The first week @ home
The first week at home has been completed, but was it "successfully" completed? It depends on your exit criteria whether or not the week was a "success" or not. As we went into the week with no measure of success, then I suppose it has been by default.
He's Australian, I swear he is. Sleeping all day, crying all night. That was the procedure for the last couple of nights in hospital and the first couple at home. It’s trial and error in these early days, we have no idea what each of the cry types are, but are quickly learning them. The last couple of nights have been good, with sleeps between feeds going very well. The difference was in the bedding, slightly more than previously due to the temperature dropping quite a bit overnight. We tried a grobag but he didn’t take too kindly to the amount of space. Swaddling blanket with restrictions? Too little space. We can’t win.
We’re learning to live with each other, it’s as big a shock for junior as it is for us, having moved from a warm, cosy space with nutrition on a constant supply to this wide open space with room to move about, with food having to be demanded at regular intervals. There’s a whole new experience out here with hunger, daylight, people, being picked up, nipples, teats, clothes, nappies, breathing, wind, hiccups (actually the hiccups are nothing new, they were present on the inside too).
As they say, whoever they are, every day’s a school-day, and we’re learning as we go.
The only measure of success we had before we started was bathing. The golden advice was “as long as you don’t drown the baby, a clean baby is then a bonus”. In this respect we must be reasonable parents, we have one un-drowned baby, and a clean one at that. Unless you count the time he shat in his towel after his bath (twice, once with Grannie and once with daddy), pissed over his dad (once), pissed over his mum (twice) and just to show off pissed and puked over his dad (twice) at the same time. Yeah, rip-roaring success!
Comments
It's a rude awaking for everyone, but I bet you don't begrudge it one bit ;-)
Cool to hear about your experiences Lee. Keep it up.
Whatcha watchin at 3am by the way? We used to slap on the music channels....
Posted by: Dave Morrow | September 1, 2006 8:01 PM
Watching? The insides of my eyelids at the moment.
Not a bad idea, the music channels. Will give that a try tonight. Hope we get Kerrang! or something else [un]suitable.
Posted by: Lee ? | September 2, 2006 5:09 PM
You and Debs are doing a sterling job. The sleepless nights will soon be a distant memory and then you will realise what a pleasure and joy it is to have such a wonderfull son. Make the most of this time as it will pass all too quickly.
Posted by: Doris | September 3, 2006 3:51 PM
The sterling job was the adventure under our bed to hoover it. The en-suite clean was above and beyond the call of duty. We could not have got through this week had it not been for his Grannie being there, that's for sure. Thank you.
Posted by: Lee ? | September 3, 2006 5:10 PM