What's to do with Finley

A little while back I let you all in on why I have been a little absent on the online world and why posts have been more sporadic than usual. If you missed it you can check it out here :D 

But if you fancy here is a little recap for you all, Finley began cruising around furniture from around the 1 year mark, we were expecting to be kept on our toes pretty quickly soon after chasing around an unruly Finley jumping from one couch to another, running around the house ripping off his clothes or even balancing enough to climb up to the biscuit barrel and pinch a choccy digestive or two....however he is nearly 20 months old and he still hasn't got there.

We are still at the cruising stage with maybe a few unbalanced steps here and there, and his primary method of getting out and about is on his knees. He is quite happy zooming around on them little baby knees, carrying his toys along or even pretending he is shopping carrying around my handbag (sorry Matt) haha. 

I dont have too many shots of him on his knees but here is one, and as an added bonus he is dressed as a dinosaur

Well, finally after months and months of waiting we attended our specialist appointment. And Finley has now been diagnosed with a case of Idiopathic Tip Toe Walking. 

To expand it basically means that he walks on his knees (and tip toes when cruising) for no real reason whatsoever, meaning there is no real cause as to why he does it. There isn't a magic cure unfortunately but it doesn't mean that he will never walk, a lot of babies and toddlers either grow out of it or with a little help start to walk with splints and boots. It isnt an overly common condition BUT the specialist did ease our minds and told us he has at least a dozen current patients with the same as Finley.

We went into detail with the specialist and he saw Finley give a little demo of his party trick knee shuffle, and put our minds straight at ease that he doesn't think it is anything sinister going on with his spinal cord or nerve reactors in his legs - PHEW! But he said that he wont be surprised if we are still talking about this in years to come. I am assuming such an habitual habit is going to be tough to break, especially with Finley being such a blumming strong willed so and so! Plus he told us Finley will quite enjoy the sensation on standing on the ball of his foot, almost like a comforter for him...I try to avoid dummies and this happens lol It just shows you doesn't it.

We described Finley's personality and development and he picked up on a few noticeable characteristics that generally correlate with idiopathic tip toe walkers. Finley has a huuuuggee temper, he can be the sweetest loveliest chap then the next minute you take away his crayons and wow, he goes into full on melt down mode. He is also obsessed with any gadgets, i-phones, normal telephones, controls! He would happily sit and play with a bunch of keys rather than a stack of mega blocks any day. Plus he is a fussy eater, I mentioned it a while back I am struggling to feed him anything overly exciting and we are still at that stage, he said it is all linked and Finley is one of those kids that just like things a certain way at a certain time! 

So where do we go from here, up to now we have just encouraged walking when he is interested but as he only ever balances on his toes he struggles picking up momentum and gets frustrated. If we initiate walking and stand him up he just tucks his legs under and wont even attempt walking, cries and gets annoyed. The last thing we want to do is force him so he is the one in control now. He has taken a few steps months back but never fancied it again!

We are being referred to physio at a local children's centre and they will more than likely give us exercises to perform as they need to avoid his achilles tendon shrinking or becoming too tight. Luckily I pushed for a referral early and surgery is probably not need *crosses fingers* he will probably be prescribed little walking boots and plastic splits to keep his feet at a right angle. Sounds uncomfy, but no more so than walking on floors every day on your knees!

Up to now that's all we know and we are just waiting for the next stage in the process, luckily Finley doesn't even bother and is more than happy shuffling around....shame that we go through pant bottoms like nobodys business.

If you are reading this because you have a similar story please let me know how your journey panned out or if you have any questions what so ever please ask, I have done sooo much reading and question asking I have all this knowledge floating around in my little head. Most stories online are of older children toe walking whereas Finley will stand on his toes but walk on his knees, he is a little hybrid and I can't seem to find many similar stories.

As soon as there is the next update I shall let you all know and when Finley finally does walk please can we all have a virtual 'walking' party and celebrate with balloons, cakes and loads of new shoes :D

Perhaps a cheeky pair for mummy too!

