Madame's Monday Update

Madame attacks a blueberry pancake

Dear Jocelynne,

It has been another crazy week with teething, you have two more new teeth number 8 and 9. We also had two trips to the doctors this week one for a cough I was worried might be a chest infection (turns out your fine) another for really bad diaper rash which turned out to be a yeast infection. The rash was the hardest part as your cried and screamed ever time I tried to change your diaper, it made me feel like the meanest mother in the world.

The teething has made sleeping a little interesting, Tuesday night Daddy took you and Mama for a long drive to get you to sleep and after you had been asleep for over an hour we brought you home but you decided to wake up. Mama was so glad that Daddy took over and got you to sleep because she was so tired at that point she pretty much passed out on the bed and fell asleep herself.

Grandma Kay watched you for the first time on Saturday so Mama and Daddy could go out for a bit. It only lasted for about an hour till you woke up and decided that you were not going to be soothed by Grandma and Mama and Daddy came home luckily we had not gone far so we go back in ten minutes.

You have become so vocal and in addition to random shrieks and gobbledy gook you now make repetitive da-da-da sounds and every now and again ma-ma-ma sounds.

Fingers crossed now that those teeth have cut through Mama and Daddy can get a few nights of sleep.

I love you so much

Mama

Madame's Monday Update

Dear Jocelynne,

You never slow down these days, you just go go go. Whether you are rolling all over the living room trying to find something you shouldn’t to get into (amazingly you can do this is less than two seconds) or shovelling food in your mouth, or learning new skills it is non stop with you. You love everything that is loud or lights up or flashes or moves. Mama has a hard time thinking of new and fun things for you to do and tries her best to rotate your toys over a few days so things seem new and exciting. I have resorted to pulling out cooking ware just to keep you occupied.

Sometime I think you should have been a younger sister as you love to watch older kids play and love it more when they entertain you. You love to go to Lynda’s house and play with Issy who is four and Amelia who is two months older than you. You also love going to Grandma Kay’s house and playing with your cousins who are eight and five. This weekend we took you to Daddy’s best friend Tina’s house for the first time in a long while and her girls Holly four and Shauna almost 11 had a great time with you.

Not only do you stand now but you have in the last few day started to stomp your feet and today while at your friend Ivy’s house you started to take a step or two going forward while holding Mama’s hands I was so proud of you.

Our nursing relationship is changing as well you are learning to eat so well and have started to nurse less. It is bittersweet in some ways I am ready to start getting my body back as my own and in other ways it is hard knowing this is the beginning of a still long road to the end of nursing.

I love you

Mama

7 Months

Dear Jocelynne,

What a month it has been in some respects I think it has been the hardest month that you and I have faced. You had a really hard time adjusting to the time change when we got back from the US and this stressed Mama out because she adjusted faster so we were on different schedules. Mama was not getting enough sleep which is never a good thing.

Just about the time you started settling back into a decent nap and night time routine you decided to start teething. You went from no teeth to cutting seven teeth in just over two weeks. I guess you decided you needed seven teeth when you hit seven months you have four teeth on the top (the front two and one either side) and three on the bottom (the front two and one to the right side). It looks like your eye teeth are also close to coming through on the top.

Needless to say the teething really messed up your sleep again and also made you grisly during the day which was not the best combo when I was sleep deprived. We made it though some days we both cried. What helped me get through was the fact that even in the worst of the teething you would have some of the happiest moments, you would start laughing at something and you would just get hysterical with your laughter, big huge belly laughs while you kicked you feet.

You also finally decided you were ready to sit with out throwing yourself backwards after 30 seconds. You love to sit now and will happily sit and play with you toys on your mat for long periods of time. Within days of picking up sitting you decided you wanted to stand and now you want someone to help you stand ALL the time. You like to stand holding onto the furniture but are not really steady enough yet to do it safely so you and I spend a good portion of our day working on your stability.

You love to give kisses which are actually more like being slimmed but I love the fact that you love to do it. You have a new trick if I am holding you but not paying you enough attention, you reach up and gently pat my face until I look down at you, and then you smile at me and tell me a “story”.

You are getting so good at eating food you love pears, rice cakes, rusks, oranges, courgette (zucchini) fritters, cucumber, carrots, cheesy vegetable nuggets, potato wedges, sweet potato wedges and ham egg and cheese omelettes. I love watching you learn to eat; it makes me so happy that other than bananas you have not really refused any food.

This may have been the hardest month that you and I have faced so far but in some regards it has been the happiest too. You know when I need to see you smile, and you have decided you are a daddy’s girl and are quite happy to chill with Daddy for a few hours on his days off so Mama can head out for some me time. You are becoming more independent every day and while most of the time you would rather be down on the ground creating havoc than having a kiss and a cuddle it makes me proud to see you entertaining yourself.

You teach me to chill out all the time. Like giving up your pacifier cold turkey at less than 5 months old, even though I worried we would have to have it surgically removed when you went to college. I can’t tell you how much I worried about giving up the pacifier and all for nothing. Now that your teeth have come through you have decided that you will go back to decent naps and with a little guidance from Mama are back in your cot and starting to settle at night better, so I guess the hours of worry over the last two weeks that you might never go back to your cot and that you were going to wake every hour all night until you were 12 years old were useless as well.

I am so glad everyday (even the ones I cry) that I am your Mama and each new trick you come up with delights me beyond belief I hope that 7 months will be just as good or better than 6 months.

