I have a 10 month old. WOW!

Hi guys It's been a while. 

I've oficially got a 10 month old and soon to be 11 months in 2 weeks time... How is this happening? Can I pause time to take all of this in?!

I love being a mother, there was a point where I thought I'd never leave her and then other days I'd be so ready to go back to work, just to be around other people - sure I could've gone to baby groups, but I don't drive so have to rely on buses ect, it's hard work especially has once you've gotten ready, you've changed and fed the baby and next thing you know you've lost 2 hours of time and missed the opportunity to leave the house and I'm not alone with this, even mums who do drive, I bet they never expected to always be late somewhere. That's why I plan to do things mid morning because come lunch time we're back and home all settled for lunch and a nap! I live for the afternoon naps, we play all morning so by the afternoons I need a little bit of peace to get jobs done around the house.

I wish people had told me what to expect from having a baby at this stage, They either talk about newborn stage or toddler nightmares!
I've had to say 'No', 'come here', don't do that' & 'that's not very nice' so much starting from when Quinn turned 8 month's old.
I've experienced the tantrums and the hitting, punching, pinching, slapping and hair pulling FROM A BABY.. What am I supposed to do?! I've never been told about what to do when this happens - short answer; ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. Telling them No in any kind of tone doesn't work.. And let's not forget the poop situation - it's gets MESSIER. SMELLIER and the sore rash.. Quinn never had this as a newborn, but once they start teething, crawling and trying solid foods it's inevitable they have a hard time.. Literally. I feel so bad for her sometimes but you have to introduce things at some point right?!

Quinn LOVES fruit and bread sticks. She's not keen on brocoli, She can eat most things actually, and feeding herself little tid-bits, but honestly she doesn't trust things on the 1st go if it's not been on a spoon 1st.. Go figure!?
I've refused to give her anything artifically sweet, cake or chocolate, they don't need any of this yet so yoghurt and fruit is the treat in my house!
At the beginning of the feeding stage I was soooo nervous and not ready but by the time she was 6 months she needed solids and the health visitor who came and saw her at 7 months said she was a little behind, but honestly I don't know really whether it was my fault but she didn't want to know anything other than mashed potatos and corrots, slowly but surely we got there in the end and she's completely fine with eating 3 meals a day - she stopped half way through our routine to just wanting milk all the time due to teething so once she was ready again with her new 2 teeth she was back on track with the foods. Right now it's a mixture of porridge/ baby cereal in the mornings, baby food in the afternoon with fruit and yoghurt to snack on depending what she wants and in the evening's while we're having our dinner she'll have a smaller portion all chopped up bite size. This is working for us, but soon i'll be moving her on to all solids completely throughout the day.
Although she's content with this routine, I do feel like she's getting hungrier so I'll have to figure out how to start her on different foods at lunch times.
I do think too deeply about everything and I wish I could just 'wing it', but that can be hard for them to adjust to and expensive for me if she doesn't like something. But gotta start somewhere right!?
Quinn is on SMA pro 2 follow on milk - 5 ozs, 4 times a day. As recommended by the peadiatrition, 20 ozs is the limit for her age group, prolonged use of the milk or exsess of it can rot their teeth!

She's now out grown her toys, so we're moving on to noisy toys - lots of books and we're always singing to her. She's learnt to open and close doors and drawers - much to my surprise, but also bad side effects are they don't know how to move away if they are stuck and jamming fingers in drawers is nasty! She loves bath time and is nearly out growing her baby bath completely, we've got a alphabet bath book and only 2 bath toys, She's getting a lot more confident on her feet, pulling herself up and getting around by holding on to the sofa and chairs as well as holding on to the walls as she moves from room to room...
Where has my baby gone?!

