General Update...

Little man is growing up so quickly! He now has 8 teeth (4 top front teeth, 4 bottom front teeth) and is just so perfect! I know I say that in every entry, but he is so cute! He keeps pulling himself up onto his feet, and clapping, and he waves now, and he is "mamamama"-ing as well as "dadadada"-ing! haha....pretty much everything is coming together for the wedding, Uni is going well (if a little rushed what with the wedding and Alfie) and life is generally good (but busy)!

I am gaining weight though which sucks! But yeah, I am hoping that won't matter cause my dress still fits me! Woop woop! Aaaanyway, Flashforward is on now, my new obsession! Gotta go xXx

Four Weddings!

Oh my god, I've been so crap at updating lately, but I have some big news today! They want us on Four Weddings! The TV program!

I sent off for an application form months ago, and never filled it in as it looked a bit complex and I wasn't sure if I wanted to go through with having random strangers judging my wedding...but today I got an e-mail from one of the show's people asking some details about Mark & I and I replied with my phone number, and the details, and someone called me within a few hours!!!! The guy asked me a few questions about our plans for the day and about Mark & I, and then said the first wedding I'd have to go to is in 2 weeks! He was really keen on us! Mark is desperate to do it, but I am worried because I don't know how I'd react if people were mean about my wedding, and I am worried I'll look a fool on telly! So I called the guy back, and said I don't want to do it and he said he'll keep our details incase we change our minds in the next few weeks! haha...how mad is that?! He must have called me about 7 times today, it's crazy!

Aaaanyway, other than that, all the plans are going well, most of the invites are out and I got my petticoat! I'm gonna make an appointment for next Friday to go to make my bustle which means I get to go and try on my dress with my petticoat, shoes, veil and tiara for the first time! I'm so flippin excited!

Alfie is awesome at the moment too, he has 7 proper teeth now, and number 8 coming through which is cute, and I've been trying him on bigger lumps of food -- he had wheat-free pasta today which was fun =O) and he is eating more and more by the day! I just love him, he is growing into such a wonderful little boy, and an amazing personality! I couldn't be happier...he's perfect!

**QUICK POST**

I've lost 4lb in the last 4 days!! Woop woop!!! Weightwatchers rocks!

*happy girl*

6 toothy pegs!!!

My little man is having a really horrible time at the moment -- he now has his 4 bottom teeth, and 2 top teeth, but is having a real horrible time with them, he's all snotty and is having a rubbish time! Bless his cottons. There is much crying, much not wanting to go to sleep, much dribbling etc...it's hard for him, and hard for us watching him in obvious pain or discomfort =O(

Anyway, just a quick message, so I better go! xXx

Tooth no.5 through!

Well, there's a little lot going on...

Alfie is having real trouble with his teeth at the moment. His bottom two teeth outside his middle two are coming through. One has actually already broken through but the other one is not quite through. His top two matching them are coming through at the same time as well, I think, which is quite hard on the wee man!

He has had a real snotty nose, and is even finding it hard to eat/drink as he can't breathe when his mouth is closed. He's been waking up through the night for the past 3 days, and also having real problems with getting to sleep in the first place. We went to a wedding on saturday night, and when we got in at 2am, he was still awake with his gramma! Bless his cottons!

Also, I have put on almost half a stone which is making me feel like crap, so I decided to check my pill side effects to see if weight gain is a common side effect, as I have stopped breast-feeding, I am not using those extra calories during the day so I think may need to switch to another pill. Anyway, while reading that this morning, I also noticed that it says if you miss a pill, you have to use condoms for the next 7 days. Now, that is NOT what I read on the internet when I decided to change onto it! It said 2 days! I am really hoping that the internet is more up to date than the leaflet as it says it was last approved in 2007, but I am going to take a preg test anyway, as I have been worrying about being pregnant a lot lately anyway, and it would explain a lot, despite fucking just about everything up. Bugger. I really hope I'm not. God.

Oh, and in happier news, I start Uni a week today! Woop woop, my daddy says if I last the first week and don't quit, he'll buy me a laptop! Woop woop, what insentive!

Aaaanywho, I should go, I am getting rather paranoid about this whole baby thing!

7 layer Petticoat!

Oh. My. God.

I can't hide my excitement! I went to pick up my bridesmaid dresses earlier with Lucy, and I also ordered my petticoat for under my wedding dress!! I have a hooped one, I just had a bit of a thing about hooped petticoats the way they fling out at one side when standing next to the groom, and sitting down on your wedding day....then I found this:



I found it months ago on eBay for £135 but couldn't find it when I went back to order it this week. So I managed to find the woman who makes them, and wrote to her e-mail personally, and she has re-listed it on folksy.com at £100!! woop woop, with only £8.99 P&P I am so chuffed!

