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Showing posts from November, 2008

15th NOVEMBER 2009 - A visit to Greg's

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Hello little Em, Mark and Tammy brought you to Greg's new simplex for a braai last night. It was so sweet to see you again. Every time I see you  have changed. The reddish/yellow colouring that you came home with from the hospital has gone now and you are a beautiful, pink and roses baby. Tammy looked tired. It is exhausting looking after a new baby. You are so small but so helpless and very demanding.  People say, "Oh, if the baby is fed, warm and dry, they will sleep all day." Well, I know and you know - and Mark and Tammy now know - that's not true! Babies like to air their lungs. You aired your yours for about half an hour and then you slept for the rest of the night. Greg was a niggly baby. He screamed for nearly three months until I was so exhausted I could have smothered him! But, mothers don't do that. Mothers have these murderous thoughts and then when the baby is sleeping, they look at their sleeping child and melt inside; and feel so gu

6th November 2008 - Your great-grandmother

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Hello little Em, I was cleaning the spare room this morning - I am doing the whole house, one room a day - and happened to look at the photograph of my Mom on the wall. I said to her, "Hey Mom, what do you think about Emily Ann?" She is smiling in the photo and I know that she would have loved you - very much. It gave me a lump in my throat to think that she will never know you or hold you. Let me tell you a bit about your Great-grandmother. She was born on 1st August 1921 - the 2nd youngest of five children - and lived most of her childhood outside Dundee on a farm called 'Dawn'. Her parents named her Jacomina Magritha Johanna Moolman (quite a mouthful hey?) Her family called her Mina but later on in life she became known as May. Your Dad and uncle Greg called her Gogo-May. The other children were - in order of age - Alida (Tannie Ali), Hansie, Thys and Wessel. The first daughter in all the families were given the name Alida (which was her mother's na

5th November 2009 - two weeks old

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Hello little Em, Today was your actual expected birth date. They were going to do the caesarean on 27th October (just in case you had fragile bones) but you arrived on the 16th October - so even though you will be 3 weeks old tomorrow, you are only full-term today. You are still tiny Em. I feel like we must enjoy you as a little baby because you are going to grow so quickly and we will forget what you were like as a new born. Tammy said that you are having a growth spurt. I looked it up on the Internet: During the first year of life, your baby will grow at an amazing rate. Your baby will grow the most during the first year of life than she ever will again. Most babies will have tripled their birth weight and grown 8-10 inches during the first year! It is common for a baby to experience his first growth spurt by 7-10 days after birth and again at 2-3 weeks, 4-6 weeks, 3 months, 4 months, 6 months and 9 months. A typical growth spurt can last anywhere from 2 days to a wee