Settling into a routine.

Yesterday our midwife came out to check up on us.  She weighed Abby and she's lost some weight but apparently this is normal for the first week, and she is very happy with how we're doing.

Last night I gave Abby a bath, which was pretty scary.  Last time the midwife did most of it.  She didn't like it but she'd had a feed not long before the bath so she was a bit more settled. 

After the bath she was wide awake and she didn't want to go to sleep.   She cried for ages and eventually we fed her again but she didn't really settle until 1am, when she had a big feed.

I was woken up by the recycling guys outside, and realized it was daylight outside.  It was 7:30 - we hadn't been woken by Abby since just before 2:00.   She was still sleeping soundly.  We fed her, then since she was still wide awake we let her sit in bed between us.  She lay there looking at us and kicking her legs and gurgling away - It was great to have some time with her when she wasn't sleeping.

Today we went out and visited some friends, it was very good to get out of the house.  We timed the trip between feeds, and Abby slept pretty much all of the time, even when their two kids (2 and 7 months) started screaming right beside her! 

When we got home I gave Abby her bath, that went much better than last night.

Overall, we're settling down nicely.  Shelli has recovered extremely well, and Abby is a very good little girl.  She's sleeping lots, feeding nicely, and very cute.  I mentioned this to a friend of mine and he said "wait until she starts teething"
Probably very true, but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.  We're just lucky that she's being such a good girl and making things so easy for us.

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Check out the middle pic - Abby is working on her Antonie Dixon (click on the name to see what I mean) look

5/16/2005 7:12:37 PM (AUS Eastern Standard Time, UTC+10:00)      Comments [1]  Baby

We still love you guys!

Eric and Sam have been surprisingly unphased about Abby.  They both sniffed the air very suspiciously when they came in after we got home, and Sam crept up onto the couch and very gently sniffed Abby's head when Shelli was feeding her.  Very cute.

Eric	Sam

5/15/2005 9:21:12 AM (AUS Eastern Standard Time, UTC+10:00)      Comments [0]  Cats

Day three, and coming back home.

Abby has been a very good baby.  On Friday night she was a little restless but she had a few big feeds through Saturday and slept most of the time inbetween.  Since the feeding was going well, we decided we'd go home that afternoon, after the Midwife had helped us give her her first bath. 

Before that took a sample of Abby's blood for the Guthries test - they prick her heel, and put drops of her blood onto a card that is sent away to screen for various metabolic diseases.  That wasn't fun, she screamed and screamed and stared at Shelli and me.  We felt very guilty, not being able to help her.

She wasn't quite sure what to make of the bath, she screamed most of the time but she enjoyed being on her front a lot more than her back.  She's funny like that, every time she starts crying if you turn her over and put her on your shoulder she stops almost straight away.  Lets hope that trick doesn't stop working!

After the bath we packed up and came home.  That was not quite like how I expected, everything is different now, and I feel like a visitor in my own home.  All of our old routines are completely out the window now, and we're desperately trying to work out how we do things now.  It feels pretty strange, but this morning she is sleeping peacefully so we've had a nice quiet breakfast which has been great.

Last night it suddenly occoured to us that we didn't know where we were going to feed her.  I got Shelli an old wooden rocking chair for xmas, but unfortunately she's holding Abby in the "rugby" hold when she feeds her at the moment - with her body tucked under her arm.  This is working very well, but she can't hold her like this in the rocking chair, or one of our lounge chairs either.  The options are the couch or our bed, and in the middle of the night it is freezing in the lounge so we ended up feeding her in bed.

She was very good though, we gave her a good feed at 8:30, then she woke up at 12 for feeding and changing, then again at 3:30, then she slept right through until 8:00.

We haven't got a baby monitor, as we didn't want to be parents who came running every time she cried (she normally stops herself in a few seconds), but we're going to need one because we can't hear her from the lounge. 

