Four Months

I feel like I need to make a comment about time going by too fast, but I say it all the time. Later on, I'll rock back and forth in my chair looking at her newborn pictures and cry.. but for now, I'll carry on with this post instead. :)

This month Georgia has:

• Continued to sleep through the night. These past few days she's been up at 5am though, which kind of sucks, but I'm still not complaining. We're really lucky in the sleep department.
• Continued to suck at day sleeps! ;) I've been timing them over the Baby Connect app & she has a pretty poor napping pattern. The community nurses all recommended that she has three main naps per day, but that certainly isn't happening. 
• Met some more lovely babies her age & let her mama socialise with other new parents!
• Been shoving her hands in her mouth at any given opportunity. Mmmm, hands. 
• Started grabbing her toys and aiming them for her mouth - favourites are Slim Shady {her scrunchy monkey} & her two Lamaze animal toys. She also loves Sophie the Giraffe.
• Smiled constantly! She is super cheerful during the mornings, and is happy as a clam when she is on the change table with her little bum in the air.

• Managed to go a full month without nappy rash. I hope I'm not jinxing myself by saying that out loud...
• Breastfed like a rockstar. We're down to just one 50ml top-up before bed, and some nights she doesn't even want that - she goes straight for the boob, and then straight to sleep in her wrap.
• Has GROWN! We have officially cracked the 6.06kg mark & she is now 61cm long!
• Managed to fill out her 000 clothing with surprising speed; I guess the growth spurt will do that. Some smaller brands, like Bonds Wondersuits, have already grown tight, so she's in 00 for them.
• Been a champion tummy-timer. Her neck is so strong now! I realised that I've been holding her in a hip hold while walking around - it wasn't that long ago that we were ever so cautiously supporting her neck, and now all she wants to do is look around.
• Gone on a car-seat and pram strike. Not a fan of those things at the moment.

You can see all of Georgia's week by week pictures by clicking here.

Boom - Growth!

We are busy GROWING around these parts! In the last 23 days, Georgia has been busy getting heavier AND longer.
She now weighs 6.06kg & is 61cm long - a big jump from her last weigh in at 5.42kg and 58cm. Huzzah, baby girl!

I also got my first chuckle out of her today - not long after I took this photograph. Turns out she's just as ticklish as her daddy is. So ridiculously cute. I can't wait for Jase to get home so she can do it for him. :)

Man, my little heart is exploding today.

A Feeding Update

It's been a while since I talked about how things are going on the feeding front. In fact, the last update was when Georgia was three weeks old! Before you start reading this post, yes, this will talk about boobs. Here's a random baby picture to make it worth your while, if you choose to stop reading here. :)

Georgia is 16 weeks old now. She'll be 4 months old next week. And, I'm happy to say, we are still exclusively breastfeeding! It's been a long, hard stretch, but I am so pleased that we managed to get this far. 

I still enjoy feeding her this way. It's convenient, and it's comforting. She's starting to become more efficient too, which makes for a much quicker feeding session. I must say, I like this a LOT. In the early days we went from falling asleep at the boob, then switched to marathon 30-40 minute sessions. We're currently at 10 minutes a side, sometimes less, and feeds are around every 3.5 hours. {As a side note, she's also becoming more curious and cheeky while she feeds. I can't count the amount of times that she pulls away and just gives me the biggest grin. Love this child so much!}

My supply is holding up, for now. I don't have a lot leftover at the end of the day, and I'm down to one pumping session just before bed. I usually only get around 40-60ml. Certainly not a power pumper! But the good news is, I have a nice little freezer stash - and I'm only topping up with expressed milk ONCE a day. That 40-60ml I get from the previous night, is what I feed Georgia before bed the following night. It's probably not a necessary top up, but it makes me feel better. Our bedtime routine is usually bath, bottle of expressed milk, boob {mostly for comfort} & bed. We'll be introducing a bedtime book to our routine soon.

The next few months are going to be interesting. The solid food guidelines have gone from 6 months to 4 months to 6 months again, and we're aiming to start her closer to 6 months. She's not showing any interest in food yet, though is watching us more closely at dinner time now. And since she did come that little bit early, feeding her solid foods later rather than sooner seems to make more sense to us.  

As for breastfeeding, it would be pretty bloody awesome to keep it up until she's done needing it/me - but I'm not getting too far ahead of myself. If I can continue solely breastfeeding until we start solids, that would be the dream. And if I can keep it up while we're mix feeding solids, I'll be thrilled. One week at a time, though. :)

Then & Now

I still remember buying my first piece of baby clothing. It had owls on it, of course {I still love birdies} and it was fairly gender neutral - although at the time, I was sure Baby Jag would be a boy! It looked like this:

Here we are, nine months later, and she finally fits into it. My baby - my baby GIRL - is growing up!

Week by Week v.2

The last time I showed you a week by week post, I stopped at Week 7 - but we've done LOTS more growing since then around these parts. Here's my gorgeous girl from Week 8-15. Here's the first few weeks for comparison:

And now... behold! She grows!

