Niamh's first Christmas.

Well that was tiring, enjoyable but tiring. I managed to be healthy (well as healthy as I ever get) for Christmas (first time in 5 years). Obviously wasn't easy but we all had a good time.

Niamh gets up at 5, and there was no way that Christmas was starting at 5am and I was surviving the whole day. So, me and Chris made a plan that she would go down for her nap and when she woke up it would be Christmas. When he had put her down Chris woke me up and we sorted out the front room ready for when she woke up. With presents and stockings in cute little piles.

When she woke up we had breakfast (whilst she had snack time) and then set about opening presents. She was excited about the first one, but her interest soon disappeared!

Me and Chris however, soon realised that, although she does not have much hair (still) she could still have a few Christmassy accessories!

She got some lovely presents from various people, and had a really good time figuring out how they all worked!

One of her god fathers came to visit her to drop off her present and stayed for a while. Niamh enjoyed this very much! Here's a picture of him with her, believe it or not this is her very first time holding her (she will be 1 on the 10th Jan) as he has point blank refused until now!

Then it was off to my parents for Christmas lunch. Niamh was very grumpy the whole way through the meal. Turns out (we now know) that she was having really bad teeth problems (still is now). But it didn't stop her from entertaining us all when she won a giant plastic paperclip in a cracker, and promptly glued it to her head with mash potato, whilst becoming very confused as to where it had gone!

She did look very cute in her special Christmas dress and "santa baby" hat!

And once again, preferred the boxes to the present:

And by the end of it all she was well and truly worn out!

She wasn't the only one. I love the festive period (these days, I used to be the grinch) but now I have Niamh I've found myself really looking forward to it. But seriously, if I thought Christmas used to be exhausting, previous experiences had nothing on this one. It has taken me since Tuesday to write this, and I don't even know if it makes any sense!





Running baby

Hey everyone. Sorry about the lack of posts, but am still (believe it or not) on antibiotic's (yes more) and they are still giving me some wonderfully interesting side effects! Mainly being cognitive issues, but these seem to have resolved themselves (finally) and I am able to read and write again (and sometimes it may even make sense!).

Anyway, health wise I'm not brilliant but have improved significantly since I last posted. I am hoping that I might even be vaguely healthy for Christmas, but I'm keeping this hope at arms length as I haven't actually managed to not be ill on Christmas in years! Whatever happens though I am actually seriously looking forward to Christmas this year, very unlike me as I am usually the grinch. Especially last year as I was heavily pregnant and on daily hospital trips, when I would be in for 2-3 hours a day! But, this year, it's Niamh's first Christmas and I am so excited. She's almost one and will have an understanding (all be it a vague one) about whats going on. She appears to already be curious at what this present idea is all about!

It's also my mums birthday tomorrow, and because of my sisters shifts at work (I think thats the reason anyways) we can't go out for a meal like we normally do so we are having my mum and dad, Chris's mum and dad, my sister and her boyfriend and (briefly) my aunt and uncle, round for a mini birthday party. We have been and bought special food and drink, (and other things - in case she's reading this) so that we can make it really nice for her. It is her first birthday and Christmas since her dad passed away in feb and I want to make it as nice as possible for her. Niamh even has a pretty dress to wear and is allowed to stay up late!

Niamh is good, she will be one on Jan 10th and has been walking around since about 10 1/2 months (sob!). She has decided running is a much better use of her time recently and is charging about all over the place (usually round in circles), this isn't tiring her out any more than usual though!!

I will write again soon and let you all know how Niamh's first Christmas went :)



Getting there.

Sorry about the lack of blog posts, still recovering so thought I would check in. I can't promise consistant blog posts at the moment, but I can promise to update as and when I can.

I'm going to publish a photo of me when I was at my worst this time round. Get people to take the occasionally so I can look back at them and remind myself I'm not that bad all the time. It also reminds me how sweet and caring Niamh is when I'm ill. She entertains herself, and doesn't get fussy often, she's wonderful. In this one she's giving me a cuddle, Chris had laid me on the floor with pillows and blankets so I could be close to Niamh.

She makes everything better.

Niamh is good. She's got a problem with wind at the moment, and has 4 teeth coming through, so she is not the happiest of baby's at the moment. She stands by herself, cruises when she's holding onto sofa's or tables etc. She's so cute.

NO MORE DRS APPOINTMENTS!

