Who’s Normal Anyway?

On Wednesday we had a long day out, because we went to Huddersfield to see “The Nightingale”. We drove down first thing in the morning so I could shop - pressies for A’s birthday, new watch strap, yarn for a jacket MIL is knitting for M, another potty (bought one there before that’s a good shape) etc etc. We met my mum and sister for lunch at Breads, then walked along to the theatre about 20 mins before the performance. We’d arranged to see Jan and her 3 children there and go for a cuppa afterwards, so said hello to them and then went in. My mum was stewarding and told us only 21 people had bought tickets for the matinee!! It must have been rather upsetting for the producer who had come up from London to see how it was going, and who sat making copious notes throughout.

The Nightingale is a Hans Christian Andersen story set in China.

Things I liked:

• The show used a combination of actors, puppets, video projected onto screens, dance, singing, shadow puppets and an overhead LED display to present the story, making it unusual but very interesting. I thought the petals falling at the end were lovely.
• Most (all?) of the actors were Chinese and the story was presented in a combination of English and Chinese, so it felt more like it really was China!
• I loved the way the artificial nightingale was done, with garish 70s style outfit and the maracas.
• The singing was lovely (though not always very clear) and I’ve still got the Nightingale’s song going in my head.
• The Death figure, with his mask and chopsticks - not sure if there is a Chinese tradition with chopsticks breaking the string of life?? He created a good “death” atmosphere and the voices of good and bad deeds from the past were well done too.
• They put the house lights up and included the audience at various points. Though they did try and get a little girl of about 3 or 4 to go up on stage for one bit and I’d've been surprised if any of the children would have gone on stage because M was certainly spooked out at that point. They eventually got an adult, which was as well, as the volunteer was then threatened with a big punch in the stomach, only just being saved by the Chancellor rushing onto stage at the last moment - too much for most kids I’d think!

Things I Didn’t Like:

• They added to the story! I hate when they do that. A pre-story was added, where the Emperor’s 1 month old son dies and then his wife commits suicide, and that all happened in the first 5 mins. The Emperor was played as being cruel and bad tempered, which doesn’t come across in the HCA telling at all, and a concubine and eunoch were added with a plot to destroy the artificial nightingale which is also different from the original. Telling the HCA version would have been fine, and much more suitable for younger children.
• The LED display above the stage was used to translate the dialogue that was in Chinese, but it took me the first 20 mins to notice! It was fairly distracting once I did, because the text was generally several lines behind the actors and scrolled quickly - it would have been better to only translate the Chinese and leave out the English, and to make it sync better. Luckily the story was followable (having read it before) without reading the translations, because mostly they moved too fast for M to follow.

L was fine through the 2 hours in the theatre. He either fed and dozed, or sat fairly quietly looking around in the dark. I found I was completely tuned out to his signals though - I was so absorbed in the show and also I think I must notice visual clues the most and I couldn’t really see or even feel that well what he was doing. Twice L had a huge poo that rippled in his nappy, the whole audience must’ve heard him LOL.

Afterwards we went for coffee with Jan, C, M and J. It was the first time we’d met J and he is really cute. My M was doing his trying to make friends clowning around routine of walking into things on purpose and generally acting a bit silly, but C and M seemed to find him funny. They were all fed up of sitting still though and we were “encouraged” out of the cafe by them turning the lights off on us! So Jan and I stood just out of the rain outside a shop chatting while they raced about getting soaked but having fun.

I’ve seen a couple of articles are in UK newspapers this week about EC. It seems to me generally the journalists are completely missing the point. It’s not about potty training your baby, or having them out of nappies younger, or forcing them to do something they’re not capable of. The point is, if your baby is squirming cos they need a wee or a poo, and you know that is why they are squirming, why on earth would you want to leave them to get poo all up their bum because it squidges around inside the nappy, when instead you can hold them over something and have a bum that is easy to clean and be able to put the same clean nappy back on again? How disrespectful would it be, to say “no, you have to go in your nappy”, if you have the option of holding them somewhere else? Obviously if you don’t know about EC you do what you can and change baby’s nappy as soon as you notice, and if you are EC’ing but driving the car or something it’s going to be hard to always have a potty stop. But if you are aware they need the loo and you can potty them, why is that a bad thing?

The argument that it’s the parent who is being trained is irrelevant - of course it’s the parent who is learning what to do, because as someone said on the Natural Infant Hygiene list this week, babies already *know*. In the same way, they know when they are hungry and signal.

