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Eloise's Diary Entries Diary Navigation: Choose A Diary Entry -------------------- Latest Entry: 11/26/00 -------------------- 11/22/00 11/12/00 11/8/00 10/25/00 10/18/00 10/11/00 10/4/00 9/21/00 9/13/00 9/3/00 8/30/00 8/23/00 8/15/00 8/9/00 8/2/00 7/25/00 7/12/00 7/4/00 6/27/00 6/21/00 6/13/00 6/6/00 5/31/00 5/24/00 5/23/00 5/8/00 5/3/00 4/22/00 4/21/00 4/19/00 4/12/00 4/5/00 3/29/00 3/25/00 3/22/00 3/15/00 3/7/00 3/1/00 2/23/00 2/14/00 2/8/00 2/2/00 2/1/00 1/25/00 1/16/00 1/9/00 12/18/99 12/15/99 12/6/99 2/14/99 -------------------- Eloise's Introduction

Introduction

Saturday 18th December, 1999.

Seasons greetings to all! I can barely believe it’s that time of year again. But it’s fine by me, I love Christmas and everything about it – the tree, the decorations, Christmas lights, corny Christmas-time movies, presents, turkey, even Christmas carols! It’s magical.

Of course, Pixie has way too many presents for a newborn baby to know what to do with. Jai and I can’t help ourselves – she has a big teddy bear, a few Lamaze toys, a little Christmas pop-up book, a set of Peter Rabbit Wedgwood china (a tradition in my husband’s family), a little Christmas T-shirt and matching pants, a Bunnykins bib, some soft cubes with geometric patterns on them…. And I’m sure my mother will spoil her, too. Oh well, it is her first Christmas, and we’re all so excited about it.

Things are getting so-ooooo much better this week!! I think we’ve discovered the magic equation: More sleep = less crying. She’s sleeping for 2-3 hour stretches after every feed. We’re becoming religious about putting her down within 1-2 hours after she wakes and feeds, before she gets over-tired and grizzly. And it’s working. We haven’t had a grizzly session for days. She’s sleeping well through the night, sometimes going 4-5 hours between feeds, and we’re getting about eight hours sleep a night, punctuated by two ‘feed-nappy-change-burp’ sessions a night that keep us up for maybe an hour each. If she keeps us up longer than that it’s usually because she has a really stubborn burp that just won’t come out, no matter how much we hold her and pat her and rock her.

But yesterday was a very special day for me. I finally fell head over in heels in love with my little Pixie. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve loved her from the start, but yesterday something deepened. She slept most of the day, and I found I missed her while she was asleep and was excited when she woke up. And when awake she’d sit quietly and stare at me with her big liquidy eyes as though she recognised me (for the first time), as though she trusted me. There seems to be meaning in her eyes now, feeling. She seemed peaceful and content, like a little angel, and I fell madly in love with her. I was totally captivated by her. It’s like I’m beginning to feel like I know her, like her unique personality is beginning to blossom as she gets used to life and begins to trust life. And as I get to know her I feel I can finally begin to truly love her – as a unique individual, as a little human being.

She is changing fast. She is beginning to look different. She’s putting on weight. Her cheeks are chubbier, my husband and I delight in her three double chins and the rolls of fat on her thighs. And her once skinny bony calves and feet are now soft and rounded. Her face is changing – she looks quite different with big round soft cheeks. And we think her eyes are getting darker.

And the best sign that she is beginning to settle into life is the fact that this morning’s bath elicited not a single cry. She usually squawks when she gets undressed, barely tolerates having her hair washed, and will scream the house down when she’s pulled out of the water and dried off. But this morning she seemed content through the whole experience. Dare I say it, she may have almost enjoyed it! It was wonderful for me and my husband, and now bubby is the cleanest she’s been in ages – because we felt we could take our time and really give her a thorough going over.

We’re going away for Christmas – to my mother’s place in a town an hour and a half’s drive away. I’m wondering how bubby will go. We’re just beginning to settle into a routine and I’m secretly afraid that going away will disrupt everything. Will she get enough sleep when she’s got Nana and her uncles and her cousin and great-aunties visiting and fussing over her? Will she sleep okay in a porta-cot instead of with us in our bed (we’ll be sleeping in single beds and I’m afraid she won’t safely fit in with us)? I fervently hope all goes well, because it’ll be a nice break for us house-bound new parents, and it’ll be a real treat for my mother who is so rapt in Pixie that when I sent her two photo’s of bubby this week, she wrote back saying she’d almost worn them out looking at them so often!

Well, my baby just let out a huge wail in her sleep so I’d better go and check on her. Jai, Pixie and I wish all our reader's a very safe and happy Christmas and all the best for the new year (here’s hoping we can still get online after Y2K.)

Best wishes,

Eloise