One Year ::

So it's actually been over a month since miss Effie made that big milestone of one. The last year has been so wonderful, of course it's gone by in a flash and yet feels like a million years all at the same time.

To think that I didn't even know I wanted a second baby, really didn't feel as though I wanted a daughter and couldn't possibly imagine how I could love another as much I love Milo before she came along. 

Effie's first year has been a hundred times easier (for me at least) than Milo's was, though I fear she will make up for it in the future. She is quite feisty, very adamant about what she wants and has a terribly mischievous streak. 

For the most part her and Milo get on very well, he dotes on her and she on him. I love seeing them together. She doesn't have many words yet but 'ilo' has emerged quite loudly this week.

Other words are ::

Tater - water

Daddy - daddy

Minmin/mama - milk

I think that's probably it, notice no mama meaning mama yet (humph!). She signs for food and milk and will give you an enthusiastic head nod for yes, she doesn't shake her head yet but if she doesn't nod she means no! If that doesn't work she'll bat you or it away very forcefully! She also waves and claps and points. I think she may be a bit behind in communication, we're working on it and I'm confident she understands a lot, she just doesn't feel the need to tell us much yet.

She's also behind in terms of weight. She was born quite big but has slid further and further down the weight chart since then. I'm not concerned I think she's just little, but was born big. However the health visitors are so she's having frequent check ups. 

Things she loves include, books (especially the Gruffalo!), cuddly toys, animals, throwing food on the floor and kisses.

I can wait to watch her grow and change and become the person she will be.

9 Months ::

Last week Miss Effie Tallulah turned 9 months, meaning she's been out in the world growing as long as she was inside growing. She is turning into such a feisty independent little character.

Crawling is now very much established and she's quick, much too quick, she also fears nothing, so must be watched like a hawk at all times, also she will put EVERYTHING she finds on the ground in her mouth. I made a beanbag last week, so I've spent the majority of last 7 days retrieving polystyrene balls from her mouth. She's started to pull herself up now too, not on the sofas yet, but anything a little shorter and she's up. I am very much not ready for walking yet. Of course she'll probably decide to do that the week we move house, but I am hopeful it will a long way off yet, Milo was well past one before he started.

She now has two very prominent bottom teeth. She's recently discovered she can actually use these to take little chunks off things, which she seems very proud of, I love watching her bite small pieces of rice cakes off with them, a look of satisfaction in her eyes.

Routine-wise not a lot has changed since last month, still having 4 milk feeds a day, 3 meals and one nap in the morning, sometimes a little afternoon catnap if given the opportunity.

She is cheeky! She seems to understand 'no' now and is aware of the things she's not supposed to touch/put in her mouth, I can tell this by the way she looks at me whilst doing exactly that as if to say 'look Mum I'm going to do that thing you don't like'. For the most part though, when you tell her 'no' she usually does stop.

She blows kisses and gives out high fives, she tries to clap, but isn't all that successful! She'll also come to me now and put her arms up to be lifted/cuddled. I completely forgot how it feels to be needed in this way. Milo's so much older than her and so independent he rarely needs me for cuddles. It's really lovely to have someone who does, even though I know it won't last forever. Which is exactly what I keep reminding myself when I feel like she's attached my hip and I'm not getting anything done.

She makes a lot of sounds now and has a lot of chat, but not really any words. So far we have 'at' (cat or any kind of animal) 'dad-eee' (daddy, of course she can see daddy and not mama and calls for him regularly throughout the day when he is at work!) and as of yesterday 'ilo' (milo, which prior to yesterday was 'arah' repeated very loudly when waiting for him outside school or when he was ignoring her). I'm not going to lie it would be nice to hear 'mama' soon, but I'm sure it will come soon enough.

She's such a happy, friendly, smiley, sociable baby and I'm so lucky to have her.

8 Months ::

The lovely Miss Effie, turned 8 months old a couple of weeks ago. The same week she also cut her first tooth (finally!). I was so sure that tooth was coming months ago. We've had days of grizzliness, red cheeks and the desire to chew everything in her path off and on for ages. Of course the week it actually decided to make an appearance there was no sign it was coming at all. She now has a little stub of tooth on her bottom left, it can just about be seen if she lets you take a glimpse inside her mouth, but it's definitely there and I don't think the one next to it is too far behind.

