Logan's Four Christmasses

I've always loved Christmas, and it's going to be even better now that Logan is going to share it with me.

And the lucky munchkin is getting to celebrate it 4 times!! That's one of the advantages of having family members all over the place!

His 1st Christmas was on 3rd December, when his dad's sister and her family came up to have an early Christmas with us and Logan's grandparents. Logan had never met his cousins and uncle before and they all got on like a house on fire. Cheshire's Santa had brought lots of presents for him! Two of the nicest moments of the day was when Logan and his uncle were playing on an iPad together, trying to make animal sounds, and when his cousin transformed the door bouncer into a plane and flew him from herself to their grandad and back. Logan absolutely loved it!! 

With his cousins

On 10th December the mummies and babies club had our Christmas lunch at my house so that was Logan's second Christmas. As mentioned previously we all had presents for the children and all of them had a fabulous time - until they got too tired and started to cry left right and centre, of course. 

 Trying to steal Hannah's toy!!

And last Saturday we had his grandparents round for dinner since we will be in France on Christmas day. So Logan got his presents from Scottish Santa, including Charlile the rocking Caterpillar. He was not really sure about it to start with, but 3 days on he's starting to understand how it works and is a little bit overconfident on it: he just decided to take both his hands off the handles today!! Somehow he managed to stay on.

 First time on Charlie

 That was tonight

 

So Saturday (Christmas Eve) we are flying to France. First time on the place with a baby for his Dad and me, and first time on a plane full stop for Logan. If we manage to keep him entertained it will be ok. And Sunday will be his 4th Christmas! Amazing! Not even one year old and he's already had 4 Christmasses!

The clingy stage

Oops it's been a while since I last posted something. Well it is nearly Christmas so the past couple of weeks (right since my parents' departure really) have been spent running about finding presents for all the family. This also means using my hour's lunchtime to go grocery shopping instead of writing the blog!

Last time I was talking about going to the Edinburgh Christmas markets. Well it went whoosh over Logan's head. We got there quite late, only had half an hour or so to spend, which meant no rides, no mulled wine, no giant pretzels and no crepes... But a lovely time anyway. Logan was all wrapped up in hat and scarf knitted by his gran (the Scottish one) and cozy in his fleece-lined buggy. We then got to the B&B for a quick change and to give Logan his dinner, then walked to the restaurant hoping that during these 20 minutes he would fall asleep. Well he did not. But he was very good at the restaurant and fell asleep within the first 10 minutes. That's a good baby! :)

As per the title of this entry we have now entered the "Clingy Phase". I googled "clingy baby" the other day to make sure that this does not mean Logan is going to be stuck to me from now on, and was reassured to see that it is really just a phase they go through when they can't move on their own. I'm just hoping that he will be able to crawl very soon because as much as I LOVE all the cuddles that he wants, I also do need to get on with the housework etc... And I just can't leave him to cry on his own so keep going back to reassure him.

On Saturday the Mummies and Babies Club met up at my house for lunch so the 8 of us had a lovely time. It was a Christmas meeting and all the children got some presents from Santa, and we had them dressed up it was so cute! Logan had a Santa outfit, Freya came as Rudolph, Hannah had a gorgeous little red dress matching Logan's outfit, and Enzo came in as a snowball with a supercute fulffy white cardigan!  They all got books, cutlery sets, toy cars and other toys from Santa but you know what they loved most? Playing with the wrapping paper!!

Sleeping in his buggy at the restaurant

 Mr & Mrs Claus!!

 I love chocolate!

The French grand-parents are here!!

Yes my mum and dad are in Scotland!! They arrived on the 12th and are leaving on the 26th. 2 full weeks in Scotland to be able to spend lots of time with their new grandson. Because Skype is just not good enough.

When they came in May (when Logan was between 4 and 7 weeks old) they bought a brand new 3-bedroom caravan at Craig Tara, which is just baout 15 minutes away from our house. Although I thought their decision had been hasty and maybe they should just have continued renting caravans or cottages whenever they wanted to come here, it's turned out to be a great decision. It saves me lots of time trying to find them somewhere to stay, and they are HOME as opposed to in someone else's place. Our house is not big enough now that we have Logan in the spare room - it has of course become Logan's room now.

Having them here these 2 weeks is wonderful for Logan (and it saves us a lot of money in nursery fees!!) as he's really at the age when he learns tons and takes everything in. He was starting to recognise them on Skype, so I think it's going to be even better now to communicate through the computer as he'll really know them "in the flesh".

