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2008-01-18 - 11.27pm��previous entry��next entry
Six days old, and photos of my 3 little boys!
It's really late, but I wanted to update to say THANK YOU for all the lovely comments after my photos post! :) I loved reading them all, thank you so much!
Thanks also to Meg for the sweet little outfit for Nathan (we still can't find the tiny baby/newborn clothing box, so we have very little for him - I must take a photo of him in your outfit! It's so sweet!
Thank you Jemma for the lovely big package of Jove's tiny things! What a blessing that was to us! Nathan has been wearing the nappies loads already, and HOW I love the little tye-dyed vest! More clothes might well be handy if we keep not finding this darn box. We are basically in need of sleepsuits and vests at the moment, since he pretty much lives in those and they are so easy to change and comfy/right temperature for him, etc. We have six sleepsuits in size tiny/early baby and six vests in the same size - the ones Neil bought at Tesco. We seem to be forever searching for tiny sleepsuits and vests and trying to wash them the moment they get dirty! It's SO frustrating because I went so crazy overboard buying tiny things on eBay when I was pregnant with Arthur, so we have a MASSIVE abundance of these things - probably 20 sleepsuits in tiny baby size, and another 20 in newborn size. *sigh* But, for now we have just six, and NOTHING in newborn size. We soooooo need to find that box, but the loft is just a complete state (finally popped up there to take a look, now that I have no baby bump to put me off balance, and it's just AWFUL. I'm kind of annoyed at Neil for just dumping things willy-nilly and not keeping any sort of order up there!). Neil says he has been through all the boxes up there (they are all ripped open and stuff from his search, tsk!) and that the newborn box "isn't there" but it MUST be. The loft is the only place it could possibly be. To find it means literally sorting the entire loft, and re-ordering it as we go, leaving nothing unturned. It could be DAYS of work, with the amount of stuff up there and the state its in, and we have no time or energy at all to do it. It's frustrating me so much! And upsetting me sometimes, when it really isn't an emotional issue as such (apart from how lovingly I collected only the cutest tiny clothes I could find to create my stash, and FINALLY we have a baby small enough to make use of them! But he'll outgrow them before we find the darned things at this rate, which is the upsetting thing for me).
Anyway.
I can't remember what I was saying! Oh yes! Thank you to Jemma for sending Jove's things, and the lovely homemade cards!
Thank you Shelley for the offer of Jamie's leftover nappies! We are currently using mainly cloth on Nathan. I can't believe it - Arthur and Matthew have never worn one single disposable nappy in their lives, and when we were in hospital my brother was looking after them. He went right out and bought disposable nappies and wipes! Which is fine, since it was a LOT to take on, all of the boys' care! But it feels so odd that they have finally worn disposable nappies after all this time. We still have the pack he bought, and we have been using them on the boys for some of their daytime changes. I don't LIKE it! But it would be silly to make a thing of it. We just can't get on top of anything in the house at the moment - it is really overwhelming right now. We are just drowning in laundry, clean and dirty - the clean is lying around in such unclean places that some of it just ends up going back into the washing machine again. We were just getting to the point where the nappy buckets were full (those are for poo only), the box was full (wee only), and we had only a couple of clean nappies left for the boys to wear. So Neil decided that until we could catch up on the laundry, he'd use disposables on them.
I tell you, it feels so weird, and basically just WRONG (!) to put a nappy in the bin with POO in it, just to throw away! I know you're meant to put the poo in the toilet even with disposables, but yeah. Anyway, it feels not-right-at-all! Much easier though, for now. Their clothes fit a little looser, haha! Cloth nappies are big :) At night they are only ever wearing cloth, as we don't trust disposables - they wee LOTS overnight, and using cloth for night nappies is fine for us.
Neil bought a pack of disposables for Nathan when we had not got enough tiny cloth nappies for him. So he has been wearing disposables too. I don't like it!!!! I really don't. It's just not what I wanted to do. But oh well. I am trying to let it slide, and it's only for a time anyway. We do now have plenty of tiny nappies, as I found some of the others that were missing, but not enough wraps. So sometimes he wears a disposable nappy. He's almost exclusively in cloth at the moment. So for now I am thinking we don't need Jamie's nappies, Shelley, but thank you so much for the offer! I may yet change my mind, and will let you know if I do! :)
Nathan is stirring, so I need to hurry up! He isn't sleeping great - well, he IS sleeping great, but so long as it's ON TOP OF either myself or Neil. He won't be put down to sleep, even if he's completely unconscious in our arms first. He wakes within 2 minutes, every single time, and then needs a lot of comforting and nursing and so on to go back to sleep. He won't settle for co-sleeping next to me (which I feel nervous about anyway for some reason - maybe because he's so tiny, or maybe because I'm so exhausted right now that I don't think I'm aware enough at night to be safe next to him) - he only wants to be held or to lie on a chest or tummy. And on HIS tummy, too - not lying on his back on a chest or tummy.