Weaning is going well, she now has 3 meals a day and eats very well at all 3! Just like her brother, she would sit in her high chair all day eating if you let her. She's just dropped one of her milk feeds, so now has 5 a day. I'm not sure if this is a normal amount for an 8 month old or not, but it works for us. She's maintained her morning nap, though will hold out a bit longer if we go out, though normally she wants to be going down around 9am, especially as she's taken to waking up at 5 recently.

She's really starting to make a lot of noise. She knows what she wants and isn't afraid to ask for it, loudly. She says 'at' (cat), which is probably her only word really, she loves that cat and he loves her, if only he could be trusted to behave himself. She does say 'dada' though I don't think she really means Daddy, it's just a sound. No mmm sounds yet, so of course no 'mama' yet, but I'm sure they'll be plenty of that in time! She has also managed 'ilo' (Milo) a couple of times, she says it in a really cute whisper whenever she does.

We've been trying a little sign language with her, I always wanted to do sign language with Milo but never did. Nothing from her yet, but I'm assuming it's too early for that, but we'll keep going and see how we get on.

Crawling is progressing, but she's still reasonably contained by her lack of ability. She can go forward now, but not very efficiently. Though if there's something in front of her she really really wants (my phone, the laptop, an electrical wire, you know all the safe stuff) then she will get there one way of another.

She's simply lovely though, so social and charming and deliciously cute!

7 Months ::

I'm a little behind with this, as Effie actually turned 7 months back on the19th April. It's all been a little crazy round these parts, what with me going back to work and the possibility of a house move drawing closer.
However 7 months this baby is and what a delightful 7 monther she is.

We've finally formed the basis of a routine. She'll go to bed at 7-8 after dinner and a bath, she has a feed, then down she goes. Sometimes she grumbles a little, sometimes a lot, unless she's crossed the line from tired grumbling to 'you've abandoned me screaming' we leave her now and she'll fall asleep pretty quickly. She usually wakes once in the night, the time of this massively varies, anytime from 11-5. Making it pretty tough for my sleep schedule but I'm doing ok. Then back down again until about 7. When we get up we play for a little while, then another feed and back to bed about 9. This is the magical part of my day where she sleeps for a good 2-3 hours. Without this sleep I would never get any work done. Up around 12.30. Some lunch, another feed a trip out of the house, then off for the school run. Another feed when we get home. Dinner at 5.30ish and back to the bedtime business. It can change and one day can be turned upside down if I don't get her down for her nap quickly enough. But it's something to build my day around.

As for milestones;

• still no teeth.
• she's mastered the sounds 'dada' 'at' 'ta' and is still the bestest raspberry blower in the west, but no 'mama' yet, despite my best attempts at teaching her! 
• she can sit without assistance indefinitely now.
• can crawl backwards, around in circles and lifts herself into the right position, but hasn't quite mastered forward motion yet.

Her brother is her favourite, but she loves people, has smiles for everyone and has started to recognise those we see lots of.

We're all having so much fun watching her little character develop.

I'm thrilled to have been shortlisted for a BritMums Brilliance in Blogging award! If you would like to vote for me, that would be super lovely. I'm in the craft category and you can cast your vote over here xxx

Sewing :: Springtime Clothes for Effie ::

My iron has been in overdrive in the last few weeks. Anyone who knows me well will probably be surprised to discover I even own an iron. I do but it only comes out for 2 reasons, weddings and sewing. There has not been any wedding going to yet this year, but there has been a lot of sewing.

I purchased the lovely Simple Modern Sewing with a book voucher I received for Christmas, way back in January and have since been meaning to make some clothing for myself, so when Bex took up sewing clothing with a passion recently, I was inspired to join her. We took a trip to our crazy good, yet crazy full fabric shop and I purchased a couple of metres of cotton/linen blend in beige, for some skirt making for myself (more on that soon). With the fabric I had left over from that project, I decided to make a little romper with matching sunhat for miss Effie to wear on Easter Sunday.

