Life with Alex:
Reaching the half-year mark!
Sue Tabbitt waves goodbye to breastfeeing and says hello to weaning, wakeful nights and weight loss. As baby Alex hits the half-year mark, share new mum Sue's adventures and misadventures this month.
Alex at 6 months
- Goodbye to breastfeeding...hello weaning!
- Desperately seeking sleep
- Financial worries
- A new adventure
- Slim again
I thought weaning was supposed to be traumatic?! My body is still in shock from the fact that my daughter turned her back on my breast before I was quite ready to withdraw myself from her service! She went from something like 8 feeds a day (including snacks), down to zero in less than two weeks. She really couldn't care less where her food is coming from so long as it's available the moment she's hungry!
So that's that. Instead of being in a constant state of pushing my top up and down (and trying to remember to fasten my bra again before the next feed), I now find myself traipsing up and down stairs a couple of times in the night to sterilise and make up bottles of formula. This wasn't exactly the plan…
It has to be said, Dr Gilles' programme for weaning Alex is not really working. Recognising that she wasn't quite ready to cut down to three main meals a day (plus the afternoon snack, let's not forget), at our last appointment our GP worked out a schedule which allows Alex four bottles a day plus two servings of vegetables and one serving of fruit. Using 'O' level maths, I have had to break these prescribed amounts down into much more frequent (four-hourly) feeds, whereby Alex takes in the same quantity of milk scoops, but with an optional night feed if she insists on one, plus an extra evening feed which she absolutely won't do without. Personally I could do without the night feeds, I really could. Alex still won't accept water when she wants milk, though, despite all the best advice.
Desperately seeking sleep
The poor little angel has her first cold at the moment. This manifested itself yesterday morning in the form of a blocked yet runny nose (not too snotty, fortunately) and a husky voice when she cries or coughs. Her cheeks are redder than when she was simply teething (simply? - pah!), but she isn't running a temperature, and still offers a beaming smile in between temper tantrums, so we're confident she is still 'herself'. I must admit, though, the endless crying in the evenings and at spells during the night caused by her teeth has been getting to me lately
Nicholas is fantastic - he's very nocturnal anyway, so happily takes the baby monitor from me when I go to bed so he can deal with Alex until the early hours. But three nights ago I valiantly insisted that I would be the one on alert instead. After all, I'd started a new routine that seemed foolproof - Alex had had a lovely warm bath, been changed into her PJs, had just a big bottle of milk with vegetables, and seemed genuinely tired. Ah-hah, I thought: 'bath, bottle and bed' - this has to be the answer.
Alas, it was not to be. Despite not having had a night-time feed for several nights (we were trying to be firm), Alex still awoke expectantly at 2am. And then at 3am, then 3.30am, then 4am, and so on, until I finally gave in and fed her at 5am
Finally, she went to sleep. The only thing was that the following day's exhaustion for me coincided with the onset of my first 'cycle' following my rapid yet intense period of weaning. I felt homicidal. All day long I wanted to smash plates or kick the dog, which seemed a bit extreme even for someone who needs their eight hours as much as I do. It didn't help that Alex was having a particularly cranky day, wearing down my nerves yet further with every crying fit.
By the early evening I was cracking under the stress and, despite periods of respite provided by Nicholas, I finally gave in to desperate sobs. Unfortunately Alex got to witness this, which still haunts me as I have vowed that I would 'never raise my voice in front of Alex'. The upshot was that Nicholas sent me to bed with a couple of mild sleeping pills and I had my best night's sleep in months. Relieved of the responsibility of being on baby duty, I slipped into a coma-like state half way through this week's episode of 'No Going Back', and got a full eight hours. Since then I have been a new woman!
Financial worries 
Speaking of No Going Back, I've lost track of the number of friends that have flagged this up to me as a series 'not to be missed'. I'm still waiting to receive a tape of the first episode, where the couple tried to establish fishing holidays in Brittany. Apparently the problems they are experiencing are uncannily like ours. I don't know about that, but the rest of the series has been compulsive viewing and Nicholas and I have felt so much better about our own set-up having seen the misfortunes of the couple with the luxury villa on the Cote d'Azur…
January ended with Baby Club, a new adventure for me. This takes place fortnightly in our nearest town, Gorron. My health visitor had told me about this just after Alex was born, but I wasn't sure I'd bother until Alex was a bit older. I changed my mind last week, though, when my lack of work conspired with my friend Mandy's insistence to give it a go, if only to get out of the house. As it was, I had a good time, and met yet another young English mother from the area.
Mandy commented that I'd kind of missed the point though, when I turned up without Alex. 'She's sleeping,' I said. 'I didn't have the heart to wake her!!'
Slim againAs we pass the half-year mark into Alex's second or third stage of development (depending on which book you read), I'm enjoying the fact that we are the best of friends yet a bit more independent from each other. Now that Alex is weaned off the breast, I am hoping to shift the final few pounds to ensure that I can get into every pair of size 12 jeans in my wardrobe, not just the more generous ones from M&S.
Perversely, though, Nicholas and I have already started talking about when to try for baby number two, which seems to make a mockery of my attempts to regain my figure, but we have at least agreed to wait until Alex is around 3 years old ( she can go to school full-time in France) before aiming to provide her with a brother or sister. This leaves plenty of time for me to enjoy being slim again! Roll on the warmer weather so I can unpack all the summer dresses I couldn't wear last year.
All about SueSue Tabbitt, 33, is a freelance IT journalist, who moved to the outskirts of Normandy more than 12 months ago to start a new chapter in her life with her Canadian husband, Nicholas, a ballroom dancing teacher.
Tune in next month to find out how Sue, Nicholas and baby Alex are getting on in Normandy ...
Thanks to Kodak for the digital camera lent to Sue and Nicholas for the duration of this diary column.
Where to next?
- Read Sue's pregnancy diary
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