making albuqueque

conceding defeat

Today I

• ate toast with vegemite and tomato for breakfast
• am conceding defeat
• hate wet beds at 5.30am
• love that it's now only 3 more sleeps until we move

I am conceding defeat in our first major parenting disagreement, and you guessed it, it's on sleep.

A little while ago I asked nursery to stop letting Bella have a sleep in the day because it was doing bad, bad things to bedtime and it was doing my head in. I preferred to deal with an overtired toddler who would be asleep by 7.30pm than one who wouldn't be asleep before 9pm. Matthew disagreed with me completely but let me have my head. Bedtime settled down for a while (please note it has been a good 6 months if not longer since Bella has consented to have a day sleep at home).

Bedtime has gotten nasty again, well not so much bedtime as the entire time between when I pick Bella up, and when she falls asleep practically standing up just after 7. She's gotten a lot more tired lately, I'm not sure why. I wanted to continue with the no day sleeps at nursery, Matthew continued to disagree with me, but I've had to concede defeat. Bella has been even more obstructive, resistant and testing more boundaries and being generally feral because she's so tired and confused by what's going on with moving house. She's extremely highly strung right now (more so since the GBS last year than before). The smallest thing will set her off in a rage, or she'll cling and cry. I think the move has really really unsettled her, plus for some reason she's really bloody tired.

So after last nights 1/2 hour tantrum over me trying to help pull her undies down so she could use the potty, I've had to tell nursery to start letting her have a short sleep in the middle of the day. I don't like being wrong, and I seriously don't like the carer telling me I'm wrong. Alright, I get it, Bella needs a day sleep at the moment. I WAS WRONG, don't expect me to say it again.

Plus I hate losing, and I lost this parenting disagreement, even though I know that this is what is best for Bella.

Oh and I feel like crying because Bella spent 15 minutes this morning howling about wanting to go home as we were on our way to nursery, and then the next 15 minutes clinging to me cuddling her like a limpet. Before you say it, nursery isn't the problem. By all reports she has a lovely time while she is there. I think the issue is being really, really anxious and unsettled about this move, and not understanding why things keep disappearing from our flat. I think that's why she's acting out so much lately, that and the threat of the new baby. Everyone else I talk to who has moved houses with toddlers has said they breezed through, it wasn't a problem. So why is our little miss struggling with it then? Please reassure me I'm not the only one with a toddler with issues about this.

On a more positive note, Kosciusko had hiccups just before lunch.

on packing and moving, and sodding children that kick me in the bladder repeatedly

Today I

• ate vegemite and tomato toast for breakfast
• have really overdone it on the weekend obviously because I'm really sore under my bump
• hate being really sore under my bump, I'm not sure it quite warrants a sick day, but I am seriously considering it if sleep tonight doesn't improve things
• love when Bella is feeling confident around people, it doesn't happen very often right now.

For your delight, and to make up for not posting in forever, here's a video of Bella watching a Play School DVD. I warn you, it's over 13Mb so may take a little while to download

Download MOV01038

Right, the last couple of weeks.

We got a key to the storage area under the new house just over a week ago. We've moved 4 car loads (well boot loads anyway), over there, and it seems to have made very little difference to the amount of stuff in our flat. I suspect we have more than enough stuff to fill a 3-bedroom house and fully intend to offload some of it over the coming months. I shall have to consider whether anything I'm thinking about offloading might be useful to my brother and his family if they do move over. If it is, I guess I can put it in a box under the house or in the garage just in case.

Last weekend saw two toddler parties in 2 days, and I was going to put up a photo of Bella on the bouncy castle at one of them, but thought since I hadn't checked with the parents of the other kids in the photos, I'd better hold off. Remind me to edit the photo so I can put it up with no qualms. It's the first time Bella has really consented to go on a bouncy castle without clinging to the edge next to one of us. I suspect her confidence was entirely due to the fact that all the other children on their with her all go to the same nursery as her, and her best friend was among them. But yeah, was a tiring weekend.

We signed the lease for the new house yesterday. We paid a bond today. So barring picking up keys sometime in the next couple of weeks, we're all sorted. We've also freecycled our couch, and boy was that a relief to get rid of. Yeah, it means we've got no couch for a couple of weeks, but we'll live, we never liked that couch anyway! As Matthew says, fat lot of good we are moving, he can't drive and I can't lift anything!

Here's the cutest box we need to move.

Just to taunt my mother, the daffodils are out in force now. I always used to wonder why Mum was quite so obsessed with daffodils...right up until the point I spent my first winter in England and then I got it completely. I am now as obsessed as she ever was. Daffodils flowering mean the spring really is here, the weather warms up, the sun starts to shine, and the depression of December, January and February starts to lift. So Mum, here's some daffodils for you.

And I'll end with my two favourite people in the world.

