I - we really miss him. My husband has written an obituary to him on his blog here. It may sound a bit silly to non-dog people but our dogs are really part of our family.

Sorley and I went to baby massage class yesterday, he was amazed to watch all the other babies and even more amazed to hear them cry! I've been reading a few books on alternative education by A.S. Neill who opened a 'progressive' school called Summerhill where children govern themselves, any learning is 'self-directed' - they are not forced to go to lessons. The children are treated with respect and are on firstname terms with the teachers. I'm really interested in this style of parenting and teaching. The goal of the school is not academic acheivement (though most of the pupils do achieve very well) but happiness! The idea is that if you treat children with respect, love and give them freedom (after their initial rebellion) they will develop to their full individual potential happily.

My baby's 3 months old today and he is the cutiest, funniest little boy on the planet, though I may be biased! Hard to believe he's into his 3-6 month clothes now.

2007-02-14T11:31:00.000Z

Busy busy couple of weeks, husband's had a cold so he's not been able to look after the wee one which means I've not had much free time. Sorley got his first immunisation jags last week poor thing, took a couple of days for him to recover but he survived. We had a bit of a worry - for a fortnight every one of his dirty nappies were green but he seemed otherwise fine - he was feeding fine on the fore and hind milk. After scouring the internet for possible causes chocolate came up. So poor me's had no chocolate for over a week and all his dirty nappies are back to a lovely yellow colour! Darn!
He's such a happy wee boy and hardly cries now apart from when he's got wind in which case he screams rather than cries! He smiles plenty and expresses when he's happy with 'coo' and 'aboo'!

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2007-01-26T10:18:00.000Z

The transformation is complete - I've totally turned into a blathering mama. I never guessed in a million years how much I'd adore motherhood. I was never one for getting clucky, never really interested in holding other people's babies and, as you can tell, I certainly wasn't in a hurry to become a mother. My baby is 2 months old today and I barely recognise myself - I love talking, cooing and making those ridiculous sounds women do when confronted with a baby, I spend my days sticking my tongue out at him and melting when he gives me one of those adorable big smiles.
He sleeps now until around 5.30 - 6.00am then wakens for a feed, and goes back to sleep till around 8.30. If he has one of his very sleepy periods in his pram after a walk during the day I don't know what to do with myself! My mum has been great though - sometimes she takes him out in the pram giving me a couple of hours in the house to myself which is really nice.

That's me lost nearly 2 and a half stone so I'm just about back to my pre-pregnancy weight, though I'd like to lose another stone and have to do something about this jelly belly! The breast feeding is certainly helping, Sorley is back feeding every 1 and a half to 2 hours during the day which I don't mind seeing how he sleeps so well at night.

Tomorrow we are going up to the city for the day so I can get a nice haircut at Rainbow Room's - they give you a great head massage as well as a good haircut, I'm really looking forward to a bit of pampering and going to visit a friend so it should be a nice day and will be Sorley's first visit to Glasgow apart from his birth!

Oh and I've had to reinstall the word verification because of all the spam going around at the moment - sorry I know it's a pain.

2007-01-20T08:31:00.000Z

Here's Looking At You, Kid!

It's been a wild week weather wise but I still managed to get Sorley out in the pram everyday come sun, rain, hail, gales and snow (not kidding!). It's part of our routine and it gets me out the house, so every afternoon I wrap him up is his little jacket, gloves, bootees, Tigger hat and auntie Betty's shawl, pop him in his red pram and off we go. Mostly we just go down the town, walk around the shops, even if I buy nothing else I always buy the paper - gives me an extra sense of purpose for going out. Tuesday, I think it was, was a surprisingly beautifully sunny day so I walked the pram a couple of miles along the promenade next to the Clyde and for once was able to have the pram hood down and let my boy smell the salty and seaweedy air and get some colour in his cheeks. I got an MP3 player for my birthday just before Christmas so I have music where ever I go, which, lately has been mostly Jim Morrison!

My home visits from the health visitor have come to an end, this week Sorley had his 6 weeks check up at the doctors and everything is just fine. He sure is turning into a deliciously chunky wee boy, puting on around an ounce a day. On Thursday's the local hospital holds a baby massage class, I'm planning on taking Sorley along starting next week. Apparently the babies love it - they all going in crying and all come out zonked - and it's a good way to meet some other mums and little babies.

This is my dogs in the backgarden playing in the snow on Thursday, and a picture looking up my street.

2007-01-13T09:13:00.000Z

6 Weeks Old

In one sense it's hard to believe that our little boy is already 6 weeks old and yet I can no longer remember what life was like without him. He grows before my eyes, the pillow I feed him on is shrinking below him and he is starting to look a little too big for his Moses basket.
It has been the most wonderful 6 weeks of my life, I thought I was prepared for the birth of my baby but nothing prepares you for life after birth!
The first month was fairly stressful, the sudden awareness of responsibility and the all consumingness (is that a word??) of it, especially since myself and my husband have been married for 11 years without kids so it is a massive change in our lives. The panic of when baby starts crying and not knowing why or how to get him to stop, I found the constant feeding stressful and painful, emotions up and down, anxiety about cot death gave me regular nightmares about dead babies.
The last 2 weeks we settled into a rhythm, I've got to know my child, I understand now when he cries what it's for - either a feed, because he's tired, got wind or wants his dummy. I know how to soothe him and how he likes to be comforted, he stopped the constant feeding and it's no longer painful but now when I feed him it's a precious time between us. I still worry about cot death and I'm fanatic about the room temperature at night but the nightmares have stopped.

He smiles and giggles now especially when I stick my tongue out at him, he talks away when I lie him on his play mat and spends hours staring fully alert all around him, facinated by pictures and our livingroom lightshade. He is a beautifully content little boy and loves to lie and sleep on his daddy's chest. Here's a funny picture of him on his play mat staring into the mirror.

2007-01-01T21:38:00.000Z

What a character!