We went swimming twice and he loved it even more than usual as we all played splish splash, he laughed so much! 

He'll have had so much attention that I am really starting to worry about the return to nursery... 

This week-end we are going to the Edinburgh Christmas Markets before my parents fly back to France, really looking forward to it and to Logan's reactions to all the lights and glitter!

 Shhhhh I am watching TV!!

Winter time!!

Yes at last it seems that Logan's body clock is matching everyone else's! 2 mornings in a row he's now had to be woken up at 7.30 am, instead of waking up by himself at 6.30 am (which was 7.30 am old time). It took 8 days!!! To be fair on him, it was a combination of not being well, teething and the time change that made him wake up around 5 am unable to breathe, and then 6.30 am starving. He had terrible D... for about 5 days and nursery wouldn't take him, which is fair enough as you wouldn't want that spread to other kids. But what a nightmare to find alternative arrangements. His dad and I took alternate half days off, and his grandparents took him an extra day too so we managed.

Unfortunately that meant 2 weeks without any swimming, what a shame! And the pool closes in 2 weeks' time as well so hopefully he'll be able to go loads of times in the next few days. His French grandparents arrive on Saturday for 2 weeks and I know they'll take him to the pool just about every day!

Logan still only has one tooth, it's quite funny! But his progress includes being able to move the baby walker on the carpet (he could only just jump in it before, he's only been able to make it move for about 3 days), sit for a decent amount of time without falling over (he did bump his wee head a few times poor boy), rolling over to reach for toys quite far away and rolling back on his back to play with them. He changes very quickly now it's great fun!

Winter Time

Winter Time was never a problem for me. I remember when I was in France, twice year, every year, there would be a special report on how the time change would affect the COWS in FARMS in the country, due to the fact that they are milked at the same time everyday. It used to really annoy me - get on with it and all that.

Well now that I have Logan, I sort of understand where they're coming from!

My poor boy does not understand. First of all he was pretty unwell at the week-end, with some fever, really bad cough, blocked nose and hardly any appetite. The appetite bit was the most worrying for me, as everything esle can (now that he's old enough) be treated with medecine. So becuase of that the time change on Sunday didn't affect him very much. He'd had such a bad night that after a bottle of milk he fell back asleep until 9.45 am old time. So did I!! First long lie since he was born.

But now that he's feeling better, he wakes up around 6 am instead of 7 am, and starts screaming with hunger at 6.30 am, which used to be 7.30 am! So I'm trying to push back his first bottle so that it gets back to 7.30 by the end of the week. What I don't understand is that we do put him to bed around 7.30 pm or later, which in old time was 8.30 pm, an hour later than usual. His wee tummy just can't get used to it.

On another subject it was Halloween yesterday and the photographer that I've used before was doing a special event on Saturday. So I dressed him in his best skeleton suit (not that he's got several!) and off we went. It was really busy with little witches, pumpkins and devils, and older children dressed up as cowboys and firefighters. We got a really cool picture!

...
It's now 2 days after I started writing this post and Logan is still sick, the poor wee soul. It's all about the D word and how do you keep a baby hydrated properly??? It's not easy! At least he's eating again, so I can try and cram all the good food into him, such as apple and banana and yogurt and carrots. No fibre and as little milk as possible (given he's still a baby and needs lots of it) for the next few days!

How much milk does a 6-month old need?

Well there doesn't seem to be a proper anwer to this question.

If any bloke reads this blog then I apologise in advance for some of the details.

Just about 3 weeks ago we had to suddenly and unexpectedly stop breast feeding. It was half-planned really as I wanted Logan exclusively bottle-fed when I was back at work full time. I knew there was a tablet that mummies can take which stops milk production and disperses the milk so my plan was to do this the week-end before going back full time. However when I spoke to my health visitor about it, she said the NHS has stopped doing it because it is not necessary. In other words, you mummies have gone through childbirth, you can bloody well stop breastfeeding without a pill that costs the NHS money. As if childbirth wasn't enough pain and discomfort...

So 3 days of constant pain (felt like humongous bruises) and just about 3 weeks later, the boobies have just about got the message. I thought it would only last a week!

Logan has gone to the bottle really well. He was of course already having 2 bottles each day so it wasn't as much of a change as it was when he started having 2 bottles each day. The only problem is the type of bottle. It seems that the cheapest are the best! Indeed I bought lots of Tomee Tippee "mimics the shape and feel of mummy's boobies" bottles, well he doesn't like them. First of all it's a lie (of course! I mean, honestly???). Secondly, it's really hard to get air to go in as Logan sucks without milk leaking from the bottle all over the place. Thirdly, the teet is really wide so Logan has to open his mouth like crazy to manage. It's ridiculous. DON'T BUY TOMEE TIPPEE.

