It’s been a long while, I know. I’m sorry. I always meant for this to be a constant part of life, but life runs away with me sometimes. A lot of the time, actually.
Last time I posted was back in May, when Iris turned 11 months old. I was pregnant then and knew it too, but couldn’t tell you. Iris is 14 months old now, and I’m 22 weeks and 3 days pregnant. We’re having another little girl in January!
The morning sickness was incredibly bad this time. Far worse then with Iris. I was sick most days for weeks and weeks, and often didn’t leave the house or do anything but try to keep Iris entertained with toys on the bathroom floor while I hung my head over the loo. Despite this, we did manage to keep it to ourselves until after the first scan, and I even managed to hold it together to throw Iris a big first birthday party.
With Iris I was signed off work early on in pregnancy due to terrible migraines and I wallowed in bed feeling sorry for myself. I haven’t had any migraines, thankfully, this time but I’m still finding it so much harder. I can’t be signed off now. Iris is a full time, 24 hour a day, job. She’s relentless too. Walking, talking, singing and climbing. Staying at home all day just isn’t an option. She’s so much brighter and easier to look after when we get outdoors or to a playgroup. I’m happier too, despite the initial struggle to get us both ready and out of the house and a reasonable time.
She’s changed so much since I last wrote anything here. She walked at 13 months. She was capable of it so much earlier but just couldn’t be bothered. That’s my girl! She crawled at high speed and crawling was just more efficient for her. She has only recently stopped crawling altogether and can now run instead! Her words are coming thick and fast, and so is her understanding. She can answer yes or no when I make suggestions for what we could have for lunch. She demands ‘joosh’ and toast. She says ‘mmmm, lovely’ when eating her favourite foods (chips with ketchup mainly). She knows dozens of animal noises, and is a real animal lover. She was obsessed with ducks for a long time, but lions and chickens are her current favourites. She’s stopped calling Trevor rara and now says daddy. I’m mumum.
She’s a toddler now, that’s for sure. Her baby days are long behind us.
Breastfeeding is over. 17 days before her first birthday she started a feed and came off looking disgusted. I offered and encouraged her for 17 more days as I was determined to make it to one year. I guess the taste changed with my pregnancy hormones and she didn’t like it anymore. She’d preferred food for hunger for a long while anyway. I missed her evening comfort feed for a long time.
She has 6 teeth! Most of which cut through without a dribble or a murmur.
She still sleeps well. A solid 10 hours most nights, only really waking if she’s teething or isn’t feeling well. I’m so chuffed that we got to this stage naturally, and I never ignored her cries at night. She trusts me to always come when she cries, and so rarely does cry. She’s strongly attached yet fiercely independent. She still sleeps in our bed, which I love as much as she does. She’ll sleep in it without me though now, both at nap time and at night. I have no idea what we’ll do with the new baby. I imagine us all sleeping together. I don’t see much point in making plans though. Babies make their own plans!
We’re still baby wearing, despite my growing bump. Iris hated being carried on my back for a long while, but is happy up there now. I’ve learnt to get her up there in a woven wrap, but have mostly been using Trevor’s Boba. It’s getting trickier to get it comfy as I get bigger. My belly is heavy and Iris is heavy, so we can’t go far. I’ve had to give in and get the pushchair out a fair bit. It’s infuriating when I have to fold it up on the bus though, and get on and off carrying a chubby one year old, a pushchair and bags all in my arms!
We’re trying to raise Iris to be outdoorsy. You may have guessed that when we took her camping last year at just 9 weeks old! We’ve been twice since then, only returning from another trip to Beddgelert a week ago. Iris spent much of the trip waving to rabbits and birds or kissing and hugging the trees. It’s much easier for her to explore now that she can walk, although she never ever wants to walk in the same direction as everybody else and just a few metres can take hours. Every stone and leaf must be collected and inspected!
The big two are growing, and have just gone back to school a whole year bigger and smarter. They’re very excited about another baby arriving, but are strangely disappointed we aren’t having a baby brother.
I really feel at home here now, here in South Wales surrounded by little mountains. I miss Bristol often and fiercely. I miss my family, my friends and the constant things going on that just don’t happen here. But I like the quiet, and I like my new friends a lot too. I’m happy. We’re happy. We really are a happy little family. We get excited about odd grown up things, like buying a bigger car that can fit 4 kids and a smelly dog. Long gone are the days of getting excited about nights out and days off. I don’t miss those days one bit.
mousedogbaby 