I'm back right down to my pre pregnancy weight, and have been for a while. I've got great skin and getting plenty of rest as Quinn is sleeping through the night, I do miss working, but I know as soon as I go back I'll be wanting to be home with Quinn. Vicious circle... I've still got hair loss and I've got more hang ups about my body that I didn't have before I had Quinn, but It's okay - I'm learning to love myself again and for the times that I've lacked confience it basically ruined my relationship and the more it happened the worse mine and my fiance's arguing got. But he finally understands me and Ive been pushing myself to pleasing him which in turn pleases me because he's happy.
I always read that you shouldn't give up on your partner and don't stop going on dates ect, but once one of you is home alone alot and the other working away most weeks, come the wekeend we just wanna do our own thing and just be im the same room as one another. I do realise he's got needs too but he made me feel like second best when it came to seeing each other. I've never wanted to be a "nagging wife," but it was like he'd rather play on his games than hang out with me for an hour or 2, cos without that kind of connection - to me, I can't connect sexually because it begins to feel very platonic and awkward.  Arguments aside now, and we're both working on our relationship, things are on the up.

We both cannot wait for Quinn C Noelle's 1st birthday and are planning on what toys to get and who to invite - as it's her 1st birthday we're not going for a theme, we'll wait till she's a bit older for that!

Here's some recent pics of our lil bean;

Mommy & Quinn selfie

Boy - baby ;)

Climbing!

Nom nom

Mommy,. Daddy and Quinn C Noelle

Beach bum!

Thanks for reading my exteremly late and long blog post!
~Ellie xoxox

My Pregnancy style!

What I've been wearing whilst pregnant!

My belly 'popped' finally at 17 weeks!

Leggings were my best friend, not to mention the extra comfort and support of a non-wired bra! Don't doubt the power of clothing in a bigger size!

Here's what I've been wearing from beginning to end of pregnancy;

Thank you so much for checking out this post, most of the clothing was pre-pregnancy stuff I already had. You can see that from the front you can't tell any difference, only when I turn to the side! Does that make me lucky that I had such a 'cute bump'?!
I tried to be very thrifty during my 1st pregnancy, most of these clothes I still wear now even after having Quinn, the only items I no longer wear are the jeans and bras. 
The NewLook maternity jeans were the best purchase I made.
Check out my YouTube video here: My maternity style

~Ellie xoxox

Okay so I'm slacking a little.. orrrr a lot...

Ahh blogger, It's been what, 2 months? 3 months?

Where do I begin....

I've been investing ALL of my time to my daughter Quinn C Noelle, who consiquently has now turned 8.5 months old. I.KNOW. How did that happen?!

So by now you've guessed right about the milestones;

1. Sitting up unaided
2. Rolling over
3. Crawling
4. Babbling
5. Self soothing
6. Bottle feeding herself
7. A consistent routine
8. Trying to stand up
9. Trying to self feed
10. Eating solids

I cannt believe how much she has changed in 2 months, imagine her in another 2 months! And to cap it off she finally cut her 1st tooth, after basically teething since birth, finally there is evidence of teeth coming.

The self soothing happened really quickly, she turned 3 months old and no longer needed a dummy, she didn't want it after 10 minutes of having one and would spit it out. She has found that rubbing her head and sucking her left thumb helps her go off to sleep. I love it, it's putting my mind at rest that I don't need to give her something to pacify her, but on the other hand how long will she suck her thumb for and we all know those stories of thumb-suckers with bad teeth - my own sister sucked her thumb terribly and needed braces..

The sitting up literally just happened we used to put her on the floor inbewteen our legs and then on 13th June, we sat her down & she just sat by herself.. I was stunned!
I love having a routine with Quinn now, more so for my own benefit, I've always been terrible with time keeping and always having late nights but you can't do that anymore when you have a kid. I might do a seperate post on this...
Quinny has always wanted to be upright and standing, often on our laps or slipping through my legs to feel her feet on the floor, we also bought her a little car walker - at first I was against them, but Kurt (her dad) decided it was time for a fun toy for her, as much as anything she can be with me in any room, be entertained and not feel left out. She LOVES it! It was only a cheap one from Argos
Chad Valley Lights and Sound walker

Loving her car!

Rolling over happened almost like overnight too she loves playing on her mat and would fuss if you put her either on her front or her back, she liked to learn how to do it herself, quickly she learned how to go from sitting up to laying down and rolling to get a toy she wanted, the crawling for real only just happened, she was a "floor zombie", she'd use her arms and belly to pull herself along the floor but has since learned to sit on her knees, knealing and eventually it's mophed into a weird version of crawling! It's funny and exciting to watch, but now she's on the move it's even more important to baby-proof our house!

