Maybe Mama?

The Lord helps those who help themselves!

I've just seen an amazing news report about a group of six Maasai warriors from Tanzania, who ran the London Marathon yesterday to raise money to dig a well for their village. At the moment there is a serious drought in that region and two out of three children die because of the conditions. An English charity, Greenforce, are working with the Maasai and in an English language class the topic of running came up and the Greenforce volunteers explained about the London marathon and how many people raise money for good causes. This really sparked the imagination of several of the warriors and yesterday they ran the marathon in full Masai dress of blankets, jewelry, shields and spears. Fare play to them!

Flu

Flu. Week long, head, throat, nose, cold, cough, temperature, shivers - really flu. Have spent a good bit of the week in bed and thanks go out to the in laws for coming over to take care of Little Miss in between breastfeeds. Glad to be finally feeling on the mend.

To work or not to work?

Ooh, very interesting, I've just had a phone call from my old boss, telling me that the person who took my job has just resigned and saying that the position is open. I certainly don't plan on changing my decision to be a stay at home mum, but they have said that I could work from home, or just take on a few projects. It seems as if they would tailor the job to me but the thing is, do I want to work? I'm not sure. I'm going to talk to Mr. Maybe over the weekend and have a real think about it.

Asleep at last!

As I write, Miss Maybe is asleep upstairs and has been since 7 pm! She accomplished this feat yesterday as well, and I can't believe the difference that actually having an evening to ourselves makes. She's still not sleeping particularly well during the day, but I can live with that if she sleeps better at night. Woo hoo!

I've been finding Moxie's challenge very interesting. I've managed the '10pm bedtime' every night, except for the evening that I went out with the girls for the first time since Miss Maybe was born, and I reckon I get a free pass for that night! I've also done the meeting up challenge (although I went down to the breast feeding support group today only to find they've changed the day!) but the one I'm finding the hardest is the 'eat 5 fruit and veg a day'. It really should be a no brainer, but I seem to be reaching for the junk food more than I realised. The challenge is making me focus on my diet, which is a good thing, particularly for my weight. I had to go shopping for a dress to wear for a party this weekend, and it was totally depressing. I'm still 2 dress sizes larger than my pre-pregnancy size and I think I've actually put on weight since Christmas. It's time to start eating properly and exercising again.

M Day approaching

Mother's Day (2nd March) is approaching fast and this is the first year that I will be a mother. I feel pretty ambivalent about it, to be honest. I've done the usual card and flowers for my mum, but I'm not that hung up on being feted all day. Being mean though, I don't actually want the whole day to be about my mother in law! I shall be very interested to see how the day goes.

On my first day of the challenge, I won't be making 5 fruit and veg, as it is an in-law gathering tonight for a chinese takeaway, and there is never any veg included. I have managed a banana and an apple today though, so I'm heading in the right direction. Onwards and upwards!

A New Challenge

The wonderful Moxie is issuing a 60 day challenge and that challenge, along with seeing Mr. Maybe complete a 10K run this last weekend, is kicking me into action and inspiring me to try to shake things up a bit. Moxie is challenging her readers to do 3 positive things for 60 days. The 3 things I have chosen are:
1. Get to bed by 10pm
2. Eat 5 servings of fruit and veg each day
3. Go to either the mum and baby group or the breast feeding support group each week. I haven't met any other local stay-at-home mums, so I really need to be pro-active and find some local day-time friends. It is not healthy for me only to be socializing with my in-laws each week.

It was hard to select 3, as the options of regular exercise, regular writing and a few other ideas were bouncing around my head, but easy does it, I'll try to achieve these three first and then build on them.

The iron is finally starting to kick in, nearly half way through the 2 month course I'm on. I'm still feeling tired but the terrible ache in my joints is now down to just aching elbows and knees, rather than all of my joints. I didn't realise that I felt so drained.

