Bed talk

A short conversation with a neighbour:

- Is she in her own room yet?
- She's not in your bed, is she?
- You'll have a nightmare when you want to put her in her own room.
- Mine were a nightmare, fed all night, i had to hold them down in bed to stop them from getting up. Screaming their heads off, they were!

Nice!

It's only a problem if you think it's a problem.

Vi tar det här om att sova, så har vi det gjort. Jag läser om bebisar som sover 22 timmar om dygnet (de är ju så DUKTIGA) eller som går och lägger sig klockan 7 och sover till 9 morgonen därpå. Ljuger folk eller är det verkligen så?

Jag har egentligen gjort avtal med mig själv att aldrig prata om/diskutera/ifrågasätta/klaga på Tallulahs sömn, därför ser ni aldrig några mitt-i-natten statusar om lack of sleep på min facebook. Men här kommer sanningen. Lilla är nu 9 månader gammal och hon har aldrig sovit själv. Jo, kanske de första dygnen, då sov hon i en plastsäng på BB, men sen, va fan, jag ville ju hålla i min bebis. På natten sover hon med mig. Vi ligger vända emot varandra, det är bara att dra ner linnet om det så önskas. Och på dagen sover hon antingen i bärsjalen eller i mitt knä. Hon sover ALDRIG själv.

Vi har absolut ingen som helst rutin. De senaste dagarna har hon somnat i min famn vid 8-tiden. Då passar jag på att sätta på TVn medans min arm domnar bort, sen tar jag med henne till sängen när jaggår och lägger mig. I natt vaknade hon kl 1.30 och ville klappa händerna, för det har hon precis lärt sig. Det sysselsatte hon sig med i tre timmar. Jag kommer ihåg att jag tittade på klockan vid 4.15 då hon äntligen började verka lite trött. Haha!

Tycker jag att det här är jobbigt? Klagar jag för att jag inte får någon "egentid" eller att jag blir väckt på nätterna? Nej! Verkligen inte! Jag tycker det är så himla smidigt att följa hennes behov och rytmer, jag behöver inte stressa hem till kvällsbadet kl 18, nej hon kan somna i slingen på tåget hem. Jag kan minsann dricka ett glas vin medans min bebis sover i min famn på en restaurang. Man behöver inte sova i pyjamas varje natt...

Folk tycker förstås att jag är knäpp i huvet. Det där blir jobbigt sen. Sen? När då? När hon är redo får hon mycket gärna sova själv, men jag behöver inte försöka lära henne det när vi alla trivs så bra med hur vi har det. Folk undrar hur hon sover på nätterna, hur många gånger hon vaknar och jag har ingen aning. Jag vet bara att jag vaknar utsövd och nöjd varje morgon och att jag inte har några ringar under ögonen. Däremot vet jag en massa folk som är rutin-fans och faaan vad de gnäller om sömnen och hur trötta de är. Beats me!

Är hon snäll?

Åh suck vad sur jag blir när folk pratar om att dess barn UPPFÖR sig! Vi snackar typ en liten bebis. Jag vet en blogg (typ en slags släkting, en ung morsa som målar naglarna och lägger upp bilder på dyra bebiskläder, vet inte varför jag läser skräpet). Och varje dag handlar det om hur deras unge uppför sig exemplariskt och är sååå duktig. Vadå? Finns det bebisar som uppför sig illa, som är bråkiga och dumma? Nej, det gör det inte. Det finns inte barn som uppför sig bra för i så fall skulle det finnas barn som uppför sig illa, och det gör det inte.

Jag skulle föredra om ni sa "det gick så smidigt" eller "jag kände att bebisen tyckte det var roligt". Okej?!

Gratitude

Rest in peace Robert Edwards and Thank You! Thank you with everything i have and from the bottom of my heart. Thank you.

Bums

It's only taken me around 9 months but i have just ordered our first cloth nappy. A happy green nappy.

I'm so torn when it comes to cloth bumming. I am, i grund och botten, lazy, in an efficient and thrifty kind of way, if that makes sense? Probably not! I like having little projects and doing things, but i also end up with things half finished, and i loooove having a big clear out, recycling, bagging things up for charity and throwing things away.

So, we'll see. Part of me forgets what happens to our bin bags once they're collected, and a part of me thinks disposable nappies are full of chemicals, or even worse, PERFUME (Pampers).

My husband has said NO! But i tend not to discuss things with him too much, i just do.
Now i just need spring to arrive so i can hang the nappies out in the garden to dry...

