The Plague

Argh.  Sick house.  The Daddy has a dreadful cold.  Tabitha has a cough, though is otherwise in good spirits.  I am feeling a little off, but seem to be treading water - I feel no worse today than I did yesterday, so hopefully my body is kicking it.

Tabitha is SIX MONTHS OLD today.  Shocking.  It seems like a few weeks ago that I was holding this tiny, helpless baby in the middle of the night, gentle mewing noises, still smelling like fresh baby and birth.  Yet at the same time it seems like I have had her forever; I've grown another limb, and I cannot imagine being without it.  We have our 6-month health checkup today, so I will report back with height/weight findings.  Last time she was on the 99th percentile for height (super-duper long) and around the 65th percentile for weight (so thin-ish compared to her length).  6 months is a time when breastfed babies tend to naturally slow down their gains, so I wouldn't be surprised if she's dropped down a little from those high centiles.

Now that she is a Big Grown-up Baby of 6 months old, I tried introducing a potential allergen into her diet - so far she's only had meat, fruit and vegetables.  This morning we tried some toasted white bread, cut into fingers.  She was thoroughly impressed to be eating the same thing as Mummy for breakfast - she kept squealing and waving her toast at me and grinning when she saw my toast!  She sucked and gummed each of the four toast fingers and it seems that she ingested some.  Soggy bits of toast kept sticking to her sleeves, and she seemed quite alarmed by these barnacles, trying to shake them off.

I have noticed that Tabitha is growing out of some of her summer clothes already, which is frustrating!  This is because I bought a lot of her summer wardrobe in September, when she was three months, because we were going on holidays for two weeks to Port Douglas and Palm Cove.  She still has lots of nice things that will fit her for the rest of summer, but some of my favourite pieces are getting too small, which is very sad!  Hopefully we have another girl baby!

I've started booking our accommodation for our US trip in May.  New York will be AKA Central Park (though I am still umming and ahhing over whether we should split the stay, doing one week there and one week in Greenwich Village).  Boston I think we will stay in a suite at The Lenox, which looks really nice.  DC I'm still unsure about - I have on my list The Dupont Hotel, The Georgetown Inn, Morrison Clark Hotel, Hotel Rouge and a few others.  Not sure whether we should stay in Georgetown or closer to the monuments etc.  I do love Georgetown...  At any rate, I'm starting to get quite excited about the US trip, which is for the entire month of May.

Oh and in just a few weeks, early January, we are holidaying in Tasmania for 10 days!  That will be brilliant, hopefully escaping any Melbourne heat and enjoying some down time with The Daddy.  We are staying in Launceston, Freycinet and Hobart.

Sleeping like a baby

In response to hearing the phrase 'sleeping like a baby', I once heard someone quip, "so you mean not much and not for long?".  Indeed, sleeping doesn't seem to come naturally to all babies.  It can be hard to comprehend for an adult - particularly a sleep-deprived parent - that this little person is allowed to just sleep all the time, and yet they don't want to!  I would LOVE a day to just doze in bed!

Anyway.

Since having the Safe Sleep Space woman out, we have already seen an incredible transformation!  Tabitha used to have about 4 or 5 naps a day, ranging from 20 minutes to an hour.  I had to sit and gently pat her bottom until she went to sleep.  And I think she often woke from her naps still a little tired.  Today, this is how we've gone:

• Woke up at 7am.  Played for 1.5 hours.
• Put her down at 8:30am, because she looked very tired.  A kiss, then walked out of the room.  Two feeble cries, then fast asleep.  DID NOT STIR until 11am, 2.5 hours later.  Actually, I peeked in at around 9 - her eyes were open, but she was still, and she drifted back to sleep.  So I think she has learned how to get herself back to sleep, instead of crying and getting upset and needing help.
• 2 hours awake - we went to nearby shops, had some lunch (I had sushi, Tabitha had more asparagus).  Did some shopping.  Smiled at lots of sales assistants.  Rented a movie, Inception, from that Oovie thing (WOW I am never going to a video store again!  Cheap, fast, easy, fun!)
• Came home, quick feed, straight into the cot, kiss and walked out.  Again, a feeble tired cry, then straight to sleep.  Hopefully, another long nap.

So the aim is two long naps each day (roughly 9 - 11 and 1 - 3), and a short nap in the late afternoon (maybe 5pm).  The last nap is easiest taken in her Ergo, as we go for a stroll around the neighborhood.

