Dealing with colic!

So I had the pleasure (if you could say that lol!) of dealing with colic for the very first time with my now 8 month old baby. He wasn't being overfed. He was also born 5 weeks early. Waters broke suddenly at 35 weeks 3 days and suddenly it was all systems go to deliver the baby! The doctor believed it might be due to his umbilical hernia which is apparently common in babies that are born a month ahead of themselves. Now thankfully the hernia issue has since resolved - just took 4 months of doing what the doctor told me to do in the shower but now that my precious baby has a belly button this has suddenly been replaced with colic! yikes. The doctors are keeping an eye on it too! and well hopefully its okay - it was the size of a 2e coin - the outie..and now its an innie. Bring on the sudden bad crying at night-time, waking and searching for Infacol which by the way works pretty well if you get caught out in this predicament. His weight gain suddenly spiked to the 98% weight gain - so back to the doctor I had gone - turns out he had caught croup off my other two kids which they caught in playschool and I think the steroid the doctor gave him at the time to clear him of the croup caused him to pile his weight on too quickly. So now that he has begun crawling his weight is finally resolving and the colic is getting less and less thank god! Once they start crawling they burn the weight off nicely so now he has dropped down to the 91% weight gain! :) For any mothers out there who have had to deal with colic - this music (see below) helped him soothe him to go back to sleep quickly without having to stay up for hours. I also learned from speaking with other mothers who have dealt with this that if you are in a particularly dry climate it can help to wear socks while you nurse. I also think if you can express the first part of your milk off then it can lead to resolving this issue. 

Dropping kids to school :)

Have you ever felt this way when you dropped your little one off to school? does getting a coffee suddenly appear to be attractive? now I am not scruffy or at least I hope not but when you have three little ones running around a lot at home, you could be forgiven surely for having the odd bad morning?? Note: the school my daughter goes to does not have a school bus - and as you know schools are pretty sticky about starting times and getting there early. That is not to say I can't time manage either - I can...and very well but yeah what is it about some parents who make you feel like you did something wrong with your appearance. Meanwhile you seem them in these beautiful sports jackets etc. Maybe I have been watching too much "In The Middle" TV show which by the way I happen to love lol :) so yeah to all the mothers out there let's set up a new trend its called the I made it to the school on time even though I have other kids trend and I don't really care what you think of how I look as long as I am clean lol.

The toynami situation :)

My flat resembles a Toynami lol. Its official. Every time I put stuff away, get the kids to help me put it away which they love doing :) it still ends up a mess. Now I must admit sometimes this is fun too and you can't be a total neat freak about this stuff when you have kids but yeah scalding the germs off the toys is another thing momhood has taught me :) Since Christmas is around the corner too. I think its safe to say that this is when the real Toynami occurs! have a good one...

Dealing with food intolerance's in toddler

My son James needs an allergy test - I have brought him to the doctor four times now. On the fourth consultation, I was finally treated properly by the doctor, up till now I was made to feel like some sort of hypochondriac and they kept to tell me they would be keeping an eye on it. I kept a food diary which has helped. Anyway he finally agreed with me and has given him a referral for a pediatrician - hurrah - result but sadly this appointment is still a few months away so I will have to now pay for this test privately! I guess some of it can be claimed back. I thankfully have health insurance and he is covered under it. I rang the hospital up and tried to forward the appointment but to no avail would they entertain this even though I have health insurance etc. We have taken gluten away from his diet - re-introduced it etc. and the doctor doesn't think he has celiac disease. He thinks he has a non-celiac gluten sensitivity. I nursed my son for two years before weaning him so the doctor thinks that has helped him...but anyway I have been giving gluten to the baby now to get him hopefully used to the taste - apparently they say you need to introduce gluten into their diets before they hit 7 months...so yes we hit the Milupa cereals up. Anyway today I stumbled on this article which says the opposite so feel free to share your thoughts and experiences below. 

http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-babies-gluten-celiac-disease-20141001-story.html

Anyway since its his 3rd birthday coming up I am hoping he will love the birthday cake below which is thankfully gluten-free. He turns 3 this Saturday and adores trains, trucks, cars - anything with wheels :)

Here is a helpful leaflet I have found in terms of explaining it to kids - leaflet here - also useful to print out for that little person in your life.

