Rosebud Update...

It should be a rule that babies under 6 months old don’t get sick. It really isn’t nice or fair. George only got one small virus when he was a few months old and that was that until he was well over one. Rosa is now on her third bout of antibiotics, this time for another throat infection! Poor little darling… she is sometimes delirious with fever and exhaustion but she seems to be on the mend again now… but for how long who knows. Aside from the sickness she really is doing pretty good! She just cut her first little tooth over the weekend and is now out of her car capsule and into George’s old carseat. Her routine changes often but at the moment she has two sleeps per day. Morning for 30mins to 1.5 hours and then in the afternoon from 1.5 – 2 hours. She has a bath around 6.30pm each night and then feeds and goes to bed about 7.30pm. Since she has been sick she has woken lots but usually she wakes once or twice a night. Quick feed and then back to bed.

I’m back at work now and the transition has been tricky. Rosa is very much a Mama’s girl but is getting better and has built up a great relationship with her Yaya who looks after her. She is finally taking a bottle but it has to be Mama’s milk and a certain teat on the bottle… fussing wee darling.

Rosa can sit for 20 – 30 secs on her own now and is rolling about everywhere… she squeals and tries to talk. I can say “Where’s Dadda, George or Yaya?” and she will look for them… also for the past 2 weeks she has been sleeping without being swaddled which is sooo awesome! She loves her Peke Moe Sleeping Bag and knows that when she goes into it she is going to sleep.

Rosa has been going swimming at Paddle Tots for the past 5 weeks… she LOVES it and is such a good little swimmer. Kicks like mad and doesn’t mind going under at all. She is much more relaxed there than George ever was so I hope this means she’ll go on to really love it.

Rosa turns 6 months old this week. Wow… where has the year gone?

15 weeks old...

O.k, I don't want to focus on the time thing but really, it is going sooo fast. Each week brings new adventures with Rosa and new little things she does and I can't believe that shes now almost 4 months old. I sometimes still feel like it was yesterday that I was pregnant and anticipating the birth. Maybe its because she'll be our last baby that I feel so sentimental and am in no rush to have her grow up.

Anyway, enough hormonal rambling... Rosa is just awesome. She is feeding around 7.30/8am most mornings and feeds pretty much 3 hourly throughout the day. She is still exclusively breastfed but I will probably start to give her the odd bottle of formula in the next month or so as I'm returning to work in May. I thought about expressing full time but with two kids and a full time job to juggle I just don't think I'll be able to express at work. So she'll have one bottle of BM and one of formula each day when I go back.

Rosa is making loads of noise now, she chats away and responds with big squeals all the time. She also has started rolling all the time now but gets a little frustrated at the process of it. Finally yesterday she took a bottle for the first time! Yippee! That was really starting to worry us. She also took another one today so fingers crossed if we give her a bottle a day she'll get used to it real soon.

She wakes twice in the night again now. Not sure why but I'm just hoping its a growth spurt. Its not too bad really as she feeds and 10 mins later shes back in bed asleep. I try not to get grumpy at the wake ups as they won't last for long (ummmm, maybe!) and soon she'll be a big girl and I'll miss those snuggly nighttime cuddles and feeds.

She has a cat nap in the mornings of about an hour or two half hour naps if we are on the move doing stuff. Then she goes down with George around 12.30/1pm and sleeps for 3 hours usually which is great. It means she doesn't have those arsenic hours before bed and come 6.30pm she is ready for her bath and then bed between 7.30-8pm after big feeds.

12 weeks old!

Well Rosa has had a busy few weeks. She got the first of her immunisations which effected her quite badly. She didn't end up sleeping properly for a couple of days but we got there in the end. She is now 5.9 kgs and 62 cms long. HC 41cms. Not much of a mover this little bubba. George was rolling by now but she has only done it a couple of times but mostly likes standing and trying to sit up.

She is waking once in the night at around 4-5am most nights. Occasionally she'll wake twice but that is only if she had an unsettle day the day before. She is such a sweet wee thing and smiles lots as well as grunts. Our little piglet! She has started to do real little giggles when I tickle her and she loves watching George rush about.

She only does a poo every 7-8 days or so which is quite good on the ol' nappy washing but it does bother her abit come the 7th day. She has a wee sore tum and grizzles abit but once she goes she's all happy again.

