Dear Archie,

Mummy to Archie, born 10th May 2016 | Wife to a wonderful man | Full-time Registered Nurse | 28yrs old | From Manchester, England

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IT. NEVER. ENDS. Archie had an urgent appointment with the nurse today and has a suspected sinus infection AND sore eczema/fungal patches in some of his fat folds. No wonder he's constantly attached to my boobs for milk right now. We can't really remember the last time Archie was totally well? Even during the times when he was just getting over a cold he'd start with vomiting and diarrhoea, and then start a new cold while he'd be getting over that. Has or is anyone else going through this with their little ones? Things have got to get better with spring right? RIGHT? #babykov #babyboy #mummylife #motherhood #manchestermums #mumsofinstagram #poorlybaby

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11 weeks old today 😮 6am is Archie's favourite playtime! Here he is enjoying himself earlier this morning, after FINALLY settling down to sleep at an almost normal time of 9:15pm last night! He doesn't sleep in his cot yet, I just pop him in there so he can watch his cot mobile. But every week I find that he's gotten taller again, and have to move him further up to prevent his feet from getting squashed against the bottom of the cot! I'll be spending this afternoon laundering his next size up of clothes; he's already outgrown 0-3 months but I've been trying to squeeze in the last bit of wear out of them! I'm going to say it; "Where has the time gone?" and "He's growing up so fast!" I'm going to get so many snuggles out of you while I can my little butter bean ❤️ #babykov #mumsofinstagram #mummylife #motherhood #motherandson

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Waking up to this face 😍 He smiles when he wakes up and sees me now ❤️

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14th July 2016 Dear Archie, Today you went swimming for the first time, and despite no smiles from you, you seemed to enjoy it! You wore your cute little swimming outfit/wetsuit and swim nappy underneath with no problems, didn't mind one bit when we had a quick rinse in the shower together (your first time under a shower!) before getting in the small pool, and didn't batter an eyelid as we entered the pool! You stayed in the pool with me holding you for a good 15mins without crying or even looking upset once, and let me glide you all the way to the deep end a couple of times. You even tried kicking your legs a few times! You were very nosey looking at what was going on around you, and concentrating hard on the new sensation of floating, the new sights, sounds and smells. Your mouth went under the water a couple of times and you didn't care. I loved every second of being weightless in the water with you son, and I got to cuddle and hold you as we enjoyed bobbing up and down. You look so, so cute and chubby in your little wetsuit! Afterwards we got in the shower again to rinse off and you enjoyed it! There was a nice lady in a shower near us who couldn't take her eyes off you and kept commenting on how cute you are. You have admirers everywhere we go little man! As I got you dressed in our own changing room, you only whinged a little bit when I was pulling your arm through a sleeve, otherwise you were so content and just relaxed on your towel as I got dressed! We finished your day with your 6 week checkup (even though you're 9 weeks old now), a spot of food shopping (which resulted in me also buying a new swimsuit in the sale and some clothes for you to wear on your first holiday) and a walk to our local park with Daddy. For the first time in weeks it didn't pour down with rain, and there was glorious sunshine! Me and Daddy are hoping to take you swimming again on Saturday morning so he gets to enjoy seeing you in the pool as well! I'm so excited! The photos are of you in your wetsuit, the smiles you gave me as we went shopping, and Daddy cuddling you in the park :) I love you son, Mummy xXx

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Those eyelashes. You're going to be a heartbreaker son 😍

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8th July 2016 Dear Archie, Yesterday was a very sad day little man. Your Didush passed away in the morning. He'd been in hospital for almost 2 weeks following a heart attack and had pneumonia, and unfortunately he didn't recover. Your Didush was 92 years old and before he went into hospital, he was still able to dress himself, eat with his family, get around the house and have a conversation. He even cast a very important vote that changed the history of the UK! He was very much the centre of the family and did so much to look after everyone in it. Always making sure no one struggled for money, that everyone was well fed and watered, always said "come on, have fun, be happy!" He was a very smart and a very strong man, and had a LOT of history in both Ukraine and here in England. Your Daddy will be able to tell you more about that :) He was so proud of you son, and loved you so much that he insisted on holding you as much as possible! Every time we brought you to visit him he would yell "My Great Grandson!" and have the biggest smile in the room! The first time he set eyes on you he cried with absolute joy. He liked to call you "King Archie", which I absolutely adore. Your Grandad and Lola were so fond of him too - Didush was at mine and Daddy's wedding (looking super dapper as always) and was very popular! The last time you met him, he smiled at us and yelled "My Great Grandson!" from his hospital bed as we entered the ward, held you on his chest and rubbed your little tummy. He had a chat with you about you being a big, strong boy, called you King Archie and chuckled about it. He was so very gentle and affectionate with you as always, and you were lay on him like you were in a hammock! You brought utter joy to him for the last two months of his life Archie, and me and Daddy are so grateful to you for arriving when you did and being his little buddy, even for a short time. Although I'm pretty sure your Didush mustered up some extra strength to hold on that bit longer just to meet you, and to make sure we were all ok. And that's exactly what he did. What a man. Today me and Daddy stayed at home with you to grieve. You were such a little star for Daddy. I came downstairs in the morning to find you smiling and chuckling to him as he played with you on your play gym. You played with him for hours and really helped him get through the day. Thank you for that son. You're a little saviour and you don't even know it. RIP Didush, aka Dido, aka Michael. We will love you always and you will never be forgotten. Mummy xXx

