Two months old and more milestones!

I can't believe it.....Philippa was 2 months old yesterday!!

Here are some pictures I've taken on the 20th of each month and will continue to take...look how much she's grown!!

                              

Other milestones she has reached......

She has started sucking her hands a lot and I think is just starting to notice them too.  She looks rather startled and then very pleased with herself when one waves in front of her face!  She hasn't yet quite worked out that they belong to her and that she is in fact in control of them.

She has been smiling for a while now and getting very good at it too!  She is especially smiley when she has just woken up....I have to get her to really concentrate to feed sometimes, she's just too busy grinning!! But beyond this she has now started to experiment with laughing.  We haven't had the first proper laugh yet but some smiles are accompanied with breathy hyperventilation and the odd squeak.....whatever they are they're very sweet!

She is now properly following faces and sounds.  If I come into the room and speak to her she turns her head to look for me......very flattering!

One bad milestone (for me, anyway)....she is out of newborn sized clothes.  Booooo....my little Pipsqueak is getting big!  Here's the most gorgeous cardigan my aunt knitted for her (one of many the lucky little girl has been knitted by family!)....I think she will pop out of it before very long at all.

She had her first church outing the weekend before last for Remembrance Sunday.  I have to admit I was rather nervous that she would scream her way through it,  but apart from a huge watery burp during the two minute silence the first two thirds of the service went very well!  She did start getting grumbly after that but thankfully I was able to take her into an ante-room where she then fell asleep!

One milestone which is imminent but not yet actually reached.....Pippa has her first injections tomorrow morning.  Wahhhh, I'm not sure who will cry more.  I shall let you know! And another imminent milestone is her Christening on Sunday.  We are lucky enough to have a very old family Christening gown which, thankfully, she is going to fit into after a rather tense moment trying it on.  Of course, back then Christenings were carried out pretty quickly after a baby was born so the gowns were invariably very small.  They also had bonnets...I couldn't resist trying one on her although I doubt she shall be wearing it on the day.

Finally the big two...........She has been sleeping through the night for a whole week!!!  After the late night feed, split between 10pm / 11pm, she then sleeps all the way through until I wake her at 7am.  Just amazing, I am so proud and thankful all at the same time!

........AND she is now in her big cot.  Without the moses basket.  Just little Pip looking very small and lost floating in the middle of the mattress!  Blissfully, she seems remarkably unaware of any change.  If anything she sleeps better as she's now unable to wiggle her way to the left-hand wall of her basket and snuffle up against it.  She did this within minutes of being put in her basket,  so funny!

And a picture I just couldn't resist including.  It was on the evening of our local fireworks display,  getting rugged up ready to head out.  She obviously reaaaally wanted to take that muslin out with her!

Tick, tock, tick, tock!

Where does time go?!

It has been so long since I last posted....the last ten days have just flown by!  It still amazes me how simply going through the daily routine with Philippa seems to take up 90% of my time.  Every morning I wake with renewed determination to be more productive and to achieve more than just feeding, nappy changing and the odd bit of housework squeezed in.  But alas, every evening I crawl into bed with realisation that, yet again, my efforts have been fruitless.  Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love every second of my days with Pip and Rufus,  I wouldn't change one bit of that,  it's just that I have this stupid "to-do list" in my notebook I carry about with me.  Any jobs not achieved the day before get carried over to the next day....needless to say the list is now horrendous and of course it's the larger and often more important tasks which get shunted back and back,  looming over me. 

Three discoveries today...

Just a quickie.....here are three things I've stumbled across today which have made me giggle (and unfortunately snort into my tea), become inspired and finally made me very hungry.  All found via the wondrous world of Facebook. 

Getting the pencils back into action

So I am starting to consider getting back into some work.  I am very lucky in that I can do my work as and when I have time and can accept commissions at a pace that suits me.  I shan't pretend I was ever chained to a desk 8 hours a day and churning out stacks of drawings a week,  but things had certainly started to get nicely busy whilst I was pregnant.  I want to keep that up!