Buy Asda or Tesco's own cheapos instead!!! Much easier, small teet, easier to clean, and they save a lot of money!

Back to the question in the title. Advice completely varies from one website to another. As Logan is also on solids 4 times a day, he doesn't need as much milk as 4 x 240ml that's recommended. So I've decided that his body will know what it needs. I think as long as he gets 500-600 ml per day including Petit Filous and other yoghurts then his bones will be just fine. So some days he'll drink more, other days he'll drink less, and if he's hungry anyway I'll know about it!

We've started meat and that's pretty good fun. So far he's had mince beef, pork and lamb and has liked it all. Last night I cooked meatballs in a mediterranean sauce so I kept some mince, tinned tomato and pasta and made him his own little tupperware of "pasta bolognese". I might not need to cook his food long in advance and freeze it anymore: as long as I remember to keep some of what we're going to have, un-seasoned, no garlic, no sauce then I can prepare his meals at the same time as we prepare ours. 

Logan VS Dogs

And I was supposed to have more time to write when I was back full time during my lunch hour but it's the first time in 10 days that I actually get the chance!!

Today I am going to talk about Logan's first experience with dogs.

A couple of week-ends ago we took a short trip up North to visit Logan's Auntie Rona and her family in Aberdeen, and our good friends up near Turrif. Both families have dogs and to be honest I didn't think any of it before travelling.

Auntie Rona has a Cavalier King Charles called Baxter. He's a gorgeous wee dog and just came back from his holidays (while his mistress was away on her holidays, he was on his too!). When Logan clocked Baxter and vice versa, Logan was in absolute hysterics! He hadn't really seen a dog properly and this close before, and touching the fur was a totally new experience. It was hilarious to see how he reacted. We had him sat on our lap and Baxter was on the floor looking up at Logan, while Logan was grabbing his fur. I have to say Baxter was very patient!

Our friends up in Turriff (I don't like to give names much, but this is Paula who has the excellent blog about her village of doll's houses) have 3 dogs that they have rescued from various horrible situations. Sandy's a caramel Cocker and her first master died so she was a poor sad wee thing when they first got her. She's now full of beans and the oldest of the bunch. Then they got Fink who's a bichon frise (I think she's a cross cos she's not very much frise!!) she's quite young and pretty excitable. They got her as her previous family couldn't keep her. At last there's Snoopy who's a black Cocker who was maltreated by his previous owners. He's a bit of a naughty boy but adorable nonetheless. He managed to eat half the chocolates that Paula had bought for after dinner!!

3 dogs were a few too many for Logan. Too much movement, and he got really scared a few times by Fink's barking (she was just saying that there was someone outside the door every time). Like, REALLY SCARED. Big tears, huge cries, had to rush him to another room and give him a big long hug to calm him down. Poor Fink was just being a dog, and in a way it was a good thing for Logan as dogs bark so he'll have to get use to that sooner or later!

Unexpectedly, we had to stop in Aberdeen again on the way back (mummy had forgotten the big sterilising box so daddy had to drive halfway back to pick it up from Paula's OH), which gave Logan another experience with Baxter. This completely reconciled him with dogs as he absolutely ADORED being licked by Baxter, who wasn't going to be asked twice!! Big grins and laughter, it was so cute!

On the developing side of things, he can now sit without being held (I do put pillows around him!) and loves standing up with his 2 hands on something for support. And he has his first tooth!!

6 months already...

Yes indeed, Logan was born just over 6 months ago. It's unbelievable how quick it's gone. And it gets better and better as the interactions between him and us get more interesting.

So I'm now back at work full time. I've arranged to work longer hours so that I can take my wednesday afternoon every week and spend some time with Logan. Who is going to nursery 3.5 days for the next 3 weeks as his grand parents are on holidays. Today is his second full day.

Typically his dad drops him off around 9.30 am and I pick him up after work around 5.45 pm. Yesterday was his first full day and apparently he did great. The girl in charge of his "section" said the other baby whose first day it was too cried all day, but Logan had a ball. Not sure how I feel about this: he shouldn't be happy when I'm not with him!! However, this makes it easier to go to work as I know he's not going to be miserable. When I get up in the morning I have to prepare his food for the whole day, and MY lunch as well.

