Age: 9 Months (37wks)

Mr Inquisitive has discovered his love for our kitchen appliances, definitely a man after my own heart! He’s yet to tell me his opinion of our new stainless steel cooker mind, perhaps I’ll put a rotisserie chicken in the oven for him to watch turn and brown and report on his feedback.

Gabriele’s New Found Hobby Is Watching The Washing Machine


The poor nugget has another head cold bless him and is incredibly snotty, dribbly and whinges when he’s tired. He’s finding it difficult to eat and drink because it stops him from breathing, but somehow he’s still eating a good amount of solids, our little soldier!

It seems Christmas has come late this year and finally we have snow, which is a bit of a problem as we end up cut off from the world as we live up a hill in the woods and unfortunately cars don’t like skating up hills. So Millie’s school was closed towards this weekend which was a bit of a relief as it’s certainly a challenge to hack a buggy through the snow, carry extra bags, boots and hats and scarves as well as book bags and lunch boxes to school in the wind and driving snow. We looked like eskimos the other day after dropping Millie off in the morning, standing outside the classroom waiting to be let in and then walking back to the car, my fingers were so cold and numb I couldn’t undo Gabriele from his buggy despite having worn gloves. So fumbling like a sausage for five minutes I finally thawed my fingers between my knees in order to load the car and drive us home.

Millie Was Snowed Off Of School This Week

It snowed all day and night and turned our garden into a winter wonderland within a day which was lovely and makes the whole countryside seem so bright and fresh. Millie loved crunching through the snow in the garden, and I explained the importance of avoiding yellow snow courtesy of Joey the chihuahua.

A Different Way To Spend A School Day For Millie

And the bunnies absolutely love the snow too. I was hesitant to let them out, firstly because opening up their hutch would leave them open to the elements and secondly because I thought they might have got wet and cold from the snow and didn’t want them to get ill. Last year the bunnies were babies so we kept them in, but now they’ve grown so big and bounce through the snow like excited children at a birthday party it’s lovely to see. And when they’ve had enough fun playing we pop them back into their heated hutch and they tuck up and sleep. Spoilt? Never!

Our Bunnies Cookie & Rocky Love The Snow

So our snotty little boy has been finding it even harder than usual to sleep at night. He is insanely alert at night as it is, but now he’s struggling and moaning and tossing and turning for forty minutes at a time before going to bed later than usual. It’s horrible to watch him so uncomfortable and I wish I could take it away and make him more content, but after a nappy change, bottle and winding and being walked around, tucked up in the dark with music and lights and having his forehead stroked to lull him to sleep there really is nothing more that we can do than wait for him to drop. He is the complete opposite of Millie as a baby, she slept amazingly well and soothed herself to sleep, and I know that my parenting approach hasn’t changed, they’re just different children. I guess we were fortunate to have it easy with Millie but the scales are balancing now with our little trouble maker.

Gabriele’s Nighttime Routine 37 Weeks After Birth

So at the weekend we both decided that we would put Gabriele to bed and knowing that the monitor was on and he was content and safe we didn’t go in to pick him up when he cried. It was horrific to hear Gabriele whimpering and babbling in his cot, but for our own sanity as well as his, we had to let him settle himself. It took just over an hour for him to finally snuggle down and sleep and he got himself into a horrible tantrum. It’s just as frustrating for us as it is him, he wants to sleep but gets so worked up about it and fights until his last bit of energy is gone. And for us we want him to be comfortable and peaceful and relaxed, just like when he has a nap during the daytime. We’ve tried wearing him out from playing and climbing the stairs but thought perhaps this was hyping him up and keeping him alert at night. We’ve tried keeping him awake during the day but then he goes past tiredness and get’s even more restless at night, so now he sleeps at around 2pm each day for twenty minutes or so. We’ve given him warm milk at night instead of food but he gets trapped wind and screams in his sleep. We’ve given him solids but it keeps him awake because he’s ate so close to bedtime and his body is still digesting his food. We’ve bathed him directly before bed and he cries that he has to get out of the water when he wants to keep on playing. We’re seriously banging our sleepy heads against a brick wall every night.