These pictures really make me giggle.

Our new year didn't start off too great with husband on Hogmany reversing the car into a tree branch, smashing the back windscreen. No one was hurt thankgoodness, it was a really wild night here on the west coast.

Happy New Year to you all!

Try this out for fun (seen on Raw Light)- which fantasy character are you - apparently I'm Aragorn from Lord of the Rings: -

"putting your appointed path ahead of any inner conflicts, you make your own rules for the benefit of all."

"If my life or death I can protect you, I will."

2006-12-29T14:46:00.000Z

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

What a wonderful Christmas I've had at home with my wee family. I took Sorley to his first church service on Christmas Eve for the midnight service which has always been a favorite service of mine and he farted through his first prayer!

I'm very fortunate to have such a happy contented little baby, we are now into a routine where I get him to sleep between 10.30 - 11.30pm, he sleeps to around 4am then wakes for a feed, goes back to sleep until around 8.00am then wakes for a feed and then goes back to sleep for another couple of hours. This is our routine every night! I'd say the down side is that he feeds during the day at least every 2 hours, I was feeling a little house bound because of this but yesterday we went out for the day as we had a friend over from N. Ireland and I was able to breastfeed fairly comfortably in public in two different restaurants. I've haven't quite worked out where it's acceptable to breastfeed, should one breastfeed on a train for instance? Anyway we had a nice day out. The picture above is Sorley on Christmas day in his play gym surrounded by all his toys.

Here's some more pics of proud parents and my wee darling - it's amazing how quickly he is growing already, today he is 4 weeks old, sometimes I just sit and stare at him for ages, he is so lovely, I feel very blessed.

2006-12-14T20:42:00.000Z

Time Out

Thanks for all the well wishes, support and for reading my blog. I'm going to take a little time out from blogging for a bit just while I find my feet as a new mum. I will be back blogging again but just need some time over this busy season to settle into my new role. Thanks again, Sorlil x

2006-12-10T14:26:00.000Z

Some pictures as promised

Top picture is Sorley on his sunbed for jaundice in the hospital, bottom picture is Sorley at home, 5 days old.
They kept me in hospital longer than I would have liked because he lost some weight after the birth but after a night of constant breast feeding and expressing in between he put the weight back on. It's great to be home with my precious little bundle, he sleeps reasonably enough at night and he just loves to suck on my pinky when he's not feeding. I don't know what the consensus is on using dummies (pacifiers) but this little boy sure loves to suck on something.

2006-12-08T09:33:00.000Z

Survived and Home!

Thanks to everyone for all their well wishes, it sure has been some week! Me and my beautiful baby boy finally got out of hospital on Tuesday and I'm just snatching a moment to blog while he's sleeping and I'm not too bleary eyed after a not too bad a night with him.

I guess you want to know how it all went so here's a quick overview, those not into birth stories may not want to read on!!
A week last Tuesday night (seems like a century ago) I was up for around five hours in the middle of the night with 10 minute contractions and was preparing to go to hospital when they stopped - yep false labour, I was so disheartened.
Around five pm on Wednesday they started up again as hourly contractions, by nine pm they were back to every 10 mins and by 1.30am they were every 5 mins so off I went to the hospital. I was in labour at last!
On arrival the midwife checked me over and my cervix was dilated to 4cm. Husband, mother, mother-in-law and I all sat in the dayroom playing cards in between my contractions, at this point all I was using was a Tens machine for the pain (little electrodes attached to my back that sent out feel good signals to help counter the pain). This went on all night and by 10am when they checked my cervix had not even dilated another cm, by midday they put me in the birthing pool to see if that would bring things on, by this time I was on the Entonox (gas and air) as with each contraction my back was in agony. I was in the pool for two hours and my cervix was still no further on.
My local hospital just has a midwifery unit so if there are any birthing problems patients are sent up to the city hospital. By 4pm they decided I had to go to Glasgow but there were no ambulances available so I had to wait until 7pm for an ambulance to take me up. The weather outside was miserable and very stormy, subsequently the ferries were off (I live on a peninsula) and I had to go in the ambulance for a 2 hour bumpy journey in a storm swinging around the winding loch road with strong contractions every couple of minutes. My back was in agony with every contraction - it turned out that the baby was facing back to back with me causing this. By the time I got to the hospital I was shattered, in agony and really had had enough, they gave me 10 ml of morphine and then put an epidural in my back. I was able to rest for a bit to work up the strength for delivery. By around 1am, I think, the doctor broke my waters and after a some hours of pushing I finally gave birth at 4.35am to an 8lb 3oz baby. They then spent the next hour stitching me up - they had to cut me several times to get his big head out!!
So Sorley has arrived and he is a right little character! He was a bit jaundiced and lost some weight in the days after but with lots of breastfeeding and expressing he's put the weight back on and is now a right little feeder and is in fact a very contented baby as long as he gets his feeds!
It's great to be home and get into a routine, I just adore having my little boy.

Blogger won't let me upload pics so I'll add then as soon as I can.

Update by Husband

2006-12-03T21:46:00.000Z

We are now the proud parents of a baby boy of 8lbs 3 oz. My missus is still in hospital. If you check out her links and go to husbands blog you will get more details there as well as a picture of him. She will update her blog when she is home and well.

The proud father.

2006-11-16T17:29:00.000Z

For fun here's a picture of me at 14 weeks and again at 39 weeks, hard to remember not being this fat!

2006-11-16T16:48:00.000Z

Week 39
The good news is that the midwife thinks baby's head is now engaged, the bad news is I'm recovering from the cold and feel pretty crap.
Not been able to eat or drink much for a few days but on midwife's advice I bought lots of lucozade today and feeling a bit better after drinking a couple of cups of it.
Thanks to everyone for all the advice - this week I'm going to be doing serious work on getting into labour or else they start to talk about inducement at my next hospital appointment. The thing is I really want to be able to go to my graduation which is on the 30th so it would be ideal if baby came around the 20th which would give me time to recover for my graduation and husband would still be on his 2 weeks paternity leave and able to come as well.
So will Sorley do as he's told, that is the question!