I also think that though it’s a common idea that babies have no muscle control until at least 18 months, clearly L can release when he is cued by sound and position. He may not be able to hold it indefinitely, but he can signal before he reaches the point where it is going to come out no matter what, and can relax and wee or poo, so there must be some muscle ability at birth.

I think babies can be desensitised to their awareness, and learn that nappies are where you are supposed to wee and poo, and then they have to unlearn that when they are older and realise the big kids and adults don’t have nappies but use the toilet. L’s toilet fussing is what we called “colic” when M did the same kinds of things - I wonder if some colic is actually toilet fussing, and it stops by 3 - 4 months as babies learn to use a nappy???

Article in today’s Times: Is this baby too young to be potty trained?
Maggie Howell is the person who inspired me to take an interest in EC in the first place, as she was EC’ing her first son when M was a toddler and we went to the same La Leche League meetings, and then I went to the Continuum Concept group that she ran for a while.

This is the article from the Sunday Telegraph From birth to potty in 3 weeks. This one is a bit less negative.

And this is a news report from Chicago, with film clips of EC in action and interviews with parents.

We went shopping in Sainsburys this afternoon and while M and I were unloading the trolley, the checkout girl started chattering away as she scanned stuff through. She spotted L and started with “So what do you think of this potty training babies that’s in the papers today?”. Think I floored her when I said, “Oh, we do that!”. LOL

L woke up about 6.30 this morning. He often wakes about this time, but usually feeds, has a wee, a bit more of a feed and falls asleep again, then properly wakes up about 8 - 8.30am. Today he was having none of this feed and go back to sleep malarkey, probably not helped by the fact that A was up and getting ready for work, and then M came in for a cuddle and kept talking. So about 7am I decided to give up trying to go back to sleep and just get up with him. After having some breakfast I took him back upstairs so I could go for a bath. I laid him down on the bathroom floor, turned the bath on to run and went to tidy our bedroom and get a few things. When I came back, he was fast asleep LOL. Didn’t think the floor was that comfy!

I was expecting it to be raining all day today and have M moaning that he was bored if I didn’t let him spend ages playing on computer games, but apart from alot of rain first thing the weather’s been OK and we’ve had a better day than anticipated.

We went to Church this morning and stayed for coffee afterwards to help plan the Harvest Festival for next Sunday. As well as being Harvest, it’s one family’s last service before they move, A’s birthday, J&C’s 41st wedding anniversary, and another family have alot of extra guests coming because their eldest has been officially adopted by her new dad and a thanksgiving for that is being included in the service - so lots to celebrate! We’re having a pot luck lunch so had to agree who was bringing what food. We let the organist organise us all - she bosses the vicar and keeps these kinds of things running fairly smoothly. So I need to remember to prepare salads and flan next Saturday and take fruit and veggies to decorate the church.

While we were nattering about food and leaving pressies, M played with J and his little brother J. Well, played in the lossest sense of the word, mainly consisting of pushing each other off the sofa they were all trying to sit on. Little brother has just started school, but still seems such a baby (as well as being a little bruiser!). He was really interested in L who was in the sling, and kept stroking his head. When L woke up he kept asking questions - “is that your baby?” (resisted a very strong urge to say “no, I borrowed him for the morning”!), “why doesn’t he have shoes on?”, “can he do buttons up yet?” - some funny questions!

We came home for lunch and then M went out to continue playing with J, who lives on our estate. It had come out fairly sunny so he took his bike out. Then it started drizzling and they played Jenga in the garage (I rarely have them playing in, and Little Brother was with them, which is even more of a recipe for disaster in the house, but I don’t feel bad because their mum won’t have kids in to play at hers either) , or at least they got the blocks out and then sounded like they were just having a lot of arguments about it. When it stopped raining they went back out to play and were in and out of the back garden and constantly nagging to come in and play computer games. The youngest must have gone home at some point, because the next thing I noticed, M and J were playing happily digging in the border of the back garden with tools out of our shed. It sounded quite involved and they had sand and mud and were building blocks of flats, and worms were involved somewhere (I didn’t inquire too closely!).

While M played out I did bits around the house, played with L and fiddled about trying out the free book downloads from Audible. Must ring BT again about our phone line and broadband and see if they’ve got anything sorted yet - we’re supposed to be just too far away from the exchange, but I keep hearing rumours of neighbours with broadband.

