Oscar

Silent Sunday

9
15 years ago
by dawniebrown in

Silent Sunday

Baby development, by now your baby should be juggling whilst riding a unicycle

5
15 years ago
by dawniebrown in

We all know those emails right? You know the ones that tell you by week 9 your baby may even be able to roll over and should be able to do…etc etc I really need to unsubscribe to them or stop reading them as it’s been getting me down recently.

It was great with Zara, she was always miles ahead of what the emails and books said and I used to get a rush of satisfaction knowing my baby was doing everything that was expected. She was always strong from the start and could hold her head well, she smiled early followed quickly by laughing. Ok so she was a bit slow on the crawling and walking front but not too late really.

Zara taken 14/1/10 at just under 8 weeks old!

Oscar however is a whole different matter! He was 9 weeks old on Monday and is still very much a newborn. He can’t control his head yet, isn’t really very responsive and I’m sure most of his “smiles” are due to wind. He spends most of his time just feeding and sleeping and doesn’t show any interest in the world around him yet.

Oscar aged 9 weeks, still very much a newborn!

By 9 weeks Zara was sleeping through the night and Oscar is still feeding like a newborn and showing no signs of increasing the gap between feeds and I’d been finding myself wanting to push him somehow as 9 weeks of having a “newborn” baby is exhausting work and the lack of progress is very frustrating at times.

It’s only when I got thinking that I really came to realise that there was actually a 7 week age gap between when Zara was born at 41 weeks and Oscar born at 34 weeks! So really in comparison terms I should only be expecting Oscar to do what Zara was doing at 2 weeks old (ie being a newborn!). It makes 100% sense really, Oscar spent the first 7 weeks of his life doing on the outside what Zara did on the inside – growing! He has over doubled in size from his lowest weight so it’s not like he hasn’t been developing at all, just not necessarily in the way it tells you on the emails or in the books!

So today I am going to unsubscribe from all those emails and put away the baby books and just let Oscar develop in his own time. So what if he can’t juggle with flaming clubs whilst riding a unicycle yet 

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The Gallery: Tomorrow

15
15 years ago
by dawniebrown in

This post is this weeks entry for The Gallery over at Sticky Fingers

The prompt this week is Tomorrow.

My Tomorrows

Tomorrow I may get to sleep all night,
Tomorrow may drive me to tears,
Tomorrow I may be exhausted,
But
Tomorrow I will be amazed by something new you do,
Tomorrow I will count my blessings when I look at you,
Because Zara and Oscar, you are all my tomorrows and my tomorrows would be nothing without you.

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I’ll never be a natural mum…but…

15
15 years ago
by dawniebrown in

A conversation on twitter last night got me thinking. As most of you are aware I’m now a mum of 2!! Oscar aged 7 weeks and Zara aged 16 months and to say I’ve been finding it difficult is an understatement.

I’ve always admired those natural mothers, you know the ones you see that can handle 5 children simultaneously without messing up their hair, can change a nappy one handed whilst drinking coffee and organising charity events. The mums who never seem to ask for help, they instinctively know exactly what to do with their children and have probably never had to look on the internet or read a book to find out what they need to do. It seems these mums are everywhere and I can’t help but feel inadequate when I compare myself to them. It’s probably one of the reasons I stopped going to baby and toddler groups as everyone else seemed to be finding motherhood a piece of cake and there was me with a screaming Zara who did nothing but scream unless I took her home for a nap.

It’s not all doom and gloom though, you see I am a mum and motherhood may not have come naturally to me, but like everything in my life I try my hardest and I work bloody hard to make sure I do something well. I’ve spent the last 16 months studying books, the internet, asking questions and quite often tearing my hair out but you know what? I’ve survived and I think I’ve done a pretty good job.

It’s only when I look at Zara now and I realise I’ve actually done a bloody good job of raising her. She is intelligent, curious, independent, social, eats brilliantly, sleeps well and is a joy to be with. Nursery are always telling us how great she is to look after and how she is such a clever little girl for her age and this makes me swell with pride. I look at her and can’t help smiling when I think “I did that!”

The result of all my hard work!

And now the fun really begins because just as I’m getting used to being a mum, along comes baby number two :) Although looking after Oscar seems to be much easier this time, looking after 2 is probably the biggest challenge I’ve ever faced. I really don’t know how I’ll manage it, the thought of being left alone with both of them (we are lucky to be in a position where Zara continues to go to nursery during the week for now) terrifies me. I mean how on earth do you manage to deal with a newborn screaming for a feed and a toddler screaming for cuddles because her teeth hurt when you can only have one pair of hands. It’s a logistical nightmare and all careful planning seems to have gone out of the window. They just don’t write books about how to cope in this situation so I’m making it up as I go along :) I know the next few months are going to be hard and unlike some mum’s it won’t come naturally to me but you know what, I’ll work bloody hard at it and do my best and maybe that makes it all more rewarding :)

Not enough hands!

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Stokke Tripp Trapp Chair and Newborn Set Review

2
15 years ago
by dawniebrown in

The lovely people at Stokke recently sent me a Stokke Tripp Trapp Newborn set to review. The Tripp Trapp Newborn is a cosy, new, ergonomically designed, pod chair that fits simply onto the top of the Tripp Trapp chair to create the perfect environment for your baby – from birth to six months (approx).

