Parenting

Eleanor, it’s your second birthday! How is my youngest cherub and the baby of the house 2 years old already? Who is Eleanor at 2 years old? You are sunny, vibrant, happy, vocal, helpful, and a pleasure to be with. You are exceptionally loving. When you wrap your little arms around my neck, my heart melts for you. I could breathe you in. You are without a doubt the most polite toddler I’ve ever met. Since you started to talk, you’ve always said “please” and “thank you”. Your two eldest siblings are the complete opposite and still don’t say please and thank you without prompting at 9 and 6! We’re still breastfeeding. Still co-sleeping. With my first baby, the reasoning and timing of all my parenting choices seemed to matter, but now all that matters is loving you while you are still small and need me. As a mum to…

Dear Eleanor, My little sweetheart – Eleanor, you are 1! Happy birthday! This is my first birthday letter to you. How much joy you have brought to our family in just one year. I hope that one day you will read my letter to you, and it will make you smile. So let’s learn about your first year! After your birth, we spent the first week in bed together because you were so sleepy and didn’t want to feed much. We got to know each other so well, and it wasn’t long before you were feeding voraciously and very frequently, just like a newborn should. Weeks turned to months, your personality shines through more every day, and we get to know you even better. A is for apple Your siblings started to call you “a” as in “a is for as apple” because that was the first sound you started…

Welcome back, my friend! Today I’m sharing Eleanor Hadley’s birth story. I can’t believe my little love and fourth child is now 8 weeks old. We’re slowly finding our groove again as a family, and still very much in the new baby bubble. Eleanor is one of the 5% of babies born on her due date. I actually thought she would come way sooner than her due date, since each of my subsequent babies came sooner than the previous. Jonah was 5 days over his date, Cara 2 days over, and Lydia 2 days before. There was definitely a pattern of babies coming sooner! August had been mercifully cool, and after a scorching June I was lucky that my final weeks were a bit more comfortable. A week before her due date, I was getting a lot of Braxton Hicks, some of these verging on painful – I was convinced…