Happy Halloween!

Today Emilia has celebrated her first Halloween! Originally, we were set to go to an Halloween Festival in Greenwich but unfortunately we were given three appointments with the doctor for today afternoon, so we had to cancel our plans. Emilia is very little so perhaps she would have not appreciated all the Halloween costumes and games, but still, it would have been fun for us. Even if we didn't have anywhere to go to celebrate the holiday, we still decided to dress her up and take a stroll in our area. It was quite tough to find an outfit for a two-month old baby, everything was so big. After a bit of online research, Rob and I were undecided among the following costumes: lady bug, strawberry, owl and spider. In the end, we opted for the lady bug, we thought it was the cutest one. The costume is 0-6 months, so still a bit big for Emilia but we think she looks adorable anyway :)

The morning was a happy morning, the afternoon not so much. As I mentioned above, we had to go to our baby clinic where Emilia was first weighed (she is now 5.31kg! - she is growing well!), checked by the health visitor and then received her 5 in 1 immunisation, which she didn't like. It was so painful to watch her crying. Emilia was peacefully sleeping when the nurse asked me to take her leggings off and put the first needle in. At first Emilia didn't really react, I suppose she was in deep sleep, but when the second needle touched her leg, she realised what was going on and started screaming and crying. For the first time I saw real and big tears coming out of her eyes. 

Since we got home she has been a bit grumpy and we can see that she is in pain. Oh I wish I could have taken the needles for her! 

Happy Halloween everyone, and for our friends in the east coast of the United States, stay warm and safe!

Meeting My Babysitter

Today for the first time we left Emilia with a stranger. Ok, our babysitter is not a complete stranger, we have known her for a year now but she had never been with Emilia before and when it comes to your baby, unless it's family or close friends, everybody else falls into the *stranger* category because all of a sudden you don't trust anybody anymore! Yesterday I had to make an emergency appointment with my doctor since there were a few things I needed to discuss with her. Nothing too serious, don't worry, but nonetheless I needed medical advice. So, when I called I was very surprised they were able to give me an appointment for today afternoon at 3.50; apparently there was a cancellation, usually it takes weeks to make an appointment! When I told Rob and asked if he could come home and watch Emilia for an hour while I was at the doctor he told me that unfortunately he had a meeting he had to attend at 4.00. As we have no family in London and all our friends work the only option was to call our future baby sitter. We have found the right baby sitter a while ago but she won't officially start working until February when I'll go back to work. Of course, we planned to call her from time to time before February if we wanted to have a date night, had to run some errands or simply needed some time away from the baby (sometimes it's exhausting to be 24 hours with a baby, don't you think??!) but we didn't think we would have to contact her so soon. Thankfully, she was available and said yes. So this afternoon Emilia was at home with her baby sitter from 3.00 to 4.30. Surprisingly I was quite relaxed and had no panic leaving my baby. It's a good sign. 

I took this video before leaving. And then Emilia fell asleep and slept the whole time she was at home with the babysitter. Of course! She woke up just in time for mummy :) 

From Hate to Love

When she was little (!), Emilia hated being changed. Every time we approached the changing table she started screaming and being fussy. It was a challenge to clean and change her. Now that she is a big girl (!), she absolutely loves it. In fact, she can't wait to be changed. The changing table is where we talk the most and where she smiles the most. This morning I took a short video that captures some of the smiling. The quality is very poor, unfortunately the light in the corner of the bathroom where the changing unit is is not very good, but I hope you can still enjoy it. Also, please ignore my voice!! :)

8 weeks

Today Emilia is eight weeks old. Weeks just keep flying! 

Not so much has happened this week, apart from the BCG vaccination, of course.

By no means we have settled into a proper routine yet but there has been some progress. First of all, the colic seems to be getting a bit better; in the last four days Emilia has been calm and pain-free throughout the day and then the colic pain has usually kicked in in the evening and lasted for a couple of hours. To those of you who don't have babies or haven't experienced life with a colicky baby this may sound like a lot but believe me two/three hours of crying are nothing when compared to eight/ten! So, hopefully, we are on the right track. Also, we do have some sort of schedule going on. After the second morning feed, around 7.30-9.00 am, while mum and dad have breakfast, Emilia relaxes on the bouncer, having a *free massage* thanks to the vibration, looking outside and playing with the monkey. She feeds regularly every three/four hours and gets bathed twice a week. She also has two sessions of about twenty minutes each in the gym every day. She doesn't last longer than 15-20 minutes, after that she either gets bored or falls asleep. As you can see from these pictures taken after her second work out of the day, exercising is exhausting!

This week coming up will be rather busy: on Wednesday afternoon Emilia has three appointments scheduled at the GP, one for weighing, one with the health visitor and one for the 5 in 1 injection; Wednesday night my mum and grandmum will arrive, so lots of love and attention are on the way! On Thursday afternoon we will have a visit from Rumana and her kids, and on Friday we have an appointment for Emilia's British passport. A busy week indeed. So stay tuned for some updates!

Good Morning Everyone!

Emilia wishes you all a very good morning!



