Tumbleweed

I’ve been a bit out of sorts this week. It’s why I’ve not blogged and why I’ve still not sorted this month’s meal plan (and this is grating my nerves because I’ve been having the “what shall we have for tea” conversation with myself every evening; I’m lost without my meal plan). But anyway, here’s what’s what:

I think the reality of me not going back to work has hit home. I feel a little like a limb has been chopped off.

We did a lot of painting in the front room but then had to pause things as Karl was back at work on Monday, so I feel a little “in limbo” with the front room.

I had the flu towards the end of last week and over the weekend. That was mostly gone by the end of Monday but left me with a cough. The cough now seems to have progressed to chest infection (if my suspicions are correct: bringing up green chunks, shallow/raspy breathing, metallic taste in mouth with Dr Google informs me is generally indicative of infection). Must make a DRs appointment on Monday morning.

Oliver’s tongue tie snip seemed to improve things over the first few days and then it suddenly got much worse. We’ve had some pretty shitty feeds. We’re now back to how we were before. I have no idea whether it’s going to get better from here.

Akismet seems to have stopped noticing spam. Piece of poo.

…I’ve forgot what else I was going to waffle on about. Oh well, ttfn.

Posted on: September 7, 2012 · Category: Misc 5

Hungry?

At the end of last month I decided to try a meal-plan month. Plan your family meals for a set timespan, buy the necessary foods and don’t waste money on food that won’t get eaten because you’ve changed your mind when you get home from work. I’m surprised by how well it’s working; I expected to get fed up with the lack of spontaneity but in reality it’s been a blessing. If I know what I’m having ahead of time I can prep in advance and save time (and the leftovers make excellent work lunches). We’ve only cheated once (bought pizza instead) and that was because I was feeling naff.

By total coincidence I was approached about a week ago to see if I’d be interested in pushing a press release for “Hungry?“, the new innocent cookbook. I’m not (despite my age-old love for innocent), but the opportunity to get a freebie is something else entirely…

The book arrived at work, brightening up an otherwise crap afternoon (disclaimer: not indicative of usual feelings towards work). Couldn’t wait to get it home so I could figure out why it weighed so much! Turns out that as well as the 100 or so easy to cook recipes it also contains buckets of beautifully designed — and educational — spreads (that’s design speak, don’t you know):

5 reasons to eat in season

things to do in 15 minutes

And those are just the beginning… the book is absolutely ram-packed with the usual innocent one-liners and cute witticisms. The majority of recipes contain at least one portion of your “5 a day”. The pictures are fab and there’s even a binary caption under one (GEEK LOVE).

I was most fascinated to read about how the Chorleywood way has reduced bread to little more than a fatty bread-flavoured lump (paraphrasing) and how Howies “Doh Boy” campaign wants to change that. Having used the bread recipe that accompanies the text — which is just flour, yeast, salt and water .. oh, and time — I am now considering making my own bread by hand on a weekly basis. Domestic goddess? Damn right.

So next month the plan (pun!) is to carry on with the meal plans, and to integrate some of the innocent recipes. I had the book itself lined up for a give-away, but am selfishly thinking of keeping it to myself. Research purposes, you must understand. ;)

Photography by Creative Review. Borrowed because mine sucked ass.

PS. In case you’re wondering, tonight it’s toad in the hole :)

Posted on: September 19, 2011 · Category: Review

Life. Oh, Life. Toddler taming & more.

(This post has been constructed over a period of several days, snatching minutes here and there. If it seems choppy / all over the place, it’s because it is.)

Struggling to find the time to write at the minute.. life busy passing me by undocumented. It’s not like I don’t HAVE the time, it’s just that after I’ve spent all day juggling it around to fit toddler + work things in, I just want to crash on the sofa of an evening and hit up my homies in the q*bee irc / stick another House DVD on.

Dentistry

I had a tooth out last week. It was one I’d had a root canal on in 2006. Consider the dentist at the time said it was a close thing and may need to come out, I don’t think managing another 5 years was too bad. Let this be a lesson to you kiddies: if you spend your teenage years eating crap and not brushing, your teeth will die. (That and the hyperemesis, but short of not having kids there was no getting ’round that.) Anyway, extraction… worse than childbirth. It didn’t hurt, it was just terrifying. I’m a nervous patient anyway — I get butterflies if I’m just going in for a check-up — so the whole “ripping tooth out of mouth” thing was too much. At least you get something to show for it out of giving birth!

Driving

My driving test is next week. Next week. It’s hard to believe I started lessons this time last year. FYI, I don’t recommend taking one 1-hour lesson a week. By the time the next week rolls around you’ve forgotten what you learned the week before. If I were to start over I think I’d take 2 hourly lessons from the start, possibly twice a week. I started taking 2 hour lessons a few months ago and I think it was then I actually started taking things in. According to the Direct.gov website, those who pass have had 47 hours of instructed practice and 20 private. I’ve only had instructed lessons but I’m about on par for average (bit over?)

Oh, toddlerhood!

Isabel is withholding again. She’s back on the lactulose, but we’re already giving her more than the previous dose and it’s not yet working (that is, it’s making her go, but not often enough to prevent the withholding and help her ‘forget’). Docs have talked about prescribing Movicol but aren’t willing to do this until she’s 2. Apart from the obvious problems this can cause internally if left, it’s so hard to watch my happy, smart little girl turn into a grumpy lump unwilling to talk / walk / do anything while we’re waiting on a poo. I’m also concerned about the impact this is likely to have on moving on from nappies. She’s already recognising when she’s wet, can undress herself, asks for her nappy off first thing etc so we’re hitting many of the ‘ready for potty’ signs, but I don’t want to rush things and start the bloody cycle all over again.

