Desperate Housewife and New Mum

Sarahsaver

My DD was a pain in the butt in the early days. She liked to be moving, so i did MINIMAL housework with her in a sling, she liked to be in the buggy outdoors looking att he leaves blowing on the trees (also the sunshine makes them shut their eyes - SHHHH!)
Else hoovering so i could not hear her cry, ofteh she would fall asleep whilst I hoovered!
She liked listening to the Prodigy and Chemical brothers and would cry if i switched it off.
in the kitchen with the DW, washer, drier and radio with her bouncy chair propped against the DW or the washer soothed her.
puttanesca pasta which is pasta with ingredients just chopped up and bunged on when the pasta is done (something like olives, tomatoes, garlic and so on) , salads, stews, boiled ham if you like that, omelettes, baked potatoes, french bread 'pizza'
i have all this to come - AGAIN :rotfl: I am due in about 7 weeks.

If/when you get visitors tell them you need them to bring something or do a little job for you. People often ask 'is there anything i can do' but few of us say 'YES'

BTW pataks curry sauces are 2 fo £1 in Asda they seem to make anything taste nice!

Katgoddess

DS had a 10 min happy mood so I managed to brown the mince before chucking everything in the slow cooker. Three minutes in the microwave - I will remember that for next time. :T

OH refused to get me a freezer because his mother has three - full of stuff that doesn't get eaten. I told him I wasn't like his mother :mad: but he wouldn't listen. I was going to sort one out myself once the baby was born but didn't get around to it As soon as the dining room is clear it's going in there. Like it or lump it.

MIL is coming over to take baby for a walk later so I can have a bath. :T OH does long shifts. Today he is working 6am till 9pm. I am normally feeding the baby when he leaves for work so can't have a shower or prepare food then. IF the baby is asleep at 5.30am when he leaves I'm sleeping. It's a bit too late to send OH out with baby at 9pm as well. He's generally feeding when OH comes home anyway. I think OH will be taking baby out for a walk on Sunday afternoon from now on though. They need some quality time together.

Well things are looking more positive. I've now got another way of calming baby and have managed a bolognaise.

joannasmum

Kat

Just a quick idea. If hes got reflux are you proping his mattress up a tiny bit when he lies down. A folded up blanket works a treat.

Louisa_2

Ok so this is an oldie but it's still true!

Mother oh Mother come shake out your cloth
Empty the dust pan andpoison the moth
Hang out the washing and make up the bed
Sew on a button & butter the bread


Where is the mother whose house is so shocking?
She's up in the nursery blissfully rocking
Oh I've grown as shiftless as little boy blue
Lullaby, rock-abye, lullaby loo

The shopping's not done & there's nothing for stew
And out in the garden there's hullabaloo
But I'm playing Kanga and this is my Roo
Lullaby, rock-abye, lullaby loo.
The cleaning & scrubbing can wait till tomorrow
But babies grow up as I've learned to my sorrow
So quiet down cobwebs, and dust go to sleep
I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep

(If it's any help I'm not blisfully rocking either though- my second baby is now four weeks old and although thankfully not colicky is terribly windy and not a fan of being put down! My baby bjorn carrier is a lifesaver at the mo)

In terms of what to cook, I'd echo other posts about the slow cooker. Portion of mince, can of tomatoes, 1 chopped onion, 1 can of kidney beans in chilli sauce and voila one chilli con carne to be eaten in deli style wraps instead of with rice. If you start it first thing even if your littley only allows you to add one ingredient every hour, it won't hurt at all.

Or my dinner from last night:

Pack of sausages, 1 can tomatoes, 2 handfuls of olives, shake of chilli flakes can of chopped mushrooms, 1 chopped onion, 1 glass of red wine (poured from the bottle whilst I was pouring myself a glass too! Also bf but wine o'clock is sacred in my house at the mo). Bunged in casserole dish and chucked on the hob for 1.5 hours. Bet it would work fine in sc too. Served with red lentil mash (boiled red lentils- so easy! And didn't really matter how long I boiled them for so if your baby is fractious they'll keep fine)

Good luck!

whatatwit

If you speak to MIL, would she consider letting you have one of her freezers....she might even offer to fill it with home cooked ready meals for you.
They can be a godsend for things like bread and milk, so if the weather is awful you don't have to trail out with your little one.

dorry_2

kat---your baby is soo cute!! congratulations :T :T

I can empathise, my ds2 now 11, did not sleep through the night and a little during the day :eek: nothing worse, I was like a zoombie for years:eek:

I did not menu plan back then, I just wish i had, it would have been less stressfull!!

anyway, If I were to do it all again, (which i won't be, cos I am too old)

I would defo get the slow cook out, maybe put some braising steak and oxos in, with some frozen mixed veg, then as dh arrives put a couple of jackets in the microwave in. At least with that type of meal, you know its cooked and there ready to eat.

