My beautiful little Poppy flower

[Lulu_Laroo]

12th August 2011

- Poppy arrived at 10.25pm weighing 7lbs 8oz and made us both the happiest people on the planet.

She is now three weeks old and I have decided to start a parenting journal, as I regretted not starting a pregnancy one.
She spent most of the first week very sleepy, as she had jaundice (and probably because I had pethidine and an epidural). We got so excited on the rare occasion she actually opened her eyes! The MW was a little concerned about her jaundice and we had to pop over to neonatal for a blood test, which was fine and she didn't need light therapy, we were just told to wake her every 2-3 hours for a feed to flush the jaundice out of her system.
It slowly started to disappear and has now pretty much gone.

We registered her birth on 24th August (the day before her official due date!)
She is an angel and rarely cries. She's been a little bit constipated (which brings on huge feelings of guilt over me not being able to breastfeed )
so we switched her formula from SMA to Cow & Gate which has really improved things.
She is very strong and is already holding her head up when on her tummy - not for long, but she can do it! She makes cooing noises in her sleep which melt my heart and me and OH are totally smitten with her.

I've leave it here for now and come back when there's more to report

 

[Lulu_Laroo]

Poppy slept from midnight until 6.00am last night!
It was the first night we started her proper bedtime routine. We bathed her, had cuddles and a feed with just the nightlight on, so half an hour of 'calm time' = as we make a lot of noise around her during the day, so I want her to know that night time is quiet time and for sleeping. Put her in the moses basket and we didn't hear a peep until 6am.
I don't think I'll bath her every night, maybe every second night, as she seems to have tiny flaky patches of skin and I don't want to dry her out too much.

We went out for lunch today to see people. The visitors have not dried up yet, and apparently we've got another two weeks of people we normally hardly ever see wanting to come and see her and I'm beginning to get a bit grumpy about this. Of course I understand everyone wants to see a new baby (and I don't blame them, she's adorable!) but all the distant relatives who don't usually give a toss - that grinds my gears Plus Poppy is at the stage now where she'll get a bit cross about being handed around all the time. It bugs me even more that I'm 90 miles away from my family and friends who have barely seen her compared to the hoards of OH's family constantly coming round.

Anyway, now that's off my chest I'm going to have a cup of tea before cupcake wakes for her next feed

 

[Piglet's Mama]

Poppy slept from midnight until 6.00am last night!
It was the first night we started her proper bedtime routine. We bathed her, had cuddles and a feed with just the nightlight on, so half an hour of 'calm time' = as we make a lot of noise around her during the day, so I want her to know that night time is quiet time and for sleeping. Put her in the moses basket and we didn't hear a peep until 6am.
I don't think I'll bath her every night, maybe every second night, as she seems to have tiny flaky patches of skin and I don't want to dry her out too much.

We went out for lunch today to see people. The visitors have not dried up yet, and apparently we've got another two weeks of people we normally hardly ever see wanting to come and see her and I'm beginning to get a bit grumpy about this. Of course I understand everyone wants to see a new baby (and I don't blame them, she's adorable!) but all the distant relatives who don't usually give a toss - that grinds my gears Plus Poppy is at the stage now where she'll get a bit cross about being handed around all the time. It bugs me even more that I'm 90 miles away from my family and friends who have barely seen her compared to the hoards of OH's family constantly coming round.

Anyway, now that's off my chest I'm going to have a cup of tea before cupcake wakes for her next feed

I know exactly what you mean about the visitors - am so sick of them and would quite like to be left alone now!

 

[KellyHook]

And me! even though ive loved showing him off, its just annoying now, i want to go out instead of waiting in for people to come round! ive got visitors today and wednesday and then im done.. (i hope) just want to get back to normal, so im hoping when brooke starts school next monday (eek!! ) i can get myself back into a routine!

Well Done Poppy for sleeping till 6am, such a good girl for your Mummy and Daddy xx

 

[Lulu_Laroo]

Poppy seems to have settled herself into a little routine. She'll have her last feed at around 11.30pm and she'll sleep from midnight to around 5.00-6.00am which is FAB. She'll have her feed then she'll go back to sleep until around 9am. So mummy & daddy are getting a much better nights sleep now She's actually staying awake for quite a large portion of the day, too. After her 9am feed she'll be awake until lunchtime, have another feed then nap for around 3-4hours, feed again, then nap, then she'll be awake for a lot of the evening.

