Reminiscing over 4 Years

This week we brought an Apple Time Capsule to store our thousands of photos on and so I’ve spent literally hours sorting through old photographs. It’s crazy how fast the past four years have gone. Moo will be 4 next week, and yet it seems like just last week I was going stir crazy being overdue.

Moo was 2 when I started sporadically blogging, and 3 by the time I put some effort into it, so there’s not much along the lines of her baby photos on here. Given that my reason for starting this blog was to document our memories for the girls to look back on, it only seems right to share some of Moo’s baby times. And what better time than around her birthday?

(A lot of the photos are instagram edited and I’ve not got the originals. And there are lots of photos!!)

Moo was born 8 days after her due date, on April Fools day, via caesarean, weighing in at 9lb 15.5oz!

We were discharged on Mother’s day after a 3 day stay in hospital. I remember walking into our home as a family of three with an overwhelming feeling of what the heck?! In fact, 3 days after major surgery, I decided we should head to Tesco! I wouldn’t recommend it. Within 2 weeks I was back in hospital with an infection.

This lovely photo is my favourite baby photo. She was less than 2 weeks old. It was a lovely sunny day, so we headed to a little beer garden with some friends. I was still breastfeeding her, and being a new mum, I was a little shy about feeding in public, so we fashioned a disguise out of a huge parasol that kept blowing away in the wind!

This was her first swimming trip aged around 3 months.

We took her on her first holiday to Italy when she was 5 months old. We were warned a lot about taking a baby abroad, but I’d definitely recommend a baby over a toddler! She slept through most of the plane journey, and napped regularly throughout the day so that we got some nice chilling time in the sun. This did not happen when she was a toddler!

We had Moo christened when she was just over 6 months old. We had the ceremony at the church which is linked to the nursery she attends now, followed by a little celebration at the church hall.

You know when Daddy has dressed the baby!

These pictures were taken at a bonfire and fireworks display when she was around 7 months old; her first little fairground ride! We were concerned she might be scared by the noise, but she slept right through it. Moo always was a better sleeper than her sister has proven to be.

Moo was 9 months by her first Christmas. She had a little trike, which took daddy literally hours to put together. We also got a little snow, so we couldn’t resist taking her out for her first sled ride.

For her first birthday we had a little party at home with some of our closest family and friends. Moo was dressed as a ladybird, and I made her a little ladybird cake. We also went to the farm, but typically it was a little cold, unlike the day she was born, when it was boiling hot!

These are some of my favourite photos. We didn’t have the DSLR at this point, so they’re mostly iPhone photos. I wish we’d have brought a decent camera sooner. I told you there was some major instagram influence!

This was taken on Moo’s second birthday. She had a play centre party dressed as Peppa Pig. She spent the whole morning crying but I can’t remember why. Luckily she was back to her happy self by the time we got to her party. I was around 20 weeks pregnant with her sister by this point.

Finally we got the DSLR!

At 29 weeks pregnant we decided to take Moo to Weston-Super-Mare. It’s one of my favourite days out that we’ve had. The weather was fantastic and we had a brilliant day…

Here she is helping to decorate the nursery for her sister. She actually remembers doing the hand prints on the tree. Her memory is fantasic!

Aged 2 years and 3 months, she became a big sister.

About 5 weeks after Woo was born, we spent the August bank holiday doing fun things with Moo. It was a big change for us all, so it was lovely to get out and spend some time together. We visited the Black Country Museum, and a farm, where Moo placed a winning bet at the sheep racing!

Moo getting in on the co-sleeping!

For Moo’s 3rd Birthday we threw a little party at a local club. She was loving Mickey Mouse Clubhouse at this point, so she had a Minnie Mouse theme. She had a visit from Mickey and Minnie themselves!

As her 4th birthday comes around, she’s growing into such a clever, strong minded, funny little lady. Every year I look back on previous birthdays and I can hardly believe how much she’s grown over 12 months. People tell you that your children grow too fast, but you just can’t comprehend it until it happens. Sometimes I find myself reminiscing on times gone by with Moo, particularly as her sister passes through the same stages, and it’s scary that so much of her life is now resigned to our memories. We’ll never have those baby times with her again, and we’ll never be first time parents again. I’ll never have those lovely little playgroup mornings with her, or her first birthdays and christmas. It seems like just last week when daddy returned to work after her birth, and it was just me and her. I remember so vividly some of those early moments, when I wondered what the hell I was doing. And yet here we are, about to celebrate her 4th birthday, looking forward to finding out which school she’ll be going to.

It goes without saying that our lives changed so much when she was born. People always tell you that it’ll happen, but you cannot know just how much until you actually have children. She was, and I suppose always will be, our first go at all of the parenting challenges. We have learned, and will continue to learn from the mistakes we make with her, so that her sister will probably have it a little easier. But in comparison, that naivety you get first time round makes it so magical and exciting. You don’t worry about sleepless nights or birth complications or lines on a weight chart whilst you’re expecting your first, because you have no idea how much these little things will become big things until they do. I think subsequent pregnancies lose that sparkle, because you do worry about how your first will cope with a sibling, or how you’ll cope with 2 on next to no sleep, or if your birth will be as good or bad as your first experience.

Moo’s birth definitely didn’t turn out how I’d have liked, and she wasn’t breastfeed for nearly as long as I intended. Lack of sleep was (and still is) a real killer, and I shout more than I would like. I spent way too much time worrying about her behaviour as a toddler, and what the other moms thought, when it really wasn’t important. But it goes without saying, I love this girl more than life itself. She’s such a loving and sensitive little soul and a real mommy’s girl. I can’t wait to see the little lady she’s becoming.

Happy 4th birthday Moo!

The post Reminiscing over 4 Years appeared first on Moo and Woo.