One Month

We have survived the first month..... At 3 and a half weeks Freya weighed in at 4.68 kg and is 58 cm in length, so she is obviously feeding and growing well. We are starting to learn each other's habits... until they change again. Her eyes are getting better at focusing and her neck is getting much stronger and we had our first proper smiles the last few days...

 

First family photo in the front garden

One of Freya's first smiles

Hanging with Grandad David

 

3 weeks.....

Well Freya is just over 3 weeks old and thriving. She is now well over 4 kg and rapidly growing out of her small babygrows - she now only fits the 3 month size..... She is sitting between the 50-75% of the growth chart. Not so good at sleeping.... still slightly nocturnal - although the last few days she hasn't really been sleeping much during the day either, except when she is taken for walks in the sling.

Freya in the sling ready for a walk

Freya in her awesome bear suit ready for the cold...

She had her first couple of baths and seems to enjoy sitting in the warm water.

Bath time....

Snug in her towel

1 week on....

Well I can't believe it has been almost a week since Freya was born. It has been one of the longest, hardest and most amazing weeks of our lives. We finally got home on Wednesday afternoon from hospital and have had a couple of days at home getting used to being a family. The first night didn't go very well, but after a visit from the Midwife on Thursday who gave us a lot of tips and a checklist to follow and we rebuilt our confidence and things have got much better. Fortunately the breast feeding is going really well and she is almost back to her birth weight again - a very healthy 4 kg...

Freya is very cuddly at the moment - which we are both enjoying getting lots of cuddles - Mifi (the cat) is not so happy that she has lost her lap to sit on. Freya is slowly getting used to her bassinet and we have had a few play sessions on her baby gym mat.

Aaron's lap is prime property - both Freya and Mifi sharing it

Post feeding cuddles

We have had a few friends and neighbours come over and visit (although Freya has been asleep through most of them). It is nice to know we have a lot of support. The weather has been pretty horrendous this week with some of the worst floods in Wellington in many years. So it has been a good excuse to stay at home. We hope to venture out in the near future.

Playing and napping

Freya's First Day

After a long wait - she has finally arrived at 41 weeks and 2 days.... it wasn't a very natural birth, but eventually she was born at 2:20am on the 10th May 2015, weighing in at a healthy 3970 g and approximately 52 cm in length. A not so little baby! Appropriately it was also Mother's Day in New Zealand! So what a present for my first Mother's day.

She has a very happy Mum and a besotted Dad. We will be spending a few days in Wellington hospital recovering, before heading home later in the week.

Baby Freya a few hours old.

Sleeping in Dad's arms.

NZ citizenship

After 8 and a half years of being in New Zealand Aaron finally got his citizenship at a ceremony at Te Papa Museum on the 13th April. He had to stand up and swear allegiance to Queen and Country and then he had his picture taken with our Mayor Celia Wade Brown. So he is an official bona-fide kiwi! Passport next....

Aaron is officially a kiwi.... with Mayor Celia Wade Brown

36 weeks and counting down...

Peanut is much, much bigger.... and so am I. Looking and feeling very 3 dimensional at the moment and have reached the rather uncomfortable stage where it is hard to find a good position to sit, sleep or in fact do very much at all. She is also very active, so when I do finally get to sleep I am often woken up by what feels like some kind of funky dance movement. I am definitely more tired and hungry than I have been. But I'm told this is all normal! I can't really complain as I am still able to ride my bike, swim and do some yoga exercises - which are helping with the back ache and the sanity!

 

Just over 36 weeks....

So physically I am ready, mentally not even close... I still have some stuff to finish at work so I am continuing to work part time for as long as I can. However, I am aware that it could happen any time now so some of the work will probably just have to wait... We have finally packed a hospital bag and sorted through the piles of baby clothes and gear that we have been given. Everyone has been so generous - we have barely bought anything.

Wish us luck for the next few weeks....