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Dear Archie,

Yesterday you turned 8 weeks old! But I didn’t get time to take a photo because, you know, I’m kinda busy ;)

Time is going so, so fast. The days are now so quick and I often find myself looking at the clock thinking “wow, it’s the evening already, you’ll soon be going to bed!”

You had your first set of immunisations this afternoon. Lola came in the room with me while Grandad waited outside. I was already nervous and I was right to be; you were so upset but did so well. Your first vaccine was an oral one which made you cry and took 3 of us to admitted it (me holding you on my lap, Lola holding your head still and the nurse administering the drug), but the first time you vomited it back up and we had to do it again. But then your injections in both of your thighs came and you really cried, like all babies do during injections. I cried too and so did Lola a little. But then I cuddled you close and you stopped crying, and then you fell asleep. I felt so guilty, especially because you were giggling and smiling at us before we went into the nurse’s room. My poor Bubbles :( We took you straight home, and you woke up in Grandad’s lap and started smiling and getting excited again you gorgeous little man! But then we had to administer your Calpol, which is a brand of liquid Paracetamol, to keep down any fever from the meningitis B vaccine you had. You were fine for a few hours and slept in Lola’s arms, but it’s now the evening and you’ve really struggled and have whimpered a lot. Fortunately you have had no fever, haven’t vomited at all since and are able to sleep and feed just as well as ever. Here you are looking “So so so so so so handsome like your daddy”, and refusing to smile when I whip my phone out to take a photo. You were all smiles and giggles until you have to perform!

I love you son.

Mummy xXx

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So, so in love ❤️ There is no way to describe it. #babyboy #deararchie #mummylife #motherhood #mumsofinstagram

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6 weeks old today! Archie now only wakes us up once or twice in the night for a feed, is enjoying looking at toys and lights, coos when he’s happy and no longer fits in his first size clothes. He’s also losing his baby hair! 👶🏻 Our little pudding is becoming a chunky pudding 💜

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Baby essentials that really are essential

These items don’t get mentioned much on the “what you need for your baby” lists, but after watching poor Archie struggle I am so, so glad I got them based on instinct:

Nasal saline spray and nasal aspirator. Both designed for newborn babies of course.

The combination of being run down after childbirth, the exhaustion of caring for a newborn, having midwives who visit several other families visit us, going to several clinics/hospitals etc for Archie’s routine appointments and having lots of visitors…. generally means I will catch a cold from someone. But I can take paracetamol and blow my nose, whereas poor Archie, who ended up catching the cold before I even knew I had it (yes, that is with being exclusively breastfed as well), can’t do either. So the poor little thing has struggled to feed as he can only breathe through his blocked nose whilst latched on (this would happen with bottle fed babies as well) and sleeping on his back has been too uncomfortable for him.

Tonight he struggled to sleep again and I could hear loud whistling through his nose as he panted and writhed. Really horrible to see him so uncomfortable. So I gave him a cuddle to calm him, sat him upright on my lap and administered a couple of squirts of saline into each nostril, followed by suctioning each nostril with the oral aspirator (it has a one way valve so no mucous ends up in your mouth). Before I even began suctioning, the saline tickled Archie’s left nostril enough for him to expel air forcibly and eject the biggest, hardest baby bogey I have ever seen! And then I suctioned out some thick mucous that must have been hiding at the back of his nose. I could hear him trying to swallow it earlier in bed. I felt so bad for him - he’d been putting up with that giant thing up his nose all day. He then fell straight asleep in my arms and has stayed asleep in his Sleephead since! One contented little baby.

Gross post I know, but just thought I’d share the advice of purchasing these things so you can help your little bundles out if they’re unfortunate enough to catch a common cold :) I got mine from a supermarket and they weren’t expensive at all.