Hey guys,

Sorry about the lack of post's, haven't been too good. Had the abscess, then the op on that, then a load of tests they did on me came back saying I had c-diff, so everything went kind of mad. Was put on a ton of super strong anti-biotics, one long term. They, plus the infection, plus the c-diff made me really rough. Had to have dad's help most days, my sister and mum chipped in too when they weren't at work, and of course Chris ended up having to do even more than usual. I am SO thankful to them all, you could not even know. BUT after pushing a month of daily dr's appointments I am free!!! WAHOO!!!

Okay, so I have another infection, this time in my foot, so am on more anti-biotics, and still on two sets long term, but I don't have to get my dad to drag me to the dr's everyday anymore! I think it will be a while, and a lot of careful resting and self limitation until I'm back to where I was, but I didn't have a major relapse (as I think we all thought I might) YAY ME!!

Niamh is doing well. She's still crawling around and is now getting more adventurous, she can now reach the third shelf of my DVDs which results in a grand total of 120 DVDs that she can reach and re-arrange all over my floor. Although annoying, this seems to keep her amused, and as I am pretty incapable of doing too much active playing with her, this is fine by me. She also has a walker and can walk across the room using it, like a zimmer frame, hee hee!

I feel like I am continuity justifying resting to myself. I know this is super silly as I HAVE to rest to be able to look after her. But I WANT to play with her, I WANT to teach her and I DON'T WANT to feel like I haven't done the best for her. Which is honestly, how I feel. I also realise that in some ways, me being healthy is the best for her, but I want to be better than that. O well.

I am very lucky as she is so well behaved, and will happily entertain herself. She understands when I'm sick and will do things like climb onto me so I don't have to lift her, she'll feed herself, and drink her own juice whenever she wants it if I leave it somewhere she can get it. I am so blessed.

Anyway now seriously tired so going to end this here. Here's a pic of Niamh in her Halloween costume! She's my little pumpkin!

I hope to be able to write again soon, going to try and start with every other day, and then, eventually (hopefully soon) everyday again :).

Just checking in.

Can't make this a whole post, as I'm still not well enough, but better than I was. Whilst my brain is working I thought I might try a quick update on here. So, sorry if it doesn't make any sense!

I've got a massive infection, and have developed C-dif, they only found this out because of the abscess that I had operated on the other day. I had just assumed my symptoms were M.E related, always do actually. Am on four types of anti-biotics, for 56 days, and having Dr's appointments everyday with district nurses visiting me on the weekend. All sounds rather negative, but there are positives, this hasn't made me as ill as it would of done before I had Niamh, and I'm managing to stay out of hospital!

Niamh is good, she's crawling, but only to get to something to pull herself up on. She can stand unaided, as long as she doesn't realise she's doing it, then she wobbles and falls down. She has also found the DVD rack and very much enjoys pulling them all out and re-arranging them for me all over the floor.

 I've been spending a lot of my time laying on the floor with a pillow and a blanket and letting her crawl over me. She's been so good, the whole time I've been unwell.

Here's a pic of me and Niamh, sorry for how I look.

Goodbye for now, hope I can update again soon.



Not right

I haven't been able to post for a while as I've not been well enough, Niamh's been ill and now I have an absess that I have had to have operated on today. So thought I would put a quick post up to say i'll be back to normal service as soon as possible.

Free pies!

Had a bad night with Niamh last night, don't get me wrong, by comparrison to some other babies she was still angelic, but for her, it was not a good night! She took over an hour to settle initially. Then I had abad first half of the night, with pain and complete inability to get comfortable. Just as I found the correct pain killer combo and actually managed to get comfy, Niamh squeaked, Chris went to check on her and she was standing at the end of her cot staring at us! I don't really know much of what went on after this, only that Niamh ended up in and out of bed with me a lot. She would go back to sleep on me, get put in her cot and wake straight back up. Eventually I told Chris to leave her to see if she would settle. She wasn't crying just moving around a lot, and she did. This trend continued for her morning nap, she took nearly an hour to settle, again. To be honest I was seriously stressed and worried by this point. Chris was on a late today and I didn't know how I was going to cope if she was like it all day.

Lucky for me however, she woke up from her nap much happier, so we went out for a short walk. Needed to buy Niamh a coat it turns out. Mum bought her one, and as the weather has really taken a turn, so I tried it on her, it swamps her and she can barely move in it. So I had to put her in a snow suit, I was worried that she would be too hot, but she seemed to like it!

