We are now back from our X'mas holidays in Tassie. Thanks to all of our family who had us stay, feed us great food or spent time with us. Our now 5 month old baby Emma was wonderful - hardly any complaints during the day and just a bit more waking up in the night. This was completely understandable as she was in a new place, visiting new people every day and receiving a lot of attention. Her favourite seemed to be Rastas (my Mum's puppy) who she watched running about the place with Grandpa's (all of them!) a close second.

 

We went kayaking with Nathan's sister and her kids Alex and Chloe...

 

We spent time with Emma's cousins...

 

She is growing up very fast and is just starting to get interested in solid food. She's very ready with smiles and laughs for friends and also strangers. I can't help attaching a photo as she is so cute.

 

Hope you had a great X'mas and New Year - I didn't send cards this year.

Emma is growing up fast and loves dribbling, talking (only vowels at the moment), standing up (with assistance) and will smile and laugh for anyone (most days). While she has been sleeping though most nights she has stopped recently - possibly a growth spurt? All in all she is a great baby and we are looking forward to taking her on her first trip away from home - back to Tassie for X'mas. All our family we will see you soon... back in early January.

 

We managed to get out into the garden on the weekend and finished off the path at the front of the house. I have been digging with Emma in the bouncinette or pram and have nearly finished the vege patch. This weekend we will buy some more soil (with added manure) and I will mix it in with the existing sandy dirt. Hopefully there will be enough to improve the beds out the back and down the side of the driveway as well. I'm not sure what I will plant out, a few things are a bit late to start now but I think zucchini and carrot will still be ok especially if we get some late spring rain. We are on restrictions here but we can water two days a week - so I will be setting up some dripers and a timer. Mostly I have been using the babies bath water to water so far so with any luck I won't need to use the tap water too much. We have considered getting a tank but with no where to put it we'd have to get an expensive narrow one so haven't investigated that too much yet.

 

Emma is going really well. She slept through two nights out of four this week so that hopefully is a trend that will continue. She is so much bigger! You can really see a lengthening in her face that makes her seem much more grown up - and that she can make eye contact, laugh, smile and baby talk with you. It is going rather quickly and I can see that soon she will be bored of hanging round the house with Mum. Just as well we have started attending a parents group and met a few babies her age that she can start playing with.

 

Matt, Christine and baby Isobelle visited for the weekend and Emma had a nice time being introduced to Isobelle - when they were both awake!

 

We had a lovely get together with Alison, Anthony and Tor on Saturday afternoon. Alison brought some yummy nibblies and there was cheesecake too. Tor sang a self-composed song dedicated to baby Isobelle and Emma on his guitar. Emma and Isobelle both happened to be awake and happy for the duration and were very impressed by Tor's musical skills.

 

On Sunday we had brunch with Matt's family who were also in Melbourne and spent some time in the Williamstown park. Emma had her first train trip with the pram which was surprisingly easy - well on a Sunday there was plenty of room.

Auntie Jill and Uncle Ross also stayed recently and Emma had a great time getting extra hugs with them...

 

Here are some long awaited for shots of Emma with Gran and Grandma who came to visit when Emma was 3-4 weeks old. Mum and Dad appreciate their help with the house and getting out and about. We discovered that Emma really does like shopping and got a few Xmas presents sorted at the same time.

 

 

Well it has been a quiet couple of days - the first on my own with Emma since she was born. Having the Grandma's to visit was good company and really handy for a break in the baby care routine.

Monday went well - Emma was a bit unsettled in the morning but we recovered well and the afternoon was good including a nice walk in the sun. Today was a bit harder due to Emma not getting back to sleep quickly in the night, so I was a bit more tired. I have a feeling she is going through a growth spurt as she was feeding nearly every hour this morning! She certainly has a fat little tummy now and is starting to grow out of the smallest of growsuits that we have. We had a great bath tonight - Emma really does enjoy them a lot.

Anyway better head off for bed - I can get a short sleep in before the next feed which will set me right for the nights adventures.

