1 whole month of Addison Mae!

Let the broken down record begin!! How is my Addison 1 month old already?! I can't even believe how quick time is flying in - I still feel like it was yesterday we were frantically googling baby names in between contractions! and here she is - (a whole 7 weeks now by the time I post this blog! sorry if this post is a bit disjointed, I've had to write it in about 7 different sittings since newborns really don't give you any time to yourself!!)

So it was time to dig out the monthly vests - hooray for her not being a boy and us being able to reuse these same ones we bought for Ella! haha! 

There are so many times when I look at Addison and think I see similarities between her and baby Ella, but as I compared these two pictures of them at exactly the same age I see they are actually very different! 

Full disclosure - that cushion behind baby Ella is a lot larger than the one I used in the top pic with Addison so that may be distorting things a little and making Addi seem like more of a beefcake than she is!! but she does definitely have more rolls than Ella did! So what Ella was lacking in hair Addi makes up for in chub! Ella did have a big mop of hair like Addi when she was born and then she lost it all and turned into a little baldie, so we thought the same could happen for Addison but since she still has hers at this point I'm hoping it's here to stay! 

Let's get a close up of that little cutie pie! Her mouth and jaw line are all Ella - even two different people have commented on their same jaw lines this week! and she does have super blue eyes just like Ella too but the rest of her face is a mini Byron so lots of people have been telling us.

We let Ella pick that Jellycat giraffe for her before she was born, we are hoping she will fall in love with it just as much as Ella loved her Jellycat monkey/monkeys! 

Of course Ella wanted in on the action! I feel like Addison wasn't so sure about sharing the limelight! 

and just to keep it real - this is how she felt by the end of it! 

So what is Addison like at one month old?

Here are some of the things she loves:

Hairdryer/vacuum cleaner/washing machine and my Kitchen Aid! We found out this one by accident the other night when she was being a bit fussy, I was about to bake and so Byron came into the kitchen and flipped my mixer on and she was instantly calm! When we turned it off for a second for me to attach the mixing bowl to it, the tears returned, and then we turned it on again and silence!! It's pretty magic! I have high hopes it means she will love baking just as much as me! or as one of my friends pointed out she was probably very used to hearing that sound in the womb! 

So if I ever need to unload the dishwasher or do something for 5 mins you can bet one of these appliances will be keeping her entertained! 

Music - She definitely loves music! Twinkle Twinkle is her fave song for us to play her, we have tried several others and nothing stops the crying like Twinkle Twinkle!

When she's being fussy about feeding, I will sing Hush Little Baby which seems to calm her down and when even that doesn't work I play her any song by the band The Paper Kites - I listened to them constantly when I was pregnant with Addi and I'm pretty sure she remembers all the songs because again this really calms her down! 

She also likes it when Daddy sings and does 'what shall we do with a bouncing baby' with her.

Feeding! She loves her milk way more than Ella ever did, and for those first few weeks after she was born it felt like literally all she did was feed around the clock! Every evening from about 4-10pm she feeds hourly, but it seems like she tanks up for the night ahead and then has been known to sleep through only waking once around 4-5am for a feed so that's pretty good going for a newborn! 

Sleeping! She generally has a feed and then instantly falls straight back asleep until she wakes up for another feed! I forgot how much of the first few weeks of a newborn life are just spent sleeping away!

The bath - she really seems to enjoy being in the water, even her first one she loved! (we remember Ella screamed the place down during her first bath) so I can't wait to take her swimming soon too!

This was her very first one a few days after we got home - Ella couldn't wait to join in on the action with her! 

Whilst she loved being in the bath, she wasn't so keen on getting out to the cold room temp air!

Things she hates:

Being stationary! Don't dare stop at a red light when she's been asleep in the car, or stop walking when you are carrying her in the sling because she will make known how cross she is about this! Yes, she always has to be on the move! when she is she is a perfect little sleeping angel, when you forget and you stop she is definitely not! 

