This is a question that was raised on numerous occasions during my pregnancy. It’s a kind of joyful topic I guess, so exciting – this little miracle, this tiny human, and there are so many millions of (unsure of the correct terminology here)….combinations? that as much as you can try and guess, you are never going to know until your baby arrives. And even then – they change so much, in some respects Mabel, now four months on, looks quite different to how she did when she was born.
My husband is the double of his Mum, it’s uncanny how alike they are aesthetically. I on the other hand don’t really look like either of my parents (!), I am a cross between my Grandad (My Dad’s side) and my Nana (My Mum’s side) – it’s as if I went and skipped a generation.
When Mabel was born she had a shock of brunette locks, yet James and I were both very blonde as littles (he a golden hue, me an almost white silver) and she seemed to have olive skin (although we did appreciate this could be mainly due to a mild case of jaundice) where as we are both quite fair. She actually looked a lot like my sister at that age – lots of friends have said so.
Her cheeks are tremendous, and her lashes – so long and dark, and as her hair grows through it is definitely becoming lighter and lighter, her skintone too. She has my eyes and her Daddy’s rosebud pout (regarding the latter, yes, I am jealous of the pair of them) but everything else is very much her own, I’m sure we’ll see more similarities over the coming weeks and months.
I spend a quite ridiculous amount of time just staring at her and like every Mama, I think she is quite possibly the cutest thing on the planet. I don’t want this time when she is so tiny to pass so quickly yet I’m fascinated to see what kind of small person she develops into. I guess this is where this rambling comes from – just how bloody magical it all is. At that one moment in time we made a Mabel, an hour later, a day later, a year later….it would have been someone else entirely. Am I making sense?
Considering I didn’t have high hopes of being able to have a child at all, that I was convinced she was a boy (!) and sitting on the fence when it comes to discussions on “fate”, I truly believe that we were meant to have the exact perfect little lady we do.
For those of you expecting, have you thought much about who your baby will resemble? James and I spent many an hour wondering and discussing, it was such a special time.
Are you a little bit curious to see you if will create a bit of a “mini me”?! Now Mabel has started to frown and throw small paddy flaps if she’s bored or hungry her Daddy says she is exactly like her Mama….
Has your baby changed quite a bit in the first six months or so? I’m so glad we took so many photos, it’s amazing look back at how very teeny she was the day we bought her home…..*sheds a tear and goes off to watch her sleep*
P.S Did you notice her webbed toes in the image above? she gets those from her Daddy too – quite rare to carry them down the female line apparently. My girl is definitely one of a kind.
Aw Charlotte, Mabel is simply the cutest! You have the most beautiful family. My little Zach is a Dewett through and through. He is the exact image of his dad, like he just rolled off a conveyor belt. It’s surprising how any people apologise before stating this fact, however, I really don’t mind that he a mini daddy, it’s so cute to see how they even pull all the same expressions. The question in our household is whether he’ll keep his baby blues, I have brown eyes and am told they are the dominant gene but I have to say Zach’s eyes seem to be the exact shade of blue as his dads. At nearly 9 months I’m hoping he keeps them. Oh and I can totally sympathise with the tear shedding over how much they grow so quickly, I frequently shed tears every time I pack away more of his teeny tiny outgrown clothes. My husband thinks I’m ridiculous because I cried when I placed his little toothbrush next to our giant ones. I’m sure I never used to be this sentimental….
Ha ha Jennifer we’ve put two big lots of clothes in the loft and I’ve been tearful both times!
