A week of firsts

This week is full of firsts for Lily.

To begin with at 6 months and 2 days, I finally faced reality, that my baby girl is growing up and on Monday night Lily spent the first night in her cot.
As I lay her down to sleep, tucked her in and walked out of the room a part of me was hoping that she would cry, signifying to me that she wasn't ready to be alone in her room. This did not happen and upon further inspection 5 minutes later, Lily was out like a light.

At this point I would love to report that Lily slept peacefully throughout the night, unfortuately that wasn't the case. Lily is waking up to 4 times a night lately, which is quite tiring.

I am suspecting teething is the culprit, however none have come through yet.

This is how Lily was sleeping when I went into check her for the last time (probably the 5th time) before I went to bed.

This is the gorgeous sight I was greeted to when I went in to get Lily when she awoke in the morning.While I put some clean clothes of Lily's away I gave her a little teddy that her Great Grandma knitted for her when I was pregnant with Lily. It is the perfect size for her and she just adores playing with her. Last night was our second first for the week. At 6 months and 3 days, Lily and I spent our first night away from home. We had a girly night at my Mums house with Mum and a close friend of Mum's.
She is the most lovely lady and it was so nice to catch up with her again. Much laughter and good conversation was shared.
This morning was Lily's third first for the week, her first bath in a sink, Nana's kitchen sink that is! She thought it was great, as you may be able to tell from this expression.
Yesterday we went shopping at Baby Target, they had a great sale on and I got some gorgeous clothes for Lily.
I also brought her this lovely bright Lamaze toy that was also on sale. It is really bright and has lots of different textures and attachments.
As I was changing Lily's bottom at 4:00am this morning I seen this toy sitting in the top of the Target bag, I just couldn't resist giving it to Lily to have a little play with.
Can I just say that Lily thought playtime at 4:00am was the best idea I have had in some time!

The next first for Lily is tomorrow when we go on our first holiday. We are leaving in the morning and shall return on Monday. I am really looking forward to it.

However I am quite sad that my nephew is yet to enter this world, and it looks as though he wont before we leave tomorrow. However the day isn't out yet. Come on little man I am waiting to meet you!

6 Months

There has to have been a mistake somehwere, perhaps I counted a month twice, either way my sweet little princess simply cannot be 6 months old???!!!

How did I go from being the proud as punch new mum to a precious newborn to being the still proud as punch mum of a 6 month old baby girl?!

It simply cannot be. I guess I just have to accept that it is, and that my baby girl is growing and changing so much, every day, right before my very eyes.

I am still desperately seeking that pause button, the days, weeks and indeed months are flying by at a rapid rate, I just cannot keep up with them.

Unfortunately Lily's 6 month birthday was not the celebration I was hoping for. Nothing happened the day just wasn't as I had planned and envisioned for the past 6 months.

Cameron and my Papa left at 6:00am on Saturday morning to drive to Victoria for Cameron to buy an old Ford ute that he is going to restore.

Cameron has been wanting to do this since we got together, so I am very happy for him that that dream is now becoming a reality.

I am happy to support him in anyway that I can, just as he has supported my passion for horses.

Lily and I spent the day doing some mundane running around and had a quiet night in together.

I awoke early on Sunday morning to feed Lily and phoned to see where they were, they were a couple of hours from home. I decided to stay up and make them a yummy cooked breakfast, they had been driving non stop for 24 hours so I was sure this would be well received, which it was.

I decided that today would be the day to celebrate Lily's 6 month milestone, and organised to go to our favourite cafe for lunch.
This is what I absolutely love about my family, one im-promptu phonecall early on a Sunday morning, and they all accomodate within their schedules to come and celebrate this milestone with us. This means oh so much to me, and I am incredibly lucky to be blessed with such a family.

My brother is the biggest motorsport fan I know, and he even gave up watching the Clipsal 500 main race to come for lunch, Lily is one very privileged little lady! Not in photo below he wore his Ford shirt to lunch.

It was a lovely day, and Lily was so sweet as to have a nap in her pram when lunch was served, it was lovely to be able to share a meal with those that I love and talk about the most amazing 6 months thus far of my life. Thankyou so much my sweet princess, you mean more to mummy and daddy than we could ever put into words.

