Stormy weather

Time flies with a baby.  The little chap is 11 weeks old now, and has more than doubled in weight - and cuteness!  The social smiles have started, and he had a proper chuckle for the first time.  It's lovely to be able to be more interactive with him, though he still has a tendency to nap whenever we go anywhere.  People keep asking me how much he sleeps.  More than me.  He wakes two to three times at night to feed, and that could be after 2 hours sleep or after 4, it's still variable.  He slept for a whopping 6 hours the other night, from 8pm until 2am,  Of course, I woke up far earlier, sat watching him intently, wondering if he was okay and waiting...

I've been making a big effort to get out and about more, and that's definitely helped me feel more energised.  I'm still exhausted, but I'd rather be exhausted and out somewhere than exhausted sat at home.  The hardest aspect was waiting 6 weeks after the birth before doing any proper exercise.  I found that frustrating, as I felt fine physically after the birth, but knew that muscles, bones and ligaments all needed a bit of healing time and that if I rushed it, I could do more harm than good.  Ideally I would have done a lot more gentle walking to ease myself back in, but the weather was so bad that I couldn't.

I don't mind going out in "a bit of rain" but I draw the line if it's also freezing cold or very windy.  Or if there's flooding.  The Rhondda valley was hit badly by Storm Dennis.  Pontypridd high street was submerged, a landslide came down, and many homes in the village up the road were flooded twice in three days.

Anyway, I probably have about another 60 seconds before the baby wakes up, so here's a pictorial roundup of what I've been up to in the last few weeks!

Baby's first trip to the seaside, on Penarth Pier

Supporting Wales in the rugby

A rainy walk around Roath Park in Cardiff

Mastering breastfeeding in public!

Unimpressed with the supermarket

Testing out the baby carrier

A walk in the calm after Storm Dennis

It turned out after I typed that last sentence that I actually only had 30 seconds before the baby woke up, so this post has taken yet another day to publish!  Let's hope that March brings calmer weather and some sunshine for us all.

I love this shot because it looks like Otis is the one holding the selfie stick!