When we got back it was lunch time and we both had egg mayo and salad sandwiches, and Niamh went down for her nap, not as easily as normal, but so much quicker than recently! Then a delivery man buzzed the buzzer, which is LOUD! I was very worried that it would wake Niamh but, but lucky for me (and possibly him) that it didn't! It was Chris's breakfast pies from O2 for the next rugby match. Basically, because they are playing in New Zealand and obviously the matches there are at night, so first thing in the morning there. To encourage people to support England in the rugby world cup (which they are sponsering) they are giving out "wake up for England" breakfast packs for each match. This consists of two pies, two beers, some postcard pictures and an England flag. All in a box with England ice packs!! Good idea in my mind, and I'm looking forward to the pie!

Dad popped round whilst Niamh was in bed and it was really nice to be able to just sit and chat with him. He agreed to bring mum back after work to see Niamh (and dad would get to see her too as she literally woke up when he left) and hopefully tire her out a bit. In between dad leaving to pick mum up and returning me and Niamh went for a very short walk as I was up to it:

It was nice.

Mum and dad came round and played with Niamh, and stayed whilst I fed her so I would be able to run her a bath. She ate all her dinner, had a calm bath and then got ready for bed. She settled ok, pretty much the same as lunchtime. So i'm hoping to finish writing this and to have a rest, a bit of a chill out and an early night. Hoping that it is a better night than last night. Chris will be home soon!

Today, yesterday and the day before.

Sorry about the lack of entries but I've been recovering from Sunday and had issues with being awake. So haven't been doing much of note, to be honest, so I thought it best to combine the entries into one, somewhat interesting entry.

Monday 3rd October

On Monday morning my sister and Karl took me and Niamh to Lakeside, Niamh has decided to grow out of most of her 3-6 month clothes so basically needs a whole new wardrobe. She fell asleep on the way home with her hand over her face:

Because the weather was still nice, and because the forecast said it would turn on Tuesday, mum and dad decided to come round and we all went for a walk to meet Chris from work. We went to a coffee shop and sat outside, dad bought Niamh a cake.

Niamh settled ok, and I got an early night as I was going on a spa day with my mum and sister the next day!

Tuesday 4th October

Tuesday, I went for a spa day with my mum and sister. My sister had been given two vouchers for Christmas so she found out how much it would cost to take a third person and we agreed we would split the cost between us and all go. It was nice, we all got to use the facilities there, including a gym and lovely swimming pool. Me and mum had a massage and Angela had a facial and then we went to Lakeside (again) for a little bit of girly shopping.

It took us an hour and a half to get home, from what would have been a 30ish minute journey. There had been an accident on the a13 and it was closed, there was traffic everywhere.

Whilst I had been out Chris had been looking after Niamh as it was his day off. Karl had been helping him, and had brought Kia the dog round with him, and, I am proud to report that Niamh is not scared of her anymore. In fact, Chris sent me this picture of Niamh playing with her:

And second of Niamh looking sleepy out for a walk:







When I got home, Niamh was in bed but she'd be quite hard to settle. Judd had come round and Karl was still there so my sister came up and we all had Chinese, and I had an early night because, strangely enough the spa day had actually tired me out! Go figure! Also, Chris was back at work today and I had to be ok to look after Niamh.

Wednesday 5th October.

To be honest, I have been struggling lately with my energy levels, something which is really worrying me, that, maybe, I might end up going down hill again. Resting when Niamh naps is no longer cutting it and I now have to sleep (or at least attempt to sleep whenever she does).

I let her play on the floor for a while this morning, and she managed to shuffle her way to her toy box, and unpack the majority of it:

After Niamh's morning nap we had to go to the post office to pick up a package for Chris that couldn't be delivered on Tuesday. We also met dad in Costa for a drink, Niamh was a big girl and sat on a proper chair:

Niamh had an afternoon snuggly nap with me. But woke up screaming, she's been doing this a bit, on and off. Think she keeps having nightmares. Bless her.

She was also really hard to settle tonight. I feel a bit rubbish, as I'm not good at sleeping during her morning nap, and if she doesn't settle well in the afternoon it means I don't get my sleep either. So I'm off to get another early night. Sorry that it's not a particularly interesting entry!

Note the sarcasm.





Shrek the musicial.

I wrote this yesterday, but hadn't been able to publish it until now.