Finally, hopefully, nearing the end of this rather odd experience of the past nine months. I'm not sure what I expected it to be like, it's been harder work than I imagined and I'm not in much of a hurry to do it again! Probably the longest nine months of my life, they say the rest of your child's upbringing, in contrast, flys by. It's been good to have this blog to record it all and to be able to look back on each stage. I'm aware of how fortunate I have been to have such a supportive network of family, friends and local church who have been there for me throughout it all, an experience that many women and/or couples don't have. I'm also grateful to all my fellow bloggers who have shared this time and their experiences with me, how on earth did people survive without the internet??

I'm sure people think I'm lying when I say I'm not nervous about the birth, the truth is I'm more nervous about bringing this newborn back home and being totally responsible for him! The birth is an inevitability, I've not really mulled over it - I'm sure if I did I would start to get nervous, but I'm just not like that. I've got the feeling that having a baby is like starting a new job - the first couple of weeks are a bit of a stressful nightmare but when you've learned the ropes everything falls into place.

2006-11-10T14:56:00.000Z

Week 38
Had a hospital appointment yesterday - all is fine but the baby's head is not yet engaged, does anyone have any ideas on how to encourage this??
This week I'm going to start a variety of 'natural methods' to hopefully encourage things on a little (avoiding the castor oil though!!) - the best ones I've heard are raspberry leaf tea, cinnamon tea, hot curries, walking, stair climbing.

Husband was still not well this week from the food poisoning from Co-op sausages (which were well cooked!) and only went back to work yesterday. The other day we took the dogs to a favorite place of ours for walking where they also get a chance for a wee swim.

I've not been able to eat meat since the food poisoning so I've been practicing a variety of vegetarian recipes - tried Aubergine, Chickpea and Potatoe Balti which, to be honest, wasn't that great. Also tried a recipe for Gratin Dauphinois after having tasted it made by my brother-in-law one Christmas - very delicious and extremely fattening! Tonight it's vegetable casserole's turn so I'll see how that turns out.
I'm starting to really feel the stress of nesting - feeling like everything has to be perfect and getting stressed when it's not, poor husband gets the brunt of it and I get worn out overdoing it. So I've been trying the last couple of days just to chill out and forget about house stuff, enjoying working on some poems, typing up my travel journal from 2003 etc. Last week went to a Body Shop party and bought myself some nice stuff which was fun and went to a friend's for bonfire night, they had a huge bonfire and there was lots of fireworks, people and food - so it was a good night (though not for the dogs who are terrified of fireworks).

My blog is worth $5,080.86.How much is your blog worth?

Just a bit off the topic but according to this website my blog is worth $5,080.86!

2006-11-03T12:10:00.000Z

WOW 37 WEEKS PREGNANT - although baby isn't due until the 24th he is considered full term anywhere from 37-42 weeks - I thought this day would never come!!

To say I've had a rotten week wouldn't do it justice - husband and I both got food poisoning.
There can't be much worse than being 8 months pregnant and spewing your guts out other than perhaps getting food poising whilst having bronchitus - which is what husband had.
We both felt so ill, it was a total nightmare, my tummy and sides were aching all over and the stomach pain whilst retching, also the panic that I was going to go into labour (the mid-wife said diarrhea can bring on contractions), it was truly awful. Thankfully we are both feeling a lot better - not in the least part due to prayer - people have been very good to us, we have had lots of well wishers and people praying for us, but I'm esp. grateful to my mum who really looked after us - good old mum's eh?!

Well cradle's ready and moses basket, all baby clothes / towels / blankets washed and ready, house is painted and decorated, all we need now is a bouncing baby boy!
Thankfully baby seemed to have survived the food poisoning without too much trouble - still hiccuping away! Here's my hospital case packed and ready with baby's bag on top and nappies and bag with aunty Betty's lovely knitted shawl!

2006-10-26T23:55:00.000+01:00

Pram's arrived - here are some pics of our actual pram!

Had an antenatal appointment this morning, it was good to hear the baby's heartbeat again and his head is still down in the right position which is good news. Husband has decided he wants to cut the umbilical cord which is cute!
My husband has been fantastic throughout this whole pregnancy, he's been there for me all the way through - never once complained and always does his best to make me happy. This December will be our 11th wedding anniversary and I'm really proud of him as a person and as my husband, everyone who knows him thinks he'll make a brilliant father and I know he will be. In his blog (stalk-like-an-apache) he has outlined ten things he wants to teach or encourage our son to do and has challenged me to do the same so here goes...

(1) To bring him up to understand what it is to have a relationship with God as our heavenly father and to know what Jesus did for him.
(2) To respect and value other peoples and cultures
(3) To value the study of history and understand the roots of modern civilisation
(4) To love animals, appreciate the natural world and be able to make his own fun in the outdoors
(5) To be equally healthily competitive in academia and sport
(6) To appreciate good poetry
(7) To learn to play a musical instrument
(8) To be polite and well mannered
(9) To have a kind and generous heart
(10) To have a strong and independent nature

I hope I don't come across as one of those pushy kind of parents!!

2006-10-25T01:05:00.000+01:00

It's been a busy week in the house - the spare room has had all 6 bookcases, a wardrobe, 2 sets of drawers and the huge pile of junk that everyone stores in their spare room all spread out over the rest of the house while we painted a lovely lemon-white over the previous funky red and purple paint that seemed a good idea ten years ago, and also ripped out the carpet and put down a new one. Now we are in the middle of painting our bedroom, the rest of the house is once again clogged up with furniture while we paint the room a variety of shades of 'Nutmeg' to give it a warm, luxurious feel!

