40 weeks in, 40 weeks out

This week marks the 40th week of James being with us as a living, breathing (crying, laughing, splashing, moving) child.

What a learning curve of a 40 weeks it's been...

Currently each day brings something new, mainly at the moment the distance and speed in which he crawls.  

We have happily moved away from 3 clothe changes a day post each mealtime (him and me) to a little boy happy to sit in his highchair and have his mouth open, something akin to a small bird, and happily be fed whatevers on the menu.  Rice cakes are the most. amazing. food. and he can pack away a weetabix and a half in the mornings.  This boy's food bill is going to get expensive!

I've tried to put together pics roughly from each month.  I find it fascinating to look back on how he has changed.  Most noticeably from being a newborn is the hair, gone are the dark locks, replaced by a healthy covering of blonde hair.

James now has 7 teeth, the eighth is slow to make an appearance but to be honest a few weeks of restful sleep is what we all need! 

After a lengthy debate he crawled for the first time last week and in the 7 days since has increased in speed and length, so the stairgates have gone up today!

So far it has been a tremendous journey, one that we definitely underestimated for both the good and the bad reasons and as we are only 40 weeks in who knows what the future brings! 

A few days old

About a month old, in a 'grow that looks huge!

2 months old and a bald-ish baby!

3 months old and the wrinkled forehead of surprise still lingers

4 months and those big brown eyes make most melt

5 months and enjoying food purees

6 months old and banging anything an everything is the way forward

7 months, teeth can now be seen, sitting up is old news and the cute really kicks in

The number is a giveaway but 8 months old, stretching ability is beyond anything previously witnessed

9 months old, after 2 months of thinking about it you finally crawl!

5 months in

When I started this blog it was to document my pregnancy (/pregnancies, another one, or two, is now an option).  Now life has settled somewhat I am missing writing it so I think I will keep it up though more sporadically.  It may well become; musings of a new-mum, still effected by baby brain, less baking as the child does not agree with sleeping during the day blog....

I have now had well over 2000 views of this blog, which is rather overwhelming and kinda cool at the same time!

I know every parent says "I don't know where the time goes" and now it seems Pip and I can join them.  5 months?  How is that possible?

Our boy now has 2 teeth, through at the same time, no, it was not much fun for all three of us.  Just as we had settled into almost going through the night we had 3 weeks of hum-dingers, where J slept less than he did when he first arrived.  Ye-ouch.

Thankfully he now gives off cuteness in waves, so that 7am-ish breakfast feed where I have required matchsticks and a large coffee, are now met with a smiley shrug of the shoulders after which the 2am, 3am and half 3 "put the plug back in" runs then the half 4 rock him off to sleep, are forgotten.  Just.

Yes I took a pic of him in a nappy, it's a weird parent thing...

I am trying not to think about the amount of nappies we have changed (Pip has done more than his fair share) or feeds that I have undertaken or the amount of crying/screaming/yelling we've struggled through but instead concentrate on the fun stuff.









Noises, babies make the most amazing noises.  J has an endearing noise that replaces a laugh, which he seemingly cannot do just yet.  Or it starts as a laugh then digresses to this noise.  He regularly chats to himself, us and the toys.  All different tones and sounds, lots of raspberries appearing in the last week or so.  We also have lots of straining noises which aren't the actual event, which he has no trouble doing...  Not going to lie the first couple of times these occurred we were in the car, unsure if there was likely to be follow through and kicking ourselves for not packing a spare outfit.

Cute....?

Cute, my son is cute.  I know I am biased but people actual stare at him and smile (clearly when he's not going postal), one old lady told me he was beautiful the other day (proud mum smile appears).  Embarrassingly not all the time J rewards these looks with a smile but what we have nick-named "the death stare" an unblinking, eyebrows slightly raised stare.  Boom.  It doesn't waiver.  It's quite impressive.  It starts to feel quite loaded when you are trying to get him to smile or chuckle (namely at granny C, the look doesn't budge), I'm quite glad he can't talk as I dread to think of the possibilities that could accompany the look...!

...I rest my case.  Also in the best toy ever...

At the moment we are trying to encourage a roll out of J, without much success.  We jingle/jangle toys, give him a nudge in the right direction, give-up and just roll him to give him an idea of what to do and still nada.  It's getting a little funny now.  He is, however, a kicker; on his bouncer, on the floor, in the bath, pretty much anywhere his little legs and punching up and down.  We've recently purchased a swimsuit, of sorts, so we can see how successful all this kicking is!

Part death stare - part permanently surprised look

My Mother's Day gift

Taken this morning, 5 months exactly.

21 days later!

3 weeks have now passed since James's arrival and they have flown by.  In many ways it feels like much longer, mainly down to the small cycle that my boy has I think.

Doing my best "Benjamin Button"...

