It has been a week of events. It was my birthday, my first as a father, and then of course it was Mother’s Day, Lucinda’s first as a mom. Obviously Éowyn was oblivious to all but nevertheless it is not diminished by that to us. I was at work on both days, but my birthday was made special by a visit from Lucinda and Éowyn and a trip for lunch. My birthday present from the family is rather special and no doubt will warrant a page to itself with plenty of photos for it is to fulfil a bit of a childhood ambition and to be a zoo-keeper for the day. I will be helping to look after the big cats, including a white tiger, before mucking out the meerkats and putting the hippos and giraffes to bed. It is at Colchester Zoo and so we are going to spend a couple of nights at a hotel and spa nearby so that travel in the morning is not an issue and I can take a well-deserved break afterwards.
Éowyn’s first Mother’s day present to Lucinda was to book her a luxury manicure and pedicure; a chance for Lucinda to have some relaxation and time for herself, while Éowyn and daddy have some father and daughter time. Her second present was even better: a full night’s sleep. For the first time in weeks she slept through the night and although that should be a cause of celebration it did not translate into a full night’s sleep for Lucinda, as she was half listening for Éowyn all night.
To celebrate both my birthday and mother’s day Lucinda and I went for a Monday morning lunch in Richmond while Nanny and Granddad looked after Éowyn. We headed for Gaucho Grill, one of my personal favourites. The steaks are to die for but all the food is fantastic, everything is bursting with flavour, and it just goes to prove that you get what you pay for. It is pricy but good food is worth paying for.
Lucinda’s cousin, Alex, his wife Sally, and daughter Isabel have arrived safely from Australia. I am not sure quite what relation that makes Isabel to Éowyn, second cousin I think, but I always get these things wrong. Hopefully we should be able to spend some time with the guys before they head back home.
As I mentioned earlier, Sunday night Éowyn slept through the night. This was due to a double dream feed attack from us. At 2130 I fed Éowyn a small bottle of milk and at 2300 Lucinda fed her another small bottle. This seemed to do the trick and we were patting ourselves on the backs thinking that we had finally sussed it. Unfortunately, she had dragged us into another false sense of security as this trick did not work two nights running.
It did give us some information though. All the books seems to point to the same conclusion: Éowyn was waking up because she was hungry and breast milk just wasn’t satisfying enough for her to last through the night. So we have turned to ‘hungry baby milk’ for the dream feed. First night she took the bottle, she slept though to 0630! Success! Second night, she refused her dream feed and so woke up at 0130. Took the hungry baby milk and slept through to 0730! This is far too premature to even talk about success but if only we can get her to take the dream feed before we go to bed we should be able to get a lie in until at least 0630. If you had told me six months ago that I would class 0630 as a lie in, I would have mocked you within an inch of your life; now I am just grateful!
Anyhow, enough of my ramblings please enjoy the latest photos.
Love and peace
Baggie!
