Our dearest precious little girl, 3 weeks and 2 days old on Daddy's shoulder. This was taken at about 11.30pm last night as we were heading towards the tail end of settling a very tired little girl who just would not close her eyes and go to sleep. It was a very long 5-6 hours I can tell you, and then she woke for her 3am-ish and 5am-ish feeds as per normal! Overtired little ones are very hard to settle! And overtired Mummies tend to get a bit teary!

The past few weeks have been a complete blur. Days merge into each other, I often have no idea what day of the week it is, I am just immersed in Sophia World, relishing being with her, marvelling at her creation, meeting her needs as they arise, getting to know her little personality as it begins to emerge, trying to take care of myself and Stu in amongst it all as well.

Stu went back to work last Monday and Sophs and I went to a Baby Cafe (mum's group) for some breastfeeding help, then a lovely lovely friend spent most of Tuesday with us showing us immense, humbling kindness and doing all the housework, making me lunch, taking Sophs so I could sleep, being so unbelievably generous and loving with her time and energy (thank you Sonya). Wednesday was our first day at home together, and I managed a shower around 5.30pm, no lunch, and have no idea where the day went! My wonderful doula was with me on Thursday showing me all sorts of things to help with caring for Sophs, and then Friday we went to lunch with the ladies from my antenatal class! It was surreal to see 5 other new Mums with their babies as the last time I saw them we were all heavily pregnant, but it was so happy, and so so helpful and supportive to talk to each other about all the things we are going through and to find out that everyone else is going through something similar. We swapped tips and advice and I think most of us left with a huge sense of relief that we aren't alone. We have lunch again this Friday, and are expecting 9 mums and bubs this time! We're going to take over the cafe ;)

We had our first load of vistors at the weekend, I had previously banned visitors as I was just so not physically up to it after the blood loss. Sophs was a perfect little angel and left everyone saying what a good baby she is as she slept and fed so easily. Then came the night when everyone had left... ;) I did try to tell people that every day is different, heck, every hour is sometimes totally different, but I don't think they quite believed me!

Stu is back at work just for this week and then is on leave again for 2 weeks from next week, and we can't wait! I think we might try a trip on the tube together, see how Sophs goes with it. I can't keep taking taxis!! Though, we did have our first bus trip today to the local shopping centre, about 10 mins away, to meet Shosh and baby Ori for lunch. It was our first trip on public transport together and all went well, yay! So, hehehe, I know I can now get to the shops really easily, and there's loads of baby shops at Brent Cross....! My shopping exile of the past 3 - 4 weeks is soon to be over woohoo! Plus, I totally love the attention Sophia gets, people stop me to ask how old she is, to comment on how much hair she has, and to tell me how beautiful she is. And I just soak it all up :D My bella bambina is truly beautiful (but I already knew that)!