Babies
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Monday, July 7th, 2008Edward is one of those babies that does not like to be put down. And so I have had to buy a sling. Which is good because I get my arms back. But I wish he’d just go to bed already. Clearly he thinks a warm, soft bed with gently blissful sleep is overrated. But he’s a baby: he has everything to learn.
But he looks so cute in it that I think they should be issued to every mother as she leaves the hospital, because who wouldn’t want a baby that looks like this:
There’s a reason why the first three months are called the fourth trimester and this is it, only the bump is a little higher and it’s on the outside.
(I bought red because I wanted to make a statement about my babywearing earthmama-ishness. And also because that’s the only colour the shop sold.)
I haven’t had to use the bathroom with it on yet, but I’m thinking I might have to.
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Breast gymnastics
Thursday, June 19th, 2008Mastitis has struck.
Not a milk blister which was the cause of so much ongoing trouble last time (like for about eight months), but fortunately just a simple blocked milk duct.
But, holy crap, if it doesn’t hurt just the same.
The baby and I try out all sorts of exotic feeding positions. The best, according to the lactation consultant, whom I used to have on speed dial when William was a baby, is to feed on all fours with the baby lying underneath you, positioned so the baby’s bottom lip is in line with the affected area. (See? You come here, you learn something.) All the same, it’s possibly not what you feel like doing when you have a fever, feel like crap and would rather be lying in bed than attempting contortionist breast gymnastics.
This is apparently also the time to increase the frequency of the baby’s feeds (because I’m clearly not spending enough time pinned to the sofa feeding already), apply a warm cloth to the affected breast to encourage milk flow and take a basic painkiller if I need it (not least because it feels like your nipple is being clamped in a vice when you try feeding on a red, hot, mastitis-stricken breast). If the mastitis doesn’t clear up within a few hours I have to visit the doctor for antibiotics - because, untreated, an abcess can form which would need to be drained. And I don’t know about you, but having a needle stuck into my boob is not high on my list of priorities right now.
I’ve managed to avoid antibiotics because I clear the blockage, which makes me feel better, only for it to return, along with the feeling like crap. So it spreads something that would normally be shortlived into several days.
So, in summary: I’m having so much fun at the moment!
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Week three with this new baby of mine: longing
Monday, June 16th, 2008There is no baby more beautiful than mine and nothing you can say will convince me otherwise.
Although night times are terrible - the endless cycle of feeding, changing, winding and what feels like only a few minutes of sleep before it all starts again - they are also wonderful because he and I really get to know each other, searching each other’s faces, memorising every detail. I watch his inky blue eyes and kiss his neck, I gaze at him sleeping, his mouth making small shapes, smiles flitting over his face as he dreams of whatever it is babies dream of. I look at him and I think, he is perfect in every way.
I endured an awful pregnancy knowing he would make our family complete. I struggled through another long labour, much of it alone, knowing it would be for the last time. I got through the hideous first week trying to remember that it does get better. I try to convince myself, he is my last baby.
But the truth is, the thought that he might be my last baby is unbearable.
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When will my baby sleep through? When?
Thursday, June 12th, 2008Why is it that when you most need caffeine to cope with sleep deprivation, you can’t have it? Unless you want a baby that is awake more than it is already (see my Tweets over there on the right, where I’m already complaining).
Every one of my children was up at some point last night. And nobody’s even sick.
Is there some sort of conspiracy to drive me insane? Is there?
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The first month with a newborn
Saturday, June 7th, 2008March 27 2008
The first month with a newborn: umm, nothing gets done. Except feeding, changing nappies and not getting any sleep.
In between, you can find me and him like this:
Cute, no? But not conducive to getting stuff done, including looking after his three older siblings, none of whom can look after themselves in any way, shape or form.
Homeschool? Er, lots of unschooling methods in operation at the moment. But the children are learning just as much as when we sit at a desk most of the day (although I shouldn’t be surprised, because I know unschooling methods work really well, I just can’t bring myself to adopt them completely, simply out of fear that I might screw up my children’s education). William left preschool last term and so I am homeschooling him and Harry while Ben, my loving but oh-so-wilful two year old, demolishes the house out of boredom (I jest! he sit’s at the table doing his ’schoolwork’ - out of choice I should add, not because I am hothousing him so he becomes a maths prodigy by age five). Edward the baby sits frogging on my chest, no doubt taking it all in so that he will be reading and writing before he is even one.
The chores remain undone.
I cook many meals one-handed.
I get no sleep.
I get no time to do anything except look after children all through the day and then all through the night too.
Fun times.
But then my children gather round me and the baby and we all coo at him and I remember why I am doing this.
**************
Of course, this should actually have been posted a few weeks ago, when the baby was actually a month old, but I am determined to keep a record of his early days even if it does require a little ‘delay’ with some of the posts. And anyway, I start these posts and then there’s no way I’m not going to finish them, given how long it takes me to write anything these days.
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