Nine Months

Georgia has officially been on the outside for longer than she was on the inside! We made it to 36+5 weeks of the pregnancy before she decided she was ready to be out, and it's already been almost 40 weeks since her birth.

Still rocking the baby blues.

This month Georgia has:

• Chatted up a storm. We're convinced she's bilingual - though what language she's babbling, I couldn't tell you. We get Dada and MumMumMum all the time, and swear we heard her say Cat & Hey!
• Had both bottom teeth continue coming up - they're about halfway out now. In the last few days, she's also had massive progress with the top two teeth too, which have JUST about cut through the gums.
• Rediscovered her rolling skills. She isn't crawling yet, but my goodness, the girl can flip. She's making her way across the living room by rolling tummy-back-tummy-back over & over. She wakes up from every nap or sleep in her cot by rolling onto her belly now.

• Begun eating some finger foods each lunch time in her big girl high chair. She's still not too sure about this whole feeding herself nonsense though; half the time she spends her lunches mashing the food into the tray, and doesn't quite 'get' the concept of putting the food from her hand to her mouth. Baby steps..
• Started to attempt waving to people - we make a habit of telling her HI! or BYE! with a big exaggerated wave of the arm, and she's starting to copy it. It's a little bit cute.
• Experienced her first Christmas! We had a really busy few days, and she coped with all the changes and the craziness like a trouper. Lots of presents, lots of cuddles, and a very spoiled little girl.

• Been keeping herself occupied by herself for longer periods of time. She's happy sitting down and playing with her toys for a lot longer than before, though still gets frustrated if things are out of her reach.
• Loved the water! She has been doing swimming lessons for a few months now, and the fears are gone - now she is splashing and kicking and trying to drink the pool water. I'm really glad we persevered with swimming, as it's good to see her confidence growing. We'll be doing a few more weeks in the new year, and then leaving it for a little while. The plan is to restart again when she's 18 months old & in the next age for classes, since the lessons are a bit repetitive.
• Continued having all sleeps in her nursery, cuddled up to her soft bunny comforter & singing seahorse.

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

A Little Late

A belated Merry Christmas to you all - we hope it was fantastic. So blessed to spend it as a family of three.

Georgia was so well behaved - even with the late nights, big groups of people & crazy excitement of the festive season. She was fascinated with the wrapping paper and the tags, and has had a ball exploring her new goodies here at home. We need to invest in a toy box to clear off our loungeroom floor, I think.

Tomorrow is going to be another busy day, as we hit up the Boxing Day sales -- I'm looking forward to picking up some Christmas decorations for NEXT year, some goodies to put away for Georgia's first birthday (sniff sniff) and random other little bargains. Not that little miss needs much; she was so very spoiled by her loved ones. :)

Sleep Training & Santa Hats

So, a few weeks ago, I was a little defeated with how our sleep training has been going. Thankfully, I have some updates on that front - and much better ones, I might add. We went cold turkey again, with Georgia in her own bedroom. There were a few tough days at first, we timed ourselves before going into the room, but most importantly, we did it together - now that hubby is working from home, we could both give it our full attention. Previously, she was very dependent on ME doing everything, and wouldn't even calm down when Jase would pick her up. After a tough week or so, she started showing signs that she was learning what to do. Victory came from every resettle that hubby did, without me there - and honestly, it's been a few weeks now, and there are days where she does so much better sleeping for him than for me! Little minx. :)

Georgia now sleeps in her cot all the time. She's in a sleeping bag with no blankets, since it's already been hitting 40o here in Sydney (celcius, folks, omg, hot) & she has a comforter bunny that she cuddles/bashes at will. She does still use a dummy, but that's not an issue for us at this stage. We give her a cuddle and a rock in the chair, look for tired signs, and pop her in the cot. I'd say we're at 50/50 for the reactions we get once she's in the cot, and it depends a lot on her mood and how tired she is. 50% of the time, she'll scream and scream and need resettling. 50% of the time, she'll roll over & get herself to sleep. We're working on being consistent, but overall, she's doing so much better. We've gone from constant wake ups, to sleep throughs. And we've gone from three-four rubbish daytime naps, to two better ones. They aren't always long, but I consider it a victory if she goes down for >1 hour. So proud of her. We are sleeping better at night, too. I didn't realise how much tiptoeing around we were doing once she'd gone to bed.

