Growing, Nursery, Cloth Nappies and a Move

My beautiful daughter Mikayla is growing and developing in leaps and bounds. Some days I wake up and look at her and think "were you this big yesterday?". It is incredible how fast they learn and do new things. Mikayla is 3 1/2 months and loves to smile and laugh. She is such a happy baby which makes me a very happy Mummy. Her hand and eye coordination is getting really good now and she even had her first roll from back to tummy the other week. She loves to sit up, but hates to lie down unless it is on her play mat. She will endure tummy time for about 5 minutes before getting fed up with it and demand to be picked up. She loves her baths and showers with Mummy and she will talk your ear off almost all day long. Can you tell I am a proud Mumma?

I didn't realise that babies came with so much. I swear Mikayla has more stuff then I do. I am constantly buying new toys and books to keep her stimulated. We are fast running out of room in our small town house so Alex and I will be moving into a larger house next month. I can't wait!

Here are some pics of Mikayla's nursery before I pack it all away -

Mikayla currently sleeps in a bassinet beside my bed, but she is getting way to big for it now. As soon as we move she will be going into her cot which will be moved into our room. I couldn't stand having her in another room just yet. She usually sleeps from about 9pm till 7am at the moment which I love. She still has short naps throughout the day but her best sleep is at night. I love cloth nappies! My favourites are just the simple bamboo flat nappy with a PUL cover. I find they work the best for me. I love them more then the disposables and find they hold a lot more also. I found the disposables leaked through the longer sleeps at night and actually started to smell. I don't mind the washing and don't think it is harder in any way to use cloth. The only thing I use the disposables for is when Mikayla is wearing little jeans or tights where the bigger cloth nappies won't fit and look weird.

This is the bamboo flat nappy modelled by my beautiful girl


This is the nappy with a cover over the top


and this is my rolly polly baby :)

and here are a few more pics from this past month -

That smile just melts my heart!

My beautiful dughter and I on my Birthday


Mikayla and her Daddy


I set this photo up at home on my bed and thought it turned out really well


My cheeky Monkey

Well I could sit here and post pics of my gorgeous girl all day, but I just don't have the time. I have dinner cooking in the oven that's almost done and a baby I can here stirring from her sleep, so I must be off and hope to be back soon. Take care everyone :)

Quikly While the Baby Sleeps

So I am trying to be super fast at writing this post while Little Miss has her morning nap. It is so hard to find time for blogging anymore, there is so much stuff I would love to share, but just can't spare the time.

I am still doing really well and loving every moment of Motherhood. Mikayla is really developing in leaps and bounds at the moment. She has just turned 12 weeks and I can't believe how much she is learning everyday. She is scooting everywhere on her back at the moment, I constantly have to put her back on her mat. When she is lying on her back she lifts her head up to watch me or to let my know she wants picked up. It won't be long till she is rolling, she half gets there now but plonks back again before she can fully make it.

Look at those cute dimples!

I am in love with these big smiles that light up her whole face and she is even chuckling. She is starting to grab things and hold them, and is starting to really know how to work those hands. I love watching her learn and grow.

Isn't she beautiful

Mikayla has been struggling with wind since she was about three weeks old. She was waking up at 2am every night with the pain and strain of trying to get the wind out. I tried everything to help but nothing worked.

It was becoming frustrating because I knew she would be sleeping through the night if it wasn't for the wind. I hated to see my baby girl struggling so hard and in obvious discomfort. The only thing I could do was wait till her bowels started to mature and hopefully she would grow out of it soon.

To my relief she did start sleeping through the night for a couple of weeks, and I felt so refreshed and energised. It seemed like she was getting the knack of it and wasn't struggling anymore.

Though my excitement and relief was short lived. It now seems like she has reverted back to not sleeping through because of the wind again. I just don't know what happened. I am hoping it will only last a short time and we will be back to feeling refreshed and energised again shortly.

My sweet angel first thing in the morning after a good nights sleep

Anyway, I had a few more things to blog about but I can hear Mikayla waking up. Hopefully I will be back on here soon to share some more pics.

Being a Mummy

I love it! I am so proud to be a Mummy to this little girl. She is truly a wonderful little baby and I am so blessed to have her.

I have found out that being a Mother is basically just a big guessing game and learning to follow your own instincts. I was pretty surprised and impressed at how quickly those instincts kick in once your little one arrives. No one knows your baby like you do. Not the books, midwives or doctors who sometimes like to think they do.

I've also learned that Motherhood, while being wonderful, is also very scary. When I first came home from hospital I was so scared to fall asleep because I wanted to have a constant watch on my baby. I was very protective and nervous if anyone else was holding my precious bundle and didn't like her being out of my site for one minute. Luckily this has all settled down now and I am quite calm about the whole thing (most of the time, lol).

