The RockingMotherhood Tag

The RockingMotherhood Tag

Thank you to the lovely Nicola at Mummytodex for sharing the # RockingMotherhood tag with me. I have decided to take part as Nic is so kind as to have sent me a few things now and I’m a bit scared she’s going to stop if I don’t stop being lazy! . I have listed the rules and shared the ten things I believe make me a good mother, below. I hope that those of you who have been tagged will take part and and continue the tag.

RockingMotherhood Rules

  1. Thank the blogger that tagged you and link to their blog.
  2. List 10 things you believe make you a good mother (this is just a guideline. It can be more or less than 10. I really don’t mind.)
  3. Tag 3 – 5 bloggers to join in the #RockingMotherhood Tag.
  4. Grab the #RockingMotherhood badge and add it to your post or sidebar.

Things that make me a good mother

  1. I want my baby to grow up to be a citizen of the world. I will not be selfish and try to keep him close. I will allow him to travel and experience different cultures at the earliest opportunity.
  2. My baby laughing or smiling is the most important thing in the world to me right now. The house may be a tip, but he has a smile on his face.
  3. He teaches me how to be a better person. I’m a much better person for being a mother both mentally and spiritually. I’m learning just as much from him as he is learning from me, we are growing together (him in height, me width ways)
  4. I don’t mind making an idiot of myself to hopefully show my baby that life should be fun. Singing and dancing down the aisles of Sainsbury’s may get some funny looks, but if he’s smiling I don’t care. I don’t want him to think life has to be serious for a very long time yet.
  5. I picked him the best father he could possibly get. Kind, humble, intelligent, good looking with a heart as big as a country. With genes like that, this baby will go far.
  6. Having experienced pregnancy loss, I will try to never take being a mum for granted. I will be forever grateful and eternally terrified that something will go wrong as I am not sure what I have done to be so lucky, but having experienced the lowest of low, this is the highest of highs, and I constantly tell myself that I am the luckiest person in the world. My life has totally changed in just over three years and I am happier than I ever thought was possible.

I am tagging:

Liska at New Mum Online

 

 

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Capture

Capture

I started to think that if RLT looked through images of his childhood, that there would be very few of us together. Therefore, I have had to request that my OH capture some moments when we’re together.

Looking after a baby on your own for most of the day means that you get a phone gallery full of selfies with the baby or pictures of other people and the baby!

rlt selfie

As you can see, our selfie attempts certainly are interesting, but I want the lovely candid shots capturing the moments I want to remember, not the moments where once again poor babs has me sticking a phone in his face!

I mentioned this to my other half as I was getting pictures printed through Boots Photo Service (thanks to their fab discount vouchers through the Boots Parenting Club and did not have one of me and RLT but thousands of him with everyone else!

My other half has an eye for composition, he is a brilliant photographer thanks to his training as a film-maker, but these skills sadly are under-utilised. He always tells me that it is important to capture the light in the subjects’ eyes, which apparently is something I constantly fail to do!

Family selfie attempt – oh dear. More work needed there!

Finally, on week 22 of RLT being in the world, my request for a pic to be taken of me and babs was met with a positive response and being the great photographer my other half is, got something that I was extremely happy with. I hope it is the first of many moments captured of me and my little man. OK, my roots are terrible… so it has been changed to black and white! But looking back now RLT will know I was there when he was a baby, rather than looking at these pics of him with everyone else and thinking he was raised by a tribe!

capture the moment - me and rlt

RLT and me!

 

Four month sleep regression

Four month sleep regression

Four month sleep regression has hit us! After sleeping through 7.30-2am only waking for dummy to be put back in before going off again at 5.30am from around 10 weeks, we seem to have reverted back to needing 1 or 2 night feeds again.

sleep regression

He has a quiet sleep zone, a bedtime routine yet he no longer sleeps through

I’ve read so much on the subject, so understand that how he sleeps is changing but my concern is the sleep association that he has with feeding and when the time comes how to stop this association (i feel he’s too small at the moment).

I have seen a lot of advice to let babies cry and they will soon stop waking up – very sorry to anyone that has done this but I am just not prepared to try this.

At the moment I am going to feed him on demand during the night in the hope that his is something he grows out of. The clocks going back won’t have helped either!

Does anyone have any advice on what they did to crack the four month sleep regression?

Halloween

Halloween

RLT’s first Halloween saw his cousins come round to trick or treat.

Tried to dress him up as Pubert Addams but he was a wriggly little worm –  I saw another mum had done this more successfully than I, and she used hair chalk – will try again next year when he is a little less newborn and I am feeling a bit more confident about applying things to his skin/hair. He still managed to make it into The Hartlepool Mail’s Halloween readers roundup – which was great for the cat as it meant that she didn’t have to get dressed up this year – when your dad is the head of digital for a few daily newspapers, dressing up to lead campaigns is something you get used to!

I took a polaroid of RLT, M & T together to put in his memory box for his first halloween. By the time his cousins visited, he was dressed in his second outfit of the day – as little Frankenstein, a gift from my mum, which she picked up at the local Tesco.

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The Grocompany – our new obsession

The Grocompany – our new obsession

Grocompany – a company five months ago that I’d never heard of, but now can’t live without!

We first had two grosnugs for our little one – born in June, these were ideal and made him feel like he was having a little cuddle – was he heck having his arms fastened in though! I can’t for the life of me find a picture in either the grey one or the white spotty one!

Looking for a nightlight proved impossible too but thankfully I noticed the gro logo and purchased after wasting money on two cheaper ones which were neither use nor ornament! It works off the main light switch and fits over the top of the light bulb! Basically press the switch once for nightlight, press twice for ordinary light. It’s great, such a help for night feeds and changes, it’s light enough to see what you’re doing but dark enough that it doesn’t disturb the little one. We tried 2 of the ones that fit in plugs, one was too light, one too dark – so this is like baby bear’s porridge of nightlights to us!

 

By about two months old, RLT got a bit long for the grosnugs so we moved him in to the grobags – and we’ve never looked back!

As soon as he is in them, whether it is naptime during the day or night time, he knows it is time to go sleep! We have a mixture of side zip ones, front zip ones and ones with travel features – which are great for early morning trips to train station with daddy. We had one given by friends, but the others we have purchased from TK Maxx, Smythes Toy Store and Mothercare – they seem to be the go-to company for sleep bags.

Now grocompany have teamed up with Orla Kiely, I don’t think our association with this company will be ending anytime soon! We’ve already purchased the OK apples in next size up – RLT has boats in his current age.

I’m a massive Orla Kiely enthusiast, my cat is even called Orla Kitty! My clothes are OK, wallpapers are OK, RLT’s cotbedding is OK, if she designs it, we probably have it!