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2004-11-18 - 4.24pm��previous entry��next entry
9 days old - more photos!
Sorry it�s been a few days again � I keep wanting to update but there�s just no time! Thank you for all the lovely supportive guestbook messages and emails AGAIN � you guys are great! Well, Arthur is now 9 days old, and�
HE BREASTFEEDS!!!!....
�.. And look how zonked and contented he is after a feed!! :)
Ohhhh yes, he is feeding and I am soooo thrilled about it, I can�t tell you! I just kept offering him the breast and on one of those occasions, 3 evenings ago I think it was, he just started sucking and that was it! The next feed he fussed a little to start with, and I was all down about it, but after a little cuddle with Daddy and a burp, he took the breast again and had a good feed! He hasn�t looked back since, and we have put away the sterilising stuff and the formula and syringes. This is SUCH a huge answer to prayer and I just have to praise God for it here, so everybody knows that I am thanking God for providing for us over the feeding. Thank you Lord!! I am so grateful. Phew!
Okay so the last few days have been different! Arthur has fed for ENGLAND, seriously! He started by feeding about 10 minutes or so on one breast and then after a burping session he might want a few minutes on the other side before konking out. I got worried that he wasn�t getting long enough or something, that he might be missing out on the hind milk that would help him gain weight and be well nourished. After a couple of days I phoned the breastfeeding counsellor again and she said she thinks I have a super duper let-down reflex for my milk � that is, I supply a LOT in a short time! Arthur has to gulp and gasp with every suck just to keep up with the flow, and if he comes off the breast mid-feed, milk absolutely pours from my nipple and drips and runs all over my arm and his face! I have had to learn to be pretty speedy with clapping a muslin cloth over my breast as he comes off! Yup, I have LOTS of milk :) I am so pleased!
At first he fed for like 20 minutes (I have stopped clock-watching now, there�s little point really!), and then slept for 3-4 hours, then fed again and so on. That was nice! He sleeps great between feeds. But today and yesterday he has started to change his feeding pattern already. He drains one breast till he�s dozy, then gets burped, then drains the other breasts till asleep on the nipple, then gets burped, then fusses, then gets more of the second breast till asleep, then wakes and fusses, gets burped, wants my non-existant third breast, etc!! He isn�t sleeping so long between feeds now, maybe a couple of hours, and his pattern is more erratic. He fusses a lot between feeds and brings up a lot more too. He has soooo much wind! We do burp him a lot, otherwise he brings up a lot more milk. He fidgets more in his sleep and I didn�t get a lot of sleep last night because he was up 3 times for an hour long feed, and fussed a little inbetween. I guess he is just a hungry boy and starting a growth spurt?
On Monday the midwife came round and weighed him. He weighed 7lbs 8oz, a slight upward turn in his weight since he lost some after the birth, so the midwife was satisfied with that, but said that they probably wouldn�t discharge me this week as his weight would need to be within 2oz of his birth weight to do that, and he had a fair way to go yet. Today the midwife came again and weighed him, and she stared at the scales saying, �Is this right?!� He is 8lbs 1oz today!! Half an ounce off his birth weight!!! She was amazed because it�s only taken him 3 days to put that on. She said I have good milk and he is feeding great :) Of course that made my day! They discharged us to the Health Visitor today as a result, which is great! I am just soooo relieved and delighted about the feeding. The ONLY slight negative is the fact that my nipples are just soooo painful. So so so painful. I am hoping they get used to it soon. Sometimes they aren�t so bad, so I think his latch isn�t always the greatest. He doesn�t always open his mouth wide enough or put his tongue forward, so those things will make his sucking hurt. Anyway we are getting there, and I�m just so glad he is feeding well and putting on SO much weight! He doesn�t fit his tiny clothes any more, but he fits beautifully into his newborn clothes now � they fit up to 10lbs, and I don�t think he�ll be in them very long. He has grown out of his newborn proraps and we now have a serious nappy and wrap shortage! If I could go back and change anything about the nappy system, I would buy a LOAD of Bummis Super Whisper Wraps in size newborn. They are the BEST wraps. His Stacinator So-Simple Wrap is pretty good too, but kind of large and baggy. But those Bummis� they are great. I only have one in size newborn, so we are using the smalls as well, but they are too big on him really. We are also starting to use the size 1 Tots Bots. This boy is the biggest wee-er ever. He saturates all his nappies, no matter the brand, and no matter if they have a booster. Well, we haven�t tested out the size 1 boosted Tots yet (he has his first one on now), so we�ll see if that�s an improvement.