Whilst this is happening husband has come down with bronchitus and I managed to crack a tooth while crunching ice-cubes - I guess it was bound to happen. So while I was sitting at the dentist this morning waiting for an emergency appointment husband was sitting in the doctor's surgery waiting to be seen - what a pair we make!
I'm gutted that I can't now eat ice-cubes but making up for it with sucking on ice-poles instead!

This week I've started to feel the odd Braxton Hicks (womb contractions that go on unnoticed from around 12 weeks), at first I thought it was indigestion from a curry but it soon became clear that this was not the case!
Our super pram, pictured, has been ordered (Mountain Buggy Terrain pro - i.e. we should be able to climb Everest with it!) and will arrive tomorrow, the cradle will arrive next week - so it really feels like all is finally falling into place.

2006-10-19T13:30:00.000+01:00

Well I didn't realise I was so controversial!

At today's local radio interview the sound producer cut me off in mid-flow whilst reading a poem that I had won an Edwin Morgan poetry competition with and had been published in the Glasgow Herald - he said it was too controversial and didn't want to loose his radio license because of it! Mind you it is a poem about a female Palestinian suicide bomber but I never thought for one minute that it would require censoring - here is the poem:

Daughter of Ishmael

Home-sewn armour.
Her body is a column of cloth
fortified, a one woman garrison
larger than life

and the army. This lady
may be no rolling tank with tracks
sunk into decomposed homes;
yet her heart is a valley of clocks.

It's the count down to a bus stop,
a marketplace, a wedding dance.
It is the sum of her days, a chance
to break the sky

into a rush of splitting glitter.
Metal confetti, shrapnel, body, hair.
Daughter of Ishmael
shower this land. An eye for an eye.

Furthermore, after examining the other poems I'd brought to read I wasn't allowed to read this one either which I think was maybe being a little too cautious -

Isaiah was a Prophet (In the form of Emily Dickinson)

Isaiah was a prophet
Three years he was a nude -
To show our Father's judgement
On the sons of Cush.

Isaiah had thick skin -
Especially on his feet
A wonder and a sign
He was to all he met.

Isaiah proclaimed our Saviour -
His virgin and lowly birth
Isaiah is still remembered -
for his birthday suit's wide girth.

Besides from all that I did enjoy myself, I got to read my Sorley poem which was special and I was asked to bring in some song tracks to play so I got to talk a little about them and have them played.

Well not only did I get to appear on the local radio but I was even live on tv last night! My uncle won the highest points for his category in the competition for traditional singing so we all went along to the hotel afterwards where they were filming live for BBC 2 coverage of the MOD as he was singing there. The cameras scanned around the room several times catching me, my husband, my mum and step-dad all on tv! At one point the tv presenter, Cathy MacDonald, was presenting while sitting next to me so I got my two minutes of fame!
Today we are going to see my uncle singing in the finals and are going to the big final dance tomorrow night - so it has been some week!

2006-10-18T17:44:00.000+01:00

Ooh just over 5 weeks to go and this baby gets the hiccups all the time - I mean at least twice a day!
From my last hospital visit it seems that he has already turned head down in preparation for his arrival! This week the house has been pulled apart while we paint and decorate and generally get prepared for baby.

I've been asked to be interviewed on our local radio tomorrow for 'poetry hour' as part of the MOD week, so it looks like I'll get to bore the local masses (ok maybe about 3 listeners including my mum!) who'll tune in at ten in the morning to our local radio with reading some of my poems and generally being interviewed about poetry. The funny thing is that my mum was interviewed on BBC radio earlier on this week about being a gaelic speaker in the local area so it looks like, for this week anyway, we're a family of radio stars! Tonight I'm going to hear my uncle who has come down from Stornoway to sing in one of the MOD competitions.

Had my anti-D injection at the hospital this morning which all negative blood-type pregnant women get - got the jag in ma bum and it was sore, hopefully thats the last one I'll need to get. I had no aches and pains to complain of last night but I still barely slept, I don't think the curry I had for dinner last night helped though it was lovely (lamb bhoona mmm). I've started making up my pregnancy scrapbook which has been fun, but mostly I spent my time cross-stitching - it's what everyone's getting for Christmas this year!
I've not been getting any kind of mad pregnancy dreams that people talk about but I think that's maybe because I'm not in the slightest nervous about giving birth - I'm just looking forward to getting this baby outta my body and very excited about seeing him, no pain no gain as they say...though when the time comes I'll probaby be yelling for the pain relief!!

2006-10-13T21:24:00.000+01:00

Me and my bump - week 34!

Tonight I was all dressed up in the only dress that will fit me because I'd been invited to the opening night of the Royal National MOD -

"Scotland's premier festival of the Gaelic language, arts and culture and is held annually in October at a different location in Scotland. The Mod is a competition-based festival which celebrates the Gaelic language and culture through music, dance, drama, arts and literature"

This year the MOD is being held in my home town and the President of the MOD is my great uncle which means I get VIP tickets to all the events! I'm hoping to expose Sorley through this to our national culture and his gaelic heritage through my mum's side of the family who are all teuchters from the highlands and islands!

The tomato cravings have died down a little but I can't get enough of ice at the moment - for the last couple of weeks I've been crunching my way through trays of ice-cubes and my teeth are starting to hurt. I'm also eating ice-poles by the dozen, I was at a mall that has an ice-rink the other day and I was practically drooling looking at all that ice - I'm sure if I was actually on the ice-rink I wouldn't have been able to resist chipping some ice off at the edge to crunch into!

2006-10-09T23:53:00.000+01:00

The lovely flowers I got at my baby shower and some of the balloons whose colours just so happen to match the decor of our living room!

2006-10-09T12:54:00.000+01:00

33 weeks and counting

Nightime has become a nightmare for me - I feel every ache and pain emphasised 10 times, I didn't know the meaning of uncomfortable until now and a good night's sleep has become a distant memory.

