More things I wish I'd known.

Some things in life you just shouldn't mess with. Ploughman's and Scones being 2 of them. We went to our new favorite place on the weekend, This Bright Field, and found both on the menu and found both had been tampered with. I still can not fault the decor and the super friendly staff (the chef in the open kitchen recognised us from our visit last week and even brought some cut up fruit to our table for baby. Sadly, baby couldn't have it, he has no teeth and will be on milk for a little while longer yet but its the thought that counts) but fiddling with a Ploughman's and a Scone is a pretty heinous crime in my opinion.

This Bright Field

According to Wikipedia, a  Ploughmans is a snack composed of cheese, cooked ham, pickle, apples, pickled onions and crusty bread. I agree with Wikipedia 110%.

According to This Bright Field, a Ploughmans is composed of cheese, chopped up smoked chicken in a sort of sausage shape, beetroot, radish, a tiny dollop of coleslaw, pickle and the thinnest slices of bread I've ever seen that weren't a Melba toast. And it cost £10. Ouch.

Now one may say "Well, why did you order it then?" But I really didn't know it would be such small portions and that the bread would be so thin. It was delicious but it wasn't a Ploughmans. Sorry.

Second up, the Scone. We thought we'd have a scone to make up for the shock of the Ploughmans. I love scones. I make scones. I eat scones. Quite a lot. For my 30th birthday my older brother bought me a Red Letter Day voucher to go Zorbing. I swapped it for a Cream Tea at a National Trust Castle (sorry older brother!). That's how much I love a scone. Part of the thrill of a Scone is smearing on your own jam and cream. Unfortunately, this wasn't going to happen at This Bright Field. It came to the table pre-smeared. MORTIFICADO! I almost asked for my money back.

To summarise, I still think this is an awesome place with loads going for it, just please don't mess with the classics. I'd hate to see what they'd do to a prawn cocktail.

Another thing you shouldn't mess with is a baby's small plump little thigh. Baby had his 2nd round of immunisations today which I have been dreading. The first round last month, made him peculiar for 2 days. Luckily he didn't get some of the worse reactions which can include a fever, a green face and vomiting but nevertheless, its a very unpleasant business. The thing about the immunisations are that they give you a little dose of the illness they are trying to immunise against which seems a bit mean but is worth it in the long run. Watching them get the jabs is heartbreaking though. The needles are as long as the babies thighs and almost as wide. Horrid. Particularly for a wimp like me, all I can say is thank God the Wig comes with us.

Anyway, I was dreading going back for the next lot of jabs. Baby was in a very good mood first thing this morning and I kept thinking "If only you knew what the day has in store . . . ". The thought even crossed my mind not to take him at all, that would have been a great excuse for him to stay in doors with me forever. But thinking he might want his own life one day away from me (sob  . . . sob . . . ) I thought he should go.  I really don't know how one would choose to be an "Immunisation Nurse". It has to be one of the meanest jobs ever created, stabbing babies in the legs all day is really not a nice profession but I suppose someone has to do it. Our nurse is actually quite nice (I know, a surprise) but I have noticed she wont make eye contact. I think she feels guilty for the pain she is inflicting. However, today went surprisingly well and I don't know what I was worrying about. When we arrived to the Nurses office and held baby in place for the needles, he smiled at the Nurse then when she injected him with the first needle, he didn't flinch! Not even a blink! That baby is awesome! He did cry his little heart out for the second jab (horrid) but as soon as we got outside and put him in his buggy, he dropped off. So, well done to my amazingly brave little soldier. What a guy.

After the first lot of jabs last month, I sent an email to my pregnant friends and those who had babies just after me (14 of our friends had or are having babies in the few months leading up to us and a few months after. Weird eh?) with some more thoughts on things I wish I had known, possible reactions to the jabs being one of them. So here are those few thoughts for anyone who may be remotely interested:

Jabs.

These are not very nice. A needle in each thigh and a screaming baby basically. All the babies have the first lot at 8 weeks (unless you live in TB riddled Hackney and they get their BCG given at birth) and I would suggest both mum and dad taking baby. It is not pleasant for anyone so the more support the better. Also, if you are bottle feeding, take some food along, it might calm them down afterwards. If you are breast feeding, you may need to whip out a boob!

Babies can get a fever afterwards so some people say to have Calpol on hand. Some other people also suggest giving Calpol anyway (babies can have it at 2 months) just in case, but if you do this it can cancel out the immunisation. They get a dose of the lurgey to kick start their immunity to it but if you try and kill the germ with the Calpol the immunity wont have a chance to build up. If the baby does get a fever either take them back to the Dr or call the NHS hotline for advice but fever's aren't the only side effect.

Babies can be very sleepy and lethargic the next day which is quite disturbing if your baby is normally quite alert. Our baby was very upset the afternoon after the jabs (he had a couple of crying spells) and almost regressed to a newborn, so I cuddled him lots obviously trying to avoid touching where the needles had been. The following day, he would not sleep all day, it was very peculiar. Then the day after that he was very lethargic, floppy, had a runny nose and was definitely out of sorts. But by the third day he was back to his old self again. The jabs are horrid but if I'd known what to expect I would have been less shocked. 

Food. 

This seems very obvious but all babies really are different. I got a bit hung up on how much baby was eating and at what times and tried to make some sense of it. I googled how much babies should eat at what stage and tried to see if he was 'normal'. But I soon realised that as long as baby is happy, putting on weight (which you will know as they grow out of their clothes soon enough) and wee-ing and poo-ing ok, then you are probably fine. Do you eat the same amount of food at the same time each day? I know I don't so why should it be any different for a new baby? Get baby weighed of course if you want to double check things are ok, but we have only done this twice. We know he is growing, I don't need a Midwife who has never met him before to tell me that. The hospital told us to do "Demand Led" feeding which doesn't really fit into a routine, it's when baby is hungry so just go with the flow and don't get too hung up with what other babies are doing.

Poos. 

By about the 8th week I think, the poo's changed from almost one every other nappy to one a day. I freaked out at first and kept checking for the elusive poo and was convinced we had a constipation on our hands, I was almost ready to insert a greased up finger in to relieve the pressure but basically the digestive system is maturing by this stage and they don't need to go so often. One big one every day seems to be what happens and being in an upright position helps things along (Makes sense right? Do you poo laying down?). Our Babybjorn bouncer has now become known as the 'poo chair'.

Smiles.

Baby started doing this by about week 6. Just when you think you can't take anymore, you'll get a smile and everything is rosy.

Finally, here's a link to something that I think is brilliant. It made me cry, what a surprise.

http://nurshable.com/2012/07/19/the-wio-wait-it-out-method-of-sleep-training/