Food, Glorious Food!

Penny's First Meal from Charlie Fish on Vimeo.

Penny tried her first taste of apple today!  And she seemed v keen on it ... lots of fun, and mess :)

Popped out to help Norris and Liam move house with the car club car, then home where Charlie was helping his Nomad friend Michelle with her website.

Then, worn out, proceeded to fall asleep to Howl's Moving Castle, only to be unable to sleep for 2 hours on going to bed ... sigh!

Penny's First Swim

A family jaunt to Tooting Bec Leisure Centre for Penny's first swim. She dealt with it all very well, initially with a 'this feels like the bath, but bigger' expression on her face. We did some 'Penny, Ready, Go' splashing of the face, some floating on her back and some playing with a bright yellow boat.

And we did do one dunk ... though I was nervous. So Charlie did the dunking ad I held the little one's eye contact, and she looked a little shellshocked when he pulled her out. With effusive praise and big smiles, she was quickly convinced that she had achieved something fabulous and that she should be very pleased with herself.

Given the lovely sunny day, we took a bus to Balham where we had pizza and looked at kitchen worktops in Magnet. A lazy walk back to Brixton, where we picked up Alex who joined us for a sunny beer and a game of Dixit and Ingenious (which I never win) in the Trinity.

Tried to watch Gremlins in the evening, hoping for a retro eighties frolic. But instead it was pretty mediocre. I maintain it is good until the gremlins are shown to the viewer, at which point it is just ridiculously cartoonish. So Alex left halfway through as he was falling asleep, Charlie actually did fall asleep on the sofa, and I barely watched the end.

Happy Chubby Baby

Penny is now 10lbs! The Health Visitor is very pleased with her progress, which is wonderful news.

Having spoken to a couple of the NCT ladies yesterday, I realise that I need to be careful about the amount of sleep I am losing through nighttime feeds. She was very good to begin with last night, sleeping from 12-4, but then would not go down again after her feed, and was up again at a bit before 7. Which all makes for a slightly sleepy Mummy.

Made sure I cast my YES TO AV vote, and then Matty came round for a cup of tea before we went to join Kirsten at the Ritzy for lunch. Then back to Kirstens for a cup of tea and a delicious slice of a chocolate cake she had just baked. M and K also popped back to the house to help Patrick with getting a wardrobe down the stairs while I fed Penny, v kind of them.

Then to Brockwell Park to visit Di and Noah (14 months) and Sarah and Archie (7 months), two old colleagues of mine and their sons. The both seemed to be dealing with the added complications of walking and weaning very well, though it made me grateful that Penny is still very compact and simple in her demands for the time being.

Scampered back home to see if we could squeeze in meeting Erika and Sam A, who was over briefly from Cardiff, but they didn't manage to get to Brixton as they were still having food in Waterloo, so they decided they didn't have time before Sam needed to catch her train from Paddington. A shame, but hopefully we will see her in the summer.

So am now quite happily taking it easy with Penny, after another busy and social day. And maybe some more sleep is needed. Phew!

Penny - Our Beautiful Daughter

Penny at 36 hours old

Wow, I don't think I have ever had such a long break between posts before! No better reason than to give birth to our gorgeous baby daughter, Penny!

My waters broke on Saturday morning, quite amusing seeing what I said about Charlie having one too many in my last post (he of course came back from the stag do asap). And by Sun eve she was born. It was by no means straightforward (I won't bore you with the details now), though with only gas and air and lavender oil I do have an element of pride in getting through it.

Though it didn't feel much like a choice at the time as it all went so fast, and I now realise that you make your choices when you write the birth plan ... so unless you write EPIDURAL in massive capitals all across it, they are not going to give you one unless it really becomes necessary. And I am totally part of the 'woman's choice' camp ... if someone wants an elective caesarian, I say it her absolute right to request one.

So Penny has already met all her grandparents and many of our friends, and it was great to see them all holding her ... it has been such a celebration!

And she has been so good, always (so far) having a deducible reason for her grizzles. And I even got around 8 hours of sleep last night, by far the most since Fri night. Happy to be interrupted by feeds, as my milk is now properly in and so my breasts are enormous, hot and desperate to be emptied.

And how about Mummy? Mummy is still sore from pushing a whole person out of her, walking like John Wayne and sitting so gingerly. But everything is fixing itself slowly, and will be helped by getting a bit more sleep. And we are enjoying this time so much, with every new expression, new glance, new smile and new poop we are beaming with joy at our new daughter.

So now we are 3 ...