Smiles

Sophia has been smiling for a few weeks now. It’s the most amazing feeling when she looks up at us and smiles. I keep trying to capture it on camera but I’m usually too late.

But this afternoon I managed to take a few pictures of her smiles (and some other pictures too).

Please excuse her milky mouth, she’d just been fed!

Newborn pictures

Since Sophia was born I’ve wanted her to have a photo session with a professional photographer to help us preserve the memory of her as a newborn. I started doing some research into local photographers who specialise in babies and was shocked at how expensive they are.

With our wedding money we bought a good DSLR camera and I have some photo editing software on my computer so I thought I’d have a go myself at taking some pictures. They aren’t ‘professional’ by any means but I am pretty pleased with how they have turned out!

Here is a selection of some of the pictures I took…

We are going to print them off for our photo album and have a few made into canvases to put up when we move to our new house.

Snowy Sunday

We woke up to snow again this morning. It's hard to believe that in just over a week it'll be April! We can't wait for some sun!

Sophia was up a lot last night so we tried to have a bit of a lie in this morning.

We went to meet up with the other parents today from our antenatal classes. We went to a nice bar/restaurant called The Verdo Lounge in Wylde Green. It was really nice and very family friendly which was good. It was great to compare notes on feeding, sleeping, routines etc. Sophia was wide awake most of the time but luckily she was content to just be held by one of us and after her feed she fell asleep.

We're home now and hoping for a better nights sleep tonight!

Daddy's little angel

Here are some pictures from today. Check out Sophia's cute little jeggings!

Water baby

Up until about a week ago Sophia really didn't like bath time. She enjoyed feeling the warm water washing her hair before going in but as soon as I put her into the bath she'd cry until I took her out.

Now she seems to love them! She'll go in with no problems and actually seems to enjoy being washed.

I've started giving her a bath every evening between 5-6 depending on her feeds. I'm hoping this little routine will pave the way for good bedtime habits a few months down the line.

After she's out and cuddled dry in her towel I rub in a teeny bit of lotion onto her tummy, arms and legs. I try and make it like a little massage and it seems to relax her.

Usually she'll want to be fed after her bath so if she does I feed her and then put her down to nap.

I've been doing this about a week now and I think it is making her a little more calm and relaxed of an evening.

I'm glad she is growing fond of baths (just like her mummy!) and I'm looking forward to being able to introduce her to bath books and toys for even more fun when she's older!

Changes

Over the past week I've noticed that Sophia's changed so much. We think she's going through a growth spurt at the moment as she's feeding much more than usual. She's really filling out now and feels much heavier to hold. She's also becoming increasingly more alert which is lovely!

I can't believe how fast she's growing...she's not my tiny little newborn anymore!

Dear Sophia: 1 Month Old

Dear Sophia,

It is the 15th of March as I sit down to write this post. It seems a lifetime ago that I had a bump instead of a baby. It feels like you have always been here now, a part of us. The last 4 weeks have been a rollercoaster of emotions and the hardest I’ve ever worked before. There have been some days where I sit in my pyjamas nursing you from morning ‘til night, not being able to put you down for even a few minutes. Most days feel like a sea of breastfeeding, sterilising bottles, pumping, laundry and changing nappies but there is nothing else in the world I’d rather be doing. When you look at me with your big, dark blue eyes I realise I would do anything for you. I’m so blessed to be your mummy.

This month you have been…

Sleeping

You are in a better routine with sleeping lately. You sleep at regular periods throughout the day and night. The past few days you seem to alternate between being awake for about an hour and a half and then asleep for an hour and a half in the day. This works perfectly as I feed and play with you then while you nap I can do a few jobs around the house.

You are now used to your moses basket at night time and it takes a lot less time to put you down of a night. We just swaddle you and lay you down and you’re usually asleep within five minutes. You sleep from about 11:30pm, waking between 4am and 5am for a feed and then sleeping again until about 8am. This is very good for a baby of your age and we feel very lucky that you have got yourself into this little routine!

