Alexandra Elizabeth: Month One

Christmas is nearly upon us, and little Alexandra was 4 weeks old yesterday. My how time flies! Like a lot of women bloggers, I thought I’d try my hand at a letter or diary entry to my Sweet Pea, to mark each month of the first year of her life. It will hopefully provide a nice record of her growth and development as a baby and ours as parents…

Dear Alexandra,

It’s funny how it seems like a lifetime ago that you entered the world, and yet it has only been a month since your arrival. I guess it’s safe to say that we love you so fiercely, that we couldn’t imagine a day without you now.

You are increasingly alert during the day and seem curious about everything around you – music, the TV, the breeze on your face. You love looking at the trees outside our windows too. Murray and Lil the cats are still getting used to your presence and head straight for the door to escape, the minute you start crying. We are sure in time that they will learn to love you and protect you, but at the moment you are a bit of an unknown quantity to them!

Currently you are sleeping “like a baby” during the night, which is a wonderful thing for me and Daddy. We aren’t quite sure how long it will last, but we will take it while we can get it! Your witching hour(s) seem to run from the early evening to about 10-11pm at night. You cry your little heart out and despite nappy changes, feeds, cuddles, rocking and patting, nothing seems to make it better! Finally you fall asleep from sheer exhaustion!

Daddy does have a bit of a Midas-touch when it comes to settling you though. Quite often he will send me to bed whilst he looks after you after your night-time (10pm) feed when you are still grumpy! He will then wheel you back into the bedroom in the bassinette – peaceful in slumber and looking like a little angel! I think it’s safe to say at this point that you are already a bit of a “Daddy’s Girl”. You have well and truly captured your Daddy’s heart and he is constantly telling you how wonderful you are!

We aren’t too sure about shortening your name yet. Daddy loves “Ally” or “Allie” and I’m a fan of “Lexi”. We think we’ll wait to see a bit more of your personality before we commit!  We still call you “The Pea” and the repertoire has now expanded to: “Little Poppet”, “The Grizzler” (when you are in one of your moods!) and “The Guzzler” (when you are feeding).

And boy, do you love your food! You are putting on a healthy amount of weight and despite me having some issues with breast-feeding to begin with, we both seem to be turning a corner and getting better at it! You are very patient with me when I sometimes have to attach you several times before we get it right. I must admit that even though I wouldn’t say I’m enjoying it yet, I do love it when you make your contented little sighs and gently pat my chest with your hand.

You have countless people wrapped around your little (but long) finger… your Grandma Izzy and Poppy (Mummy’s parents) and Grandma Pam (Daddy’s mum) are all besotted with you. Both Grandmas have already changed lots of nappies and given you lots of soothing cuddles when you’ve been in distress, but we are yet to see Poppy volunteer to change you… maybe in due course!

You don’t mind being handed around and seem to revel in the attention – staring intently at peoples’ faces and then quietly drifting off to sleep. Yes, you already have the knack of being on your best behaviour in the company of others.

Everyone says how much you look like your Daddy, but I’m hoping there are glimpses of me in there too! We are undecided about your hair colour at the moment – sometimes it is a fair/light brown and at others we can see a definite strawberry blonde peeking through. Your eyebrows and eyelashes are the blondest of blondes and your eyes are still very blue. Given that Daddy and I are both blue-eyed, we’d be surprised if they changed.

We are all very much looking forward to Christmas with you this year and your Great Grandmother Dorothy (“Nana”) can’t wait to spend the day having lots of snuggles with you.

We look forward to a an amazing 2012 with you our precious little Pea, and can’t wait to see how the next month unfolds!

Advertisement