The other night Neil and I got NO sleep at all. We were still up at 6am, completely exhausted to achiness, unable to put him down at all, and too anxious about having him sleep ON us. Last night we didn't get much sleep either, but I just thought there is no WAY we can manage another sleepless night, either of us. So I lay on my back in bed, put Nathan on my tummy - quite low down so that his head didn't put any pressure on my breasts, and they weren't in the way to suffocate him or something! - and covered him with my bedding (which is now a sheet and 2 blankets, as per baby safety stuff). It meant that most of my top half was uncovered, but I just wore a top that would be warm enough for me in the night.
He slept WAY better, and so did we! He wakes naturally between 2 and 3 hours after he last woke for a feed, so his feeds are roughly 2-3 hourly on demand. I was a bit worried at first that I'd be so tired out that I wouldn't wake to "remind" him to nurse if he was sleepy and went too long between feeds. But he hasn't been - he always wakes by 3 hours, so that's good! I don't really want him to go longer than 3 hours at the moment. He's so tiny and I want to help him get rid of the little bit of jaundice he has, as fast as possible.
Anyway. When he wakes, he nurses, and then needs burping (BOY does this baby need burping a lot!), which can take some time. Then he needs a nappy change which we do downstairs (the light stays on down there so we can see in a dim light upstairs anyway, for now) so as to avoid disturbing the boys. And then he comes back up for the other breast! He's usually zonked after that and I burp him a bit, put him back on my tummy and we sleep for another couple of hours. I can't wait till the stage where he doesn't need nighttime nappy changes! I remember longing for that stage with both my other boys as well!
Nathan is doing really well. His jaundice never really got worse - maybe a TOUCH more yellowy the next day after my last entry, but then has just remained steady, not better or worse. Today I think his colour is a little better, so that's good. The midwife came on Tuesday and again on Thursday (yesterday) and doesn't seem worried at all about his colour.
Nathan's cord stump fell off in the night last night, so at 5 (nearly 6) days old. Arthur was 7 days old when his fell off, and Matthew was 4 days old, so it's about right for my little ones. I'm glad it's off. It's so much easier to do nappy and clothing changes without the big old yellow clip there in the way! He has an outie tummy button at the moment. I haven't seen one before as Arthur and Matthew had obvious innies as soon as the stump fell off. I am going to ask the midwife if it's okay when she comes again tomorrow. She's coming just to weigh Nathan, as he's so tiny. They just want to be sure his weight is going up nicely.
When they weighed him on Tuesday, he was 5lbs 5oz, so he had lost some weight from his birthweight of 5lbs 13oz, but not 10% of his body weight so they weren't worried. On Thursday he weighed 5lbs 9oz. I wonder what he'll weigh tomorrow. He is getting plenty of milk - I have LOADS, seriously. I do not fit ANY of my nursing bras :( I am kind of fed up about it, because I have to go about wearing no bra and something absorbent stuffed up my top to deal with the constant leakage! I can't go out or see people like this! I really need to go for a bra fitting somewhere, and magically have the money to buy a bunch of well-fitting bras, but have no time or energy to do that even if I had the money. Oh well! At least the girls are easily accessible to my TRIBE of nurslings, haha! Arthur is back on the tandem (triandum?) nursing train, and nursing happily, and more frequently than before Nathan was born, as is Matthew. But I seem to have plenty enough for them all, so that's good news. I am having no issues with engorgement now (what a surprise, hehe!).
Nathan went back to sleep so I've been able to carry on for a bit. He's sleeping on Neil till I get upstairs to bed, which I MUST do because it's getting really late. I'm able to nap with Nathan on me in the day which is heavenly. Neil is doing the "stuff" with the boys in the day, and I'm trying to rest up as much as I can. My plan was always to take the first 2 weeks as complete rest time. I read online (from a large family blog, I can't remember which) that if you rest COMPLETELY (as in, don't get out of bed) for the first 2 weeks after birth, you are waaaaay better recovered by 6 weeks postpartum, enough to be right back on track. Whereas if you don't, you will likely find yourself sub-par in the energy department for a lot longer than 6 weeks - maybe even many months. Those first 2 weeks are key, apparently, to allow your body to recover from the birth. So I planned to do that, since I knew Neil would be around. I'm trying to stick to it, and it's wonderful to be able to as much as I am. I AM setting myself one small goal per day though, so I feel vaguely useful! I cleaned the sink yesterday. Today's goal was to clean the bathroom sink, but I made dinner instead while Neil held the fort with all 3 boys.
