Savouring the moments

We finally have a day to complete on the sale of our flat; 10th of May. Unfortunately our new house isn't ready for us yet so we will have to live apart for a while. Sophia and I are moving back to Ludlow and James is going to live with his parents.

It's going to be tough living apart but luckily we will have family around us. We're trying to savour every moment that we have until we move.

This weekend we spent time doing things together. Saturday morning we went to have brunch in Starbucks and then to sort out some temporary storage for all of our furniture.

Today we met up with some friends for lunch and then spent the afternoon relaxing.

Visiting school

Yesterday I took Sophia into work to visit my colleagues and let my class see her. She happily let them (the adults) have a hold of her and was very interested in everything that was happening. She took a real shine to my boss too!

We spent lunch time in the staff room and an hour in the afternoon with the reception children. They all had lots of questions to ask such as "can she fly?", "does she eat bananas?" and "is she bored at home when you go to the shops?" How their little minds work...

Sophia had lots of pictures drawn for her and lots of kisses blown.

Today we had a quiet day at home. We've been given a moving out date now so have been busy trying to organise our belongings.

Some pictures from the last two days...

Life lately through Instagram

Life has been very busy lately! We are still in the process of selling our flat and should be completing any day now. We have also had an offer accepted on a new house and due to the people beyond us having no onward chain, we should be on the move fairly quickly! We can’t wait to be in our new home for Summer to enjoy our lovely new garden! We’ve steadily been packing up the last 4 years of our life in this little flat.

Instagram is a phone app which allows you to take quick snaps with your phone and upload them to the internet. I use it a lot and love to play around with the different filters. Here are some of the recent goings on in our lives…

munchable cheeks!

sleepy Sophia!

playing with her favourite toy; Freddie the Firefly

salad and wine

waiting for Daddy to get home

some reading

sleepy cuddles

weekend walks in the woods

gymming

homemade fishcakes

babywearing

brownies

big blue eyes

Her little ways

As Sophia is getting older we are starting to notice her little quirks!

Pictures 1 & 2 : She is always SO smiley after her naps! It's definitely her happiest time.

Picture 3: There is a little bug toy attached to the handle of her carry seat which she will stare at whenever she's in there. I'm not sure if she really likes it or if she's just confused by it!

Picture 4: She loves sleeping and drinking her bottles with her arms up by her head in a very laid back pose. It's a hard life!

8 week check

This afternoon Sophia and I went off to the doctors for her 8 week check and vaccinations. First we went in to see the health visitor who weighed and measured her. She's now 11lb4 and 39 inches putting her into the 91st centile for her height! She's going to be tall like us!

We then went into the doctor who checked her over thoroughly. He checked her eyes, ears, joints etc and all was fine. As he listened to her chest with his stethoscope she smiled and gurgled. He said she is 'a delightful young lady' which made me feel even more proud of her.

Then Sophia had a vaccination in each thigh. She was less than impressed but soon went back to her usual smiley self after a bit of a cry.

Dear Sophia: 2 Months Old

Dear Sophia,

This month has been bittersweet. I can see how much you are growing and developing into your own little person. And while I love seeing you change and doing new things daily, I can’t help but hanker after the teeny, tiny newborn I brought home from the hospital; so fragile and new.

Though at two months you really are still very tiny. You still love to sleep all curled up on my chest, making sleepy little noises every so often and you still have your sweet baby smell which fills my nose every time I kiss you on your head.

We still can’t believe that you are our wonderful, precious little girl. The word ‘love’ doesn’t even come close.

This month you have been…

Sleeping

Your sleep has been pretty consistent since you’ve been born. You usually only wake once to be fed anywhere between 2am and 4am and you’re now starting to sleep longer stretches. You have had a few very unsettled nights this month where you were waking almost every hour but generally you’re a good sleeper.

We’ve started to try and get you into a bit more of a bedtime routine this month. We’ve started to follow a loose routine now. I aim for bath time at about 6pm, I apply your lotion and get you into your PJs. I then read you a story and give you your last bottle. By this time Daddy will usually arrive home and be able to have some cuddles with you until about 7pm. Then we put you into your moses basket to sleep.

The first few nights of this you weren’t pleased at all! The first night it took about 3 hours to get you to sleep but this has been getting less and less every night. If you start to get upset we pat your tummy to comfort you and this seems to do the trick.

Eating

Unfortunately breastfeeding just didn’t work out for us in the end. I was breastfeeding, bottle feeding and pumping milk and it all just got so much. I just couldn’t make enough milk to keep up as you were needing more and more formula. If we would go out and I’d feed you a bottle I’d be panicking that I’d need to rush home and pump to keep my supply going.We also started to experience latch issues that I’m sure were because you’d got used to the ease of feeding from a bottle teat which caused you a lot of frustration.

In the end I made the decision to gradually change completely to formula. Even a few weeks on I still feel really guilty about it and will always feel like I let you down a little bit. But then I look at you, my beautiful girl, and see how well you’re now doing. You have little chubby fingers, rolls on your thighs and pudgy fists. You are thriving and that can only be a good thing.

Developing

What a difference a month makes! You are so much more alert and interactive now and it’s wonderful to see. This month you can…

• Smile. You could smile last month but they are now much bigger and light up your whole face. Your smiles are so beautiful and truly melt our hearts.
• Squeal. You’re not fully laughing but when you’re really happy and smiling you’ll make a high pitched little squeal of joy.
• ‘Talk’. You love to talk to us, and seem to think it’s so much fun when we copy you by making the same noises back to you. You’re also starting to make noises to communicate rather than just crying (though that is still your main way of letting us know what you want). You’ll shout to get out attention. When we walk out of your line of sight you’ll shout us.
• Touch things. You are a lot more interested in feeling things this month. When I’m feeding or cuddling you you’ll be feeling my clothes and you like to feel your knitted comfort blanket. I think it relaxes you. You also love the crinkly patches on your play mat.
• Reach out. When you are in your baby gym you have started reaching out at the toys that hang down. Rather than just knocking them accidentally like you used to you now seem to be reaching out in a purposeful way.

You are now showing so much more interest in the world around you, you love to look around and see everything that is going on. We can’t believe how fast you are changing but we love you more and more every day.

Happy 2 month birthday beautiful girl!

Lots of love from Mummy and Daddy.xxx

In her frills

We were in the flat all day yesterday packing ready to move so we decided to get out and about today. We're going into the town as we have a few vouchers to spend and we want to get Sophia an inflateable swim seat so I can take her swimming.

She seems to be growing before our eyes, her cheeks are getting so pudgy!

She looks so cute in this little m&s top and leggings which came in a big bundle of baby clothes from eBay. What a little sweetie!

In the gym

Here’s a video of Sophia playing in her gym today. She’s starting to reach out to play with the hanging toys now.

No longer a newborn

This morning I've been packing away Sophia's newborn clothes as they no longer fit. I can't believe how much she's grown and changed. I wish I could rewind time and have her a newborn all over again. But I'm also excited to see what the next stage of her life holds for us!

Some recent pictures...

Bedtime

We've had a busy Saturday!
This morning we spent doing chores, making bread and playing with Sophia.

We then went to visit nanny and grandad smith as they have recovered from their stays in hospital. It was lovely to catch up!

We then went into Sutton to look around the shops. James had a whsmith voucher to spend so we got Sophia a new book; peepo!

This weekend we decided to start Sophia into a more structured bedtime routine so we will see how it goes...she went down at 7 after I bathed her and is quietly cooing in her Moses basket at the moment!

(P.s. we didn't take her out with the bare legs! She just had her tights taken off when we got home)