Sunshine!

During Stella's particularly difficult (lots of crying & fussing) 12th week, I found out about 'Wonder Weeks' and 'Sunshine Weeks' from my kind acquaintances on the Baby Center Community and here. An excerpt to describe what's going on during these times:

Recent research has shown that there are predictable times during the first few years of a child's life when the child may be more demanding (fussier) than usual. These fussy times have been called the 'Wonder weeks' by some writers, because it is during these more difficult weeks that babies are making big steps forward in their development.
Once they have taken one of these big steps in their development, they may have times when they are less demanding. These times have been called  'sunny' times. [...]
Reminder: Even though 'wonder' weeks can seem like difficult times when babies are clingy and unhappy, they are very special weeks because the babies are making a new big step forward.

In the first year of life, the stormy times seem to happen around

• 5 weeks
• 8 weeks
• 12 weeks
• 17 weeks
• 26 weeks (6 months)
• 36 weeks
• 44 weeks
• 53 weeks (around 12 months).

The 'sunny' weeks can also be more or less predictable. The 'sunniest' weeks tend to happen around

• 6 weeks
• 10 weeks
• 13 weeks (around 3 months)
• 21 weeks
• 31 weeks
• 39 weeks
• 49 weeks
• 58 weeks.

 She is now 3 months old and half way through her 13th week... She seems to be trying to put everything she can into her mouth & I suspect she may be showing the early signs of teething. I love her little gums without teeth in them & Geoff and I both wish we could slow time down considerably so we can keep her just as she is for a little longer!

Our happy little Baba

We've had some lovely Summer sunshine.... but Summer does not want to stay! We had a massive rain storm & it's gone frezing cold (heater is back on in Stella's room) on the 14th of December!!! Come on Summer: Stella has pretty outfits I want to dress her in! {*example above}

We've been visiting a lot at the shop again this past week... Stella seems to love all the busy bustling around her & meeting all the people that come and go. Everybody thinks she's gorgeous & the comment I hear most is 'she looks just like a doll!' :) It is strange to me that some people will speak to her and completely ignore the fact that I am there....it is bizarre!

Stella is making lots of sounds & had long sound conversations with us. She often 'says' something that sounds like 'hoooh yeahh' (oh yeah) and 'heeeeh loow' (hello)

I feel my heart constantly expanding with love for our little girl & am amazed that there is always more room for more and more love. It is truly amazing to be a mother... our child is amazing... Geoff is an incredible father and husband. I feel so abundantly blessed.

Stella & Daddy at work

Anja gave Stella these beautiful silk crochet booties ♥

We are doing lots of nice walks down to the vlei!

Geoff showed Stella her first Christmas tree
(2 December 2011)

Stella's new 'trick' is to get her legs up to the cross bars
where they stay for a little while until she flops back down :)
*see pic above for 'flopping'

Stella LOVES her texture-block! She brings it up to her face
with her hands as well as with her feet!
{here she is in her car seat with it &
she has her foot caught in the flower rattle bit}

Here Stella is with her block at home - balanced between
the couch & cushions, she's trying to sit
(but she's still a bit flopsy!)

Happy happy on her changing mat at T'Neal's house

Our beautiful baby girl x x x

12 Weeks

Stella is growing beautifully! We had a clinic appointment last week & Stella weighed 5.9kg and measured 62cm! She has put on 1.5kg and grown 6cm from her birth length.

We've been spending lots of time on the beach & visiting friends...

Geoff took Stella to see the sea after his swim

We went to breakfast with the family at Fish Hoek beach for Ren's birthday:

Myself, Joyce & Katherine

The funny expressions side of the table!
Geoff, Colleen with Stella & Ren

We have been spending lots of time at Geoff's shop in Kalk Bay... Geoff loves to walk around with Stella and introduce her to everybody!

