Can’t believe our little man is 3 weeks old… nearly a month old! This week’s definitely been the toughest week due to sleep deprivation which I’ll come on to later but first let’s focus on the positives which far outweigh the negatives 🙂

Week 3 highlights

• I still love him SO much – I love it when he’s awake and looking around (not that often!!), I love his headbanging move and the ‘fist confusion’ when feeding, I love how sound asleep he is when I hold him… I love watching him have Daddy cwtches… I love his little noises whether he’s awake or asleep…. love, love, love….
• More visitors this week – 2 of my good friends – it’s been so nice hosting visitors, they all adore him and it’s broken my week up nicely!
• Sunday was sunny and we over to the in-laws for sunday dinner then sat in their garden all afternoon – was funny seeing W sleep through all sorts of drilling and other loud DIY noises being made by his Bampa!
• Monday was also sunny and daddy was home so I decided to tag on to one of their walks – my first ‘proper’ walk since giving birth so I may have pushed myself a bit too hard as we ended up being out for a couple of hours… in the heat… with me wearing jeans as I still need to dig out summer clothes that fit! On the plus side – great exercise for me, W slept through it all (as per usual) and we stumbled upon a local delight which I’d not been to before: Insole Court

• Wed and Thurs some of mummy’s good friends visited which was lovely for me to catch up with them and lovely for W to get even more cwtches (Welsh cuddles)
• Friday – the health visitor weighed him and he’s now 8lb 6oz! So 1lb 4oz heavier than his birth weight – all on target and unbelievable that my milk alone can do that!
• Friday afternoon I took him out in the car by myself to see a friend…. it was a sense of achievement 1) fitting the car seat by myself (thank god for youTube videos!) and 2) driving miss daisy! Next challenge: car plus pram!
• In addition to all the gifts I listed in his haul, his presents keep acoming….

Sleepless nights

So either because of the hot weather and/or a growth spurt (according to internet sources) or maybe as I dared to suggest last week that we had some routines… this week, we had some tough nights!

• Sunday night he was a bit grisly all night
• Monday night he woke for a feed every hour (instead of his usual 2-3)
• Tuesday night was better – we gave him a big feed before bed (including some expressed milk), gave him a bath, burnt lavender candles in the bedroom and put one of his ‘daytime blankets’ on top of his moses basket mattress…. also, we packed daddy off to the spare room as he needed his sleep after the previous 2 nights…. and normal service was resumed – fed about 11pm, 2am, 4.30am…. also, I didn’t change his nappy between about 10pm and 4.30am (health visitor suggested that if there was only pee/light poo then not to worry about night changing)
• Alas, it was not to stay like that.. Wednesday night was tough…. he had a mammoth 2 hour feed in the evening (9pm-11pm-ish) so I figured he’d have a great nights’ sleep but no I ended up feeding him on and off for about 4 hours (between 2.30am and 6.30am) – every time I put him down, he wanted more – I couldn’t believe this little man could be so hungry!
• Thursday night – another big feed but earlier on – I think it was about 1.30am-3.30am. Our tranquil turtle nightlight had stopped working, so I was struggling with light and checking every time I put him down – so I took him and the moses basket to the spare room and as soon as we settled in there, he slept through from 3.30 til 7.30 = Bliss!!! 
• In the spare room he was right next to me, so we decided to try that in our bedroom on Friday night (whereas he was at the foot of our bed)… he went a while without feeds (his main feed now seems to be between 11 and 2, instead of 3-5) but now he keeps struggling to settle in the basket despite loving being sound asleep on mummy/daddy

Every night is unpredictable.. wonder how he’ll be over the next few weeks…

Other bits ‘n’ bobs

• He’s had spots on his face pretty much since he was born – the health visitor suggested he might be allergic to mummy and daddy’s bio washing powder/fabric conditioner so we’re going to switch to his non-bio and/or wash everything together (we had been keeping his stuff separate)
• He also had a nappy rash last week and early this week – we tried a couple of creams but the one that worked for us is Bepanthen – it’s all cleared up now 🙂
• He peed on his face when I was changing his nappy one time – ooooops!

So that’s it ’til next week – catch up with our Week 1 and Week 2 updates if you haven’t already 🙂

I can’t believe that just over a week ago I was full of excitement but also a great deal of fear and trepidation about what was ahead…. how would I get through labour? What if Bean didn’t bond with me? What if something was wrong with Bean? How would I know what to do with a newborn? Would I still love Bean if they were weird-looking?

Fears melt away

I know *everyone* says that things will just click straight away and mother’s instinct will kick in – but they really do! From the moment baby W was placed on me for skin-and-skin and latched on for his first feed, I had a feeling that everything would be ok!

Things I love from Week 1

• W taking so well to breastfeeding and generally being awesome – sleeps most of the time and only really cries when he’s getting changed.
• The way he looks around while he’s being fed – those gorgeous eyes!
• The way he twitches when he’s sleeping – kicking his legs and arms out – he spends a lot of time with one arm covering his eyes – this is how he was in the womb (and possibly why I tore when he was coming out!)
• The way he stretches his neck/arms/legs when he’s awake
• His funny grimaces and smiles (people say newborns don’t smile – I’m pretty sure he does!)
• The funny noises he makes and his hiccups!
• Having my other half home – he’s been amazing, cooking our meals, doing the dishes, doing 99% of the nappy changes and loving being a dad – it’s been great being a proper family for the week and it will be weird when he’s back in work. He’s already taken W out for a couple of walks and over to his grandparents when I’ve been too tired and sore to – so it’s good for us all that I’ve already been apart from W for a few hours at a time (I didn’t want to be a clingy mum if I could help it!)
• His firsts – first walk, first bath, first time sleeping outside, first trip in the car to see his grandparents
• Seeing baby clothes on the washing line for the first time 🙂

I also feel like I’m starting to earn the ‘mummy badge’:

• my food going cold while I finish feeding W
• multi-tasking – cleaning up baby sick from underneath me while still feeding W and trying not to move him
• wet patches in T-shirts (!)

So W is fine – perfect and adorable –  how am I feeling/looking?

• Still sore – down below – after stitches – enough said!
• Legs are still sore – been wearing support stockings all week and now I think I need to do some mild walking!
• I have aches in places I haven’t ached before – upper arms and lower back  – probably from picking him up and cradling him etc! (And I guess my body was in some weird positions during labour!)
• My bump is nearly gone already which I can’t believe!
• After having great skin during pregnancy, my spots have returned!
• When I was pregnant, I used things like body butters every time I bathed/showered – that’s now gone out the window!
• Tired – I would say I’m tired most of the time – probably from the 2 or 3 night feeds and I’m guessing breastfeeding in general zaps your energy. I try and nap every day but think I need to nap for longer if/when I can. Also trying to get fresh air in the garden when it’s not raining!

So there we have it – we not only survived our first week but we loved every minute! I love how every day is like a new adventure, I’m now so excited (and a lot less fearless about what the next days, weeks and months will bring 🙂