Widget And The Gang.

Well HUGE congratulations are in order for Ruby-Dog who gave birth to a litter of five puppies just the other night.

They were born a little earlier than we would have liked and sadly, we did loose one during the birthing process but the others are doing fine, with the exception of the smallest one, Widget.

Widget was the second of the five to be born, weighing a little over 300 grams. He made a fighting start, getting in there with Ruby, suckling for milk. We thought he was doing great.

But last night during the family meal, I looked over to Ruby-Dog's whelping box to see little Widget lying there apparently limp and  lifeless, One-day Hubby jumped to attention, scooping him into his hands and started stimulating him rapidly but Widget was frightfully unresponsive.

I called the breeder for some emergency advice who told us to keep trying to stimulate the puppy and keep him very warm.

After a few minutes One-day Hubby cried out that he thought he had seen him open his mouth, and would you believe it, he had!  and just a few minutes later he made some faint squeaking noises.

In something of a fluster I quickly filled a tupperware tub with some warm water and wrapped it in a towel. We then placed the puppy on the make shift incubator whilst continuing to rub him.

Ruby-Dog did look a little concerned at our intervening as she looked on with fear, We did try to keep her  as involved as possible, allowing her the odd lick  but Widget was week, his life hanging in the balance.

Then the makeshift incubator started to melt, So he had to be provided with some emergency Kangaroo Care whilst a hot water bottle was located.

With in ten minutes, our breeder arrived with some nutra-drops, a glucosey type mixture that is fast acting.
After tasting the mixture he slowly started to pick up. We tried to get him to take some milk from his Mother but the poor little soul was still weak as he slid off the nipple, tired and exhausted.

Next we tried to express some milk from Ruby to raise his energy levels, but I am not adept in the realms of dog milking and the amounts were insufficient.

Acting on the breeders advice, we continued to give the drops every few hours until the puppy built up some energy. We put him next to Ruby and willed the little fellow on, hoping for the best.

One-day hubby and I decided it would be a good idea to keep a closer eye on all of the the pups, so we marked them apart using tipex, this way we could tell more easily how often each puppy was feeding.

We drew up some observation charts to monitor their progress, noting their sucking and sleeping activity every two hours through the night.

Then, the puppies were officially named. We called them Gadget, Sprocket, Widget and Disqus, with Disqus being the only girl.

And would you believe it, hour on hour little Widget's strength grew and once again he was active, suckling from his Mumma.

Today Widgets suckling away like a champ, sweetly nestled in with his brothers and sister.

We are so proud.

One Of Those Days.

Ever get the impression that you are not in charge? Because that is the very distinct impression I got when I found myself singing 'Wheels on the Bus' at ten past five this morning. Smidge's new waking up time. Yeah. Good call Smidge!

The day proceeded to go down hill as this sleep deprived mummy tried to negotiate her way to the very essential caffeine supply during those early hours.

In all my keenness, I foolishly put a far-too-moblie Smidge down on the kitchen floor and watched her tip over the dog's water bowl before my very eyes, creating a large puddle like effect for me to clean up. Nice.

'Pop her in the living room' I naively thought,opening up her toy box to expose the many items of plastic tac for her careful consideration...

Silly me again.

Not two minutes later I return and she is mid way through a fling fest. Yes I'm talking about the neatly folded laundry pile that was no more.

The cheekiest gummy grin emerges on her face to reveal two protruding tooshy-pegs.. Clearly she is over joyed. A sea of baby vests, jumpers and trousers surround her as she sits there, prouder than proud.

The clock strikes nine and suddenly I remember we have a play date in town with a new Mummy friend of mine, Must make a good impression.

Oh dear! all my clothes seem to old, too small or too snotted over. Finally I settle for a skirt I once paid too much money for and a top that partially disguised my unsightly shape.

Loading Smidge in to the car I am mortified to discover She has taken up the secret hobby of curing ham in her car seat, disgusting.

After finally finding car parking space in town, I step out of the vehicle. It's cold, subzero temperatures in fact and I am exposing two pasty white legs one of which has a large purple bruise on. very attractive.