Being put down! Seriously - in the day if she is not sleeping on me or feeding or being held then she is crying and grumpy! She will sleep away for hours on me but if I try and put her down in her Moses Basket then those little eyes pop open instantly! the rascal! 

She is not always a fan of big sis smothering her and always being in her face! this time she wasn't so keen on letting her join in the jungle gym fun!! haha, but I'm sure this will change as she gets older! (and hopefully as Ella learns to calm down a bit)

but they definitely have their cute moments together too! 

So what else happened in her first month? Daddy had a week of paternity leave which was so lovely! It always co-incided with amazing weather! I've had lots of people say I can't believe you were up and about leaving the house and doing things so soon after Addi was born, but in Scotland when the weather is good you just have to because you never know how long it's going to last! 

On Tuesdays Ella has an all day at nursery and so we decided to sneak off for some lunch at the Terrace Cafe by Floors Castle - it's one of the only places you can dine Al Fresco where we live and we wanted to make the most of that sunshine! We got placed right in front of that awesome Wisteria wall! I was loving it! 

and we got to admire their beautiful gardens from our table...

and Addi slept the entire duration of our lunch so we were feeling pretty smug about that! 

We also spent an afternoon at the playpark in Hawick - so Ella could show us how good she is now at riding her bike independently! I gave Addi a really big feed before we left and had planned it perfectly so that she wouldn't need one while we were there, and then as soon as we got out of the car (only after 30 mins) she wanted a feed! I am remembering that you can't really plan anything with newborns because they always seem to do the opposite of what you want! 

As I said before, we chose Mae as Addison's middle name because it felt like everything was just blooming as she was born.  I loved these forget-me-nots...

and the wild garlic flowers...

and of course these stunning cherry blossoms! I also feel like Addi brought the good weather, since it had been so dire up until the week she was born! so you can thank Addison for that happy little heatwave we had in May! 

It is really hard to capture pics with a newborn in those first few weeks when they're always in their pram or their car seats but Ella was desperate for this one to be taken! I love Addison's little hands up at the side of her face! 

The rest of the month was all about visits from friends...and lots of cuddles!

and lots of visits from family!

Granny came for a whole week, which was amazing! She did every load of laundry, prepared every meal, and would snuggle Addison every morning so that I could get dressed and shower in peace! It was dreamy! and she took Ella to and from nursery every day which was just as cute for the two of them to have that little 1:1 time as it was helpful for me! Mostly she heaped a ton of love and attention on Ella which was just what she needed, after she had been somewhat neglected those first few weeks as we all adjusted to just how much of your time a newborn demands! 

We even fit in some of our favourite things to do, like exploring beautiful gardens at Abbotsford...

and after stirring because I stopped to look at one too many flowers, the dummy helped Addi drift back off again until we left! 

Auntie Mara joined the fun that weekend...

and we took a roadtrip to Newcastle because it happened to be my mom's birthday and we wanted to spoil her with the best afternoon tea I've ever had at Jesmond Dene.

It was seriously amazing! Check out the pink glaze on that rhubarb and custard tartlet!

and it definitely helped that the sun was still shining!

We even got to explore Jesmond Dene Park after and see all the beautiful rhododendrons out in full force! 

As one Granny left, another one arrived! Byron's mom and her husband Chris came for the following week, and quickly got caught up on Addi snuggles! 

Byron's grandparents were also visiting the UK from South Africa and so spent a week with us, it was a lovely week filled with more flowers, ice creams...

and a whole lot of snuggling! Gran had the magic touch at settling Addi during some of those fussy evenings of hers! 

Meeting Grandpa for the first time...

I feel like this picture doesn't properly capture just how blue and beautiful her eyes really are! The hair is still there, and I'm so happy about that! Fingers crossed it's here to stay now! 

and here we are - finding our new normal as a family of 4! It looks like lots of bags under the eyes (mostly for mom and dad) and lots of getting ready to leave the house 2 hours before we actually need to leave (that is no joke!) but a whole lot of joy that we wouldn't trade for anything!

