November
I don't know when November happened. I thought summer would last forever.. each day really did feel like an eternity... yet, here I am solidly in November!
Babies change a lot in their first year. My life has gone one steady metamorphosis since last March. At first life was just about surviving breast feeding. I watched the entire series of DS9 while breast feeding on the couch in Emily's early months! Then we started venturing out more and more... going to baby sensory class, swimming classes, and hanging out with my 2 mum groups- the NCT girls and the yoga girls.
I took Emily to America for a month to see friends and family, and then came back to England. It seems like we've only been back a couple of weeks... but it's been like a month!
Life is still hard.. there are times when I just want to do my own thing or put off things like mealtimes or nappy changes. There are times I don't have the patience for the whining or the crying or the screaming. In my mind I am writing a poem that essentially says "It's hard to love you at 4am". None of this is surprising- you hear it over and over again from every parent ever... but it is fairly true.
But moreso, I must say what a joy Emily is. She is soooo clever and talented and funny! She was sitting up and crawling BEFORE six months old. We have several babies in my mum groups with babies who are much older than Emily and can't do the things she can do. I'm serious- the girl has more personality than the rest of my sensory class (about 10 other babies) put together! They all just sit or lay there and passively take in the class, while Emily can't sit still! She constantly crawls up into the instructors lap and tries to grab the items that she is demonstrating to us. Emily is loud and fast and in the centre of it all! She really is the star of the show. She is so naughty... she delights in playing with anything that is NOT a toy- the cheekier the better. She constantly takes toys from other babies, and then often hits them with said toy (not hit hit... more like banging... on their face. Emily likes to bang toys and she enjoys banging them on whatever is closest, even if that is a person). She hates being dressed and changed, and is constantly trying to roll around and crawl away. There have been several occasions of her escaping mid-change and crawling around at top speed with a naked butt- all while shouting "ahhhhh" at the top of her voice. It might just be the funniest thing I've ever seen. She follows me around wherever I go and comes when I call her. When she sees me after a break she gets this HUGE smile, shouts, and crawls over to me at top speed. She laughs at my silliness (she thinks it's especially funny when I put toys on my head!) and really plays with me. She copies sounds like bababa or raspberries. She is now waving back when I wave to her. And she certainly understands when I ask her if she wants milk (she gets really excited when I say that).
We are still nursing on demand. I love it! I'm so so glad I stuck with it! I don't think I would have ever believed it in the early days... but it seriously doesn't hurt at all! To the point where sometimes I forget she is latched on and go to move her and a boob falls out of her mouth! She is really independent with her nursing too. She'll crawl into my lap and sit facing me or on her knees and have a quick snack. If she is hungry, she knows how to get a boob for herself. We started solid food as well. She really likes the Ellas packets. I haven't had much success with making my own food or doing much baby led weaning.. but this is working for us so far. She doesn't like anything with textures and gags on these. But she loves fruit and veg purees.
For many many months the sleeping has been the hardest thing. For her first 3 months she refused to be put down. Ever. So she slept with us. Then she got in the habit of going to bed at 1am and sleeping in bed with us. She went through a phase where it took several hours of soothing to get her to fall asleep every night. She has never slept through the night. She's now 7.5 months and goes to bed between 9-10:00 and goes down in her own cot. She still wakes up several times a night, and sometimes for several hours at a time in the middle of the night. She usually still ends up in our bed, so I never get to wake up and have me-only time in the morning (I can't transfer her to her cot then because she'll wake up and scream, and I can't leave her in our bed on her own cause she can wake up and crawl off the very high edge). She loves to sleep through the mornings. She'll often wake up for an hour or 2 between 6-8 and then goes back to bed till 10-11. I'll admit that most days I just sleep in with her... I don't get good sleep over night, so this is how I make it up. I'm not sure how it will work when I go back to work in January and we need to get up SUPER early! Luckily I'm only going back 2.5 days a week.. so we can ease into it.
So yeah... my baby is very quickly turning into a toddler. It's a strange feeling, you can't help but feel nostalgic for the tiny baby days- but it's weird to feel nostalgic for something that is such RECENT past. I mean, come on! It was only 6 months ago that she was still very much a newborn! I will admit though, that in general life seems to get better the bigger she gets!
We need a bigger flat. 1-bedroom is rough. I can't help but slightly resent and feel super jealous of new mums who get to decorate up a nursery... must be nice. But Emily is actually very happy sleeping in our room. I hope that she'll transition to her own room easily enough once we manage to find a 2-bedroom flat... it's just so expensive! We pay £1150/month here, and most 2-bedrooms are more like £1400/month. SERIOUSLY! It's insane.
Dave still manages to play music and paint. And I'm managing to work out at the gym (they have a crèche) and try to get back to my pre-baby weight. It's hard. But labour at least puts the pain of exercise into perspective!
I've been putting a fair amount of work into keeping up Emily's baby blog. I hope that we can figure out how to print it out, because it's really very special. I post stories and lots of pictures! I think it's cute and entertaining, and is a pretty good document of what life has been like. For some reason it's easier for me to post there than to typing an entry on LJ.
I'm quite looking forward to the holiday season! I haven't given Thanksgiving much thought yet, which I really need to do, as it's sneaking up on me! But I'm sure it'll all come together. And Christmas is going to be so special!
