Maternity leave is over back to the grind!

My last blog post was dated November and if anyone is still out there I am very sorry and very surprised to still have you... but I have had a very good reason.....meet my boy!

Its all very well having a blog but finding the time between baby sick, dirty nappies and royboy the dog looking at me with longing eyes for his daily walks it has been impossible...in any way..

After 7 hours of labour 2 epidurals and an emergency c-section Mitchel owen was born on 21st January.

I must say everyone had told me that nothing can prepare you... your not wrong, I think at times I was seeing double with the sleepless nights and the constant housework and dirty nappies and all this was such a culture shock for me!.. I was used to working full time, having collegues drinks on a friday night and managing not only a busy high paid job but managing myself and all of a sudden this little person full of baby puke was dictating my life..

At the end of all this upheaval and turmoil (and the scar finally healing) I can honestly say having Mitch was the best thing that ever happened to me. He is just the most precious, hillariously cute, gorgeous baby.(I know everyone says your baby is cute even though they are pig ugly - mitch is a lucky exception he really is a beautiful baby) It is truly fullfilling in every way.



Michel having one of his moments.....


So after 4 months of nappies,10 daily minutes of tummy time and venturing into the wonderful world of Jeremy Kyle, ladies coffee mornings and 'bumps and babies' classes (hello to my fellow NCT matey's)...it is back to work and back to the grind stone!

....Let me just say there is nothing more humerous than to watch peoples faces as 5 young women and new born babies with prams race frantically towards them in the park...its like being part of the mafia! lol -its like what is going through there minds- how can all these women possibly have a child at the same time as each other....?

So I will try and keep you up-to-date on the hilarious things Mitchel and I are doing on a day to day basis...

Starting with 'I have never seen a 4 month child sulk'.... he really did have the 'hump' for about 3 hours when I picked him up from his first day of care with his auntie. It was like 'how dare you leave me for all that time'. He even refused his favourite bath routine and opted to puke and shit all night just to punish me... It really pulled at my heart strings and made me feel guilty but at the end of the day I know he will get used to it and he will grow up knowing 'mommy' loves him even though she has to go to work...

Mitch looking gorgeous.. xx

So for now its ta ra...I won't bore you with the 'back to work' stories yet, but its tough.. Has anyone else experienced going back to work after maternity?

See ya soon x C

Back to life...Back to reality

Well firstly I must apologise for my long absence.

I had originally decided it was a good idea to start a blog one mad night with my dear cousin Annie and since then it has been virtually impossible to think of anything but my pending pregnancy and my house move.....

Now that the move is done...phew, I can finally take a deep breath and look forward to my long and awaited maternity leave with anticipation..

I hang my head in shame, as I have only managed 2 blogs since my original set up in September and this is mainly due to the hectic lifestyle I am leading which involves all the daily menial tasks listed below......

-Waking up most mornings at 4.30am when my boyfriends alarm goes off for work

-10 hours of working in and out of my car every day within a 150 mile radius, this includes 1-2 hours of catch up admin in the evenings to manage the mound of complaints I get through on a daily basis

-Walking the dog before and after work

-Cleaning up after the dog which regularly includes the use of a hoover to maintain a hair free environment and to stop my boyfriend moaning about his allergies!

(by the way I woke to a lovely aroma of dog sick this morning, as obviously the left over Salmon I had given him for tea last night had definitely not agreed with him.... this was not good,  2x huge piles of what can only be described as meatballs which have been smothered in peanut butter and regurgitated..... having to scrub carpets at the crack of dawn...mmmmmm nice!) (note to self... no more human food will be given to dog ever again!)

MY LOVELY 'ROY' THE APPLE OF MY EYE

-Shopping for dinner, Cooking for dinner and washing up after dinner ( usually most days if a microwave meal is not involved)

-4 hours a week of ante natal classes

-Getting the home and baby room sorted, since I only moved house a week ago, this has involved unpacking the 25 boxes of crap that have been sitting 'winking' at me in the spare room

-Bathing, showering and generally trying to maintain some form of hygiene, which includes remembering to dose myself twice daily in Bio-oil to prevent the stretchmarks during my pregnancy (by the way I can categorically say I cannot shave or see my bits since I am now 7 months pregnant so I dread to think what is growing down there!!lol)

-Washing, drying and ironing and generally trying not to let the laundry basket take over the house

-1 hour of facebook to catch up with my Cafe world, which I have lovingly nurtured for the 18 months or so (ok ok so that is not a top priority!) (however it is the only chance I get to cook a decent meal...virtual or not!)