Today I changed his nappy while Neil was out, and he had peed it soaking wet, and pooed all up the back! When I took it off he peed evvverywhere, on me, the carpet, the changing mat, his clothes. Everywhere! While I was mopping up, he pooed. That was so nice ;) I just had to laugh, it was too funny really. He was pretty mad after that and took a while to stop yelling about my inadequacies in nappy changing! ;) He has started to get a lot of hiccups too, which don�t help him at ALL when he has a full tummy (muslins at the ready!).
His head has smoothed out and lost all it�s moulding from the birth. His cord came off on Tuesday, at 7 days old. He is going to have a lovely innie belly button! I want to kiss it already, but it�s still kind of healing yet. My bleeding is very light now, which is nice! My stitches are doing great but they itch like crazy now which drives me crazy. They aren�t infected � apparently they are just doing that stage of healing like where a scab on your knee itches like mad and you want to pick it off! So yeah, I hope that goes away soon! But I know it means it�s healing well. I am doing my pelvic floor exercises and they don�t hurt at all, in fact they kind of help the itching so that�s good. My womb is contracting down very nicely too, and my tummy is a lot more flat now.
Yesterday we took Arthur to the Registry Office to register his birth! I hadn�t been out since being in hospital (well, except for that trip to the breastfeeding counsellor the day we came out), so going out was weird. It was nice to put Arthur in snuggly clothes in his car seat too! He hates his car seat. He doesn�t understand why he has to be squished into an uncomfy little bucket and isolated on a seat in a weird-smelling noisy thing while his mummy and daddy sit nearish him and don�t cuddle him or explain what�s going on! Here is a photo of him on the way to the Registry Office. His expression says it all!
You see? He does NOT understand, bless him! :) He has the cutest expressions, and SUCH a range of them! We never tire of seeing them all. One of the things we�ve grown to love the most is when he sneezes. He has the cutest little chipmunk-sounding sneeze, and sometimes he sneezes 2 or 3 times in a row. When he gets to the third sneeze, sometimes he does the bit where he gasps in to sneeze, and then the sneeze disappears, and he makes the most adorably cute sound as he lets the air out, sort of like a little chipmunky �aaaahhhhoooww�.� Trying to describe it here doesn�t do it any justice, it�s truly the cutest sound I ever heard in my whole life! We are trying to catch it on camcorder. It always makes us giggle and smile when we hear it, and then we have to kiss his little head and tell each other how gorgeous our little baby is! We are quite soppy with him. But he�s soooo cute!
What else can I show/tell you? I have 2 more photos � here is one of Arthur in his Moses basket. I thought you would like to see it because I remember when I posted a photo of him Moses basket when we bought it, and some of you were saying you couldn�t wait to see pictures of him actually IN it! So here he is :)
And here�s a photo of Arthur just being INCREDIBLY cute, cuddled up in my arms. I just cannot get enough of this little one. He�s so cute. I am so besotted. I could watch him all day. Anyway, here he is at one week old:
Um� there must be other news to tell you� I can�t think of any. Neil has registered us with a new doctor � hooray!! Once Arthur had a birth certificate (we got both the long and short version yesterday, and I signed the register!) we could register him with a GP, so that�s done. Neil had his introductory appt today, and I will have mine when I can pee an uncontaminated urine specimen ;) I need a cervical smear, but I have to wait till my 6 week check-up apparently. Well Arthur has a visitor from church arriving to give him a present, so I am going to go now. She is just pulling up outside. Will update again soon!
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