reading is fun
Originally uploaded by brapps
In my last post, I was really caught up in a different world than the one I live in now, mentally and physically. Things were truly challenging up until James was about 9 months old. All the puree prep for the weaning and debates about how long to breast feed. Not to mention the irratic sleep patterns and teething (an ongoing saga, but thankfully the sleep is in order - touch wood!) and then what to do about Maternity Leave!
I ended up staying on Maternity Leave until June and it was great. I've gone back to work at the weekends in a ticket office at a tube station that is just under an hour's journey from home, so much better than the commute would have been had I kept the same position I had before my maternity leave started. I've worked 2 days and am now mid-way though 3 weeks of Annual Leave. as of mid-July, I'm back at work every weekend until November, when I have a week of Annual Leave. But I am grateful that I'm able to take 3 weeks off over Christmas to go to California to see my family and friends there.
In March, we got a notice that the owners of the house we were renting were planning to sell it, so we could have first refusal. Having just moved in when James was only a few days old, we weren't too keen to move again, and were looking to do whatever we could to avoid moving. We didn't think we'd be buying a house until next year at the earliest, and weren't sure if we had enough of a deposit saved up to get a mortgage. We found out that we *just* did, and then when it came down to it, I couldn't imagine being happy to stay in the house we were renting for 5 years minimum. We had a look around and saw a house just one street over that has a fireplace and a 3 bedroom, bigger loft space and a bigger garden, and they were asking for £5000 less than the house we were in. So, we made an offer, and ended up with a compromise. When our Homebuyer's Survey was done, the surveyor valued the house at £7,500 less than our agreed price, so we were able to negotiate the price down to match the survey's valuation. By 30 May, we were moving in! So, Ben and I are homeowners now. With all of this housebuying stuff happening, I didn't worry so much about going back to work.
James is doing so well with his eating and learning to walk and talk. I started giving him expressed breast milk in bottles during the day from the time he was 10 months and just a breast feed before bed. When he turned 1, we switched him to cow's milk in a cup during the day and he was getting the breast feed before bed up until 2 nights ago. Now he gets a bottle of cow's milk. He seems to be taking it pretty well. It's weird to think that I'm done breast feeding him now. His meals are really easy, no more purees, he just eats what we eat.
Now we'll see what happens when he starts to walk! Any day now!