Luckily,  I have a few commissions in the pipeline already and most of these are for friends who understand that there may be a slightly longer waiting time than usual. 

I also finished updating my website today....here it is....!

www.luluanthistle.com

So if anyone out there is keen for a portrait or commission of some sort, especially if you'd like something in time for Christmas, then please get in touch! 

Rufus' turn!

I thought it about time that Rufus had a little limelight again...he's been somewhat sidelined since the arrival of the small burpy, pooey one!

Here's his week in pictures....... 

Worryingly little difference considering Pippa's only
6 weeks....she'll grow into them!  We have a tennis
player / model in the making!

I've got the all clear......

.....to get back into running (read slowly jogging/wheezing)!!

I had my 6 week check-up with the GP following Pippa's birth.  It was mainly just questions to work out whether I am at risk of post-natal depression, how breast feeding is going and what contraception I'm using at the moment (ha! Yeah, right!!).  But also to give me the green light to get back to exercising.

6 weeks old today!

Happy 6 week birthday Pip! 

The last week or so in pictures...... (yes, this is the truly lazy way to update a week's worth of news.  I'm officially lazy).

The hideously bright and colourful (and oh-so-not-part-of-the-colour-scheme) mobile we were kindly given has more than earned it's place in the nursery in the last couple of weeks. Pippa has well and truly discovered it and initially just stared at it and it would stop her grizzling when on the changing table (it's  attached to the table at the moment, rather than over her cot, as she either goes straight to sleep or screams her head off once in her cot....there's not much of an inbetween mood suitable for    mobile-staring).  But now she grins at it and smiles non-stop.  So sweet!! 

Embrace the camera!!! Wow.... I've actually got one in
on time!

Happy Halloween...!

...a bit late but you'd expect nothing less, right?!

Clockwork baby?

I have started to attempt getting Pippa into some sort of proper routine.  For those of you in the know I realise that these next two words will prompt a strong reaction, one way or another,  we have been following.....Gina Ford! Now,  I do not wish to start any sort of debate, discussion or slanging match (as I have so often seen on forums and at coffee mornings when "She who must not be named" is mentioned),  I am purely writing from our personal experience to date and from my own perspective.

For those who don't know, Gina Ford is the author of 'The Contented Little Baby" series of books and has been associated with a relatively hard line approach to getting your baby into a routine. 

The worlds' worst blogger?!

Ohhhhh dear...I seem to have massively, massively lapsed on the old blogging this last week and a half.  I can only apologise - my multi-tasking, comically inspired and creative juices have obviously dried up!  I appear to not be as great at blogging whilst mummying as I thought I was.  Must try harder.  (We've been starting to get Pippa into a routine over the last 2 weeks - she doesn't always bide by the book and sleeping/waking/feeding times are a tad haywire as a result....I shall blame that!)

"Breast is best"....but far from easy!

These days all the books, advice and healthcare professionals hammer home the outstanding benefits of breastfeeding.  I know people have always been aware of the benefits, but there was a period when many women were heading to the formula in preference of the boob and for whatever reason there really does now seem to be a huge drive to persuade women to breastfeed instead.  In most situations I've encountered so far  lots of provisions and support have been put in place to help achieve this.  Luckily,  I have always wanted to breastfeed and have needed no persuasion.

After a morning feed in bed 

An emotional 24 hours...

In my hopes of turning Pippa into a true 'Gina Ford' baby one day I thought I'd attempt to get her used to a bottle so that Husband (or any other willing devotee) can theoretically do the evening feed,  thus allowing me an extra few hours in bed.  Getting little Pip 'onto the bottle' would also make extravagant (and presently unimaginable) excursions to places such as the hair dressers or going out for a run / wheeze around the park possible.  Now, I would like to emphasise the one day part of my first sentence.  I am not in any particular rush to achieve the heavenly state of Gina-dom and am very aware that Pippa is still very small.  But I didn't think that giving it a go this once could hurt and I know many girls who have got their babies onto the bottle very early on and had no problems doing bottle and boob side-by-side.

