...hen do's and wedding bells

Nearly 10 years ago I met Woody while working at a skatepark company. He's sure his enthusiasm helped me get the job. We had a blast Woody, Sam and I in that attic office. It was the beginning of idiot club.

Idiots

This August, Andrew (as his bride-to-be calls him with a soft American twang) is getting married to the gorgeous Natasha. The stags sailed up the river to birmingham in a canal boat while the hens did the do in style in London. 

The afternoon began with a Mad Hatter's Tea party at the Sanderson. 

Here's a peek at the tasty treats...

Thanks to Natasha's lovely mother for the photo.

Ladies, apparently the tune in the music box was "Somewhere over the Rainbow"we couldn't quite place it... 

We then moved onto Berner's Tavern for drinks. Check out its comprehensive drinks cabinet...

Is it wrong to choose a drink for it's colour? You've got to love the pop of orange from an aperol spritz...

After more drinks and games we ended up at Satan's Whiskers for shots and fizzy cocktails, where the hen met a well endowed stuffed Badger - pretty glad Badger wasn't there to see it.

Sunday brunch took place at the highest restaurant in the UK, Duck & Waffle, where we sampled the tasting menu. 

The signature dish was a real winner for me.

A big thank you to all the girls for organising a fun weekend. I am so looking forward to meeting up with everyone and celebrating Woody and Natasha's nuptials so soon.

This was also Sam's first weekend on his own with Jesse and the boy did a stella job. Too good. It's very obvs who his favourite is now...

...recommending the Blissful Baby Expert

In the early days, Jesse co-slept with us. This was never my plan. The thought of having a baby in my bed frightened me. But when a newborn baby cries so hard that he can't catch his breath you quickly reassess your options.

Breast feeding and sleeping all merged into one. This suited me fine as I actually think i got more sleep that way. But as the months went by it became clear that Jesse was using me as a dummy. In the evenings he would get so restless that he couldn't even get to sleep on me. He was still waking at 3am to breast feed and I had a feeling that it was more for comfort than hunger. 

A friend posted on Facebook about her wonder woman, the Blissful Baby Expert author Lisa Clegg. I asked if her book could help me teach Jesse to go to sleep by himself without using me as a dummy. She said absolutely, and even better than that I could email her direct for help.

That night our attempts of the 'pick up put down' method were proving particularly fruitless - Jesse would cry whether we held him or not so it was more 'pick up and put down 40 mins later once he had exhausted himself'. I emailed Lisa in the wee hours and she got back to me early the next morning to ask me a few questions before advising me on what to do.

After an awful first night for both me and Jesse, Lisa was on hand very early to give me tips to help us adjust and Jesse went to sleep by himself very quickly for his 9am nap. He now goes to sleep in his cot in his own room and can resettle himself back to sleep if he awakes during the night. This is no small part down to having the Blissful Baby Expert on the end of an email giving me the confidence to help my little boy self settle.

No wonder the baby on the front of the book is so happy...