Welcome to the world, baby Addison Mae!

I can't believe Addison has already been with us for one month! so it is time to crack on with the birth story! On Wednesday morning (9th May) I woke up with a rather dull ache in my lower back.  I mentioned to Byron that this could possibly be the start of something, since it's how I remember things happening with Ella's birth last time around.  He had to go to a forest in Peebles that morning (over an hour away) and so he said he wouldn't go just incase, but by about 10am the ache had gone away and so I told him to go for it and that nothing would be happening today! 

By about 3pm the pains had returned, and at 4pm when I collected Ella from nursery they were feeling more sore.  We popped to Sainsbury's to get some bits for dinner, and I had to stop a few times walking around Sainsbury's as the pain was stopping me in my tracks.  When I got home I remember I had to google what does a contraction feel like!! I thought they were a tightening of your stomach so wasn't sure what I was feeling in my back was even a contraction! (you would think I hadn't done this before!) We got home and I started cooking dinner, By got home at about 5.30 and I had decided it was time to put my tens machine to use.  I started timing my contractions and when they were 5 mins apart I called triage.  They asked if my waters had broken or if anything else had happened aside from feeling contractions and I said no so I expected them to tell me not to come in yet but was very excited when they said I could go to hospital! 

We dropped Ella off at her bestie from nursery Te Maia's house for a little sleepover! I was so grateful to my friend Jo for voluntarily asking me one day if they could help with Ella when I went into labour, because up until that point I had no clue what I was going to do with her!! I joked with By that I didn't know if Ella was more excited about an imminent arrival of a new baby or the fact she got to have a sleepover with Te Maia! I'm thinking it was the latter! She ran out the door so fast with her little backpack and sleeping bag, and I felt the strangest mix of emotions knowing that the next time I would see her we would be a family of 4! We dropped Milo off at our friend Rich and Jenny's house en route to the hospital and then we were off to have a baby! 

We arrived at the hospital at 9:10pm.  I had told them earlier on the phone that my last birth was a water birth so they had filled the pool in anticipation of my arrival.  They took us into the room with the pool in and did an examination.  I was only at 2cm so they suggested going down to the maternity ward until I progressed further (apparently the head midwife had originally wanted to send me back home at this point, thank goodness she didn't!) Amy, our midwife, then said that by the time she typed up my notes and since they didn't need the birthing pool for anyone else we might as well just stay in the room.  She said she would come back in an hour to check on us, so I hopped on my birthing ball and ramped up the intensity on my tens machine and Byron started looking up baby names on google and reading my out ideas between contractions!!

We were so sure that baby wouldn't be coming for a good few days that we really hadn't had a serious talk about names! We'd bounced a few ideas around but vetoed nearly all of them so it was time to really think hard! So By was busy making a list of potential boy names on his phone! At 10.30pm Amy came back into check on us.  I asked if I could get in the water now, and she said she really didn't think that was a good idea because it could slow things down and that we should wait a bit longer until I really needed to.  I told her that it was feeling quite painful and I did think it would help, so she suggested examining me again.  She was very surprised when she found I was at 6cm! and said that yes I could get in the pool which was a nice relief! 

The only downside of getting in the pool was I couldn't use my tens machine anymore, so I had to rely on Byron to rub my back each time a contraction came.  After about 10 minutes I said could I maybe use some gas and air, and again Amy said I should wait until I really needed it and use it when things got more intense - I said I did think I needed it and so eventually she let me! I still thought delivering the baby would be a long way off the way the evening had panned out and it seemed to me the midwives kept thinking I had a long way to go too! So at about 11pm when I felt the urge to push I thought something must be wrong and I told Amy I needed to push and she said that was fine and to go for it, so I did and I reached my hands down and felt some hair!! I couldn't believe this was actually happening already!