Gabriele managed to sleep from 4am until 9am after the whole catastrophe of tears and screaming. As he has a cold I’m fighting my emotions and heart to comfort him and think maybe we should put it off until next week when he’s better or even half-term when he won’t be keeping Millie awake all night for school. It’s never easy to see your child upset, but we really need to bite the bullet and think of the long term, he hasn’t naturally gotten into a night time routine so perhaps this is the only way forward? After all, we’ve exhausted every other option.

So when Luca fell asleep the other night whilst we had friends round, it was too good an opportunity to miss playing a little game of buckaroo, and didn’t we do well with a total of thirteen items. My favourite being the kettle, bib and candlestick! 🙂 What a sleepy sausage he was.

Gabriele’s Late Nights Have Influenced Luca’s Sleep Pattern – You Snooze You Lose!

And I’ve been taking full advantage of my MacBike, working out in my underwear now that I’m at home instead of the gym, with the windows fully open and it snowing outside I still manage to drench myself in sweat. It’s great not having to get down to the gym and watch the clock and juggle the children, I can come and go as I please as I have everything I need at home now.

Having All My Gym Equipment At Home Means I Can Work Out In My Underwear With The Windows Open And I Still Sweat!

But this week I have totally slacked off with my routine, it hasn’t helped with Millie being snowed off of school, Gabriele being poorly and waking up all night and the fact that I feel sleep deprived and drained. I know that I’ve slacked off on my situps and weights, but I’ve done five hours of cardio this week which is the backbone of my workouts so I’m still pretty happy with what I’ve achieved, but perhaps I’d have got more done if I were at the gym. I guess I need to find my house-based-feet and then build it up again to where I was before.

My Gym Routine 20 Weeks After Starting

So this week I shimmied up to the weighing scales, after a nice visit to the toilet first which left me grinning in the hope that I had shifted any access baggage for fear of sounding crude. In the mirror my body pretty much looks the same as last week. The six-pack still evades me, yet as I’ve not done any situps I can’t expect to see an improvement in my abs. My arms are feeling toned despite not having done any weights this week so I guess all I need to do is top them up every now and then to maintain a feminine shape.

I no longer have use of a leg press so I’m expecting my calves, thighs and bum to suffer from now on. Perhaps I’ll make a start on squats and lunges from home this week and see if I can achieve the same results.

So finally stepping on the scales I was greeted with a no-change from last week. I’m happy that I’ve maintained my resting weight for two weeks now, which means I’m hopefully not a mummy yo-yo but there’s always room for error if you get too comfortable.

My Weight Loss 37 Weeks After Giving Birth

And my slackyoffidness is obviously now backed up by the fact that I have my period. Oh joy! Talk about kicking a girl whilst she’s down. It’s been a while now since I’ve had my copper coil fitted and my periods are vaguely returned to an almost monthly cycle. I know that I’ve dropped my baby weight within a seemingly short space of time, although it feels as though it’s taken forever; but I’ve done it through a healthy diet and exercise as opposed to starvation or purging which I would never attempt and I strongly believe that women should be healthy and fit in order to raise a family in a positive way. I’ve paid for my baby-blubber shift in sheer sweat and determination and I’m very proud with my efforts, it hasn’t been easy but I’ve given it my all and finally now I can stand on top of my mountain and look back on the long path I have travelled. Weighing myself on the Wii is a great indication of what is a healthy weight for my age, height and build and I can see that I am at an ideal BMI. When I was a teenager I was underweight and as a result my periods stopped, so having a visit from Mother Nature has assured me that I’m within my limits and I won’t go below what I am now weight wise.

Although saying that, it would be lovely to never have another period ever again, but I happen to value my hair, teeth, nails and bone density too much to lose anymore weight! So I may just celebrate with a little treat! Cheers! x

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Tracy Kiss

Social influencer, Bodybuilder, Mother, Vegan
London, UK

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