Hello lovelies!
On the 11th of this month, my little angel turned one month old. My, how time
flies!!! It feels like just the other day that I first laid eyes on her. She is
growing up so fast, a fact that screams true to me every day when I am
selecting clothes for her to wear. Something that she wore last week will just
not fit a week later. In this post I will write a recap of our first month
together. I hope this post will be useful to all you new mums out there.
Baby
When Elly was born, she was 3.5kg, heavy by some people’s
standards but when I look at her family tree, it just fits. She has a very
healthy appetite and is considerably heavier than she was when she first came
home.
Food
I feed her solely on breast milk. I’m not a believer of
formula although I have been tempted to buy some and take the easier way out.
But I have been advised that breastfeeding is a good way to bond with your baby
so breast milk it is.
Sleep
The first night we were at home was quite an eye-opener for
me. For the past nine months, I had been preparing myself mentally to be woken
up in the middle of the night (I used to wake up for my mid-night snacks and
bathroom breaks anyway), but having it on the back of my mind that the baby
could cry at any moment made me quite apprehensive. I was afraid of sleeping
too deeply and not hearing her. But I am learning how to sleep well and just be
alert for her cries.
All in all, I have been lucky. Elly settled quite fast and
learnt to sleep 3 to 4 hours continuously at night before waking up for a
diaper change and feed before falling back asleep again.
Noticeable Changes
She has the cutest smile!!! I don’t know what she usually
thinks about but there are those few times when I see her smiling (many times
just as she is waking up or after she has fed) and lately she has a silent laugh that just melts my
heart. She looks so adorable. Oh, that toothless smile is priceless.
The moment she was able to see, I got so excited. While we
were still in the hospital, the nurse told me that newborns don’t see so
clearly and at first are only able to distinguish their mothers. They take
about four weeks to see well. When Elly was finally able to see, I would catch
her just staring at people and things around her. I like to think that the new
environment fascinates her a great deal.
Mum
I have obviously had to make many adjustments in my life.
For instance, I use the hours when Elly is asleep during the day to catch up on
sleep, eat and take a bath. You will be shocked at how easy it is to get caught
up with everything you have to do for the baby that bedtime can quite easily
creep up on you and you end up not having taken a bath. I have had to schedule
this into my few free moments so that I don’t forget!
Diet
My diet has changed considerably from my pregnancy days. I
now have to eat and eat well otherwise I will not have enough milk for the
baby. This means that I have to have my meals in good time and drink plenty of
warm fluids which include cocoa, soup, porridge and fenugreek seeds for the
production of milk.
Exercise
I was hoping to at least start walking soon after my
delivery, but with a Caeserean section, I was forced to take it easy and relax
quite a bit and allow enough time for the wound to heal. The last one month has
seen a decrease in the amount of exercise/walking I have been doing. But I am
hoping to start this month.
Wardrobe
My post-maternity style has yet to take off. I’m in that
phase where my maternity clothes are too big and my pre-maternity clothes still
don’t fit right. I also have to consider that I will need to breastfeed the
baby quite often so whatever I wear has to make this as easy as possible.
Work
It’s been 6 weeks since Elly arrived and getting time out to
even blog is hard. I intended to take one month off before I get back to
updating the blog. But it’s proved to be harder than I thought. There are no
two days that are the same meaning that I may or may not have an opportunity to
put my thoughts into words. As for my online clothing store, I am currently expanding to more than just clothes so keep it posted so you can score yourself some interesting bargains.
As you might have guessed, this post was supposed to be up on the blog two weeks ago even after preparing it in good time, I didn't manage to post it. I'm pushing myself to be more regular here so let's see how it goes. I will definitely post a month by month update on our progress.
Thank you for stopping by.
Remember you can leave your comments below or on Facebook and follow me on Instagram.
Happy Wednesday.
xo
Audrey