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.

When Monkey met the monkeys

Monkey turns one tomorrow. I'm kind of still in denial about it. We've had a weekend full of fun and celebrations and I've loved every minute of it but I still don't want to admit my baby girl is growing up.

Anyway that's not what this post is about!

For Monkey's birthday treat we took her to the zoo. It's been booked for ages and today was the day. We were up bright and early to get into town for the coach.

Waiting for the coach

Monkey had never been on a coach before but the journey was fine. Her car seat strapped in so I felt much happier than I would with her on my knee. She soon made herself comfy, said hiya to all the other passengers then promptly fell asleep! She stayed that way all the way to Chester.

Travelling in style!

Chester Zoo is an amazing place. There is so much to see and do. Our coach got us there just before 11 and picked us up again at 5.15. I was a bit worried it would be a long day but there was so much to do that we didn't get bored.

Monkey ready to meet the monkeys!

There's no way I could write about everything we saw so I'll just share a few highlights. Monkey's favourites seemed to be the chimpanzees. She was giggling away watching them climb and chase each other.

The chimps were entertaining but they were VERY naughty! Maybe my Monkey is a bad influence on the monkeys. They were fighting and very noisy. In the end the zookeepers asked everyone to leave their house so they could calm them down.

The other animals Monkey seemed to particularly like were the elephants.

My favourite animals are giraffes so I was very excited to see those, especially baby Sanyu who was just 15 days old - already taller than me though!

Raving with the babies

I'm a 90's girl. I love my dance music, love my clubs and love nothing better than a good old rave!

I realise I'm now a lady of a certain age and I should have grown out of raving. I've found a good excuse not to though - Baby Rave!

Baby Rave are based in Leeds so not too close to us. Monkey's godmother lives over there though and when I saw pics of her enjoying a rave I knew I had to go.

Our first Baby Rave was for Halloween. We went over to The Square Chapel in Halifax and had a great time.

We then went to a huge Christmas rave at Control Nightclub in Leeds.

With Monkey's first birthday coming up I was trying to think of a way for her to celebrate with all her little baby mates. I was really excited to find out Baby Rave did parties and even more excited to find out they would come to Manchester.

I thought it would be really expensive but it was surprisingly affordable.. What I liked was that it was a set priceprice, much better for me than a price per child. With my scattiness I'd either end up paying for people who weren't there or even worse, people wouldn't be allowed in as I'd not paid for them.

Anyway today was party day - Baby Rave for Monkey's first birthday!! We had 15 kids there in the end aged 9 months to 10 years and they all enjoyed it.

The fantastic people from Baby Rave (I'm useless and can't remember their names) were brilliant and made the whole day stress free. They arrived an hour before the party with LOADS of soft play stuff and set the whole room up. I didn't have to do a thing!!

The first half hour of the party the kids played with all the equipment. There was plenty so no fall outs over whose turn it was even if Monkey did hog this little ride on(

The ball Pool was a big hit. Monkey has seemed a bit unsure of them in the past but she got stuck in with this one.

After a but of a play it was time for the main event - ready to rave! Our host was brilliant at getting everyone involved especially as we had quite a wide age range. We started with a few songs then slowly added shakers and pompoms getting louder and louder building up to learning a dance routine. 

The song and dance session lasted 45 minutes.. Everybody got involved and it was very full on. It was a full work out for those of us whose babies aren't walking yet - and so much more fun than the gym!

At the end of the session there was a story time while I got all the food ready. Pure chance but it was one of my faves from when I was small that I now enjoy reading with Monkey -- The Tiger who came to tea!!!

We then had another half hour for food,  more playing and more dancing.

Monkey's party was great, my favourite rave so far! They're all great though, I would definitely recommend checking out their website and getting yourself to a Baby Rave soon. You won't be disappointed