Stella visits Daddy at work where there are
fantastic chairs for little people :)

Last Friday we went to town on a fabric hunt! We visited OnSite where our architectural elements for our house plans in Stillbay have just arrived. We went to one of our favorite lunch-spots, Karen's amazing little gem (where Michelle Obama luncheoned by mistake and loved it), The Kitchen for sandwiches with all the trendy townies :)

Stella soaks in the atmosphere at The Kitchen

Stella is getting stronger and stronger every day... She loves her play mat time with all her toys: her favorite toys are her giraffe with the rattle & neck that stretches and then vibrates back into position, and her play cube which has a mirror and lots of textures to explore. She's still not mad about tummy time but she's getting better at staying tummy-time for longer stretches..

Our beautiful blue-eyed girl

Baby Gym time!

Geoff and Stella: my beautiful family

Innocence

in·no·cence

noun

1. the quality or state of being innocent;  freedom from sin or moral wrong.

2. freedom from legal or specific wrong; guiltlessness.

3. simplicity; absence of guile or cunning; naiveté.

4. lack of knowledge or understanding.

5. harmlessness; innocuousness.

The dictionary definition is so clear... Innocence is something that most people really value as a state of being.. the feeling of being innocent is a great feeling: knowing beyond the shadow of a doubt that you have done nothing wrong - that you are "free from sin or moral wrong". It is the feeling of freedom: freedom from having to concern oneself with anything other than the simple truth about how things are perceived when there is no agenda... simplicity: lack of complication.

The innocence of children creates an overwhelming feeling within me to love and protect. Experiencing my own baby and her innocence is so amazing - I love that she naive - that her needs are simple. If she's hungry, uncomfortable, overstimulated or tired, she will let me know so that I can meet those needs. She is an easy baby. I am very blessed.

Stella's existence beyond simple needs is a joy! All her mind and body need to do at this stage is to learn. She's learned to feel happy and to smile.. learned to laugh (although that seems to have been a debut with no follow-on for now!)...she's learning to grab things & hold her head up straight for longer periods of time. She's learning about the sun and sleeping during the night.. the sounds around her.. her own voice..mine & Geoff's.

Being pregnant is a very different experience from having a baby. The selfish days of only having to care for myself - for every aspect of my physical being to maximise my baby's chance of being physically healthy and well, have morphed into a feeling of extreme and seemingly constant exhaustion. Someone said {with regard to breastfeeding} that a baby 'sucks the water out of your blood' . This goes beyond the physical & is a pretty accurate description of the physical and emotional sacrifice one submits to a child. Looking back & knowing what I know now, the mental and emotional preparations for being a mother feel now as though they were completely inadequate. Admittedly, this is most likely because I listened intently with both ears & really understood with half of one. It was not possible to prepare for something that changes one's life so radically - until one experiences it. I can say though that I am extremely happy.

Enough musing.... Stella is 9.5 weeks old now & her hair is growing longer each week! She is so adorable & I have to restrain myself from buying loads of toys to hang from her baby gym!!!!

We have been going down to the beach in the late afternoons on nice days....

Here are some recent pics:

With Daddy down at the Kom

Dress-up time for Daddy's birthday!

Daddy's birthday dinner at WangThai --
What's on the menu, Stella?

Visiting Robsie

Walking on LongBeach with Daddy

Enjoying the sunset at LongBeach with Mommy

Daddy takes great pics of our beautiful girl!! x

And here's our latest video:

Stella Laughed!

Geoff and I went away for the first time with Stella this past weekend.. I was a little nervous about what to pack, so I 'overpacked' and in the end I wasn't short of anything (except for trousers for myself! I only had the jeans I was wearing & loads of tops!). Joyce came to hold her granddaughter and allow us time to pack on Thursday morning... I took some pictures of her in her cute little birdie outfit:

We drove as far as Stillbay on Thursday to go and visit Jackson & Meshell and introduce Stella to them...
Geoff took Stella on a beautiful walk to the milkwood forest:

In the morning we put Stella in a fancy chair in our room to take some photos of our little princess:

I took the opportunity of travel time & other quiet time to work on Stella's baby blanket that has been in progress since I found out that we were going to be having her in our lives.... It still needs about twice as many hexagons as I've crochet-ed, but I'm getting there slowly but surely!

