If Ms Ford is reading this, please note the only things I have of value are my wedding band and baby, neither are worth suing me over. Thought to be frank I might give you the baby if you ask nicely, she is teething at the moment and I need sleep.

I have held off bloging on this issue hoping that Gina Ford would realize even though she has the money to ensure she can win any legal action taken against those who lack the money to defend themselves, that she will lose far more in credibility and book sales though the bad publicity of this case.

Even those who had never heard of Ms Ford previously, read about this legal action and wonder why this lady is incapable of accepting any criticism from normal parents and what is the reasoning behind her selfish wish to close a free to access and popular parenting site (i.e. Mumsnet), which is a lifeline for many struggling parents. An action which is hardly likely to increase her popularity even with her own supporters.

I will never understand why our UK court system allows such lob sided court cases to go to court, in this case we have two WAHM with newborns pitted against an international printed author. Sadly the story started here and continuing here, is far from over and the legal case is poised to continue if this latest newspaper article is anything to go by. Following on from the above links here is my opinion

Gina Ford helps the mums who buy a copy of her parenting book(s) or can afford £40 a year to subscribe to her private parenting forum. Mumsnet helps all mums with access to the internet at home or via work or local library for no charge 24 hours a day, regardless of parenting methods including (until recently) the Gina Ford method.

Last year if you were to search under the name of any well known child care guru parenting advisor on the Mumsnet forum, both posts for and against that person’s methods would be listed with members on both side of the fence battling out the same tired old arguments about why their ‘side’ is better.

In fact ironically one of the most well known quotes from this legal case was from a highly entertaining Mumsnet member who was pointing out how silly these discussions got by posting in reply to a question about what Gina Ford did.....

She straps babies to rockets and fires them into south Lebanon

It was a joke not a serious allegation, which anyone with half a brain can see and when the quote was read in context was even funnier than read as a single quote.

Sadly since this legal action began no mention of Gina Ford or her methods are allowed on the Mumsnet forum. That is a shame both for her supporters and to those future parents who might have become supporters though the site and I say this as an AP parent who would never follow a Gina Ford routine.

Ms Ford's parenting methods would never work for me or my child but I believe in free speech for all parents not just the parents who agree with me. I hope that one day, all topics of conversation will once again be debated on Mumsnet, without the fear that legal action will be taken against the owners of Mumsnet.

I wonder why Ms Ford is the only person to take offense at being discussed on Mumsnet ? I find this interesting as all the other parenting guru's are happy to have their ideas and methods discussed both in a positive and negative light on Mumsnet. They understand that parents have the right to free speech and are allowed to hold an opinion which opposes their ideas, all except Ms Ford.

Surely taking a small website to court, is not the behavior of a confident person in the right but more of a selfish woman who wants everything to go her way and has a pocket book to ensure in the most part that it does ?

It is a shame that Gina Ford's response to the opinions and problems of the parents she wants to help, is to try silence these parents by closing the Mumsnet forum and hence remove access to a free online parenting resource. There is a word for those who give others critism/advice, yet can’t accept any in return…does anyone know it? Well, I know one person who is blissfully unaware.

Lets hope common sense prevails and this pointless court case is thrown out of court but with the current UK legal system I won't be holding my breath.

We are trying the Baby Led weaning approach to trying solids.
i.e. Gently lob suitable food into the range of your precious baby and let them play, throw and generally explore food and eventually they will eat some of the food

In theory most babies take a while to actually eat the food, as for Babychair......well lets see.

Babychair - 100% exclusively breastfed six months and one day old baby


The Food - Very well steamed sweet potato, normal potato and cauliflower


The scene is set


Babychair grabbed the Sweet Potato


All gone, floor, eaten or mush...not sure to be honest


Next up a piece of cauliflower


Interesting shape


Again very easily to break apart as it is REALLY well steamed


Easy to eat/chew


Another piece of cauliflower

Any more food Dad ?


Any more food Mum ?


Pretty Please


Well, I am completely floored by how active she was at eating. Far from messing about, every piece of food she could get hold of was instantly grammed into her mouth.

Most of the cauliflower ended up on the floor, as she had difficulty holding the florets. The sweet potato was very soft and turned to mush as soon as she picked a piece up. She ended up sucking the potato off her hands, this may or may not be a good thing. The real potato was also very soft but she managed to hold it easier than the other two food.