I got the surprise of my life on Friday night: I went to church expecting to attend a ladies fellowship meeting at which I had been asked to give my testimony of how I became a Christian. When I turned up I was a little confused as to why all the women were sitting in the front lounge of the church in the dark, on entering the room I walked into a big baby shower all organised for me.
I was so utterly gobsmacked that I thought I might go into labour! It was so sweet that so many people made such an effort for me and baby that I nearly started greetin! I had such a nice time - the room was beautifully decorated with balloons, the minister's wife , who had organised most of it, led a whole lot of fun party games in the middle of which I opened all the gifts that people had brought which seemed to take forever! A beautiful buffet had been organised and even a dear friend had travelled down from Glasgow to be there. It was all such a lovely surprise and I'm amazed, if not a little worried, that my hubby managed to keep it all a secret from me so well!! I was really touched that so many people as well as some of the older ladies that don't really know me so well all made the effort to come along and all brought lovely gifts with them.

This unborn child has now got so many beautiful clothes that I don't know where to put them all, I got lots of nappies, wipes and practical things as well as cute cuddly toys, talking teddies and beautiful flowers which blogger won't allow me to post pictures of for some reason. Also everyone wrote a personal message on little cards to myself, husband and baby which were all gathered in a keepsake box, it was so lovely to read them all and to have them to keep.
Now I need to organise a scrapbook for all the keepsakes I've gathered.
One of the party games was to get everyone to draw a picture of how they think my unborn child will look when he's born, some of the pics are hilarious and will be funny embarrass Sorley with when he's older!

I've done pretty well for someone who had never heard of a baby shower to now have had two in the one pregnancy!

2006-09-29T00:41:00.000+01:00

Isn't that a fantastic tomato picture - I'm drooling just looking at it!

2006-09-28T23:50:00.000+01:00

Week 32 - and I can't believe I've still got 2 months to go!

For the last two months I have been tomato mad, they seem like the tastiest food on the planet and I buy big bags of them every week, they say if you eat too many carrots it turns your skin orange, I hope that doesn't go for tomatoes as well!!

Last Saturday we went to a super large Mothercare store and spent a fortune on buying all that we need for Sorley when he's born. It was fairly daunting trying to learn the language of mother-speak - working out what nappy sacks and top and tail bowls etc are! But that's us pretty much sorted apart from the pram which husband is being particularly fussy about - must have pneumatic tyres for cross-country etc!! Feels good having packed my hospital case so I know it's sitting there ready just in case things happen sooner than expected.

Today was my friend's funeral which was very difficult, I still can't really believe he's is gone though we have great comfort in knowing that as a Christian he is in a better place and we will see him again some day.

Yesterday I got my dissertation bound and handed in - it sure feels great to have it all done and out of my hands!

2006-09-22T11:52:00.000+01:00

31 weeks pregnant and I'm a wopping 43 inches around the waist, my sis-in-law stretched to 48 inches so only another 5 to go to match her!

What a week, my sis-in-law from Australia (the funny bone) took ill and ended up with pneumonia so we cancelled Monday night's baby shower and had a family version of it on Tuesday which turned out to be great fun and i got plenty beautiful and also plenty practical pressies.

We are all very sad today as my sis-in-law, her beautiful baby boy and her two gorgeous wee lassies have all gone back to Australia. It has been so nice to have them all around and there was plenty of goodbye tears, I hope it won't be too long before we see them all again though her hubby will be desperately glad to have them all back home.

Also very sadly this week a friend of ours died in tragic circumstances and we are devastated at the loss, so it's been a week of ups and downs.
Baby had hiccups for the first time last Sat night - must have gone on for nearly ten minutes, I tried turning over in bed and drinking lots of water to see if that would help, he had them again during the Sunday morning service!

Good news - I finally got my exams and essay results - and I passed...horray. So just to hand in the final copy of this dissertation next week and that's me all done!

Some pics of the Australian contingent -

Sis-in-law with birthday tiara and big pants!

Baby Jonah with mummy's birthday tiara!

Natasha on the left

Ashley below - canoeing with hubby!

2006-09-15T12:22:00.000+01:00

30 weeks pregnant today (32 weeks lmp)!

I'm really feeling time dragging, I'm as big as a house and can't imagine getting much bigger.
Sorley moves constantly and I can now see my whole belly move when he does which is pretty freaky.
Good news is that I've not being getting much pain in my back or hips for a while now but I get tired sooo easily. Some women seem to be able to function pretty normally right up till birth but for me this sure isn't the case. I went up to Glasgow for a uni meeting the other day and decided to do a bit of shopping - nightwear for going into hospital in case baby decides to come early - the day totally done me in, I was so tired and had an aching tummy so went to bed when I got home and stayed there all night and until teatime the next day, only then did I start to feel right.

My sis-in-law has organised a baby shower for me for Monday night, I'd never even heard of a baby shower let alone gone to one before - not really a Scottish thing, but I'm looking forward to it!
My sis-in-law who's over from Australia cooked us dinner last night - chicken korma with cauliflower and carrots with 2 different kinds of rice - it was beautiful and I love curries, I ate more than everyone else - this eating for 2 lark works as a great excuse to have extras! I also had my nails painted silver and gold by one of my lovely Australian nieces - so it was a good night!

Baby now weighs around 4 pounds ( bigger than me when I was born prematurely weighing 3 1/2 pounds) and is 16.7 inches long. All five senses are working and baby is practicing testing these out as much as possible! Toenails are completely formed and his hair continues to grow in. Brain scans have shown that babies have periods of dream sleep (REM) starting around the eight month, I wonder what he dreams about!

2006-09-09T10:23:00.000+01:00

I've been tagged by my sis-in-law horizon with this meme:

Instructions: Grab the book closest to you.
Open to page 123.
Scroll down to the 5th sentence.
Post the text of the next 3 sentences on your blog - name of the book and the author.
Then tag 3 people.