I purchased this romper pattern from Puperita on etsy last year. I've made a couple of rompers for Effie with it, which I loved, though are sadly now too small and possibly slightly out of season. So I set about cutting out the patten pieces for the next size up on the Thursday night. I swear sewing is much more cutting than it ever is sewing. The bonnet is a free download available on the Purl Bee website. Which I also cut the pattern pieces for on the Thursday evening.

On Good Friday I picked out my fabric and got to cutting that out. I spent most of the day dipping in and out of sewing, when nap time allowed, or when Johnny was on hand to take care of the little ones. By the evening I had completed the whole ensemble. For someone who does not have a huge amount of sewing experience, I was pretty impressed with this.

For the bonnet I used some floral print fabric I had left over from a fat quarter I've had for years and years and some plain blue quilting fabric, I also already had to hand. For the romper, as I said, I used cotton/linen blend for the main body, for the pocket I used the same floral fabric as the bonnet, ideally I wanted to use the plain blue for the inside of the pocket and the lining of the bodice, but unfortunately I didn't have enough, so I used some more floral fabric I had in my stash. As you can't really see these bits I don't think it really matters and my main goal was to just use what I had on hand, but next time I'll try to get everything to match up a bit better I think.

Over all I'm massively impressed with myself and really pleased with the results. Both patterns were really easy to follow and included lots of pictures and instructions. The most difficult part was piecing together all the paper pattern pieces for the romper once I'd printed them off, as it wasn't always completely clear which piece needed sticking together where, but I got there in the end.

Details ::
Romper Pattern :: from Puperita here
Bonnet Pattern :: from Purl Bee here
Fabric :: various pieces I already had in my stash
Poppers :: KAM snaps from Plush Addict here

Baby Led Weaning :: At 6 Months ::

We've been at this weaning business for about 4 weeks now. We started earlier than I had hoped at 24 weeks, because Effie was just so eager and ready to get at it.
For a good week or more before we started, we had her sitting at the table with us with a spoon and empty cup, so she could start to learn what it is we do at mealtimes.

Before we had Milo we were terrible 'eat on our lap' types, but now we eat every meal together when we're all home, at the dinner table. I love it and though getting a meal on the table for 5.30 whilst looking after two children and attempting to get homework done and all the other million jobs that seem to need doing between 3.30 and 5.30, means I've come to really dislike cooking dinner, I love the time we all have together. Sitting round the table eating and talking about our days, is a wonderful thing made even more so now Effie can join us.
If you haven't heard of baby led weaning before, you can read more about it's principles here, but basically it's the concept of allowing you child to choose the food they eat, versus spoon feeding them. So your baby is presented with some easy to handle, easy to gum, foods and you leave them to it (supervised of course). There are so many benefits to this way of weaning and it is currently the method recommended by heath visitors.
One of the best benefits to me is; less work! Effie just has a little of whatever we're having. Holding off the salt is the only difficult thing I found about this. Moving the salt I use for cooking away from it's usual spot has been helpful in stopping me adding a sprinkle every time I boil a pan.
Last week for instance we had a roast, Effie sampled everything accept the meat and the gravy. Meaning she ate, sweet potato, parsnips, celeriac mash, broccoli, green beans and yorkshire pudding. And she loved it!

The other benefit is the baby gets to experience all the individual flavours and textures of different foods. Rather than just one generic texture; puree. I don't know if there's any evidence to prove this but my theory is that this makes for less fussy eaters. By experiencing all the foods early on, I assume children will be more willing to accept new textures and flavours as they grow.

It also helps develop muscles in the mouth and tongue, through the act of chewing and moving the food around in their mouths, which means they are able to create a wide variety of sounds sooner. Which is believed to aid earlier communication.

The biggest pro for this way of weaning for me is, it's fun! Oh so much fun! For all of us. We love watching Effie choose what she's going for next, struggle to get a grasp of it, then congratulate her when she manages. She loves feeling part of what we're doing, watching everyone else and mimicking our chewing actions.
It also means I can actually eat my dinner now and whilst it's still hot. I've spent the last 6 months eating one handed with a baby on my lap, more frequently attached to my breast. If I was spoon feeding, eating would still be a one handed endeavour for me.

