I realised at my first post-natal group that most of the other babies (and primarily the girls) seemed to be decked out in stylish clothes for our little get together (there’s only like 7 mums and babies, it’s a smaller group than normal apparently). So I felt a bit self-conscious (or Oliver-conscious rather) that we had only gone out in his sleepsuit. ‘Cause that’s what he normally wears. I don’t really see the point of putting his limited newborn/0-3 month wardrobe on him when he’s just going to spit up or leak poo on it.

However, I felt the pressure of keeping up with the Jones’s this Tuesday and dressed him properly.

Of course, he slept in his car seat the entire time of the group and no one even ended up seeing his stylish clothes anyway. Sigh.

I used to think that boys’ clothes couldn’t be cute like girls’ stuff, but since having him, I feel pretty good about the selection of clothes out there. In our house, it’s all about dogs (Piper), airplanes (Mark’s hobby) and trains (Mark’s work) so alot of boys clothes are highly appropriate!

Although most of you know I abhor the idea of sharing things with strangers, particularly in a group format (that was my most hated social work class too – group work, argh!), I am glad I am going to the post-natal group. I have already learnt a lot, and the other mums seem like nice normal human beings. And, the girl from my village who is driving me there now is really nice, and has encouraged me to come to the mum and toddler thing they have at the village hall just to get out of the house, so I might start doing that after our group finishes.

With Grandma here, he’s been better bathed, fed and watered than at any time I think. And, me too!

I made a big mistake last night – I followed the link on another blog to a story of a baby named Oliver Harry who was born a month ago to an American mum in London, and died 10 days later. It’s the most heart breaking thing I have ever read, and I was in floods of tears last night. I am not going to post the link because I don’t want to end up crying again, but it’s the most awful story, and for me it’s hitting a little too close to home. I can’t even imagine.

Too many reasons to be cheerful around here – Grandma is here, and it’s the most fantastic thing having another pair of hands around. The kitchen is clean, meals are cooked and baby is happy. And she won’t stop spoiling him with more clothes, toys, etc. so we can’t complain about that.

Yesterday we got lent a second bouncing/rocking chair (from Great-Aunt Iris who used it with Katie), which is fantastic as it means I can keep one upstairs and one downstairs – so I don’t have to wait until he’s asleep to move to another floor. So right now he’s awake in his chair beside me and that’s cool. And he was in it when I had a shower (a long one!) this morning too. Fantastic.

He’s happy about it too!

Today we went to M&S to place a food and cake order for the party on the 11th, and I picked up these shoes for him:

I decide it was time to address the England vs. Canada balance as England is losing badly:

But I am happy that he has so much Canada stuff even if it means nothing to him! So thank you everyone who has sent stuff. This is just a taster of the Canadian references in his gifts. He’s going to be well decked out on Canada Day in particular – I am going to have to show him off at Canada House that day for sure.

Two months old now – which means that yesterday was Oliver’s first immunisations.

Actually, yesterday was scary and exciting all around. I got Mark’s mum to drop us off at our post-natal group organised by the health visitors, when normally I hate forced socialisation with strangers. However, it was important for me to go to reduce my isolation, and actually it wasn’t half bad. It’s a small group and most people there are in the same situation – first baby after a decent start at a career. We just had an informal chat, but the facilitator is going to do 5 weeks of different topics like weaning, and then we are going to continue for another 6 weeks doing baby massage. And thankfully there is another mum from Dagnall so I am going to get a lift with her and don’t have to rely on my mother in law ferrying us around.

After we got picked up, we all (me, Oliver, MIL and step-FIL) went out for a pub lunch, which was a nice treat, and then went and had the dreaded needles at the GP surgery. He had a real good hearty cry, but fell back asleep in the car seat. I had the Calpol at the ready, and gave him some soon after we got home hoping to prevent any pain or possibly fever. I think he’s mostly okay, although I think he’s a bit screamier than usual, and Mark thought his head was a bit sensitive last night.

To round off the day, we had the Largest Poo Explosion Ever which went through his nappy, to his clothes, to MY clothes. Well done!! I was impressed with that one!

It’s been a better month that month 1. Some people might find this strange or terrible, but it’s taken me some time to fall in love with him. I don’t do love at first sight (well, except possibly in cases of pairs of shoes or cakes), and although I felt the rush of need to care for him obviously from the beginning, it wasn’t until this month that things sort of fell into place between him and me. There’s a big difference between him looking at me just for a food supply, and him properly being happy to see me in the morning, and that has made a huge difference. I have mostly started to enjoy this strange new career, even if I still get frustrated about being unable to do things around the house or for myself when I have to attend to him.

And March is going to be good, as we are about to spend half of it with my mother here. She arrives on Saturday, and apparently is not planning on putting him down for 2 weeks, which I don’t have a problem with! We have the naming ceremony on the 11th, and it looks like quite a few people are coming, which is nice. And we are having a weekend on the Isle of Wight at the end of the month at the posh hotel we stayed at there last year, and I am looking forward to that (although with slight trepidation as to how he is planning on behaving while we are there!).