The Birthday

I cannot believe this post is almost a month late! Madame Choupie will be turning 13 months tomorrow. Oops!

Truth is, I have so much work at the moment, and I want to spend every little spare moment I have with my daughter rather than on the computer. I am sure you will all agree that is best!

At long last, here are pictures of the outfits I sewed (yes! some sewing took place in this house!) for this momentous first birthday. Sewing a dress for my daughter was something I absolutely, viscerally, had to do; and I suspect this is a necessity which I may be feeling every year, for many years to come.

The pictures indoors were taken on her actual birthday; those outdoors were taken two weeks ago by my very talented brother-in-law, as he and my sister visited for a wonderful weekend.

The dress was made from a kit by Clothkits, a British company I only recently discovered and which is AWESOME in my opinion. The fabric is a lovely corduroy and it comes with the pattern lines pre printed on the fabric! Perfect when your sewing time is (very) spare.
The bodice part of the dress is lined with a matching cotton print.

The back of the dress is printed as well:

Playing with her birthday gift - a fantastic Wheely Bug!

Seeing as Clothkits also offered a matching grown-up skirt, I couldn't resist this opportunity to make us matching outfits!

I chose to line my skirt with China silk and it feels so luxurious - I should have taken a picture of the inside, really, as the black lining looks rather classy with the red facings.

The straps of the dress turned out slightly too long, so I shortened them before our next photo session - which yielded much prettier pictures thanks to the lovely sunshine, and above all the talent of my BIL!

(one of Madame Choupie's favourite games when nursing is to "feed" me her hand in return).


You can see how the floral theme of the dress is carried over in the legwarmers and shoes.


(also showing my sister's lovely baby bump - she's expecting a girl for June!)

So far Madame Choupie's second year has been nothing short of wonderful. She has been doing something new and amazing pretty much every single day. Only yesterday, she clapped her hands for the first time, and surprised us at dinner with two new words. She'll be walking any day now!

Besides all this, though, and most importantly - she is such a JOY to be around. I believe this new year in her life is going to be all sorts of fantastic.

Unjinxed

Hello friends!

Wow, long time, no see. Remember my last post - when I was telling you things were definitely looking up for us? Well, that totally jinxed it. That very night, my baby got sick with a very bad stomach bug. I caught her bug and got sick 10 times more. Breastfeeding + depleting yourself of all your fluids for 3 days + ongoing renal insufficiency due to previous illness = not a good match. At all.

Worst of all, though, this was the first in a series of various health issues for my daughter (whom I've decided to henceforward refer to on this blog as Madame Choupie). After months of being constantly sick for a variety of reasons, and of sleeping really, really badly (I have spent so many sleepless nights over the past 5 months), I think I can safely say that she is all much better now. And I'm crossing all my fingers and toes for this post not to jinx it again.
In retrospect, and after many tests were done (some of them quite horrid when performed on a clueless little girl, I'm sorry to say), Madame Choupie had, thankfully, nothing serious - an iron deficiency, which is all being taken care of with great results; and a bad case of reflux, which after a few months is much, much better.

I really do believe we are out of the woods now, and have started on the process of teaching her to fall back to sleep on her own - she still needs me (or at least thinks she does!) 3 to 5 times a night - 3 being on very, very good nights. As in, we had 2 such nights over the past month and we felt so energetic it was as if we'd been on acid! if I' I have been working full time since September and to say we've been feeling like zombies for months now is no exaggeration.



Tomorrow is Madame's Choupie's first birthday, if you can believe it. I am determined to get back to blogging and podcasting as this new year starts in her - and our - personal calendar.

I have been crafting, believe it or not. I even managed to make Madame Choupie a birthday dress, and to make myself a matching skirt. I am hoping for a photo session tomorrow.

As for P'tite Mignonne - she turned 10 a couple of weeks! She is her usual serene, happy, cuddly self.

She and Madame Choupie are best friends. Seb and I reflect daily that ours is a home where love abounds.

Above all, and despite this rocky first year - what with my being seriously ill for the first half of it, and Madame Choupie having all these (eventually minor but oh so bothering) troubles for the second - I have tremendously enjoyed watching my baby grow and do something amazing every single day. I feel so fortunate to be her mother. I am so excited to see all the wonderful things my little one will be discovering, learning, doing, in the year to come.

Slowly re-emerging

Hello, hello friends!

Wow, I don't think I've ever been this long without blogging. The past few months have been so, so full. What can I say? Work + baby starting at daycare + many sleepless nights + did I mention work? It's been CRAZY - as it always is in autumn, but so much more this year.

Things are slowly, oh so slowly, starting to adjust to a somewhat less hectic rhythm. Sleep is still a very scarce commodity these days, as my little one has not really been able to sleep for long stretches ever since I went to the hospital; she needs to make sure that I'm still here when she wakes up. However, after a challenging first month, daycare is now going superbly - we have a wonderful nanny who is all for attached parenting, so the transition has been as smooth as possible, and I know my baby is having a great time there; I treasure my job and feel miraculously good at it, despite the accumulated exhaustion over the past few months; we are all so very much enjoying our life as a family; my daughter is just the happiest, giggliest baby ever.

We even managed a long walk on Sunday - and I felt fit enough to babywear my over 8-kilo (Google tells me that's 17 lbs and 11 oz) baby for a whole 3-hour walk.

You may remember we don't have a car, and we babywear pretty much everywhere we go.

That is all very well, but has she been making things, I hear you wonder. I have - it is but a fraction of what I used to churn out pre-baby and pre-illness, but my hands haven't been idle all this time.

I haven't been very inspired to sew for myself these past months. The thing is, the clothes that inspire me right now are not nursing or pumping-friendly, so I'm not that into sewing for me.

I did make a nursing dress back in the spring, that I still very much enjoy wearing. But that's about it.

This picture is from May, and no, I don't have a beauty shot of this dress yet!
I used the Perfect Nursing Top pattern, and I'll try and write up an article about it soon (and take better pictures!).

I've mostly been making (surprise!) stuff for my daughter, and I'll be devoting the next few posts to that.
Here's the latest - a hat for those colder mornings we've been having. Again, no beauty shot, but that may come soon, and this picture was too fun to pass up. :)

I also made the play mat she's on. Ha! Another post I may write some time. :)

Oh, and these crazy pants!

That's it for today! I know I have a long overdue giveaway to take care of - all in due time... For now, I wish you all a wonderful turn of the season. If you're still reading this - thank you so much for not giving up on me!! Thanks to all of you who left good wishes. They were thoroughly appreciated.

A positive update

Hello friends,

Thank you all for your well wishes.  

I had major surgery a week ago and am slowly working on being better. 

Time will tell whether the operation (surrenalectomy) will have entirely cured what was wreaking havoc on my system, but we are very hopeful.

The past few months - feeling increasingly unwell and so very exhausted, spending so much time having tests done and appointments at the hospital - have been gruelling. Being separated from my little girl to stay at the hospital last week - and not being allowed to breastfeed her for a few days due to a highly uncooperative medical team - has been the hardest thing I've ever had to go through.

Seb deserves a medal for Best Father and Companion of the Year.

I keep telling myself that this is a thousand times better than if my baby had had problems. That I am so grateful for her own health. That there is a very good chance I'll be entirely cured.

I'll be away for a while longer, though I might update my Flickr account and perhaps even add a few posts here, with pictures and just a few words. That may well be my usual format from now on, anyway. Things like that, they make you reconsider your priorities.

For now, I am off to rest and enjoy my beautiful, happy, healthy, and adorable baby. 

Picture taken yesterday - almost 5 months!