Babychair had a lovely time and was very shocked when the food stopped coming...looking at the amount on the floor I think I'll have to cook her far more than I expected.

Deckchair and I had a lovely time watching our daughter try to eat and I think Babychair had a enjoyable introduction to solid food

We made it to 6 months of exclusive breastfeeding...hurrah Looking to start solids soon, my little girl is growing up so fast.

She now moving from a sitting to a crawling position and rocking to try and crawl. She is kind of moving a little bit forward sometimes but mainly backwards but she is also getting very frustrated at her lack of real forward movement.

She is also trying without much success to try and pull herself up on the sofa and she loves grabbing moving objects especially swinging hair.

ECing wise, we are around 1 to 5 wee misses a day with an average of 3 a day...more at night. She seems to be going longer between wees maybe 1.5/ 2 hours. Also Babychair has got her first pair's of trainer pants this month and she looks so cute in them She has reduced the shouting as a signal and is looking at and has started to try to move towards the potty when she needs it. I think the less signals is because her energy is in trying to crawl at the moment, so we are mainly back to timing.

I can not believe that we have loved Babychair for 6 whole months, time certainly flies when you are having fun (and sleepness nights)

Here is her offical six month picture


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Outakes
'What IS this thing next to me ?'

'OK, I'll believe you, it is a teddy bear'

Babychair seems to be signing !!!

We have been using signing to Babychair since she was a newborn. Just simple words...Mum, Dad, Milk, More, Time, Bed, Grandma, Grandad, Yes

In the last couple of weeks, I have become more and more convinced that Babychair has been trying to sign. She was signing 'Milk' whilst she was nursing recently and today she signed milk whilst not nursing i.e. Asking to nurse...how fantastic is that

I have started to use the sign for 'Toilet' to ask if she needs the potty and toilet and I'm using the British Sign Language(BSL) website dictionary and watching Something Special on TV with Babychair to get other signing ideas. Though Something Special uses Makaton not British Sign Language so I sometimes mix and match which signs we use.

My parents babysat Babychair last night so my husband and I could go out for a belated valentine's night out.

The night was lovely. We ate a three course meal at a local chinese and I had two glasses of red wine which made me a bit squiffy Followed by watching 'Hot Fuzz' a highly recommend comedy, the whole cinema was LOL thoughout the film.

Babychair was drinking expressed breast milk at home, she was asleep by the time we came home and wonders of wonders slept though the night, so I woke up with painfully swollen leaking full breasts.

I have just pumped 8ozs and now my breasts are merely semi-swollen and no pain...flipping heck...I must remember to pump and dump BEFORE I go to bed next time. Awaiting Babychair to wake up so she can drain the rest of the milk.

We had a wonderful night out, so a big thank you to Mum and Dad for babysitting and doing such a good job loving my little girl

My 5 month old daughter (very shortly 6 months) has started to flip from a sitting position to a crawling position. It took her a couple of days of getting the gist of turning both her legs around. First few attempts had one leg stuck under her...bless

She is rocking and popping up all over the place. First one leg up,then her chest up by pushing both arms together and then the other leg...it really looks like she is going to crawl sooner rather than later.

This is surprising as I thought babies started crawling at 8/9 months. Though it could take her a few months to get the complete co- ordination of limbs moving in the right order, so I'll just have to watch her and see.

The most surprising part of this is this morning, Babychair seemed to be trying to move towards her potty. I thought she was just practicing moving in general but she wee'd with no other signal to me.

I can't make my mind up if this attempt to move towards the potty is a new EC sign or is she much to young and she isn't signalling as she is far too busy trying to learn how to crawl?

Either way this is very interesting behaviour

To my wonderful husband

From your loving wife

XXX

PS. We have declared Valentine's day to be on Saturday this year, as payday is tomorrow.

This way the cards are cheaper and we are going out on a date whilst my mum babysits Babychair

I really don't know where to begin, so if this entry is a bit disjointed bear with me.

Friends and family ask/joke/hint about when we will have another child and I don't know how to respond.

The bottom line is 'Yes, in theory we would love to have another child' but I can't ignore the gut wrenching dread at the thought of another experience like the last one. Agreeing to another hospital birth is the same as planning to be attacked/violated on a pre-arranged day

A hospital birth is no longer an irrational fear, now I know what will happen.