The wonderful Miss Maybe is growing like a weed and we'll be starting solids (baby rice) this weekend. I can't believe we've got to this stage - it seems like only yesterday that I was grappling with breast feeding. Now the breast feeding is pretty much down pat, and real food is the next goal. Time seems to be flowing like water down hill and Miss Maybe is growing up fast. Perhaps it's time to start thinking about baby No: 2, as it took us so long have baby No: 1.....

Will this show up?

I keep typing posts and then when I try to upload them, effing Typepad swallows them and times out. It is incredibly frustrating and I'm now trying to remember to save posts in draft form before posting, but it's a real pain. I'm finding it pretty hard to get time to post as my darling daughter does not sleep during the day. In the last couple of weeks, the most she has slept in the day is 2 hours (for the whole day, in small spurts). Often she will only sleep when she is lying on someone, so effectively during the day I'm either feeding, or trying to get her to sleep. She isn't sleeping through the night yet and for the last few days has been waking up several times each night. The house looks like a bomb has hit it and my expectations of what I can get done in a day are very low - if I've made the bed, fed both of us, done nappy changes and sleeps and the dinner is ready by the time Mr Maybe gets home, then it's been a really good and productive day. As little Miss Maybe is now 19 weeks old, I thought we'd be in more of a routine by now.

I'm finding things a bit tough at the moment, and I went to the docs to get checked out and lo and behold, my iron levels are very low. I'm on a mega booster dose of iron for the next 2 months, which I hope will lift the tiredness and joint aches.

On the great side, we are still breast feeding (yay us!) and no longer pumping. My little girl gets a top up bottle after her day time feeds, but she always gets the breast feed first and is totally breast fed at night. I am so delighted that we're still going after all the problems we had at the beginning. I must be honest and say I'll be glad when the night feeds are over, but it is fantastic to think that she is getting all the fabulous immunity etc from the breast milk.

Overall, life is good, and I'm so glad I'm not going back to work in a few weeks time, but I would just love a little more sleep and energy!

In a little white dress

My daughter was christened this last weekend, in a gorgeous dress first worn by her Great Grandmother. The service was really lovely and the child-friendly minister was great - he involved all my nephews and nieces who came over for the weekend. I felt very grown up, being the mum of the child being christened.

After the service, we went to a nearby hotel for Sunday lunch, with friends and family. My little girl had a change of outfit, into the christening dress that my mother hand made and my siblings and I wore when we were little. There was so much family history in her outfits and the occasion felt like a big step in her life - it felt like a very significant day. My little girl is growing and is a named person in our community in her own right. The day felt almost like our wedding, in that there were so many people there that I really wanted to talk to, but so little time to share with each of them. It was also wonderful to see a number of people whom I hadn't seen for months and to introduce them to our daughter. It's given me a kick in the backside to get out there and start socialising again, so that is my aim for the next 2 months, to get into the swing of things socially again.

It was a magical weekend and my precious daughter was at the heart of it, as she is at the heart of my life. I am truly blessed.

Songbird

I used to sing around the house. I don't have the most wonderful voice, it's in tune, but small. I enjoy singing, but only for my own amusement, I'm certainly not a karaoke queen or a choir member. When all the miscarriages were going on, I stopped singing, I just gradually faded out. Now I find myself singing a lot to my daughter and I want to fill the house with music for myself and for her. So far she's been exposed to Justin Timberlake, The Dixie Chicks, Billy Joel, salsa dance music, some Chinese classical music and some western classical music. She enjoys them all and really seems to listen. I foresee plenty of CDs in my Christmas stocking this year and I'm looking forward to introducing her to as many different types of music as possible. She may be no more a musician than I am, but I want her to know the joy of music.

Thankful

Today we got the wonderful news that Little Miss K doesn't have cystic fibrosis. Her paediatrician had wanted her tested due to poor weight gain and a slightly raised liver function test. Thankfully cystic fibrosis is one challenge she doesn't have to face. She is gaining weight beautifully and is now 9lb 8oz, only half a pound off what she should be at this stage. We're still breast feeding and topping up with formula. Today my heart is singing - my daughter is well and so am I.