Christmas preparation has been a bit manic around here. The tree is up and gloriously REAL this year. The presents are finally all wrapped & ready to go, though they're hiding out upstairs away from the kitties {tinsel! ribbon! feral cats!} until Christmas Eve. We went to our first party last night, Georgia has opened one or two gifties from her little friends & kind relatives, and we're thoroughly excited for the next few days. Spending it with family is really important to me this year, since it's Georgia's first Christmas - but also our first Christmas without my beautiful nanna. It's going to be a very emotional few days. I miss her so much.

Her daddy picked this Santa hat out for her - her name goes up in lights! 

We haven't gone overboard with presents for the baby, and have kept it quite sensible. She will be visited by Santa & her sack will be filled up with gifties {if she's been a good girl!} and this is a tradition we'd like to continue over the years. And we've each bought her one thing, and one joint thing from both of us. Let's face it: she'll have more fun eating the bows and smashing the paper! 

All presents aside, I'm just so thrilled to be spending this Christmas as a family of three. This time last year I was pregnant, and had no idea what was in store for us. But the year before that, we were in the throes of infertility, gearing up towards our first IVF experience. My heart goes out to my friends who are struggling/will struggle this holiday season - we've been there, and no doubt will be there again in the future, and I wish you lots of joy.

Indulging in Itha's Puddings

First things first - our giveaway winners from my previous post! I enlisted Georgia's help to decide on the lucky winners, wrote the names of commenters down on paper, and let her grab them out of a saucepan. Congratulations to Amy and MissusB! Please email me your postal details as soon as possible, so I can pass them over.

Things have been busy, busy, busy around these parts. I can't believe that the holiday countdown is on - and close to single digits, too. We have been getting into the spirit of things this year, it's not often that your long awaited baby girl gets to experience her first Christmas! We even went and got a real Christmas pine tree this year, and it's made the house smell amazing. Georgia has more Christmas outfits than she has days to wear them in, and I've been efficient with cards and present buying, because organised with a baby in tow is hard work. :)

Speaking of Christmas.... yesterday we received some more goodies to test out - perfect for the holidays.

Hubby was thrilled - he's a HUGE fan of traditional Christmas puds. The giftbox from Itha's Puddings was very sweetly wrapped; all beautiful touches. It arrived in the morning, and we decided to indulge for dessert.I have one word for you... YUM. The pudding itself was soft and fruity, but the icing on the cake was the Brandy Butterscotch sauce that came with it - paired with a scoop of ice-cream, we felt we were having a very guilty dessert. (And I may or may not have had another bowl of ice-cream this evening, with warm, goopy butterscotch sauce on top. Sssh.)

From the website:
Itha, (pron. I-tha) has been hand-making her gourmet Christmas Plum Puddings for over 50 years to a traditional recipe inherited from her grandmother. This old fashioned ‘cooked in the cloth’ recipe dates back to at least 1912. Every pudding is individually handmade. Puddings are cooked up to ten hours and then hung to age and mature, ensuring each pudding is unique with the look, feel and taste of yesteryear.

Seriously, delish. For someone who is a fussy eater, and who has been known to steer clear of fruit cakes {wouldn't even have one for our wedding!} I was pleasantly surprised. And the sauce. Oh, the sauce. The only thing that could have been better was if it had been the Triple Chocolate Pudding that I'd sampled! Thoroughly enjoyed it - and now I'm looking forward to the feasts of the festive season that are coming up.

I promise I'll update some more soon, especially as Georgia's Christmas month continues.

I received products to trial & review from Itha's Puddings via the team at Piccolo PR - all reviews are my own. If you are interested in a product review appearing on Breathe Gently, please email me.

Getting on Board with the Mission for Health!

With a baby that's gearing up to crawl, two indoor kitties & a very lovable fur puppy, our house is constantly in need of a little TLC, health wise. That's why I was really pleased with the selection of goodies we recently received to test out - they fit right in with our lifestyle with little effort on our part. The Mission for Health campaign from Dettol focuses on everyday healthy homes, but also has a goal to save the children in communities abroad, supporting hygienic practices in villages across Indonesia.

These are the products we've been using over the last few days - stay tuned on how to win some for yourself.

