One potato, two potato...

Weighed in at 15lb 2oz. Helen told me to expect a slower weight gain from now, Dylan has apparently grown into big boy range...

I told her about the way he follows each mouthful we eat, how he grabs for food, how we wake two or three times through the night to feed - All apparently signs of baby heading for weaning. So mum and I headed out and brought some baby rice.

HE LOVED IT!!!

We then had a try with mash potato.....

Need I say more

Please sir can I have some more


I felt a little bit lost - is this him leaving me, am I now redundant...

Food Glorious food

Went for our weekly weigh in... 14lb 15 oz.



A great weight gain for the little man. Spoke to Helen about his recent need to feed twice, sometimes three times through the night, about his following us with his eyes and opening his mouth as we put food in ours...

all positive signs of a baby wanting more food... weaning has begun!

Mum and I purchased some baby rice and started the process.

HE LOVED IT...

I felt a little lost. Is this the end of our bond, is this him leaving me, no longer needing me? God Im needy - lol!!!

The Dillons came a visiting.

Penny, Dillon, Colm and Ady came visiting because of space in the caravan and the situation K and I are in it was decided that I would stay with mum and dad for the weekend.

I was happy with this as it meant I would continue to benefit from their care and attention, but wasnt too sure how Penny and Dillon would react to it.

Long story short apart from the constant too-ing and fro-ing it worked really well. K had Dylan time, in two hourly batches - pretty much as much as K seems to handle. Penny was a real star and organised all the picnics and food. It was strange to "visit" the caravan and having the mess of two young children made my fingers twitch each time I visited, but I got my anality under wraps and managed to sit on my hands.

I organised for mum and dad to baby sit on Saturday night, meaning to spend some time with Penny and Dillon enjoying a glass of wine or two, but at 8.30pm dad called saying simply "come home".

Apparently Dylan had been as happy as Larry sitting on the table with mum and dad in his wee chair, whilst they ate. Dad pulled his sock off and Dylan looked at him as if to say 'you dont do that', looked at my mum and burst in to tears. He then proceeded to cry for the next hour and a half.

When I walked through the door his little arms flew up and he greeted me with a tear stained smile. He snuggled into me, smiling and googling at mum and dad. Within minutes he was settled in his cot and fast asleep. Dad shook his head mumbling "I dont believe it, he was a totally different baby before you came".

I returned to the caravan and enjoyed a game of 'pass the bomb' but I stayed off the wine, just in case.

The Dillons seemed to have a fab time - the glorious weather allowed us to spend time BBQ-ing and sitting on the beach



sandcastles



and water fights ensued.

Pots and pancakes

Today we met up with the girls from NCT at a lovely little cafe called pots and pancakes - it kinda does what it says on the tin. You can make your own pots and have pancakes. It was a lovely way to spend the morning and I ended up spending a silly amount - lets not go there.

I made a picture frame for NannySan and Gandie, a mug for Keefe and a little tile with all the babies foot prints on. We had so much fun and Annette took some lovely pics, here's just a few....


Fiona and Thomas


Jo and Naiomi


Me and the wee bloke

Dylan was an absolute star and the prints me and mum had done earlier obviously gave him the upper hand, or foot, cause he was all smiles and stretched toes, flirting with the lady who was doing the painting.



Jo reckons he has definitely been here before, I'm coming to believe her. At the end of the morning it was all too much and the wee guy just had to have a little nap.

Birthday celebrations.

It was my birthday yesterday - 36 - more importantly it was my Papa's as well and he was a jolly fab 60. After attempting to organise a surprise party and then canceling it we decided to settle on a family meal.

The usual ohhing and ahing went on to decide which restaurant we would go to, but then it was decided because of Dylan to stay in and have a take away at mums. So my older brother, Shaun and his girlfriend Jo joined me, K and Dylan at my mum and dads to celebrate our birth day.

Dylan obviously didn't go down - he was far too excited at seeing Shaun and Jo again and NannySan just cannot let him sleep, far too much to see in the house and the garden. The little man joined us at the table and he was offered various foods to try.