He was SOOO happy when he saw me last night! Big smiles and all that! And then we got home and he saw his Dad and his familiar environement and did a wee jig! Honestly! He danced in my arms and gave huge grins to his dad! It was really cool. In 2 weeks' time he'll be so used to it he'll not react anymore...

His grand parents got him a baby walker for his 6 months "birthday". He loves it. It has a "DJ" bit at the front that plays music and animal sounds and has lights etc... it's great fun.

Second day at nursery today and again he was delighted to see me, but he was very tired and grumpy. He went to bed early and I felt cheated!! Ah well, tomorrow is Wednesday so I get to spend the whole afternoon with him!!

Before and After

Just a quick note. 

I noticed yesterday how big Logan now looks in his bouncing chair. So I looked at the first few photos I took of him in the chair (which was given to us by his friend Freya cos she wasn't using it anymore).

The difference is INCREDIBLE:
Before:

This was taken on 10th April, Logan was 11 days old. We must have got the chair a couple of days before.


After:

This was taken this morning, 20th September, Logan is 5 months and 3 weeks old. He's way too big for it!!

So I'm going to buy a newborn to toddler one off eBay because this chair has been wonderfully useful, especially since we've started weaning him as he's too small for a high chair. So this is perfect for feeding him bottle or solids.

Nail clippers are evil

Oh gosh last post Monday 5th September??? 2 whole weeks and no time to write... Well the good news is that I'm back full time on Monday 3rd October and will have a whole lunch hour to post something everyday if I wish so. The bad news is... I'll be back full time!!! :(

Nail clippers are evil... Yes they are. They are much better than scissors as you can cut off more of the nail with them, but when you have a wriggly child that won't keep still, sometimes accidents happen. My poor wee boy got part of his thumb chopped off last time! Usually Mike and I do it together: one of us keeps Logan occupied with silly faces, songs etc... while the other cuts nails without Logan even noticing. But that time, I was busy tidying up the bathroom after Logan's bath and had asked Mike to do his nails in the meantime. Well one person just isn't good and unfortunately his thumb got chopped! Poor Logan screamed and blood kept pouring out and Mike was distraught and I was trying to stop the blood from running while Mike was hugging the wee man...

At last we had Logan all consoled (well feeding time came next so that helped) and the blood stopped and Logan bundled off to bed. Middle of the night he woke up crying, probably not understanding why he was trying to comfort himself by sucking his thumb and that was hurting??? But that was all, he was fine after that. We kept checking as we were really worried it might get infected, but all was well and a week later it was all healed.

A friend files her daughter's nails. She is 3 days older than Logan (we met at antenatal classes and then were in hospital at the same time!). I tried that with Logan but found it didn't remove enough nail (and was taking forever). Another friend used to bite them off (her wee girl is now about 19 months old). Haven't tried that yet, might give it a go next.

Logan is growing up fast now. For the first time yesterday he rolled over from his back to his front on his own! I didn't even see it. I was in the kitchen doing the dishes and heard him moan. Couple of minutes later I go to the living room to check on him and that was him on his front!! He does front to back very easily now. And he's just about to hold his bottle on his own!! :)

Back at work

That's it, after 6 months of wonderful maternity leave, I started work again last Monday. I've agreed with my bosses to work mornings only until October, so for the first 5 weeks I can spend all my afternoons with Logan.

The first day was really hard, but thankfully his dad was looking after him and he wasn't left with strangers. And when I came home, they'd rehearsed a "mummy's back home" dance it was so cute!! So his dad had him 3 mornings, and his grand parents the other two. We're still trying to figure out if these arrangements suit everybody or if he should spend a couple of mornings at nursery! Logan isn't really fussed himself (not lost without me AT ALL).

It has been a little bit difficult to teach my boobs that I'm back at work!! I've gone from breatsfeeding Logan 5 times a day to just 2, at breakfast (7.30) and at dinner (19.00). It took Logan 4 days to understand and accept that he gets a bottle of formula at lunch and at 4 pm (plus solids). It was really difficult at first as he just wouldn't take it so I had a bit of a guilt trip because a couple of days he didn't eat very much. But it was worth it as our feeding schedule is now well oiled! We've even given up dreamfeed!That's brilliant as it's given me back half an hour of my evening.

It's pretty good to be back at work in a way, as after 6 months of baby thoughts and talks, my brain is now put back in full use and I can concentrate on non-baby issues. Plus I really like my job so it compensates for the fact that I am not with Logan 24/7 anymore. Dare i say it: sometimes I even see it as a break from motherhood... 


