Day 70.

We got Willow all rugged up tonight and took her out to a new pizzeria and vino bar, Blunderbuss for Freya's birthday.
We get quite a few lectures about having routines and everything, but I find it really hard to apply myself to that kind of lifestyle. We are just so not those kinds of people, and I feel like it's best to not make things hard for ourselves by trying to force ourselves to parent in a way that is unnatural to us.
I remember Samara's dad gave me this awesome advice when he found out i was pregnant, he said "fit the baby into your life, not your life around the baby". It's pretty simple, but I think so few people do it ! They went camping with Samara when she was 3 weeks old and travelled the world with her as she was growing up. I think it's such an awesome method of parenting.
So we still go out all the time, we take Willow to bustling restaurants and dinners, and she always just handles it so well. She gets lots of cuddles from absolutely everyone, and always ends up just falling asleep in our arms.
I'm not oblivious to babies getting over stimulated, we are definitely cautious of that, but we also just try not to get too worked up about it.
And to be honest, I still haven't experienced those evening witching hours that everybody talks about. The impossible to settle, sleepless nights.
Willow sleeps the whole night through, every single night.
I'm not putting this down to my mothering skills, I am absolutely sure it has very little to do with me, and a whole lot to do with being blessed with a very laid back baby.
But in our case, it has really worked out to surround ourselves with a lot of people.
That saying, it takes a village to raise a child, holds so true for me.
I have seen quite a few women who are struggling with baby blues, or maybe even post natal depression, and I think a lot of it comes down to being isolated in their houses all day, spending little time with their family and friends.
We are so blessed to have Little & Friday, my family business where Chris and I both work.
We go there most days, even just to hang out and see all the staff, who are like a family to me. They all dote over Willow and take her off my hands, Giving her lots of attention and me a really nice rest to have a coffee and a chat. My brother, my mother, my boyfriend, and all my best friends are there, and I think it's because of this that I feel so supported, and like this whole thing is kind of easy peasy.
Enough babbling, here are some photos x

Bitches be pingin'

Day 69.

Plummy and I went to the plunket new mothers group today, which I really didn't think was something I wanted to go to, at first. I hated the idea of socialising with people who I had nothing else in common with, other than being mothers. Obviously because we are all in the same basket, we should just get along. I'm actually kind of surprised by how much I do enjoy it. Every week they have a guest speaker, and today we learned about baby sign language. I found it really interesting. It is a really simple method of helping your child to communicate, before they are able to verbally express their needs. Chris and I are going to a workshop in September so that we can learn more.

We also went to our friends flat for a delicious vegetarian lasagne, thanks Francis, Jordan, Beth, Gina, Naomi & Sam for a deee-liteful evening x

Day 68.

Day 67.

Plum's new mobile thanks to our kind work friend, Peter.

Day 66.

Day 65.

Now that Willow is big enough we have finally been able to swap to cloth diapers.
We're going cloth for a few obvious reasons, environmental & financial. While she was too small for the cloth, we were using a really environmentally friendly brand that they stocked in our local supermarket (amazing !), naty.
Everyone kind of smirked at me when I said we were going to cloth diaper, and lectured me at great length about how much work it is. But it's totally not ! It's just an extra load of washing every two days.
I also started making my own wipes once I started researching what is actually in them. They are a 7 on the hazardous scale ! Holy shit !
Making your own is really, really cheap and lasts ages.
For any mamas out there, here is how I do;

Heavy duty paper towel roll, cut in half (easiest to saw it with a bread knife)
about a cup or two of boiled water
2 Tbs organic baby soap
2 Tbs oil, I just used sweet almond
A few drops of essential oil e.g. tea tree or lavender
A countainer & a lid

Mix ingredient, put paper towel roll into container and cover in the solution. Once soaked pull out the middle cardboard roll and the start of the wipes should come with. Slice a cross into the lid of container and thread the wipes through.

I also sometimes make cloth wipes with muslin squares, just make sure they are specially for this, not for beb's face.

Day 64.

We were having a snooze in the park today and a total stranger came up and asked to take this photo.
I can't believe that we have been doing this for ten weeks now.
This evening we dropped around to visit a couple who were in our hypnobirthing group who have just had a wee boy. I couldn't believe how beautiful and tiny he was ! He was about 3 pound bigger than our little Plum was, but it was so incredible looking at them next to each other, it was such a short while ago that she was so tiny and new. I almost forget how much she's changed, she stares at you so intently, she smiles and chuckles and has so much more control over her body.
Those first few weeks of having a baby are so incredible, they were the best weeks of my life. Everything is still pretty fucking great, but that time is so different from anything else I have ever experienced. It's like there is no sense of reality, you're just in this warm little love cocoon. I honestly felt like I was in a complete daze where everything is soaked in a golden light.
It's nice for things to fall back to normality; the boys went out last night and Naomi, Plum and I had a girls night in where we watched Ryan Gosling movies and stayed up way too late (hence I'm posting this a day behind !), but I will always love those first few weeks.
x