UK visit and the worst night ever!

On Friday we came back from a week in the UK visiting family and friends. Last Thursday afternoon we arrived at Fran and Danny's house where we were staying for their wedding on Saturday. It was so lovely to see them again and it was the first time they had met the baby. Inara handled the flight like a pro, and only cried when Mark did a very loud sneeze while she was feeding! Poor thing was so tired by the time we got to their house though as her sleep pattern had been thrown off. She was NOT happy to see new people and was very clingy. It took me a while to calm her down enough to go to bed, and she was much happier the next morning after a good sleep.

The wedding on Saturday was beautiful. Fran looked amazing and so happy. We'd been able to spend a little quality girl time the night before, as Mum and Dad came to take Mark and Inara out to dinner. When it was time for us to leave on Sunday we both cried!

We spent Sunday with my sister and her boyfriend. I can now finally tell everyone that she's pregnant! She's now 17 weeks and has a little bump growing. I am so happy for them and Inara will love being a big cousin!

On Monday we packed the car up and Mum, Dad, Mark, Inara and I squashed ourselves in for a trip North to Runcorn. Mark's Grandad had never seen the baby before as his cancer treatment meant he couldn't fly. It was so lovely to see his face when he saw her! We had a lovely week with Mark's Mum, step-Dad, Nan and Grandad. We also managed to drive 1/2 hour to Mark's Dad and step-Mum to surprise them with a visit!

Inara also had her first swimming experience in the UK. I'd bought her a baby wetsuit so she wouldn't get too cold, and I was so glad I did! The pool was too cold for babies in my opinion, but she seemed ok after a few minutes of adjustment. She didn't love it, but didn't hate it either, just floated about with a bemused expression on her face! Right at the end, I dunked her under and she was very brave. No crying, just an utterly shocked look!

Because Inara had been sleeping in a bigger bed than she had been used to at home, we thought we'd try her in her own room in her cot. Big mistake!! The first night she slept there ok until 1am, but the monitor went on the blink and I didn't hear her crying. Luckily Mark was up and brought her in to me. We decided to put her back into our room for the rest of the night. Yesterday we fixed the monitor and decided to try again. Well she slept until midnight when she wanted a feed, and then went straight back down again. 'Brilliant!' I thought. Then at 3am she woke again, but this time she sounded terrified. I fed her and put her back into her bed asleep, but she woke up 15 minutes later screaming again. I put her dummy back in and she went off, but the same thing happened 10 minutes later...and every 10 minutes for about 3/4 hour! Mark eventually brought her into our room and she just wouldn't calm down. Nothing seemed to work, feeding, rocking, singing, walking. She would stop crying for a few minutes only to start screaming again. Eventually I gave her some Calpol as I thought maybe her teeth were hurting her, and she dozed off. This time we had her sleep in our room, but she kept waking up crying. Eventually at 7am I brought her into bed with us and she slept on and off until 11:30am!!

I think we'll leave her in our room for a little longer!