I arrive at the cafe ten minutes early, and I get a text on my phone saying 'Sorry I'm going to be fifteen minutes late, I couldn't leave the house and the baby has thrown up all over me. Must be one of those days'

One of those days indeed.

New Years Resolutions Reviewed.

1.Say at least one positive thing a day.

2.Insert Batteries in to Wii fit Balance board.

3.Make family walks on Sunday's a priority.

4.More than one glass of wine a day is unacceptable. Except on fridays. Saturdays...and Sundays.

5.Hot chocolate instead of actual chocolate is okay, as long as its cadburies highlights at 40 cal per cup.

6.Work harder at accepting people for who they are and not who I want them to be. basically, let go of idealism, it only pi**e* me off.

7.Do tea and crafts,don't do wine and facebook.

8.Hold more dinner Parties, be sociable.

9.Set up rota and evenly distribute anxiety related baby health queries between health visitor, Devon doctors and A&E.

10.Eat more sensibly.

11.Purchase Riverford farm grocery shopping Bag, made from organic hemp.

12.Overcome bat/bird phobia and strive towards cleaning out the attic, if not put the ladder away once and for all.

Happy Birthday Mr G!

Today is Mr G’s twelfth birthday, Twelve years old I tell you!  and it’s been non stop action ever since my eyes pinged open this morning.

The fact Mr.G’s Birthday has fallen on a Saturday has had both good and bad sides to it.

It was good that we got to go out with his mates on his actual birthday. It was bad that I had to spend all morning frantically cleaning the house before their parents turned up and even worse, the Garden too! Can you imagine?

We had awesome day out at 'Battlefield Live' though and the trip to the arcades afterwards just sealed the deal.

I'm amazingly proud of my first born boy for being the person who he is today. He is a very kind and incredibly bouncy kid who has an absolute heart of gold. He has not had the best year this year but he has been unbelievably resilient and  understanding. One day Mr G is going to make a great adult, but for now he is a very much loved and appreciated Brother and Son :-)

                                                                   HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

The Dress That I Did Not Want.

Last week I went shopping on the High street. I was seeking out clothes,Winter clothes to flatter my post pregnancy shape. But those damn winter woollens, they add inches just where I don't want them and anything that looked remotely flattering was more suited to cocktail party than the British winter weather.

But then suddenly, amongst all the rails of clutter, out popped a most suitable looking winter dress. It was cut in all the right places, 'Wow!' I thought 'What a winner' and toddled off to the changing room to try it on.

I was pleasantly surprised with the way it fell, it didn’t cling to all my wobbly bits like others I'd tried.

A little bit delighted, I thought 'I'll buy that!' and went to put it back on the hanger before getting changed. However just as I as I did, something terrible came to light. Oh no! The flattering winter garment was  Maternity wear!

I hurriedly left the changing room red faced and ashamed, practically thrusting the dress in to the shop assistants hands with full force and a very loud ' No Thank you'

Once again, I have  been forced to seriously re evaluate the diet situation and I might just have to wipe the dust off that sports centre membership card, that is if I can find it.

The problem I have is that I stick to diets like blue tack sticks to glass, pretty much a non starter from the off I'm afraid.

So this time I must take this dieting lark more seriously, starting firstly by attempting to understand my own unhelpful and annoyingly repetitive behaviour.

This diagram 'The Cycle of Change' written by Prochaska and Diclemente and can be used to understand all sorts of dependant behaviour, I like it because it illustrates my failings beautifully.

I'm really hopeful that I can come up with full proof plan that enables me to stay in 'maintenance' for at least three months. 

As one of my main issues is not being able to stick to a diet for more than a week, I've decided the best option is to change the diet each week, this should help to prevent boredom. Each week on a Sunday I'll be reviewing the diets and rating them on things like how much weight they made me lose, amount of time spent flaked on sofa,how many friends I lost, whether everyone else had to get their own dinner and how many times I went over my overdraft limit.

Should be fun so watch this space x

Parenting - High's,Lows And I Don't Knows.

Some of you will know already that there is a massive eleven years between my two cherubs. That’s nearly 12 years spent in parent-ville to date.

So far it’s been a real journey but I like to think I’ve learned a few things along the way. Of course there are many who would agree to differ on that but as I say, I like to think I have!

