Moog's meanderings

One night of the year that I don’t enjoy. I am one of the ones that doesn’t get into it at all. I don’t like (and have never liked) the idea of being at home by myself with (groups of) youths turning up demanding sweets and/or money*. I also don’t like the idea that if you don’t (or you’re out) they spray your windows, mess up your front garden (some of them dug out and turned over Dad’s pot’s at the front one year), or whatever. It seems that, as with this year, most years hubby has been away on this night so I usually just close all the curtains, leave the lights off and retreat to a back upstairs room in the hope that they will think there’s no-one home. I think that’s what I’ll be doing again tonight. Hey-ho.

*Once year since we’ve been here and Hubby and I were both at home, we got a tin of sweets and things and answered the door to the ‘trick-or-treat’ers, but they were mostly so rude and demanding that I just don’t see why I should play the game.

I had a lovely week at home with my parents. I wrote the title to this and thought how nice it usually is to get home after time away (especially when in other people’s houses, where things inevitably have to be displaced to make room for you and things aren’t how you would have them), but I really did enjoy my week and wasn’t in a particular hurry to be back in my own bed again. I honestly didn’t think that such a place existed any more! )

Just checking in.. Things are well here and I am enjoying a lovely relaxing week at home with my parents. It’s nice to be able to sit around and have someone else wash the nappies and hang them to dry – hehe!
We’re off to a country park this afternoon to make the most of the Autumn sunshine. Apparently the rest of the week isn’t going to be very nice weatherwise…

Well, if only the sleep pattern were more sustainable. Munchkin occasionally sleeps until 4 or 5am but more often 2 or 3am. Not that it’s a problem, I don’t think my expectations are such that I am worried about whether or not he sleeps through. It does mean that I spend most of my time being a bit tired – sometimes it builds up to being really really tired and I need an extra boost (which hubby has been fantastic in providing when he can and I need it).
We watched last week’s episode of ‘Bringing up Baby’ last night with hubby (the concluding part is tonight) and the big thing was getting babies to sleep through the night. The hands-down winner was Claire Verity’s method (Truby King) which is the one where you feed the baby at specific times, leave it to cry, etc. Oh yes, and controversially put it in a cot in it’s own room from day 1. It’s been really hard for the couples who have been following that method, but arriving at 6 weeks the babies are sleeping for ~7 hours. Worth the pain?
I think it has a lot to do with your expectations. I mean, what’s the point in having a baby if you just want to carry on your life as it was and the baby has to fit in with that? I have found that watching the series confirmed to me that a balance is needed and we actually use aspects of all of the methods illustrated in the programme, but I am probably closest to the Continuum method if I had to choose one.

Today one of my old friends from way back came over to visit with her hubby. We’re still in quite close touch but it’s the first time they’ve met Munchkin and it was lovely to spend a day with them. We went over to our local Toby Carvery for lunch – isn’t it fantastic that there’s no smoking in these places anymore?
As always I ate far too much (my eyes are definitely bigger than my stomach, but I was brought up to finish what’s on my plate…). Also my friend had a pudding that comes with a ‘bottomless’ jug of custard. Hurrah for that! Practically the only thing on the dessert menu that I can eat (what with it needing to be gluten free and all) is the custard, but you only get it with the (gluten containing) desserts. So we had an extra bowl and I was able to stuff myself even more with lots of lovely custard. mmmmmm…
Munchkin enjoyed the walk (almost a mile each way) in the sling on his dad, slept through most of lunch and had his lunch while I was on dessert. If the custard is thick enough you can eat it one handed without worrying about covering the baby with it…

