Long overdue 6 months update

 

 

 

 

 

 

Weight:
20lbs, she is now between the 91st and 98th percentile, same for height, so at least it's fairly proportionate.
She does have the cutest, chubbiest little thighs I have ever seen...

Health:
She's a healthy girl, her cousins have been a bit poorly but so far she has been just fine other than a bit of wind as an infant and some teething.
Now at 6 months, she has her first cold, but she's not too whiney, which we are very grateful for though I do feel sorry for her when I can hear her snuffle at night.



Nicknames:
Cheeky Chops

Eating:
I stopped breastfeeding shortly after our trip to Germany in September, so around the 4 months mark. We are both happy with that and she's doing well on formula. She will go about 4 hours between feeds during the day.
At 26 weeks(5 days before she was 6 months) we started solids. She loved her porridge straight away and carrots went down a treat as well. We have tried porridge, mango, apple, banana, peach, carrots, butternut squash, parsnip and swedes(rutabaga).
At 29 weeks she is now on three meals a day, porridge with fruit when she first gets up and mixed vegetables for lunch and dinner.

 

 

 

 

Sleeping:
We went through the dreaded 4 months sleep regression and her nighttime feeds were getting earlier and earlier, but luckily we seem to be out of that, so now she is back to sleeping from 7pm-3/4/5am at which point I feed her half a milk feed and change her nappy, then she goes back down until 7am.

Her daytime sleep improved by 4 months when we moved her from her crib to her cot and she started having 2-3 lovely naps in her bed.
She tends to sleep 45-90 minutes each time, but she has had a couple of 3 hour naps too!
At 6 months she is currently dropping her 3rd nap around 5pm, so we're dealing with a bit of fussiness at that time of the day.

Putting her to bed is really easy, she settles on her own and goes to sleep quickly.
She still refuses a pacifier and sucks her thumb instead.

Nappies:
Pampers Baby Dry size 4


Clothing: 
She was only in 6-9 months for a short amount of time, now she's mainly in 9-12 months clothing


Social:
We are doing a baby sensory class every week, which involves lots of singing, textures, lights, sounds. We really love it.
Also I was really looking forward to our baby massage class, we both enjoyed that. Now that Emilia is older we have graduated to Baby Yoga classes, which sadly is coming to an end this week.
She went though a little phase of stranger anxiety, but it seems we are past that for now, only one of our friends seems to still terrify her, we don't really know why, but Emilia cries the minute our friend gets near her.
When we went to Germany at 3.5 months, Emilia wasn't too sure of my mum, her Oma, but then 2 months later when she came to see us, Emilia loved her.
 
Likes:
*her Jumperoo
*Baby Einstein take along tunes, it's her favourite toy and one I will be giving as present from now on!
*anything that makes a noise or lights up

 

Dislikes:
*having her nappy changed
*getting dressed

Milestones:
2 days before her 6 months birthday, she finally rolled over and now she won't stop. But she only rolls to her right and once she's on her front she gets very frustrated and annoyed, so she whines.
Also that same week, 3 teeth came through! Then a couple of days another one started appearing. Poor little pixie :( No wonder she's been going through so many dribble bibs.


Mama:
When I stopped breastfeeding, I had already reduced the feeds slowly, replacing one feed with a bottle every couple of days, so luckily I had no problems when I fully stopped. I got one lump about 5 days after I finished expressing, so I had to pump one last time, then that was that...
Regarding the weight, I have been a bit naughty and have put on a couple of pounds, being home all day means I have treats nearby, so I might have overindulged a little bit.
I feel a bit lazy, my sister-in-law looked fab 6 months after she had my nephew and everyone in my partner's family is tiny, so I'm the only overweight one.
Must go on a diet, after Christmas, at some point ;-)

Fun things we did:
Going to Germany as a family when Emilia was 3.5 months old. She did really well again on the flight.

Emilia and I have also taken 2 trips to London, which involved a 2 hour train journey followed by a 45 minute subway ride. We stayed in a hotel and visited my friends, so fun and I really do miss my friends a lot.

What we are looking forward to:
Emilia's first Christmas

What we are not looking forward to:
My maternity pay will finish at the beginning of January, then we will really need to watch our money.
We were thinking of joining the rest of the family on a trip to Florida, but not sure we can afford it.
I have been trying to find a family needing childcare, so I can help them out while still looking after Emilia, but since I don't drive, it hasn't been easy.

Emilia 3 months update

 

Weight:
14lbs! She's around the 75th percentile

Health:
She had her immunisations done at 10 and 14 weeks and didn't have much of a reaction afterwards other than a little bit of fussiness, so hopefully the next set at 18 weeks will be the same. [we are running 2 weeks behind, normally they're given at 8, 12 and 16 weeks]
Emilia gave the nurses big smiles before they stabbed her legs, it was very hard for me to see her cry and the first time I almost burst into tears myself.
She has been dribbling lots so we're wondering if this could be early signs of teething

Nicknames:
Cheeky Chops, Little Miss Fartie Pants

Eating:
We are still doing a mixture of breastfeeding and formula, which works well for us. She eats about every 2.5-3 hours during the day. Her last bottle for the day is at 7:30 and she can last around 8 hours at night.

