Parenting is totally different. If you do the bath, baby massage, book and quiet time it does not necessarily mean Elfie will sleep. More often than not she will end up downstairs with us wide awake, and then we have to do a few relay runs up and down the stairs to switch on lullabies and pick up dummies before sleep arrives.

And then, one night, BOOM. She will go down straight to sleep after her bath and we think we’ve cracked it. We can cook properly, drink wine and watch crap TV. Blissful.

Until the next evening, when she’ll be up again, wide awake and wanting to be entertained.

There is no answer for this on Google… argh!

Originally posted on my mumplusone blog.

Our friends got married on Saturday afternoon and had the most fantastic wedding. They wed in a small ceremony at the town hall then a party followed at a private member’s club. As they’re both rockers there was a skull and crossbones theme and, crucially for my heaving head, an all-day free bar. Dangerous. The bride fantastically wore black Jenny Packham and some of my very favourite friends were in attendance.

Previously to this, the last night out I had was Halloween 2009. I was a two-week pregnant spooky Amy Winehouse and I celebrated with a big group of friends in a Shoreditch bar (sidenote: I’m not sure why, but dressing up seems to cease being fun at around 15, but as soon as you hit your mid 20’s it becomes fun again… weird). I hired a beehive wig, bought a Winehouse tattoo set online and even wore ballet shoes… read the rest of this post at my mumplusone blog.

At her weigh-in today she’d put on weight, fabulous news! She’s 3 oz up and has about another 6 to go to get back to her birth weight. Hopefully at her next check on Wednesday she’ll get discharged by the Midwives.

Elfie is so much more alert now and really enjoys gazing at us, the wall, the window… she’s gradually spending more and more time awake during the day and it’s amazing seeing her notice more things on a daily basis.

Her nappies have this week become proper baby nappies! They smell like a mix between vomit and poo and have the consistency and colour of a korma. Delightful. I am so lucky as daddy doesn’t mind changing nappies at all (he probably does it more than me).

Elfie still doesn’t fit into her newborn clothing so Grannie kindly bought her some lovely new tiny sleepsuits. They’re purple, very refreshing as she has way too many pink things.

She was introduced to her first pub yesterday – we had lunch with my parents and brother for my birthday. She was an absolute star and slept through the whole thing, I’ll be going back to the pub next week for their mother and baby group.

She’s tending to wake up just 2 or 3 times in the night, at around midnight, 2.30 and 5.30. I’m thinking this is fairly good! We will be trying to implement some routines shortly based on Gina Ford’s Contented Baby books but not until she gets to six weeks or so. Right now the priority is giving her lots of love and food.

I’m desperate to be up and about doing things and it’s really frustrating to take it so easy. I want to be driving, exercising, (shopping), even working! We went into town last week to introduce Elfie to TopShop and Gap but my nipples leaked in Office and I got tired so we had to come home. It was an interesting experience!

Weight loss post-birth is now at 1st 11lbs. I have 1st to lose before getting back to my pre-birth weight but I’m not rushing it.

Baby Elfreda Daphne H (named after two of her Great-Grandmothers) was born on July 7th at 1.35pm weighing 6lbs 14oz. We had a couple of sleepless nights in hospital as she decided she was so good at breastfeeding she wanted to do that instead of sleep and she HATED the hospital crib. We came home at 5pm yesterday and she’s been very relaxed ever since – feeding and snoozing. We have been mostly staring at her in awe of how we possibly made something so gorgeous.

The Caesarian section was scary as I thought it would be but the staff at the hospital could not have been more wonderful. I am so glad we were able to go through our birthing experience there instead of London.

More photos to follow I’m sure once I’ve caught up on sleep.

(Baby’s birth calls for posh luggage, I feel. Though there is too much stuff in the weekend bag and I can’t get the damned zip to close)

PACKING! One week to go…

I’m looking forward to leaving for all the practical reasons; the commute, the mental energy I’d rather use on packing the house up for our move, the option to lie in if I’m awake all night with Braxton Hicks. Otherwise I’m pretty scared.

Mostly I will miss the people I work with, we have a lot of fun together and I genuinely like coming into the office every day. But I’ll also really miss the cool stuff we get sent on a daily basis.

I’ve worked on projects with G -shock for two years and was always kind of sore that I was never able to get my hands on of their watches: I went through two Baby G’s (remember them?) between the ages of 14 and 18 – you were a nobody at my school unless you wore one of those bad boys on your wrist.

Imagine my delight when a box full of grown-up G-Shock watches arrived at the office; in all colours of the rainbow, I managed to get my hands on a bright red one.

I felt sixteen again. I really love chunky watches – perhaps because they make my swollen hands look smaller? Dainty timepieces are lost on me and this watch really stands out. It’s brilliant.

It’s waterproof so will be great during labour…

There will be a Casio G-Shock watch shop/underground hub of creativity opening on 24th June at the Old Truman Brewery, hosting installations from emerging artists and designers as well as displaying their product offerings. Very East London. Having attended their artistic endeavors previously I can highly recommend a visit, though of course I will be in Nottingham resting my cankles so won’t be there myself.

You can find out more on their website.

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