I loved being able to cuddle and feed her, either breast or bottle until 1 month ago, I stopped being able to feed her with a bottle, she grabs the bottle and feeds herself! It's mad! I'm proud of her but sad at the same time. Also trying to teach her to use a handle on her bottles isn't so bad, but I've been trying to get her to cut down on formula and replace with water (as per instructions of Health visitor)
Last time Quinn was weight at 15.5lbs - I never thought she'd be that big, I know some babies are bigger and have bigger appetites but Quinny loves her milk and her puree's still... I've been told she shouldn't have 4 bottles a day at her age now, should only be on 3 with 3 meals plus snacks and water... It's not so easy, I kinda hate this stage if I'm honest - it's so much trial and error and so many different conflicting advice; health visitors, family and information either books or online. Its like the breast or bottle scenario all over again. Jars or fresh, finger food or purees!? Just like the 1st stages of having a baby, I've done a bit of everything. I started out breast feeding and after my milk finished (very quickly) I had to put her on formula, and now it's a similar situation - I puree veggies and fruits but sometimes I know I can open a jar and she can try a bigger portion without me feeling like shes not eating because the flavours nowadays are actually nice - I always get a spoonful for myself and decide whether she'd like it. As they say - Mother's know best!
Right now i've been doing a mixed feeding time where we get finger foods on their own for her to feel, play with and try and feed herself with and after that's been mashed into her fingers and on the floor we move on to the puree version of the whole foods. It's a longer process and it's messy but as far as i'm concerned sometimes she's not interested with things for the 1st time so for her exploration and benefit i'd rather do it this way rather than feed her all myself and not get her involved. The jar foods are an indulgence and something quick when I can't think of what to give her or there's nothing avaliable as left overs for her. I recently bought a recipe book for 1st time foods and toddler meals, it's proving to be very interesting and well worth a read Annabel Karmel's New complete Baby & Toddler meal planner

Quinn's "routine"
Wake up at 8-8.30am
1st bottle 9am
Play time until 11am - depending on how hungry she is she might want a snack
2nd bottle 11.30am-12pm banana porridge
Play time or a walk in the pram or watch me potter around the house
Nap time 2pm (if she wants)
3rd bottle 3pm
Play time depending on what else we can do together
Depending on how hungry she is she might want a snack
Dinner at 6pm
Nap at 7pm (if she wants)
Bath at 8pm
4th Bottle at 9pm and then down for the night
-Rinse and repeat-


I've been a lot more content at times within myself, but sometimes it can creep on me that I'm home alone a lot of the time and i'd like to go out more (I don't drive - yet) and I want to go back to work part time, mainly for my mental health, I need some "me" time. Kurt works away A LOT! it's like 40% home and 60% away.. I appreciate him bring in money and all that, but it's the age old issue of working father-stay at home mom- syndrome. I hate it, I want him to be involved more and I know he needs his time alone as do I but it sucks that Quinn has more of a relationship with Kurt over the phone rather than in person. It's a hard-ass sacrifice. Family does help out, when their not busy. Everyone has got their own junk to sort out and do on a regular basis and it will be different when my mum retires from work next may/june (2017) and at the end of November this year Quinn will be 1 years old and I've decided and discussed with work to go back when Quinn turns 1. I don't want to miss out on anything as she grows up, but she also needs to learn to be with others, eventually I'll get around to going to some mother-toddler-groups in my area and that will help us both develop.

Rory, our beloved cat still doesn't know what to make of Quinn, especially now she's crawling - he's opting to sit higher than the ground when she's about. It's kinda funny actually. She loves him, but he's only okay with her when I'm stopping her from pulling his furr! (oh the joys of parenting - how can you say no to an 8month old so they understand?!) The two of them have enjoyed each others company for a cuddle on our bed, with me in the middle, other than that, Rory is such a scaredy-cat!

I would only do 2 things differently if I could re-do this again. Do more baby-wearing and pump more breast milk when I had plenty supply... Other than that I think I'm freakin' awesome as a 1st time mother!

Some recent pics of my Baby Girl;

Queen of the bed ;)

Nom Nom, Dinner time

Summer vibes

8months Post-partum holding Quinn

8months post-partum

Thanks for reading my very late, very long blog post. More to update soon (hopefully)

~Ellie xoxox