Baby ballerina

Every girl needs a tutu!

And every mummy needs an excuse to buy one :-)

I'll admit it, it was the thought that Monkey would look VERY cute in a tutu that first had me typing baby ballet lessons into Google. She was far too young for most of them though. They seemed to start about age 3 and be very serious - all rules, gradings and competitions. And whilst we may do the whole competition thing as Monkey gets older, it wasn't something I wanted to start so young.

And then I found BabyBallet!

Lessons start from age six months. Monkey was seven months at the time so we were ready to go. Baby ballet offer a three week trial for £15 so you're not committing yourself to anything if you or baby don't enjoy it.

Monkey had her first lesson on 25th January. We were very excited.

All ready for her first lesson

Once the three weeks are up you can then become a full member of Baby Ballet. It costs £10 for membership and then lessons are paid for termly at the start of each term. The cost varies depending on where you are but for us it's £4.50 a week.

Monkey's membership pack was almost as big as her!

When you become a member you get a fab membership pack which includes a membership card, sparkly wand, bubbles, colouring sheets and crayons, discounts at lots of local businesses, info about your lessons and even a cd to practice with! And even more importantly - the uniform order form!!!!!!

In her uniform for the first time

It even has wings!

I love the uniform. It looks so cute. But while I'll admit that's one of the reasons we started at ballet it's not what has kept us there for six months. Monkey loves it! She really enjoys anything musical so she joins in and dances away with a big grin on her face.

There's lots of repetition at baby ballet. It's great because I can really see Monkey getting the idea of the dances and what's coming next. There are some things that are always included -- baby ballet warm up, good toes naughty toes and the baby ballet lullaby. Other songs are changed each term. At the moment Monkey's favourites are Row Your Boat (especially if she manages to grab the cuddly crocodile puppet) and she loves playing with the balls for Jelly on a Plate, even more now she's realised she can throw them!

At the end of each lesson the babies are rewarded with a sticker and each term they receive a baby ballet certificate. It was a very proud moment when Monkey got her first one.

Getting her first dance certificate from Miss Sarah

If they have baby ballet near you, you should definitely check it out. There's lots more to it than just cute tutus. I'll leave you with this collage of pics from this mornings lesson.

Breastfeeding - The end of a journey?

I never planned to breastfeed for a year.

I never really had any sort of plan. I knew I wanted to give breastfeeding a go but while I was pregnant that was as far ahead as I'd thought. I think I was probably more determined than I realised though.

Before Monkey was born I'd read Gill Rapley's book Baby-led Breastfeeding: How to make breastfeeding work - with your baby's help and this was the approach I wanted to try. Monkey was delivered straight onto my chest and began to feed away. I was lucky that we both took to breastfeeding quite easily. I didn't get any soreness and Monkey seemed to feed quite happily.



In those first few days it seemed like our breastfeeding journey was going to be absolutely fine and problem free. I wish I could say it stayed that way.

At ten days old Monkey was sent to hospital due to concerns about her weight. I was surprised that they seemed to suggest formula almost straight away as I thought the NHS encouraged breastfeeding. I'm not quite sure what had happened in those ten days but I'd changed from someone who was going to try breastfeeding and see how it went to someone who was passionate that that's what I wanted for my baby.

I was put under quite a lot of pressure to put Monkey on a bottle but I felt sure she was getting enough milk. In the end I agreed to breastfeed on demand as I had been doing but also to cup feed expressed milk as top up so we could have some kind of measurement.

This arrangement was awful. I'd had no problems with breastfeeding until this point, now I hated it. It felt like I was always either feeding or pumping. I struggled to express and felt guilty about not spending time with Monkey while I was doing it, especially once daddy went back to work. Add all this to the tiredness and hormones that come with being a new mum and I was a mess. In this whole year of breastfeeding that was the only time I thought about giving up. I was so close.

And then in walked my health visitor!!

I was dreading her coming. I thought she was just going to be another person telling me I was doing it wrong and starving my baby. She was great though - saved our breastfeeding and continues to be a great support to me and Monkey.

She watched me feed and said there were no obvious problems. Monkey had a slight tongue tie but it wasn't affecting her latch and she was feeding well. She told me about a breastfeeding support group she ran where I could get Monkey weighed and talk about any issues we had.

I'lI never be able to explain how much that group meant to me. I went every week until I went back to work and I still try to go when I'm off. I've met a great bunch of mummies there who have become good friend's, I've had lots of support for Monkey's allergies but most importantly in those first few weeks when I was feeling so vulnerable I was given the support, encouragement and confidence to continue to breastfeeding feed.

And what a good job I did.

Although we didn't know it at the time, Monkey's weight issues were down to a number of allergies - the worst one being dairy. If I'd done as suggested and given her formula then she would have been so much more poorly. Her reactions to food I ate through my breast milk were scary enough.

Once we knew about Monkey's allergies I was given the choice to put her on a special hypoallergenic formula or change my diet to continue breastfeeding. We were three months into our breastfeeding journey at this point and now we had such great support there was no question.