-Some form of attention/conversation with my long suffering boyfriend ( if I have the time...)

-Preparing the daily packed lunches (usually 4 rounds for my boyfriend as he eats for England and never ever puts on weight...aaarh)

-Then trying to get at least 7 hours kip before I have to do it all again the next day....

Please tell me how the hell I am going to fit a BABY into all of this....Let alone some form of social life or a blog for that matter?!

Well I am sure that when I start my Maternity leave in approximately 6-8 weeks time I will have lots of spare time to sit down and take a breather, oh no I forgot, it will time for the xmas shopping.... baa humbug!

Oh well... no rest for the wicked.

Ciao for now and will post again soon xx

Mondays with who's eating gilbert grape

Well Happy Monday all my fellow bloggers and thanks so much for taking a 'newbie' under your wing and giving me a very nice welcome -hope I won't let you down.

After my last blog at that ridiculous time on Sunday morning, you will be pleased to know I am feeling much perkier following a massive roast dinner on Sunday and plenty of iced juices.

Baby has been kicking the hell out of me today so he must have survived the eventful weekend hurrah! (not the alcohol but the Karaoke- anyone that can survive 3 hours of me screaming at the top of my voice must have staying power!)

So this morning is the morning I always dread. MONDAYS!

To tell you a little about my job (without boring the pants off you)- I work in Sales and have done since I left the mob 8 years ago.

My current employer is a washroom provider and I reluctantly took the role 3 years ago thinking I would never make it, as I knew being in this high pressured target driven environment would be really hard graft and I thought I wouldn't last 5 minutes ....However 3 years on and several top performer awards later (currently displayed on my living room cabinet she says blowing on her fingers... HAAA) I have done alright and I continue to enjoy the trials and tribulations and pressure of Initial washrooms.

However Mondays are always really crap! Today started off with a really bad dream which I won't go into but it involved my partner.... his ex, sex and Copenhagen!

Then whilst dragging myself through the shower I had several phone calls from customers complaining about late installations and it really didn't get any better than that!

After being stuck in the rain, fog and traffic jams for 2 hours this morning I finally arrived my first call of the day only to find one of my service drivers arguing with my client, as he has decided to scrape his van past the guttering of her building and cause extensive damage, which I am not joking when bits and pieces of guttering are scattered on the floor it must be pretty bad! (bugger it ...I forgot my camera, for instead of feeling sorry for the said driver I was thinking this would make a smashing blog picture..grr)

Then the afternoon turned out OK with the downside of driving 2 hours to Tamworth to sign a new customer only to have the joy taken away from me by getting a bloody parking ticket! oh joy.



ME RELAXING AFTER A SHITE MONDAY AT THE OFFICE!

Well hopefully my day tomorrow will be better than today and I must try and think of something more interesting than talking about work, even though I suppose my job is 90% of my life, some of the stories I could tell you about would be hilarious! Especially the time I was trying to sell to a client, I was explaining the breakdown of my quote and she fell asleep on me twice!! Oh well another time ...

Bye for now xx

The Day after yesterday (not quite- the morning after the night before!)

Well here I am.

I'm 38 years old (...and 230 days), sitting here wondering (well actually for the past 24 hours bloody well panicking!) about how I am going to start off this blog and what on earth I will find remotely interesting and funny to talk about and share with whoever wants to read and listen to what 'I' would want to write about....

Then it dawned on me... Get my cous Anne down for the weekend and we can chat about it... get drunk on masses of wine... smoke da fags.. and come up with something remotely 'looky likey' to her amazing stories of what she creates on her blog.. and it will all be al'rite'!

However things don't always go to plan... firstly I am 5 and a half months pregnant and I gave up 'da fags' 5 months ago when I first experienced the ' positive' shocking pregnancy test, and secondly once huge amounts of alcohol are consumed usually with Annie and me it turns into a garbled mass of  'do you remember when stories... of how we were when we were younger and I used to wet the bed.....! So nothing... yes nothing was achieved last night apart from a bloody great head ache!