Logan's grandparents bought him a door bouncer and he loves it!! So we got him one too. It's excellent: hangs on the door frame and has a harness type thingy where one tries to install the baby (easier when 2 people are doing it). There's a spring, and once the baby has understood how it works he just bounces bounces bounces (Tiggers are wonderful things and all that!).

 First day back at work - Looks like Logan does know something's going on and isn't happy about it!

Road trip

We were back on Tuesday from a 2 week roadtrip with Logan. And it was pretty cool. 

3 days to travel North, 1 week on Orkney, 4 days to travel back South. You might think Ayr to Wick/Thurso in 3 days, even worse 4, is ridiculously long, but we were travelling with a 4.5 months old baby and had to follow 3 important rules:

• Never have the baby more than 2 hours in the car seat
• Give him 2 hours to kick about after 2 hours driving
• Avoid driving more than 4 hours in a day 

So our first stop was Cromarty, with a 2 hour stop for lunch at the House / Falls of Bruar just North of Pitlochry. Pretty mainstream touristy but great food as always (if you can find a table) and lots of shops to go round spending time. There is even a great walk up to the Falls which we wanted to show Logan, but it had rained pretty heavily and the path was unfortunately flooded right from the start.

Cromarty is a wee gem of a town. The weather was lovely the next morning, so as we would only leave a place when Logan was ready for his first nap (so that we would drive when he was asleep) we took a long walk to explore and I have to say it is right up there in my list of 10 prettiest villages in Scotland. Logan DID NOT like the change to his routine. He DID NOT fall asleep on the 15 min drive to the Anderson Restaurant and stayed awake, gurning or crying, throughout the whole meal and we had to make a quick escape without dessert as we felt he was disturbing the other patrons too much. His first night in a strange bed was not good either. He kept us awake most of the night. We had to take him in our bed for the first time ever for him to at last fall asleep.

The first morning. Looking as if he'd let his mum and dad have a good night. NOT!

The second night wasn't much better. We were up in Caithness and the great thing was that we had dinner at the B&B, so were able to put the baby monitor on. Again he took forever to fall asleep! 

He loved the ferry across to Orkney, outside in the wind watching the sea!! And once we were there he settled very quickly into his new routine. I suppose we didn't move for 1 week so it helped a lot. 

 We had a great time with him visiting all the archaelogical sites, going to the Isles of Hoy for a hike to the Old Man, and of Rousay to explore Midhowe and Taversoe Tuick. His Auntie Rona joined us from Aberdeen for 3 days and it was brilliant having the extra help and someone to babysit. Orkney was really good: the weather was stunning for the whole week, apart from 2 sites there weren't that many tourists, and even if we're not into archaeological/historical stuff we really loved it.

 Old Man of Hoy in the background. 

 The Stones of Stenness in the background

 With his auntie Rona on Rousay

We came back via Durness, Gairloch and Fort William (Corran) and by then we all had a good routine of driving at nap times, taking breaks fo 2 hours to let Logan kick his legs about and getting to our B&B early enough that he could have his bath and last feed at normal times. He would still be awake all the way through dinner in restaurants, but at least he knew the drill and was very well behaved!

The next test for him is my going back to work on Monday. Mornings only fair enough, but it's going to be a big change for both of us... 

Teething vs Laugh explosion

What a night. Logan was teething (we think!) but of course we didn't know that at the time. 

It started around 5.30 am when all of a sudden Logan starts crying in his cot. Logan SLEEPS THROUGH so we thought he'd had a nightmare. Except we had to go back to reassure him about 4 times and then had to let him cry himself to sleep.

He slept for about 40 minutes and then started crying again. Same scenario took place.

He woke up again at 7.30 am, at which stage we just decided there was no point trying to sleep again. He really struggled feeding (still breastfeeding by the way! should be weaning him this month but the little stubborn monkey won't take the bottle, even if it's expressed milk! Bit of progress as he will drink juice from it). He was really cranky until he got tired again.

He had a really long nap from 9.45 to 12.30, which gave us plenty of time to try and figure out what was wrong with him and of course Google's answer was teething. Poor little soul. He was not himself again all afternoon until his next nap.

When he woke up at 4.30 he was his good old self again, which was excellent. He fed really well at last, and we played wonderfully afterwards. We had so much fun that we took this video. Beware: it's contagious!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZb8y0yNPps 

And tonight for the first time we tried solids! We had just 10 or so baby spoonfuls of baby rice mixed with formula and he liked it! So we'll continue with the juice in the bottle (either baby juice, making sure it's pure fruit juice with spring water, or 100% fruit juice to which I had cooled boiled water) and the baby rice. The latter should give him a taste for formula and hopefully in a week's time he'll take that in the bottle.