Eating

This has been the toughest part of the month! After your weight losses in the past few weeks we turned to supplementing your feeds with formula. This was great in some ways because it meant you were gaining the weight back and you were much more satisfied after being fed. It also meant that Daddy could feed you which he loved! However, due to this my milk supply started to reduce meaning I had to give you even more formula…we had began on a slippery slope!

After feeling like I couldn’t keep up with your hunger anymore I made the decision to move to formula completely, I felt it was the only option to keep you happy. But it felt horrible and I felt awful about my decision. I absolutely love breast feeding you and feel like I want to give things one last really hard try to ditch the formula and get back to exclusive breastfeeding. I’ve written out a plan to gradually reduce the formula over the next few weeks and have bought an electric pump and some herbal remedies to help increase my milk supply. You deserve the best and I know I would always regret it if I gave up now without doing absolutely everything I could to get back to breastfeeding. And if it doesn’t work then at least I know that I have done my best…

 

Developing

Your development is coming along well and you are starting to do new things everyday. I get so excited when you do something that I’ve not seen you do before. This month you can…

• Grab objects near your hands (your toys, our fingers, mummy’s hair!)
• Watch us. You love to watch us either when we are sat near you or when we walk around the room. It’s so cute how you watch me walk around the kitchen whilst I make lunch!
• Stare at our faces. Sometimes you’ll also copy our face expressions like sticking out tongues.
• Look at books. I’ve started reading a book to you everyday and you seem to enjoy the rhythm of my voice as I read the story and you look at the pictures for a short time.
• Lift your head. You are a strong little girl and you can lift your head for about 5 seconds. You’re having tummy time everyday now so I hope that this will help to develop your neck muscles even more.
• Respond to sounds. You move your head towards sounds now and you are becoming more alert to different sounds. It also means we have to be more careful not to wake you now!
• Follow objects with your eyes. You have a black and white panda rattle that you love to look at. We move it in front of you and you follow it with your eyes.
• Smile! This is definitely the best event of the month (other than your birth of course!). In the last few days you have been smiling in response to us. Daddy made silly noises at you and you smiled. I played peek a boo and you smiled. Yesterday we were looking at your ‘That’s not my bunny’ touchy feely book. As I read it and helped you to put your hands on the feely bits you smiled. On all of these occasions we don’t think you had wind and are pretty convinced they were genuine smiles. Seeing you smile is the best feeling in the world!

This month has been the best! Although we can’t wait to see you grow and develop we are so enjoying you at this stage as we know it won’t last long. We want to savour every second! We love you more than words can say.

Happy 1 month birthday beautiful girl!

Lots of love from Mummy and Daddy.xxx

Busy

It's the 14th of March...I cannot believe that this day last month I was in the birthing pool at this time! How time flies!

We've had a busy few days here. Yesterday we went to meet up with the women I met at my NCT antenatal classes and their babies. We had a few hours of coffee, cake and non-stop talk of birthing and babies. It was lovely to get out and see all the little cuties! Sophia is the youngest by a few weeks and she was a very good girl!

Today we went to visit Nanny and Grandad Smith for lunch. Again, Sophia was very chilled out and relaxed...something she must get from her daddy! We're home now and having cuddles on the sofa, waiting for daddy to get home.

I can't believe my baby turns 1 month tomorrow!

Snug as a bug

We've been having lots of snow here over the past few days which is really odd. And although the sun has been out it is bitterly cold. We've been staying inside and keeping cosy except yesterday we needed to venture to the doctors. Poor Sophia has been suffering from reflux which has been making her sick after some of her feeds so the doctor gave us some infant gaviscon to try. Hopefully it'll do the trick!

The best news this week so far is that we have been discharged from the midwife as Sophia is finally above her birth weight at 7lb10! I'm so relieved!

We had a lovely Mother's Day on Sunday. I got 2 lovely cards and a beautiful heart locket which was a very unexpected surprise!

Anyway, here are some recent pictures...