Different strokes for different folks!

Isn't it amazing how we tend to describe things differently to kids? I am always wondering how evolution has in some ways almost pre-programmed us. You know I want the best for my kids. I don't care what career they end up in as long as they are happy. I partially care - I care that they get a brilliant education. I care that they are learning enough subjects. Take for example, the previous school my daughter was going to. I won't name the school in question but I started to get concerned as she was only learning one letter a day and my daughter can amazingly already write the entire alphabet including her name. The teacher was amazingly rude and cold - not even listening to the other mothers etc. Now for 4 years old that is wonderful news...I thought if anything her teacher would be thrilled. The teacher gave out crayons. My daughter put up her hand and asked her for markers...but because she was ahead of the other kids, the teacher said no to this request and sort of shunned her. She also told my daughter that if she decided to be an artist and draw outside of the lines that she would lose marks...now I get that they are trying to teach kids to keep everything within the lines and trying to effectively teach order which my daughter thankfully has mastered too but somewhere down the line I wonder if primary schools can kill creativity a bit by this mindset alone? 

The new school is thankfully great! the teacher is a dream to deal with, soft spoken and I am so happy that I can just simply approach her without having to worry that she is going to upset me with her dogmatic views. And guess what, my daughter is now reading Cleopatra! yes a 4 year old already reading ancient history...that's how you know its a good school! It beats learning one letter a day and seeing a child come home grumpy and bored from being held back by the others :) Moral of story: sometimes moving as hard as it can be at the time can help your child even more.

I hate my flat - Cabin Fever, Eating In and Eating Out rant

Is it normal to hate where you live when you have been living there for too long? is it normal to feel this way?? My kids are also growing up way too fast. For any of you out there who is a parent - the first year of babyhood just flies. When it comes to purchasing baby clothes unless you have a really small baby on your hands - you are almost better off buying one year up a size.

My eldest daughter -Isabella - 4 has just started school for the first time but sadly I had to take her out of the first school over a school bully! She is now in a far better school and I am steeped I managed to get her out of there in the nick of time. I didn't want to wait on the fence for her to get self-esteem issues etc. My middle child - son James is just turning 3 this Saturday...he has a food intolerance and I managed to somehow order a gluten-free cake which cost a bit more but oh well he deserves it. I am amazed at the lack of gluten-free birthday cake choices online. I am hoping he outgrows his gluten and dairy intolerance. Doctor thinks it might take until he is 8 years of age! So onto my baby son - baby David who is now 8 months old today...he is crawling and starting to really enjoy the other two kids. Its really nice they are all playing with one another and enjoying all the fun and games!

Thankfully I make it a thing for us to always get out of my flat...even if its a bit like a military operation at times. I think its good to mix it up for kids and give them something to look forward to on the week-ends as they miss us during the week cos both my partner and I work. As for eating out, we try to do that but obviously its expensive so we mainly cook at home. Bringing packed lunches to the park can be fun though and I recommend not bringing stale bread to feed the ducks with!! Isabella loves to eat the bread when she throws it at the ducks - James doesn't eat the bread - he is too busy working on his throw lol...and baby David well he is just cooing which is adorable to watch that gummy smile. Here is a diagram which I am sure a few of you moms out there might love when it comes to date night or eating out with the kids lol - enjoy :)

Song of the Day: Dearg Doom

Nothing like getting through the middle of the week with a little rock ballad tune from Ireland :)
Have a nice day to all of my readers...Dearg is the Irish word for Red so quite literally this song is called Red Doom :) its got that lilt going on though!