agnieszkawhitaker

PLANING A WEDDING … No wait its CHRISTENING not a wedding !

Chloe is now 5 months so it’s time to Christen her. We decided to do it in Poland where I come from. I am not joking it’s like planning a mini wedding !

Trying to plan it means needing to spend hours on the Internet, to search, search and searchwhile having 5 month old baby to look after – it was proving very difficult and time consuming.

You do want it to be special, doesn’t matter what you do or how much money you spent. You want it special and you do everything to make sure that it is like that, and all of it for someone who won’t have a clue what’s going on, nor will they appreciate all the work which went in to it. This makes it sound as if we do it for ourself not the babies 😊…..

*Invitations*

This was so much more complicated and time consuming that I had imagined! It took forever to find something that I loved and that didn’t cost a fortune. I was very close to just sending an email saying : this is the date can you come or not ? Text me back:-) I ended up designing it myself, which took so much longer . You see I am a Visual Merchandiser Manager at a very big fashion brand. That means that visually I am so picky, it needs to look great and nothing less than perfect will do (sometimes this is a real pain in the ass).

Once invitations were posted I needed to keep chasing people because it’s too much to ask to RSVP on time.

*VENUE*

It’s exactly what I did 5 years ago when I was looking for my wedding venue. It needs to be perfect: not too big not to small, with private area, nice and smart but not too posh, and obviously at a good price. I think that I have written to every hotel and restaurant in Wroclaws Market Square ! Once that was sorted we had to choose the menu and then start the most important bit which is planning on how to decorate it.

*DECORATIONS*

This is the part I love ! Coming up with the idea on how I want the place to look like and how to make it happen. Surprisingly it was taking so much time to first figure out what I wanted to do and then to source everything needed. Who would think that finding decorations can be so difficult ???!!! I went for a white and pink scheme (that sounded very much like wedding) with balloons in the middle of the table as a centerpiece (eeehhhh like wedding again), very small sweet counter and lots of paper pom-poms. It all looks amazing in my head, let’s hope that it will look like that in real life!

*CAKE*

Loved looking on the Internet st all of those beautiful cakes. I could have ordered 10 different ones. Deciding on only one was proving very difficult!!! Very difficult (I got it down to 5 I liked very much) It was so difficult that I ended up mixing bits from 5 of them and designing my own cake! Now if I had to order it in London it would have been fine, go to a cake maker and show what I want. Doing it through the email is a bit more difficult😃 I had to sent lots of phots with arrows pointing at what I want where, photos with things crossed off and a very long email explaining everything….let’s see how it will look when I pick it up (if I pulled it of I am a genus)

*DRESS*

I didn’t know that nowadays the only place to buy Christening outfit is Internet. As we all know photos and the real thing very often are totally different; after spending hours online I ended up buying 5 different dresses hoping that one of them will be good. Luckylie one of them is perfect (will post photos of Chloe in it later).

Once I got all of that organised I had to start all over again; due to lots of guests not being able to come to Poland we decided that we need to have party in UK as well. So Chloe will have 2 parties 😀 and I have a lot to do to make it happen !!!!

ANOTHER BIG STEP : Mummy emotional, Chloe oblivious.

BABY ADVICE, MY BABY EXPERIENCE

We have had quite a few big steps happening recently. As I mentioned in previous posts we started introducing solid food, Chloe has moved from the carrycot to a pram. Now was the time to start with another milestone : starting to move Chloe in to her own room !!!! 😳

Just thinking about it makes me scared and tearful 🙂 Soon Chloe will be 6 months old (what???!!!! Where did the time go???) and that’s when by UK guidance they don’t have to sleep in this same room as you. I think that it will help with all of us sleeping much better and start preparing me slowly emotionally for what will come (maternity leave will end at some point)

We decided to start with Baby steps by putting Chloe for her naps in to her cot. We will do it for a week and then try to put her there for a night. Chloe knows her room and her cot pretty well as we always change her there, put her to play in her cot etc. that’s why we can start with naps straight away (Advice is that you start with leaving babies to play in the cot first)

Surprisingly after 5 min of looking round Chloe just went to sleep, not bothered by new bed, or how big deal it is for her Mum !

If this is such a big deal for me how the hell will I leave her there for the whole night ??? How will I sleep without her next to me?? And God only knows how will I leave her in the nursery??!!!!

Someone was a happy bunny after her nap

Baby Chloe decides that I won’t sleep tonight !!!