This goal would have seemed laughably impossible a week ago, but now I feel like we're nearly there!  As for the night sleeping, it's improving without having to do much so far.  Maybe because she is better rested during the day?  Still nowhere near sleeping through the night, but to be honest, that's not my goal.  I like that 3am feed, just her and I alone in the dark.  Her little hand pats my chest gently and I get to watch her feeding in her sleep, which is the most beautiful thing I've had the privilege of watching.

My best friend Amy is coming over for dinner tonight.  By request, I am making teriyaki salmon with stir-fried bok choi.  Sadly Amy doesn't finish work in time to see Tabitha before bed, however I have promised Amy that she can wear Tabitha around in the Ergo when we go to the Farmers' Market on Saturday morning.

Here is Amy with Tabitha on Sunday.  Amy is very glamorous and just got back from London and Paris, and Geneva where she visited just to go to a ball!  Amy works in an office and wears very stylish suits and dresses.

In other news, I have booked Tabitha in for her first vaccination in a couple of weeks.  She is having the Diptheria/tetanus/whooping cough/polio 4-in-1 injection.  Most Australian babies have a 6-in-1 that also includes Hep B and Haemophilus influenza type b (Hib).  We will give her the Hep B when she is older, as she is incredibly low-risk for this blood-borne disease.  We will give her the Hib once the 4-in-1 course is completed.

We have been incredibly fortunate to have a GP who has given us excellent advice about delaying Tabitha's vaccinations.  He helped us plan a schedule whereby nothing is given until 6 months (once solids are introduced, the natural massive protections of breastmilk gradually lower), and where the actual vaccines are significantly more spread out (e.g. by splitting up the 6-in-1) so as to allow her small body to process each dose as well as possible.  Obviously, Tabitha is not in childcare - if she were spending time apart from myself, and in regular proximity to lots of other babies, our decisions may have differed.  But we are very happy with the route we are taking.  I feel compelled to mention that I believe vaccination to be a very personal decision for each family, not to be taken lightly.  I absolutely support parents who do their own research and decide to proceed with the government-recommended schedule.  If you are interested in more information, searching for Delayed Vaccination and / or Dr Sears will provide some reading.

I made one of those 'Elf Yourself' videos today, of Tabitha, The Daddy and I.  Tabitha and I both enjoyed watching it - I don't know who laughed more!  We have also both enjoyed reading two new books today - Where is the Green Sheep? and Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes.  These were both Kris Kringle gifts from someone in my Mothers' Group.

Top List

THIS is the yummiest museli.

THIS is my can't-live-without moisturiser.

THIS is my favourite book.

THIS is an excellent and funny (if it weren't so sad) blog post on birth.

THIS is where I go to smile on the internets.

PS Tabitha ate steamed baby asparagus for breakfast.  Not sure about it yet, she was surprised and made a bitter face.  But I will keep on with it, because I adore asparagus so there is often some in the house.  Perhaps once she can start on egg and dairy (over the coming weeks) she will prefer it with some hollandaise sauce.

Things have changed...

Some things really change when you have a baby.  Or at least they have for me...

• I have started enjoying reading supermarket catalogs.  Why?  Who knows?  Tabitha is in cloth nappies and doesn't eat puree baby food or use dummies, formula or bottles, so it's not like I'm suddenly combing for specials.  In fact I do very little of our shopping at a major supermarket - maybe once a month or less at the gigantic nearby Flagship Coles, and every few days an item or two at the excellent IGA on the corner.  So this catalog fetish is a mystery.

• This is the first year I have not felt compelled to buy Christmas gifts for our pets.  Interesting.  Last year Atticus the lizard got a big box of crickets (a fun jumpy change from her normal woodroaches) which cheeped NON STOP through their wrapping paper under the tree for a week, due to the hot nights.  The cats will have to make do will balled-up wrapping paper this year - which in all honesty they will probably enjoy more anyway.

• My belly is significantly more like custard than it was last Christmas.  Last Christmas it was a big round Christmas pudding.  The Christmas before it was an ordinary belly.  I kinda miss that belly, but mine makes me smile now because it grew a Tabitha.