It’s very cute that Zach is just like his Daddy 🙂
Mabel also has blue eyes – as do I, when are they supposed to change (if they do) I always forget. x
I think between 6-9 months you’ll notice the most change but they can subtly change up until around the age of 3. Obviously if they’re brown then they won’t revert to blue. Maybe Mabel will keep her baby blues. Either way she’s super cute xxx
Those toes are too cute! It is funny how they change so much and as you say you just don’t know how they will be. Both my little girls were both born with jet black hair like their Daddy but have now ended up blonde, Molly a mousey blonde but Alice is going really blonde like I was as a baby. As small babies both looked like their Daddy (which as folklore has it apparently goes back to caveman times when they had to look like their Dads so that they would accept them and not eat them!!!!). At nearly 3 Molly has morphed in to someone completely different and I’m pretty sure she is the spit of my baby sister, even in terms of personality. Alice at 1 still looks like Daddy but with my build as a baby, aka Chubby!! I find personalities funnier as Alice is like me apart from a mischievous glint like her Daddy (apparently he was a terror as a toddler!). This will only keep changing I’m sure. One thing I’ve seen which I wished I’d done was to take a photo every day for the first year and then make it in to a book so you can see how they change. Always meant to and then forgot! xx
Ha ha ha Mabel is definitely chubby! not quite as chubster as me (I was like a mini sumo) but getting there bless her. It’s so funny how she is developing a personality already, I just didn’t expect her to at this early stage – she has me in stitches! x
Awww Mabel’s the cutest little baby! I’m currently 28 weeks and think about it all the time what our little monkey is going to look like. We’ve both got blue eyes and dark hair so I’m thinking that’s nailed on….although you never know do you! But I spend ages thinking about who’s features they will have and who’s personality, my husband was a horror bag apparently when little so I’m hoping they have my chilled out nature haha! It’s a really exciting time, and thanks for the tip Charlotte M above on taking a photo every day for the first year, time flies so quickly it’s nice to capture the moments. I’ve been taking a picture of my belly every week from 12 weeks so I can see how much I’ve changed too! X
Not long now Kate! I so wish I had taken pictures of my bump every week, I did for most but it’s a shame not to have a full record.
Both James and I were noisy non-sleepers, Mabel is as good as gold and sleeps well…..our parents can’t believe our luck 🙂 x
It is quite amazing how quickly they change Charlotte. Only yesterday I was slotting pictures of my beautiful Elsa in her photo album and the change in just three short months is incredible!
Elsa is growing into a beauty! Definitely going to be breaking some hearts, I worry about my husbands sanity when she turns 16!
My husband is one-quarter Chinese, so Elsa is one-eighth Chinese! I therefore expected this black haired little Munchkin, however her hair is getting so much lighter now, just like her Mummy, I was very fair as a child.
Elsa does have the most beautiful brown eyes though, right from birth, definitely her father. Infact, Elsa is the first brown eyed baby in my side of the family, no one can remember another.
She is so unique, totally adored and the most beautiful creature (in my eyes) to grace this earth.
I’m glad you said that Kelly, I think the same about Mabel! I often say to her Dad – how do you feel about having the worlds cutest baby?! ha ha 🙂
Elsa sounds like a beauty, James has already said Mabel isn’t allowed a boyfriend until she’s at least 30…..! x
Her little feet are lovely! I will be so sad when the day comes that I don’t want to kiss my little boys feet any more!
My boy looked most like me when he was born, full head of black hair (it was surprisingly long!), olive skin, very dark eyes that were going to be brown. I can still see me in him – particularly when he pulls his ‘determined’ face. But ever since he was about 6 months old he has been scarily like his Dad. They are both tall with really long limbs, big cheeks, chocolate button eyes and wide smiles. My son has retained more of my colouring though, his Dad was blonde as a baby and is still fair with lots of freckles but David still has more olive toned skin and darker hair.
I now feel as though I couldn’t imagine him looking any different, I think I would expect any future kids to look exactly the same!
There is a scientific theory that babies start off looking like their Mum to strengthen that bond at the time when they most need their mother for survival, then after a few months when Dad might start to wander off hunting, they more strongly resemble their father and so keep him devoted to looking after Mum & Baby.
That’s really interesting Kathryn, Mabel is starting to look more and more like her Dad!
We’ve got 2 weeks left until d-date and I can’t wait to see what our little one looks like! It’s so interesting to see the differences between appearance and temperament: my husband looks like his dad, but is more like his mum in his personality, and I have no idea who I take after… The milkman?!
We keep talking about what our little one will be good at: a conversation had on the sofa the other night… “Do you think Bean (because, let’s face it, everyone calls their unborn one something!) will be a commonwealth swimmer when it’s older…?”
Mwah ahahahahahahaha Tallulah! James thinks Mabel is going to be some kind of sports superstar too (she holds a ball and passes it from hand to hand…unsure if that’s normal at 4 months or not?!) but I have told him straight she is OBVIOUSLY going to be a prima ballerina 🙂
In all seriousness though I just hope she loves whatever it is she decides to do in life.
2 weeks……eeeee!
The only thing I had any strong feeling about was that I thought she would have red hair. Neither my husband nor I are redheads (although I go ginger in the sun and he has a distinctly red tone to his beard), but there’s a LOT of red on both sides – his dad, my sister, grandmother, uncle…
I was right. She arrived with wispy red-golden locks which have just been getting darker (and curlier, little ringlets for her to rub food into…) as she’s grown. Other than that everyone says she’s the spitting image of me when I was younger – except she has her Daddy’s feet. Little rectangular toed Hobbit feet, with the only difference being that his are much hairier!