Thank you all for sticking by me and not jumping ship because I am being rubbish lately :D oh also if you want a video of his walking let me know, my friends find it so bizzare and think he looks like a munchkin so if you want to see how he gets about I'll upload a clip for you.

Lots of Love

Kayleigh x

Finley Photo Outakes

One of my most favourite things to do along with having lye-ins and putting my make up on is taking snaps of that lovely jubbly sausage that is Finley!

You can guarantee that he has 20 pictures for nearly every day of his 1st year, they seem to have dwindled since purely because his hands and eyes are constantly on the lens and we can never get a picture of him sat still. But you can find me still regularly taking little candid snaps on Instagram and proper pictures on the big boy camera....even though now it takes me a lot longer.

When I take pictures for either our little family bundle or snaps for my blog I never delete anything, a little example for you, the last blog post I did I edited and posted a grand total of 6 pictures however I took 42 with products in different lighting, different layouts etc, so you can only imagine how many unused pictures are stored away on my harddrive. Plus I never have the heart to delete anything Finley is in, so here are some photo blunders I thought I would pop up here. I wanted to keep it real and let you all in on the 'behind the scenes' and how 90% of the pictures I take are like this!

I feel bad that there are so many photos hiding away in folders and sub folders that will probably never get used or even looked at...so I am sending them some love and hand picked a few for you to have a gander over. Some are photos from blog posts and others are just general snaps we have taken :) There are soooo many to pick from so here are just a few, some embarrassing (for Finley) others of him wayyyyyy to close up! 

Tiny Little Hairs

Anyone with a baby will know what face this is!

Pumpkin attack - Good job Daddy was on hand...safety first people

Typical Finley, climbing up my leg with half a face in shot - half my hallway full of baby items!

THE biggest diva you have ever seen in the history of blogging! Quick get this guy some puppies, white lilies and blue smarties! Sheesh!

All this because the grass felt weird!

Not sure if he is keen on his dungarees...or me!

Sorry for the picture overload but I thought it would be fun to share some snaps that I regularly take a peek at just for fun :) If you enjoyed this post and would like another similar please let me know as I have soooo many hidden snaps from when Finley was super duper tiny to now....plus a couple of rather embarrassing shots of me!

Thanks so much for reading.

Love Kayleigh x

An afternoon of bubbles and comfy pants..

Every now and then I like to step back and take note of the little things that happen whilst hanging out with that little chap Finners, I love writing milestone posts and jotting down all the dates Finley turned into an even bigger boy than the day before, but sometimes I just want to capture his 'Finley-ness'

Today was one of those moments I grabbed the camera and snapped away, his hair (what he has of it) is all a little skew-whiff, toys are sprawled out over the floor and of course he is head to toe in miss-matched attire...but hey, that's just life with a toddler :D

We recently joined a new class at our local surestart centre called 'Bubbles and Bops', I already knew Finley loved a good boogie and wiggle but he was introduced to his new favourite...bubbles! It had never crossed my mind to pick up any bubbles for him, I'm not too sure why but when I tried to buy some WOW, could I find 1 single tube anywhere...no. They only seem to be sold in mega packs or boxes of 25. So what I ended up buying was a 'mega bubble wand' from Asda with a few bits of shopping - when it came I laughed out loud. It is the size of my arm with the biggest ever wand inside, but for £1 it was worth the investment. I have finally found something other than a Petit Filous to keep Finley intrigued for longer than 10 seconds.

A little bubble burst on his button nose

If you can get your hands on a little tube from your local newsagents I would highly recommend them, cheap and entertaining what more could you want.

Here is a perfect example of Finley's 10 second attention span, he spots one of the cats and he is off. He is a real life baby Ace Ventura and has a strange love for any animal....especially ones that just want to be left in peace and quiet. Sorry Penny Pitstop.