Against my will, I will be prevented from moving, from making any decisions, people will touch me without permission, without explaining what is happening, my body will be ripped open, my child taken away from me, my questions ignored, my opinions laughed at. If I object, I will be told that if I do not co-operate I will be responsible for damaging my unborn child.

How can I put myself though that again deliberately

Even if, as I was told by a midwife last time 'What is your problem, your child was born healthy'

How is that the point? My daughter would have been healthy wherever and however she was born, I didn't need to be belittled and ignored in order for her to magically become healthy. It isn't an either or situation it is possible to have a reasonable labor AND a healthy baby.

I should add that the staff at the hospital did nothing wrong, they sent a lady out to my home to go though the medical records and show how medically aptly I was treated. But they dealt with my body not with ME. I wanted to avoid all the medical procedures that were forced upon me; this is why I never wanted to go to the hospital in the first place.

What happened when I was in labor last time is often on my mind. Without permission the horrible events just roll themselves out in my mind and upset me. I don't try and think about it, in fact I actively try not to think about it but it is not that simple.

My good friend sent me some links which she thought might help me, including this one.

I rang them a while ago and talked to someone, lets call her Lady A. We talked. I got upset. She wanted to visit me at home and talk more. I didn't think there was any point, as the more I talk about it, the more upset I get. Talking doesn't change anything.

After all everyone else copes just fine with labor. At the mother and baby groups I go to, the mothers compete to tell the most horror filled labor stories and how much worse their labor was than the other mothers. I listen with closed ears and a fixed smile on my face........Do any of them feel the same way I do or am I just a wimp ? I tell no stories. I hold my daughter tightly and concentrate on smiling.

Everything seemed to be going well, until recently when I had a terrible 10 day vomiting bug. NHS Direct suggested I do a pregnancy test, I cried at the thought of being pregnant again; I was so panicked about the thought of another labor.

The test was negative and I felt both relieved and a little sad...is our daughter destined to be an only child. DH was upset both at the negative result and how upset I was. I decided that I would have to do something to make myself feel better, after all birth control is not 100% and we had never originally intended for Babychair to be an only child.

I rang back Lady A and we arranged for her to visit me today at my home. Luckily Babychair was asleep for most of her visit, as she picks up when I'm upset. Lady A wanted to talk about last time, so I outlined what happened as quickly as I could. Lady A listened, asked a few questions. She said what I felt was normal and she knew other women who felt the same way.

She offered counseling details but I think this is a waste of money, going over and over the same things and my priority is preventing the same thing from happening again, if we decided to get pregnant again.

Lady A gave me some names/web address of places where I could get more information and she gave me some information herself as she is an independent midwife.

UPDATE
Over the next few days I rang and spoke to several people. including the midwife supervisor at the local hospital, two medical labs and the Strep B help line and between all the conversations here is the information gleaned (I am not recounting all the conversations as it will make this long blog entry, never ending)

Lady A and I have pieced together the following information. The main problem if I was to have another baby is the fact that last time I tested positive for Strep B on the unreliable NHS Test and was forced in to hospital because of that test. Due to being forced into hospital, the stress slowed down and stopped my contractions. Hence they induced me. That meant lying on a bed with tubes in both arms and a constant baby monitoring. Those facts made the pain unbearable and hence I ended up on one drug and then another ending up with an epidural. The epidural, inducement drugs and the lying down, ensured that I would have no chance of pushing the baby out on my own. Hence I ended up in theatre with me terrified as they were going to cut me for a C-section, but I kept telling them I could still feel everything and they insisted that I couldn't feel anything !!! I was so scared, finally they decided to cut me down below and try to drag her out of me with forceps instead and I teared badly and lost several pints of blood. My daughter was taken straight away and that is the last proper memory of the so called 'birth'. Flashes of pain are all I can remember until they transferred me from one room to a proper ward some time later (maybe a day or 24 hours or so ?)

