Hawthorn Common and My new chair!

We have had the best day today! Andy is back home with us after one day of work yesterday which is great. As Ella was born in the school holidays he still has 5 days of paternity leave he is able to take now. 

We started the day with a trip to St. Vincent's Hospital for a hearing screening test for Ella. This test was done the day after she was born, however they were unable to get a reading at that time. We were a little bit worried about it, but were told that it was common as babies can still have some fluid in their ears which interferes with the test. Thankfully Ella passed the test with flying colours so we don't have to worry about any hearing issues for the time being.

St. Vincent's is a private hospital. We went there as it is much closer to where we live now than Sandringham. Sandringham is public, and boy am I glad we didn't go check out a private hospital before getting pregnant... It was so nice in there compared to the public hospital!! I still don't think I'd pay for private - on top of your insurance premiums you can be about $5000-$10000 out of pocket after a private birth - but boy was the hospital alluring. A bit like getting a taste of flying first class and then having to go back to economy. 

Ella was really well-behaved (read: sleeping) so we decided to try and get a few things from Baby Bunting in Hawthorn. Andy was carrying her in the Hug-a-Bub (which she absolutely loves) and everyone in the store was oohing and ahhing over the little baby snuggled up with dad! While we were there she did get a bit restless, but they have a feeding room in the shop that you can use to breastfeed, change diapers, or warm up bottles. Ace! In the room they had this glider feeding chair to use that they of course sell in the shop:

Oh my goodness. What a chair. It was like, the best feed, EVER. I was so comfortable and my back didn't hurt at all after the feed (which it usually does after I feed her on our sofa or on the Ikea Poang chair) and I felt the most relaxed I have ever been during a feed, despite the fact that I was basically in a bland room in a shop. Anyway. We bought the chair. I am SO excited about it. It will arrive in a few days and I cannot wait. It is going to be life changing. Andy loves it too - I think during non-feeding times there will be a fight to see who gets the chair!

After our chair buying high we decided to walk down the street to get some lunch. Ella was passed out from all her milk drinking and we were in great moods. We were just down the street from Hawthorn Common, one of Melbourne's finest cafes. The menu is amazing with a focus on whole foods combined with the creativity we have come to expect from cafes here. They make everything from scratch; they mill their own flour for bread, hand roll oats, and ferment, preserve, roast and dry all food themselves. All organic waste is composted and returned to farms.  On the menu is a quote from Michael Pollan, author of "In Defence of Food", which I read when we started eating a more whole foods diet. The quote is "If it came from a plant, eat it; If it was made in a plant, don't". Basically, I love this place and wish we lived closer to it!

Ella slept peacefully the whole lunch, and we had the owner come over for a visit to our table to talk about babies; he has a 6 month old and a 2 year old who were there at the cafe (his wife is also an owner). He said his only piece of advice was that there is no such thing as spoiling a baby under 6 weeks old, which I totally agree with. At this point we know there is no routine, Ella eats when she is hungry and is cuddled as much as she wants. I have heard we should think of these next few months as "the fourth trimester" as our newborn gets used to life outside the womb, and that is exactly how we are approaching this period of her life. This is why I love the Hug-a-Bub so much, it allows us to carry her around and be close to us while we also get on with other things. 

Anyway, all in all its been a pretty perfect day :)

Exhausted after a big day out!