Hands up who dresses like this on days off? *Both hands firmly in the air*

Matt even commented on my cardigan today and said it looked rather strange, my reply was have you not seen me this past 12 months - I dress for comfort now not style...comfy pants are my new have always been my best friend . In a nutshell I only now concentrate on the neck upwards, Hair - Check, Make up - Check, Skincare - Check, Clothes - FAIL. Today I am wearing a union jack racer back, a horse print cardigan, comfy pants and ugg boots with the button missing on one side! Unfortunately Finley sometimes picks up on my strange indoor comfy wear and it is rubbing it off...luckily we dress a little too smart outside of the house so it balances out our randomness. Please let me know I am not the only one?! haha.

Overall we had a smashing afternoon of bubbles glimmering in the sunshine and crawling around in our comfy pants. I hope you enjoyed reading a little slice of our afternoon and would love you to let me know what your favourite moments our with your little one? Or what memories you want to capture in the future.

Love Kayleigh x

Throwback Thursday

When Finley was born everyone including me agreed that he was a mini version of Matthew, I was surprised he was even related to me because he looked nothing at all like me. A few friends had said 'oh does he look like you or Matthew as a baby?' hmmmm I pulled out the photo album to have a glance but no, he just looks like a very tiny, wrinkled version of Matthew.

Well to my surprise the other day the thought popped into my head and out came the same photo album and BAM...

It was as though Finley was it all the pictures from 1988 onwards! How did this happen, why didn't I see this change in him! I thought you might all like to see a few snaps of me when I was the same age as Finley, let me know if you can see the resemblance or if I am going mad.

 I even noticed that Finley and I had the same eating habits, I'm glad to say that I have grown out of mine but now I'm just waiting for him to stop throwing his weetabix up the wall and squishing strawberries through his fingers!

There were a few other similarities I spotted, we both seemed to have that slight ginger tinge to the wispy hair dotted sparsely around our head although his is turning blonde as did mine at around 1ish (so I'm told).  Our eyes seem the exact same shade of blue, mine are a little more green nowadays so I'm expecting his to change a little. In the millions of photos I looked through there were only about 4 where I actually had noticeable hair....I was 3! Sorry Finley it looks like that little Egg nogin' of yours will just have to be bald for a little longer.

If you would like to see a few other comparison photos I will dig out some more for you all to have a look at, I love seeing old photos especially now we have a little baby of our own to see all the little similarities and family traits. 

Love Kayleigh x

Finley's Birthday Trip to the Zoo

I have a feeling that January may involve quite a few 'birthday' posts, everything from tea-parties to a birthday haul. Today's post is a little look into what we got up to on the big day itself! We decided that because he seems to have a soft spot for animals at the moment we would head to Blackpool zoo.  

The weather was lovely, cold but lovely. You may be looking at these pictures thinking 'where is his hat, where are his mittens'....well in the pram basket! He hates anything on his head, hands, even feet! We kept persisting which lead to him crying and whinging in the 'shhhhhh must be queit' enclosure! I wouldn't mind too much if he had a little more hair to keep that bald head warm but somehow that tiny wisp just doesn't cut it. We kept trying to sneak his hood up but he just wasn't having it!

Anyway, we had a lovely walk around the park admiring all the animals that ventured out into the cold January air. I have to admit that Finley wasn't the least bit interested in anything but these little monkeys. I think he somehow related to them and their cheeky ways.

His little face lit up just looking at these tiny furry mites, I spent ages knelt down propping him up so he could smile and 'talk' to the little monkeys, its a shame I didn't take note of what breed they were so I shall be googling that! Unless anyone is a nature enthusiast and can help me out? :D We even bought a souvenir monkey teddy for him to snuggle with less chance of destruction, we already have one cheeky monkey running riot in the house, we definitely don't need another haha. 

We wandered through the park and in total took nearly 300 pictures, sheesh! Here are just a few and one of the cutest monkey I ever did see.

Note the lemur in the first photo

 - it was sat legs akimbo meditating in the sun! They were all in a huge open enclosure, they ran free climbed trees and I felt much more comfortable with that environment. I love to see the animals running as free as they can, rather than behind cages and high fences. I was surprised that there was so many species of animals there and how much space they all have, I admit now I haven't always been the biggest fan of Zoos for the 'caged' element but I am happy to report back I found it really well layed out and all the animals seemed as free as they could be.