So the day started with some special cuddles with Mummy.

Then we went and met Daddy's new car. Here is Lily and I discussing what on earth Daddy gone and done! Apparently it was a bargain and has a lot of potential. *gasp*

Then we went out for lunch, where Lily was spoilt with many cuddles and much adoration. This is something that isn't spared for special occasions, this happens all the time! What a lucky, lucky little girl. Mind you I think we are all the lucky ones to have such a gorgeous little girl to lavish our love and affection one.

Above, finally a photo of the 4 generations.

A quick cuddle from Mum, and Lily was off to sleep.

Where we then all had a lovely meal. Lily was a little perplexed when she awoke to find that we had all been eating, the empty plates were the evidence, and that she had missed out!

All in all we had a lovely day, and I am ever so grateful, as I am every day that my life has been forever enriched with the arrival of my precious daughter. Lily Lorraine you truly are the light of my life.

Little girls are made of sugar & spice & all things nice

And this little girl is no exception....

Lily showing her current favourite pastime, standing up. Enjoy it now Lily because you will not be allowed to stand on the table for much longer young lady!

I don't have a great deal to blog about, but I couldn't bear to have that gloomy post as my current entry any longer.

The most exciting thing at the moment is the imminent arrival of my nephew. My SIL is 38 weeks pregnant, so anyday now he will be arriving. I am looking forward to little bubby cuddles, aside from Lily cuddles there is nothing like cuddling a newborn baby.

SIL rang me an hour or so as she was having pains much the same as she had at the beginning of her labour with Cooper, unfortunately they stopped while she was on the phone.
Unfortunate for me but because I am not the one about to go through labour!

I am very much looking forward to that phonecall to say she is in labour. I was in the room when my nephew was born, watching a baby be born into this world is the most amazing thing one can witness I believe. The memories of that day will never leave me.
However I don't think I will be in the room this time given that I will have Lily obviously. But I will be right there at the hospital eagerly looking forward to meeting my baby nephew.

SIL and my brother are yet to settle on a name for their new addition. I joked that he is not going to want to come out until he has a name.
I suggested the name Fletcher yesterday, SIL loved the name but it was met with a resounding no from my brother.

Either way he is going to be born anyday now! Cooper was 10 days early so we are expecting it sooner rather than later.

SIDS

This is a four letter word that literally strikes fear through my heart, as a paranoid mother this horrible word is never far from the front of my mind.

I take every possible pre-caution I can think of the reduce the risk of this ever happening.

I can barely face to even write about it.

However last week I read some research that indicates having a fan on in the room that baby is sleeping in drastically reduces the occurence of this, by some 94% I think from memory.

Can you believe we don't actually own a pedestal fan? For this reason for the past week I have fairly well constantly had the aircon running on ventilation to ensure there is plenty of air circulation.

The result? Lily waking up frequently and I now have a terrible cold!

I think Cameron was getting annoyed at my paranoia and the fact that I have now made myself sick. Last night he insisted that we don't have the aircon running, so I comprimised with an open window.
The result of that? Lily only waking up once through the night and me getting a decent nights sleep.
Of course I can't help but worry about the fan not being on, I think I am one of those people who is not content unless I have something to worrry about.

If you have any other tips for reducing the risk of this horrible four letter word, please do leave a comment.

And because I can't stand a bare post, I went into a random folder and selected a random photo. Here is Lily having a sleep while we were out visiting a close family friend. I can't believe how tiny Lily looks, just like a little doll. She is wearing a cardigan that her Great Grandma knitted for her before she was born.
When I look at these clothes now, I can't believe Lily was that little!

First Rusk

Over the past couple of months Lily has promptly put anything handed to her into her mouth. This has increased over the past few weeks, as has the intensity of which she bites down on such objects.

For this reason and a few other tell tale signs

~ Rosy cheeks

~ Grizzliness (occasionally)

~ Using me as a dummy when feeding. (Boy those gums are sharp!)

~ Lots of dribbling

I suspect that Lily's first toothy peg is not to far away, this could also be the reason she is waking every 2 hours at night. For some reason when I was pregnant I was sure all babies slept through from 3 months of age, apparently not?! I would LOVE a full nights sleep.