He'll have to as I'm starting work again on Monday 29th of this month!!

 Trying to rollover!

  In his "doughnut". He does not like it very much. Hopefully he'll like it better when he can sit!

Farewell Haggis the Cat

Gosh it's been 10 days since my last blog entry. Well a sad event took place the day I was going to write something new: our cat Haggis very unexpectdly died. He was only 7 years old! And he'd only used 4 of his 9 lives!

Every time he used a life it was hilarious.

The first time he used a life Mike and I were both working in the office, upstairs. Back then, Haggis would jump on top of the desk to sit on the windowsill. That day, it was quite warm so the window was open. The window is right over the front door, and the front door protrudes a little from the rest of the house so there is a roof starting right underneath the office window going over the front door (if that makes sense). Well what does Haggis decide to do? Let's have a wander on that roof! Except the roof is in a much steeper slope than he thought and that was him skidding down the roof, onto the gutter, then flop onto the front lawn!!! If you can picture how it happened it will no doubt make you laugh. I rushed downstairs to make sure he was all right, but cats always fall on their paws so by the time I got down he was wandering off to a neighbour's garden.

The second time was in winter. To save on heating bills, we very often light up candles in the living room. It might not be that money-saving because we have to regularly spend money repainting the walls as the soot lies everywhere. Anyway, that day we had a candle lit in the windowsill, with the curtains open enough so that they wouldn't catch fire. Haggis LOVED winsowsills (as all cats do I suppose). What does he do? Jumps on the windowsill and looks out. Sees a bird, gets his tail wagging. Well what should have happened, happened and his tail caught fire!! We screamed and started to rush to him, but our screams scared him, he jumped off the windowsill onto the carpet and the motion took the fire out. Phew! The smell was pretty horrid after that! But it still has us in giggles every time we think about it!

The third time I was away for a few days on a work trip. So I can only tell the story as Mike told it to me, and he may well have made it sound better than what it actually was! Mike is always hot when he sleeps, so he took advantage of me being away to have the bedroom door open, and the windows wide open. Another windowsill for Haggis to sit on. Picture the scene: middle of the night, a bit warm so Mike is slightly awake. He is aware of Haggis on the windowsill because as the cat jumped up there, the bell on his collar chimed (possibly what woke Mike in the first place). It's June, so the birds are up early in the morning. What we think happened was that a bird flew by the window, close enough for Haggis to think he was going to be able to catch it. Well, he didn't and fell off the window down to the patio at the back door!! Mike burst into laughter and quickly checked if the cat was fine downstairs, then left him outside to chase more birds.

With regards to the last life he used, we're not quite sure what happened as we were upstairs while Haggis was downstairs. Winter again, so candles lit in the living room. Dinner was cooking away, and I'd just put on the steaks to fry, so had gone upstairs to tell Mike dinner was just about ready. We then smelt burnt so rushed downstairs, believing the steaks were burning. They were fine. Couldn't figure out where the smell had come from. We sat down to dinner. After our meal I decided to brush Haggis (he LOVED being brushed). And it's as I was brushing him that it downed on us where the burnt smell had come from! He'd burnt his tail again! It was only a bit of fluff (fluffy cats are best) and somewhow he'd managed to take the fire out by himself, but we're not quite sure how! 

In the end it was a weak heart and lungs full of liquid that took him to cat heaven. It was very sudden as he'd only started struggling to breathe on Monday, I took him to the vet's on Tuesday and he died there. We buried him in his favourite spot in the garden, using his favourite stone as a marker, and put his favourite things in with him: his food bowl, fish on a string, squieaky mouse on a string, brush and purple ball. Hard thing to do, that was! To commemorate how much he made us laugh at times, he is buried in an empty Tesco's box of frozen peas bags... :)

 Haggis is on the front door step on this photo

    Here Haggis is on the armrest

Getting back in shape

I want my old body back!!

Well that's probably never going to happen. While the extra puffiness on my arms, legs and face disappeared a long time ago, my baby belly is hanging there longer than I thought it would, especially since I'm breastfeeding and it's meant to help with getting your old shape back.

I was feeling someting strange just above my belly button, so I went to the doctor's so she could tell me what it is. I wasn't worried about it, I just wanted to know what it is. And basically, my big long abdominal muscles have separated, which happens all the time (well, in 80% of cases) to pregnant women. Usually for big babies (Logan was not), twins (Logan was on his own) or multiple pregnancies (Logan is my first baby!). Ah well...

