Time to put the moses basket back in the loft. I wonder when it'll come down again.
When I was pregnant with Sally, mum asked if I wanted the moses basket. I didn't realise quite how vintage it was when she first mentioned it, but it got pulled out of the attic and dusted off and I figured it looked about study enough to carry another baby or so. So I said, yes, that's one less thing I need to buy - plus I quite like a bit of family history around the place.
Mum bought some new wadding to reclad the inside and we decided that perhaps it was time the horsehair mattress was consigned to history, but I did keep the delightful 80's florals mum made when she was expecting my brother.
Ok so not all the florals. The complete floral ensemble was a little too much for me...
... but it was the 80's, and even Princess Di was swanning around with baby William in a Laura Ashley frock.
Cleo is definitely at least the thirteenth baby from the Hall family clan to sleep on these wicker rods. Mum tells me that her Grandmother gave it to her parents when her elder brother was a baby, and is reasonably sure that it was the basket her father was in as a baby. He was one of three which brings the likely total up to sixteen and dates the basket to 1915. I can't imagine my grandma had much choice but to accept the present when it was offered. Apparently my Great Grandma Winifred was a rather formidable woman. There is a photo somewhere of her looking quite Victorian in a satin gown posed with her children sat about her, Grandad in a delightful little sailor's outfit and a baby in a frilly white frock. I think my Grandad was something of her precious son and she took it quite badly when he showed up to his sister's twenty-first birthday party with a young lady he'd met at a dance. But it was wartime and despite her disapproval they married before he was shipped off to fight on the Normandy beaches. She never got over the grudge against grandma though, she reputably went ten years without addressing Grandma by her name. It must've been so much fun when her mother-in-law came to visit!
Grandma and Grandad had four little sprogs to put in the moses basket. Mum's younger sister took the basket next and all four of her babies went in it before mum reupholstered it for my brother and me - I will have to find out if there are any photos of what it might have looked like before the 80's update.
And now it's done its part for my little ones. I wonder if in a few decades any of my three will want it when they start families. They might think it way too old by then, but you never know. Still, it's done a hundred years of the Hall clan, it's definitely not going to end up in landfill.
This little one has grown so much recently. Physically she's much bigger (and as today's photos show, way too big for the moses basket), but her brain has really switched on. She likes to grab at her toys and is fascinated when she sees a new one, she grins at almost everyone and loves it when you have a chat with her with her gurgling back and occasionally giving you an awesome little chuckle. As long as her tummy is full, she is a super happy little lady.
And for nostalgia's sake, here are a few photos of the other two in their basket days...