I need to change my life!

Things I need to change:

1. Go to bed at a decent hour! - my best writing ideas might well happen at night, but it's leaving me tired and washed out the next day. My health is more important than my creativity, and it's not fair on B. if I'm grumpy/tired/irrational/ill as a result of all my late nights!

2. Eat more healthily - I sometimes kid myself that I have a healthy diet because I'm vegetarian (well, a fish-eating one anyway). But ready-meals aren't really the healthiest thing, and often I'm so busy preparing B.'s (considerably healthier) meals and trying to get on with the day that I forget to eat something myself.

3. Drink less tea! - oh my goodness this'll be hard! Tea is a big vice of mine. It's my only vice really (oh, except for chocolate..), and I've noticed recently that I've gone from drinking one cup per day to nearly all of my liquids being tea. I know that the anti-oxidants in tea are supposed to be very good for you and prevent all sorts of nasty diseases, but I'm sure that you're not supposed to drink it in these quantities.

4. Spend less time online - writing is a great hobby of mine. However pretentious it might sound (sorry!), it's something I love for its own sake, something that is mine alone. It's therapeutic to get things out of my brain and onto the page, and is something that I've always done and needed to do. So this is an online activity that I wouldn't want to give up. But I could do with spending less time on Facebook..

5. Meditate more - sounds a bit hippy I know, but my mind is never calm, and I think everyone would benefit, including myself, if my brain was calmer. And less crowded. (Incidentally "crowded" is my daughter's favourite word at the moment, so it's rubbing off on me. Yesterday when I asked her how my hair looked she told me it was looking a bit crowded).

6. Do some housework - ha ha, yes, not my forte! I do washing, sweep the carpets and clean surfaces, I dust occasionally and tidy up when someone's coming round, but there is definitely room for improvement!

7. Watch less television - I do like TV, it has to be said. My favourite programmes at the moment are Medium, America's Next Top Model (I know. I feel like I shouldn't like this programme, I just find it funny..), Neighbours, and Jonathan Creek (love it!)

8. Fill my time better - as B.'s just started big nursery I have two and a half hours to myself every weekday. This sounds like a lot maybe, but it goes soooo fast. Now, I do try to tidy up a bit and make the place liveable once again while she's not there to mess it up.

But other times I tend to make myself a cup of tea (see point 3) with the intention of just watching a little bit of telly (see point 7) while I'm drinking it. But then I crash out because I'm tired from my late night of writing/Facebook-ing/watching TV (see points 1, 4 and 7), which were more-than-likely perpetuated by the immense amount of caffeine that's flowing around my malnourished body and crowded brain. (See points 2, 3 and 5!).

Future ventures and adventures

This summer's got me making some plans. My lovely three and a half year-old will soon be starting "big" nursery school five mornings a week, so I'll have a little more time on my hands. I'm hoping to use this time to do more writing, some book-selling, studying, teaching and swimming! Ambitious maybe. Especially for someone like me, who is slightly better at planning things than actually doing them. But I'm hoping that committing my plans to blog might help inspire me to achieve them...

Writing. Writing is still one of my passions. It allows me to be creative, gives me some me-time and helps me to balance out all the child things that we do.

And recently over on HubPages I wrote what I consider to be my favourite hub so far. It's called Wimbledon, Grass Soup and a Randy Dog. I wrote it all in one go in a sort of manic outpouring of thoughts and words after a sound from outside my daughter's window brought back all sorts of childhood summertime memories. Each time I read it I get goosebumps as I'm transported back in time!

I seem to be specialising a bit in pregnancy and baby related articles. I hadn't planned to do this, but the whole pregnancy and baby thing still fascinates me, even three and a half years after experiencing it myself. Here are my baby hubs so far:

• Early Pregnancy Symptoms - The First Month
• How do dogs know when you're pregnant? And what are the other behavioural signs?
• The First Three Months of Pregnancy - Keeping the Secret!
• Natal Hypnotherapy, Effective Birth Preparation CD
• Essential items for bringing baby home
• The Things we do for Sleep
• Are Second Babies Cost-Free?

My next hub is going to continue the theme of second babies, (something which has playing on my mind a bit recently). It's going to be called "Am I evil if I don't have a second child?"

