More firsts!

On Tuesday we had another first. Janel woke up from her nap crying. When I went in to check on her she'd sicked up and there was blood in it. Panic stations! After checking her over for injuries & finding none, my mind went blank. She wasn't exhibiting any other signs of illnes - no fever, no unusual crying, etc. Part of my mind was going beserk, thinking she was dying, and the other part was saying there must be a logical solution because she was smiling & showing no signs of distress. I stood in the room holding her, overcome by indecision yet feeling I ought to DO SOMETHING! It was then that I remembered: I've developed a cracked nipple again (oh joy!) and I realised that I was probably bleeding when she fed - the blood was mine, not hers! No need to panic.

She also had her first moment of stranger anxiety on Wed. I was at my mid-week women's Bible Study, and one of the women asked to hold her. Previously, Nellie has gone to her, with no problems. Not this time! She was being held by another woman, and as soon as she was passed across, she took one look at the new admirer and promptly burst into tears!

Next week is her appointment with her consultant, at which point she will be weighed for the first time in about 2 months. I'm looking forward to seeing how much weight she's gained. I've been going through her clothes and taking out the ones that are too small for her. When I compared them to her prem clothes, it's hard to believe how tiny she was! I really should take a photo to show the comparison. Ag well!

She's starting to sleep through the night now - going down at 7pm and waking at 5am. It isn't consistent, but it's happened 3 times in the past 10 days, so I'm confident it is only a matter of time now till this is a regular thing - bring it on!!

Photos galore! (2)

Graeme's youngest brother, Phil, has just (at long last!!) got engaged to Brenda. At the Sunday picnic, I suddenly needed to do something, so quickly passed Janel to Brenda - who promptly froze in panic. There's nothing like being dumped in the deep end to teach you to swim!

Having got over her initial fear, once we were back in Cape Town after the wedding, Brenda asked me if she could hold Janel. At the time Janel was with Phil, having a great time of laughing. Everyone was so thrilled to hear that Brenda was keen to hold her that we all gave a big cheer. Phil then proceeded to clap loudly - right in poor Janel's face, giving her a massive fright, and she promptly erupted in screams, much to Brenda's chagrin! (Once Mommy had soothed her, Janel was very happy to go to Brenda, so she did get to hold her after all.)

Tata, who is not a wine drinker, had been given a bottle of 1973 KWV Cinsaut in the late 1980's. (KWV is an excellent, popular, but slightly expensive, Cape wine.) He decided to keep it and open it when his first grandchild was born. Roughly 15 years have passed from that day, and Janel has been born, so we opened it to drink at a family dinner. It wasn't vinegar, which is the good news, but it wasn't a great wine either. However, if you thought of it as a fortified wine, it was really quite palatable!

In the month away Janel has developed quite a lot. There were a number of firsts for her. These photos aren't necessarily the actual first moments, but they at least document what the event was.

She's discovered her fingers and now chews on them with great glee.

Here, with Gogo, she's demonstrating how she's started pushing up and trying to stand.

She's also started to really push herself up and will also try to pull herself up into a sitting position if she's lying in your lap.

An early developer: she's 'reading' - actually, she's just fascinated by the black and white of the text. She's not in the slighest bit interested in the pictures!!

She's taking much more notice of her environment now - she discovered first Mommy and then herself in the mirror. We spent a delightful 15 minutes smiling and laughing with our images in the mirror.

Because she can now sit so much better, she is nearly ready for her highchair. With a few bits of padding, she's fine in it even now - only for short periods though.

Granny (my mom) was the unfortunate recipient of another first - Janel's first illness. We'd had a family braai for my side of the family, and one of her cousins had had a vomiting & diarrhea bug. Ouma got it, and then later, so did Janel. One morning she just cried and cried, for no apparent reason. I left her with Granny while I went out for lunch with one of my nieces, not realising that the reason she had been crying so much was because she was ill. When I returned an hour and a half later, she had a fever and had been vomiting. Poor mite! I felt like such a bad mother for not realising. Thank goodness for Granny!!

While out shopping, I made an impulse buy of this little African outfit. While she may have been born in London, she will be an African child!

Here's Ouma (my step-mother). She was such a support and gave me a real break every now and then - she helped with feeding, and was a star at burping!!

Oupa (my dad) was the recipient of a lot of hugs! I think he got the best deal of all the grandparents.

Of course, there are a lot more photos of our trip I could publish here - like the wedding itself - but as this blog is supposed to be about Janel, I'll restrain myself. Maybe I'll start another blog for our trips....

In the immortal words of Warner Brothers, then: That's all folks!

Photos galore! (1)

Well, we're back in the UK after a lovely month at home. There are a lot of stoies to tell, but I'll just touch on the highlights. I promised photos though, and there are lots of those I want to share with you.

In the car on the way to the airport - our little Christmas pudding is now an Easter star!

Asleep in her sky cot.... She was a star traveller - slept the entire way there and back; no ear problems; no crying. Cute as a button though!


Here she is with Lorraine, who was the maid for Graeme's family for most of his life. Janel was perfectly happy, and then all of a sudden decided that she was actually hungry after all! Since everyone keeps commenting on how good she is, I wanted to prove that she does actually let rip at times. She is, after all, a normal baby.

Because we were travelling around so much, Janel spent a hang of a lot of time sleeping in my arms. I like this photo though, reminds me of Easter - mother and child with a 'star' overhead...

Our main reason for this trip was to attend Graeme's sister's wedding. Her colour scheme was lime green, hence Janel was given a little lime green outfit to wear to the wedding, with matching booties made for her by Gogo (Graeme's mom). The booties were only just large enough to fit her!

I particularly like this photo, not because Janel is showing off her nappy (although that's cute in and of itself), but because she is doing something typical - gripping any clothing she can get her hands on. When feeding, she has taken to grabbing at my shirt and hanging on for dear life, or else grabbing onto my hair and hanging on for dear life. (I am losing hair in clumps as a result!)

Like father, like daughter! The wedding and its preparations tired us all out!

As we were travelling light, we didn't take her bath stuff with us, so it was either a case of breaking our backs leaning over a bath, or bath her in the sink. The sink won.










Because the wedding was in a remote location, it became a whole weekend affair. On the Sunday, all the guests got together for a massive picnic at a really lovely farm. The weather was beautiful - sunny but not hot. Given that a baby's skin can burn in 5 minutes, we had bought her 2 sun hats, both of which were a little large. However, this cow hat quickly became the favourite. Here Tata (Graeme's dad) is showing her off to all the guests.

Now I'm having problems uploading the other images, so will publish this and come back to the rest another time.