I am very happy to be fully breastfeeding Mikayla, although it didn't come without its troubles. Initially she couldn't latch no matter what myself and the midwives would do. I had to express and syringe feed the colostrum in the beginning. Everyday and night in hospital was a struggle to get her to try and latch. I was becoming very upset and thought I might not be able to breastfeed my baby. One of the midwives ended up giving me a nipple shield to use which Mikayla took to perfectly. Although it wasn't ideal, I was at least breastfeeding her.

Once home though and a few days had past I began to hate the shield, it was so messy and it would always get knocked off by little hands when I would feed her. I tried desperately on and off again to get her to latch without the shield to no avail. I was getting really upset and feeling like a complete failure. I knew if she continued feeding with the shield that my milk supply could eventually dry up and that she may get so use to the shield that she would never take the breast without it. Four weeks on I went to the Children's health clinic for a check up where a lactation consultant gave me a DVD to watch on how to attach your baby properly. I went home and tried out this new technique that was very different to what I had been shown by the midwives at the hospital. She latched right away! I was over the moon with excitment!!! It took us two very hard and stressful weeks to find our groove and get the whole breastfeeding thing down pat. We got there in the long run and now my baby is a latching machine and will take nothing other then the boob, lol!

I look back at this time now and am soooo thankful that I did not give up because I am loving breastfeeding so much. I don't think I would have been able to do it though and stick at it for so long if it wasn't for the constant support and encouragement of my Husband and Mum. They truly gave me the strength to keep up with it and persevere. Thank you!

My beautiful girl on Australia Day

Oh how I adore you

My precious darling girl. I love you so much, words cannot explain. You are my world now and I wouldn't have it any other way. You have only been with us for 6 weeks, but to me, it feels like you have always been here apart of our family. I cannot imagine a life without you now. You have completely stolen our hearts, and we adore you beyond measure. You are perfection and I can't believe I grew you inside of me. It seems like a life time ago that I gave birth to you, the pain of labour no longer exists in my memory. It all disappeared the moment I met you.

Our Little Family

You are beautiful

Mikayla Rose

Born at 10:55 pm on the 10/12/2010,

weighing 7lb 5oz

Sorry I haven't posted sooner, but as you can imagine things have been very hectic around here with the healthy arrival of our beautiful daughter. I just wanted to pop on and let everyone know that we are doing well. I will be writing my birth story soon to share with you, but just for now I have some pics of our precious angel.

She is perfect

At hospital with our new little family

Heading home from Hospital

Daddy walking his baby girl through our front door for the first time

Mummy and Mikayla at feeding time

Oh how I love her

My Waters Broke!!!

Yep, they broke at about 12:15am this morning. Still no contractions though :( If they don't start soon I will have to be induced which I really don't want. I want to go as natural as possible.

I have been walking all day, bouncing on my ball and having warm baths to try and bring on the contractions, but there has been no change. It is driving me crazy! I just want to get things underway. I am so close to meeting my little girl, but now it seems like we have taken a step back and everything is going so slow. I have been getting light little pains and tightening but nothing major yet.

I had to go to the Hospital last night for them to check me and bubs out and make sure it was definitely my waters that broke (which it was). Bubs is doing well and still moving lots which is really good. Now I am back at home just playing the waiting game and praying that the contractions start really soon.

Baby Shower Fun!

This Saturday just gone we finally had our baby shower. It was a great day and we had such a good time catching up with family and friends. I think we had about 30 guests in total at the end of the day who all seemed to fit into Mum's house nicely. I was a bit worried there wouldn't be enough room. The weather was wonderful although a little hot.

We had a delicious barbecue lunch cooked by my wonderful Husband

This is me and my friend Cassie comparing belly sizes. Cassie is actually due right about now.

A quick pic of the parents to be :)

My Mum and Grandma preparing food in the kitchen.

People outside

People inside. We used the magenta pink and lime green colour scheme for decorations around the house to match the colours I am using in bubby's bedroom.

Alex and I opening presents. We felt very spoilt!

Alex was keen to try out this little ride on fire engine. I think he is going to have a lot of fun pushing his daughter around on this

This is a pic of all the wonderful presents we received on the day. Were we spoiled of what!

A big thank you to everyone who came to the baby shower and made it such a great day! We had such a great time and can't wait for you all to meet our little princess Mikayla xxoo

And also a big shout out to my Mum for allowing us to use her home for the day, and staying up till midnight the night before baking and organising. We couldn't have had such a great day without you xxoo