A lot of hubbers have taken part in the recent "hub challenges", where you write 30 hubs in 30 days. Or for the more ambitious (or perhaps crazy), 100 hubs in 30 days. I'd love to be able to do this, as I do really enjoy challenging myself and writing about a whole load of different things, and it would probably also help to boost my google earnings. But I don't have enough time.

Typing this much in one morning has been challenging enough for me, and I've only achieved it by sitting my daughter in front of the TV, intermittently tasking her with jigsaw puzzles and tidying projects, giving her copious snacks and me doing much simultaneous typing, talking and singing - which isn't really an ideal writing environment!

Another writing project in the pipeline (well, currently in the pipeline of my mind), is setting up a website all about my local area. Because I absolutely LOVE where I live, and want to share it with other people who aren't lucky enough to live here! Actually I'm hoping that the main point of it will be to let the people who do live here know about all the things that are going on in our neighbourhood.

Bookselling. For a while now I've been thinking of setting up as a bookseller with a children's book franchise. If you're a regular on the mum websites, like netmums, mumsnet and mum and working, you'll know that there's a whole plethora of franchise opportunities.

You can sell almost anything, according to your interests. Many involve holding parties in your house or selling to schools and playgroups. Well, I'm not a natural seller and don't find it easy to be persuasive, so you'd think that I would stay clear of such ventures. However, there is one children's bookseller that fascinates me so much that I might have to put aside these apparent obstacles. They sell such lovely books, and the ethos of the company is so close to my own that it's just been luring me in. I'll write more about this if I actually take the plunge and do it!

Studying. My foray into the world of the teaching assistant has whet my appetite for more. And if I decide that working in a primary school is for me then I'd really like to get properly qualified. You don't have to have formal qualifications to become a teaching assistant, but I think that if you want to find a paid post it's always best. So I've been looking around at courses, and the most useful one that I've come across so far (in terms of course content, support and flexibility) is the ICS Teaching Assistant BTEC, which I'd be able to do from home in my own time.

Swimming. As well as booking B. on a swimming course, I really want to swim more myself. In my pre-mummy days I used to belong to a gym and swim regularly, before or after work. I've been longing to get back to it, as to me there's nothing more relaxing than moving through the water, (albeit at a rather clumsy pace). My first swimming session is tonight at Finchley Lido.

I hope that my other ambitions will soon follow!

Life and all that

My posts here have been few and very far between recently. With the school holidays and the lovely weather we've been having (well, we usually get a few nice days each week, which isn't bad..) we've been ever so busy doing things.

Birthdays parties are becoming more and more frequent. And I'm told that the older B. gets the more intense this will become - until it peaks at the age of 8 or 9 when all of her weekends will be completely filled with parties, and she won't have any time to see her family. And I'm not even thinking about what happens after that with the teenage years. Too far ahead to worry about now - and too darn scary!

We've also been going to picnics, fêtes, fairs, farm trips and a wonderful street party, where we met lots of lovely new people, and B. got to play on a beach that had been created in the middle of the road! She and her friends planted a beautiful balloon garden in the sand, which kept them busy for hours while we got to relax, drink Pimms, eat wonderful food and chat to the neighbours.

Before the summer holidays I dipped my toe into the world of work. For a couple of months I spent Monday mornings helping out in an adult numeracy course at my local college. As I'm slightly maths-obsessed I leapt at the chance of trying this, and also wanted to see whether or not teaching could maybe be something I'd be good at. Although it's difficult to tell yet if I'm any good, I had a great time. The students were so welcoming and friendly, and really appreciative; that's an advantage of teaching adults I suppose. I do enjoy the teaching environment and it feels rewarding when you see that sudden look of understanding after you've explained something.

But I'm undecided about whether I'd prefer to teach adults or children. So when B. starts her "big nursery" next term I'm going to enquire about teaching assistant posts there. I do love being with kids, so I can imagine loving this even more - although faced with large quantities of them all at one time I might well change my mind!!

Anyone can breastfeed

Last year I wrote the following piece for a discussion forum, in reply to a discussion about breastfeeding support. Re-reading it inspired me to write this blog post. You might disagree with the title, but please read on!
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Although things are gradually improving here in the UK, I don't think there's enough breastfeeding support around at the moment, which is why so many mums who try are still giving up so early. And others who hear of these difficult experiences may decide not to even try to breastfeed in the first place.