Well whoever said Parenting doesn’t come with a manual was clearly oblivious. Aside from the government issue of  'Birth to Five' distributed on the twelfth week of pregnancy, we are quite literally overwhelmed by the vast array of expert advice relating to what we've all been doing for years- bringing up our Kids.

However the following notes about child rearing wont be found through browsing through the isles in WHSmith.. which sort of brings me to my first point...

Parenting books.

An Excellent alternative for fire lighters during those winter months, but if you think reading them will prevent you from turning out like your own Mother/Father then you are sorely mistaken.

The values you learned from your parents are programmed in to your psyche and seeing a more intelligent approach will only depress you when you when you don’t step up to the mark. For this reason it’s best not to read books at all but if you must, find one that’s backs up what you think already. Can’t find one? I know how you feel.

Pretend you know what you’re talking about.

It doesn’t matter what you believe in when it comes to raising a child but it is essential to give the appearance of knowing what you’re doing, if you don’t, you leave yourself vulnerable to all sorts of unwanted advice which again only reinforces a sense of failure, making your job harder.

Give a balanced picture when sharing your experiences.

Nobody likes a parent who only ever sees the good in their child. As sweet as it is it's also incredibly annoying. In contrast if you complain about your child and their perceived difficulties too much then parents will only use this as an opportunity to feel good about themselves. Yes it's a dog eat dog world out there in parentville, and parental one-upmanship is deeply ingrained in to the child rearing culture. As such, it is important to offer a balanced picture about your child. Two complaints to every three compliments is good.

Consider all unacceptable behaviour as a temporary blip

No matter how non distinctive a behaviour may seem it is useful to believe it to be only a phase. Of course this is tricky when your child is persistently presenting with the same problems, in particular if the same problem is highlighted time and time again by varying sources. Put your faith in the fact that after embarrassing you beyond belief your child will eventually overcome the phase and come up with new ways to show you up.

Dealing with Criticism.

Parents bring to the table all kinds of different ideas about how to raise kids and none of them are really 'right.' Folks bring to parenting what they think their child needs to survive in this world, which will be different to what someone else believes their child needs.Hence we are a diverse population.

With this is mind, if someone criticizes your child or your child rearing skills don’t feel you have to justify your parenting or their behaviour. A simple 'He'll grow out of it' will suffice.

Enjoying your role

Being a Parent is packed full of unforeseen challenges.

Any concept of how you thought you would deal with this experience will go out the window as you learn how to function in this dog eat dog world.

As your child grows so will your expectations,you will become increasingly hopeful of seeing a positive return on the time and energy invested. Sadly it takes years for a child s potential, aspirations and identity to become clear and by the time they do your own ideals will be lingering submissively in the background, abandoned in a bid to maintain a positive relationship with your off spring. As such it is wise to try to enjoy parenting for exactly what it is, a drawn out, unpredictable act of selflessness full of highs,lows and I don't knows.

Poisoned

Oh Bloggy.. I'm ill! I've poisoned myself and Mr.G and Stephen too! It seems only Smidge has escaped the wrath of my cookery. What started with good intentions resulted in simply torturous outcomes. Who ever would have thought a singular lump of cheese could cause so much trouble?

I was in the kitchen you see, preparing a vegetable lasagne with a complex aubergine sauce and keen to be as organised as possible I grated the cheese in advance whilst waiting for the aubergines to boil down.

I waited,waited and waited but those aubergines took a jolly long time.

When finally the correct amount of shrinkage occurred, I layered up the lasagne and lovingly scattered the pre grated cheese over the top. The cheese looked a bit,well melty,but surely it was just a little more mature now. right?

Wow Stephen was going to be impressed with me I thought to myself, much more Earth Motherly than last nights fish and chips. I popped it in the fridge so I could clean up the kitchen..

6pm and dinner was served, it was compliments all round and my Earth Mother status was reinforced.

A few hours on and the effects started to become evident, Oh the shame of poisoning your own child. I will be kind and spare you the detail but last nights shenanigans called for some serious indulgence therapy.

Today I put my green faced self in to a car and drove to the petrol station, where I purchased some tomato soup, jarred baby food and two trash mags.

