Baby Erica

For obvious reasons I've been rather too busy to keep this updated!

She will wake up any moment so if this post is unexpectedly cut short, you'll know why. In the meantime I'll try to provide a brief update.

She was born, as expected, on September 27. I went from the blog to resting on the sofa with Kanji, and we left for the clinic around 1am. She was born at 2:35am, after a fairly mild labour and a very quick delivery - in fact the nurses held her in so the doctor could get there on time. I didn't like that and fought it, though I tried to hold off pushing a bit when the doctor came. I held myself off the reclined birth chair-bed to push in a more upright position, and I avoided an episiotomy and tearing too!

She was bathed with he Daddy and Grandma watching, and after that she was with me pretty much 24/7 except for her morning baths on the first two days, and a temperature check in the afternoon. I cuddled up with her in bed for hours after the birth, dozing and letting her suckle. She was cold after the bath and they gave me a warm mat to put her on, like a mini electric mattress, which I had in bed beside me, so I could keep her close for body warmth, the most effective way to warm up a wee baby.

The clinic stay was rather long, and fairly relaxing, although the amount of mother and baby health checks all day long prevented me and her from getting any sleep! The meals were superb, and the best thing was my friend Maki gave birth the same day, so I had someone to chat to and ask questions! We came home on the following Tuesday.

I developed a cracked nipple, and decided to use a nipple shield, which did me further damage. After trying to go bare again and suffering excruciating pain, I tried a pump to give it a rest. That worked, although I wish I'd just persisted with the nipple and not tried the shield in the first place! As of yesterday we are back to nature, no extras, which is such a relief, as I seem to have so many more hours in the day when I am not pumping, washing, disinfecting and warming bottles! Time to blog, for example!

She's now two weeks old, and a treasure. She is quiet and contented, and only really lets rip while I am getting her dressed after her bath. She sleeps well at night, wakes around 1 or 2 and again around 3-4, and then sleeps until about 7. She fed all day yesterday, but that doesn't bother me as much as it did with Amy! I know better than to have any expectations of a newborn. And I know that in about five minutes she'll be walking, and tomorrow she'll be starting kindy....so I get as many cuddles of my newborn as I can while she'll still this tiny, floppy, velvetly soft, milky-smelling and endlessly cuddle-able creature!