I'm going to cheat a little since the closest books to my computer are my husband's theology commentaries! Instead I've taken the top book out of the hugh pile next to my bed which is Classic FM's One Hundred Favorite Poems edited by Mike Read - after Sylvia Plath it was the first poetry book I ever bought and I'm reading it at the moment to my unborn son.

On page 123 the 5th sentence is the start of a stanza of Keats' Ode to a Nightingate

Darkling I listen; and for many a time
I have been half in love with easeful Death.
Call'd him soft names in many a mused rhyme,
To take into the air my quiet breath;
Now more than ever seems it rich to die,
To cease upon the midnight with no pain,
While thou art pouring forth thy soul abroad
In such an ecstacy!
Still woudst thou sing, and I have ears in vain -
To thy high requiem become a sod.

Quite a poignant piece considering Keats died at the tender age of 24.

I'm now 29 weeks pregnant and have developed the itchiest rash on the top of my foot, I'm not sure if it's a pregnancy thing or not. I'm slowly getting through the house giving it a good spring clean and still quite a lot of decorating to do, I'm excited about going up to Mothercare next month to get all our stuff - I sound like a real mother-to-be now don't I! Husband put up a bike shed so we've finally got the bikes and the barbecue out of the spare room, I've organised my bookshelves and made space for all those cute little pop up books I'm going to get for Sorley. Desperately waiting for the results of an exam I sat before the summer and will be glad when this dissertation is finally handed in, I'm hoping to attend my graduation on the 30th November which I think should be okay if Sorley comes on time on the 24th!

I tag eipwek, socialworker/frustrated mom, and Pilgrims, Poets and Dreamers

2006-09-04T21:23:00.000+01:00

I've decided on a water birth!

Myself and husband went to our parenting class on Sat morning - it was on the birth.
Way too much information, a three hour class including a video and tour of the delivery room!
Originally I'd decided on a normal hospital bed birth and thought the whole water birth was a bit of a fad, but after Sat it became apparent that a bed birth looked like fairly awful experience for me.
I'm not worried about the pain - I know it's going to be pretty sore so I've just accepted that but I am a person who really values their personal space and the bed birth looked way to interfering for my liking. Appart from the obvious pain I don't want giving birth to be a bad experience.
Hubby asked the midwife if they ever had scenes like out of The Exorcist, she said that there were two types of women giving birth - those that liked to be touched throughout and those who don't and it's those who don't that end up resembling that awful film The Exorcist! Hubby and I just looked at each other - we both know I'm the second type, I hate feeling like people are crowding me in, if I'm being sick I can't stand anyone near me.
In having a water birth I'd completely have my own personal space, the midwife said that they are basically redundant during a water birth until the baby pops out, I think it would be so much more calming in the water, perhaps even for the baby, and most of all the birth would hopefully would end up being a special experience to treasure rather than a nightmare to forget!

2006-09-02T02:13:00.000+01:00

The Book Tag

Following Surroundings lead!

1.One book that changed your life?
The Way of the Modern World or, Why it's Tempting to Live As if God Doesn't Exist by Craig Gay
Long title eh?! My life was determinedly set on a political path until I read this book which made me question how I, as a Christian, ought to live in an unChristian world.

2.One book you've read more than once?
There's certainly a few I could put in here but most recently would be Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer - a personal account of the Everest disaster of 1996.

3.One book you'd want on a desert island?
Excluding the bible it would be Collected Poems by Sylvia Plath

4.One book that made you laugh?
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

5.One book that made you cry?
Ring of Bright Water by Gavin Maxwell - the death of otter Mijbil

6.One book that you wish you had written?
Jizzen by Kathleen Jamie

7.One book you wish had never been written?
Bored of the...sorry Lord of the Rings by J.R.R Tolkien

8.One book you are currently reading?
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Collected Poems 1909 - 1962 by T.S. Eliot, Constantinope by Edmondo De Amicis

9.One book you have been meaning to read?
Paradise Lost by John Milton

10.Five people I am tagging:
I'll go with Surroundings and tag no one - but No one feel free to have a go :)

2006-08-31T15:58:00.000+01:00

Been working hard on my dissertation and thank goodness it's nearly done! Having a really nice time getting to know my two wee nieces and nephew from Australia though I can't play with them as much as I would like to because I get tired so easily. So life is rather busy at the moment and Sorley is as active as ever, it's funny- every time I rub my bump then stop he gives me a wee kick until I rub it again and this can go on for a good while!
Tomatoes are good for your heart apparently, well I was never fond of them before but now I just can't get enough of them and the little dairylea cheese triangles.

Cowal Games was a washout as usual, I felt sorry for my brother, sis-in-law and their two girls who came up from England for the games. It was busy but I had a great day - this is our town at the march past in the evening where all the bands troop down the main street playing after winning their
cups etc - there are so many pipe bands that the march past starts at 6.30pm and carries on until 9pm, and then there is a big firework display set off from the pier.

2006-08-25T08:20:00.000+01:00

Wow is that the week passed already...27 weeks pregnant today (29 weeks from lmp)

Time is drawing scarily on, 5 weeks until my dissertation is due and not long before I should be thinking about packing a hospital bag.
What a busy week - my sis-in-law from Australia arrived on Monday night with her two adorable girls and baby boy, we've not seen her for eight years! My brother is up on holiday from England with his wife and their beautiful two wee girls this week also, it's been so good to see all these little darling nieces and nephews.

The big event of the year for our town happens this week - the Cowal Highland Games - which means thousands of visitors swarm our little town and literally hundreds of pipe bands march up and down our main street. It starts on the Thursday night with the sunset ceremony which has a whole bunch of events happening at the town bandstand ending with all the lights switched off except for one spotlight on lone piper playing his pipes on a balcony over everyone. The games carry on through to Sunday, we leave our windows open at night and wake up to the sound of pipes playing in the morning.
I've been away the last two years when the games have been on so I'm really looking forward to it this year especially with all the family here.