I’m typing this on A’s laptop so that I can sit upstairs and keep an eye on both M and L who are in bed, but the laptop and I often come to blows because the keyboard is awful and I tend to accidentally touch the pad and insert what I’m typing into the middle of an earlier paragraph, so fingers crossed!

I’m not keeping up with blogging daily, but I’ll try and recap the last couple of days if can remember what we did.

On Thursday A spent all day out climbing in the sunshine somewhere, then came in just before 4 to get ready for work and went straight back out again – cut it a bit fine really. It’s amazing how early in the morning he can get up after a late evening at work when he’s going to go out climbing! I can’t remember anything particularly interesting that we did at home on Thursday. M did his maths and sounding and we listened to some more schools radio on the BBC website. We read Camille and the Sunflowers together, which is a story book about Vincent Van Gogh. I bought a set of the stories about artists from Red House, having seen them at Melrose (think Merry brought them?) and at the same time I bought some art sticker books, so after reading the story we looked at the stickers and worked out which went where for a while til M lost interest.

At tea time we finished watching Carrie’s War. (I know, eating in front on the TV, terrible habit!) I videoed it ages ago and never got round to watching it. I didn’t know the story and if I had I might have left it a while, because M was a bit spooked about the skull and the house burning down, but we both enjoyed the film and we’ve had some interesting conversations following on from it.

Yesterday we had a family morning, because A went off for the weekend with the mountain rescue team at lunchtime so we were making the most of him til he went. A and M went out for a bike ride while I waited for the latest version of Real Player to finish downloading (took ages cos we haven’t got broadband) so that we could listen to Little Toe on Radio 7. L and I drove to the coffee shop where we’d arranged to meet A and M after their ride. It was drizzling slightly when they set off out, but by the time we all got to the coffee shop it was bouncing down and A and M were soaking. Had an early lunch and chatted to friends who were there and then came home again (luckily the rain had passed over by then).

In the afternoon M got on with his maths really well and we listened to Tony Robinson reading the Pied Piper of Hamelyn on schools radio – Tales from Europe. Afterwards I gave M the option of drawing a scene from the pied piper or having a go at drawing a sunflower like the ones in the story from the day before. He decided on the sunflower and went out into the garden to cut one and bring it in to draw. He chose to use oil pastels and made a good attempt at a sunflower. Later on we started a game of Monopoly and its still out on the dining room table. Then it was out to Musical Theatre.

This morning the plan was to go into town and do Tescos shopping and some bits and bobs from the other shops. I asked M to get his things ready for his dancing lesson, which is at the awkward, right in the middle of the day, time of 1.15pm. He faffed about and took a while to realise he couldn’t find his jazz shoes which he had yesterday for Musical Theatre. He searched his bedroom, went out to check if they were still in the car etc etc. Eventually I rang the dance studio and left a message to see If they were there. I’d left M fastening his last shoe while I went ahead to get L in the car because we were blocking someone in the car park, and M had just come out and left his bag sitting in the middle of the floor. I despair sometimes! Anyway, when we got to town I couldn’t park, Tesco’s car park was heaving and I had to queue to even get back out again. So I abandoned that plan and we went to Somerfield instead, which is outside the town centre and had lots of parking spaces. I didn’t manage to get birthday cards from my Grandma or for A though, so will have to go shopping again Monday morning.

We popped home with the shopping and had a quick sandwich and then drove to dancing. M hadn’t missed learning very much more of his modern or tap routines, so that was good. The class is going much faster now he’s moved up a group, but he seems to be holding his own. This afternoon M played out and also played his Star Wars PC game and I’ve sorted washing, cooked tea and fiddled a bit on the computer. Right, better pop downstairs to connect to the internet and post this!

I hate the weeks when A is working nights (well, OK, then, evenings - 4pm onwards). We all end up overtired and get crosser as the week goes on. This morning I did manage to sleep in til 8am when M came in to see if I was getting up yet. I don’t know what unearthly hour he woke up at, but he was probably disturbing A for quite a while before he woke me. Once L was awake we came downstairs and I played/watched him play his Lego Star Wars game for a bit before breakfast. He is really obsessed with it at the moment and he likes me to watch and join in on the 2 player option, L permitting. So we started off well, doing something together, but then the morning just deteriorated.