Anyhow yesterday Lily had her first rusk, she LOVED it! Occasionally she would accidentally drop it, as soon as I retrieved it and it came into her sight her little mouth would open up so wide and her arms and legs would flap around with such excitement.

I think we are going to have to go and buy a highchair. Currently Lily sits in our lap or in her bouncer. This is not a routine I want to get into the habit of. Family meal times at the table with the TV off is very important to me. This is a value that I want to instill in Lily from an early age.

I am not going to be very good with the whole Lily feed Lily stage. She made quite a mess with a rusk alone, I am not a fan of mess! I am thinking I better get used to it.

At first Lily was a little un-sure of putting the rusk in her mouth, but once she did there was hesitation.

Mum came down yesterday to use my sewing machine to finish off some curtains she is making for my nephews bedroom. His arrival is imminent, he will be here any day now, how exciting! Lily kept a watchful eye on her and enjoyed the bright colours of the fabric.

Lily had all sorts of fun rolling around on the curtains, looking at the tractors, cars and aeroplanes.

In the past couple of weeks Lily has started to find her feet, she loves to stand up, with us supporting her of course. Once Lily has stopped feeding, I stand her up and we have a lovely little chat, she is quite vocal.

Lily also now loves being on her tummy, as soon as you put her down she promptly rolls over and continues to roll all over the room.
Much to my surprise Lily now gets up on her knees and scoots herself forward, once she gets those arms and legs co-ordinated together she will be off, eek!

Whats going on?

I'm not sure what is going on with my blog, none of my posts are on the main page???

Busy, Busy

My goodness the past week has been very busy! I am so happy to finally have a day at home today, to not have to go anywhere will be just lovely.

I am looking forward to getting a lot of housework done today, I know it is sad but I love cleaning, maybe not so much the cleaning part but I am a stickler for a clean, tidy, organised house, actually life for that matter.

I have mopped myself into the study so need to stay put for a few minutes while the floor dries.

I expect Lily will spend a large portion of the day sleeping today. She rarely sleeps when we are out, I think she is worried she may miss something, and if she does sleep it is usually a catnap for 20 minutes or so.

Last week I attended a first aid course designed around children. I have completed my senior first aid course, but was not comfortable as it is mainly aimed at adults, and skims over children and babies.
This course was the other way around. I got a lot out of the course it was very informative.

Not only did it cover first aid, it also covered safety around the house, this was very interesting.

I was quite shocked to hear of the danger if a child was to swallow Johnsons Baby Oil, it can apparently be fatal. I thought being a product designed for babies it would be safe. There has not been any deaths in Australia, however there has been a few overseas.

I can understand how this would happen as I know I have it on a shelf on Lily's change table. For that reason I can understand how easily a toddler could ingest it at that height if they were watching Mum change their baby siblings bottom. Quite alarming to say the least.

My parents are in the process of opening up a shop, so I have been busy setting up and organising the business side of this, I am really enjoying it. I am however quitely concerned about how it is going to go given the current economic climate, however if anyone can make a go of it it will be John, he has over 20 years of experience and a wealth of knowledge of the industry.

Last week I also had my first day back at uni. I feel quite guilty to say this, but I really enjoyed it. I love learning and it was so good to be back in the lecture theatre being yelled at (not me directly) by an over enthusiastic lecturer!

It was quite funny though as at one point a group of girls behind me were commenting on how awful such an 'early' lecture was (at 10:00am) the commented that after the lecture they were going home to sleep. I was very tempted to spin around and tell them that I had been up since 5:00am done 2 loads of washing, watered, swept the pergola, vacuumed, mopped, fed and bathed a baby and travelled an hour to get to uni! I managed to restrain myself though.

I was quite worried about how Lily would go for 4 hours without being breastfed. I woke her 2 hours before I left and fed and bathed her. I kept her up for a little longer than usual and fed her at every available opportunity, luckily Lily is always happy to feed, regardless of how short a time ago she last fed.

This worked as Lily slept for 3 hours! When she woke up Mum changed her bottom, had a little play and I was walking through the door. So all that worry on my part for nothing.
Lets hope every week goes that smoothly. I missed her so much though, I felt as though I was missing a limb!

On that note I can hear a little lady chatting away in her cradle.

This is where I would like to be today, a tranquil setting such as this.