• I am so much more relaxed in general!  In the words of Bob Dylan, 'I used to care but things have changed'.  My family (in particular my little sister) used to call me The Boss of Christmas.  Christmas Day and the leadup were run with military precision, the tree was rearranged for hours until it was perfect, and I once travelled to three different suburbs looking for the perfect shade of mint green ribbon for wrapping.  This year, I have no idea what time we're supposed to be anywhere (I'm sure someone will tell me the day before), my gorgeous friend Alice decorated my tree (brilliantly I might add), and re. the wrapping - well, okay, I still spent an hour in the wrapping store comparing red ribbons.  But still.

• I used to still get excited about my stocking!  Mum used to fill my stocking each year until I got married, after which I knew The Daddy would probably NOT do a stocking for me.  So I did one for myself!  Full of lots of fun little things!  This year, I have passed on my 26-year-old Nativity stocking to Tabitha.  And I will enjoy filling it for her.

Today Tabitha ate a super-ripe apricot.  It was incredibly messy.  She thoroughly enjoyed squishing the pieces through her fingers and fists, smearing the pulp all over the table, and then slapping the juicy table with her hands and giggling when apricot went everywhere!  I think she may have actually ingested a little too.

Baptism

So Tabitha is baptised!  I have a certificate right here to verify the fact.  Tabitha was baptised with water in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit on 12th December 2010 at St Michael's Uniting Church 120 Collins Street Melbourne by Dr Francis Macnab.

It was a really, really lovely service.  The Daddy remarked to me quite a few times through the day how nice it was, how impressed he was by the way Dr Macnab conducted the ceremony, and the significance placed by him on the event.  Actually I just remembered that I think we receive a DVD of the ceremony over the coming weeks - if so, I might upload it.

Tabitha was a perfect angel, especially considering how ill she had been the day prior!  We didn't think that she would be too impressed about wearing a bonnet but incredibly, she didn't care at all!  She remained her happy smiling self throughout the bonnet-ing process, ceremony, and even for the water-splashing part of the ceremony.  We may be biased, but we thought she looked BEAUTIFUL!  At any rate, the (mostly older) congregation were ooh-ing and ahh-ing at her afterwards.

It was so enjoyable to be back in the church we were married in (see below), just over two years ago (24th October 2008).  It truly is a spectacular church!

And I always like hearing Dr Macnab talk, because he reminds me a great deal of Albus Dumbledore (shhhhh!  Don't tell him!).  He is incredibly clever and funny and self-deprecating and visionary.  I think I told him something along those lines after the service.  I am quite a fan!

Dr Macnab told the 16 September 2008 edition of the Age, "The old faith is in large sections unbelievable. We want to make the new faith more believable, realistic and helpful in terms of the way people live". The new faith was launched with a $120,000 advertising campaign including posters reading, "The Ten Commandments, one of the most negative documents ever written." Dr Macnab described Moses as a mass murderer, Abraham as concocted and Jesus as a Jewish peasant and certainly not God.

Anyway!  Enough with the controversial religious discussion!  Back to the cute bonnet pictures!  Note also my lovely dress - I am very proud of this find, as it was near impossible trying to source a dress that I could easily breastfeed in, yet wasn't really, really ugly.  This is from Scanlan & Theodore, sort of shades of purple / grey / tan / cream.  I even found wooden wedges with blue suede straps to match!  The Daddy wore a tie that I bought him around 6 years ago, dark purple from Ralph Lauren with SKULLS on it!  Awesome!

Above, on the far left you can see Sophie, Tabitha's godmother.  I have known Sophie since we were in creche, she is the eldest of four incredible children / adults.  I had been thinking that Sophie would make a great godmother, however it was actually The Daddy who suggested her, which is very nice since he's only known her less than 1/4 of the time I have, yet could see she is an incredible woman to be part of Tabitha's life.  Sophie's hypothetical online dating profile might read, "Sophie enjoys kicking shins at Roller Derby, eating cake, and is returning to study as a nurse, hoping to become a midwife".  Sophie gave Tabitha a beautiful Pandora bracelet, with a pretty little pearl charm (her birthstone) on it.  

In between The Daddy and myself, above, you can see Noah, Tabitha's godfather, peeking through.  Noah is an exceptionally talented and kind young man - who is also my own godson!  Noah excels as a musician, dancer and intellect, and will be sure to be a strong and positive influence on Tabitha.  Noah and his family (including his father, my godfather - confused yet?!) are all moving to Melbourne in the coming months so that Noah can begin his studies in Dance at the Victorian College of the Arts Secondary School.  Noah and his family gave Tabitha an incredibly pretty and girlish butterfly trinket box, covered in colourful stones, which I can imagine Tabby with really love playing with (once she develops some fine motor coordination!)

