Here we are again, Day 1 and already late.
We've just had a night away in a hotel on the 30th Oct to celebrate our 10th Wedding Anniversary, and Lydia went to stay with my parents for a night. She was so excited about going to stay at Glitter Granny's house, and mum didn't disappoint. They made biscuits, played with all the toys, watched Grandpa play with sparklers, read all the stories and stayed up late, then went to the park and got to choose a comic. We prepped her by talking about how exciting it would be to stay at Granny's house. She's been desperate to stay there again since we stayed once a few weeks ago. And since then, I've been asked to tell her a 'Granny and Lydia story' over and over.
In the week running up to her staying away, I stopped offering her a breastfeed at bedtime. I'd been cutting it down to mere minutes for weeks and weeks as I'm hoping we might be able to have another baby and I didn't want any of the breastfeeding hormones affecting any fertility treatment. She still asks everynight I'm there, but I say "We don't do that anymore, shall we have a cuddle" and there have been a few nights where I have to lie in bed with her till she falls a sleep. But fairly quickly, she's now happy to be left and plays with her toys and reads her books until she goes to sleep on her own. Tom does most of bedtime, and I only go in if she's not settled in a reasonable amount of time after he's left her the last time. She's probably not quite getting enough sleep as it's taking a while for her to go to sleep and she's dropped a day time nap, but we've brought bedtime forward a bit and cut out TV before bed, so I'm hoping that will speed up.
I'm sad we didn't get to have the "Last Feed". I've been so lucky with my breastfeeding, and I miss it's magical soothing properties to make almost everything better. She still wants lots of cuddles and sometimes asks to be held or fed like a baby, so we try and give those as much as possible for that physical reassurance.
We were at my parents' to pick up Lydia when the lock down announcement came, so where we had everything in bags for an over night stay, we stayed till bedtime, and then drove the short distance to Tom's mum and step dad's farm to see them one last time before lockdown. Tom's mum fell down the stairs a few weeks a go and badly cut her face and leg, so she'd not been coming to look after Lydia. I'm grateful Tom's trained me to always put in one spare pair of pants and socks more than you need when we go away as we were good to go completely spontaneously. And we always take extra of everything for Lydia. Never travel light!
So yesterday was spent with me having a bit of a lie in whilst Tom spent time with Lydia and his mum, then playing with Lydia and going to look at the sheep, the chickens, the cows and the pigs. Lydia had a go at feeding the cows some hay, and got quite brave about getting closer to them which was nice. She's terrified of mum's younger labrador who always tries to get close to her face to lick and sniff her, so we're trying to make sure other animals aren't scary. It's a privilege to be able to go to the farm and show her all these things close up and personal.
She wasn't that keen on lunch, and it was a bit late for her, so I ended up taking her inside to eat on her own as a bit of a punishment/take her away from all the stimulation, and after I mashed it up a bit and fed her some, she did eat some, which stopped her being too grumpy!
We left not too long after lunch. I had to make some work phone calls first based on the lockdown announcements. Once home, we unpacked whilst Lydia ate tea, and she helped me clean up her buggy. After her bedtime, I started sorting through her toys that are too little for her to make space for any possible Christmas gifts. Tonight will be putting the buggy and the toys and the nappies in the loft.
Once I'd got through all that, Tom had made some cheese on toast and we ate that whilst watching The Queen's Gambit on Netflix, which is really good. Didn't need much to eat as we'd eaten very well whilst away. I'd had a cracking beetroot dill and goats cheese risotto at the hotel, and for lunch the following day, my parents had paid for us to eat at the Pythouse Kitchen as Tom's birthday present in April. They had the best spaced dining facilities in their marquee of those I've seen, and the food was immense. All their mains are cooked over charcoal. I had venison with a hedgerow Pontiac sauce and hazelnuts, and we had potato, parsnips, feta and rosemary, and kale, broccoli, and sunflower seed butter as our sides. Absolutely delicious. The garden had gone over for winter, but I bet it's stunning earlier in the season.
Lockdown 2 is filling me with dread re:work, but for home, as nurseries are open, there's a little pressure off us, so we've written a plan of crafty type activities to do with Lydia for the days when we're looking after her.
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