Everything about this form of weaning is perfect for us. I'm passionate about it's benefits and so glad that it is now the recommended weaning method. When I had Milo it was still a little bit of a strange approach for some. But we did it our way then and I'm so glad we id. At (almost) 6, Milo is the least fussy child I've ever met when it comes to food. He'll eat anything and is always so eager to try new things.

Here are a few of the foods Effie is especially fond of so far, if you were thinking of doing baby led weaning yourself these are great foods to get your little one going. I cut everything into chip shapes, so it's easy for her to get a grip on. I got myself a crinkle cutter, which I use to cut everything up, so she can get a little bit of a better grip on them. With the banana, I cut them into 3 pieces, then separate each length into 3 pieces, along the natural split in the banana, since discovering this tip our banana eating world has been changed forever!

• Melon
• Watermelon
• Mango
• Pear (nice and ripe)
• Banana
• Cucumber
• Carrot (steamed or roasted)
• Sweet Potato (steamed or roasted)
• Broccoli (steamed)
• Green Beans (steamed)
• Pepper (roasted)
• Rice Cakes

I recently found a post I wrote about weaning back when Milo was 10 months old over here if you're interested.

6 Months ::

Half a year! What a fabulous half a year it's been. She has changed so much this past month. Very much a world away from that newborn stage now. She's chatty and smiley and inquisitive and generally a pure delight.

We started experimenting with food this past month. Sooner that I would have liked, but she was so eager. I'll write more about how that's been going soon, but needless to say it's fun and messy in equal measure.

I feel like we're finally getting somewhere with sleep now. The main trick I have discovered is not to feed her to sleep. This seems to be a recipe for disaster as then transferring her usually results in a tired, grumpy, wide awake baby. However if I put her down whilst she's awake but showing signs of tiredness she'll gurgle at her mobile, snuggle her cuddly bunny and drift off to sleep. I also realised that by bedtime she was much too tired which was making it tricky to get her to sleep. Now I'm enforcing an afternoon nap and we're having much better results. Also a bedtime routine is now firmly in place, whereas before it was a bit haphazard. All of these are obvious solutions really but sometimes you need a bit of a nudge to get there.

She's just approaching that fabulous stage where she can't move anywhere yet, but is plenty happy to just hang out with some toys. Making my days a little easier and my ability to get stuff done much better. Fingers crossed this lasts a little bit longer as next month my maternity leave ends and I'll need to start trying to do some work again.

Don't think there's much more to report this month, still no teeth but buckets of drool. Fingers crossed they make an appearance soon.

G Nappies :: A Review ::

When it comes to nappies, we're pretty much stuck in our ways I'll admit. I tried so many different cloth varieties when Milo was a baby and one thing I learned quick, is that pretty doesn't usually mean efficient. We love motherease one size, which I tend to pair with Tots Bots wraps, this combination came to be as when I bought my stash of motherease off eBay, they came with a couple of Tots Bots wraps, they worked, there didn't seem much need to mess with that system. I have all manner of all in ones and pocket nappies, we use them occasionally but I'm always wary of leaking, because they so often do and nobody wants leaky nappies. There is one downside of my beloved motherease, they are massive! Especially on my wee little dot, as she grows they'll of course become less bulky, but at the moment, she does look a little bottom heavy.

I've had my eye on the gorgeous gNappies for a while now, so many of the lovely mama's I follow on instagram use them and they look so slim. I also really loved the look of the soft cloth cover. So when they offered to send me one to try out I jumped at the chance.

gNappies work as both a disposable or a reusable nappy, depending on the type of the insert you decide to use, the outer (the gPants) are reusable and you get two types of insert, disposable and washable. The benefit of using disposable nappies this way is that they're compostable, there's a lot less washing than full cloth and to be honest if you're not doing nappy washes anyway I have no doubt you can just pop them in the wash with the rest of your clothes. So far I've not had any incidents where the pants part has been especially dirty. Then you can simply compost the disposable part (wet only). This is fabulous, because anyone with a compost heap knows the best way to get that compost heap composting is by adding some wee to it! So I'm hoping adding the nappies will have the same effect!