Talking of Isabel. Sleep, oh beautiful sleep. This is a big one, probably worthy of a blog post of its own but without the time to spare for that, I will say: Isabel sleeps through the night now (95% of the time). She started sleeping longer patches around 16 months and by 18-19 months was going through all or most of the night. This is A Big Deal in parenting circles (seriously) because apparently the worthiness of your parenting is directly proportional to the amount your child sleeps. [roll eyes] Anyway, after having been quite vocal in the past on “cry it out” / “controlled crying” techniques to get even tiny babies to sleep unaided (in case you missed it, I think it’s bloody cruel) I can finally say FUCK YOU to the co-sleeping / gentle parenting naysayers. My kid learnt to sleep all by herself, no “training” necessary. Now just to stop her from kicking me in the head as she performs ‘snow angels’ in bed…

Blogging

I’ve moved my posts from jemturner.co.uk back to here. I liked having a blog where I could be more geeky and mention more work-related stuff but it was adding another level of stress to have to maintain a separate site. I’m going to drop a standard “here’s what I do, here’s how to contact me” page on jemturner.co.uk and do the rest from here. It goes hand in hand with adopting the tagline “on parenting, pets and PHP” which alliterates nicely. :) (You may have noticed me farting about with the title on the homepage for a while…)

…aaand, that’s all (for now) folks!

Posted on: September 12, 2011 · Category: Parenting, Updates

Making Baby v2?

If you’re following me on twitter or facepoop you’ve probably seen my recent posts about my new nephew, baby Jack. “Unfortunately” this has thrown an already very broody me into the deep end of omg-another-baby thoughts.

My original plan was to wait until Isabel hit 2 as a minimum. This is a) because I want to meet the WHO recommendations for breastfeeding as a minimum (and many kids wean when mama is pregnant) and b) because the idea of herding two kids under 2 fills me with nightmares.

In addition to those two minor factors, there’s one major thing playing on my mind… hyperemesis.

For new readers, or those forgetful sorts, I suffered from hyperemesis gravidarum during my pregnancy with Isabel. From week 6 until the day I gave birth, I vomited. I would vomit anything up to 8-10 times a day. Bear in mind that one ‘severe hyperemesis’ symptom is described as losing 5% of your pre-pregnancy body weight… well, just to give you an inkling of the kind of effect this had on my body: I lost 21% (and 3 dress sizes in the process).

It’s funny really, when I was pregnant in 2009, someone left this comment on Karl’s blog:

Jem is going to be fat. Muahaha.

Irony was, I was anything but; the day I gave birth, my pre-pregnancy jeans not only FIT but were falling off.

Hyperemesis suffers commonly suffer with each pregnancy, and generally it gets worse each time. The very thought terrifies me to my core. Constant reflux, bright red face from broken blood vessels because of the force of the vomit-retch-vomit cycle, complete inability to eat anything with any semblance of taste. Gah, I don’t know how I got through it, just thinking back right now.

And if I survive the constant stream of bile rapidly exiting my mouth, I get to deal with the incessant questions and suggestions from people: “have you tried ginger?” / “wear sea sickness bands” / “eat before you get out of bed” / “overdose on vitamin b12″ / “eat X food at X o’clock whilst hanging upside down” … you get the picture.

And if I get through that, and assuming Isabel DOESN’T wean during pregnancy, I have to balance the weight loss and my nutritional/physical needs with hers. Plenty of mamas nurse through HG but not all of them lose over 40lbs in weight.

But of course, all of this is irrelevant at the minute. Why? Because I’m scheduled for gallbladder removal surgery on November 21st. The removal of on organ which, aside from one attack, has been problem free my entire life. Which isn’t bothering me now. Which might not bother me again. (Can you tell I’m not convinced about this?)

And what about potty training during pregnancy? Co-sleeping with 2? Tandom nursing? Isabel getting jealous? Juggling 2 while I’m on maternity leave? Affording childcare for 2 when I’m not? Work? My next course module in October?

Sigh.

Posted on: July 19, 2011 · Category: Parenting

The Grand Plan

…by which I mean translating my apathy towards my weight/weightloss into something worthwhile and usable as a motivator.

Having given it some thought — and thank you to those who shared your own weight dilemmas, experiences, etc; I know weight is a very personal issue for many — I have decided to work on the following:

  1. Self-control: I do not need to eat an entire pack of biscuits. 1-2 is just fine.
  2. Less carbs: I don’t believe in cutting out whole food groups from the diet, but I live off carbs. Potatoes, pasta, cake, etc. Replace with more veg. (Aiming for 8 fruit+veg portions a day instead of usual 5?)
  3. More exercise: it’s easy to justify eating how I want because I walk to work (~2 miles) every day, but clearly my input is greater than calories burned and as I’m likely to fail on points 1 and 2, this is crucial.

I’m very concious about not making a big deal about this, a) because that will just set me up for failure because I’ll cave under pressure; and b) because I think dwelling on the F word will only serve to fuck up Isabel’s perception of weight, health, body image etc.

All that said, I bought the Wii Fit Plus package, and having weighed myself realised I weigh about 3st less than I did pre-Isabel. Ouch.

Posted on: July 11, 2011 · Category: Misc