Elsie did a marathon 10 hour sleep session last night – wow! She didn’t sleep much at all during the day, so that is obviously the way forward. Although she is sleeping now, maybe I should go and wake her up.

We went out last night for Caz’s birthday which was lovely. There were lots of people there who all went to smoke in the next room just for Elsie – I didn’t even have to ask them and sound anal, which was very much appreciated. She was so good and just sat in the corner in the car seat, checking everything out with very big eyes for most of the evening. She did cry as we were leaving (maybe she wanted to stay and party for longer!) and had a good wail before falling asleep last night, but the excitement probably all contributed to her sleep-athon! There was a lot of cooing going on over her gorgeousness – our little girl is so well loved by so many people, she is very lucky indeed.

This is a picture of Elsie and Rob watching the Liverpool – Man U game, she obviously brought them luck!

This is a beautiful close up of my little girl on our way back from London.

This is the one time I manages to express successfully and so Rob got to feed Elsie when we were over in London. This is my new favourite picture.

The proud fathers with their offspring!

This is Elsie and cousin Arthur a couple of weeks ago - really impressed with each other as you can see!

Well, what adventures we have been having! We have just returned from a jaunt up to Yorkshire for 3 days – with a very hectic schedule of visiting and excitement! Elsie was, of course, universally adored! And we had a very jolly but quite tiring time.

It was strange being without Rob though, I feel as if we have morphed into a two headed, four armed parenting machine over the past two months, and then I had to cope with just my meagre two arms. Actually there was no shortage of arms offering to help, I just missed him I suppose!

It was lovely to see everyone up in the frozen North! But we are happy to be home too. Elsie has moved from her crib into her cot bed, as she was sleeping quite happily in one in Yorkshire – what a big grown up girl!

She is also sitting up on the sofa now, supported only by a few cushions. She is engrossed in winter Olympics with her dad at the moment. The ice hockey was totally mesmerising it would seem, but the ice dancing less so – there is some complaining starting now!

This is a picture of Elsie very condescendingly allowing her dad to give her a kiss!

Elsie is back to her usual jolly self, and we have fully recovered from Thursday’s traumas it would seem. We have just come from having Sunday lunch at Rob’s Granny’s, and Elsie was very happy when we arrived – it was lovely to watch her laughing and smiling with her Great Granny.

Rob and I had our first proper evening out last night – we have been to the pub for an hour twice before – but this was the first time we’d gone further than the end of the road without her! It was Tasha and Nick’s wedding party, and we had such a good time. I had a nightmare trying to express milk all day yesterday, and just ended up with about 2ozs for all my painful, time consuming efforts. So, I was worried that she would get hungry, and thought we’d only be able to stay out for a couple of hours. So, we went out at about nine leaving her with Auntie Sally, planning to come back by eleven. I had a few twinges and a weird feeling of leaving the house without a limb at first – but then we started really dancin’! And chatting to lots of lovely people, so Rob called Sally – who said that Elsie was asleep and fine – so we stayed out until after midnight, very rock and roll! I did find myself talking to someone at one point saying ‘I just love her so much, she is so wonderful’ (after just the one pint!) – then caught myself and thought, ‘oh no, I’ve become that woman!!’ But all in all it was a gorgeous evening. Elsie was sleeping soundly when we arrived home – and Auntie Sally seemed happy too (despite a pooing down the leg incident!) – so it was a great success.

This is a picture of Elsie looking very impressed with her dad!

Phew, what a day! I actually woke Elsie up this morning (ha ha!) to feed before Gemma came over to cut my hair. We had a most pleasant morning nattering, hair doing, and gazing at and generally adoring Elsie! The three of us then went for a walk around the cemetery in the rain, which sounds grim but was actually very nice and refreshing. I was brave enough to put her in the pram as I had help, it always seems a bit massive and cumbersome for just me.

Then this afternoon Elsie had her eight week check (a week late) and first set of immunisations. She was really grumpy all the way to the doctors in the sling, which is very unusual as she normally loves it in there. But I think she might have been having a wee bit of trouble with her bowels, because when we arrived at baby clinic she did the most enormous poo I have ever seen (so pleased she saved that for a public place!) It went down her leg and all over her clothes, she put her hand it and then put her hand on her face, it was awful! I got flustered fumbling with baby wipes and thinking ‘oh my god, my baby has poo all over her face and loads of people are looking at me,’ – oh the shame! But the nurse was very understanding and we made it through that ordeal, only to move on to the injections. She screamed so much, and with such bloodcurdling disbelief and horror that it was pretty upsetting. Her check was all fine though, and she is growing well apparently.

Then on the bus on the way to the mall to see my friends nobody gave me a seat. I actually had to ask an old lady three times if I could have the seat next to her which was empty, and she tutted at me before moving! What is up with the world?! I was in tears by the time I reached Paula. But then had a couple of lovely hours with her, Katie and Debbie – although Elsie was very fretful and needed to feed almost constantly, for comfort more than anything I think. She hasn’t been happy all evening, she has had some Calpol now and Rob is upstairs with her. I think she may be settling… touch wood. It is so difficult to watch my little girl, who is normally content, being upset for such an extended period of time. I presume it is just because of the injections, they did warn me she might be more agitated that usual.