I haven't used the cloth inserts so I can't comment on them, therefore my all my opinions relate to the disposable inserts.

When the nappy arrived I was thrilled with the look of the pants, I know it's silly to be concerned about the aesthetics of a nappy, but people really really do get quite emotional about these things. I opted for green and it's a lovely shade. The feel of the outside of the nappy is lovely and soft. I was surprised at how massive the disposable inserts looked compared to the pants, I couldn't see how it would be possible for them to fit. But they do, and perfectly nicely too. With the pants part of the nappy you get an outside layer, which is soft jersey type fabric, with two fastenings on each side, these do up at the back of the nappy and the two little bits of velcro are fabulous. One thing I find really tricky with Effie's one size nappy wraps is getting them tight around her leg but not super tight around her tummy. The two tabs on the gNapppies make this problem much easier.
Then within the pants part you have a kind of hammock, I guess we'll call it, which is plastic, this is where the insert goes. Overall the nappies are super easy to use and put together. This hammock is also removable and you can buy extras, which would be super useful and save you a lot of washing.

As for wearing, the nappy fits perfectly, I guess this is the benefit of having sized nappies rather than one size, and it's so slim. Barely any bulkier than a disposable. It's also quite a lot lower on her tummy than lots of the cloth I have.

It took me 3 attempts at her wearing it for me to get a photo of her doing so, because she managed to fill it all 3 times almost immediately after I put it on her! I was really wary of leaking, because the first ever cloth nappies I purchased for Milo back when I was pregnant with him, were the Mothercare ones, which also came with a disposable insert option (I don't think they do these anymore). Those were terrible for leaking and almost put me off cloth for life. However so far, even though she's tried with all her might, the gNappies have not had any leakages for Effie. I'm so impressed with them. The little hammock bit does a fantastic job of holding it all place.

Overall I'm massively impressed with these nappies, I would definitely recommend them as an alternative to disposables. We're still using disposables overnight and I'm seriously considering switching to using these instead, they'd also be great for going away. In terms of cost they're definitely not the cheapest option, the disposable inserts work out at just over 22p each, plus you have the added cost of the gPants, which come it at 14.95 each and you'll need to add to your stash as your baby grows. However as with most cloth nappies I expect they have good resale value. For comparison purposes, the Naty nappies by Nature Babycare which are 70% biodegradable (but not compostable as far as I'm aware) come in at just under 22p a nappy and you don't have any added costs. However if you don't like the idea of adding more unnecessary waste to landfill but don't feel you can take on the washing cloth nappies involve, this is a fantastic solution. I shall definitely be adding some more gPants to our stash and trying out some of the washable inserts.
**we were kindly sent a pair of gPants and some disposable inserts to review but all thoughts are our own.

5 Months ::

OK please stop rushing by now!

How can my baby girl be sitting up, desperate to try some food, jabbering away, spouting teeth and generally being much too grown up and gorgeous for her own good?

 As far as sitting up goes, she's pretty much got it nailed, but still often slides to the side, especially if concentrating on chewing on something and once she's down lacks the skills required to get herself back up again. On the plus side she's going to have some spectacular abs with all the attempting to get herself up she's doing. 

Teeth are coming, but slowly. One appeared a few weeks ago, I swear it was definitely there, I felt it in all it's jagged sharpness, but it seems to have since retreated. Meanwhile she's drooling bucketloads and chewing on everything. Current favourite things to rub between her gums are her little Sophie la Girafe and my gorgeous necklace from Chapter One. Teeth can be felt, oh so, close to the surface around her entire mouth, so I'm hopeful we'll see some soon, but I know they can take forever.

