timandfee

..how lucky we are.  It takes friends and family to come over, and point out something that we have always known but maybe not appreciated - Alina is an extremely “tranquila” little girl.  She has always been very easy, even inside me she was calm and relaxed.  And when she was born she really was a great baby - sleeping and eating fantastically right from the get go.

A friend asked me recently if it was true, that i could breastfeed her in less then 10 minutes, and yes it was true - in fact in 6 minutes i could feed her and get her back to sleep when she’d awake for her only night feed during  those first months. Our daughter now goes to bed at around 8.30 or 9pm - we just pop her into the cot and off she drifts without a sound. She sleeps until after 8am without waking, and quite often sleeps until 9.30am.

Yesterday on the train, she stood between my legs for 1.5 hours without crying once, only fiddling with my ring and playing hide and seek with the passengers behind.  In fact once there are people around,  she is happy enough to potter around, read a book, or just sit looking at the “big people” talk.

Mind you her personality is not so quiet all the time!   She has a strong character, and i can see a little temper in there!  To be honest, i think in personality she is a little bit more like her mama then her papa!  But hey where would she leave it, as they say in Ireland

It is funny though, how even the unborn has a personality.  And that these traits are still with them as a one year old (who knows about later).  She was very quiet inside, and indeed was a quiet baby.  She was strong inside (despite 2 days of labour, her heartbeat never got stressed) and she is strong outside - bangs and knocks don’t really phase her unless she is tired.  Genes are so powerful, and yet we cannot control them.  In a way it is just destiny.

However as parents we do try to influence our child’s personality as positively as possible, but there is no one best way.  In the early days it was easier, you had to love your child unconditionally - they say that it is impossible to spoil a baby before they are 6 months old.  After that comes setting of boundaries and the “no” word - although seemingly it is not a word we should even use!  Honestly discipline is hard to figure out.  Consistency is key but yet hard to achieve when there is a mum, dad and nanny involved all believing in different things as “best practice”.   I believe a big influencer is to be happy yourself, and happy in the couple -  Alina definitely picks up on things like that.  Or maybe that is just my excuse for some selfish me and couple time

I think Alina had a great start, because she was so wanted and loved from before she was born.  I also think it helped that her mum and dad were so happy with their lot during her pre born time. As the time approaches for number 2 to arrive, I am constantly reminded that this baba is much more active from all the movement inside!  And also that I need to connect more even at this stage - i do believe they feel things coming from me even at 25 weeks, that will stay with them for time to come.  And I need Tim to connect more too.

I have all my fingers and toes crossed that this baby will be as easy as Alina, but seeing as that would be hard, i am planning to enjoy my beautiful little princess as much as possible in the coming weeks and months and appreciate the (mostly) peaceful times of now!  And for no. 2, what will be will be.  Life would be boring if it was predictable anyway!!