Love,

Mama

Happy Birthday Daddy

From someone who thinks the world of you!



And not forgeting Uncle Frank who shares the same great looks and birthday as daddy.

Fitness Fridays

Man nothing like six weeks in another country and a six hour time change to kick your butt when you try to get back to normal. I have been going to my weekly weigh ins and meetings I just have not been able to find the time to sit down and blog about it.



The new ProPoints plan that I hinted at before I left for the US that I was worried was too fiddly has been becoming second nature slowly. In some ways it is more time consuming but I don't notice as much anymore and it seems to be working so I guess that is the important thing.



So before Fitness Fridays too a holiday break I was down to 170.5lbs, I managed over the holidays not only to maintain but some how (who knows how) even loose .5lb so that at my first weigh in when I got back to the UK I was 170lbs.



Now before I mention how much I have lost in the last two weeks I want to mention something that has played a huge part in it. Madame has always shown some signs that she might be dairy and soy intolerant. It is not a huge deal most kids out grow dairy and soy intolerance and I was dairy intolerant as a child so there is a family history. After accidentally giving her some oatmeal that had a soy emulsifier in it the week we got back she had a big problem and I decided to cut dairy and soy out of my diet to see if it would clear up so other issues she has been having. I bring this up in regards to weight loss because dairy and soy are in everything and especially in processed foods so it has pretty much meant that I have had to cut ALL crap out of my diet. I can still eat a healthy diet and my diet is probably healthier for cutting out the crap. I am getting plenty of lean protein, carbs, vegetables, and fruits just not a lot of chemicals I can't pronounce anyways.



So after almost two weeks with out dairy and soy I have lost 7.5lbs bringing me down to 162.5. I don't expect to be loosing around 3lbs a week every week I think it was just cutting out all the crap and now my body will start to balance out again and I think I will go back to a healthy weigh loss of up to 2lbs a week.



With this large chunk of weight loss I have also hit another milestone. I have lost more than 10% of my body weight. Weight Watchers breaks your weight loss down into small goals you start with 5% then 10% and then your goal weight which is between 20-25 BMI. I have to say that while every week I lost weight felt good but hitting 10% really feels good. I am starting to see it and feel like it is starting to show. While what other people see and say is not the most important thing it is nice to hear the compliments from friends and family about how good I am looking.



On a not as happy note between the really truly crappy weather and trying to get Madame back into the swing of things here in the UK there have been very few walks and none of the epic proportion I was doing before the holiday season. I have been a little rebellious and refused to put my pedometer on as I don't want to be disappointed with the totals each evening after being cooped up in the house all day due to monsoon like rain. The most excitement Madame and I get these days and going up and down the aisles at the supermarket. I am blah I miss my walks and I really don't want to find another way to exercise. There is no point in me trying formulate a plan until I am done moaning and complaining about the state of affairs so for the moment exercise has gone down the tube. Hoping for some nice weather or some inspiration in that department.

6 Months

Jocelynne you are six months old today I have not idea how we have made it through half a year as it seems both just like yesterday they laid your squishiness on me moments after you were born and also like a life time ago.

You gained 4lbs in the six weeks that we were staying with Grandpa and Grandma America (I think they were sneaking you pork pies while I wasn’t looking!) and are up to 18lbs 6oz. You have jumped from the 50th percentile to the 90th percentile for weight but I am not too worried once you figure that crawling out you will probably slim down again!

You roll all over the place like you have always done it. You can sit on your own but fail to see the point as it means you have to be stationary so Mama has to watch you like a hawk until you learn how to safely get out a sitting position and back on the ground. Grandma America taught you to blow raspberries while we were in the US and you do it constantly now. When I go in to get you up in the morning the first thing you do is look up smile at me and then blow a raspberry, then you giggle to your self almost like you know you have done something funny.

Nothing is safe from your grasp of death! If you can reach it you grab it and if we are walking by something you want you make a lunge for it, sometimes getting lucky and sometimes just keeping Mama on her toes. You are trying your best to throw yourself off your changing table at every change, it is like you get a bout of the wiggles and CAN NOT stay still every time I go to change your diaper. I don’t mind the wiggles so much I just don’t want you to find a way throw your self off the table.

Your sleep is a mess since we have come back from the US but it has only been a week since we got back and last night we had a small victory in getting you to sleep the whole night in the crib and from midnight you only woke to feed so I am hoping it is a break through and not just a fluke.

You have started Baby Led Weaning and so far you have had potato and sweet potato wedges, rice rusks, oatmeal, cucumber, sweet pickles, bananas, and carrots. You were not a huge fan of the bananas but I think that was more that they made your hands sticky than the taste.

You are pretty much out of 3-6 month clothes and have started wearing 6-9 month clothes and some 9 month stuff from the US. It seems like we just managed to get your 0-3 month stuff stored away and now I need to pack up all the 3-6 month stuff.

You make me laugh every single day (although some days you make me want to cry as well). You will look up at me and give me the world’s largest smile and then go back to what you are doing. I still can’t believe I am your Mama. I love you so much!

Madame's Monday Update

So Madame and I made it home in one piece though we are still trying to get over jet lag who knew it could be so bad! Jocelynne was so excited to see her Daddy and has been bonding with him since we got home.

Mama has been back for her first weigh in since we got home. Some how miraculously I managed to loose half a pound over the Christmas holidays and will be back with Fitness Fridays this week.