Stretch your legs with Culture Baby

Here's to another great initiative benefiting mothers in London. Culture Baby seems to save London mums from cramped coffee shops, nasty looks and banality, by whisking them around culturally stimulating locations all over the city with experts in tow.

"Culturebaby is determined to put mums at the heart of London’s cultural life. Through a series of baby-friendly events and courses, that will stimulate our imaginations and engage our cultural sides. We’ll organise artists, writers, musicians and scientists to give illuminating talks in safe environments in which mums can relax. We’ll arrange visits to museums and galleries and we’ll put on behind- the-scenes tours of the most stunning buildings and homes of the capital."

Photo by Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images Europe

Pram Walk: Serpentine Sculpture Trail, Kensington Gardens

Friday 11^th March 2011 meet at the gate of The Serpentine Gallery 10.15am

Come and join us for a unique FREE event for mothers who want to stretch their minds and their legs with their children. Learn about the works and life of the acclaimed artist Anish Kapoor http://www.kapoorinkensington.org.uk whilst you see his work in a beautiful setting.

We will have a couple of experts with us to tell us about the work on display so you can learn something whilst getting out with your child. All children are welcome. Bring your pram/sling and a friend along for a fun morning.  Please pass this invite on and help us raise awareness of access issues for mothers with babies in London.

Unfortunately I won't be able to make it this time, but I imagine that it would appeal to other parents in the London area inspired to go for a good walk and learning about something cool, so I hope some of you see this and go. You need to book but it's free to do so this time. Other events cost around £6 mark.

When organising local meetups in the Richmond area for Netmums - I wish I knew more about the history of the buildings that we pass (if on a walk) and explain to the mothers that come along what it was used for or simple trivia that I remember. I'd like to enrich others but then I'm not sure if they care... Perhaps I need to brush up on some knowledge to make it interesting, read those history signs, make it to http://www.twickenham-museum.org.uk/ or better still, ask an expert to come with us on our walks! It will be lovely when spring has sprung properly and we can let the toddlers, who are constantly aching to get out of the prams or wriggle out of slings, out on the grass and talk politics, science, literature, art or just what you're feeding your baby...

Do you ever feel the need to get out and learn stuff?

One year on

So, on the 5th January my little baby was one year old. I felt so proud to have sprouted a little darling such as Leon that has grown so much in a year. It felt odd looking back to when he was just a vulnerable little being new to the world knowing that he's now so independent (well... to an extent!) and no longer seems like a little baby.

And so here is his journey from little sprout to little boy:

Newborn

3 months

6 months

9 months

1 year

How we celebrated
My family have a tradition of seranading the lucky birthday girl/boy with Las Mañanitas in the morning en masse mariachi-style with a guitar. Today was no exception and hubby and I belted it out  much to Leon's amusement. I even donned my sombrero for the occasion.

Estas son las mañanitas, que canto el Rei David,
A los muchachos bonitos se las cantamos asi,
Despierta, Leon, despierta, mira que ya amaneció,
Ya los pajaritos cantan, la luna ya se metió. 

*This is the morning song that King David sang
We sing it like this to the cuties
Wake up, Leon, wake up, look it is already dawn
The birds are already singing and the moon has gone 

This was soon followed by a kingly breakfast then lots of playtime. We celebrated his birthday with family and friends young and old at a local pub where we cut his amazing jungle cake (if I say so myself ;) and sang Happy Birthday FOUR times (English, French, Spanish and Italian.... it got tiring).

Jungle cake in the making!

After enjoying a lot of the cake he was spinning on the table round and round like a breakdancer laughing a lot - perhaps was a sugar rush?? Maybe he was just really happy and lavished the attention.

Birthday Boy

Proud parents

Present from Abuelita and Grumpa (Note the dirty belly from post-cake spinning and commando crawling)

At 1 year

• He's made the transition from commando crawling to all-fours crawling and can go VERY fast
• Starting to cruise around the furniture but not walking yet. 
• Big Boy: Weighs almost 12kg and is bigger than 98% of babies his age and at 81cm is taller than 91% He sleeps well :D Yay! 
  
• Has 9 teeth and molars coming through but still a bit of a tongue-tie
• Eats on his own - LOVES food especially lasagnes, stews, meat, lentil soups, spinach, grapes, petits filous, clementines
• Gives the warmest cuddles, is rather sensitive but still a little brute. Rather chilled but very curious. 
• Communicative, and plenty of vocalising. Seems to respond well to my mum and respond "Sssssssss" when she encourages him to say "Si". He used to say "Abue" (granny in spanish) but hasn't for ages. 

