Willow's 1st Christmas

Needless to say Christmas 2016 has been magical. Willow's 1st Christmas has been filled with endless Christmas films and me dressing her in all the Christmassy outfits without a single complaint from her. There was a lot of talk of next Christmas when she's a little more aware of what it means and trotting round causing mischief, god I can't wait! Although I do hate to wish our lives away.

We've had Christmas jumpers, a Christmas party at Nanny and Grandad's next door. We've celebrated Auntie Tanya's birthday and Auntie Em's eighteenth. We went to Birmingham to visit my Nanny at the crematorium, where she made it quite clear she was hungry and ended up having lunch on a bench surrounded by plaques of all the deceased. We've queued over an hour for chips at Blists Hill, about 50 minutes for a photo by the Coca Cola Christmas Truck and half an hour to see Santa. But it's been worth it (maybe not the chips, I won't make that mistake again). 

Oh baby girl, you've made my life so much sweeter. I hope you've enjoyed your first Christmas.

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Two Month Baby Willow update

Weight She was last weighed at her 6 week check two weeks ago and was 10lb 4oz. I missed the clinic last week so I'm not sure what she is now but I might ask the nurse to weigh her tomorrow at her first jabs if they don't already do that.
Routine We still don't have a routine. We've pretty much tackled bedtime but there's still no dead set time that I take her up. Now I'm ready to tackle daytime naps. Yesterday I put her upstairs and she slept for about 45 minutes on our bed, but some days she can only sleep for 45 minutes all day in 5 minute slots. If we go out in the car she can sleep the whole time we're out and stay asleep for another hour when we get home.
Sleeping She was six weeks old when she first slept through from midnight to 7.30am. We got a baby monitor last week and since then she normally goes up between 8pm and 10pm. I'll give her a feed and pop her in her basket which she will normally wake again. I'll leave her ten minutes maximum to try and settle herself and if not I go back up and feed her again. Normally that does it and she'll sleep through until about 5.30am have a feed and go back down until about 8.30/9ish.
Feeding I'm still breastfeeding, and thankfully we've had no problems so far. I did start expressing and she's had about three bottles now. I need to try and get into a routine of expressing a bottle first thing in the morning whilst she's still asleep because now that she sleeps longer at night I wake up and my boobs are rock hard. She's still not had a dummy. It came close a few weeks ago when every night at 9pm she'd have a meltdown for anywhere up to two hours. We'd take it in turns to try and comfort her until she'd finally accept the boob and that would calm her down and settle her. She's grown out of it now thank god, and Kyle's Mum and sister always say how well we've done not giving her a dummy.

Sizes All her clothes at the moment are 0-3. Some of her sleepsuits are a bit flappy at the feet and I put her in tights the other day and ended up changing her outfit, she's got such little short legs (I wander where she gets that from). She's got a big head though, her little Santa hat is 0-3 and it's tight on her head bless her.
Milestones Her head just keeps getting stronger and for the last couple of weeks she's really been finding her voice. She's probably not far away from giggling either and I guarantee that it'll be Kyle who makes it happen first, she's such a Daddy's girl!
Me I still never know what to say when people ask me how I am. A few weeks after Willow was born my SPD flared back up and it still hurts now from time to time, I think I'm just that used to it now that I don't notice it as much. Other than that I feel good, just finding my feet juggling a baby, housework, sleep and everything else inbetween.
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The Pink Bomber

Topshop jeans

H&M shirt

H&M jacket

H&M boots

Stokke Crusi pram

My pink bomber, a firm new favourite after Willow was born and I could wear a bomber jacket without looking twice the size I actually am (turns out they don't look so good with an 8 month bump). That said, I get a lot of stick every time I wear it from all my family after X Factors finest, Honey G, was spotted wearing it in one of her clips a few weeks ago. Not cool.

It's looks nice with Willow's grey wheels though, only the best ride for this little baba. I want to do a review of my Stokke Crusi in a few months, when Willow has moved from the carrycot to the pushchair, that way I can talk about the whole travel system. It is most definitely my favourite purchase of the year by far.

Also this shirt, they don't sell it in H&M anymore, but god has it been my saviour this year. It's one of the few tops I had that weren't maternity but managed to fit me right up until the end of my pregnancy. I promised I ironed it, it's just that silly material that creases as soon as you look at it. 

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New York Photo Diary

Oh New York. Where do I even start? Anybody who knows me knows I've been in love with New York since I was about sixteen. It's magical; truly, truly magical. I'm so glad I went when I did (21st - 29th November). It was cold, but not too cold, and still so Christmasy and sparkly, even though I was there over the Thanksgiving holiday which is probably a bigger deal for Americans than Christmas is.

The highlight for me without a doubt was the Thanksgiving Day parade. You know the Christmas film Miracle on 34th Street, it's the parade at the start of that film. It's a big deal, people travel in from all over for the Thanksgiving Holiday and to stand and watch the parade. I remember being stood by a lady who laughed like Janice from Friends and she absolutely made my day. It sounds ridiculous but there were so many moments when I just felt that festive I honestly could have burst into tears. It was so worth the 5am alarm and standing out in the cold until about 11.30am.

I don't want to say too much. It's a trip that I'll always hold so dear, especially since it was here that Kyle and I decided to have a baby. It's definitely somewhere that everyone should visit before they die, but a week was no where near enough for me. I could have spent a whole day just walking around Central Park and even then I probably would have only seen half of it.

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