March 1998.

Now that Matthew is walking he wearing himself out during the day and has a tendancy to suddenly "flake out"... falling asleep right where he was playing! So the final breastfeed, the evening one, has gone. My baby is officially a grown up toddler: Matthew is one year old!

We decided to have a party for him, and invite some of his friends from nursery, and some of our old antenatal group. I think it will be great fun. I have made him a teddy bear cake, and we have lots of "healthy" party food: chicken (and quorn) nuggets, sandwiches, pizza and fruit salad for pudding. I also made a fruit punch for the babies to drink. We didn't organise anything specific, just toys for the children and space for the parents! It was a great success, and the birthday boy had a wonderful time with his friends.

For Mother's day we were back down south with my parents, and we all went for a walk at a local garden. There were four generations: My gran, My uncle David (mum's brother) mum and dad, Karl and I, and Matthew. I think it was quite difficult to balance the needs of everyone. My gran needing a slow steady walk whilst Matthew, being a new walker and curious toddler, had a tendancy to stop and start and wander off in the wrong direction. It was a very pleasent outing all the same, and gave Matthew a chance to spend some time with his great grandmother.

I have not been coping well with working, and being a mother and house wife, so I have managed to persuade work that I should be allowed to become part-time. (On the grounds that I frequently ending up taking time off anyway). I am going to have Fridays off from now on, but continue to work full time for the other four days. I am particulary looking forward to taking Matthew swimming again.

Being one year old Matthew has received his "call up" for the MMR vaccine. It was something I was quite worried about anyway - but unfortunately it has coincided with some very bad press in the UK. I am somewhat sceptical about the reports, but I want to do my own research before I make a final decision whether or not to vaccinate Matthew. The main issues I see surronding the decision, are that Matthew mixes with school age children at nursery, and so he will be at a higher risk of catching something than most children his age, although both Karl and I seem to be fairly resistant to infection, catching things only mildly if at all. However my dad's sister died of measles when she was a baby, so I know how serious it can be, and perhaps Matthew has inherited the tendancy to react seriously to either the measles vaccine or the infection. Unfortunately I also have a friend who's daughter has been very unwell since she had the MMR, and this is a worry, although I know of far more children who have been perfectly fine. I won't be taking Matthew straight away, although I think we will get him vaccinated in the end, I would like to wait till he is a little older and stronger. The decision to vaccinate is one that I feel should never be taken lightly, but should be considered either way.

I have notied that Matthew is still hardly talking, especially compared with some slightly older toddlers. He can say mummy and daddy but not necessarily appropriately, and other than this he is mainly still baby-babbling. I think that because he spend so much time in the company of babies, rather than adults, he is not picking up language as well as he could, so I am going to make a determined effort to talk to him more.

Matthew is teething again. He has got his last two incisors, but he is still going. I think he will be getting his first molars too. He has become ill again with a terrable cold, and is getting caughing fits in the night which are quite worrying. I have tried giving him some over-the-counter cough medicine but it brought him out in spots. It is really tough for the little guy at present but he is coping well with lots of hugs, and some pain killer at night.