And myself? Well - keep trying to stay on top of everything but it is tough to find time for myself. I find it very rewarding whenever he does something new, or copies what I've shown him - be it putting money into his piggy-bank, or getting down from the bed. And I love his hugs so very much. I'm happy we've found some really nice mum and baby friends and that he's happy at his childminders where he goes one day a week.

So excited to see what's in store for this year!

Teething troubles and hot potato

20 weeks / almost 5 months! : Little L is now teething. His first little tooth has popped up on his lower gum and it's so lovely to feel it with my finger. He's not a happy bunny though. The sun and heat are already causing him bother - he hates it!! Coupled with the new tooth though makes him rather fragile.

I've found the following help:

Frozen dummy - dummy in the freezer for a few minutes then he can chew on that
Sophie the Giraffe  - Loves to chew on that.
Frozen cloth - muslin cloth drenched in water, wring it out then place in freezer for half hour or so. Originally for him to chew on - but he doesn't chew it so I use it to keep him cool. Pat him with cloth from time to time to cool down.
Cold flannel - just to wipe all over his face and body, feet etc.
Bottle of cooled down boiled water - as he gets thirsty. used to give him a couple of teaspoons as per my granny's advice, but now i take a bottle out with me. Even though they say breastmilk contains water and is enough - sometimes he's just thirsty so don't want to feed him again. Or I just put a few drops on his lips.
Cool purée - I've started giving him some carrot purée and make a batch then freeze in ice cube trays. I take out 1 or 2 blocks when frozen in a little tupperware in the morning and by afternoon when we're out and about I can give him some of that in between feeds. It also cools him down.

At night he gets so warm he only sleeps with a sheet. I don't want him to get a fever and don't want to resort to Calpol for the discomfort. I read that sometimes he's scared as he doesn't know what is going on with the tooth - rather than it being really painful - and often distraction is the key! So playing a lot with Little L is also a great way to get him through this tough time! How long will it go on for? Poor thing

Bath time

Bath time used to be hell. Admittedly our baby was perhaps a bit larger than expected and thus too large for the bathroom sink (that's how I remembered my mother bathing my little sister!). He'd cry when he got into the water and throughout the whole bathe. Now I realise the water was too cold - none of that elbow in the water nonsense you learn at the hospital, you need it to be slightly warm and definitely not 'neutral'! A new mum friend also helped me out suggesting a bath seat that worked wonders for her babe - Bath Eze is a seat that you put in the bath and baby just lies on it and is happy kicking about! Here's alink. Little Leon loves it and has starting thumping away with his little fat legs.

Birth Story : Leon

(NB. A typical birth comprises of 3 stages: 1st stage is generally the longest and is when the uterus starts contracting and you can feel contractions in irregular intervals becoming more regular, longer and more painful the closer to the end. 2nd stage is the actual delivery of the baby, 3rd stage is the delivery of the placenta)


After a bit of  'romancing' with my husband, my waters broke at midnight on morning of 5th January 2010 (baby's due date) but I wasn't completely sure it was that until they just kept coming and coming! After calling the hospital the midwife told me to go in so they could assess whether I was in labour but when I went in they only confirmed that my waters had broken and that we should go back home until I started having contractions lasting 50-60 seconds that were 3 minutes apart.

Now, usually you hear of women in labour having contractions coming and going all day and then getting closer and closer together - for some women the waters don't break or are just a trickle. Anyway, as soon as we got back from the hospital I started having contractions - like period pains - low down on the stomach and hurt! after a few hours they became more and more regular and more painful - much more painful. My husband was my pain relief massaging my back on my demand at EACH contraction and keeping me fed and watered. There came a point where each contraction was REALLY painful. I tried my pregnancy yoga positions and tried to 'breathe the pain away' but it wasn't that helpful. Called hospital hoping they would say 'come on in we'll help you out!' but they just said take a hot bath and some paracetamol... unfortunately our bath is rather big but the boiler doesn't like to heat the bath water enough so hubby was boiling pans of water one after another to pour into the bath while I was sitting there wailing away. It did actually help.

I hadn't slept since the night before and was in lots of pain from the contractions and just wanted to sleep but couldn't as each contraction would be better dealt with with me standing up swaying my hips or walking around or sitting on a chair and hubby rubbing my back. That was one of the worst parts - the sleep deprivation.

There came the point where the contractions were now every 2 minutes and lasting about 1minute 40secs so we called the hospital and they told us to come in. Thank Goodness! My parents drove us over there at 4pm ish and I remember still being in a lot of pain in the car and feeling like a proper pregnant lady breathing hard in each contraction and trying not to scream too loudly!