I can't BELIEVE I have three sons! How blessed am I?! Three boys. Wow. I have photos, at last! Yay! There will be lots - I hope it doesn't take forever to load for some of you guys. I had only posted the hospital photos up till now, so here are the ones taken right after we got home from hospital!
When we got home, the boys were out for a (very muddy!) walk with Nana and Grandy (my parents). That was perfect because we could arrive, settle in, and make ourselves ready to greet our little ones. I went upstairs with Nathan, and Neil greeted them all when they got home, and helped them take off their muddy things. I could hear Arthur downstairs saying, "Daddy, why are you home so early?" and Neil was saying that Mummy wanted to see Arthur and Matthew so he brought her home! Arthur was also just chatting away as usual about their walk and how muddy they were, etc. I could hear Matthew making his little word-like sounds and chatting in his own little way. I was SO LONGING to run downstairs and gather them in my arms - I had missed them SO much! It was a physical effort not to go to them, hearing their little voices and normal goings-on for the first time in days, soooo near to me!
Then my mum came upstairs and held Nathan while I went downstairs to see the boys. I suddenly felt anxious that I would just cry and cry when I saw them, and I didn't want to do that! But I didn't :) They were sitting on the living room floor taking their socks off, and when they saw me they both gasped with surprise, and got the same sort of shy/pleased little smile as I came towards them. Ohhhhh how I missed them! I hugged them right up! And told them how I'd missed them and how glad I was to be home with them. When Arthur realised Nathan was home with me (no big baby bump on my front any more!), his eyes lit up and he started craning his neck round to the stairs, saying he wanted to see Nathan.
So I went upstairs to get Nathan from my mummy. She was sitting on the bed with him cradled in her arms, just gazing at him. When I reached for him, she said, "I'm sorry, you can't have him." Hahaha! He's so lovely, I know how it feels not to want to hand him over to ANYONE! :) Anyway, I carried him downstairs and showed him to the boys. Arthur was all sort of gaspy and awed, and Matthew was really eager to touch him and get close to him. He was excited and eager like Arthur was when Matthew was born, but Arthur himself was more held back this time.
Nana came downstairs too and held Nathan so I could cuddle the boys as they watched Nathan. Here is Matthew meeting his new baby brother (well, not the first instant, but a few minutes later!):
And his blur of a brother (very "Arthur"!) coming to get involved as well:
Nathan woke after that and I took him up to nurse him. Nana read the boys the story that Jemma got Arthur for his birthday (they love that one!):
Matthew seems to constantly want to see Nathan (he calls out, "dee-dee!" which seems to mean "baby", and then says, "deh-doh" which is him saying "gentle", meaning he wants to stroke Nathan's head gently, aww!). He has been EVER SO gentle with Nathan, and loves to stroke his hair and nuzzle it with his mouth and nose. He's so thrilled with Nathan! Arthur has been less thrilled, not PUT OUT as such, but just not too excited around him and generally acting kind of aggressive like he's dealing with some "stuff" at the moment. Poor Arthur. It is a transition, and not necessarily an easy one. He is doing WAY better with Nathan since he decided to nurse again. I'm so glad. He has been tandem nursing with Nathan today and holding his tiny hand, and this evening he asked to hold Nathan for the first time, and was really thrilled with him, again for the first time.
Anyway, Matthew has to be given lots of opportunities to hold and see and stroke Nathan, otherwise he gets upset about it! Here he is sitting with Neil and Nathan - then Arthur came alongside them so I got my first photos of ALL my boys!!! How proud am I?! I think Arthur was happy enough with Nathan at this stage (it was the night we'd arrived home, just later on than the previous photos), but you can see he wasn't as thrilled as Matthew, or as thrilled as he was when MATTHEW was born (remember these photos?!):
I totally LOVE that last one, because of Matthew's total cuteness! :) He really is so thrilled with his new baby brother!
Ohhhh I have a ton more photos, but DARN IT, Photobucket has stopped loading for me so I can't access the links! Tsk! Well, it's probably too late anyway, and Nathan will wake for a feed again soon. I had better just hurry up and go to bed, and post the rest of the photos tomorrow (hopefully). I wanted to write a little more about how life is going at the moment with three little ones, so hopefully I'll have time for that too. Nathan will be a week old tomorrow! I can't believe how fast it has gone, at the same time as it has felt like the LONGEST week on record! Funny how that happens when you have a new baby.
Anyway, back tomorrow, I hope! :)
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