I am now feeling marginally more human. :-(

The Coolest Thing About Blogging

I always kept a diary when I was a kid because I felt it was important to keep a record of all the great injustices I suffered. There would be quite literally reams written about my parents and the perceived issues regarding their chosen disciplinary measures.

I would literally spend hours scrawling away in my bubble style handwriting, putting the world to rights and then, with my brain fried and hand aching I would manage to muster up one positive sentence. Something like ‘Am meeting Louisa tomorrow, Should be good’

So you can imagine what a delight it was for me to discover the blogging world some 20 years later when once again I found myself struggling emotionally.

Of course these days I keep an ‘Open Diary’ so anyone can read, which is a far cry from the scribbled out jottings of a paranoid pre-teen.

This to me is by far the coolest thing about blogging. See, since making this diary public, I have come to realise that there are others, many others who can relate to my experiences as a parent, and it seems they can be a lot more honest about their own muddles and struggles, making me feel better about my own. Awesome J

Yes I think it is brilliant that there is a multitude of shameless parent bloggers out there ready to unveil the truth about parenting.  I mean I shouldn’t have to put a throw over the x-box or tip flour down my dress every time someone comes round should I?

Secondary nerves.

You know the last few days I have been taken by surprise a little by Mr.G  who has been acting kind of strange in the run up to starting secondary school. Well kind of strange for him that is! Yes, my otherwise fearless boy has been experiencing an extremely rare case of nerves.

The last time this happened  he was about seven years old.I remember it well, Stephen and I had taken him on a camping trip and there was a kids mini disco in the bar area.

‘Come on down to the dance floor and join in for a chance to win a prize’ Shouted the cheesy D.J with the microphone.

Mr G sat there looking a little bit antsy taking a long sip on the straw of his drink.

The D.J boomed out yet another tune and we could see all the little uns’ giving it all that on the dance floor when suddenly Mr.G looks up and he says..

‘Something weird is happening. I’m not sure how to describe it but it’s like I want to go and dance on that dance floor and yet I sort of don’t want to go’

Steve and I look at each other with a look of wonder and surprise.

‘It’s called feeling embarrassed’ I tell him ‘It’s quite common and nothing to worry about’

You see Mr G doesn’t normally do shy, embarrassed or introverted. Mr G does confident, assertive and upbeat. So you can imagine that when last night he asked my advice about whether he should put his uniform on before breakfast or visa versa I became immediately concerned.

Another sign that Mr.G was not feeling his usual self was on Friday when I took out the school handbook and started reading the student guide to him. He came and sat down on the bed and listened.

The last time Mr G was accused of listening was in year 2. But it turned out that he came down with a heavy cold a few days later...

So you can see how such a dramatic increase in his social consciousness has sent my anxiety levels soaring, I mean what if a teacher shouts at him and he cares?

What if he loses his bag and panics?

Having a big kid at secondary poses all sorts of new challenges. I’ve just got to remind myself that this is Mr.G we are talking about. This is the same kid that will go on any ride on the fair ground, the kid that remains as strong as an ox in the face of a crisis, that will take on any challenge without question..

This is the totally fantastic and utterly indestructible Mr.G!

The end of an Era.

Today is the end of an era, A day that represents the end of something amazing and the start of something incredibly scary. secondary school.
I am officially old. Yes I got me a big kid now and it is utterly terrifying.
So it's goodbye to little orange chairs with holes in the back, you were impressively hardy and never showed me up by toppling over,even post pregnancy.
It's adios to the after school cake sales, it was a bitter sweet relationship that we shared but I will miss you none the less.
To the raffles and tombolas, I never won you but you gave me hope when the other stalls did nothing.
To the parents, Thank you for shuffling ,chit chatting and making school orientated small talk with me and preventing me from looking like a complete moron.
To the teachers, The thought of one day in the life of you gives me gray hair but you have all done a marvelous job and we liked you..
But most of all goodbye to little Mr G,to watching his proud and angelic little face singing in the school plays...
An image that will soon be nothing but a happy memory that will remain forever in my heart and if I'm  very very lucky..
will serve as some pretty good ammo in the years to come when I am faced with a gangly loud mouthed spotty teenager with attitude.
:-(