Hi All,
Apologies for the lack of new posts in recent times. Life has been pottering on at a nice steady pace and I haven't been inspired to write anything. However, luckily for you, (or not), the 5 day weekend we have just had has been very inspirational!
Although I'm not working anymore, apart from full time baby care, I still look forward to weekends and especially 5 day weekends! Weekends mean Jon is home and I don't have to carry all the weight. I get some help, I don't have to change all the nappies and I don't have to do all the shopping or cooking. There is someone to share the load and it's great.
This weekend was a 5 day weekend instead of the 4 days most of you experienced as my big brother got married on Thursday. This involved a trip to Chilston Park in Lenham, Kent, (http://www.handpickedhotels.co.uk/hotels/chilston-park/) for a day with family and an overnight stay. I love weddings. However, a wedding is a very different experience when you have a small baby in tow. Especially, if your husband is the wedding photographer.
I won't give a blow by blow account of the whole day. I'll just say The Popster met A LOT of family she hadn't seen before and was a bit of a hit. She was very well behaved, staying quiet at all the important bits, despite me encouraging her to yell at the point in the ceremony where objections are asked for. Due to me wearing a nice dress I was unable to feed in public and had to take her up to our room for feeding - probably a good thing anyway as she is easily distracted during feeding these days. On the lead up to her bed time we were still in the dining room having the wedding breakfast and listening to the speeches. This was the worlds hottest room and The Popster had become very grumpy meaning I spent a good 30mins, if not longer, standing, holding The Popster in what felt like a sauna. I was glad to get out of there and take her up to bed. The bathroom in our room was gorgeous and had a huge bath in it so I decided to give The Popster a bath before bed. A huge bath means a long time to fill and The Popster was in no mood for hanging around so I turned the taps off and put her in to a very shallow bath. There was a rubber mat in there which meant she could just lie there unsupported with her head above water - a new experience for her. Given I had spent the last few hours in a sauna I got in with her! We now have a new mat for home in order to repeat this new style of bathing!
Bed time is very chaotic at the best of times. Bath Poppy, dry her whilst she is screaming and get her in her PJ's. Always screaming. Feed her - this bit stops the screaming and calms her down, or sends her to sleep. Read her a book and put her in bed. If there is any deviation from this, it can throw the whole thing off kilter and lead to singing - and no one wants to hear that. So picture this, and given what I'm about to say I can't believe I'm asking you to picture it!. Me naked, apart from a necklace and knickers sat in a chair in a darkened hotel room breast feeding The Popster. She had got to that stage in a feed where she had fallen asleep but still suckling. There was a knock on the door - I quietly asked who was there as I didn't want to disturb The Popster. No answer. I thought maybe the knock was actually at my younger brothers door in the next room and waited. Then there was a key in the lock, the door opened and a maid walked in and was promptly startled to see a naked woman sat in a chair with a baby attached to her breast! She apologised, I also apologised, (we're so English!). She asked if I wanted the bed turned down. Urrrm, no thank you. And out she went with a story to tell! As soon as the maid shut the door, The Popster started crying, great! This meant getting The Popster to bed took slightly longer than usual but it wasn't too bad at all and I had rejoined the party by 7pm.
The night was now mine. The Popster was in bed and I could relax and have a drink or two, or three, or four...... The baby monitor didn't work so we just checked on her every now and then but she was all good, fast asleep. As it turned out I didn't really fancy drinking that much and we went to bed just after midnight - creeping into the room so as not to wake The Popster sleeping next to us. Then the most amazing thing happened. The Popster stayed asleep and didn't wake up until just after 7am. Yes, that's right, she slept through the night for the first time ever!!! Woo hoo!! (Although I did have two exploding boobs as a result).
Hooray for weddings! And congratulations to Mark and Mandi. About time!
The last day of the 5 day weekend, i.e. today was a very exciting one for The Popster! She had her first swimming lesson. Unfortunately I had been unable to get her swimming nappies as we could not find any small enough. This meant we had left the nappy shopping to before the lesson at 10.30am. We parked at Tesco's
I took her in to the changing rooms to get ready for our swim experience. Easier said than done. I managed to get her and me changed and I took the money out of my purse so I could carry her, the two bags and our towels out to the lockers and pack it all in. I managed to do all this one handed whilst holding on to The Popster and put the money in the locker. It was then that I realised I had got 20p out of my purse and not £1. Great - my purse was at the bottom of the locker with everything else stacked on top. One handed unpacking and getting the correct change then followed and then repacking the locker. Success, locker shut, The Popster and towels in my arms, off we go. No wait, I still have my glasses on!! Back to the locker, open it up, dispose of glasses and off we go. Now though I can't see to read the signs so I don't know where I'm going! I figure it out though and we finally make it out to the swim class and a waiting Jon.
I'm pretty sure The Popster enjoyed the class. Basically she is a bit of a closed book. She doesn't really do laughing and smiling so if she isn't screaming we take it to be that she is happy. The class was fun and to be fair to The Popster she did occasionally smile. Just over half way through I felt that familiar vibration on the hand I had supporting her derriere. Uh-oh, she just pooed. This wouldn't normally worry me too much, but remember, this time, she was wearing an over sized nappy! Jon and I quickly glanced at the water and all seemed fine. We had got away with it. I'm sure it must happen every now and then, there surely must be swimming in poo and wee, but I didn't want to do it and I certainly didn't want to be implicit in others doing it! Once the class was over, we exited the pool and wrapped The Popster in her towel to keep warm. It was at this moment I noticed the yellowy brown stains growing ever bigger on the towel - the poo had escaped!!
The Popster hates getting out the bath, getting dried and having her PJ's put on her. Just imagine what it is like, to get out a giant bath with spreading poo and wee in your pants, be walked around a changing room, fiddling about with lockers, dried in a damp pooey towel and then left lying there waiting for someone else to get stripped, dried and dressed. It wasn't easy, there was a lot of crying! But I think she liked the swimming part so she is now signed up and we are going every Monday! Hopefully I will get a little better at the changing part!
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