I went back upstairs for a shower and M followed me up (he says he’s scared to be downstairs by himself - not sure what that’s about other than he wants extra attention?) and I got annoyed about the amount of noise he was making while A was still trying to sleep. Then I said it was time to do his activities and we started with maths. He messes about, twiddles on his chair, pretends he’s run out of breath and allsorts and it really winds me up. While he was doing maths I was trying to get ready to go out to West Park as well as checking how he was getting on. It’s always a bit of a rush but L had fallen asleep and I was trying to make sandwiches, put the slow cooker on for tea when we got back, pack nappies and the cake we’d made to take etc etc. Anyway, we fell out over the 5 times table and then over how could 21 + 18 + 16 possibly add up to 31. Very silly, but I was so mad and so was he, he was being so cheeky and not even trying to attempt to work anything out. Luckily A got up and supervised the finishing off of the maths while I cooled off (I was horrible shouty mummy this morning) and then we did phonograms and spelling which went much better.

I said I wasn’t prepared to spend an hour in the car driving to West Park when M was just messing about (I felt like if I was going to all the effort of getting stuff ready to go out, the least M could do was co-operate) and M said he didn’t want to go, he wanted to stay at home and do things with me and go for a bike ride with Daddy, so we didn’t go out after all.

Things improved a little when I suggested we sit and listen to The Song Tree together. We listened to a couple of the programmes last year but didn’t hear the beginning of the story. We sat together at the computer and joined in with learning the song, tapping the beat etc and I wrote out the words so we could remember them better. We had fun singing together, it’s something we both really enjoy. It’s annoying that the programmes are only available for 7 days and only supposed to be recorded by UK schools. I don’t have a digital radio and even if I did I wouldn’t like to tape the broadcast at 4am, but after some suggestions on the Muddlepuddle list I might be able to sort out a workaround. A friend who is a music teacher got the CD for the Magic Hummingbird last year, but it was only the songs, not the actual programme with the story as well.

The Magic Hummingbird is about the Hopi tribe and how they call on the golden eagle, their sacred bird, to help them when the rains fail. At the end of the programme we looked up the Hopi on Google and found out where they were from in Arizona, and found the spot in the atlas, and found out what the Black Mesa is.

We had lunch (sandwiches were already made so that was easy!) and played Battleships together and M wrote one of his birthday thank you letters (eventually, after alot of prompting to get paper and pencil out). When A came back from his dyslexia tuition we went into town to get some cash out and buy a few bits. When A went to work one of M’s friends called for him to play out, so he got some fresh air and I got some time to fiddle about on the PC. We had stew for tea and watched Blue Peter, then M played more computer games while I talked on the phone to my mum. M and L had a bath together after that and I read some more of Homer Price, our current readaloud.

On Friday we drove down to Legoland for M’s birthday treat. The journey went better than expected, because L slept most of the way and M didn’t whine “are we there yet” too often. We booked one of those £26 Travelodge rooms for Friday night and arrived about 4pm, so we unloaded the car and then went for an early tea at the Harvester next door and then had an early night. L woke every hour or two, probably a combination of the roll-together double bed and not having fed as much during the drive down. I ended up swapping for the firmer sofa-come-single-bed during the night, but L managed to squirm around and take up most of the mattress so it wasn’t very restful.

On Saturday we were up fairly early, and having declined the Travelodge “breakfast” which costs a fortune and isn’t that nice, we found a Sainsburys on the way to Legoland and went in their Starbucks cafe for an unhealthy breakfast of Danish pastries/muffin and coffee. We got to Legoland for it opening and it was heaving. We went on a Saturday because of the jousting event and we have passes so it was no more expensive than a school day. But on reflection, the event didn’t come close to making up for how busy it was on a weekend and the length of the queues. Ah well, M would have been disappointed if we’d not gone this weekend and it was his treat.

The weather was perfect for visiting Legoland - warm, but not too warm, and sunny. Warm enough to go on the wet rides without worrying, but not so hot that it was an effort to be out all day in the sun.