Baby's brain can now control primitive breathing and body temperatures.
His eyes can move in their sockets and soon he will be able to follow a blinking light.
Baby is increasingly sensitive to changes in light, sound, taste, and smell! Various studies show that baby may indicate preferences (or disdain) for particular tastes or odors at this stage
He is also moving from side to side, but probably still is head up. In the next few weeks, he will move to the head down birthing position.

My sis-in-law brought a mountain of baby clothes for me from Australia and I had a great time looking at them and folding them away, the little drawer set I have for Sorley is full already.

2006-08-25T08:17:00.000+01:00

The kid's not even born and already he has more clothes than me!!
Look at this cute little body vest, it's so small and these little teddybear socks!

2006-08-20T23:00:00.000+01:00

When husband was on his tracking course in Portugal he got some great photos of emu's - they are such comical looking creatures (isn't he/she cute?!), very photogenic - husband has some more pics of them on his blog, give him a wee visit here!

Had the first of our parenting classes on saturday morning, fairly interesting but the best bit was the relaxation exercise! The midwife had us all with our eyes closed and music on while telling us to relax every part of our body, I sooo wanted to giggle especially when she said "invite the organs of your abdominal captivity to release and relax" - eh??

Just when I think my belly can't possibly get any bigger I've started to get the tightening and stretching aches which means when I wake up tomorrow belly's going to be sticking out even further -argh! I'm definately finding standing a lot more wearying on my poor legs, and my pelvic bone is starting to ache with the weight - I'm starting to fear that my bones are going to crumble under the weight of this big boy!

2006-08-18T04:05:00.000+01:00

Today is week 26 (28 weeks from lmp)

Baby's eyebrows and eyelashes are now very noticeable!
The hair on his head is growing longer apparently and his eyes are now completely formed.
His body is getting plump and rounded (I know how that feels!), most of that increase is muscle tissue and bone.
"Muscle tone is improving, preparation for the Olympics feels like it is taking place in your womb" - you're not kidding, now anyone can easily feel him kick when they place their hand on my belly, he does his biggest kicks at night when I lie down as if to say "oy you're not allowed to lie down".
His lungs are capable of breathing now and he weighs around 2.2 pounds (1005gm).

I've just realised that these funny marks on my sides are stretch marks...hmm the joys of pregnancy! Over the last three nights I seem to have completely lost the ability to sleep, either my belly aches or my legs or I'm just wide awake, and trying to turn from one side to another in bed has turned into a major epic.

I'm two thirds of my way through my dissertation and will be glad to see it done, I was using husband's laptop to type it up so I could lie fairly comfortably in bed while I was doing it but after a news report the other day said that the company were recalling his make of laptop because the battery in them was exploding, kind of put me off using it - a laptop exploding on my belly, hmm not a nice thought! So now I'm sitting up at the computer all day and this belly's not too happy about it!

Fantastic spell of thunder and lightning today and the downpour was torrential, I was umm... in the coffeeshop eating scones at the time with a great view over the river Clyde!
Well it's now 4am and I'm still wide awake - think I'm going to feel pretty crap tomorrow!

2006-08-12T19:09:00.000+01:00

Yesterday was week 25 (27 from lmp) and I was in agony, this baby was crushing my ribs and I couldn't get comfortable at all! Today he has changed position a bit which is a relief for my poor ribs but I think I've seen the last of a good night's sleep for a while! I'm getting fairly big, people are surprised when I tell them I'm not due until November or not having twins!!

This week baby's brain continues its rapid growth and response to sound grows more consistent. His lungs continue to grow and prepare for functioning outside of the womb. He also continues to take small breaths and although he's only breathing in water and not air, it's still good practice for when he's born. His eyelids are now open more and he can distinguish between light and dark. He will grow over ½ inch this week alone!

Went to see Superman at the cinema the other night, it was very good and Sorley kicked his way through all the loud bits.
We have started our process of adapting the dogs to the new arrival by first of all kicking them out of the bedroom, they normally sleep at night on the floor at the bottom of our bed. So we put up a baby gate and shut them out, poor Lenny sat up all night with his chin on the gate peering over at us, and Clyde, my wee dog (pictured) paced for a good bit before eventually settling down.

The latest craving has been hot scones from our local Baptist coffee shop, smothered in butter and raspberry jam...yum! Been keeping up with a lot of fruit and I've felt the need to keep drinking loads of water which means not straying too far from the loo!!

2006-08-09T14:52:00.000+01:00

Husband flies back from Portugal tonight and am I glad! It's been a fairly stressful week without him with the panic of blood spotting that thankfully turned out to be no more serious than a urinary tract infection and seems to have cleared up anyway, some dog problems and yesterday a leaking pipe under my kitchen sink. So it's been an eventful week and I'm glad that it's finally come to an end, the only thing I have enjoyed is the double bed all to myself and my five hundred pillows! I think Sorley's head is just under my rib cage, it feels like there is a constant and rather uncomfortable pressure there.

Well I think husband's had a good week tracking in the Algarve, last year he was there for two weeks animal tracking - tracking wild boar and the Iberian lynx, this year he's going mainly for the man tracking part! This is the blurb about the course from the tracking school -
"The ancient art of tracking will be explored in detail. We will cover tracking techniques from around the world and apply it to animal tracking and some mantracking whilst having lots of practice under the beautiful skies of the Algarve region of Portugal" - sounds interesting but I'm not sure I have the patience for it!

2006-08-05T18:30:00.000+01:00

After reading this post at Surroundings I tried the challenge of writing a sonnet in 20 minutes and failed miserably, however I did eventually come up with this tongue-in-cheek sonnet (the closest to a sonnet I'll ever get!):

Sorley

A little boy is growing in my belly
he lives in black and white, his name is Sorley.
He taps me gently with his pointy elbows
and when he kicks it makes my tummy wobble.
I've seen him on the telly, I have two pictures
of him - a little parcelled peanut captured,
held captive in the dark like Jonah except
I'm not a whale however fat and adept
I am at swimming. Three months until we meet,
dear firstborn son I expect to hear you greet
us with your lungs and flailing feet and fists.
I hope that when you're born my teeth are not lost
for good after all these sweets you've forced me to eat
and the biscuits I've hidden under our living room suite.

