jemjabella

Follow up: January’s Separation Anxiety

In January, I talked about Isabel’s (normal) separation anxiety and how that impacted upon her start to nursery. I was worried about how she would adapt to being cared for primarily one-on-one to a) having to share a carer and b) not have free access to the boob.

She settled quicker than I anticipated and seemed to enjoy ‘Baby Room 1′. In February, they moved her up to the next room with the slightly older babies. This transition was fairly smooth, because the leader of ‘Baby Room 2′ was someone Isabel had been fixated on her since her first morning. The trouble came towards the end of this year when they began transitioning Isabel from Baby Room 2 to ‘Toddler Room’. When moving up to a new room, the nursery take the kids into the new room in advance with someone they know from their old room for an hour or so, increasing the time/frequency of the visits and gradually removing the old carers from the situation for a couple of weeks before the actual move. It’s supposed to settle the children more quickly and allow them to adapt to new carers etc.

During Isabel’s move to Toddler Room she became more clingy in the mornings, getting upset at the thought of going to nursery etc. I originally thought it was because she’d be leaving the room leader behind, but in reality once the move was complete Isabel really came out of herself at nursery. She now asks to go in, asks about nursery on Fridays (our day off), toddles off into her room leaving Karl to sort her coat and bag, etc. In hindsight I think that Isabel was that desperate to move to the new room (she’d “lost” an older friend to the bigger room a few months previous) that it was not going up that bothered her, but coming back to the old room each day!

Don’t get me wrong, it hasn’t been all roses and unicorns. I still think about Isabel’s introduction to nursery a lot, and beat myself up over not reinforcing that I should have been called rather than her being allowed to cry for an hour (I don’t care that it was in someone’s arms – they weren’t my arms!) I can’t change the past though, so focus on what she gets out of it now. No regrets.

Following up on…

While I was in the shower the other morning (all my best posts come from in-shower or on-toilet bursts of inspiration, FYI) I realised that I’d posted several things lately and not followed up on then. This means that my dear readers could be sat there in mental turmoil about what the hell is going on in my life! (Or you’re getting on with things like I don’t exist, whatever.)

Anyway, in an attempt to at least pretend that my life isn’t an endless stream of wake->work->Isabel->sleep (it is) I thought I’d write a follow-up to something I posted from each month of this year. How exciting is that?

Weird Food Aversions

I guess it’s hard to sum up my food aversions with Isabel, as I had problems with all food. This time it’s different though… I’m having some particularly odd cravings and, at the opposite end of the scale, food that turns my stomach just thinking about it.

I’ve already mentioned that I’m eating a lot of meat at the minute (way more than is usual for me). Alongside this I just can’t get enough home-cooked food. Don’t get me wrong, I cook the majority of my meals from scratch anyway, but there are days when all I’ve got the energy to do is come home and chuck some chips and a burger in the oven but I can’t even do that. It has to be a home-made curry, or spaghetti bolognese or mince n’ tatties or lasagne … but mostly curry (not doing the heartburn any favours mind you). The idea of a big roast dinner right now: pork belly with roast potatoes, honey roasted carrots, cabbage, apple sauce, mash n gravy — someone stop me before I leave dribble marks on the sofa!

I would love nothing more than to satisfy the fatty in me by nipping to the chippy right now and fetching home a big fat greasy bag of fish & chips, but the very idea has my stomach performing somersaults. I ordered pizza to celebrate passing my driving test last week and didn’t manage more than a slice and a half.

I enjoy good food but this shit is hard work. Anyone want to be my personal chef for a few months?

Beansprout Scan

Finally got ’round to scanning this in:

Dates spot on (unsurprisingly; such is the benefit of having a very predictable cycle) — due 02nd June 2012 as mentioned previously.

The morning sickness is, thankfully, backing off. As long as I eat every 1.5hrs I don’t get nauseous/spew. The downside is that this is way more frequently than I’m used to eating and I can imagine me weighing 20 stone by the end of this pregnancy.

Not Impressed by The Well Hung Meat Company

This post has several follow-ups:

• Going Back to Well Hung Meat
• A little bit more meat
• My cheaty leftover-lamb curry

Minds out of the gutter, please. I’m referring to Well Hung Meat the organic meat box delivery company, nothing more sinister.

I don’t think I’ve talked much about my ‘food beliefs’ before but I generally try, as in most things in life, to be ethical. When it comes to meat, that means buying good quality cuts from animals that have been looked after; generally free-range and/or organic (although these two are not mutually inclusive). I would rather buy less often and support good farmers than eat meat every day. With that said, pregnancy has given me a huge appetite for meat and so I need to explore my options.

I did a little research and happened upon Meat in a Box, the blog of one Jenny Lau, who is on a mission to cook and eat meat sourced only from UK meat box delivery schemes. She had blogged about an offer on Well Hung Meat and, not one to resist the pull of a freebie, I set about ordering a small selection. See here, a screenshot of my order receipt including reference to the “free roasting joint with first order” promotion:

You can imagine my disappointment, then, when my meat box arrived on Friday last week with no free roasting joint. The “seasonal cuts” (sounded mysterious) was little more than 300g or so of diced pork. Further, I was worried that my inexperience with cooking a good steak would get in the way with the rather expensive (even for organic) rump steaks, so I sought advice from an expert which made absolutely no difference whatsoever; because the steaks were badly cut/uneven they ended up overcooked and chewy on one end and virtually raw on the other.

I contacted Well Hung Meat on Friday about the lack of roasting joint and await their response. In the mean time, I’ll be placing my next meat box order with Riverford who’ve been providing my veg since I signed up in 2008.

Update (29th November, 2011)

I cooked my final steak last night and found the result much better (more tender, more taste). I don’t recall doing anything differently, but the meat itself was cut much more evenly than the first piece so I think I got a more consistent result. Unfortunately, this does little to improve my overall impression of the company having now received a reply regarding the missing roasting joint:

You do need to be set up as a regular customer to have received that promotion. If you would like to do this I will ensure the free joint is included in your next box.

As this was not made clear on either the website or the blog entry pushing the promotion, and indeed the cart accepted my code without problem (as seen in my receipt above) I feel somewhat misled. I am not impressed with my experience of ordering through the website, or indeed the meat I received. I somehow doubt I will be placing a regular order with Well Hung Meat any time soon.