Posts Tagged "pregnancy"

Really, Amanda Holden?

Posted by cafebebemama on Feb 5, 2012 in Motherhood | 0 comments

Edit (6/2/12): The original title of this post was “Shame on you Amanda Holden” however after receiving several comments on Twitter about this post, I have changed the title and issued this editorial. Provided she is given medical clearance and serves her government mandated two weeks maternity leave, obviously Amanda Holden is free to do what she likes. I am sure she will have her baby and helpers with her when she attends Britain’s Got Talent auditions and obviously, sitting in a chair isn’t hard work. However, I still stand by my point that it isn’t advisable to return to work so soon following such a serious delivery. I hope Amanda Holden will have a positive and smooth recovery. What is a shame is that perhaps Ms Holden feels the need to return to work so soon. Whether for financial reasons or contractual obligations, it is a shame that she can’t take more time to focus on own recovery and her family’s new bit of happiness.

This morning, while feeding Sam his morning bottle I was watching BBC Breakfast. While reviewing the day’s newspaper headlines, they announced one of the headlines reporting that Amanda Holden plans to return to work as a judge on Britain’s Got Talent as early as next weekend. Less than two weeks ago, Amanda Holden went into labour 1 week early and had her daughter Hollie delivered by Emergency Caesarian Section. Following the safe delivery of her daughter, apparently Amanda lost a considerable amount of blood, had to have several pints of blood in a transfusion and remained in Intensive Care for three days. She was not allowed to see her daughter for three days due to the severity of her emergency delivery, so say the reports.

The recovery time for a caesarian section is recommended to be six weeks. Obviously every patient is different. Some recover quicker than others. However, when you’ve had, what seems to be as traumatic a delivery as Amanda Holden has had, received a blood transfusion and been in intensive care, do you think heading back to work after two weeks would be sensible? I doubt it!

It’s one thing to reply to emails, take phone calls, handle simple business from home but to schelp yourself (albeit by a driver) into a location hours from your home (next weekend’s auditions are in Edinburgh, Scotland), dress up in some flashy numbers probably including high heels, sit for hours watching insane acts attempt to win a chance to perform for the Royal Family seems quite daft. Why on Earth would anyone want to be away from their gorgeous, squidgy newborn for a few hours much less a day? It’s not like Britain’s Got Talent is THAT important after all. Maybe if she was Prime Minister or President of the United States but a JUDGE on Britain’s Got Talent?? I think Amanda Holden’s newborn daughter, older daughter and husband are FAR more important, don’t you?

I thought I could just bounce back from my caesarian section following Sam’s birth. Granted, every day after delivery I felt better. However, I was tired, sore and didn’t have the same amount of energy and stamina as before. I pushed it too hard in the first two weeks following Sam’s birth. Walking to Ella’s school left me drained for hours and increased my blood loss. My body was telling me that it wasn’t ready. That was a 5 minute walk down the road! Just attempting routine household tasks ended up setting me back a day or two. My abdominal discomfort continued well beyond what it should have and one day my knee suddenly swelled up dramatically. I went to the GP where it was determined that I had a Kidney Infection to go along with my c-section recovery. I was placed on a week’s course of anti-biotics and began to feel much better but that was two weeks post delivery! I returned to my freelance work around 4 weeks post-delivery with the odd bit of work here and there prior to that. I also continued to post on this blog in the days following Sam’s birth. I’m not perfect at “taking it easy” either however I paid a price in the end by slowing my own recovery.

Of course, provided she has medical clearance to do so, Amanda Holden is free to do what she likes. I just think that it’s daft! Taking yourself away from your familly and what should be your primary focus, pushing yourself physically when your body needs plenty of time, rest and support to recover is not sensible for anyone. When a celebrity does something so inadvisable it sets a precendent that none of us “normal people” can live up to. There’s already enough pressure on mothers to be able to fit back into their pre-pregnancy jeans within weeks following the delivery of their babies thanks to celebrities like Katie Price, Victoria Beckham and Heidi Klum. Shouldn’t we allow mothers the time to be mothers and recover on their own terms instead of setting unrealistic expectations as a society? The work can wait. Britain can wait. Babies are far more precious and the health and well-being of their mothers should be what we’re concerned about, shouldn’t it? I really hope that Amanda Holden’s physicians feel the same because they certainly should not be signing her off to return to work at two weeks post delivery.

So my advice, Amanda Holden? Keep your comfy clothes on, scrape your hair back in a ponytail, skip the makeup and snuggle up with your so-longed-for Hollie Rose. That’s where Britain wants to see you…not on our televisions, just yet anyway.