Here is a little picture of Finley and I at the end of our Zoo Adventure, both windswept....Mummy a little more so! Yikes! I wasn't sure whether to include this pic because of the very serious 'hair issue' I am having but hey, that's life! That's what happens when you spend hours walking around the Zoo, delving in and out of the deeply filled changing bag for a Sippy Cup 20 times and getting your hair tugged by a very excited Birthday Boy! 

He had a lovely Birthday morning....yes there is more to come! In the afternoon we opened prezzies, had a balloon party and played with toys! Wow - such a busy day for us all. 

Can you believe he is one! 

See you all soon

Love Kayleigh x

Happy 1st Birthday Finley

I knew this day would come along but yikes it has whizzed around much faster than I imagined. 

 

To be honest I was quite emotional yesterday, reminiscing about times he was so tiny he fit in the crook of my arm, times when he was swaddled up so snug he dreamed all day. But today I have come to terms with the fact that he will never be that tiny boy so fragile that 1 year ago today we were scared to pick him up. But look what fantastic things we have 1 year on, today he is that strapping boy that loves to let Daddy fly him through the air, that cheeky sausage that is just the right combination of loveliness to cheekiness! That cheerful boy who when he smiles his nose wrinkles and scrunches.

Today our son Finley turned one. Happy Birthday :D

 Love Kayleigh x

This day one year ago

I was sat at home enjoying my first official day off after leaving my ever so lovely workmates for a good year off to have a tiny little baby.

Little did I know that we would become parents the very next day!

Finley came into the world at 11:45pm on Sunday 15th January 2012

How do I have a baby that is turning one tomorrow, a baby that after today shall be known as a toddler and will soon be running around causing even more havoc (happy havoc that is)!

Wow what a year it has been....

I wrote the above sentence and felt the tears welling up so I had to stop before I began sobbing like an emotional wreck. Lets just say it has been amazing plus 10 times more amazingness piled on top.

Happy Birthday for tomorrow our little Fin Sausage

Love Mummy and Daddy x

Finley's First Christmas

Happy New Year everybody! Can you believe that it is 2013 already...this time last year I was psyching myself up to give birth in February whilst panicking that I still didn't have my hospital bag packed! 'Relax, you have ages' I thought, Little did I know I would be giving birth in less than two weeks! 

 Just as quick as the year began with Finley in our lives, it shot by even faster!  

One of the most exciting times Matt and I had this year was celebrating Finley's first Christmas :) For the first time in our 9 years together Christmas was celebrated at our house, Matt was the hostess with the mostess and I donned the role of Chef, to quote my Dad 'these are some of the best roast potatoes I have ever had'! Eat your heart out Ainsley!

Hands up who had Christmas Pyjamas on? We Did.

It was such a laid back lovely day, we had the usual festivities playing on the TV whilst family popped round to open presents with Finley and dress him up as Father Christmas.

My Dad spent the day with us and helped Finley unwrap his goodies from Father Christmas. He even did the washing up after I used every baking tray and pan available in the house...his invite is already in the post for next Christmas. 

Along with the good old tinsel bun went the obligatory paper hat....if you don't wear one whilst eating Christmas dinner you actually get arrested by the Christmas police! You have been warned!

Although Finley wasn't too interested in ripping open the presents and just played with his old toys he still had a great time. He was so spoilt but hey that's what having babies is all about, right?

He has far too many clothes and toys to post pictures of everything here but some shall feature in his upcoming 'Finley Faves' post :) 

Here are a few snaps from dinner, excuse his messy chops!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and enjoyed eating your body weight in Roses and feasting of left over turkey sandwiches! If anyone has any Orange or Strawberry Cremes left send them my way....they are my most favourite.

Overall it was our best ever Christmas, I just cant wait for more Chrisrmasas to come around for those little squeals of excitment and 5am wake up calls to see if he has been.

Merry Christmas from us all and I hope 2013 is lucky for everyone!