It didn't seem to matter how much I said no, please don't, odd tidbits still found there way on fingers to his mouth. We discovered he loves carrot, hates spinach and adores strawberry cheese cake - dad dipped his dummy into his cake and announced "its my birthday and my grandson will have some of my cake".

Have to admit the photo said it so much better than I can.



This morning Shaun and Jo came for a visit, primarily to say goodbye and ended up taking Dylan for a walk. Their present to me was to give me two hours to sleep - BLISS!!!

No milk

For reasons I don't really want to go into my milk dried up this week. It was emotional stress and I didn't really think that it would affect me the way it did, literally overnight I went from producing lots to producing nothing.

Dylan would lie at my breast chewing on nothing, sucking and crying - I had to supplement his feeds with formula, which really annoyed me, cause its not been easy to get to where I am with his feeds, but I couldn't go on not giving him anything.

I did what all the books recommend and fed him as often as he demanded it, expressing what I could in between times. It was hard and I tried as hard as I could to not cry in front of the little guy. I have to say that I really believe he knew something was wrong, he has been so gentle and cuddly these last few days.

I guess I really just blocked out my own emotions, going with the "I need to feed my baby" thing. It seemed to work, luckily my milk kicked back in about five days after the whole drama thang, its not back to normal, I'm still struggling to express but on the whole I'm feeling better than I did before, I know I can get through this and what's important is I've been able to continue feeding the wee man.

Rollie Polly Baby

I got the shock of my life this morning. When I do my bits and pieces around the caravan I have been propping Dylan up on the sofa, surrounding him with cushions. He's never very far from me and until this morning showed no sign whatsoever of moving.

This morning I stood up and crossed the caravan - all of 15ft - to get his nappy changing stuff, suddenly there was a thump and the loudest scream I have ever heard. I turned to find Dylan on the floor upside down screaming his little heart out, I dropped everything I had in my hands and dashed back to him, picking him up and holding him as close to me as possible. Before I knew it the tears were streaming down my face and I was repeatedly appologising and kissing the little guy.

His tears dried up before mine!

First roll and first fall all in one day - my little boy is growing up!

Leaving the wee man.

So the weekend finally arrived. I've been dreading this weekend, that sounds awful because it was a weekend of celebration - Jayney and Joe were getting married - but it was also the weekend that I was going to be leaving Dylan for the first time. Its only been four months since he came into my life, but its changed me so much and I knew that even though he was staying with Shaun and Jo the leaving would be hard.

Jo and I spent Saturday acclimatising Dylan. No problems with Jo and Dylan bonding, he smiled continually and eagerly went to her for cuddles. Gone was the stranger danger, so much so that I even felt a pang of jealousy as he cooed at her, offering his best smiles - the tiny flirt! Jo changed him, fed him (expressed milk) and I took a back seat. It was hard!

Both Shaun and Jo seemed to find new ways of entertaining the little man. Shaun's beard and league of gentleman impressions were a continuous source of fun and Jo happily started the "sticking your tongue out" lessons.



Sunday morning arrived and K and I started to dress for the wedding. I had to apply my make up twice because of the tears. Finally with make up intact I headed down stairs to hand over my son.

The tears started again and K, Shaun and Jo all laughed at me. I cant explain the anxiety I felt. I knew that he would be looked after, Shaun and Jo both love him to bits, but there was still a part of me that kept screaming at me not to leave. Luckily Dylan has been put down to sleep so I wasn't forced to see his little face as we left.

The day itself was lovely, Jayney filled the day with her immutable style.



Boats on rivers, bride and goom meeting the guests before the wedding and old buses to ferry us around.

I cried several times when talking to folks about Dylan and by 5pm had to run off to Aunty Muriels hotel room to express - boobs like rugby balls - all in all though the day was great. I got drunk and ended up spending the whole night away from Dylan. God was it great to see him in the morning. Not only were my boobs sore as I'd only managed to express the once but my hormones were rampant and I couldn't wait to hold and smell him.