Mummy Meltdown

Posted by cafebebemama on Nov 21, 2011 in Bebe, Blogger Love, Little Miss Adventures, Motherhood, NaBloPoMo | 12 comments

It’s Monday, 21 November, 2011. In 11 days I’ll be rolling up to Peterborough City Hospital to undergo a c-section to bring Bebe into our world. 12 days ago I was sitting in a consultant’s office at the same hospital being slightly disappointed over having our c-section scheduled 3 weeks away. What kind of idiot am I?

In the past 12 days I’ve welcomed family reinforcements in the form of my Dad and stepmom, we’ve transformed 2 bedrooms in our upstairs and ticked off a few more items from the Bebe shopping list. I’ll be blogging about our Project Changing Rooms this week but suffice it to say, the rooms look AWESOME! Ella is thoroughly enamoured of her new Big Girl room and I think our newly made over master bedroom looks like a boutique hotel. I’ve even revelled in organising, throwing out and sorting. Nesting…it’s joyful!

However, on Saturday I had a right proper Mummy meltdown over the most ridiculous thing ever. I apparently needed a release of some sort. Mark and Ella had let me have a lie-in on Saturday morning so I didn’t end up downstairs until the 8:00 hour for a change. I did some work on the laptop and then we started getting ready for the day. I wandered into the kitchen to find Mark struggling with emptying the rubbish bin. Emptying the rubbish bin is one of my least favourite jobs and I tend to stuff too much into it making it most difficult to get out of the bin. I took Mark’s bin aggravation and muttering personally and stormed out of the kitchen, STOMPED (like a child) up the stairs and SLAMMED the door to the bathroom. I turned the water on to run a bath and then sat down on the floor and SOBBED. Great big huge tears, hiccuping and everything. What a bloomin’ nana!

Mark came upstairs after I managed to extricate myself from the bath and I totally broke down again. Everything feels so overwhelming! **whinge alert** I am tired, can’t seem to sleep well at all, have ridiculous heartburn 90% of the time, am uncomfortable, look like the prow of a ship and despite being disappointed with the former 3 weeks of time I had, am freaking out about the 11 days I have left. Hence the meltdown.

Bless his cotton socks, Mark was so lovely with me. He cuddled me, calmed me, sat me down and talked through all of the issues I’m having. We’ve written out a list, cheered the tasks we’ve accomplished and helped me to look at everything RATIONALLY and not EMOTIONALLY. I suppose also weighing on my mind is Ella as well. She’s so excited about Bebe coming soon. She was “helping” to get Bebe’s room ready last night; organising all of the teeny toys in the Moses basket and tidying up the room in her very special way. I’m also devastated to have learned last week that I will be missing Ella’s first Christmas concert at preschool. Their concert is being held on Saturday 3 December, one day after Bebe is due to be delivered. So while Ella and the rest of my family are attending Ella’s first concert, I’ll be in hospital, on my own with Bebe. Weep.

The next 11 days are going to FLY by, I know. I’m grateful to have this blog to share my freak outs with you so please pardon my mutterings for the next short while. I’m back to nesting in a few hours as I’m writing this post at 3:30am…no 3am Feeding Club for me YET, just my ridiculousness.

Queen of Nesting

Posted by cafebebemama on Nov 17, 2011 in Bebe, Blogger Love, Motherhood, NaBloPoMo | 10 comments

Nesting: (Wikipedia)

In human females, the nesting instinct often occurs around the fifth month of pregnancy^[1][4], but can occur as late as the eighth, or not at all^{[citation needed]}. It may be strongest just before the onset of labor.^[1][5][6]

It is commonly characterized by a strong urge to clean and organize one’s home and is one reason why couples who are expecting a baby often reorganize, arrange, and clean the house and surroundings.

I am in nesting mode. AND I LOVE IT! I have been stressing for the last several weeks about ALL of the work that needed doing in our house. For those who haven’t seen our Project Changing Rooms vlog, we are in the process of changing virtually the whole upstairs in our house. What was our master bedroom is becoming Ella’s “Big Girl Room”. What was our guest room/dumping ground/main wardrobe storage area is now our new master bedroom. What was Ella’s room/nursery will be converted back into Bebe’s room. Phew! We’re knackered!

My Dad and Stepmom arrived last Friday and Sunday commenced work on the upstairs. By the end of today we will have transformed the 2 main rooms and will just have a few decorating bits and bobs to finish and a bit of nursery re-assembly in time for Bebe’s arrival in FIFTEEN DAYS! The best part of all of this (besides having family here to help and chat with) is that I have gotten rid of a TON of things that hadn’t seen the light of day for years! I have been pretty ruthless with the “rubbish” pile and the “charity” pile so a lot has gone by the wayside. We’ve been in a flurry of organising, storing and stashing and it has thoroughly fulfilled my nesting need. I have had the chance to sit on the bed amidst a pile of junk from the wardobe as the cutting and slashing occurred and it was wonderful. Very freeing- I highly recommend it.