We all seem to be coping okay so far; James is fed, changed, entertained and put down to sleep, Pip and I remain alive, fed and watered and also manage to get some sleep - despite several helpful "you'll never sleep again's" from various folk pre-James arrival - just what any future parent needs to hear...

Hanging out with Daddy

Today J has been weighed by the health visitor and has put on a beasty 12oz since last Thursday making him 8lb2oz.  We now don't see the health visitor until early Jan but can attend the drop-in clinic at the local surgery on a Monday for a weigh in if we want too before then.  Something I must remember to go to.  Sadly baby brain appears to be hanging around still and unless it's written down I do not retain anything!

"Ma, would you put the camera away already..."

Keeping a track on visitor's has been fun with pen scrawled all over our calendar at the moment!  We have had a steady stream of visitor's but still have a way to go to complete the list.  James put on his best show by vomming over my cousin Nik last week, I am not sure who was more horrified Nik or me...

With cousin Nik

So far we have managed a few trips out; lunch w Granny Sue, a wander or 2 round Sainsburys (nappy run), into town to register James birth to name a few.  Most have involved a small battle with the car seat and James arms which seem to disappear in his bear coat, I may have also had a discussion with the pram wheels - which way round do we open them?  Which way round do they go in the car?  Thankfully we're getting there, James is helpfully uncurling so his arms are easier to find and I have managed to suss the pram out, Pip - chief wearer of the baby carrier - is pretty much there strapping himself into the contraption.

Boo?!

This week we received the photo's from the newborn shoot we booked in several weeks ago.  Sadly James managed to bawl his way through all but the entire 3 hours Abi was with us, however it seems she somehow managed to work her magic and below are a few of the pics she snapped...

...One week later

To continue the story from where I left off.

Our poor medical student, Will, has got to be the most amusing part of the whole experience.  Will is a second year student at So’ton Uni, and so is probably no more than 20 years old (he didn’t look it), as part of his course he has to watch a birth – lucky guy!  Having come back to reality post epidural I set to giving him the Spanish inquisition about where he lived, what type of doc he fancied being  and student life in general.  It is worth mentioning that those on medic courses are notorious at SUSU for being BIG drinkers and bizarrely Thursday evening was Toga night – one of their biggest nights out – all of Pips bar staff hate working it, including the duty managers and from a managers point of view once worked = never again, so Pip and I had great fun ribbing him about this!

So, back to the labour/giving birth part!   Once the epidural had kicked in I was given another examination and discovered that I was fully dilated and all set to push.  Another Huzzah!  Soon we would be meeting our baby.

First problem with this?  

Pushing, I had to “push into my bottom”.  Now this is all very well and good when you can feel where your bottom is.  However when your bottom could be anywhere between your chest and your knees as far as sensations go this proved a touch tricky.

Add to this that I couldn’t feel the contractions...  

In the end Pip, Will and Carly the (lovely) midwife ended up watching the machine to tell me when to push and I did what I could to locate the necessary area to push to!  All the while the belt monitoring my contractions is having a funny 5 so all in all, on reflection, the process was a little amusing.

After an hour and a half, a few changes of position and a few “oo I think I can feel something, is that one (contraction)?” baby D was making slow progress into the world so the word “plan” was mentioned again.  

The decision was to give me 15 mins more unassisted pushing to do before interventions would be needed.  While baby D was happy as larry and the heartbeat had remained at a constant all the way through my body was tired and my contractions were starting to slow down (apparently).  So ventouse delivery was discussed and agreed on if we had no joy within the next 15 mins.

15 mins later and no baby and also no Dr. after another 15 mins the Dr. appeared and started on the procedure.  I should add that at this time Will was still lingering around and was having things explained to him by Carly and the Dr. but he was also turning a slight shade whiter as the process moved on and he kept putting on a lot of hand gel.  Not sure why but it amused Pip and I when we spoke about it later!

Finally, at 12.15 on the dot James Harland Doherty arrived in our world.  Oh happy (bang on due) day!

Enjoying a cuddle in his first few minutes

Weight is taken, 7lb5oz or 3.35kg

Our new family

James

James with Fat Albert, previously mentioned gift from Daddy

A week ago today...

...I woke up with back ache.

I didn’t really think too much of it and carried on with my plans to re-seal the bath and head to lunch with TB and LD, I also took a stroll round Haskins and Hobbycraft (where I  spotted someone I knew and joked that bubs was unlikely to arrive tomorrow).  I’d kept Pip posted that the back ache had continued all day and mentioned that it might be the start of something or that it might not. I called mum at around 5 to have a moan about said back ache and following her advice I sat in my armchair with a hot water bottle down my back and let the evening continue, at 7 I said to Pip that perhaps we should take a note how often the twinges I was feeling were happening. They were every 15 mins, on the nail.