I am actually sat here at 6 in the morning while everyone is sound asleep, as I have woken up in the middle of the night racked will guilt at what I drank last night and I am currently sat here downing 2 pints of lemonade and half a pack of biscuits and feeling pretty worse for wear!

When I first found out I was pregnant I was overjoyed... I thought at 38 I had passed up my chance to be a mother and then after a brief 'amazing' fling with my (now) partner, suddenly fell 'preggers' and my instant reaction was 'NOooooo...this can't be happening, surely my eggs dried up long ago...!' to 'WOW... finally I have the chance to do what I secretly have longed for and be a proper 'mum' and not be a 'part time mum'  or a 'step mum' or any one else's mum for that matter but 'a real mum'. My very own child. I can be part of that elite club... finally.

However once the joy of this miracle subsided I realised that, firstly I would need to endure the severe pain of labour... (shit..this wasn't something I could just pick up at tesco and claim my award points.?.!) secondly I would need to do something with my unhealthy lifestyle and 'give up the fags', 'give up the booze' eat healthier etc etc.

So I sat about creating this perfect 'pregnancy and growing bump' with limited amount of 'bad stuff',  and so far don't get me wrong it has been great and 'yes' I have been surprisingly 'good'. No Caffeine, no alcohol, no fags, no partying, no junk food etc (feel better than I have done for years... I highly recommend this to all you 38 something alcoholics....)

I have, at least for now managed to keep off the fags for 5 months and the mere smell or whiff of nicotine makes me feel physically sick (more about that another time!).

But when it comes to a glass or two or wine I have never been one to 'be shy' so last night I had 'a few' and am feeling mighty sorry for myself this morning. It is not necessarily that I drank 'too much' I mean I wasn't drunk or anything but its the pre conception of what you can and can't do when you are 'preggers' that gets to me....

They say 1-2 units of alcohol- once or twice a week is acceptable because they have no idea what kind of damage this does to the unborn baby.... but I have had NO alcohol for a number of weeks so does that mean I have a store bank of units?? I certainly used a few of them last night...

Anyway they say I am expecting a boy... I am overjoyed. I have no doubt that he is and will be the most important thing in my entire life and as far as I am concerned this is a complete miracle, so I am not about to hit the bottle or anything and blow it but I can't help feeling 'pissed off' with every snidy stare, every judgement look from a complete stranger on how I am not supposed to be while I am pregnant, ... how I shouldn't be drinking, or even be in a 'pub' for that matter!

How dare a pregnant woman venture out on a Saturday night and sing Karaoke with my pals, actually stand in the smoking area and sniff the reminiscent of my past life and drink ' a few' beverages to lighten my load.

Me sporting a mexican moustache in the Kareoke bar!

I am sure that if my little boy survives 9 months in my womb and the best part of 15-20 years in full time education..... and 2012 doomsday when the world is allegedly going to end anyway.... I will get his SAS daddy to train said sprog to be an experienced Ninja fighting warrior and go back and kill all those petty ignorant strangers who threw me a judgemental look and the sight of me drinking a glass or two of wine and lemonade..... ha.

Anyway it is now 7am and I feel a little better after glugging some lemonade ....so I shall retire back to my pit for a couple of hours before the in-laws arrive for Sunday dinner.( I may as well make the most of these Sunday morning lie-ins as apparently this all stops when you have a child... oh dear what have I let myself in for..!)

Sorry if the spelling isn't 'up to scratch' ...but it is very early on a Sunday morning....
Bye for now ..... x CJ

Welcome to Cara's Blog

Hello, I am not the blogger, I am the blogger's cousin. And in my role as the blogger's cousin, I can confirm that I have known her for 38 years. Blimey, that makes me feel older than the tin of corned beef at the back of my kitchen cupboard.

So, what to say about Cara's blog? Well if personal experience is anything to go by, be prepared for a plethora of varied and amusing stories. If you think that her being five months pregnant might tone down things a bit, think again. After hitting the town with her last weekend, I can safely say I have never seen a less demure sight than a pregnant lady playing air guitar and executing a perfect knee-slide. 

So welcome and enjoy!

Annie (Lady M) x  from the blog The Day after Yesterday