Here you can see Tabitha being held by Dr Macnab, ready for the water-splashing part.  Hmm here she doesn't look so thrilled - reaching out for mummy!  Still, no tears!

After the baptism part of the service, the children all troop off to the 'kids club' in the main office buildings, which is actually a really brilliant space with slides and craft activities and books and qualified childcarers.  Still, Tabitha is not old enough to be left without an adult she knows, so my dad, her Grandpa Gra, went out with her, and took her for a walk around the city in her Ergo carrier - he got her to sleep and she had a nice long nap, nearly an hour.

Following the church, we all went to the Fairy Tree at Fitzroy Gardens for some light refreshments.  We had mini bagels (from Aviv of course!) with smoked salmon, cream cheese and chives made by Amy and Shalini; pillow chicken sandwiches made by my godfather Tim with coriander in them which was delicious; Vanilla cupcakes with buttercream frosting and pink icing roses made by mum; honeyjoys made by me; egg salad finger sandwiches made by me; and of course the christening cake, which was the top tier of our wedding cake, re-covered with marzipan and white fondant icing, and wreathed with a circlet of pink spray roses.

When it came time to cut the cake, I didn't want the pretty roses to be stepped on, so I chucked them onto my head for temporary safe-keeping.  As it turned out, they were a perfect fit, so I wore them for the rest of the day haha!  See below - I am cutting the cake into VERY THIN pieces (my mother kept saying 'they are not thin enough' as she feared there wasn't enough to go around because the top layer of a wedding cake is quite small).  As it turns out, there was enough for everyone to have a slice, plus about 6 slices left over.  So I am taking a slice around to mum's house this afternoon for a cup of tea!

Unfortunately it did rain on and off while we were in the gardens.  Fortunately there are plenty of dense large covering trees, so we collected ourselves under one and continued on.  Actually the children (my sister, cousins, family friends) had an absolute ball, running around in the rain in their party frocks and bare feet!  I hate to imagine the state of my sister's beautiful jewel-toned purple silk shift dress with silk chiffon petals on the neckline.  I can't imagine that was designed for a soaking!

After the celebrations, we raced home and then straight to a Christmas party!  My mothers' group had a Christmas BBQ / dinner at one of the family's homes just nearby, so we went there from around 3pm - 7:30pm, when poor Tabitha was thoroughly ready for bed.  The gorgeous host packed us up a take-home dessert plate, so I got to eat some pavlova, thank goodness.  The Christmas dinner was actually really lovely, with lots of Champagne and wonderful food and great company.  So nice to meet all of the dads of these babies I have come to know quite well over the past 6 months!  Tabitha enjoyed eating a couple of BBQ items - some marinated chicken ribs with quite a spicy kick (loved them!) and a marinated garlicky lamb chop (loved it!).

Then ahhhhhhhh home!  What a big day, going non-stop since 6am, in 10cm heels the entire time.  Bed felt mighty good...

Ergh.

Tough day!  Poor, poor ill Tabitha, I have never seen her look so miserable, her whole face kept crumbling into the saddest expression you can imagine.  If I went more than a metre from her she cried and cried, even if someone else kind was holding her.  She just slept on and off all day, maybe 6 or more hours in total, mostly in the Ergo carrier while I walked around the house.  I have never been vomited on more in my life!  At least 4 complete outfit changes for me, more for her.  Fever hovered around 38 - 38.6 all day.  Kept her dressed lightly - I thought about when I am ill and feverish and shivery, what do I like to wear?  Something light, not to overheat me, but to stop my skin getting a chill.  So that's how I dressed her.  When we put her to bed tonight, we tried some Panadol which was promptly evacuated, via vomit, at great speed!

I predict that I will be up a LOT tonight.  I would be surprised if there weren't several waking and vomiting episodes during the night.  So I am going to bed in a minute, trying to be asleep by 9:30.

This morning my friend Alice called me and asked if everything was okay and if I needed any help (knowing that Tabitha was ill and I had loads to do).  Oh goodness!  I think I burst into tears on the phone...  She came over and was INCREDIBLE and just took it upon herself to start cleaning and decorated my Christmas tree (up to and exceeding my own high standards), and helped with cooking, and helped keep Tabitha a little cheerful.  Amazing.  So that really made the day go from impossible to bearable.  She even brought roses!

