Ch-ch-changes....

I had my first moment of looking at Ruby tonight and wondering where my little baby girl has gone. This past week has all been about moving and milestones! The tentative yoga pose which showed the potential for a crawl is now a proper crawl. You can't deny that she has finally cracked it. This became apparent today when she crawled about five foot across my living room floor to get at the wires of my laptop. And she managed it on hands and knees in about 5 seconds flat! She is flinging herself about with abandon, then pushing herself easilly into a sitting position until she flings herself back into the crawling pose to continue her travels. The 'flinging' thing has meant two badly bumped head moments in the last week alone. You know, the kind where no amount of diversion and cheering will distract from the fact that it really bloody hurt. Cue dramatic crying and screaming.

I also have made a mental note to drop her cot down to the lowest notch over the weekend. On putting her down for a nap today, all was quiet so I left her for ten minutes, then went to check she really was asleep. And found her sat up in her cot playing with her teddies. On seeing me, she smiled sweetly and pulled herslef up to a standing position on the cot side. I felt a mixture of pride at her first solo standing, and dread about the danger she will soon be getting herself in. Cue more head bumping and dramatic crying and screaming.

I can see the beginnings of my little baby girl becoming a toddler. She is on the move, babbling away to herself, developing her sense of humour and even waving in response to us waving at her. It makes me feel a little sad, but excited about seeing her grow.

Go baby go Baby GO!

And she is OFF!!

Ruby is 7 months and two weeks, and today was a bit of a momentus occasion.... Up until now, any crawling she has done has been of the backwards variety. Today round at a friends house, she lifted her bum right in the air, straightened her legs so it looked she was doing a rather complex yoga pose, and then there was a proper movement FORWARDS. Ok, so it was much more luck than judgement, but it was PROPER!!

I have very mixed feelings. It is exciting to see her meeting these big developmental milestones, but each one she hits means that my little baby girl is getting closer to not being my little baby girl anymore....

And yes. I don't think I can put off the inevitable. Its time to baby proof the house, and looking around the front room, there are SOOOOO many things that are extremely breakable.... And our nice little gatherings where all the babies go on the floor and stay in one place playing while we drink gallons of tea are going to be a thing of the past. Oh well, it was nice while it lasted!

Neglecting...

.... this blog that is, rather than my baby.....

Its been nearly four months since my last post, but I can't say as i feel bad, as I have been getting out and about so much with The Rubester that I've been so knackered at the end of the day the last thing I want to do is WRITE about it all!

But I have been inspired to take up the mantle of this blog again due to my involvement with a new online community that is being set up called Weston super mums. Reading other peoples blog posts has also inpired me, and reminded me of the importance of documenting my journey into motherhood.

I'm really excited to be part of the "super mum" crowd, I think it is really going to take off and be a really great resource for local mums. Why not pop over and say hello?!

Flying Solo

Tonight is my first night looking after Ruby all on my own, as her daddy is away overnight with work.

It makes me realise how lucky I am to have a partner who is so involved with her, and with me in helping to take care of her.

I am absolutely KNACKERED....

Snapshots that keep it real...

I was thinking about the image we present to the world when it come to being a mum. I feel enormous pressure to have a perfect baby that never cries, and happily coos and gurgles through any social occasion. I kind of feel like a failure if I can't live up to this. I also think there is a bit of a conspiracy amongst some mums to try and project to the world that their little one is a perfect baby and that all is well with the world. I am not a perfect mother and this whole new role has definitely not come easily to me. I thought I would go all earth mother-y as soon as my baby entered the world, despite not being a particularly "baby" person before her arrival. What I have found is that I am DEFINATELY no earth mother and have often really really struggled, despite loving her to bits and liking her infinitely more than any other baby I have ever met!

And then I thought about photos I have collected to document Ruby's first few months in this world. It occurred to me that I only have two photos of her crying.

TWO

And one of these was taken by my Mum! And yet crying is such a huge part of her day and her way of communicating, so it occurred to me as strange that I have not documented this. I have bought into trying to project to the world that she is a perfect baby without even realising it!

So in the interests of keeping it real…… here’s the pictures the world has never seen. A normal baby….. shock horror!!




There! That wasn't so bad, was it?

Something AMAZING just happened....

I am very bad a leaving Ruby to cry. I know the advice is to leave them sometimes to cry it out, but I'm not so good at following the advice. I do things for an easy life too much, and it feels easier to pick up a crying baby who has not yet reached meltdown point.....

But as I was making this blog, I was 5 mins away from finishing, so I decided to leave her to cry. And guess what? she cried for 5 mins, then went to sleep.

SHE CRIED IT OUT...... that has NEVER happened before!!

This is a seems like a small victory, but I can't tell you how HUGE this is.

Its also good karma for this newly created blog!

An introduction...

Ok. Lets get the basics out the way.

My name is Karen. I am Ruby’s Mama.

I have another blog, where I write about all things creative. When I am not being Ruby’s Mama, I am an artist. I like to try and keep my identities as a mummy and an artist as separate as possible, but I was increasingly finding there was a crossover of this in my creative blog. I was also itching to write more personal entries, but that blog didn’t feel like the place.

Hence, this blog was born.

This blog is going to be entirely related to all things mama and baby. If that bores you or scares you, look away now. But let it be known that this blog isn’t going to be all “coochie coo” and full of “motherhood is wonderful” crap. OK, I can’t guarantee that this blog won’t have an air of that from time to time, but my aim is to document my journey into motherhood, warts and all. I haven’t found the journey so far the easiest, and so I’m not going to spare the grim details, for the sake of being honest and candid, something I’m not sure everyone is when it comes to telling their story of their journey.

Welcome to my blog, and I hope you enjoy the journey...