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Flowers for Mummy 😍

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My beautiful baby boy. Archie, you are so loved ❤️

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Dear Archie, It's just past 5am and we are currently lay together on my side of the bed as I nurse you, whilst we listen peacefully to the birds singing as the sun rises. It's little moments like these that are some of my favourite, where it's just you and I, sleepily enjoying something as basic as the bond we have through breastfeeding. I love you son. Mummy xXx

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Dear Archie, Your 3 week photo updates so far! There isn't a "Today I am 3 weeks old" card in your milestone pack, so I made my own. Don't worry, I won't make you pose for these every week! The story behind your messy 3 week one which was taken yesterday (I can't seem to share it from Instagram): "3 weeks old today! We were finally initiated as parents this afternoon: Kov as I changed Archie's nappy: "Has he pooed?" Me: "A little bit." Archie then proceeded to projectile poo around 2ft from the changing station onto the nappy bin and new carpet. A lot of dripping, Kov panicking and baby wipes later, Archie still wasn't entertained. Not pictured; my hand and sleeve also covered in said projectile poo 💩" I'm still laughing at this son! Love Mummy xXx

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Dear Archie, Welcome to the world son. Apologies for this post being quite late, I've just been quite busy looking after you :) Today you are 3 weeks old. You were born on Tuesday 10th May at 7:08pm, at the birth centre in Salford. Daddy was with us all the way through. Your middle name is Roy, named after my Dad. I'm very close to him, and I don't have my maiden name anymore, so choosing his name meant a lot to me. Things have been intense, and amazing, difficult, hilarious, exhausting, beautiful, overwhelming and every other feeling you can think of! You are everything we ever wanted and you are so very loved by me, Daddy and everyone in both our families. You should see their faces every time they see you Archie! Our friends are just as crazy about you, and you often stop strangers in their tracks who want to come and coo over you. I know I'm biased, but you really are extremely cute son! You have been showered with cards and gifts (even some from Jess and Peter in Australia!), heavily photographed and have had so many visitors. Me and Daddy have taken you everywhere with us - you have already been to lots of gorgeous, sunny parks in your pram with its little parasol, plenty of nice cafés and restaurants, to all of your appointments so far and to see all of your great-grandparents in North Manchester. You and I have managed to breastfeed successfully so far, even with the bumpy start we had. We still have lots of learning to do with it, but we're getting along ok for now. You have grown so much in height and weight already, and have lots of nappy changes! The midwives think you have a little tongue tie, which may have caused you to struggle with breastfeeding in your first few days, so we're just waiting for an assessment to see if it needs correcting next week. The photograph of me and you above is the first photograph of you ever taken son! Your Daddy took it right after you were born, and the other photograph of your beautiful face as well. I'll write a post about your birth and your first few days soon when I get some son little man. For now, I'm going to give you a big warm cuddle. You're currently lay on my lap having a snooze, looking all cute :) Until next time Archie, All my love, Mummy xXx

[dear-archie]

39 weeks: you ARE head down! :D

Dear son,

Today I am 39 weeks and 3 days pregnant with you - none of us really thought we’d make it this far with you!

Great news - we went for an ultrasound of you on Wednesday to see if you really were lay transverse or breech, and it turns out that not only are you fully head down and in the correct position, but your head is so low down that they couldn’t even get a measurement of it anymore! The midwife said that it was highly unlikely that you’d be able to get out of being in that position now. Your heart and everything else was checked too and all looked perfect, so we’re just waiting for you now! 4 more days until your due date! We were very nervous about the scan as we thought that I may end up having to have a c-section; if you were stuck in the transverse position then it would’ve been unlikely that you’d have turned into the correct position after 39 weeks, and possibly dangerous to leave you that way and attempt a natural delivery. But you already know what you’re doing son, so we’re just waiting until you’re ready. Since I last wrote not that much has happened. It was Ukrainian Easter Sunday last weekend so we went to your Bisnonna and Didush’s house for dinner. Your Nonna was there and gave us more amazing things that she knitted for you, you can see a photo of them above! A gorgeous grey blanket and a sleeping bag that she made from scratch! They’re so perfect, better than something we’d buy in a shop!  The next day we went to one of the parks near us as it was bank holiday and your Daddy was off work. He took me for a long walk around it to see if it would help me go into labour with you, which didn’t work. But it was sunny, we had ice cream, looked at the animal section, spotted some wild birds and had some proper tea and coffee at the café there. I love it when Daddy has days off with me; he keeps me calm and keeps me going when I find pregnancy hard. I have been so tired over the past week son. I apologise for the amount of lying down I’ve been doing! I can’t fall asleep until past 3am anymore, even if I am desperately tired, so I wake up late in the morning and then I’m already back in bed for a big nap by 3pm. I can’t wait until you’re born so I have a great reason to be awake in the middle of the night and feel this tired - the reason being that I’d be taking care of you son. I am feeling some signs of getting ready for labour today - I’m having lots of cramping pains and nausea. But I don’t want to get my hopes up just yet. You’re estimated due date is Wednesday and I have a midwife appointment, so she offered to give me a sweep at the appointment if I want one. I think I will, as I’m so uncomfortable and struggling now that I feel it may be worth a try.  I was supposed to go to Siobhan’s baby shower today but I ended up cancelling it as I didn’t feel safe to drive all the way to her house (it’s up in the hills above Manchester), especially as I’m so close to my due date. I fell asleep by lunch time anyway! Hopefully you’ll make an appearance this weekend or before Wednesday little man? We’d absolutely love that! Until next time son, Mummy xXx

[yourdailydoseofadorable]

ALMOST the weekend! So. Close.