First non-milk feed

My cousin Oscar

A highlight of my trip to England was meeting my only cousin, Oscar. We had lots of fun together and he really was a hoot - I couldn't stop giggling when he was around.

My cousin sang me songs....

read me books...










and always wanted me to sit on his lap.

I can't wait to see him again.

First international travel diary

My first international trip was amazing fun!

I enjoyed the flight and snoozed for 8 hours without waking up, despite an older boy who kept waking and crying next to me. First we visited Hong Kong, it was very exciting with lots of people everywhere. We weaved my little pram around lots of small streets visiting all the sights. I liked the nunnery and pretty gardens surrounded by skyscrapers.

Back on another airplane for another 6 hour sleep then a big smile for granny at London Heathrow airport at 5.30am. I had to be wrapped up warm as the sky was different to Hong Kong and Sydney.

 My auntie Sarah gave me some jeans and long sleeved T-shirt with my favourite celebrity on - the very hungry caterpillar. She also gave me lots of hugs and kisses which I really enjoyed.

I visited lots of British pubs, my first was the Rising Sun in Berkhamsted. It was very small and loud. I'm not sure that everyone was used to seeing someone so small there.



There were lots of important people to meet...like grandad who was quite tall and a conservative and my nana who had brown curly hair and a long pointed nose.

 

To be continued...

Check out all the photos and videos from my trip here!


   

At the beach - Hamilton Island

Behind you...

What on earth is the dog doing?!

Ah, Sunday. Day of rest.

Good morning

Noooo!! Hiccups

First book

The tried and tested format of the ___ goes ____. Fascinating for a baby girl, particularly when accompanied by high contrast highly coloured pictures.

I've had to squash this video down a bit to upload here but you can find the original high definition version here.

Puzzlement

Her parents get this look 3 or 4 times a day.

Good Lord what are you doing?!

Picnic with whales on the beach

It was a beautiful sunny mid-winter's day in Sydney yesterday - 20 degrees and blue skies.

Violet and I headed to the local beach, North Curl Curl for a walk and after finding a nice spot to sit down and watch the surfers had the added privilege of spotting a huge whale - feeding right behind the surf (and surfers). He popped up and down a few times and we got to see him quite close up. (The photo above is indicative of what we saw!)

Violet was so excited that we ended up having an unplanned picnic on the beach - our first au naturel feed - good thing it was a warm day!  
   

Violet's first encounter with Aussie bureaucracy!

Third attempt of passport photos for Violet - here's the proposed photo we hope will be accepted by the bureaucrats!

Here are the strict rules from the Australian Government website:

Children and babies

• show the baby or child awake, looking straight at the camera with mouth closed and no pacifier.
• show both edges of the face clearly (no toys, blankets, chair backs or other people visible) and no hair across the eyes.

parent's hand visible	dark background	eyes closed
looking away	mouth open/ face covered

Greedy goose Violet!

Violet is doing very well - she weighed in last week at 3.8kg (8.4lbs) - the nurse said that normal expected progress would be 3.5kg (7.7lbs) based on her previous weight.

We've been getting out and about more - parenting group, lunch, walks with Sapphy and trips to the shops - very exciting stuff!

Lots of gurgling, grunting and snorting including sounds vaguely like 'hello' emerging. I actually think most of the sounds are food related - please feed me, I'm trying to shuffle down, I've done a poo etc!

We are getting sleep luckily as grizzle time seems to be mostly between 4-8pm so feeling pretty good.

Looking forward to getting back to swimming in a couple of weeks. Next week we have immunisations and six week check-ups - mum and baby.

Baby thai chi

Parenting group #1

Today Violet and I met our fellow mums and babies at the Harbord Early Childhood Center for the first of four parent group meetings.

All the babies were born around the same time and aged between 3-6 weeks old. All the mums looked frazzled and there was one token dad who seemed to look more frazzled than all of us by the end of the session...

We were asked to share both the 'worst' and 'most memorable' thing about the birth. (Essentially the same thing for most of us but I don't think that was the intention!)

The general consensus was that the worst part were the contractions leading up to the pushing stage (we were all happy to be able to push by then). The best memory was skin on skin time with the little one immediately after birth as well as witnessing our loved one's first encounter with baby.

I found myself almost feeling grateful about my 5 hour projectile vomiting, cripplingly painful, no drugs ordeal after hearing some of the other labour stories. For example one lady was carried out of her home to an ambulance by the builders working next door 'naked and covered in blood'. Yet another example of a home birth disaster!

Violet was also weighed by the nurse, kindly decorating their scales with wee and vomit. 

It's Hammock time

Violet is connected

Violet is only a few weeks old but is already blogging, emailing and tweeting!

As family and friends are so far away use this address to send Violet messages to read at a later date!

Could be news from home, birthday messages etc:

violetcarding@gmail.com

Follow Violet on Twitter:

@violetcarding

Hiccapups!

The first few days

Violet launches her modelling career - 2 days old

Welcome to the world!

Beautiful Violet Lilianna Carding joined the world on Wednesday 13th July 2011 at 1.50pm weighing 3.09 kg.

Induced at 38 weeks, two weeks early due to mum having developed Obstetric cholestasis at 34 weeks,  Violet was very keen to make an appearance with a speedy four hour labour and only three quarters of an hour birth. 

All in all it was a surreal experience and so much happened in a short space of time (things moved too quickly for any serious pain relief).

And before we knew it we had a little lady in our arms and the obstetrician (Chris Hunter) was standing in front of us, in bow tie and butchers apron, holding up the placenta declaring 'what a beautiful specimen' it was! 

The Arrival

It's a rare privilege to be present at the beginning of a life, something not every man gets to do and normally not more than once or twice in a lifetime. Despite 2 days of classes not that long before Violet's arrival telling me exactly how to prepare, I wasn't entirely sure I knew that I was ready for the experience. I certainly had no idea how to best record it. I was, though, absolutely determined to be 'present in the moment' and to remember as much as I could, to record as much as I could in my head.

We had the peculiar  privilege of knowing when the birth would be so I thought it would be easier to plan for the moment and make sure I had a notebook to write down what was going on and what I was thinking at the time. I'll list the contents of my notebook for the day later, they're not particularly significant!