Baby Update - 1 week

Age:  1 week

Weight: 7 lb 1 oz (weighed today)

Feeding: It has been a rollercoaster!  OJ was offered the breast a couple of times on the afternoon he was born and on the third attempt he got the hang of it.  He fed really well in hospital and continued to do so when we got home.  He would feed for half an hour at a time and up to about 12 times a day.  However, 4 days later my milk still hadn't come in and he'd only had one wet nappy in 24 hours.  We took him to see the midwife on Monday (3 days ago) and he'd dropped down to 6 lb 10 oz from a birth weight of 7 lb 4 oz.  This was an 8.5% loss and they like it to be 8% or less so, whilst it wasn't excessive, they asked me to feed him every 2 hours round the clock and hopefully my milk would come in soon.  Apparently it's quite common for your milk to take longer to come in if you had a long labour or heavy blood loss, both of which were issues for me.  For the last few days he's been feeding 2 hourly day and night but having shorter feeds lasting more around 10-15 minutes, except for last night where he fed twice an hour then went 2 hours in between, leading to me having to wake him up, and repeated that pattern all night.  When the midwife came to weigh him today he was back up to 7 lb 1 oz which is a gain of 5 oz (180 g) in 3 days and they were very, very happy with him.  I've been given the green light to go back to feeding him on demand and only wake him up if he's gone for 4 hours without a feed so hopefully I'll get a bit more sleep.

Sleep: We can't really complain - for the first couple of nights at home he was really unsettled and we couldn't put him down in his Moses basket at night.  He did sleep well in the day though.  We got into a good routine of me napping on the sofa between 10 and 12 pm whilst ALS looked after OJ, then us going to bed and me taking over for the night feeds.  I would wake ALS up at night if I needed a bit of a break and then he would get up around 6 am and take OJ downstairs so I could get a solid few hours (although he often had to bring him back for a feed once in between).  However, since my milk came in OJ has been a lot more settled - most of the time after a feed he will fall straight to sleep and I can pop him down and get a bit of sleep myself, although having to feed him every 2 hours meant that, by the time he'd fed and settled, I was probably only getting an hour at a time.  It has meant that ALS has had a couple of nights where he's got to sleep pretty much solidly from 1 am to around 6 or 7 am, just with small interruptions when I have to do a nappy change - because it's impossible to do so quietly.  I've been binge watching Once Upon a Time during night feeds to keep me entertained and I've survived quite well.  However, I am very much looking forward to not having to feed every 2 hours at night.  Most of the time I was having to wake him up for the feed, which meant it took a while for him to be alert enough to want to latch on.  Letting him call the shots might mean that I get slightly longer stints of sleep in between feeds - I won't hold my breath but if it works out as it has been seeming to then we should be in a decent position for when ALS goes back to work next week.  Fortunately noise doesn't seem to disturb OJ at all so I can get on with whatever I want once he's asleep.

Routine: We have had quite a good routine with ALS getting up early with OJ initially and since he's been sleeping between we both get up around 8 am.  I will feed OJ whilst ALS gets some breakfast and gets ready for the day then he takes him and I get myself fed and showered.  Throughout the day we just kind of take turns but ALS has been great at looking after me when I've been stuck feeding for long periods of time.  We tend to do nappy changes together (mostly in an attempt to make them quicker and not get peed on).  We've tried to get out of the house at least every other day and been successful so far!  Things will change dramatically when ALS heads back to work but for now I feel like we're doing pretty well.

Likes/dislikes:  OJ absolutely hates having his clothes taken off, I'm guessing it's because he gets a bit chilly maybe.  Nappy changes are therefore the only time he really cries but as soon as we start putting his clothes back on he settles down again.  He loves having tummy time if he's lying on your chest and especially enjoys sleeping on his tummy on ALS' chest, which is adorable to see.  When he's awake he loves being held close to you so that he can watch your facial expressions.

