Hayley’s Adventures in Life and Literature

[muggle not]

Congratulations, enjoy!!

[Hayley]

Thank you! 🥰 I often just sit staring at him to be honest, I know I’m biased but he just seems so perfect! (Quite a lot of my days have been spent sitting anyway, as I had to have a caesarean. I still can’t walk very far and I’m not allowed to drive for another 3 weeks. As someone who likes to be very independent, it has been quite a challenge). 
 

Dallergut Dream Department store turned out to be a good choice. I’m only 60 pages in but it has mainly been quite relaxed world-building so far, and the world is a wonderfully quirky one! I was surprised to find that it’s written in present tense, which did take a few pages to get used to.

[~Andrea~]

Aw congratulations Hayley! He's beautiful. There is nothing in this world as adorable as a new born baby 😍 

I hope you're getting some decent sleep.

[Hayley]

2 hours ago, ~Andrea~ said:

Aw congratulations Hayley! He's beautiful. There is nothing in this world as adorable as a new born baby 😍 

I hope you're getting some decent sleep.

I’ve actually been very lucky, most nights he does sleep for around three hours at a time now! On occasions (like last night 😅) when he’s awake for longer with wind, I am very tired the next day - but I’m aware it could be a lot worse! He’s worth it anyway 😄

[Brian.]

Congrats, I'm so happy for you. I don't envy the sleep deprivation but I'm sure it will pass in no time.

[France]

Conratulations! He's gorgeous!

[itsmeagain]

Adorable boy . ❤️ 

What's his name?

[Hayley]

8 hours ago, itsmeagain said:

Adorable boy . ❤️ 

What's his name?

Olle 😄

[itsmeagain]

15 hours ago, Hayley said:

Olle 😄

Gorgeous name.

Beautiful boy. ❤️ 

[Hayley]

@France I'm going to need you to tell me how you managed to get more reading done when you had a baby, because that is not happening for me so far 😅. At least, not in the same way! I have read the whole set of Hairy Maclary books, The Hungry Caterpillar, Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes, Spot goes to the Farm and other such classics . Although he doesn't understand the words yet, Olle does either watch my face intently or stare at the pictures in the book when I read. I'm really feeling the urge to get into a good new book now though. I just checked in on the group read theme and I think I'm going to go for Storyland: A New Mythology of Britain by Amy Jeffs. I'm not sure how much of it is going to be fiction and how much will be Jeffs talking about mythology, but it seems to be split into small sections, which should make it easy to read in bursts, I think. 

 

Time has become a strange thing since having a baby. So many hours of the day are taken up by feeding. It causes a little panic of 'how am I going to get everything done!?' every so often, but at the same time part of me just wants to stare at him all day, even when he's sleeping! Luckily that's what he's doing now though, because it's time for me to work 😅

[lunababymoonchild]

Of course you only want to stare at him. He’ll be changing every day and it won’t be long before he’s toddling and you’ll wonder where your baby went. Savour this time with him, it won’t last long. 😃

[France]

3 hours ago, Hayley said:

@France I'm going to need you to tell me how you managed to get more reading done when you had a baby, because that is not happening for me so far 😅. At least, not in the same way! I have read the whole set of Hairy Maclary books, The Hungry Caterpillar, Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes, Spot goes to the Farm and other such classics . Although he doesn't understand the words yet, Olle does either watch my face intently or stare at the pictures in the book when I read. I'm really feeling the urge to get into a good new book now though. I just checked in on the group read theme and I think I'm going to go for Storyland: A New Mythology of Britain by Amy Jeffs. I'm not sure how much of it is going to be fiction and how much will be Jeffs talking about mythology, but it seems to be split into small sections, which should make it easy to read in bursts, I think. 