I continued to twinge away until we bedded in for the night where I whole heartedly expected things to die off and hopefully kick off properly Thursday day-time.

Wrong.

Roll on mid-night and I had 3 hum-dingers 5 mins apart, which spooked me a bit so I decided to put the TENS machine one (a device sent from heaven for women in labour, I cannot recommend it highly enough), move downstairs and watch a bit of tele.  Pip, being the legend he is decided to head down with me, wrapped in our duvet!  After about an hour or so of me not being comfy and my “twinges” getting stonger and more regular Pip decided to record the contractions to see how long they were and how far apart.  Needless to say they were definitely contractions by now.  I recall moving around a lot to try and get comfy; bouncing on the ball, leant over the coffee table, rocking from side to side and then about 2am Pip was starting to ask me if we should call one of the birth centres as I was 3 mins apart and they were lasting about 40 secs.  I fairly vague about doing this as I was worried about heading in somewhere to be told we were 2cm gone and to go back home – motifying first time mum syndrome!

By half 2 I’d caved and Pip had called Ashurst where they had told us to come on in – I think the midwife could probably hear me huffing and puffing my way through contractions!  I had previously spent some time thinking about my breathing and worked out i could breathe in for 5 and out for 10 which I reckoned took me 15 secs and thus in my head I had broken down contractions into 15sec slots.  A lot of this went out the window on Wed evening but the in and out part did remain – which I like to think is the most important part ;o)

 

Taken on the way home on Saturday not on the way in!

On arrival at Ashurst – by arrival, I mean a slow and steady “oh crap here comes another one” walk – I was quickly checked over; blood pressure, baby’s movements and then an internal exam, at which point the midwife confirmed I was 6cm dilated – HUZZAH!!!!  I was so happy to hear that!

We shuffled round to the pool room where I rocked myself (with Pip) through a few more contractions while they filled the pool.  We popped on a Keane album and I got into the pool.   My memories from here on in for the next 6 hours or so are a little hazy as I was otherwise engaged. 

I can recall not liking the gas and air, drinking (revolting) pink lucozade and eating a biscuit – which at 4am even I found a bit wrong.  We had been handed over to 2 midwives; Lucinda and Olivia and at one point one of them decided to call me sweetheart – really?! One of Pips more amusing memories is me shooting him a look (for those that know me I shall leave that one to your imagination) as she did so, and my retort involving the words “you’re not the one in labour sweetheart” later in the process.

By 6am I think both midwives thought I was good to move onto the next stage and I can assure you from my point of view it certainly felt that way but they needed to hoink me out the pool to give me the once over and allow me to use the facilities!

Sadly at this point we discovered I hadn’t budged from the 6cm.  Gutted does not cover the emotion I felt.  Lucinda decided to assist and broke my waters.  At this point the word “plan” started to appear.  The plan at this stage was to pop me back in the pool for 2 hours and see how I got on then if thigns still hadn’t progressed it would be a trip up to Princess Anne to move things along with more intervention.

I think hearing the disappointing news I mentally crossed the line and almost subconsciously decided I wanted more pain relief and to get out the pool and move to Princess Anne sooner rather than later.  Unfortunately for Pip I tried to communicate this to Pip with a look.  Clearly he didn’t get all this information from my eyes, mid-contraction huffing into the gas and air tube!

So having found my voice I said I wanted to go to P Anne and have an epidural.

I do remembering apologising to Pip – as this hadn’t been part of my preferred “plan” – but also knowing I wasn’t going to change my mind.

The midwives and Pip were fantastic and I was told several times how well I had done and that the ambulance was on it’s way.  Another memory that is quite clear in my mind – while clutching the side of the pool still with the g&a hanging out my mouth – is one of the paramedics asking if I was walking out or would like a bed.  Walking? Seriously, I know you are a guy but do I look to be in a fit state to walk out to an ambulance, if nothing else I am wearing nothing but a hospital gown and a bikini top – men, the same in all situations it seems :o)

 As 2 midwives and I headed off to the labour ward (it turns out Lucinda had also grabbed a delivery bag as she was still unsure that I wasn’t about to deliver en route) poor Pip was left to drive up on his own, half leading then following the ambulance.   

Now in a different moment I would have been having a OMGawd I am in an ambulance with the nee-nahs going, clearly at the time the moment was completely lost on me!

On arrival at labour ward I recall thanking the paramedics and then the rest is a blur involving a lot of heavy breathing on the gas and air tube and trying to keep still while the (slightly obnoxious anaesthetist) put in my epidural.  At some point someone asked if I was happy to have a medical student in for the duration to which I think my reply was “Sure, no problem, more the merrier” and that was that really until the pain subsided and I returned to normal Jill, as Pip puts it.  And we said cheerio to Lucinda and Olivia and hello to Carly the midwife...