I am getting so excited now about getting married, that I've barely had time to think about starting Uni in 2 weeks! It's all happening so quickly I can't believe it!

Oh...and you wouldn't believe how much I love my little big man!! <3

Finally back!!!

Well, we got the computer back finally...with a brand new hard drive, so we lost everything! All the photos and videos--luckily we'd "backed everything up" on facebook so we haven't actually lost much...and in a couple of months, we may be able to get even more back with some USB caddy something or other...

Anyway, Alfie is now crawling like an army dude...on his belly, pulling himself along with his arms and pushing his legs...it's funny! He also loves walking around in his baby walker...so cute!

Also, sad news about Patrick Swayze -- he died in his sleep...sad as Mark's stepgramma has less not much time left after finding out 3 months ago she had bowel cancer. It's now spread to her liver too, and even sadder as she lost her husband last year. Also, as we were talking about this, my dad told me my great Auntie Anne has the exact same thing, and they're waiting to find out how that goes...

Basically, cancer sucks ass =O(

Grown up boy!

You know, I just keep wondering to myself when I'm going to stop being so amazed by my beautiful little man. And I think probably never!

Brushing his teeth makes me want to cry -- the sight of him doing something so grown up (he, of course, doesn't do it himself, I do it for him!) just makes me gush! And watching him drinking his apple & orange juice is just so cute...

Even finding some stonewashed jeans in his bag of clothes from Mark's brother made me smile stupidly. Grown-ups wear stonewashed jeans! Babies just don't!

Right, enough gushing...g'byeee! xx

Boob-no-more!

Well, I am now well and truly redundant.

My baby is 7 months old, and he is:

-drinking Soya Milk (4x 8oz bottles),
-having 3 solid meals a day -- (tropical baby cereal is wheat & milk free for breakfast and meat, potato & veg for lunch and dinner)
-drinking juice/water inbetween meals!!!!

We also have bought him some snack-type carrot stick things for him to try munching on for finger foods soon...it's tough cause we can only try him on one new thing at a time really, in order to determine which was the cause of any reaction, were one to occur. But we're getting there slowly and surely, and my boy is thriving on his new diet!

We went to boots yesterday, and whilst looking for suitable foods/drinks, I splurged a little, I got a pack of 6oz baby food freezer pots, as these are big enough for me to defrost one in the morning and split it in 2 for lunch and tea...I also got a little container which I saw Steph use a few months back and was amazed by but didn't need while breast-feeding:



and then we saw this half-price (£23) and couldn't resist after talking ourselves out of a £80 jumperoo--especially as we already have a door-bouncer now too:



And Alfie absolutely loves it!!! Aaaanyway, that was just a quick note...I have been asked to work for 4hrs tomorrow, I am very excited, and Alfie is going to Lucy (the childminder's) as like a practise session. After paying her, I'll only be left with like £18 but it's good practise and will be nice for me to see my friends again, and have a giggle at work with some adults!

Anyway...byeeeee x

Allergic to milk & wheat

Well!! I went to see the dietician at the hospital yesterday. While I was there in the waiting room, I saw the allergy specialist walking past. I smiled at him, and he smiled back, looking rather confused...he walked past again, and I smiled again, and he gave me the same confused look. I then heard him ask the receptionist where his patient was and she said the patient couldn't make it. I took this as an opportunity so the next time he walked past, I said "hi, I'm Alfie Baines' mum, I was wondering if you had his test results back yet--save you a phonecall"...so off he went to check...

Anyway, while he was gone, the dietician came and collected me, and we started chatting...then I saw Dr Macdougall (the allergy man) looking for me outside through the glass panel in the door. He knocked and came in, and the dietician got the results up. They were for cow's milk and beef. Apparently the beef one was slightly over but they said the best thing would just be to try him on it anyway...the milk, however, was a very high score. They said anything over zero is an allergy, and Alfie's result was 4000!!! haha...he doesn't do things by half!