 

Time has become a strange thing since having a baby. So many hours of the day are taken up by feeding. It causes a little panic of 'how am I going to get everything done!?' every so often, but at the same time part of me just wants to stare at him all day, even when he's sleeping! Luckily that's what he's doing now though, because it's time for me to work 😅

I got adept at supporting the baby with one arm and hand while she was feeding and holding the book with the other. Even easier these days with a Kindle.  However when the next ones arrived it was no longer possible apart from night feeds as whenever I picked up a book another (usually My First Big Ladybird Book) wou!d be dumped in my lap with an imperious command to read!

 

And don't worry about not getting things done.  A health visitor told me se aways worried when she saw a new mother with an impeccably tidy house because either they weren't spending enough time with the baby or on themselves.

[Hayley]

11 minutes ago, France said:

I got adept at supporting the baby with one arm and hand while she was feeding and holding the book with the other.

I have managed that a couple of times but turning the page is awkward 😅. It's lovely that your kids were so into reading - how many do you have? 

 

14 minutes ago, France said:

And don't worry about not getting things done.  A health visitor told me se aways worried when she saw a new mother with an impeccably tidy house because either they weren't spending enough time with the baby or on themselves.

Yours was much nicer than mine! Considering Olle was only days old at this point, she told me my table was cluttered (my boyfriend was fixing a computer on it, so it had small screwdrivers, little pots of screws etc.) and I'd need to make sure the baby didn't get hold of small parts when he was old enough. We also have a door leading from the hallway that has thick square glass panes in it; it had one pane out and on the side because (before I had the baby) one of the wooden panels at the side of that pane had come loose - we were worried about it potentially falling out, so we took the pane out to put wood glue around it, but then baby became imminent and it wasn't really a priority. Almost the first thing she said to me was 'is that supposed to be like that?' as I let her in 😅. Combined with the fact that I was in a fair amount of pain and very sleep deprived, I couldn't wait for her to leave!

[poppy]

12 hours ago, Hayley said:

I have managed that a couple of times but turning the page is awkward 😅. It's lovely that your kids were so into reading - how many do you have? 

 

Yours was much nicer than mine! Considering Olle was only days old at this point, she told me my table was cluttered (my boyfriend was fixing a computer on it, so it had small screwdrivers, little pots of screws etc.) and I'd need to make sure the baby didn't get hold of small parts when he was old enough. We also have a door leading from the hallway that has thick square glass panes in it; it had one pane out and on the side because (before I had the baby) one of the wooden panels at the side of that pane had come loose - we were worried about it potentially falling out, so we took the pane out to put wood glue around it, but then baby became imminent and it wasn't really a priority. Almost the first thing she said to me was 'is that supposed to be like that?' as I let her in 😅. Combined with the fact that I was in a fair amount of pain and very sleep deprived, I couldn't wait for her to leave!

 

Goodness, Hayley! That's terrible 😡 She's supposed to be there to see you and baby, not the house! You sound like you've taken it in your stride, but those kind of comments are enough to really upset a first time mother, even trigger post natal depression. You're particularly vulnerable just after you've had a baby and the health nurses are supposed to be offering support and encouragement. She really shouldn't be holding that kind of position and you would be fully justified to lay a complaint about her treatment. And such ridiculous comments! Can you request being visted by someone else and if they ask why, bloomin' well tell them!

 

It's all quite overwhelming to start with and you wonder if you'll ever be able to get everything done, new babies take up such a huge amount of time (it's something you can't really comprehend until it actually happens). But things really do get easier. I'm sure you're an absolutely amazing Mum, as long as you do the absolute essentials, just let everything else slide for now and enjoy your time with your darling Olle xx 😘 🥰 *hugs*

[lunababymoonchild]

2 hours ago, poppy said:

 

Goodness, Hayley! That's terrible 😡 She's supposed to be there to see you and baby, not the house! You sound like you've taken it in your stride, but those kind of comments are enough to really upset a first time mother, even trigger post natal depression. You're particularly vulnerable just after you've had a baby and the health nurses are supposed to be offering support and encouragement. She really shouldn't be holding that kind of position and you would be fully justified to lay a complaint about her treatment. And such ridiculous comments! Can you request being visted by someone else and if they ask why, bloomin' well tell them!