22 weeks

Today I

• ate marmalade toast and cranberry juice for breakfast
• wish my skin would clear up
• hate 4am
• love marmalade toast

So we missed the 20 week belly shot. Here's the 22 week one for your delight, with the one of bella for comparison. I'm at least 4 weeks bigger this time round.

The insomnia is still kicking my butt, so I'm tired. Bella is still being somewhat of a handful, because she is tired, and is playing on me being tired. However, dinner time wasn't a struggle last night. She hoed into the spinach and ricotta cannelloni. I think the fact that she helped stir the stuffing, pour the sauce into the dish, fill a couple of tubes, and sprinkle the cheese on top may have been a large contributing factor to how much she ate!

seven (or tagged by a meme again)

I don't usually do memes, but inspiration is lacking due to severe, pregnancy induced, insomnia. I'm going to be lazy and not tag anyone, but if you read here and feel like doing a meme, feel free.

The Rules:

1. List these rules on your blog.

2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog.

3. Tell 7 unspectacular quirks about you.

4. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.

5.Link the person who tagged you.

6.Leave a comment for each blogger.

7. Leave a photo of yourself

Seven facts

1. I have one older brother
2. I knit, well that's not news to anyone is it? And I consider it a fact not a quirk because knitting should be viewed as more normal than it is
3. Terry Pratchett and Diana Wynne Jones are my favourite authors
4. I'm 5 ft 4 and a half, don't forget the half, it's vitally important
5.  I have degrees in psychology and epidemiology
6. I like to bake cakes and all manner of sweet things, but I try not to do it too often. That said, I'm thinking cupcakes might be a good idea tonight!
7. To the best of my knowledge I'm not allergic to anything

Seven unspectacular quirks

1. I have a line of three freckles on one arm that look like someone has jabbed me with a fork
2. I really, really, really hate to eat meat fat. The feel of it in my mouth makes me gag. I am therefore incredibly, tediously anal about trimming the meat before it's cooked, or if I don't cook it, then cutting every skerrick of fat off before it hits my mouth
3. I wear high heels under extreme sufference. I don't see the point in shoes that make my feet, ankles, knees, hips and back ache after an hour!
4. It is extremely hard to get my attention when I'm engrossed in a book
5. I am currently obsessed by cheese, blame Kosciusko, it's nothing to do with me
6. I am a die hard tummy sleeper, which is adding to the sodding pregnancy insomnia right now
7. I wear handknit socks by preference.

As I said, I'm not tagging anyone. I was tagged by Liss at Frills in the Hills

A photo, hmm, lets see what I can come up with. This is the most recent one that is just of me. Otherwise they tend to have Bella in as well.

 

swim

Today I

• had vegemite and tomato toast and cranberry juice for breakfast
• managed to sleep till abuot 5.15am, somewhat of a record lately
• hate the resurgence in live moths I'm seeing
• love when we don't have a fraught work morning

So yesterday I took Bella swimming for the first time ever. I was pleasantly surprised, she wasn't afraid (well provided she had a good grip on me she wasn't). We'll be doing that again, and now I've got to go and investigate proper swimming lessons, because I have no idea what I'm doing. All in all, swimming was a big success as an activity. I've got to say though, there's nothing like seeing your toddler walking in a swimming cossie on a wet pool deck, for highlighting things like the fact that she's still really not strong in her legs at all, and her balance is fairly atrocious. When she's got trousers on you can't notice it so much, but yesterday it was perfectly obvious to me. They did tell us when Bella was diagnosed that it might take 6 months to a year for her to recover fully, but at this stage I'm not sure I believe that.

Other news, well we had our anomaly scan for Kosciusko on Friday and all went well. The little tacker is measuring spot on for dates, and everything looks normal. I almost cried when the sonographer looked in the head and saw what she was supposed to see. So it's onwards and upwards from here, and bring on July I say.

Insomnia is currently kicking my arse. On Saturday night I didn't get to sleep till after 2, and then had broken sleep until about 5. I'm not managing to sleep past 5.30am any day (and 5.30 would be a good day for me at the moment). People who say to get as much rest as you can before the baby is born can go bite me. I am so constantly tired that I've been angry since October. I don't like this angry self, but my tether is so short right now. I'm guessing that wont really change when I'm up several times a night breastfeeding will it? Hmm, probably not.

Unrelated news, my friend that lost the baby in December is pregnant again. Please send all hopes and prayers her way. The results of the post mortem on her little boy were not great, so she's got a scary time ahead of her waiting to see if this baby is also affected.

In crafty news, I am almost finished knitting my current shawl. The colour of the yarn totally overshadows the lovely lace pattern, but I don't care. I will be most happy to finish it, and I've discovered that nupps don't suck as much as I thought they would. I've also managed to score a ticket to a talk with Meg Swansen. I don't expect any non-knitters to get how exciting that is for me but it is.