Pippa's first bottle....and probably her last for a few weeks yet!

Vets and Midwives

Again, I am very sorry that I have been AWOL for the last week or so;  things in our household have been a bit haywire recently and the three of us (and Rufus) have been rather occupied with settling into our groove ( I shall post separately about an especially 'interesting' 36 hours in particular). 

Pippa in her snowsuit, ready for her first Babybjorn outing
(taken about 10 days ago - pre 16oz weight gain)

An apology

Just to say sorry for being rubbish at updating my blog this last week ..... I'm getting back up to speed now so I will post ASAP!!

Happy 1 week birthday Pippa! A week in photos....

So, our darling Pippa is now 1 week old!  I cannot believe it!  I guess this is the first of many mini-milestones to come. Don't fear though,  I shan't be publicly celebrating every single weekly milestone.... just this first one!

I thought the best way to show you all how we have been spending this first week is to share some photos  (and surprise, surprise....we have taken just one or two!).

Her first screaming fit....

I'm back and.... with an announcement!

Firstly, let me apologise about for going AWOL for a week.  

In the true spirit of motherhood I thought there'd be no time more appropriate to update my poor neglected blog than at 5am, whilst up and feeding my baby.........

.....MY.....BABY.......!!!!!!

Seeing or using these words together in a sentence is still so amazing and unbelievable to me. I simply cannot yet grasp the enormity of what that means. It is the most wonderful and awe-inspiring thing to have ever happened to me and I think it'll be some time before I can utter the words "my baby" or "my daughter" without a) grinning like a mad thing and b) pinching myself to check I'm really awake.

Because yes, if you didn't already know through other forms of the social media grapevine, Husband and I welcomed our daughter Philippa Beatrice into the world last Thursday (20th) at 2.28pm, weighing 6lbs 14oz.

Everyone, meet Pippa!!

A case of tmi....

Today has been another gloriously sunny day here,  really beautiful weather, so Rufus has had two nice walks today.  One with a lovely neighbour and her dogs (one of which is Rufus' favourite girlfriend) and the second in the afternoon with Husband, as he managed to get home from work early.

Now, the beautiful sunny weather wasn't the only reason for extra walking today.  I had a home visit from my midwife.  In the majority of cases,  once you're officially overdue,  you are offered three visits (or appointments in the hospital if you'd rather) leading up to D-Day:  it's the first stage of 'getting things moving'.  As most of you know,  I am due to go into hospital on Saturday evening to get the baby evicted (commonly referred to as an induction),  so my three visits were scheduled for today, tomorrow and Friday. 

A day in photos....

I've seen a few other people doing this,  so I thought I'd be oh-so-original and jump on the band-wagon!  Here are some photos of my day.....

After our midwife appointment this morning I took Rufus out for a nice, sunny walk......

41 weeks and....

.......no show!!

This morning we went for my 41 week appointment.  All is well and the baby seems very happy - engaged and all set to go,  but obviously too happy just where he or she is right now!  

The midwife said she had no trouble whatsoever telling which way the baby was lying without even laying a finger on me.  I can see why!  I just took a photo which I think emphasises the point....it is ridiculous!!  Sometimes when I look down it looks so lopsided that I am surprised I'm not leaning to the right permanently.  Maybe I am.  It would certainly explain a lot of the looks I attract in public....... less "wow, she looks like she's ready to pop" and more "wow, she is seriously wonky, how is she not falling over?".

I tried to convince the midwife to make a guess at how big she thinks the baby will be, but no joy.  What do you think?!

Operation pram clean-up!

We have had this beautiful pram in the family at least since the late 1940's and has been much used and loved by the last two generations.  However, it has more recently been residing in rather unstately surroundings in either my father's or our own garage.

So I decided to take advantage of the sunny weather and drag it out for a good old 'Spring Clean'.  It's still in really good condition considering its age but could probably do with a re-paint at some point.