There was a report recently that said that 90% of UK mothers who stopped feeding before six weeks regret doing so. This is really sad for them and their babies, especially as it would be so easy to prevent this if the right resources were in place.

So many women stop because they think their baby isn't getting enough milk, and in most cases they are, but the mothers just don't know how to tell. This isn't helped by health visitors who frequently scare mothers into giving up by measuring their babies' weights against charts based on data from bottle-fed babies.

Another common reason for stopping is if the baby doesn't latch on properly. This may be interpreted by the mother as the baby not wanting to breastfeed, it may again make her think that she's not producing enough milk, or that she's just doing it wrong somehow. These issues could be corrected so easily with the support of a breastfeeding adviser, who could look at the latch and provide an instant correction.

At our NCT classes Swedish breastfeeding statistics were used to illustrate that it's possible for almost every mother to breastfeed if given the right support. In Sweden, (according to data from the year 2000), over 90% of new mothers breastfeed their baby, and 72% of them are still breastfeeding by the time they're 6 months.

So if governments were to put some more resources into breastfeeding support and education it could make such a difference to our breastfeeding rates - not to mention the health of our children and the potential reduction in national healthcare costs from this investment!
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Sadly the lady who started the discussion, a Swedish lady, replied that things aren't so great now in Sweden. The country that many had hailed as the "breastfeeding capital of the world", is apparently having similar problems to us. Hospital staff no longer have enough time to help mothers breastfeed, and the enthusiasm that there once was for this most natural and healthy way of feeding one's child, is waning.

Luckily UK breastfeeding statistics are gradually improving, as people are being made more aware of the benefits, and it's slowly becoming more common to see other women breastfeeding. The latest statistics I can find are from 2005, where initial ('at birth') breastfeeding rates were 78% in England, 70% in Scotland, 67% in Wales, and 63% in Northern Ireland(1). Rates in all four countries had increased since previous years.

And from positive changes in the way the media portrays breastfeeding, the experiences of my friends and my own (statistically insignificant!) observations on peoples' attitudes to breastfeeding, I would expect (and hope) that things have improved even more since then.

A long-standing frustration amongst those trying to promote breastfeeding, is the apparent lack of interest amongst the working class and younger mothers. Although recent campaigns have had a positive effect overall, these groups just don't seem to relate to them. And ironically, it is lower income groups who could probably benefit most from breastfeeding; which could help reduce life-long health inequalities(2) caused by factors such as poor housing conditions, inadequate nutrition, a higher prevalence of diseases relating to tobacco and alcohol consumption, and less access to health information.

To try to improve the image of breastfeeding amongst younger women from poorer backgrounds, a new Lancashire-based campaign has been launched which is firmly aimed at this group. The Be A Star campaign trades on the cult of celebrity. It shows young breastfeeding mums looking glamourous and hot, just like a pop star or a model. A world apart from the traditional view of breastfeeding mums (middle-aged, middle class hippy folk), and more likely to appeal to those who don't fit the "traditional model".

Campaigns like this are very encouraging, and so are the real celebrities who go public about the benefits of breastfeeding, and speak about their positive experiences. People like Charlotte Church, Angelina Jolie and Gwen Stefani are worth their weight in gold to breastfeeding supporters; they are likely to have a markedly bigger positive impact on breastfeeding rates in all sectors of society, than any national campaign or strategy could ever hope to.



Sources
(1) Infant and Dietetic Foods Association
(2) Guardian Article: Breastfeeding Gets Image Overhaul
Photo courtesy of 007 Breasts

Talking to toilet roll holders

My daughter's currently under the table talking to cupcake cases. She has them spread out on the floor around her and each one seems to be a member of her class. ("Are you there Megan? Are you there Lila? Don't do that Mika!") She is telling them all what to do (lol!), and she's also saying other random-sounding things like "there's Tigger, and there's lots of carrots".

She often pretends that household objects are her friends. It's so funny, and I think that she acts out some things that have happened at school, using these objects. I'm not worried about this; I think it's normal and remember doing something similar - except I used dolls and teddies rather than cupcake cases and toilet roll holders..

While her friends are into dolls, my daughter's never shown any interest in the dolls or soft toys that people have bought her. I don't mind this as there's no rule that says girls have to play with dolls (although it's obviously a shame that people have bought them for her and she's not using them).

Actually somebody bought her a gorgeous little teddy bear for her birthday, and she just ignores him - so I have adopted him.