Doesn't she look like a present with this pajamas? All wrapped in a pink paper and pink ribbon :)

BCG vaccination

This morning Emilia had her first vaccination (BCG - against tubercolosis) and she was a trouper. We left the house very early to allow all the necessary time to walk to the baby clinic. We got there fifteen minutes before our appointment and I am glad we did because the clinic was still rather empty at that time and we didn't have to wait at all; after we were done, the waiting room got super busy with mums and little babies all waiting for the vaccination. 

Emilia was smiling all the time until the needle went in! Of course I expected her to cry but thankfully it wasn't too bad and after a nice feed she went back to smiling. And we even made friends! Bernie, our lovely health visitor, introduced us to a nice German mum and her little boy who live very close to us. We chatted for a bit and will meet up for a coffee soon. 

When we got home I put Emilia on the swing and took a short video (I know how much you all love the videos!) to show you how calm she was, despite the vaccination.

In the afternoon we went out again for a short stroll. It was a nice Autumn day and I loved walking around the area with my little girl. I love the colours these days and the crisp air.

And as a reward for behaving so well all day Emilia found a package waiting for her at home. The big package was from our wonderful friends Jen and Trent and it was full of cool items: an owl pillow, month markers, snack cups, a blanket, a shawl bib, a pink sleep sack, green ballet slippers, a floral top, leggings and romper, brown leather shoes, I love daddy onesie and *Where the wild things are* book. Have a look.

I wish...

Usually my wish list is full of designer handbags and shoes, now what I really wish for is to be able to spend three nights of uninterrupted sleep in one of these hotels:

1. The Big Sleep Hotel, Eastbourne because I just love everything with an Orla Kiely print.

2. nhow hotel, Berlin for its excessive and serene use of pinkness.

3. Brody House, Budapest for its art collection

4. Les Source de Caudalie, Bordeaux. The Ile Aux Oiseaux Suite is to die for.

While the chance of sleeping in any of these hotels in the next few days is very little, thankfully, I will still be able to get some sleep thanks to my mum visiting in ten days. Please don't judge me but I cannot wait to close my bedroom door for a couple of nights and forget about night feeds...

7 weeks

Today Emilia is seven weeks old and is growing and growing. She is every day more and more alert and likes playing, dancing and singing with mummy and daddy. She is starting to show an interest in toys and really needs a lot of attention!

This week we both had our six-week post-natal check and while I am super happy to report that everything is going well with the little babe, unfortunately I cannot say the same for her mama. First of all, I have a urinary track infection, for which the GP has prescribed me antibiotics. I started taking them right away and things are already getting better. The very bad news, however, is that I seem to have an abdominal hernia and most probably I will need to undergo an operation to remove it. I am very unhappy about this for many reasons: the bulge in my stomach that makes me look pregnant still, the discomfort, the anesthesia and the two-week recovery. It won't be easy to take care of a baby while trying to recover myself. I have made an appointment with the GP for the end of November to check how things are going and if necessary they will refer me to a specialist to see if and when I will need an operation. Let's hope the hernia will somehow absorb itself so that I won't need surgery, that would be the best Christmas gift I could ask for. 

And speaking of gifts, we had company on Saturday. Our good friend Amy came to meet Emilia for the first time and brought me a beautiful bunch of flowers *for giving birth*, she said! It was very nice of her. We had a lovely day, Rob made us pancakes for brunch and Emilia was adorable the whole time. I wanted to take a picture of Emi with Amy but she was asleep pretty much the whole time! Quite unusual for her. This is the only photo I was able to take before she closed her eyes completely.

Emilia and the Swing

This morning, right after breakfast, Emilia played with her favourite pastime, the swing. She was so cute and playful, I had to take a couple of videos. Enjoy!





These days Emilia smiles more often and we love it! Both Rob and I can't get enough of her smiles. Too cute. Milestone #1: The Social Smile, achieved.

moimoi.co.uk

Emilia is a very lucky little girl. She keeps receiving gifts! Every time a package enters our flat we get super excited and are very grateful. Last week she got a lovely package from our good friends Annalisa and Jacques. The package was from moi moi. Moi Moi has a very sweet selection of gift sets, I am sure I myself will use the site in the future.

The gift set was very nicely wrapped with a wonderful cream and pink ribbon and inside we found a Petit-Bateau crossover white and pink bodysuit, a towelling plum sleepsuit, and Trousselier iconic Angel Bunny soft toy in pink. All 3 items were presented in a Trousselier little suitcase, already for life's adventure! Emilia will take her first trip to Italy in December, we will make sure to use this cute little suitcase! Annalisa and Jacques, if you are reading this: thanks so much!

Motherhood

Today Emilia is six week old and to celebrate we went to the other side of town to visit our friends Steph, Andrew and little Juliette. For the first time we took the tube with Emilia and I don't mind confessing that we were a bit on edge about the trip. It's crazy to think how different life was just a couple of months ago. A simple thing like taking the tube has now become a bit of a mission. And no matter how organised and prepared you are, you are always going to forget something...and today we forgot the most important thing: Emilia's changing bag! Thank God we were going to a baby-friendly house and could borrow all of Juliette's stuff. Nonetheless, I felt terrible and guilty. How could I have forgotten about such an important thing? It would have not been a problem if I had forgotten something vital for myself, but it's unacceptable that I forgot something important for my baby. Emilia now comes first. This is motherhood.

