Friday 3 October 2008

4 weeks, 3 days old

Well, I think things are getting better. Not necessarily with Stuart and going out - he says sorry but will then be out for the evening again the next week. But that aside, I feel like we are making progress in other areas, though very small.

I have started keeping a record of when Callum feeds and is awake. This is in the hope I can see a routine. Especially at night. I think I also had one more good night than bad in the past week and the bad nights have been better.

We started the wean to Formula on Sunday in the end. We replaced the last feed before bed with formula and then we replace another feed every 3rd day, so now we have replaced two and will replace a third tomorrow. I can definitely see a difference in the length of time Callum sleeps when he has had formula. One night, he slept for 4 hours after the formula. In addition, he generally goes down a lot better after being fed at night.

However, during the day, he is harder to settle at sleepy times. I often need to cuddle him to sleep and then put him down. I know this is a bad habit to get into but I am guilty of loving the cuddles as much as he does. I've vowed to kick this by the time he sleeps through the night though.

We have started to give him a dummy now. We had been trying to hold out as long as possible but he was trying to such all the time. If I put him to my breast, he would often fuss instead or if he latched on he would just lay there asleep rather than feeding. So, rather than me being a human dummy, it was easier to use an actual dummy. This helps him settle easier in the day too.

Callum is starting to spend more time awake, though he is still sleeping more than he is awake. I love it when he is awake. His eyes open really widely now and he just looks gorgeous. He really studies your face and watches you.

The Health Visitor came yesterday and weighed Callum again. He is now 8lb 3oz - so he is putting on weight quite incredibly! He has proper hamster cheeks! She is happy with how we are both doing and so I will next see her the week after next.

I've met up with the NCT girls twice now. Both times at the Slug & Lettuce in town. Up until yesterday, I was still the only one to have had my baby. However, one got induced yesterday (still not heard an update from her), one had her baby yesterday (a boy) and one was in labour (not had an update from her). So, by now, there will be another 3 baby friends for Callum. It is very weird, though, to see the others still with their bumps and hearing all the pregnancy woes - it already seems like a lifetime away for me. As of yet, I don't miss it.

Before I met with the girls yesterday, I popped into the pottery cafe and had Callum's footprints put onto a tile with paint. I had wanted to get the hand and feet impressions you can get made but they are so expensive. Even a pack to do it yourself is £45. There is a pack in Mothercare that you can get hand and feet impressions into clay for you to keep for £10 so I might do that instead.

One frustrating thing relating to my body post-birth. After having a baby you bleed for a while like a really heavy, long period. Now, I had pretty much stopped bleeding by the beginning of week 3 (most people have stopped by 6 weeks) but then I walked into town and back (the back being up a big hill) and that caused me to start bleeding again. According to the Health Visitor, it is normal for it to come back if you over exert yourself too early. Grrr! It then stopped again but then, earlier this week, I went into Guildford and needed to go to the post office which was at the top of the hill. Guess what? I started bleeding again - it is so annoying. I don't even feel like I'm over exerting myself. Bloody body!

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