The doctor was pretty useless as she told me the only way to fix it is surgery. Nice. She also told me to look it up on Google!! Honestly. I need to change doctors. (By the way if you do want to look it up on Google, it's called Diastasis Recti or Divarication of Recti) So I did some research and before I can even think of having a flat belly again, I first need to bring those muscles together again, so there is a series of exercises to do. Then I can move on to crunches and sit-ups.

The doctor DID say something useful, i.e. it took 9 months to make a baby, it's not in 4 months that my body will be back to normal (if it ever does get back to normal).

In the meantime, the weather has been really nice lately and Logan and I have been out and about a lot. Logan laughs a lot now, it's excellent. He absolutely loves his bath, especially when we put just enough water for him to be able to lie in it without any support from us, and then he just kicks about it's hilarious!

I'm going to start weaning him next week. Interesting times to come...

Logan est Francais!!

'Twas a really good week for Logan and I as we both got our brand new French passports on Wednesday!

What a pallava though... But then again, it's quite lucky we have a French consulate in Edinburgh or we would have had to go all the way to London.

It started about 6 weeks ago when I made the enquiries to have a French passports for him, and have mine changed to my wedded last name. For me, no problem, I didn't really need to do anything except from bringing the marriage certificate to the Consulate on the day.

For Logan though, we first needed to have his Birth Certificate "translated" into French. This is done at the Consulate and costs nothing. We then needed to have a passport photo taken, and I was wondering how that was going to take place given all the rules about passport photos. He's not supposed to be smiling, he should be on a white background (but then I need to hold him, are they going to photoshop me out of the picture?) etc... Went into the photographer's in town and he laid Logan down on a white mat on the floor, and took the photo while standing straight over him. Easy peasy. Logan, who never smiles on photos, was in hysterics. We managed to have a photo where he is smiling a bit but not too much.

Once all this was done, we went to our double appointment, where we "applied" for our passports. It then takes 3 weeks for the passports to get done (that probably takes place in France) and then no, they don't send them to your home recorded delivery, we had to go back to Edinburgh to pick them up. 

It was a beautiful day in Edinburgh on Wednesday, and as the appointment was in the afternoon, we all went in the morning as a family and had a lovely lunch outside at Cafe Marlayne. 

So Logan now has a French passport, and that will be the only passport he has until he can get a Scottish passport, so his Dad says! (Scottish passports don't exist at the moment, only British!!)

Logan's passport photo!!

 

 

Drop-in Baby Clinic

As suspected, now that Logan is a little bit older, I don't have enough to write about for more than 1 entry a week. He is growing and changing everyday though. He is now 3.5 months old and as my mother predicted he's gone all chubby everywhere, with fat little thighs that are super cute! :)

My surgery do a "drop-in" baby clinic every Friday morning and it's a brilliant service. Once the midwife stops coming every day and the health visitor stops coming once a week, then the baby clinic is really good for reassurance in case there is something wrong with me or my baby. Mind you, i always forget to ask about me!

Logan's had conjunctivitis in his right eye for about 5 weeks now. The first set of eye drops worked, but when we stopped them the conjunctivitis came back. So on a Friday morning I went and asked the health visitor what else we could do. She suggested breast milk. Breast milk seems to be the cure for everything apparently! Well it didn't work on Logan. So I called during the week, and I got a different set of eye drops. These are much more gooey and I was really struggling to make them fall into Logan's eye without causing him a lot of distress. So I went and asked her to show me how. So even for little things like that I can just go and ask! Drops still not working though so will have to have him seen by a doctor I think. Hope he's not allergic to cat hair (he's breastfed for goodness sake's, shouldn't be allergic to anythign AT ALL!).

Everytime I go to the baby clinic, I get Logan weighed. It's wonderful to see his progress like that, and if he's had a bad week when he's maybe been sick more than usual (or in Logan's case, if he's been sick at all, cos he's never sick!), it's very reassuring to see that he HAS put on weight despite the sickness. Sometimes I get him measured too! 

It's also very good for me as when the weather is good, I walk there, which is roughly 35 min each way. Makes me exercise a bit, because my grand plans of starting running again to do the Great Scottish Run in September are just not happening. Between the business, the housework and the baby I just don't have time to run just now. Hopefully when he's a bit older.

We've had a few sunny and warm days lately so I've been able to make Logan wear more of the lovely outfits he got as presents, as shown in the photos below.