Parting is such sweet sorrow, god knows how I'm going to deal with going back to work.

Visiting Folks

Its amazed me how busy I have been whilst I have been on maternity leave. I kinda thought it would all be nappies and sitting at home watching TV. I even had plans to do my ECDL certificate but I've spent most of my days visiting and being visited by people.

Sue is one of the people I have visited with often, she has two lovely children, Eleanor and Matthew, and is full of useful information and anecdotes.


Sue Dylan and Matthew

Dylan adores her and smiles all the time when she is around.


She always leaves me feeling as if "I can do this" and I'm grateful for the growing friendship that has been slowly groaning with the passing months.

This lazy way of filling your days seemed alien at first. The idea of going to someone's house for tea, of having the time to sit and talk - primarily about nothing - but just chatting enjoying someone's company was a strange privilege I had never enjoyed.

It's part of my maternity leave I'm going to regret having to give up but I can foresee the time coming when I have to rush round doing "stuff" on my days off rather than enjoying the company of friends.

Mr Pearl came visiting.

Mr P has been in my life since 1994 - he is my positive wizard. He is far from perfect, he would admit this on one of his good days and deny it on a bad, but he has always offered me truth and honesty - even when its not what I want to hear.

He came back to Blighty to attend a wedding and did his usual "flit" up North to see us. I spent most of his time here discussing life, love and the universe. He gave me some things to ponder and spent the rest of his time waiting for Dylan to do something more than smile, sick-up and poop.

He isnt a baby person


and Im pretty certain Dylan picked up on this.

But after a day or so the two of them formed a strange your a baby and Im going to talk to you like an adult friendship.



I managed to snap him a couple of times, creating photographic evidence, of T communing with Dylan.



It was lovely to see him!

Oww - Why is there no big book?

Just when I think I have it sussed my wee man changes the rules and I'm left floundering again. For the last couple of weeks - months - we have had a kind of routine. From Dylan's perspective it goes something like this:

Wake at 7ish, feed and get my nappy changed. Mommie has breakfast, I go in my bouncy chair. We play.
9 oclockish - tired eyes, yawning - Nap time. Usually for 30 mins.
10.15: Feed time,
10.30: My favourite time of the day - NAKED TIME! I wiggle and giggle, jiggle and squirm, I usually wee all over the mat, preferably if mummy isn't looking.
12ish: Tired eyes, yawning, start to snuggle with mommie, but generally get put in the cot. Hmm big sleeps time.
2pmish: I'm awake mummy - come get me.
2.30: Feed time, nappy change, bit of NAKED TIME, play time!
4pmish - tired eyes, yawning - Hmmm a quick nap please mommie.
5.15: Yummy more milk please, then sing to me again. Where's Ollie, My teeth hurt, Snuggle!
5.45: Here comes daddy - He's so silly.
6ish Bath time with Daddy - Boy I like to splash.
6.15: More milk mummy.
6.30: Story time - what's Winnie the pooh up to tonight?
7ish: Boy I'm tired - show me to the bedroom mamma.

All sounds fairly perfect and I have to say that I was feeling a little smug. This last week though he had decided to completely change the routine, he wakes when he was sleeping, he fights the sleeping, crying and tensing his body till he goes red in the face and his feeding is nothing but sporadic and erratic.

I'm not sure what to do. Just let him go through the phase or try to instill the old routine. The thing that's really got me concerned is that he only put an ounce on this week.

Where is my big "this is how to bring a baby up" book!!!!

Weigh in - 20th June

He just keeps getting bigger...

He just keeps getting better.


13lbs 6ounces.

Gardening with Nannysan

Today I watched in delight as mum took Dylan out into the garden and introduced her latest love, her grandson, to her long time love, her garden.



He giggled and cooed as she showed him flowers with smells and colours to blow his little mind. His first instinct was to eat whatever she showed him, but he seemed to enjoy the sensations.





