Life with the Redwoods

20.1.06 - 27.1.06

Well, the next week passed in a blur, as we adjust to life with the new kid. Keighley & Emily spent a couple of days at Birthcare learning the important stuff like feeding and changing nappies and bathing and sleeping (that last one's a joke! Apparently there won't be any more sleep till she is at least 5....). It was a bit weird having Rick 'visit', instead of being there all the time, and the nights were a bit long and lonely. Happily it all went well and we went home on Saturday at lunchtime. Steve was having his 40th birthday party that night, so we came home in time to take Emily to her first social function. Sorry Stevie, she may have stolen the show....

Lots of visitors and pressies arrived over the next week. We're all still running on adrenalin at this stage, so it was a pretty good week. Emily spent a couple of nights sleeping in our bed, but we moved her into her own hammock pretty quickly, although still in our room. We had to push the bed right up against the window to make space, as the hammock takes up quite a lot of room. Rick thought this was like being on holiday, but I suspect it had more to do with the fact that we didn't make the bed as I was spending so much time in it! As you can see, she's pretty little (that's a blanket that Nanna Margaret knitted for her), and she's got this cool thing with her arm going on where we think she's practising crossing the finish line on her bike. She also does a pretty good Mexican Wave, especially if she's startled.

And we mustn't forget, the most important thing that happened this week was deciding on a name. Faced with the enormity of picking a name for this new person, we were completely fazed. Yeah OK, we had a few ideas before we had her, but when push came to shove, it suddenly seemed a lot harder than we thought. I mean, it's not like naming a pet cat or something.... Happily, an afternoon at Steve and Helen's got things moving (that, and the seemingly hundreds of txt's wanting to know what her name was!), and Rick came up with Emily Morgan Redwood. We always knew she would be a 'Redwood', and 'Emily' was on our original short-list, but the Morgan was right out of left-field, and fits perfectly. It's Margaret's maiden name, and we think it works really well.

Mary Bowie, our amazing Midwife, has been making regular visits, and by the end of the week Emily has put on the weight she lost in the first few days. Keighley's milk has come in well, and Dad had his first 'poo emergency'. Oops, forgot to tell him it looks like pumpkin soup now...!!

posted by Redwoods @ 2:58 PM