PENELOPE PARKER & BABY IN THE AUTUMN

Autumn went by in a blur of coffee dates, walks with baby and business trips for Mr P. It started hot and balmy and finished frosty and soggy!  Days continue to vanish. I often don’t think I’ve achieved a thing but I actually did 1,000 little things to keep baby happy each day. And if I thought I was busy before baby then these autumn days were busier. We’ve travelled less, although we’ve still managed three trips! Time is now invested looking after him and getting out and about each and every day! Prepare for a picture onslaught!

September

It stayed hot which was perfect. The heatwave earlier on in the summer was too much for me when pregnant and for the first six weeks with a newborn, but by September we could both deal with and enjoy the heat!

We took plenty of weekday and weekend and evening walks in the forests near us.

I went National Trusting with my parents. I rejoined when we went to The Vyne as there’s a great collection of gardens and houses near me that I can potter around during maternity leave. Most seem to have a microwave for baby milk or baby food which is inspired.

We got our first ‘social’ smiles at around 6 weeks. These are real smiles, not just wind, and they are heart warming! It took a while to catch one on camera but as you can see it was worth the wait – his smile is simply adorable. When we pick him up from his cot in the morning his arms flap and he smiles widely to see us!

The next National Trust visit was to Hinton Ampner. I loved the scarecrows! I think the ladies on reception thought I was nuts coming just for 45 minutes. I wandered round, fed the baby and left. Just nice to vary the location of my daily stroll!

We attended our first wedding as a threesome of one of my gorgeous university friends! Baby was good as gold and somehow we muddled our way through the day! The car (which is big as you can see) was full of stuff that we might have needed for a fortnight away… Turns out all we really needed was a few strong nappies! He chose the kitchen worktop at my boss’s house en route to the wedding to do his worst poo ever! When I was doing my reading apparently both of baby’s eyes opened with my voice on the speaker system…

He got so much more animated as the month went on and having more control of his neck he could enjoy far more. As a result I have walked kilometres around the house and the garden giving curated tours time and again to keep him amused!

The thing that every little traveller needs arrived. His first passport. He no longer looks like his passport photo but he has his passport and we will travel!

I decided to be brave and write about our miscarriage heart ache and the long journey to being parents. I urge everyone to read it – whether you are suffering like we did and want to see some light at the end of the tunnel or if you have friends that you want to support. Baby Loss Awareness week really stepped up a gear this year, but more support is needed.

We had an awesome tour of Winchester College as part of the national Heritage Open Days scheme.

Mr P’s business travel restarted. We spent a lot of time on FaceTime to make sure that he still saw baby each day and to ensure that baby still heard his voice. His first trip was over to San Francisco – fairly certain his Club bed gave him the best sleep he’d had in weeks! It was also a really good time difference for us as I had company to chat to in the nighttime feeds! My parents came to stay a bit while he was away, and I survived a few nights by myself!

Tummy time got more popular. I wouldn’t say he’s a massive fan (he prefers to use his strength to throw himself around when I’m carrying him instead) but he’s getting so much better at it! And his legs are desperately trying to propel him forward!

A lot of coffee dates were enjoyed! A particular favourite location is Caviste in Overton. There’s a coffee bar in the wine shop so one can kill two birds with one stone and pick up something for the weekend! The lights shining on the bottles is a favourite for the baby!

The sun kept shining. And so we kept up our afternoon strolls with the Ergobaby. Great for baby to snooze. Great for my fitness!

And Daddy got home from the first trip laden with presents for us both! Thankfully as the photo shows baby didn’t forget him for a second and you can see his delight having us both home!

Some more National Trusting, this time West Green. This is a gorgeous private garden. The only issue was that in the quiet cafe Baby P decided to announce to all and sundry that apparently he hadn’t been fed for his 12 weeks. And promptly refused to feed when offered! He was very loud and frustratingly they had no hand drier which would have been perfect white noise to calm him. Driving home fixed it, he slept all the way which let his angst pass and then fed happily once we were home!

I think he might have been enjoying a Wonder Week leap as Mr P’s parents visited us the same weekend and we had a similar charade at most of his mealtimes. We did weather it and since we came out the other side he’s been a little smiley person!

October

The weather continued to be fine and with dark cold days ahead of us it was still a case of making the most of the outdoors.

Walks and coffees with the NCT mummies, comparing notes about our terrors and sharing tips on everything! Truly they do keep me sane.

At ten weeks I decided to take baby into work. In London!! What a crazy idea! It was a mission but totally worth it! We practiced counting the day before!

Sam had more travel – Cape Town and New York. More making the most of the weekends for him. He carries baby for the walks, which also helps me recover from the lifting and shifting of the weekdays. More presents when he returned from each trip, but the best is just his presence! Ever thankful for my parents for supporting me when he is away.

It is stunning to be in the country and see the leaves turn day by day. Sunrise also seems to be particularly beautiful in the autumn. We often get a mist on the water meadows behind the house which makes for a stunning dawn.

A trip into Winchester with my parents. We walked in along the water meadows which is becoming a favourite walk, sometimes with a yomp up St Catherine’s Hill thrown in. We had a quick look into the National Trust mill. Small but I didn’t know that the river had an island in it until I visited!

Try as we might to have a quiet coffee while baby naps… He has a habit of waking up to see what’s going on. Long Barn in Alresford is always nice for a mooch and coffee (although I rarely stray far from a Coffee Lab in Winchester). They have babychino’s too and I am sure he will be a fan soon enough!