I very much wanted to wait to 6 months for weaning, preferably longer really. Having finally had the breastfeeding success I missed out on before I'm not really ready to start introducing the prospect of 'other' food, but Effie has other ideas. I will do baby led weaning, without a doubt, so I need her to be a little better at sitting yet, but she really wants to start NOW! She watches so intently when you eat or drink and has begun swiping at your food or hopefully lunging forward open mouthed. We've been having her sit in her high chair at mealtimes with us this last week and providing her with empty cup and spoon, which she does enjoy but I'm certain she knows she's missing out on the good stuff.

She is so much more aware and interested in what's going on, she seems to recognise familiar people now, though she's very much a people person anyway. Travelling to and from Norfolk over this past week she made so many friends on the trains with all her smiles and 'talking'. She loves blowing raspberries and taking sharp intakes of breath which make you worry she's struggling to breath!

She's pretty good at sleeping at night these days, going down sometime between 8-10 and sleeping through until 7-8, occasionally waking once in the night but going straight back down after a feed. Daytime naps aren't quite so regular, she usually manages one long one at some point, but we don't really have any routine yet, I'm trying to establish one, but finding it super tough, because I'm too much of a softie to leave her to cry.

Generally everything is great, we had a visit to the doctors this month, because I noticed she has one pupil massively different in size to the other, only really in artificial light, but it is very obvious, especially as her eyes are still pale blue. The doctor wasn't sure as she'd never seen anything like it before but the paediatrician reassured us it's perfectly OK, just one of those things some people have.

Can't believe she'll be 6 months soon enough, halfway to 1 year. It's been such a wonderful 5 months so far, she really is a fabulously, delightful baby.

Sophie la Girafe Cosmetics :: A Review ::

Effie received her Sophie la Girafe toy in her stocking at Christmas. She was a little slow on the whole hand to mouth coordination required for it for a while. She loved the idea of putting it in her mouth and glared open mouthed at it hopeful that I would pop it in for her when presented with it. However now she's got the hang of it she quivers with delight upon seeing it and will actually reach out to take it from you, wherein it will go straight between her squeaky gums for a good old chewing.

So when I was asked to review some of the Sophie la Girafe bath products I jumped at the chance.

Effie absolutely adores bathtime now. She either uses her little chair, which fortunately fits perfectly inside our bathroom sink, meaning we can avoid the backache associated with leaning over the bath, or she comes in with me. She loves both, though now she can sit up, she finds lying down in her a seat a challenge and constantly attempts to sit up. I do think she enjoys sharing more, imagine having a bath the size of a swimming pool! She splashes and kicks and provides the most heart warming smiles.

It took us a while to get into much of a bathtime routine, in the early days we probably managed a bath a week, but we're much better now. I started popping a little bubble bath in a month or so ago, preferring to stick to plain water on her delicate skin in the beginning and she usually gets a little massage in coconut oil after. 

I was sent the Sophie la Girafe Cosmetics bubble bath and the baby oil to review and they smell heavenly. Just the right level of fragrance for little ones. The bubble bath is thick so you only need to add a little to create a beautifully smelling bubbly bath. I won't lie I'm loving using it too and also add some to my bath when I'm not sharing with Effie.

We've been using the oil for after bath massages for a while now and really liking it. I'm very sceptical about putting cosmetics on babies and as I said we were using pure coconut oil before, but as this product has passed the Eco-Cert testing I feel happy that it's safe for Effie's skin. The oil is a lovely consistency, not so thin it flows right off your hand like some I've used in the past and it smells wonderful. I can't really tell you what the scent is exactly, but it smells like babies should somehow! It is divine and Effie is even more delicious after it's application.

Everything about this product is lovely, from the simple, sophisticated packing to it's gentle nature, down to its wonderful scent. It does come in a little on the higher end of the price spectrum for baby products, but their body mass is so small they use so little and their skin so fragile and new that they are definitely worthy of such luxury!

You can see more of the Sophie La Girafe Cosmetics here

We were kindly sent these products to review but all opinions are our own.

4 Months ::

So I'll say it again... 'how can it have been that long' and 'it's just going all too quickly', but it really is. 4 months is closer to 6 months than I would like, 6 months means crawling (maybe) and real food and I'm just not ready for all that yet that. Namely because Milo's current favourite playthings, lego and marble runs, do not mix well with adventuring babies, I expect a playpen will be in order. But also because I'm just loving being a mama to this little girl, we have our ups and downs, of course, but for the most part it is absolute joy.