Hi Sara! she sounds super cute 🙂 James has red in his beard so I did wonder if we might have a redhead too, not so far but who knows?
I have always been told how much I look like (and act) like my mum. I always loved that growing up (because I think my mum is immense) and wanted the same with my little girl.
Believe it or not she is the absolute image of me, and my mum and others always comment on how scary it is because it’s like looking at me 20 odd years ago. The only difference is she has her daddies slightly smaller but brilliant blue eyes.
However she does not seem to share my laid back easy going temperament and is definitely taking after her daddy!!
I love that she takes after her mamma, although with baby no 2 on the way I constantly wonder what /who will they look like and what characteristics they’ll inherit. Exciting times!
Xxx
That’s the funniest thing, I can see myself when she does certain things, it’s brilliant but completely random at the same time?!
James and I are both pretty laid back (or so we’re told) and Mabel seems to be that way at the moment….fingers crossed she stays the joyful soul she is at least.
It’s amazing when you see siblings who are completely different – my best girls two are, in both looks and personality but equally lovely in their own way x
We are only 4 days off our due date and we know we are expecting a boy! Everyday I think about what he will look like, it fascinates me to think the month I fell pregnant will produce one unique baby but any other month he could have been a she and would look completely different! After seeing his little profile on the 20 week scan I’m convinced he will look like my fiance Mark and we are also certain he will be blonde as we were both blonde babies…….only time will tell and that time is drawing ever closer! We cannot wait to see our little miracle! 🙂
Congratulations Caz, only a few days to go!!! well we were both blonde too but Mabel was really quite dark (although lighter now) so you never know 🙂 x
Leo looked a LOT like Anthony’s brother when he was first born. That was very weird. Which in turn sort of meant he looked like Anthony’s dad. But he has changed SO much. I can’t believe it. He has Anthony’s eyebrows (I know – weird thing to ‘have’) and I think he has his general eye shape. Anthony also has a significant gap in his front teeth and Leo appears to have it at present (this might close as more teeth come in which Anthony would be very pleased about but I love the gap and I sort of hope he carries on the family trait. Both Anthonys Mom, Nan and great nan have the same) but he has my ears (which come from my mom) but after that he is a total mix. He has the fullness of daddy’s lips but with my heart shaped top lip. From above he has Anthony’s nose shape but more of my nostril shape from the front.
So weird. He is very different from me in many ways, and people have asked in the past if he is mine. I am very fair, blonde blue eyes and he is, in comparison to me, very dark skinned with the deepest dark eyes and deliciously dark brown hair. I always wondered when I was pregnant if he would ever look like me because our skin tones would inevitable be very different. But at times he is more like me than me. His expressions (which Im assuming he’s picked up from spending so much time with me) and his slight* temper are the same as mine. And he is SO loving I could cry. And I think when they start to develop personality you start to see past who they look like physically and pick up on who’s personality traits they are starting to follow.
What a wonderful wonderful time. I’m so happy you are getting to experience all of this.
*I have been known to have raging grumps. Leo is the same. Oops.
I gave birth to a beautiful little brown haired girl with pale skin who was undoubtedly the image of her daddy. Coming up to 10months I have the most beautiful blonde haired blue eyed bubba with golden skin, just like me! She still looks a lot like Dean but you can definitely tell I’m her mumma!
I was convinced she would be dark haired with green eyes like him but I’m so happy that she’s like me in a way, I guess it’s my inner tiger mum saying “see she is like me!”, well her temper definitely is!
It’s so true what you said about how if she’d been conceived at a different moment in time she would be a totally different person, my sister and me are completely different I guess it just goes to show science isn’t always exact xx
Where did Mabel get her cheeks from they are absolutely scrumptious!?
My Stella is kind of her own little person with traits from me her dad and all the other family! I thought she’d be just like her dad (brown pretty eyes dark hair and a perfect pout) but instead she’s red (like her grandad on hubby’s side) with huge blue eyes (like hubby’s sister) with long limbs and neck (like her dad)! But she definitely looks like me too it’s weird! She has my chin and mouth and she’s got my frown nailed! Oh and she’s got dimples! No idea where they came from but they’re really prominent! It was one of the first things I noticed about her when id given birth and she (obviously) wasn’t smiling but you could see them! Her temperament is quite unique too – she’s a terror! Definitely the red hair! Xxx