Baptism Countdown...

With Tabitha's baptism this Sunday 12th December looming, preparations are in full swing.  We're keeping it very casual - the actual baptism is part of the regular Sunday service at St Michael's Uniting Church on Collins St in Melbourne with the incredible Dr Francis Macnab, where we were married in October 2008.  I think quite a few babies are being baptised on Sunday.  After the service, we are wandering over to the Fitzroy Gardens to the gorgeous Fairies Tree for some sandwiches, mini bagels (thanks Amy and Shalini!) and cakes.

We saved the top tier of fruitcake from our wedding, and stored it to use for the christening cake for our first baby, so I've unwrapped it and tomorrow I will re-cover it in fresh white fondant icing.  I've ordered a little wreath of fresh roses for it as well.  Here is the cake on our wedding day:

So overall, things are going well.  Tabitha's godfather (my incredibly lovely and talented godson Noah!) is flying over for the ceremony with his parents from Adelaide on Saturday morning.  Tabitha's godmother Sophie is also appropriately excited, and hopefully won't sustain any terrible roller derby injuries between today and Sunday!

However...  the beautiful handmade silk dupion baptism gown, bonnet, bib and blanket, hand embroidered with Tabitha's monogram, has managed to get LOST between New York and Melbourne!  It was supposed to arrive by Tuesday, however no one has any tracking record of it since it left the States last week.  Hmm.  So I am not feeling very optimistic about it showing up in time.  USPS are 'fairly confident' that it 'may' show up within the next few business days.  So, by Monday.  Not very helpful.  Of course I am upset about all this - the poor woman who spent hours working on the dress is beside herself too.  Thankfully, I have a gorgeous 'contingency dress' hanging in Tabitha's wardrobe - not a full length gown, but a perfectly sweet little cream French lace Collette Dinnigan Enfant dress.  It's super cute, with little lace puffed sleeves and a cream silk slip underneath.  So if the gown doesn't show up in time we'll go with the lace frock.  And probably The Daddy will be terribly thrilled because he's not that keen on a bonnet anyway!

Here is the chest yoke detail from the contingency frock:

I managed to find a dress I can breastfeed in yet which doesn't scream 'breastfeeding dress' (e.g. no concealed flaps!).  A gorgeous blue/purple/brown silk chiffon dress from Scanlan & Theodore which, for some reason, was designed with a button to secure (and undo) the front draped cowl neckline.  Even found a pair of wedges in the exact same shade of blue suede, with a brown wood base that matches the dress perfectly.  Quite happy with those finds!

Thankfully The Daddy is staying home from work tomorrow because we have the Safe Sleep Space woman coming out to our house for a few hours to talk about some gentle strategies to help Tabitha sleep better at night.  At 6 months, Tabitha wakes up quite a lot through the night (still every couple of hours) and she doesn't generally want to feed, so I know she's not waking up because she's hungry.  As much as I love listening to her chatter to herself in the dark, I think she's still a little tired in the mornings, so hopefully we can get her sleeping for some longer stretches.  I'm not interested in letting her cry or following harsh 'sleep training' routines, which I explained to the SSS woman, and she is confident that there are plenty of gentle things that we can try to help with Tabby's sleeps.  I'll report back with any helpful suggestions!

I should say though - she does sleep pretty well, and I don't mind waking for her too much, since she sleeps right beside me.  And more importantly, she looks damn cute while she IS asleep!