Once in the hospital they checked me for dilation and I was already 7cm dilated! (You need to be 10cm to start pushing) so I was wiggling around the room and hubby still rubbing my back - I had a bit of help of the Nitrous Oxide to breathe in for pain relief but didn't feel it that much... I started pushing at about 5pm and it was not like the films! It took ages to get even the head showing - Hubby could see everything and let me know when they could see the head - though only a tiny bit! After 2 hours of pushing I felt so tired and although there was more of the head showing - I couldn't get it out!! They told me that they call the doctor after 2 hours of pushing as they don't like you to push for much longer than that and the doctor can help with forceps or ventouse suction. I felt relieved that I was going to get some help to get the baby out - it was so frustrating that with every push not much was happening and I was pushing so hard!!! While waiting for the doctor I still had to keep pushing each time a contraction came. I had to breathe in - hold it and PUUUUUUUUUSH out the baby but it was so bloody hard!!!

After 3 hours of pushing the doctor came and helped suck the baby out with a Ventouse suction thing. They injected me 'down there' with some anaesthetic and even cut me to prevent tearing, then she inserted this contraption to suck onto the baby's head and I could feel it all - was not comfortable at all!! I still needed to push even though she was sucking the baby out! (Afterwards she told me that the baby's head was very large anyway and apparently the umbilical cord was wrapped around the baby's body so even if it wasn't in danger or anything, it was preventing it from coming out quickly.)

The feeling was incredible - I could really feel this huge thing pass out of me and although it didn't last long- I didn't feel like it hurt - I just know I needed to push it OUT!!! Then it was all a blur for a second - I heard "IT'S A BOY!" and this little alien-like being was put onto my chest - I was SOOOO RELIEVED that it had finally come out!!! Huge sighs of relief and amazement at this little baby that I had pushed out. Oh my god. IT was amazing but I was just so tired before and then just amazed and happy that it was over! And happy to have the baby in my arms. He was perfect :D He was a bit bluey but soon turned pinker after some cuddling and then started to cry! His daddy cut the umbilical cord and then they weighed him - I was surprised he was 4.36kg (9.9lbs) to be honest! Big boy!

After they stitched me up and checked the baby, we had some time with our new family then hubby had to go home as he couldn't stay at the hospital overnight, I had my own room and bathroom which was nice (Good ol' NHS!) and Leon slept in a cot next to me. I was pleased to get some rest after the long day but it was so special to have my baby sleeping next to me! Every time he woke up I could just push and pull the cot to rock him back to sleep :D

In a Nutshell

As a new mummy blogger I have missed the boat on posting photos and notes of my pregnancy and birth... a relief perhaps to some - so here is a brief recap and the things I wish I had known or done before embarking on the joys of pregnancy and childbirth:

During Pregnancy
I was lucky throughout my pregnancy to not have morning sickness or nausea apart from when the little Fetus inside me told me that I was pregnant. Not only had I developed a strange distate for smoking, but after a big night out I had what felt like a massive hangover that lasted all week - my colleague suggested perhaps the vomiting in the toilets was a sign I was pregnant - nooo surely not!! Impossible - we're so careful... hmmm. All the illness stopped as soon as I did the test! Little Fetus was finally happy that I found out.

It was a truly perfect pregnancy - until I discovered the ugly purple lines developing underneath my humongous bump. How I WISH that I had listened to the wise women telling me to rub olive oil/cocoa butter/animal fat on my bump twice a day instead of whenever I remembered or was convenient- stretch marks for life are not pretty! They may fade - but they may not and the 30 seconds it takes to moisturise your bump is well worth it!

Labour
Having my waters pop at midnight the morning of my due date was exciting, though difficult to determine if they were really my waters as it was after some sweet luuurve-making. Soon after being sent back home from the hospital - the contractions started. And man were they painful. Even though I had the luxury of Mon Amour massaging my back for EACH contraction I wish I had rented a TENS machine to zap them away! I do recall a lot of screaming in the flat before heading out to the hospital and also in the car. It felt like a proper start to a pregnancy in the films - panting away and gripping onto the car seat with the occasional oooooAWWWW!! On arrival I was already 7cm dilated so could soon start with the pushing.

Whilst I don't regret not having an epidural and beating pain with solely gas and air- the TENS machine could have come in handy and I may have been less exhausted for the pushing, which lasted 3 hours before the doctor sucked him out with a ventouse. and out he popped at 8.40pm :) Although I was ecstatic when he finally came out - the ventouse did indeed feel like a "TV box is being shoved inside you" (as a fellow new mother so elegantly described it over breakfast the next morning) and it was more a relief to have the huge 9.9lbs (4.36kg) baby finally in my arms.

It was amazing to take the little babe back home with us- though as we closed the front door Mon Amour and I looked at each other and I felt - OK, it's up to us now- Let the fun begin!