How i met your baby

I hate how parenting and babies are presented on TV. I don't watch as much crap as i used to (screen ban when T is awake) but i do watch some things.
How I met your mother. Lily and Marshall have just had a baby. There was one episode where they were all sleep deprived and talking gibberish. Next episode they've found a nanny and they're back in the bar? Or they've got their friends round and there is noooo sign of baby. Other than the occasional cry on the monitor, but the baby never joins in with the rest of the "gang", doesn't play on the floor in the living room or has cuddles with his parents. Poor child!
The only time he was involved was when Marshall was doing exercise whilst wearing the sleeping baby in a crotch dangling baby bjorn. Boohoo.
Is this normal? Is it just our baby who is centre of attention all the time? Who rules this house? Maybe?!
I sometimes see on facebook that parents of babies of similar age sometimes go out, have friends round in the evening, watch telly at 10 pm. Sure, we can have friends round in the evening but Tallulah will go to bed with my boobs at 8 o'clock (or 7 or 9 or 10, i don't know).
I hope it doesn't sound like i'm moaning, because i'm not. I love my life as Tallulah's mamma. I don't want to try to control her in to a pattern that's not her normal one. I just wish media would sometimes portray babies as the unpredictable little rascals that they are, not as sleeping robots who "let you get on with your life..."

Food, glorious food

Nämen hej!

I have made a food promise. It is this: I will never buy any baby/child specific foods for Tallulah. She will eat food, not baby food. Simple as. And i don't intend to help her eat.

She started eating food about two months ago. She was 6 and a half months old and not a single bit of pure or porridge had passed her lips. Since then she's had: cauliflower curry, spicy daal and lamb rogan josh. We've shared a plate of Italian antipasti at Carluccio's, garlic bread (the salt free version), hoummus (homemade, again to avoid the salt), whole strawberries, roast peppers and cheesy broccoli. Almond butter on toast, blueberry pancakes, lemony chicken and strips of steak.

I know so many babies whose only experience of food is välling, meat and potatoes mashed together with milk, porridge and some mushed up unidentified fruit. Yum!

Tallulah's experience of food is a multi-sensory one. She looks at it, bangs it, she tears it apart, watches it again, throws it away, hides it, picks it up again, eats it, spits it out. It is a joy to watch! She is so funny!

The whole baby food industry is an over-marketed, unnecessary money-making machine. I have never once walked down the "baby food" aisle in the supermarket. We don't need special food for babies. Let them eat what you eat. Let them enjoy and experience food! Don't buy the myth!

Sabotage

Yesterday i was waiting for bill in tesco's carpark. Whilst waiting i ripped formula adverts off the shopping trollies.
"What's the next best milk after Emma's?" Well, SMA! It's not your follow-on milk that's for sure. The second best thing after being breastfed is expressed milk from the mother, the third is donated breastmilk, the FOURTH is fornula.

At least there are a few more trollies at tesco that are not pushing this rubbish message around the shops...

Booby traps

On Monday i start training to become a breastfeeding peer supporter. I am so excited.
If i get to help just one baby to get breastfed then i'm happy.

Marsupials

This happens all the time:
Random stranger: She looks nice and snug in there. You won't be able to carry her for long though.
Me: Actually, it's really comfortable, i can hardly feel i'm carrying her.
RS: Yeah but she's going to get heavier.
Me: No it'll be alright.
RS: Rather your back than mine...

And is this said with kindness and concern in their voice? No, it's more like "you crazy woman, listen to me, tut tut".
Why do people do that, i don't go up to every baby in wheels and tell their parents they should carry their babies.
Isn't it strange that people think we are the only mammals who can't carry our own child? No one says anything to the kangaroos...

Cup of tea

En av de värsta sakerna med Sverige är de urk-iga teerna. Vill du ha te, frågas det? Oh, ja. A cup of chai, put the kettle on. Också får man en tepåse från lipton med ospecifierad fruktsmak (typ "röda bär"). Tvi vale!
Jag är inte den som säger att mat är äcklig, förutom välling och ersättning, men det här så kallade teet får ta hem priset!

Out with the old

It's time to have a clear-out in the blogosphere.
There was a lot of blogs i started to follow whilst pregnant, because it was kind of fun to follow them and recognise and compare notes. The thing is there is only really one pregnancy style, wheras there are plenty of parenting styles and i simply can not read certain ones anymore...

I never realised i was that different, i thought what we did was common. Turns out not so. There are plenty of people who think you can spoil a 6 month old baby by letting him/her sleep on the breast. There are people who don't think a premature baby needs breastmilk and because they can't suck they won't bother trying. People who think it's okay to leave their babies to cry for 1, 5 or 10 minutes because they need to toughen up and learn.

They have chosen to do this. It has nothing to do with me and i can't do anything about it, but i can stop reading about it and stop getting upset. So that's what i'll do. Goodbye!