Firsts: We've had all of the firsts this week... first feed, first nappy change, first bath (he wasn't very impressed but he was already upset before we started due to having had a poo explosion, the water did settle him a little bit though), first trip to the supermarket, first walk in the park, first hiccups (and MANY more, poor thing gets them all the time).  I'm sure there's more and the rate of firsts will slow down over the next few weeks but it's been a busy 7 days and everything is new right now!

Milestones: No major milestones hit but establishing breastfeeding has been a real achievement and I have to say that the support from the midwives and community teams has been incredible.  I also managed my first breastfeed in the car (parked) when we'd been stuck in traffic for ages and OJ was getting very distressed.

Things we did:  We've been shopping a couple of times and we've been out for a couple of walks when the weather allows.  We actually managed a nice 5k walk at only 3 days old.  OJ slept the whole time but it was great for ALS and I to get out and get some fresh air.  We've had a lot of visitors and in between there's been a lot of quality family time with snuggles, watching sitcoms and finding our feet as parents.

Me:  I weighed myself this morning and I'm down to 57.9 kg which, considering I started pregnancy at 58.5 kg is quite impressive.  I had a lot of fluid retention after birth so when I left the hospital I'd only left 1 lb despite having given birth to a 7 lb baby, but that's settled now.  I did actually drop down to around 55 kg during pregnancy when I started to lose muscle so being under pre-pregnancy weight isn't too surprising considering I'm carrying no muscle at all.  I'm still very sore down below from a combination of the delivery and pretty severe haemorrhoids.  The day we came home from the hospital I felt like I'd been hit by a bus and every muscle ached but by the day after that I'd stopped the pain relief and I feel like I've recovered pretty well.  I'm taking some time to appreciate what my body has actually achieved over the last week (not to mention in the 9 months beforehand) and I'm amazed by it.  Breastfeeding wise my breasts are very tender and getting rock hard between feeds, especially having gone from every 2 hours to a bit less often, but I've been able to hand express a little to get some relief.

I realise that I've still not posted my birth story but I've not really had time to sit and write it, plus it's taking me some time to get my head around it and make sure I have all the facts straight.  It was quite traumatic so it may be another couple of weeks before I have the mental strength to write it all out, please bear with me.  I'm struggling a little bit with my emotions - mostly just wishing that time would freeze so that my baby stays a baby forever - and I don't want to drag up any more emotional outbursts than necessary.

For now, here's a few photos of our first week:

This is our first photo, just a few moments after OJ was born and put on my chest for skin to skin.

OJ's first outfit a few hours after we got up to the ward.

1 day old and ready to come home from the hospital.

2 days old and about to go on our first trip out - nowhere exciting, just food shopping.  I love this little Winnie-the-Pooh hat/bib set.  We have quite a lot of Winnie-the-Pooh stuff that has been bought for us coincidentally, but this was a set I bought myself.

3 days old on our first trip to the local park - he'll be spending a lot of time there in the years to come as we already visited a lot before we had him and it's got a fantastic play area for kids.

OJ with the giant teddy bear that some of our friends bought for him.  We are going to use this to take photos with and record his growth.  This was at 5 days and 6 lb 10 oz.

6 days old, post-feed, taking it all in.

6 days old, just after his first bath.  As soon as he gets his scratch mitts off he loves to soothe himself by sucking on his fingers.  Maybe this will help us avoid the need for a dummy!

1 week old and perfectly summed up by his changing mat!

These are the presents we have had from visitor so far - little OJ has been absolutely spoiled rotten and certainly won't be running out of clothes any time soon.  It's great seeing so many little boy clothes as obviously, with us not knowing the gender during pregnancy, everything we already had was white/cream and although it's cute and we're still using it, it's nice dressing him in blue too!

This is me at 1 week postpartum and a pair of tiny feet if you look closely!  Despite being down on weight I definitely still have a little bit of a pouch going on.  I'm very happy with how well everything has shrunk back down (the contractions during breastfeeding for the first few days were pretty intense but it means my uterus has shrunk right back down quite quickly).  I'm looking forward to watching my body change and go back to "normal" or even better than before but I'm taking time to recover and won't be getting back to any serious exercise for a good few weeks.  For now, walking and pelvic floor exercises is more than enough.