Sleeping:
Nighttime sleep has been good, she generally goes to sleep around 7:30/8 and sleeps until 3-5am, has a feed and then goes back until 7/8am.
When we travelled to Germany she started sleeping from 9pm until 7am and carried on doing 10-11 hours non stop for about 2 weeks, however now she's back to sleeping 7-8 hours which definitely is not bad, but we enjoyed the 11 hours of uninterrupted sleep very much :)
We are still sleeping in the same room and I'm nowhere near ready to let her sleep in her own room just yet.
Daytime sleep is not quite as successful, she is not a big fan of napping in her crib and prefers sleeping in her bouncer or the pushchair/stroller. She sleeps only about 90 minutes during the day.

Nappies:
Pampers Baby Dry size 3(as I previously mentioned, they cover different weight ranges here in the UK)

Clothing: 
3-6 months, especially for bottoms as she's got a bit of a belly ;-)

Social:
So far our social calendar has been a bit quiet due to school holidays, but we are now signed up for music class, a sensory class and baby massage.
We did a couple of one-off classes in the summer as well as free trials and we both really enjoyed that and I can't wait to start classes properly next week.
Not having a car is definitely making things a little bit difficult.

Likes:
*her Skip Hop treetop play gym
*Laying on my bed watching her owl mobile that's hanging from the light fixture
*looking at herself in the mirror
*Mummy's monkey pyjamas
*her muslin squares, she plays and sucks on them

Dislikes:
*napping in her crib
*having her nappy changed in the middle of the night
*having to wait for food

Mama:
3 months on and I have lost all the baby weight, I think I actually did in the first 3 weeks thanks to exclusively breastfeeding in the beginning.
However my body has obviously changed during pregnancy and I need to lose some weight and tone up eventually.
Other than that my body feels just like it did before the birth[which reminds me, I never put up my birth story]
Being a Mama is amazing, I have previously worked as a nanny and definitely loved those kids, but the love I feel for Emilia is so much stronger, she's my everything!

Fun things we did:
Emilia and I flew to Germany to visit my mum and grandmother, everyone thought I was crazy travelling on my own with a 2 months old baby, but she did amazingly well.

What we are looking forward to:
Flying to Germany again in a couple of days, this time as a family of three.

12 weeks today

These past 12 weeks sure went by faster than the first 12 weeks of my pregnancy.
Tomorrow is the 1 year anniversary of going for my IUI!

50 days of Emilia

I failed doing weekly or even montly updates so far, but today(Wednesday 9th of July) Emilia is 50 days old and they have been the best 50 days of my life so far!

Mummyhood is exhausting, it's just me getting up in the night due to my partner's medical issues, which means I don't get a break, but it's so rewarding.

Emilia weighs almost 11lbs now, up from her birth weight of 7lbs 14oz 7 weeks ago.
She loves her milk and has no plans of going more than 2-3 hours between feeds during the day for now *ha*.
At  night she can go 4-5 hours and the other night she went 8 hours between feeds, sadly that was a one-off.

She's the noisiest little girl at night, she grunts and farts in her sleep like crazy, but then during the day she is completely silent when napping.

She started giving real smiles in week 6 and likes to smile at herself in the mirror.

Still loving bathtime and I give her one almost every night as it has become a part of our bedtime routine.

She's in 0-3 month clothing and size 2 nappies/diapers.

She likes being held and cuddled, but sometimes when she's unhappy, she settles better being in her bouncer than being in my arm, I put this down to the smell of milk or something like that.

Time flies when you're having fun

It's been a while since I last posted, but Emilia has been keeping me busy.

She is now 4.5 weeks old and I'm absolutely in love with her and can't believe she truly is mine/ours to keep forever and ever.

She's been gaining weight steadily since birth and has outgrown her newborn clothes and size 1 nappies/diapers. Last time I had her weighed at 3.5 weeks, she was 4.2kg/9lbs 4oz, compared to her birth weight of 3.58kg/7lbs 14oz, she's a good eater ;-)

For one more week I am pretty much living as a single mum, my partner visits on weekends but during the week I'm on my own with Emilia, which can be tough as I don't get a break to have a shower or get things done around the house, but in just one more week we are finally moving in together, only took us 5.5 years :)

Sleep is so-so, she is starting to figure out the difference between day and night and has started going 3-4 hours between feeds at night.
We are doing combination feeding, breast and bottles of formula and expressed milk, bottles help her going longer between feeds and it will give my partner a chance to be involved in feeding her.
The Medela Swing pump has been a god send, though I wish I had invested in the double pump!

One of Emilia's favourite things is bathtime, she just floats and is totally relaxed, I cannot wait to start baby swimming with her.

All in all she's an amazing baby and totally worth every bit of sickness, backache, varicose vein and whatever else I experienced in my 42 week pregnancy!
Birth story still to follow

Our daughter is here!

Baby Emilia  was born on May 20th at 10:14am weighing 3580g/7lbs14oz

We feel so blessed!

Birth story and pictures to come

STILL WAITING

I am 12 days overdue today!
I had three attempts of having my cervix 'stretched and sweeped' this past week, which resulted in us going to the hospital to see the midwifes on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
Every single time I had hope that it might start something...

We walked as much as my 41 week pregnant body could handle, but nothing happened.

I guess I have to accept that this baby is an awkward and stubborn little one like we have always joked when she wouldn't cooperate at scans ;-)

Tomorrow, Monday the 19th of May 2014, I am going to go to the hospital to be induced.
I am going to finally hold our baby in my arms by tomorrow or Tuesday and I am freaking out. Is it too late to change my mind and get a kitten instead?

My mum was here a couple of weeks ago and took some lovely bump pictures of me, my partner tried taking a few new ones this week, but they didn't turn out quite as nice ;-)