Smiley Girl!

Chloe started smiling at 5 1/2 weeks old. Her first smile was for Daddy at around 3am!

Firsts

As well as lots of changes, there have been a LOT of firsts in Chloe Flora's little life! In the first six weeks, she has got used to spending lots of time in her buggy, bouncer, on her play mat, in her bath and on mummy and daddy's knees (not to mention Grandma's, Granny's and Grandpa's!). She has also been up to Wandsworth Common; to several coffee shops; travelled on the tube, train and bus; visited Peter Jones Department Store; looked around a Museum and been to the Cinema - what a lot for such a little girl! The cinema is a special mum and baby screening which takes place on Thursday mornings - the screen not being used is made into a buggy park, there is free coffee to keep the mums awake and you can put down your changing mat and change your baby pretty much anywhere there's some floor-space. It's lots of fun! Chloe enjoyed the lights and the movement on the screen and then obligingly fell asleep so I could focus on the film, 'An Education,' which was very enjoyable!

Changes

Chloe will be six weeks old tomorrow and since she was born she has changed so much. Everyone told me she would grow really fast, and intellectually I knew this was true, but emotionally I am still amazed to see how much she has grown both physically and in terms of being alert and aware of what's around her. You can see an enormous difference between these photos of her in her bouncer at 2 and 5 weeks. She can now track objects with her eyes, reach for them and touch them. She loves to sit in her bouncer and watch the helium balloon our neighbours bought for her bobbing around. Yesterday she lay on a friend's baby's play gym and reached for the toys swinging above her and hit them back and forth. Best of all, for the last few days we have been getting some SMILES...! They are still pretty few and far between but they tend to come in groups which is lovely. She also seems to save smiles for new people so hopefully this means that she will be a sociable little girl! We're hoping to catch a smile on camera this weekend so I'll post a photo if we manage to capture one!

Arrival!

Chloe Flora Yates finally made her appearance ten days late but 3 days before the induction date - hurray! I was really pleased that her arrival was not quite the horror show I'd been led to expect...not something I'd necessarily choose to do for fun on a Saturday night but strangely it feels like an amazingly happy memory.

We had an amazing midwife called Gemma who we feel so grateful for. Next week Chloe and I are going to visit the hospital to take Gemma a present to say thank you so much for helping us through Chloe's arrival. It was Gemma who suggested we get in the pool instead of going straight for the drugs which at the time was my preferred option! Once I was in the pool things happened pretty fast and Chloe was born in the water at 3.05am. We were all so struck by her arrival that it was a minute or so before we thought to check whether she was a girl or a boy! We both had been convinced that we would have a boy so it was a lovely surprise to meet our little girl!