Stella laughed for the first time last night -- her first proper, from the stomach & in response to something laugh :) ...and we managed to catch it on video! :

The video shows Stella's Nanny holding her & her Bumpa making her laugh... well done Bumpa!!!!
(Listen out for hiccups in between!)

Colleen shared a link with me about a baby's first laugh & how it is celebrated by the Navajo people.

Here is an excerpt - FIRST LAUGH CEREMONY:

The Navajo have a tradition of celebrating a child's first expression of joy[...]. The Navajo believe that prebirth baby showers are premature and can bring evil to a child. Instead, they celebrate a child at its first laugh. The child is thought to assume the personal characteristics of the person who makes him laugh. [I was told] that for this reason, they always try to keep stingy relatives away from the small babies. [...]

The Baby and the Holy People
In Navajo theology, babies share a special relationship with the Holy People. Before each child is born, he sits with the Holy People and is granted a certain amount of time on Earth. Reluctant to leave the holy ones, babies must be coaxed into the world with songs. Infants are thought to share a special language with the Holy People, which is why they are unable to communicate with us. Gradually, as the child learns to talk, he becomes part of the human community and relinquishes this connection to the Holy People. Each person then spends the rest of his or her life trying to recreate the intense bond of infancy. Traditional parents do not trim their child's hair until he has a strong vocabulary because the hair is thought to be an extension of thought, and disrupting these early thoughts may prematurely cut the connection with the Holy People.

A medicine man [said] that when a baby laughs for the first time, he signals that he is ready to learn to speak. Thus, in [...] interpretation, the child states his readiness to enter the human world, and the Navajo celebrate by welcoming him to the mortal community with a First Laugh Ceremony. Source
.

7 Weeks

Stella is 7 weeks old already & it feels as if the time has simply flown... She is an absolute joy & Geoff and I are smitten! We're totally fascinated by every new development & it is a privilege to experience this life unfolding - a little bud just starting to open & reveal its beauty...

Stella started smiling 'real' smiles in her 5th week. She responds with smiles to us speaking to her close-up... and I discovered that if I zoom my finger  (making 'zooming' sounds) in and touch her nose (making an exploding sound) repeatedly, she absolutely loves it. I read in the Baby Sense book that little ones of this age enjoy anticipation, so we're playing lots of anticipation games with her.

Stella takes her dummy, but it sometimes takes a bit of convincing her! Sometimes she puts her lips together so tightly... or she pushes her tongue out so that the dummy can't go in - how does she know to do that?! When she's got it but doesn't want it any more she can shoot it out of her mouth quite far, so the dummy clip T'Neal made her is essential to keep it off the floor / un-lost!. It's been a great (but not essential) tool to ease her into sleep. Amazing how little ones fight sleep!!

At the 6 week checkup, the pediatrician said that she weighed 5.25kg and had grown a cm. Great news as we're clearly doing well on the breast milk! :)

Geoff is amazing with Stella.. He gives her massages in the morning before work (he has to drag himself out of the house - he says he'd much rather stay here with us!) & loves to play with her when he gets home... I feel like a very lucky mommy to have such a supportive daddy... He's even offering to change nappies now(!) ...although I've got to laugh as he sometimes gets the vest fastened OVER the pants - superman style!!

Here is a video that Geoff put together one morning:

And here are a few recent pictures:

with Mom

with Dad

Snooze time in her pretty outfit from Robyn

♥

The princess' bed :)

1 month

Stella is 1 month old today! The time seems to have flown & gone really slowly all at once. There have been challenges, but generally, she is the most wonderful little creature & quite easy as far as other mom's stories I've heard! We have found little tricks to help Stella settle (like putting her carry cot at an angle so that it's not so flat)... and we are managing to get a reasonable amount of sleep, all things considered!

Sometimes we are rewarded with a dazzling smile, but she's not smiling in direct response to anything we do yet - she just smiles and makes adorable noises to let us know she is happy and content :)

Here is a photographic update from the last few weeks:

Stella's Nanny is a pro baby-washer!