 

It's all quite overwhelming to start with and you wonder if you'll ever be able to get everything done, new babies take up such a huge amount of time (it's something you can't really comprehend until it actually happens). But things really do get easier. I'm sure you're an absolutely amazing Mum, as long as you do the absolute essentials, just let everything else slide for now and enjoy your time with your darling Olle xx 😘 🥰 *hugs*

Absolutely!

[France]

18 hours ago, Hayley said:

I have managed that a couple of times but turning the page is awkward 😅. It's lovely that your kids were so into reading - how many do you have? 

 

Yours was much nicer than mine! Considering Olle was only days old at this point, she told me my table was cluttered (my boyfriend was fixing a computer on it, so it had small screwdrivers, little pots of screws etc.) and I'd need to make sure the baby didn't get hold of small parts when he was old enough. We also have a door leading from the hallway that has thick square glass panes in it; it had one pane out and on the side because (before I had the baby) one of the wooden panels at the side of that pane had come loose - we were worried about it potentially falling out, so we took the pane out to put wood glue around it, but then baby became imminent and it wasn't really a priority. Almost the first thing she said to me was 'is that supposed to be like that?' as I let her in 😅. Combined with the fact that I was in a fair amount of pain and very sleep deprived, I couldn't wait for her to leave!

What a cow! And I  agree with Poppy, see if you can get a different HV or if you can't, just ignore her.  If she really thought there was a danger of you allowing Ollie to snack on screws and computer parts she could have least waited until he was old enough to reach and grab.

 

I've got three girls 2 1/2 years apart from each other so by the time no 3 came long I was feeding her, reading to no 2, then listening to reading practice from no 1.  Your health visitor would have had a fit at the state of the house!

[Hayley]

18 hours ago, poppy said:

 

Goodness, Hayley! That's terrible 😡 She's supposed to be there to see you and baby, not the house! You sound like you've taken it in your stride, but those kind of comments are enough to really upset a first time mother, even trigger post natal depression. You're particularly vulnerable just after you've had a baby and the health nurses are supposed to be offering support and encouragement. She really shouldn't be holding that kind of position and you would be fully justified to lay a complaint about her treatment. And such ridiculous comments! Can you request being visted by someone else and if they ask why, bloomin' well tell them!

 

It's all quite overwhelming to start with and you wonder if you'll ever be able to get everything done, new babies take up such a huge amount of time (it's something you can't really comprehend until it actually happens). But things really do get easier. I'm sure you're an absolutely amazing Mum, as long as you do the absolute essentials, just let everything else slide for now and enjoy your time with your darling Olle xx 😘 🥰 *hugs*

Aww, thanks Poppy 🥰. I really agree that you can't comprehend the time babies take up until it happens. I feel like while I knew, technically, that most of the hours of my day would be spent on the baby, it feels really crazy just how many hours I spend feeding every day 😂.

Luckily, I never have to see that health visitor again - they've cut back on home visits to save money, so that was the only one I have to have! Although the cutbacks weren't so great when I had to keep asking people to take me to the hospital to have the baby weighed, because you're not allowed to drive for 6 weeks after a caesarean and there was no way I could walk far enough to get the bus 😅.

 

12 hours ago, France said:

What a cow! And I  agree with Poppy, see if you can get a different HV or if you can't, just ignore her.  If she really thought there was a danger of you allowing Ollie to snack on screws and computer parts she could have least waited until he was old enough to reach and grab.

 

I've got three girls 2 1/2 years apart from each other so by the time no 3 came long I was feeding her, reading to no 2, then listening to reading practice from no 1.  Your health visitor would have had a fit at the state of the house!

It did feel like a weird suggestion when he's so small. I don't know how long she thought it was going to take to fix the computer 😂.

That must have been very intense, with a baby, a toddler and a young child at school!