I would maybe put a chicken in to roast, buy some salad and put some oven chips in or boil some new potatoes

Another quick one is Jamies meatballs with spagetti

---

get some sausages and half them , squezzing them out of skin, fry them, cook some wholewheat spagetti up and make a quick sauce with some tinned toms, mixed herbs and garlic, this is one of jamie olivers at home recipes, makes a lovely quick long lasting energy meal, as wholewheat spag is low gi.


kat, it does get better, but in the meantime, you will get through it easier by keeping your energy levels up, by eating low gi foods, such as brown rice, anything wholewheat, pears, dried apricots, that type of thing!:D

oh! one last thought, do you order online, it would be alot easier to have something delivered, that way you don't have the trauma of the shops. I know you need time to order it, but I would get oh to have him for a hour, it would save alot of hasle and stress and then the food would be there, for you just to bung in !!!

kunekune

My sympathies. We moved house the day after I got out of hospital with my 36 weeker. He didn't nap. His muscle tone was poor so it took forever to feed him. He had reflux. I was lucky that DH was working ordinary hours and was even able to come home for lunch - which he'd then make for both of us. But even then, I remember the complete mess - we'd put the boy down to sleep at about 8pm and then try to cook our own meal. Either that or take turns to eat.

What helped? Well, like a lot of people I used a front pack. You can surf the net quite well with a baby asleep in the front pack (I'm sure that's why he's so good on the computer). I did end up getting brave enough to do some cooking while wearing him - holding the kettle and then the cup to one side, that kind of thing. We walked a lot, but I guess you are doing that already. And it doesn't help with food (well, it did with me - I ate a lot in cafes but we were living somewhere with good cheap cafes).

Food wise, I think you should be going for good quality, plenty of protein, plenty of fruit and veg and not worrying too much about being the perfect housewife at the moment. I do have a couple of food ideas though. Do you have a liquidiser? Smoothies would be good and you could drink those with one hand while tending to the little one - banana, milk, some strawberries and a dollop of icecream (for the protein, of course) for example. I remember making a lot of muffins - the dry mix can be done in advance, then just add the wet bits, bung it in the oven and you're nearly there. They freeze well if you don't wolf them all down. Try savoury ones with cheese and corn and so forth, that'll glam up some tinned soup quite well too.

Desperate_Housewife_2-2

Hope you are coping ok Kat, I'll second the idea about getting one of the three freezers off MIL! I don't know what your relationship with your MIL is like but could you get her to help you a bit more maybe, not all the 'nice' jobs like holding the baby but all the drudge...cleaning, ironing etc?

Another tip, leave things at each end of the stairs ie if things need to go upstairs, leave them to collect in a basket at the bottom and take it up when you go, same goes for downstairs, I saved loads of mileage with this tip and still do, all those wasted trips up and down stairs. (I bet you'll post now and say you live in a flat!)

Coould you make a pile of cheese sarnies and maybe freeze individually? Get them out when you are hungry and stick them in a sarnie toaster? A few mins invested to save time later.

Good luck and keep up the good work!

claireabelle_2

Fajitas are quick, too, if you have 10 mins!

Mrs._Irwin

Hi Kat! My little boy is also 11 weeks, though thankfully doesn't have colic.
Be assured that the quality of your food will not affect your milk, your body will leach it's own vitamins etc. to feed your baby, but that can of course make you very tired, so it's still important to eat well!
I have found though that my boy is sensitive to caffeine, and having cut it out he seems to have calmed down a bit. This isn't true for all breastfeeding women, but it has certainly helped us.
I've found that having snacky type food, ie. sausage roll, Nutrigrain bars, bananas available really helped.
And I'd second the suggestion to get your shopping delivered.
Best of luck.

Mrs. Irwin
xx