Our mission for the next month or so is to get her to take a bottle. She doesn't like them and gets very upset when we try to give her one. Although our friend Saffron gave us a Tommie Tippee bottle to try which she does like better. Will suck on it a little but doesn't take a whole feed. Will keep persisting though as it would be nice to have a break occasionally. ALSO, what will I do when I go back to work???!!!!

9 weeks old, giggling gertie!

Mum made an interesting comment to George today as we walked through the Botanic Gardens. George reached out to grab a rose but got grazed by a thorn. Mum said to him ' Roses are very beautiful but you must be careful as they can scratch you'... it made me think about Rosa and the many sides we have seen of her so far. She is incredibly beautiful in our eyes... when she smiles her eyes make your heart hurt. Then hours later we can see the darker side to her, miss grumpy. It will be interesting to see how her personality develops.

When George was born, my friend Arafelle did an astrological birth chart for George based on the time and place where he was born. On rereading the chart now 2.5 years on it is amazingly accurate. Explains his little personality in amazing accuracy. Arafelle kindly did a chart for Rosa also and it does paint her to be a child of fiery nature. Wish us luck!

She is truely a blessing though. We have our rough days but most of the time she is soooo good. We went up to Waipu for Auckland Anniversary Weekend to see Oma and Opa. She was SUCH a good baby and slept through the night on the first night (just as well cause Mama had had a couple of vinos). She charmed everyone with her big smiles and chatty baby noises.

8 weeks today!

Wow time is going too fast. Rosa will be 3 mths old before we know it! Not alot to report about our darling really. She is doing so well and pretty settled. She goes for a couple of short naps in the mornings then a big 2.5 hour sleep in the afternoon but then from 3pm - 7pm she pretty much snacks and snoozes and fusses a little. I think it could also be the heat at this time of the day and this means she finds it hard to relax and go down for a proper nap. Can't really complain though.

She has gone back to waking in the night again but only once at around 3am, she feeds and then is back asleep within 20mins.

She is starting to really chuckle and coo now and looks around at everyone. She really pays attention to George much more too and he loves her so much. Always cuddling up and wanting to give her kisses.

Plunket Nurse came today and Rosa weighs 5.53 kgs (12.2 lbs) and is 59.5 cms tall! She is tracking above average for her height and weight. All looks good with her except for her poor little belly button. One of the vessels hasn't healed properly and she has a red bit sticking out of her belly. Its not to be worried about too much but as it hasn't healed in 8 weeks I've decided to get the GP to fix it with some silver nitrate. Can't have our little lady with a funny belly button!

7 weeks old and doing soooo well!

Wow, our little girl is growing so fast. On her 5 1/2 week weigh in she was 5.11kgs and 58.5 cms long, HC of 38.5 cms. She is a calm little girl with ready smiles and is really very alert. She has been sleeping through the night now for almost a week straight. At least 7 hour stints and one night she did from 8.30pm - 5am! Can't believe it. She likes to be held alot and only snack and snooze in the late afternoon but once I started not fighting her on that it becomes doable. She now kicks about on her bouncinette or under her playgym while I fix a quick dinner or help George with something.

George is really really awesome with her and you can see in his little face he really loves her. He often sits next to me while I'm feeding her and stroked her head or hand or foot.

All in all an amazing little girl. So alert and placid natured, she looks like she can see into your soul when she looks at you. Darling Rosa, Dadda, George and Mama love you so much! Thank you for making our little family complete.
xx

One month old today!

Well, time certainly does fly. Our wee girly is a month old today and I really can't believe how quickly the time has gone. It only seems like last week we were struggling through those early days, in tears and wondering what the hell had happened to our lovely calm household! Now things seem to be going pretty well. Rosa is piling on the weight without any bottle top ups unlike George at this age. She is also sleeping pretty well during the day, usually about 3 naps of 2 hours each... sometimes more. At night we try to get her into bed around 8.30/9pm and the last 3 nights she has only woke once!

Not getting alot of smiles out of her yet... just once and awhile. But she is showing us when she is excited by opening her mouth wide and kicking her legs. Her eyes are huge and she looks around and at people too, especially her Mama. She can hear my voice in the room and turn to try and find me. Bless.

George loves her dearly and is being ever so awesome with her. He gives her lots of cuddles and is much more tolerant when she is upset than he used to be.