However, this did leave me wanting to write to the A&E department. When we gave him the formula milk, and he had the reaction, we called an ambulance (as they told us to when he had the anaphylactic reaction) and they assessed Alfie and took him straight in...but the people in casualty were just plain RUDE. There were two young people in there who were obviously quite drunk and rowdy, but the doctors and nurses just had NO time for us at all. They didn't seem to realise how scary it was for us from last time, even though some of them had been there at his first reaction. But I think that's why. It just wasn't a big enough reaction. The last time I saw the allergy man, he went over this A&E trip, and he said "well you said there was a rash, but the doctors in A&E said they didn't notice one, so it must have gone down by then." NO. The rash didn't appear until about 20 minutes after we got to A&E, but the doctors were literally popping in for a second to check Alfie's temperature, and not taking any notice of our worries. But hey. I just want them to know that our worries weren't unfounded, and he is actually VERY allergic. Grrr. They made me feel so silly at the time.

Aaaaaaaaanyway, we got a load of diet sheets, there is just SO much he can't eat. Basically there are some 'free-from' foods that he may be able to have, but the best thing is for us to make everything fresh from scratch ourselves. It's gonna be hard for a while, but I assume once we've got into a routine, it will be easier =O)

Right...I must go now...take care all xx

*****edit*****

Oh my god, I forgot to add. I went swimming with my friend Lucy last night, and while I was out, Mark gave Alfie his soya milk and put him to bed. When I came back, Alfie was all tucked up. It was only about 20 minutes after his bed time, and usually Mark would have waited for me, but he did it all without me. It made me so sad. I felt like crying. Like they didn't need me anymore. Like if I disappear, they won't need me...sad =O(

Silly mistake =O(

Well, we had a small problem last night. At bedtime last night I realised I hadn't taken my pill yesteday morning. I didn't think Mark believed me, so I told him to go grab the one I'd missed to prove it. He didn't wanna go, so I went myself. At first I couldn't see them, and realised why I'd forgotten to take it. (I am very bad at taking my pill and even phone reminders etc haven't worked, so I now leave the open packet next to the kettle, and I take one as I see them every morning). But Mark had got embarrassed at this while his friend was round on Friday, and decided to put them back in the packet and hide them behind the coffee pot. I obviously hadn't seen this so hadn't taken any for 2 days!!! So yeah, rather worried. I cannot even imagine falling pregnant now. It's just much too scary. I wouldn't be able to keep it -- I just know the pressure would kill me at Uni. So we're going to go get a morning after pill this morning. Damnit.

I feel so silly. We're old enough to know better, and we shouldn't be having this trouble after 2 years together! God, I'm going to be so embarrassed to walk into a chemist and ask for a morning after pill at my age....and the big killer, I'm going to have to pay for it!!! That sucks butt! Rubbish!

Chicken!

Well, today we had a family fun day and went to the Stoneleigh Festival which is about a 10 minute drive away from our house. It used to be this big amazing festival which just about everyone in Coventry (and anywhere kinda close) would go and see millions of classic cars, farmers markets, craft stalls, army demonstrations...all that kind of stuff. This year, it was about one fifth of the size and just...well...empty. It was very sad to see, and even more upsetting as it still cost us £15 each to get in! The words insult and injury spring to mind!

Anyway, it was a fun day, and despite spending more money than we'd have liked, and it raining pretty much the whole time, it was a good laugh. Alfie was amazing, as always! And he was just enjoying seeing all the crowds of different people...oh, and my new hair was beautiful for about 2 minutes before the fine rain came in and did what humidity does to most people. It was in ringlets within about 5 minutes! Kinda sucks as I'd spent like 40 minutes beforehand straightening it with my pile-of-crap £7.50 straighteners!

Also, when we came home, we tried Alfie with chicken for the first time. He loved it and ate the whole pot which was nice, so that was nice to know. Will now make a job-lot of chicken dinners for him to eat over the next week or so =O) it's good doing it this way because then each night I can just add in a new vegetable at a time and we can keep tabs on it. I think maybe some courgette next week as we have some from our friend's allotment in the fridge =O)

I haven't really taken any decent pics of my hair properly done, but when I do I will put them up. I love it, and I love that I went to Primark after my hair got done, and spent £80. Which seems a lot, but with that I managed to get:

-2 pairs of shoes

-2 pairs of jeans

-a denim skirt

-a hoodie jacket

-2 belts

-a scarf

-3 pairs of fancy knickers

-a long sleeved top

-a tank top

-a pair of leggings

-a dress with belt built-in

-a pair of joggers for Mark

-a pair of braces

-2 long top/smocks

I think I just fell in love with Primark! haha

Aaaaanyway, this is a proper rambling post now so I'm gonna go...but yeah, good news all around!! Byeeeeeeeeeee xx

New hair, new 'me'...

I've been getting very upset lately. I hate the way I am now...I've always had a 'style', and since I've been pregnant/a mummy, I have none.