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5/15/2005 8:45:40 AM (AUS Eastern Standard Time, UTC+10:00)      Comments [3]  Baby

The first day...

I got to Kenepuru hospital at 10:00 this morning, after going shopping for some new clothes for Abby and picking up some treats for Shelli that she hasn't been able to enjoy for the last 9 months, like shredded chicken and shaved ham

Shelli hadn't had a lot of sleep last night, as you'd expect, and had had some problems feeding Abby but she'd just finsihed a big feed when I arrived.  She was grizzling and crying a bit in her cot, so I eventually put her on my knee and she dropped off to a very sound sleep.  I read my book for about three hours while Abby slept quietly on my lap and Shelli caught up on some sleep.

Through the rest of the Abby abby had another three really good feeds, and she was very well behaved inbetween with just the occasional cry - we didn't have to pick her up or comfort her much as most of the time she would just cry for a couple of breaths and then go back to sleep.  Shelli is getting the hang of the breastfeeding and we're getting much more confident about looking after her (the midwives at Kenepuru are great) so hopefully we'll all be coming home tomorrow.

Some of the photos below were taken yesterday at Wellington, and some are from today.  Click on them for a larger view, and use the back button on your browser to get back here. Feel free to leave comments using the "comments" link below the pics 

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5/13/2005 8:51:08 PM (AUS Eastern Standard Time, UTC+10:00)      Comments [4]  Baby

Welcome to the world, Abby Jane Sinclair!

WHEW.  I'm shattered, and Shelli and Abby are no doubt much worse.

It all started yesterday actually - I called home in the afternoon, and I asked Shelli how she was.

"I'm fine.  Oh yeah, contractions have started, too."
"WHAT!"
"But don't panic, they're not strong"

The contractions continued all evening, but didn't increase in strength.  We got a nice early night, but they really started kicking in at about 1am this morning.

We called the midwife and went to the hospital at 10:30 this morning, when the contractions started to get painful, and closer together.  Shelli ended up giving birth at 3:00 this afternoon, and she didn't take any drugs apart from the gas, even though it was obviously very, very painful.  It was tough seing her going through that, but our midwife was very good, and things kept progressing along nicely.

I'll never forget the moment of the last push, when Abby's body came out.  Thats when it really hit home - holy crap, I've got a baby to look after now.   Holy crap!

Abby was purple as she came out, as is normal, but she wasted no time in sucking down a big lungfull and testing out her vocal chords.  She weighed in at a very plump 8lb 4oz, and she's a very long baby.  She is too big for most of the newborn clothes we've got, I'm going to have to go shopping tomorrow...

Later on today we transferred from Wellington Hospital to Kenepuru Hospital.  Kenepuru is closer to us, and is much smaller and more modern, meaning you get a private room, but if you have your birth there they can't really cope with any interventions, so if you have difficulty you get transferred to Wellington.  That would be no fun.

I'll post more pictures tomorrow.

5/12/2005 8:19:19 PM (AUS Eastern Standard Time, UTC+10:00)      Comments [1]  Baby

Tomorrow is the day! (Maybe?)

Well, tomorrow is Shelli's offical due date, but of course we have no idea when the new Sinclair will arrive.  I thought it would have been by now, but I'm wrong.  D'oh, lost that bet.  (I had bet Shelli $5 it would be closest to the 6th.  Shelli picked the 8th)

Unfortunately Shelli hurt her back today, and she's not very comfortable.  A nice bath has helped though.  A hot bath is supposed to bring the baby on too, but no sign of that either.

5/10/2005 8:49:10 PM (AUS Eastern Standard Time, UTC+10:00)      Comments [1]  Baby

First Post!

Well, I've finally managed to get a blog set up.  I'm intending to post mainly baby news and pics here, but I guess I'll end up posting random thoughts and rants on various topics here.

If you are reading this, feel free to post comments!

5/5/2005 10:39:06 AM (AUS Eastern Standard Time, UTC+10:00)      Comments [1]  Blog