2 weeks 1 day

Out and about

We have been out and about. Japanese restaurant in Penge yesterday (does anyone know how to pronounce that? Matt thinks it's Pengy and that sounds a bit wrong to me), Crystal Palace Park (a bitter disappointemnt), Blue Mountains cafe for breakfast today, the Magdala pub for the Ireland vs Australia union match. I think that's pretty good for a new family with the youngest at only 11 days.

Manny loves to sleep in the sling. Today he was very happy to be out for 5 and a half hours, as long as he was fed when he wanted. He's still feeding constantly, by which I mean every 15 to 20 minutes really, when he's awake. The community midwife came yesterday and weighed Manny, and to my relief he has put on more weight. He now weighs 4.320kg, which is a whole 820grams in 11 days! Again, so glad that all this feeding is doing SOMEthing.

Yay! The baby is OUT

13.06.06 after a long time of contracting uselessly, I pretty much begged them to cut Manny out. Which they did, very nicely and not before time either. Manny was occipital posterior and was not advancing down the birth canal. Well, he was, but really, really slowly. His little crown was out into the world almost, but the rest of him was begging to differ. I was hooked up to a FHT which showed his little ticker going sometimes at 185 bpm. Matt kept assuring me that you should only really worry when his heart rate goes way down, up is fine. Manny was clearly not enjoying labour. And neither was I by the 10th hour.

Anyway. So here I am 8 days post baby being wrenched from my uterus. We are all doing well - Matt is a champion father, he is great at getting Manny to sleep and loves to have cuddles and chat with Manny. Manny is feeding really well and sleeping (up until last night at least) amazingly. Manny has put on 500grams in 8 days - which is unusual - the midwife tells me that babies usually lose weight in the first week, so Matt and I are very happy. Perhaps he is going to be really tall. My c-scar is great, no pain relief needed for 5 days now. My tummy is shrinking and on last weigh in I have only got to lose 5 kilos to get back to my pre-preggers weight. Yay!

I love to sit and watch the fleeting expressions rushing across Manny's face. Where does he get them from and what do they mean? I know most of the world has done this having a baby thing before, but it's all so new to us. I keep looking at Manny and I can't quite believe that we made him.

Well, after a truely monsterous night of pretty much no sleep last night, I have finally managed to convince Manny that bed is a nice place to be and I really should sleep while he is too. Was just writing to Dan Blenkorn before about the joys of parenthood and multitasking and wishing that I could learn how to sleep and not sleep at the same time.

Waiting...

Here we are waiting for the child to arrive. I have had pesky false labour all last night which kept me awake (those false labour contractions are still ouchy). Just when, after 4 fours of monitoring contractions which were lasting for 1 minute each at 4 minute intervals, I thought that it could be time to ring Matt at work and wake up the Mums (Sheila and Cathy) and say WOOHOO, they petered out and I went to sleep. Very annoying.

Met a lady down the street today with a little one, and after some brief chit chat about how big I am, due any day now, actually OVER DUE, I asked her about false labour and, as it turns out, she had 2 days of it before true labour started for her. Well, at least it's a sign. I am hoping he will come tonight or tomorrow morning, as Sheila has togo home on Wednesday, and I will feel terrible if he doesn't make an appearance before then. I am also highly irritable, fluidy and fat and uncomfortable. It doesn't help that the weather has decided to be warm all of a sudden, which has turned my ankles into cankles and has reduced the level of feeling in my fingertips to 4/10. Woe betide the occupants of this house if they even so much as swallow too loudly when I am contracting!!!

Meanwhile, in the non-pregnant world, the World Cup soccer has started, and the general population here has gone a bit, well, fruity. That combined with some reasonably cheery weather has every man, woman and dog in tiny back yards with nary a shred of clothing on save some underwear slaving over these weird 3 pound disposable 'barbeques' they have here. Everyone is mighty cheerful and a little hung over seeing as England won their first match last night. There are more St George's flags in this neighbourhood than you can poke a stick at, and it is de rigeur to have a 'twin set' of window mounted flags on your car which either makes your vehicle look (depending on the size of the flags) like a dog with flappy ears or just plain ridiculous. Never the less, I feel privileged to be here while everyone is in such fine spirits. It's a bit like being in Sydney with that weird super nice euphoria that happened when we had the olympics, except no one is singing on the bus or stopping anyone to ask if they are lost or need directions, because if you can't find the nearest pub showing the latest world cup match then you are obviously aren't worth talking to.

Well, hopefully the next time I write it will be to spread word about our fabulous, smart, good looking and totally amazing son.