She loves her baths now; the first bath she had she hated and screamed the house down, but now she seems to enjoy the warm water and so we're giving her one every second day in the evening.
We give her a little bit of tummy time every day and she holds her head up for a few seconds. she has such a strong neck. We sit in front of her and encourage her by calling her - she's SUCH a Daddy's girl and always responds to his voice (she was the same in the womb!)

She is so much more alert now and her eyes get wider every day. She has gorgeous big blue eyes, and her hair is still quite dark but seems to be going blonde around the edges (Both me & OH were blonde children so we think she will be and that her hair will keep lightening up). She is also SUCH a wriggler! She'll spend some time laying on her daddy's chest which she loves, and she'll be trying to push up with her legs and she just doesn't stay still, little monkey!

OH swears he got a smile from Poppy on Monday when he was having a cuddle. He was talking to her and he said she looked right at him and gave a big open-mouthed smile and although it's apparently too early for a proper smile, he is certain that's what it was. She has done it a couple of times to me since, and although to me it definitely does look like a real smile, I'm still not sure because everyone has told me it's too early. So we haven't counted it as her first smile, but we've made note

I love her more & more each day, and I didn't think it was even possible to love her even more than I already do! *gushes* I can't believe she'll be four weeks tomorrow already!

 

[Lulu_Laroo]

Another brilliant night - Poppy slept from 11.30pm until 5.45am

She seemed to still be hungry after her 4oz feeds all day yesterday, so I gave her 5oz before bed and she guzzled the lot! She then had 4oz this morning before we took a stroll into town (she always falls asleep in her pram so I don't know if she was still hungry or not) but she woke up when I stopped in the park to eat a sandwich so I gave her another 4oz but she started screaming when I was walking home with her, and she took another 2oz when we got in, so that was 6oz in the space of an hour, what a piggy!

I booked her first professional photoshoot today, it's on 24th September when she'll be six weeks, kinda hoping she'll have started properly smiling by then so we can have big smiles in the photos, but I don't mind if she isn't, they'll still be beautiful.

I know everyone says this, but I really can't believe she's already 4 weeks. Time flies when you're having fun!

 

[Lulu_Laroo]

Well, today was eventful! Happy 1st month my little flower We got our first proper smile today, exactly a month after she was born! It was utterly heart-warming and amazing, and both me and her daddy saw it before he went to work

We had a feed and got up when Luke went to work and after a while Poppy was being very fussy. She was grizzling and wriggling around a lot, and I had to stand up and pop her on my shoulder (so she was looking out over my shoulder) to soothe her. Whenever I put her in her crib or her vibrating chair, she would start to cry. The house is a mess and I had lots of laundry to do, but the little tinker wasn't having any of it

We got to around lunchtime and she was still grizzly, so we had another feed and this is when she'll usually have a nap, but she didn't. After a while of rocking her in my arms she dozed off, so I very carefully lowered her into her crib and she stayed asleep for half an hour, giving me time to call and get an insurance quote on a new car we were going to view. As soon as I got off the phone, she started grizzling again, and I couldn't get her to stop crying. She was rooting for a feed again, even though it had only been about an hour and a half since her last one. I then realised I didn't have any sterilised bottles or fresh feeds made up!

I had to go and do this whilst poor little Poppy was screeching her lungs out - I MUST remember to buy some cartons of ready made formula for these types of emergencies!
Once I'd sterilised the bottles, made her feed and waited for it to cool down poor Poppy was bright red in the face from screaming, and we sat on the sofa and she hungrily latched on to her bottle.
After a couple of minutes, she stopped sucking and started grunting, and I smelt that familiar smell so pulled the bottle out so she could enjoy her poo and I could change her nappy, but I reached down and felt wet.... the poo had started to leak out of her nappy and was all over my hand and had gone on my leg. So we abandoned the bottle and went for a nappy change, but as soon as I opened her nappy she projectiled poo'd, and it went all over the carpet

I cleaned her up, put on a fresh nappy, cleaned myself up and washed my hands, and we returned to finish her feed (which by this time, she was crying for again).
But when I went back to the sofa I realised that the poo had actually gone all over the sofa too! so I had to get a sponge and scrub away at that.

In the end, she finished her feed and slept for hours - she must have been knackered poor little mite! I now have too bright yellow stains on my cream carpet and sofa

But never mind, she is SO worth every stain, shit and crying session.