 

Dreamfeed 3

It's been about 10 days now and YES Logan is sleeping through the night! It's wonderful! So he goes to bed usually at 7.30 pm (no later than 8.30 pm), has a dreamdeed around 10.30 pm then sleeps all the way till 7 or 8 am! This morning it was 9 am! Love being able to sleep more than a few hours at a time!

He still won't take the bottle though. Annoying becuase I can't be away from him for any linger than 3 hours. This proved to be a problem last Friday night as I had a work do. The company invited us all for dinner as a thank you for a season that went really well and I was really looking forward to go to have some adult conversation and to get the latest news. I fed Logan just before leaving the house, and left a bottle of expressed milk for Mike to give him before he put him to bed for the night. 3 hours later I got a text from him saying the baby wouldn't take it. So I had to leave the party without any dessert (was looking forward to that Tiramisu!!). But it was brilliant to have those 3 hours in adult company, talking just a little bit about Logan but mostly about what had been happening at work while I had been on maternity!


The week-end brought some lovely hot and sunny weather so on Sunday we packed Logan, some suncream and plenty of water and drove to Glen Trool. We had lunch at the House O'Hill then parked the car, put Logan in the baby carrier and set off to Bruce's stone. Mike was carrying Logan and I had the rucksack packed full of baby stuff and water. We got lost a bit in the woods but made it to the viewpoint and it was well worth it. Again, to make sure Logan kept hydrated I fed him often (I'd taken a baby bottle of cooled boiled water for him but of course he didn't want it!). He was fine on the way up, even fell asleep against Mike. But the way back was a bit much for him and he wasn't so happy to be strapped and restricted for that long, in that heat.

It was a pretty long day for him as we only got back home around 7 pm!

  Lost in the woods

At the top (I'm holding him up and away from me hence the weird shaped face!)

View from the top!!

3 months today!!

Logan is 3 months old today!! Well, sometime between today and tomorrow as he was born on 31st and there is no 31st in June. Gosh it has really flown by, I am really pleased the first 6 weeks are well gone now as they were very hard. From now on I wish it could slow down a bit as he changes every day. 

I am pleased to say that he now does his nights! Not sure if that's early or late at 3 months, but it started on Wednesday last week, then we were in Edinburgh on Thursday so it was a bit of a disrupted night, but since Friday night he has had his dreamfeed at 10.30 pm and then has slept all the way through to anytime between 7 am and, well I'm not sure, it's 9.30 am and he is still asleep this morning. He wakes up around 6 am but I go through and reassure him by telling him to go back to sleep (not that he understands, but the sound of my voice does the trick).

The problem has been teaching my breasts not to produce milk at night. This is the one inconvenient about breastfeeding: it leaks, and it's very painful when it's full. And yes, I do use breast pads. Everything else about it is wonderful. But the leaking is really annoying. Eventually last night it was fine, yee'ha! 

Yesterday was a bit of a hectic day as we had our first baby massage class at 2 pm. So we get up in the morning, have a feed then go to change a nappy and put some clothes on (I don't like him to be in his babygros during the day, they're for night time, no matter what both his grannies say!). Well I had to change everything as he had pooed all the way up his back. The day goes on, another feed (a big one, I was really surprised and a bit worried some of it might come back up), another nappy full change as again he had pooed all the way up his back. I was all right with that as I wanted to put some fancier clothes on him anyway as we were going to socialise (coffee with other mummies after the massage class). As I was about to leave the door to go to the massage class, he gets sick and I have to change him all over again!!! We seem to always have baby clothes being washed or drying in the house...

The baby massage class was GREAT and I really recommend it to everyone. Here in Ayr there are 4 classes, 1 per week for 4 weeks. Yesterday was the first one and we concentrated on the legs, feet and lower tummy. Logan loved it until we got to the tummy, but I think he was tired by then and needed a nap. So he got a bit cranky. Plus the baby next to us had started crying a lot and that set off another 3 babies or so. There were 8 babies and mummies, babies ages ranging from 7 to 18 weeks old. 

We were each given a small bottle of organic sunflower oil to warm up in our hands before applying to our babies. It is pretty much odourless so it doesn't hide mummy's smell. 

Next week we will do the same, and do all of the tummy too. The week after we will add the head, and the last week we will add the back. Apparently they love the back. Not sure about Logan, he hates being on his tummy!

They recommend to massage the babies before going to bed, but I'll massage Logan before his bath because I don't want him to go to bed all greasy.