Another overdue update

Wow, what a crazy last few weeks!  Aunty Lou (or AunLou as Lily fondly calls her) had her precious baby girl 11 days early and my gorgeous, tiny niece, Noa, is here.  She arrived on the 1st of November just before 9pm weighing 3.34kg.  It goes without saying that there has been an abundance of excitement in the family as a result, and we have had Granny and Grandpa visiting from East London.  Now that it is the 16th of November (AunLou's birthday!), things have quietened down and the grandparents have left... time for a little bit of an update.

Pregnancy update:
In 2 days time I will be 18 weeks pregnant.  On the one hand, it seems like I have been pregnant for quite some time, whereas other days it feels like the 18 weeks have happened so extremely quickly.  I can't be almost half way through this journey already can I?  At my 16 week scan my doctor confirmed the Fetal Assessor's prediction that we are in fact still expecting a little boy.  So the blue shopping and the name discussions can officially begin!  At 17 weeks I started to feel movement and now I am definitely feeling an active little boy inside my tummy kicking and prodding away.  Love it!  Can't wait for the kicks to become more profound and identifiable.  My next appointment is for my 20 week, 2nd fetal assessment scan.  Looking forward to it.

Lily update:
Lily is quite a little munchkin!  She is feisty, determined, knows what she wants, a true entertainer and loves being the center of attention.  She makes me laugh on a daily basis (actually multiple times a day) and I often find myself staring at her in awe, wondering how she grew up so very quickly.  There have been quite a few nostalgic moments of late comparing little Noa to Lily.  They are so similar looking as newborns, but yet I can't remember Lily ever being that tiny... Time really has gone far too quickly.

Lily's vocabulary is growing in leaps and bounds.  I won't even begin to list the words she now says as we would be here for quite some time, but one of the funniest and cutest things to note is that she calls her Granny "Gig Gig" and her Grandpa "Gig Ga".  I don't know where she gets those words from but obviously that's her pronunciation of her grandparents names.  She also knows the dogs' names and calls them out perfectly - "Harley" and "Bella".

Lily was always such a great little eater and would ingest anything that came her way with much enthusiasm... Gone are those days!  I find myself fighting with her just to get her to eat something nutritional.  I have now resigned myself to the fact that this is a passing phase (here's hoping a phase that ends very soon) and that I just have to ensure she has her daily multivitamin to make up for the lack of nutrition she is consuming.  Some days are better than others and some days are just plain frustrating.  Luckily I can always rely on banana loaf (I kid myself into believing she is therefore getting her fruit quota), cheese and milk to fill her little belly for the moment.

On a positive note, her sleeping (touch wood) is truly amazing.  She goes down perfectly for her afternoon and night time sleeps and she doesn't disturb in the night until the next morning when she wakes up at around 07h30.  This morning she actually slept until after 08h30!  I am going to enjoy these lie-ins as much as possible before baby #2 comes along!  Long may it last.

So that's about it for this update.  I will try to update sooner next time as there are so many cute, memory-worthy things going on in our household that it would be sad not to capture them before they're forgotten.  After watching tiny little Noa, it is truly a harsh reminder at how quickly they grow up and how quickly we forget...