This is a picture of our little family a couple of weeks ago at Aaron and Zelia’s beautiful new flat.

I am not writing as much as I would like this week – we’ve been really busy (and not just with sleeping, although mostly that!) Yesterday Elsie and I went into town on the bus (with Elsie in her marvellous sling) to get Marks and Spencers dinner for Rob and me, for a Valentines treat! We also made it to New Look to splash out a new top for Tasha and Nick’s wedding party on Saturday. After being wonderful in the changing room and letting me try things on, Elsie then screamed her head off at the till. It is amazing the way people look at you when you have a screaming baby – like you should just be able to wave a magic wand a make them stop. If only there was an off button – but there isn’t.

Rob had secretly arranged for Dan to come over and babysit last night, so we got to go to the pub for an hour and drink a pint of Easton ale. It might not seem like the most romantic of Valentines Days, but M&S ready made lasagne and a pint of ale was pretty heavenly to us! I was slightly alarmed at first at the thought of leaving her having had no preparation, but Elsie was absolutely fine and we came home to find her snuggled into Dan’s shoulder perfectly content and not pining for mum and dad at all!

Her favourite pastime at the moment is chewing on her own fist. This can take a variety of different forms, from just one finger or thumb, to trying intently to shove both hands in there! She has also started to dribble profusely a lot of the time, I wonder if this is the beginning of teething – but I think it’s a bit early for that? She soaks at least one cardie a day (and has also pooed on two different outfits since this morning, so there has been a veritable fashion show of clothes today!)

This is a picture of Elsie last week when we were making thank you cards – as you can see she was fully involved in the creative process!

Well, Elsie has had a very exciting weekend! We went to London town on Saturday to visit her new cousin Arthur, who was born only three weeks after she was. Arthur is also absolutely gorgeous, although he and Elsie seemed totally unimpressed with each other!

She is being extremely vocal today, I wish I knew what she was trying to tell me. But she seems happy with our conversations – and not too concerned that she isn’t getting her point across!

This is a picture, by special request from Auntie Katie, of Elsie in her beautiful purple suit, looking very glamorous indeed!

Oh my god, she is so beautiful!!

We have had another morning of very strenuous smiling game practice. She is feeling very jolly indeed today it would seem! She has a gorgeous, toothless open-mouthed grin that is getting wider as the days go by, sometimes accompanied by chuckling! Oh, I fear my heart will melt! I have been desperately trying to capture one of these moments on camera, but so far have not been successful.

A variation on the game is now to look at herself in the mirror, and smile and chuckle – as entranced as everyone else is by the sight of that beautiful face! This is especially fun when she is looking over my shoulder as we dance (a good way to get the burps up too!) Our favourite song to do this to is Suddenly I See by KT Tunstall – which I think will be her birthday song. The words are pretty perfect really…

Her face is a map of the world
You can see she’s a beautiful girl
And everything around her is a silver pool of light
The people that surround her feel the benefit of it
It makes you calm
She holds you captivated in her palm

That about sums it up! And also…

She makes me feel like I could be a tower
A big strong tower

Which is what I hope I could be if she ever needed me to protect her. Sally informs me that the song was written about Patti Smith, who apparently is really cool, so I’m sure she won’t mind sharing her song with our Elsie!

She continues to be a champion sleeper – doing 7 hour stretches almost every night now. One negative side effect of this (not that I would change it for anything!) is that I wake up every morning saturated with breast milk feeling like my boobs are about to explode! And she spends the first few minutes of her morning feed being squirted in the face! This morning she then vomited milk on both my shoulders after feeding, so I was covered in milk and regurgitated milk - it’s all such a glamorous business this motherhood! It wouldn't be so bad if I managed to change out of those clothes during the course of the day!

This is a picture taken by Zelia about a week ago – this is Elsie’s favourite place to be (except for the vibrating chair of course – nothing beats that!)

This is Elsie smiling! And wearing her mega cool Dylan vest!

This is Elsie at about 6 weeks old.

This is Elsie having a good old yawn, and her adoring mum!

This is Elsie on her baby gym, working out!

This is Elsie and me again - she is about four weeks old in this picture, and wearing grown up girl clothes including her ace jeans!

This is a picture of the four generations - Mary, Fiona Mary, Anna Mary and Elsie Mary - lovely!

This is Elsie with her Auntie Sally Newsome, at just over two weeks old.

This is Elsie on her first trip up to Yorkshire, with her Auntie Katie, at two weeks old.

This is Elsie and me on Christmas day.

This is a picture of Elsie with her dad on Christmas day, when she was 12 days old.

This is Elsie with her grandad, at 3 days old.

This is Elsie on the day after she was born, with her Auntie Sally Robinson!

Scary moment

This morning we had a very scary moment – and I wasn’t sure whether to include this in the blog for fear of looking like a bad and irresponsible mother, but there is no point in keeping this record if I only write about the good experiences. I want this account to be honest and real.