We had to be a little bit more selective than usual in deciding which rides to go on because the queues were long. We watched the Lego 4D Racers show because that’s always a favourite. Then M and I went on “the leaf ride”. Fairy Tale Brook is a ride we go on every time we visit (we used to live near Legoland and went alot in the past) but this time M got into looking out for the objects (TV, mixer etc) in the scenes, and it was lovely to go on a ride with just the 2 of us, without L. We queued up for the new dino safari ride but it’s poorly designed (IMHO) because it’s little jeeps that only seat 2, so all the parents who were one parent with 2 small children were having to leave one at the ride entrance to take the other child on. Seeing as the ride is aimed at the little ones, this is just plain daft. And I couldn’t go on because I was carrying L (in a wraparound sling, so he was hardly going to fall out!) as he isn’t the minimum 92cm tall.

We worked our way down to the lighthouse area to watch the stunt show - glad we found seats over on the left and not in the splash zone, because the people sitting there looked like they were pretty much drowned by water sprays! After lunch in the restaurant we went to the castle area, wondering what all the people were lining up for. It turned out to be the queue to watch the jousting. It started opposite the castle entrace and was all the way back to before the toilets in the pirate area - huge queue! We decided to join it on the off chance we’d get in to see the next show, and we did, though A had M sat on his shoulders for 20 mins (ouch!) otherwise he wouldn’t have been able to see. The show area was just a field, no tiered seating or anything sensible like that!

Next, A and M went on the Pirate Falls flume ride and I went to watch for them coming down, in the seating area for the cafe next door. I stood watching and waiting for them to get on the ride for about 45 mins and got a sunburnt face, but they enjoyed the splash when they finally got there. M continued the wet theme by having a go on the gold wash. Then we walked back through miniland for M to go in the water park in duploland (wouldn’t let him go there til last thing in the day), where he stripped down to his undies and got as wet as possible. He was having a whale of a time, but we pulled him out when he started shivering, dried him off with a muslin (all we had) and put him back in his clothes to warm up again. I went to buy doughnuts and drinks while A and M built racing cars and tested them.

Then it was back to the top to shop and for M to spend birthday money. He bought a Star Wars set and the Knights Kingdom chess set. We finally left Legoland about 5.45pm to start the long drive home.

The drive was fine while it was light. L slept a bit and was generally fairly happy. We stopped for something to eat at a Little Chef, but once we got back on the road L started screaming and it was awful. We were all tired and he was hard to console. We stopped for another feed and he had a wee, then he started crying again as soon as we set off. We worked out he hates driving in the dark, because he stopped crying when we went through a motorway section that was lit. In the end we found he calmed down if we had the interior light on and I reached back through the seats to stroke his head. He fell asleep eventually and we got home just before midnight.

Both L and M were stars really, with the long drives and everything. We had L in disposables but managed to EC quite a bit. Whenever we stopped I took him to the toilets and he usually had a wee. We caught pretty much all the poos while we were away, so that was more comfortable for him. The only big one I missed was on the way home when I’d only just taken him for a wee in the Little Chef (horrible toilets there, ugh) and thought he couldn’t possibly need to go (and felt a bit embarrassed going back and forth to the loo with him). Legoland has decent toilets and the baby changing rooms have a changing mat and a loo in the same room, so I could go too. The only awkward bit was in the Baby Centre, where they have one big room with alcoves with baby changing areas, but no toilet.

Last night we met up with friends from Wales that we haven’t seen for a couple of years. They travelled up for a family wedding they’re going to tomorrow, so we drove to Harrogate to spend the evening with them at their hotel. It was really lovely to catch up with K & J. J was A’s first boss, about 15 years ago and they also ran a Scout troop together at one point. The summer before my final year in uni I stayed with K & J and childminded their son D and daughter G for a couple of months. When we lived in Wales we used to go out with K & J, and J was the best man at our wedding. We’ve watched their children grow up, and it was good to find out more about what they’ve been doing recently.

We had a lovely (but pricey) meal in the hotel brasserie. There was a bit of a scramble over the cumberland sausage with apple mash, because 3 of us ordered it but there was only one left. I won out, as the others decided to go for the curry and we didn’t think that would agree so well with L! For dessert we had chocolate brownie cake - M’s dessert cost more than his main course of chicken and chips!

M behaved really well and was a pleasure to take out. It was well past his bedtime, we didn’t leave the hotel til gone 11pm, and he was polite and chatted with everyone. He really looks up to D - the last time we visited them D showed him how to play unsuitable games on the playstation and M loved it. This photo is of D and his girlfriend C.

L was a chilled, happy baby, which made the whole evening easier. He either fed and dozed, or smiled around at everyone. He took being passed around very well and cooed alot, and even had a cuddle with our Indian waiter who had a little chat with him every time he came to the table.