Women have nine months to get ready to motherhood but to be honest I don't think motherhood is anything that can be learned, women are just born to be mothers. Since the first day we got back from hospital Rob was amazed at how quickly I had adjusted to the new life and kept telling me that I was a natural at changing diapers, getting up in the middle of the night for feeding, and all the things new parents have to do. I never really thought of what to do too much, everything just came natural to me. You can read books, watch tutorials, listen to more experienced friends but in the end what really kicks in at some point is the maternal instinct. 

My life changed the moment I found out to be pregnant. First came the extreme exhaustion and sickness; then the body started changing and expanding. And then again tiredness, exhaustion, and sickness. The last month was all about waiting and hoping that everything would go well; imagining how labour would be and praying for it not to be too painful (wishful thinking!). When the moment finally came I gained all my energy and dealt with all the discomfort, pain and embarrassment to have people looking and constantly checking on you (you know what I mean!). In that particular moment you just forget about yourself, you have only one thing in mind: to deliver the baby safely. And you can't wait to see the baby and finally hold her in your arms.

Women have to go through so much during and after pregnancy. Sometimes during the pregnancy I felt so sick or tired that I wondered if in the end it was really going to be worth it. And then the moment you look at your baby, the moment she looks at you, the moment she holds your finger, the moment she smiles at you, you understand that motherhood is all you have been waiting for. 

My life has changed and will never be the same. My body has changed and will never be the same (for the curious ones: I have three kilos to lose to go back to my pre-pregnancy weight). 

Now Emilia has the priority on everything and I am here to take good care of her.

Hello...and Goodbye

As usual, time flies when you are having fun. 

A couple of weeks ago Emilia got to meet her American grandparents. From day one they started playing together, day and night. It was great to have them here: Rob and I got to sleep a bit more at night and they took great care of our little angel. Every time they went out for some sightseeing or shopping, they came back with gifts for Emilia: sweet little outfits, toys, Christmas bibs and a cute Christmas Harrods teddy bear called Chester. However, the biggest gift of all was definitely a baby swing called Polly, something Emilia appreciated from the first moment she was laid on. Every time we put her in the swing she seems incredibly happy and relaxed, she even falls asleep on it, being rocked, listening to the music, and looking at the pink birdie. 

Sadly, today was the last day of their stay in London. I think I can speak for all of us when I say that it got a bit emotional. Emilia was super sweet and even gave us some smiles, which of course melted us all.

Grandparents, we take this opportunity to thank you for all your help and loving Emilia just as much as we do! See you on the other side of the pond! 

E! News

Hi folks, you may wonder why posts on this blog have become less frequent and the answer is: EMILIA! She is a little, one-month baby but boy can she exhaust big mummy and daddy! And this week we even have the grandparents helping out...what are we going to do when it will be only me and Rob!?! 

One of the main issues we are facing these days is colic, and we don't like colic! They cause a lot of pain in Emilia's tummy and therefore in mummy's heart. It's heartbreaking to see her crying because of the tummy cramps. And when she cries she goes purple and it's scary to watch her. 

Other than that, I must say, she is a little angel and is starting to discover the world. Her eyes are more open now and she follows people and objects. She is curious and interested in things. I love strolling around with her and looking at her face while she sees the sky, the clouds, the buildings, the lights, the trees, the birds, the people...

I try to take daily pictures of her but it's getting more and more complicated as she moves constantly. Sometimes it really looks like she is trying to dance! 

Pajamas Party

Look who I have invited to my crib for a pajamas party last night!?

Happy 1st Month, Baby Emilia!

Today Emilia is one month old! She is growing fast and is now very active, it's hard to take still pictures of her.

It has been a day of celebration. First of all, this morning she met her American grandparents! They had seen each other a few times already via Skype but of course it is much nicer to be together in person. Emilia loves them already and has been very calm and relaxed the whole day. Perhaps because of all the wonderful gifts they brought?! It was so nice to open all those lovely presents and it was special to spend Emilia's first month birthday with her grandparents. 

Rob even got a little cake to celebrate the occasion! Happy 1st month love!

Dads on duty!

Yesterday we had a visit from our good friends Andrew, Steph and their lovely baby Juliette. It was very nice to see them all and I loved having another baby in the house. 

This was the first time Juliette and Emilia met and I loved how they interacted with each other. Of course, Emilia is still too little to understand what was going on but she behaved very well and really enjoyed having company. Rob and I were a bit concerned at first since she has been colicky for a couple of weeks now and when she is in pain, she is not easy to deal with. We didn't want to scare baby Juliette! Thankfully though, she was very good the whole time they were here. Of course, as soon as our friends left the colic kicked in and Emilia started screaming and crying for hours...but at least, she let us all have a good time! 

Both Rob and Andrew are amazing fathers. Despite the fact that they were watching football, they still helped out with the babies! Way to go boys, way to go!