I managed to make 100 honey joys, prepare eggs for 50 sandwiches tomorrow morning, make 4kg of potato salad, prepare all the platters, ice the cake with marzipan and white fondant, and do about a million loads of washing (all that vomit!)

I had hoped to colour my hair and do some general beautifying this evening, but that is NOT happening.  I am going to bed, and just hoping that I don't look like I've been hit by a truck tomorrow after being up all night.  Thank goodness for YSL Touche Eclat.

Best Laid Plans

Babies are excellent at teaching you to be more easygoing and less rigid.  The saying, 'if you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans' could easily read, 'if you want to make your baby laugh, tell them your plans'!

Today I was all set to work on more of a (loose) routine, trying to get back to 3-4 hourly feeds (over the last two months, Tabitha has been FAR too interested in the world to settle down for a proper feed during the day, and instead has been surviving on tiny snack feeds during the day, and feeding lots at night).  The ABA advised me to try and get good long 3-4 hourly feeds into her during the day.  So, my plan was to stay home all day, lots of songs and games and quiet play, and a few good feeds.  Oh, and work on the nice long sleeps, with 2-hour gaps in between sleeps.  That was my plan for today!

Instead, Tabitha woke up with a 38.6 degree fever, very sleepy eyes, a little vomit, and quite a grizzly mood!  I called the wonderful Nurse on Call hotline (1300 60 60 24) and they advised me to administer Panadol.  This is contrary to the advice of my GP and my MCHN, as well as the baby first aid course The Daddy and I did.  Their advice is generally NOT to administer Panadol unless the fever gets about 39 degrees - the reasoning being that the fever is beneficial, in helping burn up any virus or bug.  So I'm going to hold off on the Panadol, and just keep checking the fever.

So instead of feeding 3-4 hourly, I'll be feeding HOURLY! To make sure she gets loads of fluids and wonderful magical healing breastmilk.  And instead of working on her naps, I have already put her back to sleep 1.5 hours after waking.  Of course, since she is feeling poorly, I had NO intention of working on her self-settling sleeping, and thought it better to cuddle her to sleep - but again, babies laugh at our intentions, and in the time it took me to go and get a glass of water, she had fallen asleep in her cot on her own!  She must be tired, poor little lamb.  Hopefully with some good naps, lots of breastmilk, and a quiet day at home, she will feel better soon.  And hopefully she won't vomit on the Reverend tomorrow during her baptism!

PS - overnight, WOW she slept beautifully!  No 1-3 hour wakings!  She woke briefly to feed at 10:30pm, not  again til 3:30am!  Then she woke at 5:15am, I patted her back to sleep.  She woke again at 6:15am, I patted her back to sleep.  Then she woke at 6:45am, which is a reasonable time for her to get up.  However now I'm not sure whether her incredible sleeping last night was because of the sleep tips from yesterday, or because she is ill and needed more sleep! 

Safe Sleep Space

The lovely woman from Safe Sleep Space came this morning, she was here for around 2 hours, and I think that The Daddy and I really got a lot out of it!  Most of the things she talked about are things I already know / do, but perhaps not consistently enough.  She gave more firm guidelines and parameters - e.g. instead of going in to reassure / pat her 'when she seems upset' which is subjective and I never knew exactly, being so caught up in my own emotions, we wait for 'three strong cries in a row'.  Sure enough, as we listened, many of the single strong cries straight away petered back to a whingey sort of mumbly cry, and she was able to settle herself off to sleep really easily.  When we had the three strong cries, I went straight in, gave her a kiss, patted her, waited til she was calm and relaxed again, then walked out.  Repeat.  She never got distressed, and I was amazed how she did, in fact, go to sleep on her own so easily when given half a chance.

So basically the idea is to NEVER let her get upset or distressed, because prolonged distress for a baby is damaging to the brain, not to mention unnatural and cruel.  Rather, as soon as she starts getting beyond a grizzle, we walk in, quickly reassure her (enough to get her quiet and calm again - patting, rocking, shushing etc), then say 'good night' and walk out again.  After a few of these, she went easily to sleep twice today, and at bedtime we didn't even need to go in to her at all!  She chattered, grizzled, and went to sleep on her own all within 15 minutes.