I was told if I didn't want the formula I would have to breastfeed for at least a year. By now I was convinced it was the best thing for her but a year seemed like a very long time especially without a lot of my favourite foods.. The countdown to when I could eat normally again was on!!

And then Monkey turned one......

This was when I should have stopped, when I could eat whatever I wanted,, the day I'd been counting down to. But I was in no rush to stop. I love breastfeeding -- the closeness, the cuddles and that special bond you can't explain. I love her being my baby.

She's growing up though. And she's been dropping her feeds. She's not had a breastfeed since Saturday now and I feel sad. I miss it much more than I ever thought I would. I don't quite dare go back to my normal diet yet but it looks like our breastfeeding journey is coming to an end.

While I'm sad I'm also incredibly proud. She's had my milk for a year, when I look back to how I felt at ten days that's amazing. And she's completely self weaned, I've never refused her a feed.

It's been an amazing journey :-)

Dietitian Appointment

Today has been a good day. I didn't think it would be though. In fact, I've been worrying about it for a while. Today we met Monkey's new dietitian for the first time.

I'd spoken to her on the phone a few times and she seemed lovely. That wasn't why I was worried. My GP is asking for a medication review for Monkey and that combined with lots of people talking about reintroduction aged one had left me feeling stressed.

I last spoke to the dietitian on the phone in May. At that point we agreed to try her with a bit of wheat and see how she got on. It didn't go well. I only put one stock cube in tea for the three of  but it definitely affected her. Her skin was a mess, she had weeping eczema behind her ears, coughing, wheezing, bloating and bad nappies.

I'm not against reintroducing foods to Monkey's diet. In fact I would love to as it would make life so much easier for both of us. I carried on going with the wheat for a few days as I thought I was just being paranoid and waiting for a reaction. When other people started noticing her reactions though I knew it was time to stop.

Our phone conversation in May had talked about introducing wheat to make the milk ladder easier and then to use the milk ladder to reintroduce dairy aged one. And that's why I was so worried. I thought they would make me carry on with wheat and introduce dairy too. I do want to do that, I just don't think she's ready yet. It's taken us such a long time to get her to a point where she's well and happy, I don't want to ruin that now.

I really had no need to worry though.. The dietitian was lovely. When I spoke to her on the phone she had thought her weight in pounds was her weight in kilograms so was much less worried about her as she thought she was quite big. She was surprised when she saw her but once she got all her notes and charts out she said she is small but was growing well.

After looking at everything the dietitian has said that Monkey's allergies are far too severe and acute to be thinking about reintroduction yet. While severe and acute sounds a bit scary it was a relief that nobody was asking me to do a reintroduction plan I felt uncomfortable with. We've agreed that I'll try her with some apples or pears as I think her problems with these might be related to her GORD rather than being a true allergy. If this goes well we may try a bit of well cooked egg but anything more than that is being left until she's at least 18 months old.

I might have been worried this morning but once again Monkey took it all in her stride, making friends with all the staff and looking very grown up sitting at the table to do her colouring in. She's such a brave little thing and I'm so lucky to be her mummy :-)

Happy birthday Monkey

Well I can't stay in denial anymore, my little monkey is all grown up. One today! We've had a wonderful few days celebrating. Here are some of the highlights.

Golden boobies!

Our breastfeeding journey has not been an easy one with all Monkey's allergies. It's been amazing though and I'm so proud to have made it this far.

Party at Ponderosa

My god daughter turns 3 on Tuesday and yesterday was her party. It was an early start for Monkey and me as we had to get a train over to Yorkshire. It was worth it though!
We'd been told the party was at a farm. Monkey loves animals so I knew she'd enjoy it. Having visited a few farms close to home I thought I knew what to expect, I wasn't expecting Ponderosa.
From the moment we arrived I knew that it was going to be a great day. It helped that the sun was shining, after a week of rain I was dreading a day on the farm but it almost felt like summer! The party started in the play barn, a soft play area for kids up to age 8. They had a separate baby part for age up to two which should have been perfect for my little monkey, didn't stop her making a bid for freedom and trying to join the big kids though.

From the play barn we headed up to one of the party rooms for food. Party food still terrifies me with all of Monkey's allergies so I'd made a packed lunch. I was pleased to see they had catered for a little girl with a dairy allergy though and seemed to take it seriously. Monkey still managed to get a bowl of jelly which she loved.

After our food we were free to explore the farm. I thought it would take about an hour but we were there all afternoon and could have spent even longer. It's an amazing place - the animals all looked happy, it was spotlessly clean and the grounds were beautiful. There were more animals than I was expecting. Your usual bunnies, horses etc but also more unusual ones like marmosets and meerkats.

There were lots of play areas around the farm which my god daughter loved but they didn't have any baby swings so Monkey couldn't join in. Right at the very bottom of the farm made up for it though. They had a beach area, which was basically a giant sandpit. She loved playing in there and with the beautiful weather it almost felt like we really were at the seaside.

So there you have it, our day at the farm! We had so much fun and Ponderosa is definitely on the list of places to visit over the summer.