Got up, in lots of pain. Lucky for me though it's Sunday so Chris is off, phew! He let me lie in as Niamh had a bad tummy and spent part of the night in bed with me. When I got up decided that In needed extra calories and gave me breakfast, and a cup of tea, with pain killers. Then ran be a bath. It was so sweet.

Niamh didn't want to have a long nap this morning. She had about half an hour. Which is both good and bad. It didn't give me much chance to rest but meant that she should nap better this afternoon for mum, dad, Angela and Karl.

We left to go and see Shrek at 12.30 when Angela and Karl turned up. I didn't want to leave Niamh, the again, I never want to leave Niamh. I've just about got used to leaving her with Chris. Wasn't worried about her, I trust mum, dad, Angela and Karl with her, and wasn't at all anxious. Simply, I just miss her, so much.

We went to Tesco's to get the coach and set off. It took just over an hour to get there, and after a trip to the sweet shop, we went in. We bought Niamh a little (but expensive) donkey, bought a program and took some photos:

Mia:

Sparkly shrek:

Inside the theatre royal:

Then we took our sears. We were in the grand circle, right up the top, but had a good view. It was a very pretty and well done set.

The show was really good and I enjoyed it a lot. An opinion not shared by everyone that we went with, but I always tend to enjoy musicals! We managed to catch Amanda Holden as Princess Fiona (think it's her last weekend) and she has an amazing singing voice, especially considering she's pregnant. Shrek was fantastic (still reminds me of my uncle, only more green) and donkey was funny. Lord Farquaad was hilarious, to make him him the right height the actor had to do the whole show on his knees, which looked funny the entire time! They dropped things from the ceiling, pulled things up from the floor and had disco lights and confetti at the end.

Had phoned dad during the interval and at the end and Niamh was behaving herself for them, which made me feel better.

We got on the coach to go home, Chris had had to pretty much carry me out of the theatre, so wasn't looking forward to the rise home. Especially as I had a killer headache! On the trip home I listened to some audio books and looked at photos of Niamh that Angela had sent me.

Having her lunch:



And getting distracted by baby TV that Angela forgot to turn off:

When we got home, Niamh was still awake, it was like she was waiting up for us. Bless her. So we had dinner and gave Niamh a biscuit then put her to bed. We weren't far behind her!

Street diversions.

I'm choosing to skip yesterday's entry as I was in an awful mood. I really didn't feel up to writing but I will explain. Some stuff had happened in the previous 48 hours that had really made me question some things and I got really annoyed, which isn't like me. To top it off, Niamh still has a cold and is still having teeth issues and was therefore extra clingy, so I was extra tired and extra achy. I was having a complete woe is me day, which I know I am entitled to occasionally but I still feel flipping awful that I'm busy feeling sorry for myself.

Anyway, today. I'm still a bit fed up about stuff to be honest, but on with it. Will be mainly photos for this entry, as I'm exhausted and there's a lot of them (you will see why in a bit). Was quite a good day. Niamh was funny at breakfast, she gave up on her food deciding her highchair try was much yummier:

Then she went down for a nap and it was rugby time, Judd came round to watch the first half and during half time him and Chris went off to work. The game threatened to give me an actual heart attack most of the way through, until, strangely, Niamh woke up and then things got better. I swear she should be there mascot. At the end of them game, when we had not only got through but actually won the match (don't ask me how) we took a photo to send to nanny, grandad and daddy, swing lo, sweet chariot:





After the match we got ready and went to town. This was a planned trip as today, the street diversions were on, something I had been looking forward to showing Niamh. There was basically all manner of weird stuff walking through Chelmsford town centre, here are some:

"nursery nurses":

Vegetable babies, complete with dummies and bottles:

7ft penguins:



Skeletons driving skeletons:

Lobster "a la carte":

Giant fluffy hearts:

Hair sculptures:









And giant ants, being herded by a man with a whip:

Then we met Chris at costas whilst he was on his break, and dad met us there also. He had just bought an electric bike, Niamh wanted to try on his shiny new helmet:

Then it was off with dad to Burger King for lunch, whilst myself and dad had burgers Niamh was stuck with an egg and cress sandwich as our meals would have been far to salty for her:

She fell asleep on the way home and the rest of the day was pretty chilled. She had a nap, some play time, tea, bath and bed. I spent the evening writing instructions for my dad (as he's babysitting Niamh tomorrow with some help from my sister and mum) and this. I'm off to London tomorrow to see Shrek with Chris and people from his work, so am going to get an early night and try not to worry to much about having to leave Niamh tomorrow.