Love you so much Poppy Pops xxxx

 

[Piglet's Mama]

Oh Lulu! This made me laugh as we had a poo incident last night! Got Brooke out of the bath & she started fussing for her bottle so while she was still in her towel I started to feed her. *something* told me I should a put a nappy on but did I? Nope. And she did a big pop in her lovely new towel...!
Brooke is also fussy at the moment and I feel like I'm constantly throwing her over my shoulder! I think she's also having ANOTHER growth spurt as she's had 8oz since 700am - piglet xxx

 

[Lulu_Laroo]

Oh no! It's guaranteed to happen once the nappy is off isn't it! For some reason Poppy seems to save up all her poo and go every 2 days, so there's loads of it

 

[MissJuly10]

Poppy is just gorgeous hun, loving your parenting journal. x x

 

[Lulu_Laroo]

Taking Poppy back home to see my family and friends in hertfordshire this evening - I am SO nervous about the car journey It's only about an hour and a half and we're going to take the scenic route and avoid the motorways, plus I'll sit in the back with her (we just bought a new car as our little fiesta was just too small for the little princess and all her stuff!)
She is still sleeping from midnight to 6am which is lovely, and she's definitely staying awake for much longer periods in the day now.
I haven't had her weighed since the HV came at 3 weeks when she was 8lb 14oz, the weighing clinic is about a 40min walk away and OH is out at work with the car during the week. I might take a stroll up there next week with her.

Anyway, I'm off to pack our bags for later

 

[Lulu_Laroo]

Poppy loved seeing her nan, grandad, auntie and uncle in Herts. We had a lovely weekend.
Went for an hour long walk today (trying to shift some weight!) - she loves being in her pushchair and always seems so content on walks. I put her in the car seat instead of the pram and she seemed to love looking around whilst we were walking, and she was awake the whole time! No grizzles at all. Little angel

Getting lots more smiles now, which melt my heart everytime.
I think she may be having her 6 week growth spurt as she's guzzling so much milk and sleeping for really long periods of time all of a sudden (in the past 2 days). She went from 11pm to 6.15am the other night, had a feed at 6.15 and then went back to sleep until 9.30am!

 

[Lulu_Laroo]

The health visitor came round today. Poppy now weighs 11lbs 80z! I thought that was far too much of a weight gain but the HV assured me it was fine and showed me on the growth chart that it's normal. She's also 58cms long, and I'm sure most of that is her long legs

She is smiling loads now as well as making lots of cooing noises. She definitely seems to know the difference between night and day now - night time is for sleeping

 

[Sassysugar]

Poppy's gorgeous, enjoying reading your journal

 

[Lulu_Laroo]

Thank you x

 

[Lulu_Laroo]

I feel very very lucky to have such a good little girl. She has beaten her previous best by sleeping from midnight until 8.00am without a peep! I realise that her being such a good sleeper at this age is rare and I am very lucky. I just hope the little tinker keeps it up! But she has been pretty much sleeping through the majority of the night since about three weeks.
We have put her in her big girl cot for the first time tonight. She is just too tall (and strong!) for her moses basket now. She rocks it back and forth so hard and her head ends up at the far end. She looks SO tiny in her big cot, and I've been watching her for ages whilst she lays in there staring at her musical mobile

 

[Piglet's Mama]

She's so cute! We've got one of those light shows for the ceiling for Brooke and she's fascinated by it x

 

[Lulu_Laroo]

Poppy had her 8 week immunisations today, and it's the first time I've seen her cry real tears! It absolutely broke my heart

She's having cuddles with daddy now, with a big plaster on each leg bless her. She doesn't seem to have a temperature or anything, and has just slept all evening. My brave girl

 

[Piglet's Mama]

Oh god love her, I'm dreading Brooke's on Thursday, my Mum's coming with us! Hope she's ok this evening x

 

[Lulu_Laroo]

Well, AF is back and she's back with a vengeance! My god do I feel rough. Sorry for the TMI, but it's really, really heavy, I've got horrendous stomach cramps, and absolutely no energy. Luckily, Luke really helps out at weekends and he does the 'night' feed so he got up and fed Poppy this morning when she woke at 6.45. I'm now sitting here in my dressing gown feeling sorry for myself whilst Luke plays with Poppy. I feel bad but once he's at work tomorrow I'll have to do everything myself so I'm saving my energy!

Poppy is pretty much out of her 0-3 months clothes now. She still fits them but again it's her length, she's too long. The 3-6 month things are a bit baggy but fit her length-wise so we're putting her in them from now on.
We start her baby sensory class on tuesday which I'm excited for

I was watching her in her cot this morning and she was stretching her legs right up as far as she could get them, it really looked like she was trying to kick her hanging toys from her mobile.

Right, I'm feeling like shit quite frankly, so I'm off for now!