The Touch of Foam hand wash is in the downstairs guest bathroom, and smells divine. I keep coming out & sniffing my hands - AFTER washing them, haha. We received the Rose & Cherry in Bloom fragrance. It's still an old fashioned pump pack, but it dispenses just the right amount of foam for your handwash. The only downside to this would be for little kiddies wanting to play with it, I think! :)

The Refresh Instant Hand Sanitiser is one I've used before - we grew very familiar with portable sanitisers after our time spent in the Special Care Nursery. I liked this one because it didn't leave your hands smelling like antiseptic - it's nice and fresh. I've decided to keep this one in my nappy bag for when we're out & about. It's great for using before I feed Georgia solids, particularly when we're in a busy food court or somewhere outdoors.

The No-Touch hand wash System is set up near our kitchen sink; ready to use when we come in from playing in the yard with Spencer, or from changing one of Georgia's nappies at the change table nearby. Hubby was sceptical at first, but I've caught him washing his hands at the kitchen sink in lieu of the bathroom a few times now. It came with batteries included, and it's really quite clever. Just hold your hands underneath & boom - hand wash ready to use. I find this handy while cooking too, since I'm not transferring gunky hands onto the top of the unit. This is my favourite of the products, because it's not something I would necessarily of bought for myself.

Spencer approves - more pats for puppy!

For keeping the kitchen clean, we received the Power & Pure Multipurpose Spray & some of the Surface Cleanser Wipes. My first job was to tackle the microwave and the stove with the wipes, which I loved. I was a little unsure at first, as the wipes feel really dry when you pull them out of the tub - but they seem to foam up as you use them, which was a nice surprise. I've also used the wipes for cleaning some lightly used books we were given for Georgia, and for giving some of her more toys a bit of a spot clean. The trigger spray is going to be a great all purpose one, and doesn't smell harsh like I would have predicted.

Now.... all that said, how would you like to win some for yourself? My favourite product was the No-Touch hand wash system, because it looks snazzy in my kitchen & works a treat. The kind folks at the Mission for Health team have two of these units to give away. To enter, simply leave a comment here at the blog telling me which product from the current Dettol range you would find most useful for your home. I'll enlist Georgia's help to randomly pick two winners from the comments! :) Please note this giveaway is for Australian residents only.

I received products to trial & review from the Dettol: Mission for Health campaign via the Performics team - all reviews are my own. If you are interested in a product review appearing on Breathe Gently, please email me.

Eight Months

Just a few days after Georgia entered into this past month, she started bashing out the milestones. It was crazy!

I'm starting to reach for people with both arms now!

This month Georgia has:

• Said her first word - MUM. Or, more specifically, Mumumumum. Made my heart swell, such a special moment. :)
• Said her second word too! Dadadada. She likes to whisper this word, which is very sweet.
• Sprouted her first tooth! It popped out fairly quickly and caused a LOT of grief. It's a wee bit crooked. Tooth number two is still coming out, and it too is creating havoc. Stupid teeth!
• Had two colds - which we think are because of the afore-mentioned tooth is still an unknown. The poor thing is teething and snotty and sick and miserable all at the same time, and we are all exhausted.

• Cracked the 8kg mark! She weighed in at 8.3kg this week - but had a GIGANTIC nappy explosion not long after the appointment, which I swear weighed 200g by itself. ;) She's also 69cm long now and has crept up to the 50th percentile for height AND weight. 
• Started eating pasta and meat. We still purée over here for the most part, but she's experimenting with different textures now. She has also chowed down on some finger foods, like banana, toast & rice rusks. She's still not a fan of peas or broccoli on their own, but has eaten everything else. Such a good girl.
• Sat for two photoshoots! The first one didn't go too well {it was on the same weekend as her tooth/cold/swimming} but the second one produced many sweet family photographs.

• Learned to actually JUMP in her jumperoo. Before now, she's just played in there. Now, the girl can bounce.
• Started spinning around on her belly and doing 360's on the floor. Still no rocking on all fours or moving anywhere, but she's tolerating tummy time a bit more.
• Had her first swimming lesson, which was far from successful. She sobbed the entire session! She's since gotten a little more confident in the water, but she prefers swimming with daddy than swimming with me! We've just kept plugging away since then, but she's still not a great fan of the water yet.
• Smiled at strangers a little more - she's still a clingy girl who loves to be with mama first.

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