MY BABY EXPERIENCE

I may have got 2 hours of Sleep last night. Why? Maybe ask Chloe as I don’t have a clue 😊 it might have been teething, struggling with doing poo ( sorry for being blunt 😁) or just a bad night. Whatever it was made Chloe cry every hour and it was taking while to calm her. Desperation for sleep was so big that I even took her to our bed and let her sleep with us ( this didn’t seem to help much (I may have lost my magic touch))

Let’s hope that whatever it was is gone now and I can sleep tonight !

Buying a highchair …. Almost like buying a car !

BABY STUFF - DO WE NEED ALL OF IT ?

Can’t believe that I am talking about Chloe and highchair in this same sentence! How did my tiny tiny baby grow so much that she is able to seat in the highchair?? ( yes yes yes I know ….by eating all the time)

I never thought that buying a highchair will be so difficult ! It took me almost a month !!!

I have reed about highchairs so much, and then a bit more. I draged my husband to shops to look at lots of different chairs and then at the ones I already have seen. Looked at pros and cons ect. I am only buying a highchair for God sake not a car!!!! Actually, thinking about it I don’t think that we have done that much research before buying our car 😳

I wanted something what will look good, won’t take up 80% of my living room,is comfortable for Chloe and easy to clean.

I got it down to 3 chairs : Cassato, Stokke and Mamas & Pappas.

There are prose and cons which each of them but it seems like Stokke ticks most of the boxes ( though it’s ridiculously expensive) withe the bonus of having it for life ! I love the idea that she can have it for the rest of her life.

Downside of Stokke is lack of tray and cotton cushion (cotton ? With baby? That will last only 5 min). But if Stokke can’t be practical someone else will make money on it :-). I bought tray designed for Stokke and a lovely laminated cushion which I can clean easily.

Stokke is brilliant. I am so pleased with it.

“-“

-Yes it is pain in the bum to put it together. You attache one thing and discover Thant you need to unscrew it to attache the second bit etc.

-As I mentioned it doesn’t have a tray which isn’t great but you can buy one online. I got one and it fits perfectly is big and easily attached.

– Cushion is made of cotton which isn’t practical at all! Again you can buy cushions designed for Stokke which are laminated so you can easily clean it.

“+”

– Stylish, small wooden chair in lots of colours.

– So easy to clean!

– Comfortable for Baby and good for their spine.

– Grows with your baby.

– Looks really good 🙂

First try

HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE !

MY BABY EXPERIENCE

BIG little step forward

MY BABY EXPERIENCE

Today Chloe has been moved from her carrycot to the “proper pram” !!! I actually got tearful 😁 silly me.

She is only 5 months ( babies meant to be in carrycot till they are 6 months old) but the carry cot was getting tight and Chloe was hating it! She is a very curious baby, she wants to stand on her little legs and look around all the time; the view from carrycot is rubbish so we took the decision to move on a bit earlier .

She loves it !!!!!! My little big girl 😍

ITS ALREADY BEEN 5 MONTHS 😳😳

MY BABY EXPERIENCE

2 days ago Chloe has turned 5 months old !!!!

She weights now 6,3 kg ( pretty much double her birth weight) and is pretty “tall” as we have to do a wardrobe change to 6-9 months clothes.

She is able now to :

– seat on her own for few seconds

– stand up on her own when I hold her hands.

– she only wants to stands

– she is blowing raspberries all the time

– she stuck her tongue out

– she is eating solids and loves it ! (So far baby porridge and rice but if she likes that she will like everything)

– put her feet in to her mouth (what a milestone 😊)

– she is such a happy and good baby

I can’t believe that it’s been already 5 months! 5 months of so much love and happiness that at times I think that I will burst. 5 month of worrying about the most ridiculous things (happening to Chloe). Can’t wait to see what tomorrow will bring , or shall I say what Chloe will bring 😊

CLOCK CHANGE and the baby

BABY ADVICE, MY BABY EXPERIENCE

We all know how this small clock change messes us up ! It’s inly an hour but it sims like our body doesn’t know what is going on. Now imagine that you are only few months old 😊 this equals trouble !

Few days ago Chloe started getting up earlier which was messing up the whole daily routine ( sleeping every 2 hours). So this time change should work perfectly and bring our routine back on track. ( we normally get up at 7am and sleep every two hours, eat every 4 and go to bed by 7pm. Chloe started to get up at 6am which meant that I ether had to keep her up longer between naps which was making her really tired and cranky; or I had to keep her up longer in the evening which meant that she was oils struggle to go to sleep.

I decided to act. Plan of action ? Just stick to exactly this same routine and dosing things at the time we usually do it. It doesn’t matter that really is an hour earlier, just stick to the time.