I was very impressed with the idea of having a baby seat which was at table height rather than floor height, especially in this household with 2 cats and of course Zara and her sticky fingers :) We are very much into baby led weaning and to us mealtimes are a time when we all sit down at the table and enjoy conversation and being a family. Zara has been joining us at the table for meals since she was 4 months old and able to support herself in a normal highchair and I love the fact that Oscar can join us from birth and that the Tripp Trapp Chair will be the only highchair I need to buy for him as with the addition of the Baby Set he will still be able to use the chair when he outgrows the Newborn Set (note to self: must order a baby set!).

I was a bit concerned when I first unpacked and put up the Tripp Trapp Chair and Newborn set as it does look a little on the small side, Oscar must have only weighed about 6lb when the following photo was taken but having tried the seat with a larger baby (ie my 8 month old nephew Maxwell) I can see how he will still be able to fit into the chair until he is approximately 6 months old (although realistically he will be in the baby seat by then).

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Of course having an inquisitive 14 month old around the house, Zara had to try for herself to see whether she could fit in the Newborn set herself (she is currently obsessed with trying out everything of Oscar’s!) Of course as you would expect she is a little on the large side for it :)

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But she did find that it makes a great place to hide underneath ;)

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Anyway back to my review :) I love the fact that the Newborn set can attach and detach from the Tripp Trapp chair so easily and it is extremely light. I find myself using it all around the house, for instance it’s ideal for taking up to the bathroom with me and having somewhere to put Oscar whilst I’m running his bath or doing other tasks around the house. I find myself often popping him in it at the table whilst I’m cooking dinner in an evening or putting away shopping etc, it’s great to just be able to look up and check that he is ok without having to worry about balancing bouncy chairs on the table (a major no no, I know but I’m sure most mothers will admit it!) or having a chair on the kitchen floor.

Oscar sat at the table whilst mum unpacks her shopping

The newborn set also has a very handy attachment which you can attach a toy to which will keep baby entertained.

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As you can see from the photos, Oscar is quite happy in his Newborn set and I as a mother am extremely happy with it, it’s both stylish and practical and has the added bonus that it is a chair for life and not something which will have to be retired at any time in the near future. The trouble is now I’m going to have to go out and buy Zara a Tripp Trapp Chair of her own as I can see there being battles over who gets custody of this one in the future :) I’m definitely a Stokke convert now and will be checking out their other products on their website here >>Stokke Website

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Cute as can be

1
15 years ago
by dawniebrown in

A quick preview of one of the photos my lovely sister @mummy_loves took of Oscar when she came to visit this weekend. Having a sister who is a professional photographer is a bonus!

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Oscar’s Birth Story

3
15 years ago
by dawniebrown in

Today Oscar is 5 weeks old and it’s taken me until now to be able to write this as I’ve been thinking long and hard what to say. I could go into graphic detail about blood loss, general anaesthetics, Oscar needing resucitation when he was born etc but I don’t need to because to me that’s not what Oscar’s birth was about.

I could let the trauma of the whole episode haunt me and let it ruin my relationship with Oscar, I could beat myself up for not being able to give birth properly this time etc etc but at the end of the day Oscar is now a healthy little baby who is fast approaching his due date, I’m feeling fit and healthy and we are home and settled so to keep looking back at the birth and going over the gorey details is not going to help either of us.

And so I will share the one moment of 14th Feb which to me is the special moment about Oscar’s birth. Just after I’d been told they were going to deliver and we were going to theatre, we were in the delivery room waiting to go up when a song came on the radio. Me and my husband looked at each other and smiled as we held hands as it’s a very special song to us anyway, the first time I heard it live it gave me goose bumps and we always said if it had been released when we got married we would have chosen it as one of our wedding songs. Instead it came on at the moment I was going off to have Oscar. As we looked at each other right then we had tears in our eyes as we knew it was all going to be ok and we were going to have our baby at last.

And so I share with you the song which to me will always be the part of Oscar’s birth that I will remember with a smile :)

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Feeling generous? Give life?

2
15 years ago
by dawniebrown in

This post is not sponsored or anything like that, it’s just a reminder of how doing something very little has such huge benefits.

The average human body has 5-6 litres of blood in it. I found out whilst chatting to the nurses here that on Monday alone they estimated I lost 3.5 litres of blood and this doesn’t take into account the bleeds on fri, sat or Sunday. During Monday I was given at least 9 units of blood that I’m aware of. It is probably without doubt that if the same thing had happened before blood transfusions were available then I wouldn’t be here right now.

As I’m not going to be allowed to go and donate some blood back for quite a while I thought I’d put my blog to some good use and appeal to those of you who are in a position to give blood to consider doing it. It really is a small thing that saves lives and I will always be grateful to the mystery donors behind all the blood I received.

You can find out more about how to donate blood at the following website Give blood

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First contact

16
15 years ago
by dawniebrown in

Well over 24 hours after his arrival into the world I finally got to say a proper hello to my little boy. Due to the huge volume of blood loss before and during delivery I’d been kept in bed longer than usual so I was extremely sore and stiff but with a lot of help from the midwives I was finally able to shower and be taken down to neonatal to see my baby.

I should point out that they did fetch his incubator in to see me yesterday just as I’d come out of recovery but I was too groggy to even remember seeing him for those precious couple of minutes.

I still haven’t held him yet or expressed any milk for him, that is going to be todays challenge but at least I got to touch him. He really is tiny  and apart from a touch of jaundice and being tube fed he is doing really well 

I’m expecting the next few days/weeks to be tough as I’m still struggling to get my head around the birth etc, as I was under general anaesthetic for his birth and I’ve still not even had a cuddle, breast feed or skin to skin I’m finding the whole bonding process is going to be a slow one. Im being completely honest about this with my husband and he understands and has promised to help as much as he can.

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