As the weather got colder (massive blast from the east in mid October) the dawns just got more stunning! And (most of) the cows came back. Some have, er, gone off to market…

We took our first holiday, of sorts! A night away in London as Mr P was running a half marathon for Parkinson’s UK on behalf of his father. Baby P slept like a log, waking just once! It started a night routine he’s doing well to stick to.

Baby massage went well and I’m glad it was the first course I signed up to! Early on he couldn’t lie still, wasn’t a fan and when I took his nappy off liked to wee… Now that we have the full routine the output seems to be fairly successful! We were doing a little bit before bath each night however he was too urgent to start splashing that we’ve had to stop. I’ll start doing it in the day time instead.

The tomato crop just kept coming and ripening! My mum has made us a tonne of ragu and she’s working on green tomato chutney too! We won’t be planting 50 tomato plants again, it’s excessive! I certainly didn’t expect to be able to pick ripe tomatoes at the end of October!

We reached the end of the fourth trimester. Time has flown by but it has been a blast and the little boy our baby is turning into is gorgeous! He’s taught me such a lot in such a short time!

We enjoyed the fun of Apple Day at Bere Mill butchery. Gorgeous weather and gardens and a thoroughly country day out! With wellingtons and local cider thrown in! We even had the chance to put the car into its off-road setting which made Mr P happy!

I kept up my National Trusting, this time to Mottisfont with my mum! Busy because it was half term, but stunning as always.

Lunch in Hamble with mummy friends is always a treat. I’m enjoying spending time with girlfriends that I wouldn’t otherwise get the chance to see. It’s really rather civilised and lovely to sit in a yacht club with our brood and compare notes!

The boy gets invited to a lot of weddings! Another gorgeous one of great friends, this time in a tudor hall in Southampton and then on the River Hamble. With the groom expressly asking for no heckling in his speech… Baby P promptly screeched and even got a name check! Three month old babies are quite tricky at social events, but he did look pretty damn cute all day!!

And he is growing up… Sat in his bumbo or bouncing in his jumper… Reading a menu at lunch. Whilst again these are only little things, they are such big developments as he takes more and more interest in what is happening in the world around him and what he can do himself.

November

We started swimming with Baby Paddlers! Hurrah! Bath times have been quite challenging recently, but now that we seem to have mastered bath times again swimming seemed to be the bigger challenge. It’s so dependent on his mood and baby takes it so seriously bless him. But a few sessions in we do get splashes and kicks and smiles as well as the occasional meltdown. Baby Paddlers do a great little session at the hospital in a very warm pool, I think we picked well!

Thankfully at 16 weeks we reached the end of the first round of jabs. It’s horrid to knowingly take the baby in for pain to be delivered, even when you know it’s for a good reason. But we all got through it and Baby P even got an ‘I was brave today’ sticker for his baby book! The nighttime wasn’t so pleasant. Our grade A sleeper woke up frequently screaming in pain. Heartbreaking to have him inconsolable. Thankfully Calpol works where cuddles don’t.

I cancelled meeting a friend to recover from our visit from the terrors… Sad whenever that happens but having a quiet morning was necessary. In fact the night was amazing as he slept right through but I still needed that time to myself to not get out the house! I still had a hair cut that afternoon – the first bit of me time since he arrived. Baby sleeping right through the night left me feeling like a new woman. He doesn’t do it each night, he likes to keep me on my toes. But he can do it, thank goodness! I particularly enjoy the happy sounds of a chatting, bubble blowing and gurgling baby that wake me! And in November he started laughing – and the things he laughs at… A Tropicana bottle and milk bottles full of rice and pasta! Honestly!!

The weather turned crisp in November and so we had some gorgeous walks near home.

The real highlight of the month was Daddy taking the final 2 weeks of his extensive paternity leave. Our first move was to fly to Vienna to visit friends. It was awesome. Such a lot of planning, but it was worth it for a chilled baby on the flights and overseas as well as a fantastic time away.

Cannily we timed it to coincide with the Christmas markets opening! I love Vienna in the summer, but the run up to Christmas really is the best time to visit this beautiful city.

Paternity leave at this stage in Baby P’s development is excellent. Sam has totally taken over the daytime role that I had. He does the nappies, leads the playtime, gives the bottle. I’ve even dispatched them to baby sign classes and playgroup together without me. It’s been bliss to be a family unit for such a long amount of time and not have to rush about as we normally do at the weekend. But I have to say it has also been bliss to get some me time back as well. And I think whilst Daddy is tired, he’s loved every minute of it too!

Fresh from Vienna we next took ourselves north to visit friends and Sam’s parents. I think I was actually more nervous about car travel than flying (if that’s possible). Thankfully baby slept for each two hour stint in the car and we were blessed with relatively good traffic! We fitted in seeing two sets of sailing friends we don’t see enough of on our trip which was perfect as well as spending some quality time with Sam’s parents. We had a great Airbnb in the Peak District and managed to get some walks in, between showers.

Autumn has been full of so much and so many special times. They’ve also been tough. After his jabs, baby really suffered which meant I suffered. Mr P had to travel for 4 weeks overseas which was tough on all of us. But as tough as anything is, this face and these eyes make my heart melt every time I look at them. And each time he sleeps through the night the first time he smiles the next day is even more valuable having not seen him for too long! Having the chance to take a couple of weeks off together as a family at this stage has been magnificent. For me to recover but to spend time together as he turns into a little boy with real character, giggles and chatter. To enjoy it together unrushed has been bliss.

And next up Christmas… I’m not sure I remember a life before the current life, but it still seems impossible that Advent and Christmas have come round so quickly. This time last year I was a nervous wreck, in fact we had our 6 week scan on 1st December…