Plan to wake your baby up an hour earlier to start the day. That way your baby won’t notice any differece and the time change won’t upset your baby’s routine.

Hope that all of you mums up there had an easy transition from wint r to summer time 🌞🌸🌺🌻🌷

Weaning is so much FUN!

MY BABY EXPERIENCE

2nd day of weaning and Chloe is like a real pro feeding herself totally on her own ! She even manage to get spoon in to her mouth 90% of the time 😊

We gave her today Strawbery and Banana Baby Porridge 🙂

We also ordered a book about weaning and baby food so we know more or less what we are doing 😊

Good advice ; read a lot before you start weaning ( I reed but not enough), make sure you have lots of memory on your phone, camera or camcorder 😊 ( we haven’t stopes taking photos and videos ) and ejoy it and it’s a really good fun for everyone.

… Do you believe in miracles ? …

MY BABY EXPERIENCE

Do you believe In miracles ? Fate? Someone up there giving you a helping hand?

From the moment I moved to UK (born and bred in Poland) me and my mum became really really close. We would be on the phone every day talking about anything and everything. My mum really wanted 2 things: to have a grandchild from me (& my husband 😊) and for us to buy house. She was waiting patiently for her grandchild, she wasn’t one of the pushy Mums, she would just from time to time say things like: I will come to London for a month when your baby is born, or would say that she would buy it for my child when she/he is bigger 😊. She was also playing lottery to try to win it so she can give me money to buy our own place.

We started trying for a baby when my mum was diagnosed with terminal cervical cancer. Me and my husband decided that life is too short to wait for the perfect time;we also really wanted for my mum to get to see our baby.. Unfortunately with the stress of my mum fighting this horrible disease, trying to balance work and going all the time to Poland to be with my mum nothing was happening. This became quite stressful in itself as I knew that I am running slowly out of time, I was hoping that the news of me being pregnant would give my mum even more strength to fight.

My mum has lost her battle with cancer on the 8 of November 2013 after fighting for 14 months. I was devastated, actually I don’t think that there is a word to describe how I felt. It was all made worst by the fact that I lost my dad 10 years ago, now I had to be the “mum” in our family (2sisters and 1brother).

My way of dealing with the loss was not to think about it and pretend that it didn’t happen. To try to help me with that Me and my husband started house hunting. We knew that we wouldn’t be able to buy anything till the end of the year (still saving for the deposit) but it kept me occupied and focus in my free time. We have seen few properties old and new builds and became quite frustrated with how bad our position was. We etcher had to buy new build, and all of the ones that we seen were in the middle of nowhere and have been so small that you can’t fit anything in to the room except bed (where the hell do you meant to keep your clothes?!). Second option was to buy a tiny old build which needed so much renovation that you would need lots and lots of money and time to make it lovely.

I came across a new build house in a place I never heard of, convinced my husband to just go and look at it (he didn’t want to go). It turn out to be an amazing house (very big) in an amazing location ( just of the high street, in London and 5 minutes walk to the forest). We ended up buying it and moving in to it 5 months later.

This was first miracle ! And I am sure that it was my Mums doing 😊 I found it just by a chance, just by a chance I convinced my husband to go and see it as he didn’t want to and was very sceptic about it. And just by a chance everything about the house was just perfect.

3 months later, while being back in Poland to sort things out my husband started going on and on about there being a chance that I may be pregnant (period late 2 weeks). I was sure that there is no way I was pregnant; there was not enough opportunities for it to happen.

I bought some tests just so I can stop my husband getting too excited. Got up in the morning, did the test and waited… Didn’t have to wait long to be told that apparently I AM pregnant ! Did another one just to check … And yes I was still pregnant !

This was another miracle! As I told you the was very few opportunities to get pregnant…. specifically only one !

Both me and my husband really wanted a girl. Yes I agree healthy baby is the most important, but if we could have a choice it would be a girl. We both knew that the chances of having a girl are very very very small. You see there are only boys in my husband family, his brother has 2 boys, and every person who saw my belly said its a boy …. I remember going to the 20 week scan and keep saying : don’t be disappointed when they say it’s a boy, don’t be disappointed! When the doctor said that it was a girl we couldn’t believe it, my husband kept asking if he is 100% sure that it’s a girl 😊 This was another miracle, I am convinced that it was my mums doing 😊

Those things has showed me that my parents are really looking down on me ! That they are taking care of me and trying to make me happy. I honestly don’t know how I would have coped with loosing my Mum if I didn’t have Chloe (and my wonderful husband) the amount of happiness that she brings in to my life every day, every hour, every minute …

…. It’s just such a shame that I can’t share those special , happy things with them ….