I gave another push, and the head midwife came in alongside Amy and they said they could see the head! Apparently the cord was wrapped around her head and so they said I needed to push the rest of the body out quite quickly.  A few more pushes and the baby was out!! There is nothing quite like the feeling of catching your own baby in your hands and bringing it up to your chest.  I was so wrapped up in the moment and feeling so much joy that I had completely forgotten that we didn't know the gender, the head midwife asked me if I knew what we were having and I said no!! so I looked down and said is it a girl?! and she confirmed that yes it was!!! (which I think I knew deep down all along...especially with all that pregnancy sickness!) Byron's list of boy names he had been creating was now obsolete and we realised we didn't have a single girls name!! 

So we had a gorgeous baby girl, with a skinny teeny little body and a big mop of dark hair weighing 6lbs 15.5ozs. She also had the most beautiful red rosebud lips that were identical to her big sisters when she was born! Byron asked Amy if she had any children and she said that she didn't, and that having her job didn't put her off having kids...especially if she could have a labour like mine! The head midwife said it was the best water birth she had ever seen! Her official delivery time was 11.15pm so I couldn't believe I was in the hospital for just 2 hours and 5 minutes before she made her way into the world! 

During the next hour of feeding and skin to skin time, the midwives left us alone with our baby girl and we discussed some more names! Byron was reading out lists of names and he read out Addison and we both said ooh we quite like that one! but then carried on to the next names.  Byron went home to get some sleep, and I went onto the ward.  

Thanks to a few screaming babies in the other cubicles I was wide awake at 4am! So I looked up the Scottish birth records for last year, where you can download and see every name for every child.  I was scrolling through them for inspiration when I came across Addison again and really loved it, and I also saw only 1 baby had been named that last year so I loved how original it was! When Byron came back in the morning he tentatively told me that he thought Addison had become his new frontrunner - I told him it was mine too! So it was a done deal! I had also been browsing names to do with spring at 4am and came across Mae - a french name, with the meaning 'goddess of spring growth'. I just loved that, since it felt like all the cherry blossoms and bluebells and rapeseed fields were all just coming into bloom the week she was born and so I wanted to recognise that in her name.  We have since found out that Byron's Great Grandmother was called Mae! so that was a bonus! 

The real icing on the cake was the next day at 2pm when visiting hours began...and big sister came running in to meet the new arrival! She had been told she had a new baby, but not what it was! I wanted to be the one to break that news to her.  She came dashing in and the first thing out of her mouth was 'is it a boy?' I said no it's a girl!! and straight away she came and planted a kiss on her head - it was so adorable, and tear jerking! The love and excitement for Addison was instant, and hasn't showed any signs of dying down yet! 

She couldn't wait for cuddles! 

and I'm thinking this was the second of probably over a million kisses that have happened since! 

She was thrilled when Addison wrapped her teeny tiny fingers around Ella's finger! and she likes to say that Addi likes to hold her finger the best out of everyone!!

and then there were smiles all round as she got to open up her bag of prezzies from lil sis! which contained an LOL doll, a lush bath bomb and some unicorn tights - how did Addi know all her fave things?! she was delighted! 

Cuddles with proud Daddy! 

and then Granny and Grandad arrived from Shropshire for their cuddles! 

which was good timing as they were able to snap this pic for us as we left the hospital - our first as a family of 4! 

Right under the blossoms, with our little goddess of spring growth! 

Cuddles with Grandad as we arrived home...

and the sister loving continued!! 

Could she be any prouder?! Even in the days following Addison's arrival every shop we went into she would tell anyone and everyone about how she was a big sister now - it was the cutest! 

and that's a wrap! I still can't get over what a miracle babies are! From their ten little perfectly formed fingers and toes, to their little froggy legs that stay all curled up in their newborn days, to the delicious little milk spots on their nose, to their cute little noises, and the way their skin smells so amazing! They are for sure heaven sent, and I'm so grateful that Addison was delivered safely and that she was 100% healthy.  It was such a blessing how everything turned out and the blessings have just continued as we have got to know her wonderful little personality! 

I couldn't be more thankful to be her mom!