Our last photo of Finley from Christmas in more Christmas PJs saying Goodnight and Thankyou.

Love Kayleigh x

A cheeky morning with Finey

This post is a little bit of an accident really, I was just snapping away on the camera trying to get some shots of Finley sporting his festive jammies when I realised he was just being plain cheeky! At the moment it is almost impossible to get a picture of him sat still...instead he is always doing the 'I promise I'm being good Mummy/Daddy' face, whilst climbing up any furniture he can find!

To be honest I'm not surprised, I think he is getting me back for disappearing a few times this week. On Wednesday I had to leave him for the longest time ever...13 hours 40 minuets to be exact!!! *Sigh* and to add to my already mummy anxiety I was over an hour away in Manchester! For all those people who may be interested I was at the Employment Tribunal courts observing, so concentrating on cross examinations took the edge off wanting to constantly sob and call home. 

Then the next day I was out with all my bestest work chums for the works Christmas Tea, it was a quick Chinese before we got drenched running to the car to get home to Finners.

Anyway, I wanted to share a few of the lovely snaps I captured of Fin being a good old cheeky chap! I wouldn't expect anything less of an 11th month old baby boy....and I have a sneaky suspicion he isn't growing out of it any time soon! That is fine by us, we just love our spirited bun full of giggles and mischievous glances. 

Theres the 'look' I was talking about!

As I chased him back into the front room out of the Kitchen he headed straight to the DVDs, this baby just doesn't want to take it easy.

Let me know if your little ones are keeping you on your toes? Oh oh oh guess what.....the Christmas tree is going up tomorrow! YAYAYAYAY 
'I love you, I lovvveee You, I LOVE YOU' -can you guess my most fave Christmas film from that quote??

Love Kayleigh x

Daddy Loves Finley this much

A slightly different post for you all tonight but I thought you might be interested in Matt's most recent addition :) Here's little background for you all first.

When Finley was teeny tiny I already knew he wouldn't be a cuddly type that snuggled with a Teddy or curled up with a glow worm in his cot. So after a little searching I opted to buy him a few Lamaze items, fun, educational but still have a hint of 'teddy' I so want him to love. One turned out to be his most cherished toy of all time...the one the only Mr Robot. 

He pops up everywhere!

Now...to all you Lamaze enthusiasts out there you will probably know that his real name is 'Rusty Robot' but my husband being the creative genius he is came up with Mr Robot and it has stuck, thinking about it there is a theme running will all his toys....Mr Robot, Mr Giraffe, Mr Peter Rabbit...hmmmm! 

Anyway I wanted to show you all the Tattoo Matthew had in honour of our Fin Sausage. In total I think he has around 23ish tattoos to rival my zero haha! This was his latest and of course our most favourite one. 

It isn't your ordinary tattoo but hey, we're not the kind of family that does ordinary and when Finley gets a little older it will be great to tell him the adventures of Mr Bun and Mr Robot.

You may also be wondering who Mr Bun is....

When I was pregnant we always referred to our baby as the 'Bun' and as soon as we found out it was a boy it was Mr Bun from then on. We had three names for Finley before he arrived but we never called him his name till he was born, so it was always 'this would be lovely for Mr Bun' or 'its in Mr Bun's room'. To this day he is still our Mr Bun and he probably gets called that more than his name!!

Matt has said that he would like to get another tattoo with Finley's proper name, probably when he is a little older so Finley can write his own name and it will be an exact copy of his handwriting. I on the other hand shall be a big girls blouse and admire Matthew's tattoos from afar.

A bit of a random post for you all but I would love to see if you have any little tributes to your babies :) 

Love Kayleigh x

What do you mean my Maternity leave is over....

I cannot believe that the time has come to wave goodbye to my Maternity leave, well the paid part at least. In one respect I cant grumble too much as the company I work for are amazing with their Maternity pay package, we get a full 100% wage for 15 weeks then the standard SMP of around £135 up till your 39th week off. 

