First 10 days of being a family of four!

Wow what a whirlwind the last 10 days have been! We have a cute, little, gorgeous newborn son at home with us and in general life is good but our first 10 days has been slightly dominated by his weight and feeding…

Baby S’s weight and breastfeeding issues

S struggled to latch in hospital, and when we brought him home on day 2 we all had the worst night’s sleep… He wouldn’t latch, wouldn’t sleep and screamed a lot!

Breastfeeding support came out day 3 or 4 and helped with his latch and my positioning. This, combined with my milk coming in all helped and we finally started feeding ok but we were playing catch up…

By day 4 he had lost 10% of his weight, by day 6 he was back up to -6%, but by day 8 he was back to -10% and today (day 10) he’s still at -10%. I took him to a breastfeeding support clinic this afternoon and basically I need to pump a bit more, give him another expressed bottle feed and we’ll see where he’s at on Sunday!

I know his latch still isn’t 100%, he still gets frustrated at times when he’s trying. On the plus side he’s taken to bottles well  which can always be a battle when you’re breastfeeding!

Routine and moods

Obviously newborns are renowned for not having a routine, but we’ve had some good days and nights where he’ll sleep for 2-3 hours, feed, settle back down easily for a sleep. But then we’ve had other days where he’s cluster feeding and will only sleep on a human being!

Despite the feeding ‘issues’ he’s quite content, just this morning I took him out to the garden and he was looking around taking everything in, no tears or screams!

Me – mummy

I’m feeling ok, just tired as you’d expect from a mum to a newborn! His feeding plan and the terrible rainy weather have given me the perfect excuse not to leave the house (apart from last week’s vote and today’s BF group!) which was one of the things I wanted to do more of with baby 2... Just chill out! Been watching lots of cr&p TV and films!

My bump has pretty much disappeared (see… Some of my breastfeeding efforts must be working!) and I’m pretty much back to my pre-baby weight of 8lb. 

Toddler W – big brother!

You might remember that I was a bit worried about how toddler W would take to his younger brother and we prepared him for it as much as we could, well we needn’t have worried! 

Thankfully we had decided to leave him with the childminder on my work days (m-th) and I think this has given him the attention he needs, and the chance to burn off all his energy. Then, when he comes home he comes running in asking for ‘baby kiss’… It’s the cutest thing! 

As my OH and his family have also been helping out a lot with W, I do feel like I’m neglecting him a bit but I think it’s too be expected and it won’t last long…

One thing I’ve found really weird is how big and heavy W now seems! I don’t know if S’s birth co-incided with a growth spurt for W or if it’s just cos I’m holding S so much but honestly… W seems huge!! Did you find this with your first born?! 

My OH 

After our first crazy night at home, I decided that S and I would sleep in the living room so that my OH could sleep well most nights. This means he then had the energy to help out with everything from playing with W, feeding me, housework etc…. He’s been a star! 

So there we have it, it’s been a funny first week or so dominated by feeding and expressing… But we survived! We’re now a family of four and at the centre right now is a tiny baby with long legs, long feet, lots of dark hair… Who looks a bit like his older brother did at this age… Who makes cute little noises and funny movements in a light sleep… Who has melted all of our hearts ❤️

Linked up with #KCACOLS