The Cronje's in Cape Town: 9 Weeks Old... Already!

I must be the luckiest person alive. To be a mom, at home with her gorgeous daughter who is so well behaved! It has been a while since I last updated the blog but I'm too busy enjoying looking after Milea and watching her grow up. I cannot remember being so content with life! Despite what Jaco thinks, I am so busy every day and Milea and I get up to so much in the week! I have less than 2 months left of maternity leave and I'm going to really be sad when its over.

Just like her parents, Milli cannot sit still and so she drags me out every day to do stuff, really, it is all her! We have established a little routine now which we both enjoy and it goes like this:

Mondays: As soon as I hit the postnatal 6 weeks, Milli and I hit the Fitmamma's class at the gym! Little ones from crawling age down to Milli's age (she is the youngest) watch their moms do bodyconditioning, pilates or boxing classes and stare with big eyes at us thinking we are mad the way we throw ourselves around the class. But it's lots of fun though and we all end up chatting about the last poo our baby had or whatever while the poor gym instructor is trying to explain the next exercise! So in essence, I probably only end up doing half a gym class because I'm talking too much to the other moms or trying to calm Milli down when she gets bored of lying on the gym mat. Then after all our hard work, us moms head off to Knead for some lunch and take up half the restaurant with all our prams and babyseats. We now have a standing booking with the manager for monday lunch!

Tuesdays: Our church has a ladies group in the morning and its great to meet new women and hear God's Word which seriously grounds me with all the patience, kindness and mercy one requires when bringing up a child. My domestic worker comes to clean as well, so I can leave Milli with her over lunch time while I pop off to a spinning class. I am now weighing the same as I did before pregnancy although there is still a slight belly roll and love handle problem which I am dealing with :-)

Wednesdays: A new moms and babes group has started recently and so I've slotted into that. We get together each week to encourage each other and support one another in the tough situations one faces. I have discovered that alot of new moms are not very confident with their babies and they are scared to try things like introducing the dummy, bottle feeding, expressing, leaving their babies with other people etc etc. Luckily these things have been dealt with already quite easily in our household and I try to encourage other moms to be courageous!

Thursdays: Another moms and babes group is run by Christ Church in Kenilworth and they often have guest speakers to talk on issues moms may be facing. I have yet to actually get to this group but have heard such good things about it and I'm dying to go. So hopefully that will fill my Thursday mornings soon!

Fridays: Rest Day! And getting all my admin out of the way if Milea takes her naps and I get a chance to!

I am so happy to say that Milea has started sleeping through the night. Fingers crossed that 2 nights in a row means that its going to become a regular occurance. She was always a good sleeper, waking up at 3am or 4am each morning, but she seems to like her warm bed now in this cold rainy weather and has decided to hibernate for the night. After Jaco saying to me that he wishes he had breasts to feed her, I decided to express milk and he now does the 7am feed so mommy can have a lie in and sleep! So I am getting like 10 hours proper sleep all night! Wonderful!

We have been doing regular clinic visits and she has been getting all her injections. Last time they weighed her, she was 5.5kgs and 59cm in length. Seems she is rounding out very well and enjoying fat cheeks and a double chin, which is worrying dad!

We have been blessed with spontaneous smiles and cute cooing every now and then. Training her to do this on cue has proved fruitless and so we just have to enjoy the surprise smiles which she decides to give to us as she pleases!

With the clock counting down to me going back to work, I have embarked on the huge task of finding a suitable nanny to look after Milea. I'm surprised there's no central place for moms to find one besides using nanny placement agencies. It all seems to happen via word of mouth and so I'm desperately shouting it out for all to hear that I need someone from the beginning of September. After contacting a couple of duds, I have 2 possible ladies who are coming to visit me next week so that I can interview them. Hopefully my recruitment background will come in handy.....