Emma has been wowing the gran's this last week. Helen, Nathan's mum and Linda, my mum have been staying and soaking up all the cute little smiles that Emma makes after breastfeeding when she is half asleep. They are having lots of hugs and a bit of awake time playing but mostly Emma is sleeping or eating.

 

Our first outing was to the baby shop to buy some much needed provisions - breastfeeding cushion to support my back and some nappies that were on special! Since then we have excusioned to Buninyong to visit Bob and Evelyn and drop Helen off at her relatives for a few days. While Emma mostly slept in the car, she was very well behaved and the trip was a success - our first that required a nappy change and breastfeed out of the house. With each trip Nathan and I are getting more confident that we can handle this baby under flexible conditions...

First outing with Emma in the car since leaving hospital - 3 days old

It's been a tough couple of weeks and we still have a few more to go no doubt but we are blessed with a pretty good sleeper and eater.

 

Emma Katherine
Born 2 Sept 18.34
6 pounds 12oz or 3082g
49cm

 

Well Nathan and I have survived the ordeal that is required to bring a baby into the world. All in all, on reflection, it went pretty smoothly and was uncomplicated. Emma was born naturally, with minimal drugs though due to her heart beat dropping at every contraction we had to speed up the last phase of the birth to prevent having to be assisted in theatre via forceps or vacuum. We managed to get her out quick and but hence have quite a few stitches! Am recovering very well and coping ok with the lack of sleep - it is great what these natural hormones can let you do. Nathan is a very proud Dad and has contributed sustantially to Emma's good looks - dark hair and olive complexion. We have a bit to wait until we see if she has his dark eyes or if they will be blue.

The hospital experience was very good and we had a great midwife (thanks Sarah at the Royal Women's). It was quite a long labour as baby was posterior facing and just like her Mum, Emma was born with her hand up near her head! Just to make life a bit more difficult.

 

Nath and I are rapidly learning how to look after her and are both a fair bit sleepy and focusing on getting through each day. We are open for visitors and around 3pm in the afternoon is usually our best time - though we may not be very alert company. Nathan will probably head back to work soon and shortly after we will have Mums on both sides of the family staying for a couple of weeks. This will be a great help to me - Ali and Nath have been doing a masterful job of keeping the house running, cooking me food and all that stuff so I have been able to look after me, baby and sleep. It feels a bit like 'floating through the days' at the moment. Not sure where I have read or heard that before but it seems very apt.

 

Well it certainly was wishful thinking. I am still pregnant and it is now 1 day past my due date of 29th August. Yesterday I had a great spurt of energy and Mum and I went shopping at the DFO in Essendon and then to the markets for fresh food. Today though I am sleepy and tired and have mopped about the house thinking about how fat I am and how good it would be for the baby to be born soon. Nathan progressed the insulation in the roof a bit further but when the wind came up and it looked like rain he suspeneded activities for saftey reason - being on a two story roof with large pink bats that easily catch in the wind was not perhaps a good idea. Tomorrow Dad arrives from Tasmania and there will be much to catch up on before him and Mum leave on Monday for a two week holiday... it looks like Mum will miss the birth :( Oh well at least she was hear to help with the nursery and last minute sewing projects and cook us food for the freezer and keep the place clean. I don't think it has been this clean in a long while. We are all set for the baby to arrive and just waiting it out now...

Well we didn't end up going kayaking - some adjustments to the roof racks, but all is ready now. Its unlikely that we will go for a while though as I am feeling very heavy and tired lately and soon we shall have another member of the family to keep us busy. I've been off work for a week - thankfully cause taking naps at work during the middle of the day would have been hard! I am counting down the days until our baby arrives - the uncertainty is suspensful. I'm filling in the time cleaning the house, making food and freezing it and doing a few quite things round the house that I have been meaning to for a while, like making earrings, unpacking and rearranging, and setting up the changing area for the baby in the laundry. Mum will arrive tomorrow so that will be good. We will have a couple of outings and if the baby has still not arrived by Friday we'll head along to the Melbourne Writer's Festival for a look. I feel that I may not last that long but that could just be wishful thinking...