We have been through all 3 sets of jabs now. All but the last were fine and even then she was just a bit more unsettled than usual and required extra cuddles. No more until she's one now which is a relief.
I took her to be weighed on Friday at the local Children's Centre. It was the first time since her 6 week check. I just decided I didn't really need the worry of all those constant weigh ins. She's obviously content and feeds well, so avoided watching her go up and down that chart for a little while. I'm pleased I did, she's still sitting just below the 25th centile at 12lb 10, but I expect there would have been weeks where she was under that.
I'm still breastfeeding and don't see that stopping anytime soon really, now we've mastered it I can't imagine feeding her any other way. Johnny and sometimes Milo will give her bottles of breastmilk, which she happily accepts, as long I'm not too close by.

As for sleep, she sleeps well but we don't have much routine. She tends to have a morning and afternoon nap, but not always both and the duration of these varies a lot. In the evenings she tends to be up until I go to bed. I've tried putting her down earlier but it doesn't matter how fast asleep she is when I lay her in her moses basket, if I'm not in the room she awakes within 30 minutes. However when I'm in the room, she now sleeps right through to morning, so it's not all bad. Usually that's around midnight until 8-9.
I tried starting a bedtime routine last night, bottle with Johnny, bath, pyjamas, story, feed, then to bed. Except she fell asleep in Johnny's arms before he even managed to give her any of the bottle. She only snoozed for around 30 minutes so then we tried again. All went well, but within 20 minutes she was awake as suspected because I had gone back downstairs. Once I put her back down and stayed in the room she slept until morning.
I guess I'll just keep trying, maybe doing the whole routine before I go to bed myself so she understands more that it means bedtime, but I'm not going to get myself too worried about set routines just yet. They're only little for such a short time, I don't want to spend that time stressing us both out with rules and routines.
We've just started venturing out to baby groups and really enjoying it. Especially anything that involves singing. Plus I've discovered we are both so much happier if we actually get up and dressed and out the door before the 3pm school run!

Some things I'd like to remember for this stage ::
Effie currently has 2 favourite toys, this gorgeous gingerbread man and a lovely colourful giraffe that was handed down to her.
She can roll unaided from front to back with ease and has accidentally gone back to front on a few occasions now.
She is still in her moses basket despite appearing too small for it weeks ago. If she sleeps well I guess she must be comfortable!
She smiles with recognition at people she knows well, laughs when tickled, talks a lot, roars (thanks to Milo) and generally makes a fair amount of noise.
She adores Milo and the cat, I have a fantasy in my head that her and the cat will become best friends but we'll see how that goes once she has sticky, grabby toddler hands.

Effie and her Gingerbread Man ::

The day before we headed off on our Christmas holidays, this gorgeous little gingerbread man arrived for Effie from Hello Daisy and it was love at first sight.

I think it probably helped that Milo unwrapped and presented it to her, he is very much her favourite.

It's the first toy I've ever seen her have any interest in, it's lovely to see her face light up when he appears and she actually makes attempts to reach for and hold it too. Plus she does that super cute excited whole body shake baby's do when they're especially happy, when you present it to her.

This lovely fairtrade, crochet gingerbread man is soft with a little rattle inside, all his details are made of yarn so no choking worries, which is reassuring as putting things in her mouth is currently Effie's favourite.

The gingerbread man himself is handmade by Pebble in Bangladesh by local women and is run in association with Hathay Bunano, from their website: 'Hathay Buano provides fairly paid, good quality, flexible and local employment for rural women who are poor and often disadvantaged'. I love their ethos and especially love that the majority of their toys are crocheted!

Hello Daisy have a whole range of lovely Pebble crocheted toys along with a whole host of other gorgeous baby items, plus they are local to me, in Cheltenham.

