Santa is on his way

For the last four or five christmases I have envied those with little ones. Christmas always seems more magical when there are little ones around.
Frankly I think it will be better next year when she can be a little bit more involved, but still having a little one around has made Christmas more fun.

For a start there are TOYS under the tree! Not just jewelry, clothes and makeup. And Stargate box sets.

And as she was born on June 25, December 25 will be when she reaches six months in age. So it will be the time she gets to start trying some pureed solids, her cot will be moved from our room to her room (after Christmas), her car seat will be turned around. It feels like a lot will happen around that time! She is growing up too quickly.

We went Christmas shopping today and I have well and truely bought enough things for Miss Imogen. She is receiving (from myself and Rhys),
a cabbage patch kid (Named Alice Imogen),
a little people toy plane (to start discussions about travel before her first overseas trip - fingers crossed - in June),
3 dresses, 2 shirts and 2 pairs of shorts.
Oh! Wait! I still would like to buy her a book.

We have most of our Christmas shopping done. I just need to buy Rhys his gift from me and one from Imogen.

I am so looking forward to all the Christmases we have to come... Christmases where we go to bed early, but not before putting out cookies and milk (and possibly a santa trap). Write letters to santa. Go to look at Christmas lights. And bake special Christmas treats. 

Imogen at four months

Sitting up in her bumbo, playing with her new toys

 It's going by so quickly I rarely have the chance to stop and think about what Imogen is like, right now, at the point in time.
Well, she is a lovely baby. From the start we have always received comments about how quiet, happy and easy going our little girl is. And she really is, we have very rarely had to deal with an inconsolable baby, most of the time with Immy she is trying to tell you something when she is crying. She is a little bit of an odd ball, sometimes she just wants to be put down and left to play/comfort herself.
At around 4pm every night her crib becomes her enemy, the same place she is happy to sleep in in the morning and late afternoon, just will NOT do. So she usually ends up in my arms, and we sit in my big feeding chair and she will have a nap while we wait for Rhys to get home.
She is very good at grabbing and holding onto things. She smiles all the time, and will laugh if Rhys or myself laugh.
She is bigger than average, weighing in at over seven kilos at four months of age.
She reminds me of her dad, not because she looks like him (which she sometimes does), but because she acts like him. She dropped something in the kitchen the other day, and it made this massive sound, so I spun around to see the exact face Rhys gives in that situation, on Immy's little face.
She continues to refuse to roll over all the way. But finds it funny to roll around during nappy changes.

Out for icecream with mummy and daddy

We still cannot agree on what colour her hair will be, blonde? strawberry blonde? brown? At the moment the popular guess is bald.

Out and about on our daily walk

We sort of, but do not really have a routine. She usually has a nap around 7-8am, 11-12pm, 3-4pm ish. But I don't keep it to exact times, I go from her eyes and sleepy looks. Sleeps can vary from 15 minutes to  2 hours.
She enjoys "conversations" with Mr Butterfly or "doing her calculations" on her walker.
She is a big daddy's girl, and usually will not look at him on Monday/Tuesday when he gets home from work, I think she is upset that he left her ALL DAY with mummy after the whole weekend with both mum and dad.
She likes to be involved, she started to cry when I was making dinner last night, so I gave her the egg flipper and she stopped crying and played with it for 25 minutes!
You can tell she is getting sleepy from her eyes and her laugh (she has an I'm not sleepy laugh).
She is stubborn and persistent. She is gentle and happy. She is Immy.

This time last year...

Is that a second line?

We left Phuket on 6/11/10 and I remember writing one last blog for our travel blog and checking my messages on facebook. In my message box was a message from a good friend of mine and it seemed like she thought I was pregnant and that I knew about it. Well she was half right!

We got back to Australia on the 7/11/10 and for two days I just felt sick and bloated and said it was jetlag but hoped something else.

I think I did some serious googling on the 9/11/10 of pregnancy symptoms and possible due dates.

So I told Rhys of my thoughts and the next day 10.11.10 he went out and bought some tests, I set of three I think.

We did the first one (above) in the morning and I don't think Rhys believed it at all, so he said we will do another test in a couple of days to check. Later that day I did another test and the result way the same, a line is a line no matter how faint!

After that second test we were both in shock and happy and amazed and in shock and most of all happy.

I never doubted she was a girl, I went out that week and bought some "its a girl" pink nail polish. 

What a great years its been.

Time to sleep.

In her wrap me up at nap time

Bounce Bounce with daddy.

I think that we have been lucky with Imogen. At four months she is a pretty good little sleeper, she does have her off days or nights but on the most part she sleeps from 7 or 8pm - 5 or 6am, and has 3-4 naps in a day.
To assist with sleep we.

Use the wrap me ups, the little swaddles with zips you can buy. I have found this really helps me during the day, when she gets really sleepy the arms and legs just go everywhere, the wrap me up seems to help with that.

She has a "sleep sheep" its this random sheep that makes whale noices, I think she is beginning to associate this with nap time.

We have a big blue exercise ball (OK two, one in the lounge and one in our bedroom) used to bounce little miss to sleep (has always worked well for us).

Rocking her back and forth in her cot or pram works ok too.

Cute Pregnant

Me, 17 weeks pregnant with Imogen

Sometimes, particularly around the time of the birth of a brand new baby (and there have been a few in Oct/Nov) and also around the time of pregnancy announcements (of which there was another one today), I miss being pregnant. Not 32+ weeks, waddling and struggling to breathe pregnant, but something a FB friend of mine called "Cute Pregnant."

I really enjoyed my pregnancy, even though at the end I was admitted with pre-eclampsia and she was born a bit earlier than planned. I really really loved early pregnancy, you know, around the time when you have a fresh baby bump, and you find out the gender, and feel the first kicks - for me this was all back in February.

I really want to go through all that again for my girl, we have both figured that Rhys is destined to be surrounded by women, so we are having two girls (we think) and Immy is such a daddys girl, but the youngest will be all about mummy.

We have agreed to have two children, but when will we be welcoming our youngest?

I do not know, but probably not any time soon.

In need of a pretty dress...

Me at the last wedding we attended on June 4 (3 weeks before Imogen was born)

My bump at its peak

I have been pregnant at the last four weddings that I have been to. Actually the last wedding I went to before I fell pregnant was my own! I think I wore the same black dress to pretty much every event I attended whilst I had my baby bump.

I actually kind of miss my bump, in some strange way, it was ok to be an odd shape, because I wasn't fat I was pregnant. But now looking for a dress for my cousins wedding, which is now next weekend, I just feel fat. I am a lot bigger in some parts (bust mostly), and I just do not know how to dress for my shape!

Me on our wedding day

 I look back at our wedding photos and wonder, will my body ever be the same?

I think what I need, is a good haircut. I feel all scruffy and disshevelled, and like my left arm always has spit up on it.

And I need a new dress! The ones in my current wardrobe just will not fit nicely right now. I have set aside this Sunday and next Friday to Christmas shop/get a hair cut and find a new dress.

Wish me luck.

If you have any suggestions... I would love to hear about good dresses for post baby bodies that have yet to fully bounce back!