I used to be quite an individual -- I had pink/blonde hair, did my make up SOOO funky, and wore whatever the hell I wanted! I loved the way I was, and despite my 'normal' friends' reservations, I got more compliments on my looks than at any other point in my life.

My hair all fell out the last time I bleached it, so I cut it all off to the roots, and began growing my hair. This continued as I was pregnant, and now I'd like it long and natural for the wedding...but I am SOOO bored with it! I told Mark months ago that as soon as we get married, I am going to chop my hair off and bleach it, and right now, I could get married tomorrow if it meant I could cuy my hair off!!!

Also, with the whole clothes thing...when I worked at the spud shop, I worked 8 am-6:30 pm six days a week, and lived alone so would get into my PJs if I wasn't going on the razzle, so really had no need for 'everyday' clothes and just spent ALL my money on going out clothes. This only stopped really when I got pregnant, and then I wore maternity clothes. I'm not quite back into my pre-pregnancy clothes yet, and if I'm honest, there's not much I could wear in the daytime anyway as like I said, they were mainly for going out. So, as I've been slowly losing weight, I've been buying clothes that are basically the cheapest I can find so that I'm not spending loads of money on clothes I am not going to be wearing for long...

...as a result of all this, I feel like I have lost 'me'...I wear what's around, and what I can afford, with no thought of the way it makes me look really. It's hard.

So, I have been fighting the urge for the last couple of days in particular to have all my hair chopped and bleached, and have decided to go halfway and have a big emo 'do so that it's still funky, and I can do my eyes funky again without looking stupid (with my normal hair at the moment, if I put any colour other than brown on them, I look like a drag queen)...and here's what I'm *hoping* it will look like (but in my natural colour so still suitable for the wedding):

and of course, these are completely un-doable but my GOD I'd love hair like this:

Pub quiz...almost!

Last night, Mark and I went out for the evening with Mark's sister and her hubby. We had been trying to arrange it for ages, and finally had decided on our local and a time etc -- we turned up and ordered a drink, and we were told thr quiz might not be on. It was due to start at 9 but we thought if it wasn't on, we could go to the other pub quiz up the road, also at 9...but at about 8:45, we were told we were the only team who had turned up lol...how sad! So we just sat and had a drink or 4! Was a good giggle, Leanne and Ed (Mark's sister and her hubby) are just brilliant people!

Anyway, it was nice to have some time as young adults as we are...but it was sad leaving Alfie. When we left, he was screaming crying and sad. I know it's just because he likes the comfort of a boob at bedtime, but it was still sad! Anyway, he was fine in the end. Mark's Dad and his wife watched over him, and I trust them completely!

Little things the wee man does are just amazing me at the moment. He is moving around allover the place, despite not being crawling yet and discovering new things allover the place. He found the sky box and DVD/VHS this morning...I know that's gonna cause some trouble over the next few months! haha...

....anyway, I should go now...I'm rambling for Britain! Byeee....xx

Alfie eating a proper meal and clapping his hands!!

Well, what a great day we had yesterday....

Firstly, I made Alfie's dinner, we've been slowly adding new ingredients over a few days, and finally made it up to a proper-sounding dinner last night, and he LOVED it! He had: carrots, peas, potatoes, parsnips, and turkey! I obviously whizzed the whole thing but it just felt so good to be able to feed him a proper sounding meal -- a savoury one at that!

And secondly, I was clapping at Alfie yesterday as it makes him giggle...and he clapped back!!! Well, I say clapped...there was no actual noise, but he put his hands together in a clapping motion back and forth for the whole time I was doing it, it's just he couldn't get his hands completely flat so didn't manage palm-to-palm. So I kinda squealed a little bit, got very excited, and did it again...and he copied me again! Woop woop, I'm so impressed! I don't know if he's supposed to be doing this now, 2 months ago, or in 2 months, but I am so excited he's done it!! To my disappointment though, Mark mentioned he'd done it earlier that day for him =O( but hey-ho, I get to see most things first, so it's nice that Mark got to see something. I was still so impressed the first time *I* saw him do it!

Aaaaanyway, not much more to report, so I should go...other than the fact that I LOVE my little man and my gorgeous fella!

xXx

First post!

Okay so I've set up an account here, mainly to follow Nicky's blog. But I will try to remember and copy all my diaryland entries here too, just incase anyone's interested over here?

Well, I have nothing particularly interesting to write now but I can hear on the monitor that Alfie has just woken up so I will disappear and sort him out =O)

TTFN xx