We’re off down south today so we can have a full day at Legoland tomorrow, so I’d better go and finish packing!

I started writing this as a comment for Jan, but it became so long I changed it to a post instead!

EC doesn’t have to be all or nothing, it’s more about communicating about toileting and building up a trust, so while I expect it helps to be consistent to get the communication going, loads of people start out doing it part time or just at home.

At nightime so far I’ve worked out L really hates to be held over the potty, and I can’t work out how to take off his nappy and hold a bowl to catch the wee without making a big mess and winding him up. I’m not brave enough to lie him down with no nappy on, though some people do this. Boys can shoot a long way, can’t they?! LOL

We cosleep, so when he’s been fidgeting a little and I’ve woken up enough I pick him up and breastfeed him (we don’t feed lying down cos he doesn’t latch on well and we end up taking forever to have a part feed with me in an odd position). At the moment he is feeding when I go to bed about 11pm and then waking about 3-4am (long may it continue, but I’m not counting on it LOL!). He sometimes hasn’t had a wee by then, so I think he may be starting to hold it at night. I’ve heard on the EC lists about babies holding it at night from 6 or 7 weeks. But he cries if I try to potty him when he wakes, he is much more interested in having milk. Then he tends to wee towards the end of the feed (I may start trying the potty then, haven’t decided yet) and goes back to sleep, then wakes off and on for milk til he wakes for the morning. When he wakes more fully then he has a short feed and he’s a bit more accepting of being sat on the potty, and does a huge wee, then does another couple within the next half hour or so. I keep the potty at the side of the bed. I’m still working it out really. In bed we use disposables so that hopefully he doesn’t feel wet even if I don’t change it - not sure if this helps or hinders the ECing though.

At nighttime L wears a nappy and sometimes he wears a T shirt, depends on how warm it is really. During the day he is wearing a T shirt, socks and a nappy in the house, and shorts or dungarees with poppers if we’re going out and I feel he should be more “respectable”, i.e. dressed. Poppered bottoms are OK and trousers come off quickly. Nappy wise I use a nappi nippa-ed muslin with no cover if we’re in the house and don’t put bottoms on him (but he’s getting a bit big to fit muslins much longer and I don’t know what we’ll use then). If I need him to be waterproof we use a pocket nappy with popper fastenings, or for longer times out of the house we sometimes use disposables.

I am only figuring it out as we go along, so don’t take all this as the best way to do things, I’m just experimenting. I’d say L is able to hold wees and poos for a couple of minutes, some of the time at least. I think he fusses before the “point of no return”. And I offer him a wee when I think its been a while or after a nap. I suppose he’ll wait to go elsewhere if he can, to avoid going in his nappy. Perhaps J would learn to fuss for a poo and signal sooner, or try to hold it a bit, if he thought he shouldn’t go in his nappy? I don’t know. L sometimes does a bit of a poo or grunts a certain way and I rush him to the sink and strip him off and then he goes/does the rest once he is in position. It’s surprising what a force poo can shoot out with!

Some people start EC by just trying to get the wake up wees. Have you tried watching J when he wakes up to see how long there is between waking and weeing? If there’s a bit of time you could try taking his nappy off then and holding him over a potty or the toliet. If you make a cueing sound (we use a shw sound) whenever you know he is weeing or pooing he would learn to associate that with having a wee and then you could use it when you are offering him a place to go so he knows to do it there.

Our phone line was down from sometime yesterday until lunchtime today, and I was lost! I knew I used it alot, but it was awful to not be able to dial up the internet (still don’t have Broadband here) or phone anyone (awful mobile reception). Everything I wanted to get done this morning while L napped was something I needed a phone line for. So thankfully they’ve fixed it quickly!

This morning we had our last appointment with our independent midwives. Both Chris and Michelle came for this last visit and we had a “how was it for you” round up chat. They are both wonderful midwives and it’s kind of sad they won’t be popping in for a cuppa, chat and a giggle anymore. They made such a difference to how L’s birth went. Anyone in their area, I’d highly recommend them!

This afternoon I had a good hour’s drive to take M to meet up with some friends to go ten pin bowling. I honestly don’t know why I bothered. He started getting sulky when he realised he wasn’t going to win, and his temper and general attitude got worse and worse the longer we stayed. So we won’t be doing that again for a while.