I nearly dropped her. There were some flowers in a glass on the mantelpiece, and when we came down this morning they had fallen over. I tried to pick them up at the same time as holding her – she was resting over my shoulder and fell backwards slowly (or was that me seeing in slow motion?) onto the mantelpiece. It was so horrible. Until now I think I have managed to remain fairly relaxed about the awesome responsibility that is having a child, but today I thought – what if something were to happen to her?

She cried for a second, probably mostly due to my screaming ‘Oh my god!’, then was fine. After a very long cuddle and thorough examination I put her in her vibrating chair (which she loves more than anything!) – where she sat smiling and cooing at me as I cried. She was totally well, but I was distraught thinking that I could have caused her harm.

My dad said that they bounce, and that apparently it’s always newborn babies that survive earthquakes (can this be true?!) - which did make me feel slightly better, but she is the most precious thing in the whole world and it was an awful moment.

She is looking at me now, still smiling and trying to talk to me – more beautiful than ever in a green cardigan knitted by her Great Auntie Marian – I think we are over the trauma now, but I am feeling even more enamoured than usual with my gorgeous girl, and quite humbled at the thought of my duty to take care of her.

She is definitely getting more interactive as the days go by – she has been smiling apparently at random for a while, but this weekend she started to respond to Rob and me, and Zelia too last night – that lucky lady, by returning smiles when smiled at. This smiling game is enormous fun, and we have been practising extensively! She also just laughed again as I was changing her – a definite laugh for only the third time – it is amazing how something we all do almost every day is actually the most mesmerising thing imaginable. I wonder what it is she finds funny, or whether it is just an expression of her happiness… either way it’s gorgeous!

This is a picture of Elsie two days after she was born (and feeling very festive as you can see!) I will upload some more pictures now, so that they catch up to date.

Elsie's Life to Date!

Well, we are having a very chilled weekend so I will take this opportunity to fill in a little of Elsie’s life to date!

Things have generally been going extremely well – she has been a real joy. She is breastfeeding, and has been pretty easily since day one. I did have those few days of looking like Jordan when the milk came in! But she seems to know what she’s doing, so I’ve been lucky and not had much of a struggle at all (I have to date failed to express any milk though, so that others can feed her and I can have a little more freedom – the one attempt so far with a hand pump resulted in a lot of pain and swearing and I haven’t tried again).

She is also sleeping remarkably well (frantic touching of wood!) She has recently been doing 5 hour stints followed by a feed and change, then another 4 or 5 hours – meaning that when we don’t have to get up early I am getting plenty of sleep. We recently all moved into the same room, up until this week Rob and I had been taking it in turns sleeping in with her as there didn’t seem to be much point in neither of us getting any kip, but that doesn’t seem to be an issue anymore - hooray for Elsie!!

She is now 11lbs 3ozs and growing rapidly – already too big for her newborn clothes.

This is a picture of Elsie the day after she was born - still quite squished and red! She was born with loads of dark brown hair in a mullet! Which is hidden under her very fetching hat in this picture.

Thanks to the IT genius Roz we are now on line - hooray! - and can begin the chronicling of the life of Elsie Mary, beautiful young lady born on December 13th 2005 to the proudest parents imaginable, Anna and Rob.

This is Elsie on the day she was born - perfectly formed and gorgeous, though somewhat red and wrinkly, despite 18 hours of trauma being born (trauma more for Anna than for Elsie it has to be said! Elsie was perfectly content throughout the whole thing apparently - nice for her!)

The first stage of labour was actually fine and manageable (for those of you not fully conversant in antenatal speak - the first stage of labour takes you from a normal ladylike cervix up to 10cm dilated, and the second stage is actually pushing the baby out of this still woefully inadequate hole). We had a birthing pool and had taken hypno birthing classes – so felt well prepared and positive going into whole thing. Rob and my mum were pillars of strength, we stayed calm and relaxed and I felt pretty in control for the 15 hours it took to get to 10cm.

It wasn’t until the second stage that the real hell began – Elsie’s hand was up by her head, increasing the circumference of that first dreadful bit to be pushed out. And also her umbilical cord was around her neck, not so that she was in any danger, but meaning that there wasn’t a lot of slack for her to move down.

So, it took 3 and a half hours to push her out (this stage normally lasts half an hour to an hour, or at least that’s what they told us at antenatal classes!) and was horrendous beyond measure – like being simultaneously stabbed by 1000 daggers and branded by 1000 red hot pokers. I still haven’t forgotten (like they say you do!) even after 7 weeks quite how horrendous it was. There was a real moment of clarity in the middle of all the agony where I thought ‘Whatever you do, don’t ever get yourself in this situation again.’ But then my daughter was born. Just writing that sentence now makes me want to cry (and I thought my hormones were getting back to normal…!)

She is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen, and gets more beautiful, more interesting and more amazing every day. Doors in my heart have been opened that I never knew were there (and I can write sentences like that without feeling cheesy!) – when she smiles, when she laughs… I can’t describe how I feel when I look at her – it’s like really really loving someone, only more.

So, I would like to record these first few months of her life for posterity. So that all the people that love her, especially those who’ve disappeared to far flung places and can’t keep in touch so easily, can check on how she’s doing. And also so anyone else who’s interested can share the experiences of these formative days…