Hopefully I'll manage a post before then.. but if nothing else, I expect I shall be back to do my yearly New Years memes :)
Babies change a lot in their first year. My life has gone one steady metamorphosis since last March. At first life was just about surviving breast feeding. I watched the entire series of DS9 while breast feeding on the couch in Emily's early months! Then we started venturing out more and more... going to baby sensory class, swimming classes, and hanging out with my 2 mum groups- the NCT girls and the yoga girls.
I took Emily to America for a month to see friends and family, and then came back to England. It seems like we've only been back a couple of weeks... but it's been like a month!
Life is still hard.. there are times when I just want to do my own thing or put off things like mealtimes or nappy changes. There are times I don't have the patience for the whining or the crying or the screaming. In my mind I am writing a poem that essentially says "It's hard to love you at 4am". None of this is surprising- you hear it over and over again from every parent ever... but it is fairly true.
But moreso, I must say what a joy Emily is. She is soooo clever and talented and funny! She was sitting up and crawling BEFORE six months old. We have several babies in my mum groups with babies who are much older than Emily and can't do the things she can do. I'm serious- the girl has more personality than the rest of my sensory class (about 10 other babies) put together! They all just sit or lay there and passively take in the class, while Emily can't sit still! She constantly crawls up into the instructors lap and tries to grab the items that she is demonstrating to us. Emily is loud and fast and in the centre of it all! She really is the star of the show. She is so naughty... she delights in playing with anything that is NOT a toy- the cheekier the better. She constantly takes toys from other babies, and then often hits them with said toy (not hit hit... more like banging... on their face. Emily likes to bang toys and she enjoys banging them on whatever is closest, even if that is a person). She hates being dressed and changed, and is constantly trying to roll around and crawl away. There have been several occasions of her escaping mid-change and crawling around at top speed with a naked butt- all while shouting "ahhhhh" at the top of her voice. It might just be the funniest thing I've ever seen. She follows me around wherever I go and comes when I call her. When she sees me after a break she gets this HUGE smile, shouts, and crawls over to me at top speed. She laughs at my silliness (she thinks it's especially funny when I put toys on my head!) and really plays with me. She copies sounds like bababa or raspberries. She is now waving back when I wave to her. And she certainly understands when I ask her if she wants milk (she gets really excited when I say that).
We are still nursing on demand. I love it! I'm so so glad I stuck with it! I don't think I would have ever believed it in the early days... but it seriously doesn't hurt at all! To the point where sometimes I forget she is latched on and go to move her and a boob falls out of her mouth! She is really independent with her nursing too. She'll crawl into my lap and sit facing me or on her knees and have a quick snack. If she is hungry, she knows how to get a boob for herself. We started solid food as well. She really likes the Ellas packets. I haven't had much success with making my own food or doing much baby led weaning.. but this is working for us so far. She doesn't like anything with textures and gags on these. But she loves fruit and veg purees.
For many many months the sleeping has been the hardest thing. For her first 3 months she refused to be put down. Ever. So she slept with us. Then she got in the habit of going to bed at 1am and sleeping in bed with us. She went through a phase where it took several hours of soothing to get her to fall asleep every night. She has never slept through the night. She's now 7.5 months and goes to bed between 9-10:00 and goes down in her own cot. She still wakes up several times a night, and sometimes for several hours at a time in the middle of the night. She usually still ends up in our bed, so I never get to wake up and have me-only time in the morning (I can't transfer her to her cot then because she'll wake up and scream, and I can't leave her in our bed on her own cause she can wake up and crawl off the very high edge). She loves to sleep through the mornings. She'll often wake up for an hour or 2 between 6-8 and then goes back to bed till 10-11. I'll admit that most days I just sleep in with her... I don't get good sleep over night, so this is how I make it up. I'm not sure how it will work when I go back to work in January and we need to get up SUPER early! Luckily I'm only going back 2.5 days a week.. so we can ease into it.
So yeah... my baby is very quickly turning into a toddler. It's a strange feeling, you can't help but feel nostalgic for the tiny baby days- but it's weird to feel nostalgic for something that is such RECENT past. I mean, come on! It was only 6 months ago that she was still very much a newborn! I will admit though, that in general life seems to get better the bigger she gets!
We need a bigger flat. 1-bedroom is rough. I can't help but slightly resent and feel super jealous of new mums who get to decorate up a nursery... must be nice. But Emily is actually very happy sleeping in our room. I hope that she'll transition to her own room easily enough once we manage to find a 2-bedroom flat... it's just so expensive! We pay £1150/month here, and most 2-bedrooms are more like £1400/month. SERIOUSLY! It's insane.
Dave still manages to play music and paint. And I'm managing to work out at the gym (they have a crèche) and try to get back to my pre-baby weight. It's hard. But labour at least puts the pain of exercise into perspective!
I've been putting a fair amount of work into keeping up Emily's baby blog. I hope that we can figure out how to print it out, because it's really very special. I post stories and lots of pictures! I think it's cute and entertaining, and is a pretty good document of what life has been like. For some reason it's easier for me to post there than to typing an entry on LJ.
I'm quite looking forward to the holiday season! I haven't given Thanksgiving much thought yet, which I really need to do, as it's sneaking up on me! But I'm sure it'll all come together. And Christmas is going to be so special!
Hopefully I'll manage a post before then.. but if nothing else, I expect I shall be back to do my yearly New Years memes :)