Not sure how long I’ve got (as always) but here goes…

Yesterday I went to Baby Yoga. I though to myself that it would be convenient to put a disposable nappy on Munchkin as I knew that he’d need changing at some point while we were out and it seemed easier to have a disposable on him that I could just throw in the bin rather than have to worry about the dirty wet terry nappy to carry home to deal with (that sort of thing can tend to end up being found a day or two later and a certain ‘ewww’ factor then applies). I also have a nearly finished packet of disposable nappies (the compostable ones – Moltex) that could do with using up before he grows out of them as I don’t use them very often. It seems though that the disposable ones just don’t do the job. Towards the end of the yoga session when we were all relaxing and Samuel was amusing himself next to me on a cushion, he really did fill that nappy. Well, not only the nappy, but his romper and the cushion. yeargh! My yoga teacher was extremely understanding and assured me that a lot worse has happened to those cushions!!!! However I as this also happened the previous week (while I was in a cafe having lunch with some other mums) and has happened a few other times too, I am now minded to give up on disposables altogether. I am sure that some are more effective than others, but these ones are the best eco-friendly ones and I am not planning to spend money buying all the other brands to find out which ones are best for me to use once a week.
The rest of the time we use terry nappies with fleece liners and poly wraps. We use Tots Bots ‘fluffles’ with silk liners for nighttime (the long bit of sleep from 8pm), and we have some Nature Babies ‘diddy diapers’ for occasional convenience (keeping in the change bag so as not to have to fold terries whilst out and about, or in the middle of the night when a terry just seems like hard work). In the 9 or so weeks we’ve been using ‘real’ nappies, there have only been two pooey accidents, and one of them was in the first couple of days when we were still perfecting the technique.
So, my conclusion is that in fact, not only are ‘real’ nappies more economical* (well, terries anyway – some of the shaped ones are pretty expensive and take forever to dry so require a tumble dryer), they are also more effective.

* speaking for terry nappies: they are cheap to buy – even with washing factored in much cheaper than disposables over time – can be used for more than one child and then can be used for so many other purposes than as nappies (My dad takes great delight in reminding me that one my my very own nappies from nearly 30 years ago is still going strong as an oily rag for his spade!!). And in fact, the whole folding terries being very complicated thing is a myth – as with most things, it doesn’t take long to learn and once you’ve got it you can do it with your eyes closed (but possibly not on 3 hours sleep!!).

Of course, the above is just some limited knowledge based on my own experience and a little ‘anecdotal’ evidence from reading around

Munchkin slept until a bit after 5am!!!!! And then went back to aleep for 2 more hours until nearly 8am. Hooray for sleep )

We just had a friend from Uni staying for a couple of days. It was really good to see him and catch up a bit. We didn’t do much, he just mostly joined in with what we were doing and we were able to spend time. He and hubby enjoyed a bit of whisky too (a mutual enjoyment).

I received the wraparound sling that I ordered to carry the little one around in today – hooray! It’s a lot longer than I expected (possibly should have got the next size down) but it seems to work and doesn’t seem to be too complicated. I think it will take a few goes to get it perfect and learn all the different possible carrying positions. Hubby and I went on a long walk this afternoon and I used the sling. I think it’s quite cool in a hippy sort of way. People give strange looks though!

Munchkin had a wierd night last night so I’m pretty tired and off to bed now. Hopefully he’ll sleep in longer stints tonight…

Edited to add picture of munchkin in sling

Well, fairly quiet. I was really tired at the beginning, but hubby was fab and took munchkin to the allotment for a few hours on Saturday afternoon so that I could have a nap. Not that I really slept, but I did go to bed for 2 hours and did doze for parts of it. The rest was definitely welcome. Also, when I woke up feeling as though I should get up sometime after 8am this morning, Hubby was somewhere else in the house with the munchkin having folded all the washing and done most of Saturday night’s washing up!! He’s an absolute star. I felt a lot more human today for the extra rest..

We made it to Church for the first time in a month, which I really appreciated. I hadn’t realised how far away I have got from anything spiritual and how much I have forgotten to notice God in my life. I know he’s there now that I think about it but I spent most of my time just blundering along not even considering the possibility. Our sermon today was about just a tiny bit of faith being enough and that just the fact that we had turned up showed that we had some. Very heartening, but whether or not it’ll break through into the everyday humdrum of ‘bringing up baby’ to quote the title of the current channel 4 programme about parenting methods in the early weeks/months (more on that in another post!) is another question altogether.

Parents-in-law arrived around lunchtime and we’ve had a nice afternoon walking around the nature centre.

Haven’t really started on the jumbo crossword though – and getting to do as much of that between the two of us as we can complete is the real test of a ‘relaxing weekend’… )

I have been wondering for quite a long time about what the big deal is with the crocs craze. I have finally given in and bought myself a pair. They really are just soooo comfy!! And they’re easy to just step in and out of – wonderful if you need to get out of slippers and into something you can wear outside (to hang washing, for example) if you’re holding a baby!!