    

She still has the same crazy brown hair & big blue eyes. I can't wait to see if these stick around as she grows.

You can see the entire batch of weekly shots by clicking here. :)

Stripes

Because all of us need a little bit of baby butt in our lives every now and again.

This Baby

It always bothers me when people boast about what an easy baby they have - or on the other extreme, complain about what a tough baby they have. It's not that I don't doubt that their babies are awesome, or challenging, but aren't all babies a little bit of both?

I'd like to think we have a great baby - she's smart, clever, and absolutely beautiful. She has her bad days too, her cranky and sad and overtired days. Does that mean I like her more or less on those days? No way! She's a baby. She's allowed to have her good and her bad days - just like I have them, her dad has them, everyone has them.

Georgia is growing quickly! Her 000 clothes, that she took so long to get into, are starting to grow snug - already. She is cooing and babbling and chuckling, and it melts my heart to see her break into that huge gummy smile.

Sometimes I'm sad to say goodbye to my tiny, helpless newborn - but other days, most days, I'm so excited to see the person she's growing into. I'm biased, I know, but she really does get more beautiful by the day.

Edit: A friend sent me a message {which I appreciate} letting me know that parts of this post came across as being judgemental, and for that I wanted to apologise. Lord knows, that's the last thing I wanted from it. I've felt inferior to many people since becoming a mum, and it's an awful feeling, and I'm sorry.

Lately I've been surrounded by two kinds of people. The boasters {which is all well and good - I get it - we love our kids!} that go on and on about the achievements their kids have made & have little sympathy for us normal folk and our babies. And the complainers - and when I say that, I mean the type that have made their minds up about the fact that their kid is obviously a hindrance, and who don't want, or respond to, the advice and suggestions given by others. These extremes are what make me twitchy: we're all human, can't we just own up to it?

I would never judge anyone who was legitimately struggling, having a rough day, or needing advice. I've been there & I will no doubt be there again. And I hope that those mums, myself included, feel comfortable enough to reach out and ask for that support. I also hope that those people with their wonderfully perfect babies can reach out and offer support and guidance to those mums who aren't so lucky. 

Yes, as I mentioned before, I believe Georgia {and myself} to be in a little of both worlds, but I have my days where my Twitter-feed is ablaze with questions I've posed to other, more experienced mums - I'd be lost without them!

Things I Didn't Know

Let's face it: there's a LOT I don't know about babies. Including, but not limited to...

• How loud they are when they're asleep. Georgia alternates from sounding like a snuffling miniature warthog, to whimpering quietly in her sleep. Both are very endearing - unless it's 5am.
• How they behave when other people are visiting, but can be little terrors the second you're home alone.
• How hilarious her hairy ears are. {Will this ever go away?}
• How long it takes for me to get out of the house. It's not just shower, grab purse, go. It's shower with screaming child in the bouncer, pack bag while baby sleeps, put bag in car, dress and change baby's nappy, head to the car, get puked on, go back to dress and change baby's nappy again, and so on, and so forth.
• How certain things they do remind you of yourself. Georgia sneezes when she goes outside in the sunlight, like I do, nearly every time.
• How quickly they don't look like newborns anymore.
• How many outfits they can go through in a day. {And this is me counting myself lucky that we don't have an epic puking baby, or a crazy leaking butt baby.}
• How you can spend countless hours of every day acting like an idiot just to try and make them smile. :)

Three Months

We have been at this parenting gig for three months now. Three months of warm, snuggly baby. Best. Job. Ever.

This month Georgia has:

• Been sleeping through the night. We have a fairly late bedtime (around 10pm) but she lasts through until around 6-7am most of the time. Very happy mama, right here.
• Met up with a few other little babies & bad lots of friends visit her at home.
• Figured out that she has hands - and that they can fit in her mouth. 
• Had cuddles with her other Uncle & Aunty from the UK when they came to visit. Very special.
• Started shoving anything and everything into her mouth, and sticking out her tongue to taste things. You know what that means? BABY SLOBBER. She's like a dribbling machine.
• Smiled constantly! It is the most adorable thing ever. She's the smiliest {& chattiest} in the morning - when she first wakes up, after feeds, and during her wide awake time.
  
  

• Gone through yet another batch of nappy rash - followed by a pooping strike. The aftermath of that has NOT been pleasant.
• Continued breastfeeding like a champion, mostly with the nipple shields, but occasionally on her own.
• Been growing!! At our last weigh in, she was 5.4kg & 58cm long.
• Officially started wearing size 000 {0-3 month} clothes. Some are still a little baggy, but they fit her well length-wise now.
• Kept on rolling over. She doesn't like tummy time much, and screeches until she flips onto her back.
• Started swatting at & touching her toys. I'm loving the new interest in bright colours & sounds.
• Gotten cuter and cuter by the day!

You can see all of Georgia's week by week pictures by clicking here.