First Family Trip and Abi's 1st Wedding...

"What a lovely time we had the weekend we went to Scotland! la la la"

For the Easter weekend, all three of us drove up to Scotland stopping en route for the night both ways (we're not crazy like SOME people I could mention!) as gone are the days of just ploughing through and doing the long haul, we now have to stop for nappies/bottle/sludge feeds galore, or .... so we thought. Abi it turns out is a natural traveller for now at least, and she took to it so well we did not even stop on our way back and did it in two four hour stints via Morecome Bay, nice view, weird statue (Eric), not much else (in case your wondering).

As you can see from the pic included my lovely family scrub up pretty well, the wedding took place on a posh estate southwest of Edinburgh, and when I say posh, I mean posh, the grounds were so extensive that 24/7 4x4s were on call to transport guests from lodge to loch to mansion etc etc, so we could call up on our mates on the non partying side of the estate (they were in the owners spare room) and get them over to our palatial lodge for a chinese and bevvy or two no problem! If anyone is looking for a great place to do a posh weekend then we would all recommend Harburn House

We even had Dolly Parton , Stevie Wonder and Michael Jackson singing for us at the reception! The Bride and Groom are professional musicians, and have a far reaching list of equally talented mates who all took the mic from the singer of the band at the reception. It was high standard of performing, well until some drunkard stole the mic from Michael to do a bizarre impersonation of a trumpet!? And the bridge and groom were not to dissapoint either both performing for us, the grooms drum duet was IMMENSE it blew our minds, and somehow managed to lull Abi to sleep?

On a more down to earth note, having a pit stop at the motorway service station, where we all had something to eat, Abi included, using the baby feeding facilities, microwave etc, was lovely. For the years that I have yearned to be a mum and have stopped off at these places and imagined what it would be like to be there with our child, and then to actually be there - BLISS, total and utter contentment!

Ok....I get it now!

So, to all new mums and long serving ones, there most likely has been a moment, or if not a couple of points in your life as a mum where you've suddenly realised, I just need to get on and do this, like overtime in the media industry I suppose, we are simply expected to do it, you get nothing extra for it financially, no one thanks you for it, but simply doing it and getting your job done is reward itself.

I've recently had an ear infection, called 'vertigo' honest....and it came at the same time Matt was doing some film driving work, which is LONG hours so we hardly saw him all week. Abi had the initial sleep through from beginning on solids, but then reverted back to waking every four hours and all this combined made for a pretty hard week for me, there was no one around to tell me every five minutes how well I was doing, as when you're that tired you really feel like you need validation THAT often! And there was no one to confide in on whether it was best to migrate onto sweet potato or parsnips, or whether she MIGHT take milk from a cup if not from a bottle (weaning off the boob is NOT as fun as weaning onto food, it's a SAD thing you have to do!!)

I know I have been completely and utterly spoilt having Matt around for the first few months, and I am sure it will never be like that again, as our lives will undoubtedly move on...anyway, as I said, the point is....I realised that as a mum, you just have to GET ON WITH IT, Abi may well thank me, in twenty years time if she is anything like me, (sorry mum, I did say thanks, THANKS, THANK YOU for everything, EVERYTHING you EVER did for me didn't I?), but for now it's just a matter of me knowing I am doing the best job I can...

Couple of pics above of Abi trying out new stuff from left: facing forwards in the sling for the first time and wearing Granddad’s gloves, sitting up on her own on the train, in a swing in the park!

Who knew white sludge could get you so emotional!

As you can see from the picture, Abi has started weaning...to those uninitiated that means Matt and I have started giving her BabyRice/WhiteSludge...she had her first mouthfuls yesterday and she loved it! What I was not ready for AT ALL in fact, was just how emotional I was going to be about it. I am aware that my emotional state could be down to the lack of sleep leading up to this point 2 hourly/4 hourly feeds 24/7 for 2 weeks....or it could be that this was just simply a major day in our little girls life....

On the plus plus side, she has (for one night only) reverted back to 11 through to 7, lets hope that lasts, cos for all those reasons above I feel ON TOP OF THE WORLD this morning! Big crazy grinning ensues!