First trip to the beach [1 week old]

Breastfeeding is going really well! :)

Stella loves being carried in the wrap! [2 weeks old]

First experience of sun on her little bum!! :) [3.5 weeks old]

Stella & Daddy's hands

Stella bathing with Dad [4 weeks old]

Our happy little munchkin! 

Stella got held, kissed and butterfly kissed by a cherub:
the most beautiful 4-year old boy in the world, Fletcher Lowe

Stella at the beach in her jersey -
knitted by Great Grandmother Stella & finished by Aunt Marland

Birth Story

My 'hope' from the end of my last post came true:
On typing my last post, I had already gone into labour without realising it.

Stella (probably Amelia) Ross was born via c-section at 1.15pm on Friday the 9th September...she was born at 56cm (22 inches) long and weighed in at 4.4kg (9.7lb!!)

In Labour

 

20 hours after contractions being 5mins apart, 30seconds long and being 1cm dilated on Thursday the 8th September....to having contractions flowing relentlessly from one to the other with no break & no progress from 6cm for hours, we decided to go to the bed with the lights.  It turned out that Stella had turned posterior & her head got immovably stuck so she couldn't put any pressure on my cervix for it to dilate further. The labour experience was long and it became quite traumatic for myself as well as for Geoff, but she is so unbelievably perfect that I wouldn't take one second of it back! She didn't get stressed and her heartbeat was steady all through -- Sandy has been amazing: she showed me the graph of my labour, and we talked through things, so I finally feel that I stuck it out as long as I could and that Stella would not have arrived the way we hoped - but she arrived safely: and that is what matters most.

Stella's moment of birth

I had an allergic skin reaction to the plasters from the epidural as well as the medical bed protector thingies so my back and the tops of my legs were torturously blistered and itchy. I got home on Sunday the 11th. I can hardly believe that it is 2 weeks and a day later: I am feeling a lot more recovered, but quite tired & still trying to manage my time between feeding, burping, changing and settling our little girl to sleep.

Stella & I - Just after birth

Geoff has been fantastic. His bottomless patience & calmness has been so valuable to us - and to my sanity. He has only changed 1 nappy so far, but is very eager to help out with settling & we love our bath times!!

Geoff and Stella - Day 1

I am LOVING breastfeeding my precious precious child who we waited so long to fall pregnant with & finally meet!

Stella - Day 2

Stella: 2 weeks old :)

The following account is what I wrote whilst in the hospital:

• 12pm - MW appointment - cervix soft, 1cm dilated on the outer
• 2pm - crampy feeling - on & off but persistent
• 3.30pm - lie down and notice cramps have a pattern!
• 5.30pm start timing cramps 5mins apart, 30 seconds long = contractions
• 7.30pm - contact MW...keep monitoring
• 11pm - MW arrives - exam - 4cm dilated, contractions 4 mins apart, 45 seconds long
• 1.30am - by now contractions are very sore - 2-3mins apart, 1min long, go to hospital - monitoring of contractions & baby's heart rate
• 3am - in the bath
• 5am - Internal exam - still 4cm dilated
• 6.30am - Contractions making me cry. Request pain relief. Bed & monitoring.
• 8am - 6cm dilated. Start losing it - sleep deprived - contractions flow one into another - pins and needles from hyperventilation mean I can't feel my hands, neck or face. Tons of pressure - labour standing, then in the bath again...relentless agony
• 9.30 am - feeling that I can't go on. Request epidural. Desperately suck gas for some relief till epidural kicks in -
• 10.15am - epidural kicks in. 2 blank spots so could still felt contractions in those spots. Drifted off a little. Mom came in to support Geoff and I.
• 12pm - exam says I am still 6 cm dilated. No point in continuing.
• 12.45pm - prepped & wheeled into theatre
• 1.15pm - Stella is born - 4.4kg - 56cm long

She maintained a good, solid heartrate throughout labour. Had turned posterior during labour and had got her head stuck at a strange angle & was unable to free it so I would have been unable to complete birthing her 'naturally'