I'm back... 6 month update!

Hello there! I have finally emerged from the fog that has been the last 6 months so I thought it was about time I revisited my much neglected blog.

So much has happened since I last posted that I don't know where to begin.

Sleep - Olivia has never really liked sleeping much but she is getting better at it! She will now nap for around 90mins if I time it right - sometimes even twice a day!! She still doesn't sleep through but I don't really see that as anything unusual for a baby of her age. She has improved quite a bit from the 2 hourly wakings and now often goes from 6pm-6am with only two wakings which isn't so bad. Grant is also doing the night feeds which obviously helps me enormously.

Milk - I have stopped breast feeding. It was a tough decision to make but in the end we went for it. I was so determined not to give formula but I was getting so exhausted that I could hardly function. I was teary, achey, moody and generally not doing very well so we decided that switching would be the best thing.

I am proud that I pretty much exclusively breast fed for 5 months and I do wish at times that I had carried on for longer. We stopped a bit more suddenly than I had planned as once Olivia had had a bottle during the day she no longer had the patience to wait for let down! Then we stopped night feeds so she's sleep a bit longer - we've gone from me getting up 3-5 times in the night to Grant feeding her before he comes to bed then once more during the night which is a much better situation (for me anyway!).

Food - We started weaning about a month ago when Olivia was about 5.5 months old. She was showing all the signs of being ready - great hand to mouth coordination, sitting up well in the high chair and wanting to join in when I was eating. She seems to love her food which is great.

I decided that we would use the baby led weaning approach (loosely) as it seemed a much more natural and instinctual way of feeding. I also didn't like the idea of spending ages concocting purees for her when she could just eat what ever I was having (mostly). I do spoon feed her some foods - ready break and yoghurt for example but she also takes the spoon and feeds herself too.

So far she has eaten most things I have given her, except egg which she doesn't seem to care for. She'll eat sandwiches which amazes parents of babies who were/are puree weaned, however she does dismantle them first! Roast beef has probably been her favourite thing so far, closely followed bu courgette fritters which I made for lunch today and were gobbled up with hardly any dropped - I enjoyed them too and they were so easy to make, I'll put the recipe below.

Crawling - Olivia is crawling! I think 6 months is quite early for this but as she has always been a big baby I think she has a bit more strength than she would have had if she was smaller. It's great to see her zooming across the floor but scary how suddenly everything is hazardous and I have to watch her so closely - I might get a plan pen but not sure how she'd react to it after having the run of the sitting room.

House - we are still in a one bed roomed flat at the moment which means Olivia is still in our room - not ideal! However we are moving at the end of the month into a 3 bed roomed semi-detached house!!! I won't know what to do with all the extra space but I'm sure we'll fill it in no time at all. It is extra exciting because we are buying not renting for the first time ever.

Courgette Fritter Recipe:

It's a bit rough as I couldn't remember the recipe I found!

makes approx 8 fritters:

Grate a courgette and squeeze out all the moisture, mix in 1 egg and about a table spoon of plain flour and a dash of milk - add more or less milk and flour to get a thick pancake batter.

Heat a frying pan up with a small amount of oil, dollop in a large spoon of the mix and squash down to make roundish patties. Fry until coloured on both sides - careful with the thickness otherwise they won't cook all the way through.

We had ours with a fried egg as it was brunch but they would go well with lots of things - you could also add herbs to give a bit more flavouring.

Christmas is coming!

I'm so excited about Christmas, I love this time of year! As I've said in a previous post, I have done all of my shopping, although still waiting for a few deliveries - grr!

I have also decorated the tree and wrapped quite a few presents.

This year I made my first Christmas cakes - one for my mum and one for Grant's mum. I don't actually like Christmas cake but enjoy baking so thought I'd offer my services. My cake decorating skills are a little basic though!

Salt and Sugar

People keep asking me if I've had any cravings yet and so far I haven't had any weird and wonderful cravings for anything specific (apart from mashed potato but think that was just because it was easy to stomach during my 1st trimester).

Lately however, I have noticed a definite trend towards sugary and salty snacks. I sent Grant out to buy me dairy milk last week and pork scratchings this week, I seem drawn to the olive counter in the supermarket and can't resist the freshly cooked chocolate cookies.

Normally I get my sweet fix from fresh fruit, which I still love and get plenty of, but it just doesn't quite cut it at the moment. As for the salty stuff, I don't really eat much normally at all, which makes me think maybe it's signalling a deficiency in something... must look it up on google!

Right, I'm now off to find some chocolate!

Sunday Baking

I love to bake; it gives me such a sense of happiness and achievement to take ingredients and turn them into something completely different. I'm no master baker but I do pride myself on making really good sponge cakes, especially fairy cakes (I refuse to call them cupcakes!).

Yesterday, as Grant was watching endless football on TV, I decided to spend the afternoon making some cakes. I made some choc chip ones and some plain ones with lemon icing. They turned out really well except that the choc chips all sank to the bottom of the cakes - need to work out how to stop this happening - but they still taste good. I revisited my childhood with the icing and used bright colours and hundreds of thousands.

So much for having a healthy day! We ate quite a few of the cakes and then felt very fat for the rest of the day - I also think the sugar affected my sleep as I hardly slept a wink.

It was worth it though!

The pictures aren't great but you get the jist!

Health in Pregnancy

I've always been quite a healthy eater; I try and get at least my 5 a day in and steer clear of 'empty' calories - and if anything I have become more health concious since becoming pregnant as I want to give my baby the best possible start in life.

There are always times however when this all goes out the window, generally at the weekend, when meal times are less obvious and brunch merges into afternoon tea and the lure of a take away for supper is all too great.

Yesterday was one such occasion. We had very little food in the house, certainly nothing green or fresh and having spent the day snacking on carbs and home made flapjacks, we decided that a take away was a better idea than trying to put together a meal from our meagre supplies. Normally we would go for a curry as its our number one choice of take away food and we have a vast amount of really decent curry houses nearby. Being pregnant however, leaves me feeling less enthusiastic about our favourite so we decided to try a Chinese take away instead.

We have a cupboard in our kitchen which is full of the take away menus that get pushed through the front door, unfortunately only one was for a Chinese which meant we had very little choice.

So we ordered, they delivered and we ate. I'm now feeling hugely dehydrated which I put down to the MSG that was no doubt laced throughout everything. The sauces were ok at first bite but then we were hit with a chemical undertone that really shouldn't have been there! I think it's safe to say we won't be getting Chinese take away again any time soon!

I have decided that today I will be healthier - maybe not weekday healthy but I will definitely try to eat at least some of my five a day. At least I won't be tempted to eat any flapjacks - I've already finished them for breakfast!!