Love, bubs and life on our little farm

Elka's first trip to the beach and first hat!


Breastfeeding on the beach - soooo much baby stuff surrounding me!


A sunset walk


View from our main balcony


The resort, our apartments visible across the lagoon

Oh it was so nice to get away and relax on the Sunshine coast! The resort was so nice and I was blown away at just how gorgeous and deluxe the apartments were! We felt very spoilt. More importantly it was really special to spend the time with my family from Canada. It was so nice having Elka there - I am glad the timing was so good - I would have been sad for her to have missed out if they had come when I was pregnant instead.

We ate way too much, had a gorgeous dinner out, went for long walks, soaked up the sun, sailed and canoed, swum (too cold for me though! and lazed about reading magazines and watching the Olympics. Bliss!

Elka was fantastic - she just went with the flow and missed a lot of sleep during the day but slept when she got the chance. I was impressed that she managed to sleep in her pram through a very rowdy dinner at a noisy restaurant. We left her with my parents so that Jase and I could grab a relaxing drink together in the resorts lovely bar area but we got called back after 45 mins as she had woken from her nap and was inconsolable. Poor munchkin! We could hear her screaming long before we even got near the apartment complex! She instantly stopped crying in my arms - poor little thing! I didn't think they got so attached this early but clearly she has. Will have to work on that as I want her to be able to be babysat - let alone the childcare that she will need when I go back to work..

In great timing with my relaxing break, Elka at 8 weeks has also started "sleeping through the night". I am so proud of her :) Basically she goes down for sleep at 7pm and I feed her at 10.30pm whilst she is still asleep (dreamfeed) and then she was sleeping till 3.30am when she wanted another feed and then I woke her up at 7am. But now she is sleeping through to 6-6.30am - very exciting! I am hoping that she might move that forward to 7am which matches with her routine.. but either way I am a happy mum!

Elka is now 9 weeks and still shocking us with how much she is growing and changing. She is basically supporting her own head and her tummy time is amazing! She makes the funniest goo's and gaa's when she is raising her head and turning it around when she is on her belly! This morning she was sitting on my lap leaning back on me and she pulled herself forward and sat unsupported! I was very impressed! She has started interacting with her panda bear toy, reaching out and grabbing his flowers and pulling at his face etc. She is sucking her fists fiecely when she gets tired or hungry and has discovered that she can just suck her thumb rather than the whole hand. She has nearly grown out of her 000 suits :( Her SOS routine is still fantastic - her day sleeps are amazing - 2 long sleeps of 2 hours 15mins and a 1 hour nap - plenty of time for me to get things done!

My horseriding is going well. I am getting a surprising amount done - lots of rides and lunges and grooming sessions etc, mainly thanks to Elka's long day sleeps! Spech is looking like a different horse already. His coat is getting shiny from the grooming and extra rugs that I am using. He is starting to show some muscle through his neck and on his legs thanks to the dressage work. We still have a long way to go but I am really pleased! I am still not as fit as I would like to be and getting him collected and moving forward is hard to near impossible with my lacking core muscles! But slowly slowly I will get there.. Only 1.5 weeks to my first dressage comp - I am looking forward to it. I have no expectations but it will be nice to just blow the cobwebs away and to prove to myself that I can compete and have a baby at the same time...

Anyways.. enough raving! Am probably heading to Dreamworld tomorrow with the family - should be chaotic and fun!