From bump to baby

And t'was a she! I have to say, it's funny looking at that previous blog post and seeing me with my supposed "you're definitely having a boy" shaped 40 week bump. It pretty much near enough vanished in an instant and I barely noticed. Every ounce of my life zapped with an all-consuming wide-eyed, utterly helpless little person was enough to take the attention away from the fact that I wasn't pregnant anymore. 5 weeks have gone now, I've almost forgotten what it was like before she was around, it's like she always existed.
It's been a lesson in patience and endurance like I have never experienced. From having to persevere through nearly 48 hours of labour to walking up and down comforting a crying baby when you yourself are tired and not in full physical health. You can't turn around and go back to sleep when she starts crying for food at 2am.
Don't get me wrong, it isn't all hardship. I've been able to reconnect with a lot of friends I haven't seen for ages because they all want to come over to meet her. We've been ridiculously blessed by the kindness of friends, family and people we don't know very well whether it's been receiving gifts through the door every day for the first 3 weeks or people from our church family dropping meals over. I love seeing her wee personality (evident from the start) begin to blossom, seeing her start to do things she couldn't previously:- start to smile, make sounds other than crying, discover her hands, engage with her toys, respond to music...

I'm trying hard to savour each moment because my word do they grow fast!!

Picture 1 (on Day 4)
Picture 2 (on Day 32)