A week in my life - Monday

I got the idea to blog everyday for a week about what I get up to from Kat and Jenifer who did this in the last couple of weeks, it takes a lot of dedication and I can only hope I'm organised enough!  All of these photos are taken on my iPhone, which explains why most of them are portrait.

So here we go, at 6:30 this smile woke me up.  Eilidh and I were sleeping in the spare room because she woke up about six times during the night and this was the best way for the both of us to get some real sleep.  As 6:30 is far too early I fed her and we went back to sleep till 7:45, result!

This was the view from our window, a promising day!

 We came downstairs and Eilidh played in her playpen while I made a strawberry and banana smoothie for breckie, nom nom.

 Chicken had peanut butter on toast, she really loves her food and so far she's eaten anything we're given her.

 And this is the mess on the floor after she's finished her toast.  The stones are on a shower curtain that I put under the high chair to catch the mess, an essential piece of kit!

 After toast she has yoghurt, she's dropping her milk feeds quite quickly so I want to make sure she gets enough calcium in her diet.  Somewhere in all of this, Andrew got up, had breakfast, made his lunch and left for work.

 Now normally around two hours after she wakes up Chicken needs a sleep but today at 9:15 she looked like she was going to conk out in the playpen so instead of starting my exercise DVD (which she loves to watch me do, apparently I'm hilarious!) we went upstairs for a drink and a snooze.  However despite being in a grump, rubbing her eyes and making 'I'm tired' noises nothing seemed to convince her to snooze.  After an hour of getting quite frustrated (on both sides) I gave up on the DVD and we headed out for a power walk.

 Five minutes from our house is a public footpath through some farms, and for an hour I walked through the fields while Chicken got her sleep.

 She woke up about five minutes from home and spent the time looking up at me, no body around to make smiles at I guess.

 It was about 11:30 by the time I got home so I fixed our lunch, Cauliflower and broccoli cheese to start and then pear and blueberry puree for pudding.

 And for me, ham and cheese on a homemade roll.  Andrew fancies himself as a bit of a bread baker on the weekends.

 Again, one happy customer!

 I had a shower after this (this is not normal for me, I'm usually dressed by 9:30 most mornings) and we sat down to play until 2pm, when the baby weigh clinic started.  However, once again our plans didn't quite work out.  Eilidh decided about 1:30 that she wanted a nap so we snuggled on the couch for what I would have expected to be 45 mins or so, but not today.  Today she slept till 4:15!! I couldn't believe it, this is not like her at all. On the plus side, I got to blob and watch a Kardashian marathon on E!  When she woke I gave her a feed and we headed out to the shops, having missed the weigh in.

 Eilidh loves going out and seeing people, she flashes them her big smile and I get stopped at least twice every time we got out, but not today, today she was making funny noises and becoming agitated so I did what any mum would do, I bribed her with a snack!

When we got home Chicken played in her playpen aka the cage while I got her dinner ready.  At the moment her favourite thing is for me to fill the pot with toys and then she goes through them all one by one, easily pleased huh! 

 At 6:15 I fed Chicken her dinnner, homemade spaghetti bolognese and peach rice pudding, and a pre-dinner G&T for me!  Andrew arrived home half way through dinner and did his best to distract her, lol!  I

And thats where the photos stop I'm afraid, I cleaned up Eilidh and got started with dinner while her and Andrew played for a while.  At 7pm Andrew took her up for a bath and I went up to give her her last fed and by 7:30 it was lights out for our wee girl.  I finished cooking, chicken and artichoke casserole that was supposed to have cabbage in it but someone (not me) didn't buy any at the Farmers market yesterday, despite being asked, hehe.  We ate and then settled down on the couch for internet, blogging, and sky TV, good times!  Blogger was being super slow so its taken an hour an a half to upload photos and write this post, so at 10:30 I am off to bed, night night!

Food glorious food!

About eight weeks ago we started weaning Chicken, that is introducing solid foods.  The NHS here suggests introducing foods at six months but as I've found out, not many people stick to that and will begin between four to six months.  This has changed since I was a baby (1980) because my mum found my baby records and the nurse suggested mashed banana at three months - which might explain why at 6 months I was two pounds heavier than Chicken!!  Anyway, I'm getting side tracked, people say I do that easily, ooohh shiny things!

We (well I, Andrew lets me make these decisions so far) decided to go down the puréed food route and I bought Annabel Karmel's book to give me some ideas and promptly set off to the supermarket to buy half of the fruit and vegetable aisle (not quite but you know...)  First up was apple.  Lets just say that apple wasn't a huge hit, she'll eat it now but its definitely not her favourite.  I think one of the reasons for the screwed up faces was that Chicken didn't quite know what we were doing, but once she did, well things have taken off!

Firstly we tried pears, sweet potatoes and apples mixed with baby porridge.  The porridge was great because it made the food more palatable, sweeter and creamier if you get my drift.  She also occasionally had the baby porridge by itself.  At this stage we were only have one or two meals a day.

A few weeks into this I added mashed banana, peas, carrots, blueberries, and baby fromage frais. all of which she's loved!  The only thing that hasn't gone down well  has been this fancy yoghurt I got from the farmers market as a treat, turns out my kid doesn't like posh food!!!

Now all this home made mush is all well and good at home but when we are out  and about I use pouches like  these and to start with only vegetable dishes.  A pouch will last for two meals, and while it isn't cheap, its not super expensive either, and there are lots of great flavours! (in the scale of things)

A couple of weeks ago I decided that it was time to move to three meals a day, and I have to say, my world seems to revolve around feeding my baby, possibly even more so than when she was a new born.  Back then, all I had to do was whip out a boob, but now I have to cook, serve, clean up (way, way too much cleaning up!) and also breast feed in-between, busy busy!

I have to say though, Chicken loves her food!  She gobbles it all up (bar the fancy schmancy yoghurt) and often squawks for more.  This week we've branched out and I made rice pudding and cauliflower cheese, and tomorrow I'm making cheesy fish pie and fish and sweet potato mash.  The opportunities are endless!  There is only one downside, and I think its the first time I've been sad that my baby is growing up.  I'm sad that I'm not the one feeding her any more, perfectly natural I'm sure but sad nonetheless.  Anyway, talk to me in six months when she's walking, four years when she's going off to school, eighteen years when she's going off to university etc etc, and then I'll be sad that she's growing up!

These photos are from Chicken's first feed, sooo much has changed, she now gobbles up all food!  PS Check out Andrew's facials!