For newborns, I still wholeheartedly believe in the techniques and guidelines put forth by the incredible Pinky McKay, and recommend her book 'Sleeping Like a Baby' as required reading for any pregnant couple / new parents!  Beyond that, I really liked Elizabeth Pantley's 'The No Cry Sleep Solution', and the Safe Sleep Space book is now added to this list.  The books that make me feel sick to my stomach are Tizzie Hall's and Gina Ford's.  Boooo.  I recommend doing some serious research into these self-styled 'baby whisperers' before following their advice.  Google Tizzie Hall Qualifications... See also LINK, LINK, LINK (this last one is a paper on infant mental health). Also be aware that the major medical and paediatric bodies in most countries, as well as the Australian Breastfeeding Association and Le Leche League, have stated that controlled crying or 'controlled comforting' may cause serious damage to the infant brain, as well as impact on short and long term bonding between the baby and its mother.

In other, less controversial news, the baptism dress ARRIVED!  At around 2:30pm today it was delivered!  It is even more gorgeous than I had hoped, the detail and workmanship are impeccable, and the silk quality is beautiful.  The parcel included the gown, a bonnet, a bib monogrammed with 'T', and a large silk blanket monogrammed with her initials.

A look at the bonnet (photo taken by the maker):

Also managed to sneak out and get a haircut and blow-wave with the fabulous Deslie at Tremayne, and while I was there enjoy a nice slow cup of tea and some biscuits.  That always puts me in the best of moods!  And then this evening The Daddy put Tabitha off to bed while I had a read in the bath.

Good night!

Update

Ok so the dress is IN AUSTRALIA!  It cleared customs this morning at 8:27am.  Now who knows where it is?  Where do parcels go once they clear customs?  These are the Big Questions of my day today!  Will it arrive tomorrow (WOOOOOHOOO)?  Or will it arrive Monday (BOOOOOO)?  The Daddy very kindly went to the local post office and checked it if is there, which it is not, however they have promised to call him if it arrives tomorrow morning.  What suspense!  What a great start to a blog haha!

In other update news, I went to a florist in Camberwell, which is open Sundays, to ask them to make a small circlet of roses for the cake on Sunday.  The cake is 15cm across, tiny.  They quoted over $100!  I think that's ridiculous, so we found a less chi-chi florist who we trust and who quoted less than half that.  I just unwrapped the cake so that I can begin the re-icing process, and shaved a sliver off the top.  WOW delicious!  Despite (or perhaps because of) two years' storage.  Can't wait to have a proper slice on Sunday!  At our wedding, the bottom two tiers were chocolate mud and caramel mud, so this is the first time I've actually tried the fruitcake.

We had lunch with my mum and sister Q today.  Tabitha will call my mother Moosie, which I called her for a few years when I was younger (no one can recall why!).  My dad is Gra (short for Graham, and also a bit of a nudge wink at the fact that Grandpas are often Grey).  Lunch was lovely, Tabitha tried some chicken from my sandwich, a tiny taste of hash brown potatoes (which she really just mushed up in her fist, then wiped all over my pale pink silk Gorman skirt!).

Tabitha and I both had the chiropractor this afternoon, which was a great relief for me, since I have been wearing this little chubby butt of a baby around 8 hours a day lately!  So my back is a little wonky.  I love my Ergo baby carrier, it is awesome (and of course so much better than those 'crotch dangler' contraptions like the Baby Bjorn, see also LINK), but even the Ergo starts to dig in a little in parts after hour upon hour.  So, while I love it for quickly throwing on, I have ordered a woven wrap (a Vatanai, but other excellent ones include Storchenwiege, Didymos and Girasol), which, while more fiddly to put on, is easily the most supportive and versatile carrier around. And beautiful!

For dinner, Tabitha had a nice rare Frenched lamb cutlet.  She thoroughly enjoyed it, chewing and sucking on the meat while she held the 'handle'.  She also enjoyed using the cutlet as a percussion instrument, covering the table, chair and herself with lamb grease.  I suppose I had better go and clean up - and give the bone to the cats to fight over!  For dinner for The Daddy and I, I am going to make some Carbonara with lovely Fernleigh Farms freerange bacon, Parmigiano Reggiano, Martelli penne and local organic eggs.  No cream, of course!

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!