My 39th week finished yesterday *sob*

 I could take up till the 14th January off but it would be unpaid and I'm sure like the majority of families out there that just is not possible for us. However I have a plan of action to get maximum Finley time, whilst off on Maternity you still accrue your regular holiday entitlement 'yay' I plan to use up mine a few days a week so I'm still off but getting a wage. 

Even with all that in mind I am still going into work TOMORROW! My team is having a few hours of training a week for a few weeks so I'm popping in. I'm not sure I will even remember to use a pen let alone study the ins and outs of employment tribunals! yikes! 

All that in mind I haven't 100% made up my mind how many days/hours I will work or even if I'm going to go back. There are too many questions I still need answering about returning to work...plus the biggest questions ever are could I leave Finley and do I even want too? I don't know how I would concentrate knowing he isn't there for me to tickle and talk gibberish to.

*ahem* getting too emotional here

When I was pregnant everyone said time flew when you had babies but I never quite thought it would go this quick. I'm grasping onto those last few days of babyhood as they are slipping away quickly, every day Finley gets more and more grown up his characteristics are more of a little boy rather than a sqeauky baby. Another major reason for extending my maternity leave as far as I can stretch it. 

If anybody has any questions on Maternity leave, your entitlements and hints please ask. I work in HR and part of my job was advising mums daily on their rights :) I also might be able to get you a few extra days leave too!

I best go and get myself prepared for work tomorrow - it may only be 2 hours but my brain is in rusk and sippy cup mode. Wish me luck.

Love Kayleigh x

Hmmmm have my waters broken?

I want to post this on here because I asked the same question back in January and got the wrong answer.

My due date was the 3rd February 2012 but ended up having Finley on the 15th January at 37 weeks and 2days, see don't believe all those 'overdue' first time mum stories.
I can't put my finger on the exact date my waters broke but from memory it would have been around 2 weeks before I went into labour.

Lets set the scene, I was 35 weeks pregnant getting up 2/3 times a night to wee and already starting to feel pressure on my bladder like never before. It was the ritual 2am night time wee and as I stood up it felt like I did a little wee had escaped before I had chance to go, 'oh frigin heck, the weeing myself has started' I thought. I went to the toilet as normal and back I hopped into bed. As I led there the thought crossed mind 'could that have been my waters?' nooooo when peoples waters break its a huge gush, right?

That morning I had that same wee urge as I stood and it felt like I was desperate for the toilet. Ever since that night I had an urge to go for a wee 24/7 but how do I say this politely 'I didn't ever wet myself it just felt like that sensation'. Is this getting too much information already? Oh dear, wait till my labour and delivery post.

It became a running joke at work that I was weeing every hour and on my last day they even put some leaving posters in the toilet because I spent half my time there haha. I still worked right up till the end, 2 days before I had him :)

A little creased, they were all over the toilets hah

At home I took my usual stance and the laptop and of course googled 'have my waters broken'? All these results came back with no, don't worry, its the babies last growth spurt and he is pressing your bladder like never before. All these mums commenting saying that they went to the hospital only to say they got sent straight back home. There were so many comments saying that if your waters have gone you will leak if sat on the toilet, you will be wet all the time, there will be a distinct smell and colour - well none of these applied to me so off I went assuming I was just becoming one of those constant weeing pregnant women. 

I left work on the Friday with cards and present bags galore ready for a few weeks rest before my due date, but no i'm not allowed to rest according to Finley and I woke up in labour on Sunday! 

In the hospital they examined me and took ages, they were feeling for waters but I didnt have any. My waters had broken, Oh crap I thought I hope he is okay. Luckily for me he was but he did have to be given antibiotics for 3 days and it meant a longer stay in hospital, but luckily he had no infection :) 

I wanted to write this for all you 'Kayleighs' out there that answered no to all the questions online and thought you will be fine. Yes you probably will be but I wish I had gotten it checked out sooner, just pop along to hospital and you will either know if your waters have gone or if you are just plain old weeing your pants! 

I hope this post will help someone out there ; I would be interested to hear from you if you had a similar experience to me or if your waters exploded in the middle of Tesco. Let me know?

Love Kayleigh x