Thanks to all the digging in our long ignored wardrobes, I managed to find a set of unused bottles and a microwave steam steriliser, various baby gadgets and bits and formula containers. I forgot that I had some of those things! I have also realised that the Moses Basket that we had for Ella is PERFECTLY fine for Bebe. It just needs a new mattress which is a hell of a lot cheaper and easier than getting a whole new one. I’m a bit unnecessesarily snobbish about “new” for babies which is stupid. Considering Bebe will only spend MAYBE 6 weeks in a Moses Basket, NEW is not necessary. These finds of mine through sorting and organising means that the frantic “Bebe” shopping that I thought I needed to do has become decidedly less urgent and frantic which is a very good thing indeed.

The nesting will continue for the next fifteen days but I feel so much better about where we are now. I can take my time, enjoy the process and stop freaking out. Bebe will appreciate that his mummy is not stressing and I might even manage to take a nap or two whilst Ella is at preschool in the next two weeks. Shock, horror. I leave you with a question for today:

What was your NESTING like when you were pregnant? Did you do silly projects, weird cleaning, or were you all calm, cool and collected? Share your nesting stories with me! I will enjoy reading them with my feet up! Oh, and I promise to bring you the “Project Changing Rooms: The RESULT” next week some time.

Have a Little Patience

Posted by cafebebemama on Oct 31, 2011 in Little Miss Adventures, Motherhood | 4 comments

This is a face that is being seen in our house A LOT lately. Strangely enough, I have the same face a lot of the time as well. You see, both Ella and Mummy have VERY LITTLE PATIENCE. There has been foot stamping, hands on hips, furrowed brows and harumphing. I present to you, the evidence:

Mummy: I have 4-5 weeks before our lives are turned upside down again. The reality of that is starting to hit me. Up until now I have felt fine about it all. In fact, I’ve been operating with a false sense of security. ‘Bebe will of course, slot right into our lives and nothing will change at all.’ How DAFT am I? I am now starting to panic.

We still haven’t accomplished much with Project: Changing Rooms, believe it or not. Hubby is presently in the beginning stages of getting paint on the walls in the front bedroom to sort out what will become the Master Bedroom again. We went on a reconnaissance mission to IKEA yesterday to have a look at beds for Ella and a dresser unit for the Nursery. We managed to sort out both and now we just need to sort out how to pay for it! Good times!

I have washed pretty much all of Ella’s 0-3 month, unisex clothes in anticipation of Bebe but I’m still worrying about the things left to buy: Moses Basket & mattress, Infant Car Seat and no doubt the infinite number of things that I have forgotten I will need. I do have newborn nappies though! Score one for me.

I am sleeping HORRIBLY at the moment. The difficulty in getting a 34 week pregnant body into a comfortable position and remaining that way for more than 2 hours at a time is challenging to say the least. I snore now, more than ever, thanks to pregnancy congestion, which has driven Mark from our bed more times than I’d care to admit. And I wake myself up, to tell you the truth! Due to the lack of proper sleep/rest/relaxation, I am cranky. Hence the fact that I have very little patience. This is resulting in me becoming a mother I am not proud of; a shouty mother with a short fuse. This makes me sad. I don’t like to be a shouty Mummy.

Ella: The last few days, we’ve seen the dreaded “Temper Tantrum” back in our daughter. For the last week, Ella, normally a 6:30-7:00am riser, has been waking up bang on 6am and ready for the day. This has resulted in her being tired by noon and being cranky (like mother like daughter). Ella has started whinging which she rarely does (and we strongly DISCOURAGE) and is prone to bursting into tears. Near the end of our IKEA expedition yesterday she had a full-on temper tantrum including growling, crying, kicking out and ultimately Ella smacking ME!

We’ve employed the naughty step more than once lately and naps have become much more VITAL to all of our sanity than I care to admit. I’m wondering if it’s just the tiredness or my short temper with her or a combination of both but our Little Miss Sunshine has a bit of cloud over her these last few days. And on top of eveything going on at the moment, I am of course worrying about how to prepare Ella for the arrival of her Bebe Brother or Sister. Fun times in the Cafe Bebe Household.

Right now, I’m singing Take That’s “Patience” to remind myself to have some. Any advice is more than welcome!

33 weeks pregnant

Posted by cafebebemama on Oct 19, 2011 in Bebe, Motherhood | 4 comments

33 weeks pregnant today

Approximately 6 weeks to go

How time flies when you’re HUGE!

Looking forward to introducing Bebe to you very soon…