Catching Up

OK, so here is the first instalment of the catch up that I talked about. These posts are from when Jack was 3 months old.

June 26^th 2009

So anyway... Jack's bedtime routine seemed to have gone back to normal last night, but about 20 minutes after putting him in his crib asleep he woke up crying. I tried to soothe him and he was fine the moment I lifted him out. Then cried as soon as put back in. I thought he might be hot so put him on the bed to take his sleepsuit off and he went straight to sleep right there!! So I think that makes it official.... he has outgrown his crib and feels constrained in it.

Time to get his cot! We put it off as non-essential but can't delay any longer. Fitting it in our room requires a little rearrangement of furniture, but we want him rooming in until he's six months so we will work it out.

I'm trying to encourage Jack to think about rolling over, he's shown no inclination so far and went through a long phase of hating tummy time. I tried him on his tummy for the first time in a few weeks the other day and he was fine with it, so now I'm trying him on his front every day. He shuffles about loads on his mat, which is very smooth. He wouldn't get anywhere on the carpet lol!

June 28^th

He's three months old today. I suppose I should log what he can do:

grab and hold objects placed in front of him
draw things into his mouth
swap things from one hand to the other
shuffle about on his back
just starting to show an interest in crawling but lacks the strength!
"talk" - he can take his turn in conversation and makes some wonderful noises
smile
giggle
follow an object or person around the room with his eyes
watch the cricket and tennis lol!!
refuse to smile for the camera

He's still exclusively BF

A few other thoughts for today... expressing. I've so far not been able to get into a good routine. Mornings are typically best for me and there was a period when I was waking up quite engorged and getting a good 4oz in one go. But then my supply adjusted to just let down on demand, rather than fill and empty and it got loads harder to express, I went back to only getting about 1oz but I had a good week of pumping every day and it went up to about what I was getting before. But it's now been a good couple of weeks since I expressed.

I want to get back into it. I've got about 20oz frozen but I'd like to increase that as I'm going to see Leonard Cohen in a few weeks so Andy will probably get through all the frozen supply while looking after Jack. Can't imagine what my boobs might feel like by the time I get home that night as the gig is in Birmingham, so I won't be feeding Jack for about 6-7 hours including travel time. Maybe I should take the pump and express both on the way there and back?

Something to add to the things Jack can do at the three month mark.... deliberately take mummy's glasses off her face.

I was leaning over him, letting him explore my face with his hand and he started to reach for my glasses. He pulled them down my nose and grabbed at the lenses. It was very deliberate, like he was working out why there was a part of mummy's face that came away!

It's a big day today, not only is Jack three months old but we are going up to the local snooker club this afternoon to present a prize. My grandad, who Jack is named after, played there for thirty years, right up until he became house bound at 98 years old. He passed away at 99 in February 2008 and we now live in his old house. After he passed away my mum donated a trophy in his name to the club and the tournament was last weekend, the prize presentation today. I'm looking forward to introducing little Jack to some of the people who knew his great grandad.

June 29^th

Jack had his meningitis c vaccination this morning. Andy went into work late to come with us. Last time we saw the nurse was when we went in to an appointment that had been automatically booked for Jack's first round of jabs and we had to argue with her about what we do and do not consent to and she seemed most put out that we didn't let her stick him with anything on that occasion!

It was a different nurse today. At first she was sure that it must be a mistake that it said men c only in the notes but we explained what we wanted and she was fine about it! She put it all in his notes so if it's a different nurse next time we don't have to go through it all again.

Jack cried for a few minutes, but Andy walked him around the nurse's office while she filled out the paperwork and updated his file on the computer. He was a bit grumpy afterwards but not too bad. I put his continued grumpiness today down to the heat. Though he has been very clammy so I keep checking his temperature for signs of a fever from the jab.

That was the one thing I was a bit unhappy about with the nurse... she didn't mention any side effects of the jab. Now, I know what to watch for anyway as I have researched the subject so thoroughly, but if she never tells parents what to look for I worry about that for other parents who don't realise how potentially dangerous these vaccinations can be. It may be that she didn't say anything to us because it was obvious to her that we are well informed, having chosen not to follow the NHS schedule, and that normally she does give parents all the information. But I doubt that's the case. The NHS seems woefully unwilling to say anything negative about immunisations.

You'd like to think that if vaccines weren't dangerous they wouldn't be offered. But the truth is that the men c vaccine was rushed to the market without undergoing one single safety test. The government vaccinated 11 million children in one year as a grand "catch up scheme" without waiting for the pharmaceutical companies to do their tests but in the 10 years since its introduction there have thankfully, been very few negative outcomes [30 deaths as of 2007]. But its effectiveness has been shown to be about 60% [83% for the first year then falling off], which is not considered high enough by normal vaccine standards. If it was shown to be dangerous you would hope the government would withdraw it, but they waited 5 years to comply after an international review dictated that all mercury-containing vaccines should be withdrawn! So not a good track record.

Reclaiming Birth

Sunday 7th March 2010 - Reclaiming Birth

What a day! Jack and I somehow managed to get up and ready in time to leave after a truly appalling nights "sleep". Andy drove us to the station while I continued to umm and ahh about whether to take a borrowed buggy or keep Jack in the mei tai. When Ruth and her mum arrived with no push chair for Eva my mind was made up, so when we kissed Andy goodbye he took the buggy away with him!

We boarded the train and had a pretty good journey to London. Both babies were very good. As we arrived a couple of hours before the march was due to start we decided to swing past Hamley's toy store for gifts for our little ones. Unfortunately they were having a big birthday celebration and only allowing people in who had baked a cake!! So we stood outside with others who were queueing for admittance for a few minutes before deciding to make a move.

We got to the park and took a quick trip into the Imperial War Museum to use the facilities and then sat out and had some lunch. We met up with Family Parkin, Jo and Oliver, and Debs and Hannah from Airedale Mums. We got ourselves organised, bought t-shirts and got ready to march.

The crowd steadily grew, bright pink balloons bobbed overhead and signs and banners were being hoisted all over the park. The word went out for us to move to the road behind the big Reclaiming Birth bus so myself and the other Airedale Mums took to the street with our pink t-shirts and signs.

The procession moved slowly through the streets, escorted by marshals and the police, though their presence was hardly felt (unlike at my previous demos!) we chanted and sang and answered questions from journalists moving through the crowd. One child started up the chant "Keep birth normal!" which rang out for quite a long stretch of the march. To hear a young girl shouting this phrase with so much verve really moved me. The next generation need to feel as passionately about this as we do if things are going to change for the better long term.

It was a glorious day with clear skies and plenty of tourists eagerly snapping pictures of us. We arrived at Whitehall and came to a halt, speeches were made from the top of the bus, guests included Beverley Beech from AIMS and one of the Albany midwives.

It was at this point that a couple of the babies in our party started to struggle, there was a lot of noise and no movement to keep them content in their slings and we were stood in the shade where it was remarkably cold. We moved over to the Department of Health building and sat down in the sunshine, most of us took the opportunity to breastfeed out little ones and were joined by a couple of Albany Mums! I thought it a very fitting scene! (Keep breastfeeding normal too!)

The speeches ended and the crowd began to disperse. We made our way back to Kings Cross for the return journey, tired but exhilarated from our exertions.