(An aside one of the things which upsets me, is that there are pictures of me and Babychair and Deckchair in hospital and I don't remember anything and hence I hate looking at those pictures, as I have no memories to go with them)

NEW FACTS
1. The NHS Strep B test I was forced to take is known to be unreliable, though the lab claims that no mistakes are ever made (LMAO)
2. Strep B comes and goes and being positive for one pregnancy does not mean you would be for another.
3. Chance of baby getting Strep B if you were confirmed positive at time of labor is 1:7000 less than 0.01% a very very very low risk.
4. If the baby does get Strep B it can be very nasty and in worse case the baby could die.
5. Taking a gold standard private Strep B test would give me a certainty if I was carrying strep B or not and would be a safe result for 5 weeks of taking the test.
6. Sadly the gold standard test can only be taken at 37 weeks pregnant and the other decisions about a potential birth would already have to be in place by then.
7. NHS would still treat me as Strep B positive even with a negative gold standard test.
8. NHS would not allow me to give birth in a birthing centre or at home because of point 7 and the fact that things went badly last time.
9. The fact I went to hospital caused a lot of the things that went wrong last time.
10. If I went to hospital, I would not be allowed a water birth, even though if I was Strep B positive at the time, there are no risk factors but policy says no water births.
11. If I went to hospital, I would be on a permanent water drip, even though I would rather just drink water and again this has no higher risks, this is policy.
12. If I went to hospital, I would be forced to lie on a bed and not to move so they can do continual fetal monitoring. Not only is this not required, it has been proven to cause worse labors, another non-optional policy.
13. This is a funny one. I was reassured that I would have a different better experience than last time. LOL. Yes, because being forced into one hospital and lying down with a drip, will be so much better in than being forced into another hospital and lying down with a drip.

OPTIONS
1. Stop at one healthy wonderful child and get tubes tied
2. Adopt (can't afford it and would be exempt from funding as we have a healthy child)
OR
3. Get pregnant and either.....
a. Endure the same nightmare experience and dread the labor for nine months.
b. Try and get IV's at home or IM injections, so I can have a home water birth. This would be my ideal solution but I wouldn't get this on the NHS, so I would have to find around £2000 for a private midwife.
c. Take Gold standard test at 37 weeks and if it is negative, stay at home. Might end up with no midwife attending and what do I do if the test came back positive?
d. Go to hospital and refuse continual monitoring, drip and demand a water birth. But they will just say no go and being in labor is not the time you feel up to arguing. Or take an independent midwife in with you but that has the aforementioned £2000 price tag and they can just ignore her too or the pool might be filled already.

On the bright side I do know of two wonderful ladies who are planning TTC in 2007, best of luck to you both. May you have a better time in hospital than I did and I look forward to cuddling your future babies

Baby sound update.

Babychair's first deliberate sound around 3 months of age was ringing. Yep you read right, she likes to ring like a phone. I like her 'Ring Ring, Bring Bring' chirping it is sweet and she seems to use this sound when she is happy and content. We often hear this sound when she is amusing herself in her cot before she goes to sleep

Her second proper sound around 4 months was 'Screeching' with a smile. No distress just another sound to experiment making. I must confess we try to ignore this sound as much as possible, as it is ear-piercing and unpleasant to hear.

At 5 months she started making 'Hmmming' and also 'Hiya' sounds which are sweet.

She still finds 'Bah' from us to her as the funniest thing ever, she also loves it if we gently blow on her face which I wonder if this is the attraction of the 'Bah' sound ?

I can't wait until she says her first word

Deckchair, Babychair and I went to visit our good friends Tigerfeet, Yorkshire Man and Little'un.

We had a lovely visit and Babychair had her first bath in a big proper bath with Little'Un. Fun was had by all and a lot of water ended up outside the bath !!!


Amazingly Babychair settled very well in the travel cot, so the adults got to enjoy beer and a chinese takeway...yum yum.

"I might have a go at crawling mum"


"See, I can get into the right position"


"Ermm, why am I going backwards"


"I found the floor again...wahh"



I think we better buy some baby gates very soon:)

As we EC our daughter, she doesn't really wee enough in her nappies to be worth wearing such thick nappies all the time. So to cut down on pointless washing we have swapped to trainer pants just for day time in the house and we still are using cloth nappies for night time and trips out of the house.

What do you think of your new pants?


"I love them...."


"....this much"


We have bought six tiny pairs of Bright Bots Trainer Pants from Twinkle Twinkle website and they are sooo cute

Babychair is very advanced at sitting.

She started sitting up at 3 months with support but would pull herself forward and often over balance.

At 4 months she sat up on her own but I put a cushion behind her as when she got excited she would fall over backwards.

At 5 months she is solid as a rock and will sit up completely on her own and lean forward to play with toys and sit up on her own again.

My daughter rocks