I was reminded of the country walks we used to take as children, when she would name the flowers and trees and we would spend hours collecting treasures of leaves, stones and sticks - each one shown to her with love.

It started me thinking about how soon I would have to return to work - a real downer - but knowing that Dylan will be staying with mum makes the decision slightly easier. He will have a great teacher!

Weigh in - 12th June

Blooming fab - 12lb 15oz.

Walking with Ruth.

Ruth and I have both decided its time to tackle the body bulges that have come with babies. So we are going to try and meet up once, if not twice, every week to go for a walk. We did so today, both of us pounding the pavement.

We have discovered that we both used to play squash, we both used to run and we both used to be involved with AmDram. All things we are going to get back involved with - once we find the time!!!

Josh (8weeks) has had a weight gain problem but is now growing fabtastically

Maiden Voyage

Today the sun woke us so I decided to walk the six miles to Blyth to meet mum and dad at the harbor. Dad has a small boat moored up and was doing the yearly clean out.

The walk up was fantastic, if a little windy, Dylan slept most of the way. I tried the pram out on the beach - quite successful on the hard sand but hard going on the soft stuff.

Sadly the good weather didn't hold out and when we reached the harbor the Fret (sea mist) had come in and it was warm weather gear all round.


Me and Gandie


Gandie, Jessie, NannySan and Me.

Hooch was complaining the other day that all the pics on this site showed Dylan smiling and looking cute - LOL - So this one is for her!



It wasn't until I got home that I realised I had the camera set on the wrong settings so all the pics from this day were just a little bit blurry - DOH!!!

A standie up baby

Dylan over the last couple of weeks has become a real standie up baby, he no longer wants to lie on his back, content no more is my wee man to observe the world from the horizontal position, he has to be up, on his legs, pushing himself verticle with a grin and a giggle.

He is still a little wobbly and is a long way from walking, but at 3 months he is desperate to get going.

On his last visit home Nannysan and Gandie decided he NEEDED a bouncer



and boy does he enjoy it.

Our latest song.

I spend most days talking to Dylan in a sing song voice, just using words, the more words the better! He gurgles back at me and occasionally has a conversation with one of his stuffed toys. Usually Ollie octopus currently is favourite, he has such handy legs to suck!

This morning I created our latest song...

Olie octopus he's my friend
Our fun together never ends
He's red and yellow
Green and blue
He says hello
How do you do

Daisy Donkey she's my friend
Our fun together never ends
She's got pink ears and
Gre-een feet
She says Oh Dylan
You sure are sweet

Daffid book octopus he's my friend
Our fun together never ends
He's got crinkly ears
and lots to see
He says I love you
1, 2, 3

Perhaps not Ivor novello level, but it makes Dylan smile.

Weigh in - Tue 6th June

Walked Dylan down to Whitleybay clinic today, the sun was shining and I got blisters - need better foot wear.

Helen, the lovely health visitor, weighed the little man and he came in at a bouncing 12lbs 6ounces, all going well, he is doing great. Helen was really impressed with the way he is holding his head, she couldn't believe it when he actually attempted to stand.

He has over the last week or so become a real standy up baby, he hates being on his back, very nosy - a bit like his mum!

Took Dylan to see his nannysan and gandie - they needed a fix. He smiles so much when he is with both of them its a joy to see.

NCT Gang

Today we met up with the NCT girls I did the classes with. All except Ruth and Josh were present and it was lovely to chat and discuss our babies and their little idiosyncrasies. Dylan is the oldest, by a whole two weeks, closely followed by Thomas (Mummy Fiona), Josh (Mummy Ruth), Orla (Mummy Annette) and Naomi (Mummy Jo).

We decided in the headiness of chocolate biscuits and coffee to take a pic each time we meet up - just to log the little ones growing. So here they are - the NCT Gang.


Dylan, Thomas, Orla, Naomi


Thomas, Orla and Naomi

Dylan looks huge in comparison to Orla and Naomi - a real little bruiser - Bless!