2006-08-04T21:24:00.000+01:00

I'm not keen on poetry written in Scots - I just can't understand it, but I like this poem by Scottish poet Kathleen Jamie (from her collection Jizzen) - it has a few Scots words through it which I don't mind.

Ultrasound

Oh whistle and I'll come to ye,
my lad, my wee shilpit ghost
summonsed from tomorrow.

Second sight,
a seer's mothy flicker,
an inner sprite:

this is what I see
with eyes closed;
a keek-aboot among secrets.

If Pandora
could have scanned
her dark box,

and kept it locked -
this ghoul's skull, punched eyes
is tiny Hope's,

hauled silver-quick
in a net of sound,
then, for pity's sake, lowered.

2006-08-04T12:12:00.000+01:00

That's me 6 months pregnant! (24 weeks, 26 from LMP)
The start of my third and thankfully last trimester(according to my book but some sources date the 3rd trimester beginning at another 2-3 weeks away, but I'm sticking to my book!) - it's beginning to feel like I've been pregnant forever and I've forgotten what it's like not to be fat, and of course i can't wait to see this little kicking machine that lives inside my belly.

Sorley may weigh about two pounds now and will be 14 inches (35.6cm) in length
Although they've been sealed shut for the last few months, his eyes are opening and beginning to blink this week and the retinas begin to form.
Brain wave activity for hearing and sight begins to be detectable.
Fetal brain scans show response to touch. If I shine a light on my abdomen, baby will turn his head, which according to researchers, means his optic nerve is working.

Well husband's away this week on another tracking course, this time in Portugal - it's good that he likes hot weather because it's pretty hot where he is!
Annoyingly it looks like I've got a urine infection and have passed a couple of drops of blood while peeing, had a full check-up at the hospital this morning but will need to go back for an anti-D injection in case my blood crosses the placenta because my blood type is negative and without the injection any future child I have, if their blood type is positive my body will reject the baby. So here's drinking plenty of water and cranberry juice - yuck!
The midwife had a hard time finding his heartbeat this morning as he was moving all over the place not to mention kicking me at the same time, eventually he lay still long enough for her to measure his heartbeat and all is absolutely normal.

2006-07-31T14:37:00.000+01:00

Busy busy busy...I have a 12,000 word dissertation to write as part of my m.litt in philosophy, so far I've managed to get the first 4000 words completed - just 8000 to go...argh! It's hard to concentrate when all I keep thinking about is baby things (and food), and it's especially hard to concentrate when this wee boy is punching my insides - he's definately either a footballer or a boxer!

Authorial Dominance

Out of interest I decided to check my bookcases out (not including husband's books) after reading this post from Surroundings.
The idea is to make a list of authors whom are represented by at least 5 books on my bookshelf, and this is what I came up with:

Primo Levi
Karl Marx
Sylvia Plath
Aristotle
Kierkegaard
Hegel
Chaim Potok
Dostoyevsky
Plato
Ted Hughes
Derek Prince

hmm doesn't feel much representative of my bookcases, I guess I have a lot of books by a lot of different people instead, and most of my poetry is in collected volumes as opposed to being in 5 separate books.

2006-07-28T06:24:00.000+01:00

23 weeks pregnant today (25 from lmp)!

Baby's nostrils begin to open - there is a study out of Belfast that suggests babies at this stage have the capability of scent preferences! The nerves around the mouth and lip area are showing more sensitivity now. His swallowing reflexes are developing and dexterity is improving. Baby can make a fist and would clasp objects placed in his palm.
Sorley has now obtained an approximate length of 13.6 inches (34.6cm) and weighs 1.46 pound.

You can see a 4D video of baby at 23 weeks right down the bottom of this page - it is just amazing to watch.

It's just before 7am and I can't sleep, it's raining outside which for once I'm glad to hear because it means today might be cooler than the last couple of days. I've been like a vampire this last week - hiding in the house from the heat of the day with the curtains shut to keep the house cooler, we're not used to such hot weather in Scotland and being nearly 6 months pregnant doesn't help! Sorley's been kicking away since I got up around an hour ago, he normally likes to save the big kicks until I'm eating my dinner - it's so off putting trying to digest your food whilst your insides are getting battered!

Last night we were at a friend's birthday barbecue, it was great until around 9pm then the midges came out to feast on us, the nasty little blighters bit through my tights leaving a dozen itchy red marks all over my legs.
Today we are taking a trip across the water - taking the dog to the vets to get his yearly jags and hopefully picking up a pregnancy pillow, at the moment I have pillows scattered all over the bed in strange places trying to get comfortable but it's no working, so here's hoping to pick up a preg pillow today.

2006-07-26T09:53:00.000+01:00

Well Sorley seems to have settled into a routine - he's quiet all day and then starts kicking around 6pm onwards - I'm hoping this means he likes a lie in! Huge thunderstorm last night, the dog was driving me crazy all night - poor thing was terrified but at 3am it crossed my mind to strangle her with my pillow!
Update on the food front - I have developed the sweetest tooth imaginable, doing our shopping the other night I could easily have put a shelf load of cakes into my trolley not to mention the sweetie aisle!
Several people recommended cocoa butter for stretching belly so I finally got some from the body shop and actually it does feel great, before I was just using my usual moisturiser but the cocoa butter does seem to make the stretching feel less tight and it smells delicious! Something I'm not looking forward to is my belly button popping out, at the moment it's fairly flat but then I have a really small belly button so maybe it won't pop out.
I was reading a pregnancy magazine the other day and was thinking about preparing a birth plan - I asked J if he wanted to cut the umbilical cord, ha ha the look I got - I think I'll be lucky if he doesn't pass out during delivery!