**we were kindly sent this gingerbread man to review but all thoughts are our own.

Effie's Birth Announcements ::

When Effie was born (and indeed whilst I was pregnant) I was completely blown away by all the general loveliness that we were surrounded by. Be it gifts, invaluable necessities, home cooked meals, hand me down clothing and bedding or friends on hand to look after Milo or listen to my pregnancy/newborn mama woes, I have never felt so loved and surrounded by friends and family before.

 There was nothing I could do to repay all this kindness, but I could thank each and every person who delivered cake, sent parcels and generally showered us with love. What better way thank someone than with handwritten notes.

So I chose my favourite picture of our fresh little one and used PicMonkey to make up a little birth announcement. As I planned to use Moo to get the cards printed, I took the measurements of their greeting cards, made my announcement to that specification and put my order in.

I've been using Moo for more years than I can remember. They were the first business cards I ever ordered and I have never ordered my business cards from anywhere else in all that time. So I knew the print quality would be good and I was not disappointed. The cards are gorgeous and I really loved how the whole thing turned out.

I had plenty of time in those early weeks, where I did nothing but sit and feed the baby, I quickly discovered I could write quite well when she was feeding on my left side. So I spent that time lovingly writing all those thank you cards.

PS see that pencil case there? I'll have the crochet pattern for that on the blog in the next few days!

The next thing to tackle was all the thank you's Milo needed to do. There was no way I was going to be able to get him to draw beautiful pictures for every single person who had kindly included him in the gift giving. He just isn't really much of a drawer, sometimes he'll blow me away with gorgeous pictures, but for the most part he's simply just not interested in drawing. So instead I asked him for one especially lovely picture, really really special, that I could send to everyone. He chose to draw some flowers and did a beautiful job. I scanned the drawing into my computer and printed off as many copies as thank you's he needed to write and set about getting him to write his own personalised message on each and every picture.

Finally, yesterday, I managed to deliver the very last of the cards to their recipients, it only took me nine and a half weeks!

I'm pleased to say I still have a couple of the cards left so I'm saving one to frame for Effie's bedroom when she eventually has a room of her own.

8 Weeks ::

I feel like I'm probably going to say this every week, but really how did Effie get to be 8 weeks already?!

Things are still going so smoothly, she is so quiet and easy and chilled out, I do genuinely fear I'll just forget she's there sometimes, like I might just pop to the shops without her or something!

On her 4 week birthday she finally climbed back up and over her original birth weight and by 6 weeks she was 9lb 4oz. Having had a slow growing baby before, her slow weight gain was beginning to become a little bit of a concern for this breastfeeding mama so to see her growing so well is such a relief.

Once she was approaching 6 weeks the health visitor suggested attempting to give her a bottle if I thought that was something I'd like to do in the future, as some babies decide they don't like bottles if you leave it too late. As I'd already spent lots of time building up a freezer supply of milk the thought of her refusing to drink it was a little worrying so we set about giving her, her first bottle that night. She took it no problem at all and now Johnny will give her a little bottle most evenings and even Milo got in on the action at the weekend.

She's still sleeping well through the night and even managing 7 hour stretches occasionally now (3 nights in a row at the moment!). This is working great for me, because if she wakes after 6, I'll feed her, change her and put her back down, before getting up myself, whereas if it's before 6 I'll go back to sleep and won't get up until about 9. Getting up at 6 or thereabouts means I get to spend some time with Milo, working on homework and having a chance to spend time together just the 2 of us. It also means I'm showered and dressed at a reasonable hour (rather than having to answer the door in my pyjamas after midday). She doesn't tend to wake again until around 10 which even gives me some time for housework after Milo's headed off to school. Daytimes are still very sporadic, yesterday she pretty much refused to sleep all day. On days like those I just have to remind myself how lucky I am to be getting good nights sleep, but it's still draining not to get any kind of a break.

Some things I want to remember ::

• She loves to sneeze, always giving off the biggest grin after she has.
• She also loves raspberries, especially on her tummy.
• When you collect her from her moses basket after a nap you are rewarded with the most joyful smiles.
• She does not like tummy time, though she'll give it a go for all of a few seconds.
• She no longer screams blue murder whenever she's naked, in fact I almost think she quite likes her daily, naked, kick abouts on her play mat now.