22-4-2009 - 6 months

My mood while writing this blog: Happy

Hello everyone!!! Hope you are well!!

Isabella is now 6 months and 1 week old. She had another vaccination yesterday and the poor little thing cried and sobbed. She is starting to recognize who the doctor is and her bottom lip gets all trembly and she starts sniffling pretty soon. Breaks my heart every single time!!! She is 7kg (15.4lbs) and 66.5cm (not sure what that is in inches!) and doing beautifully!

Last Tuesday, the 14th, she started her first solids! She was introduced to veggies! So far, she likes peas, carrots and potatoes - but only when peas or carrots are mixed with the potatoe. She loves it when I mix the peas and the carrots together - she eats them in no time! This Tuesday that just past, the 21st, she started fruit. I chose pears first thinking they would be sweet enough for her but she is not so crazy about them. Makes a gagging face now and then - lol. So today I will give her some apple instead and see how that goes.

I am making her food myself. I enjoy doing it. Next Tuesday, the 28th, she will start cereal/creams in the evening so I hope that MAYBE she will sleep a bit better once they have been introduced. She has been better of late, not waking me every 1 hour anymore - sleeping 2 to 3 hours at a time which is great. We are still co-sleeping because it works for us and I put her in her crib for naps which are sometimes successful but mostly not! Usually when she naps, we are out for a walk so she's in her stroller. We walk 2 times a day together - once in the morning to do errands and shopping and once in the evening now that the days are longer and the weather is really nice in Greece now. Everything is blooming and green - love this time of year!

When she turns 7 months, she will be introduced to meat and chicken! I get sad sometimes thinking how my little baby girl is growing up - eating our foods. Everyone was right - the baby stage goes by so fast even when I didn't think it would in the rough moments. As I pack up the clothes she outgrows or see her pics when she was just hours old, I get sad too - lol. Crazy mummy!!!

She babbles like crazy - she's babbling now and I can't help but laugh! She says "ba ba ba, da da da, ma ma ma, na na na, wa wa wa" - so cute!!

On May 17th, my parents are arriving from Canada!!! This will be the 1st time that they meet their grand daughter and they cannot wait to see her! I have to laugh. My MIL here is always complaining she doesn't see Isabella enough! I said "How do you think my mother feels? She won't see her until she's 7 months old!".

My MIL has made my life a little rough over the last few months - always 2nd guessing everything I do and how I do it, questioning why she sleeps with me, saying stupid things in the beginning when I was starting out with breast feeding, even down to her name! So needless to say, there were ALOT of tears and arguments with me and my hubby. There still is and the only time that we do argue is when his family butts into how we are raising our daughter. Instead of standing by us and letting us raise her the way we want to and the way it works for us - they criticize us and our methods. Always compare what we are or are not doing to how his sister did things. I've had a few fights with them. It always starts with the MIL coming over or calling, seeing or hearing something she doesn't like (because it's not her way) which then prompts a call to the SIL and then she calls us. I finally lost my head with them both one day and even told off the sister telling her she had a nerve criticising me when her children are raised by her mother - she has them all week long, and usually on weekends because the SIL and her hubby go out alot! And she didn't bf for long with the girls - this they can't understand. She's 6 months old - why are u still bf'ing??? How about a little support here people???

And I'm thinking about a 2nd one but you know what? It's not the idea of another baby when I've just had one that worries me - it's dealing with the MIL and SIL with TWO kids!! If I was home in Canada, I would probably go back at it immediately for the 2nd baby. At least my family knows how to support me - not 2nd guess everything because it's not THEIR way.

ANYWAY...May 24th is Isabella's Baptism. That is why my parents are coming. I wish my sister was coming too but she came in the first 2 weeks of Isabella's life and a flight from Canada to Greece is not cheap these days!

So that is my update! I've learned to let what the IL's say go in one ear and out the other. She's my daughter and she is healthy and happy. VERY happy in fact as her doctor says - from the 3rd week of life, she could see how happy and content Isabella was with us. And how we had bonded immediately with the way that Isabella made eye-contact with me with bf'ing.

Hope you are all well!!! Happy Spring and enjoy your families!!!!

xox