Expression of freedom

Gareth fed Rowan for the first time last week.  It was really nice watching them bond over a feed, and I enjoyed not having a baby-sized nipple piercing stuck to me for an evening.
I don't intend to express very often, so I've been hand-expressing rather than buying an expensive machine.  I spent 40 minutes expressing 3oz, and Rowan downed it in about 5 minutes and I had to top him up myself anyway.  Hmm.  Not sure if it's going to give me much free time!  Although I took a look online and have found a few tips on techniques that should help speed things up.

Bottle feeding

 Gareth offered to do a night feed for me, which I was looking forward to!  Unfortunately, Rowan went back to sleep by the time the bottle was warmed, so I had to get up later anyway as the milk couldn't be re-warmed.  Oh well.  Better luck next time!

It's nice knowing that I can have some time to myself when I need it.  I'm hoping to go swimming in the next couple of weeks, or go for a bike ride, without clock-watching too much. 

Rowan's first art session

I decided it was time for Rowan's first art session.  As it was bath night last night I figured that was the best time to start.  I wanted to get some foot and hand prints whilst he's still tiny so I dug around in my art stuff (quite a task since I have a crazy amount of art gear that has become ridiculously disorganised over several house moves) to find some suitable materials.  I found some ink which was pretty inert (it's acid and lignin-free) so is probably safe to use on baby skin.  To be sure it would clean off ok I smeared ink from several inkpads on my own fingers first and wiped it off.  I'm glad I did this as I immediately eliminated three of my inkpads as some of it stained!

I started off taking photos, but Rowan began working himself up into a near apoplectic state, so I cut the session short and got on with bathing him.  Next time I think I'll time it better as I think he was hungry and in no mood to play at Jackson Pollock.

N.b. Rowan has had a bit of an acne outbreak, hence his flushed appearance.

Step 1:  Organise your inks and baby on a wipeable

changing mat 

 Step 2:  Make sure you have baby wipes very close

to hand

Step 3:  Realise your baby is still wearing the white

cardigan your mum knitted, so remove above apparel

before continuing

 Step 4:  Liberally apply ink to foot, making sure you

have a firm grasp of said foot so you don't end up

with footprints over changing mat, muslin, babygrow,

baby, self and surfaces you didn't realise were

within reach of baby's foot

 Step 5:  Wait for ink and tears to dry, and take 

photos of baby with artwork once he has calmed down

Embellished babygrows

During my pregnancy, my Mum gave me some baby grows.  I decided to embellish them to make them a bit unique, and below are the resulting outfits:

Cross stitched bear.

The design was originally from a book

on cross stitch cards, but it translated

well for an item of clothing. 

Little Parasite - the nickname we

gave my bump.  It still seems apt! 

Dog paw print. I love Bondaweb! You
 can make unique clothes super quick and
with minimum effort! 

 Monogram Bondaweb design.  'P' is the
first letter of our surname.

I had some lace in my crafting stash, so I
hand stitched it onto a babygrow. Rowan
doesn't seem to like it since his nappies
always seem to leak when he wears it. 
Fair enough, it does look like a Victorian
girl's nightdress. 

 More Bondaweb!  Reminiscent of an
Olympic medal ribbon.

Rowan

Bit of an abridged version...
Mine and Gareth's son (Rowan) was born three days late on Christmas Day, 06:52AM, and weighing 7.1lbs  It was a bit of an ordeal, as I was in labour for 36 hours during which time the baby turned into a back-to-back position (a notoriously painful and difficult position to give birth to), and his heart and breathing stopped. I had a spinal tap, episiotomy and forceps delivery.

 

There was a horrible few minutes after our baby was born when there was complete silence.  No baby crying, no staff talking, just silence whilst the medics worked on resuscitating him.  Eventually, we heard a weak mewing sort of cry, and our son was then rushed off to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU).

 Disconcerting photo of Rowan attached to various 

equiptment.

Rowan was treated by being cooled to 34oC, and we were also fortunate to have him put on a trial for a treatment that reduces the spread of any potential damage.
I got to touch him a few hours after he was born, once the spinal tap was wearing off.  I was discharged the next day.

First contact

Rowan spent 4 days on NICU and he did amazingly well.  He 'passed' all the physiological tests, and recovered well when his ventilator and sedation was removed.  As we had to await one final MRI scan before we could take him home, I was admitted back onto the maternity ward with Rowan so I could feed him.  That was a long four days!  It was impossible to sleep, as if Rowan wasn't waking up for feeds then someone else's baby was, or someone was having obs etc. done.

Rowan has now been home for almost a week, and we are slowly adapting to life with a baby.  Although it is a bit of shock, no matter how prepared you think you will be!

 'Bump' photo.  41 weeks plus 5 days.

The first trimester

I’m currently 15 weeks pregnant, so officially in the second trimester.

These last couple of months have been hard. I remember people telling me how tired being pregnant can make you, but until you’re actually pregnant I don’t think you can really comprehend just how exhausted you feel all the time. Add to this a constant feeling of nausea that stays with you all day and evening, and you the whole miracle of growing a baby inside you is a little overshadowed by just how miserable you feel.

I even reached the point at 10 weeks when I stopped running (and exercising altogether). Walking to and from work was exhausting enough. I did feel bad about this, since I was always adamant that I was never to be one of those pregnant women who just sit on their arses. However, my body was giving pretty strong signals that an afternoon nap was about as exciting as my social life was going to get! Fortunately, the tiredness (and sickness) seem to be lifting, and I’ve managed to get back to dog club and start pregnancy yoga recently. Although I have decided to forego running altogether until I’ve had the baby. Apparently your tendons turn to elastic (due to a hormone called relaxin) when you’re pregnant, and as I’ve only recently recovered from tendonitis I think it’s sensible if I keep to low-impact exercise. A hard decision, since I love running!

Luckily I haven’t actually been physically sick, but I often wished I was just in case it would make me feel better! Rushing to the toilet just to stand over it feeling like you’re going to hurl, but nothing coming up can be frustrating. Having said that, I am completely rubbish at being unwell anyway, and very impatient when I am ill, so maybe I’m just being a wuss. I did find it reassuring feeling nauseous though. In my mind it meant the baby was doing ok!


A brief summary of my thoughts during the first trimester:

1. I’ve forgotten what having energy feels like
2. Feeling sick all the time is both exhausting and boring
3. I miss pooping
4. My boobs look awesome!
5. Is there really a baby in there?

Below I’ve included some belly shots to show my slowing growing bump.  I've tried to wear the same jeans (while they still fit!) to give some kind of reference point.

 5 weeks pregnant.

I included this shot so I could look back

and remember what it was like to once

have a waist!

8 weeks pregnant.

Goodbye abdominal muscles!  It's been

fun beasting you with crunches.  See you
in a few months for more beasting!

10 weeks pregnant.

The stirrings of a bump.

Although at this point it looks more

like I ate too much cake.
I'm not sure why I'm grabbing my
own boob.

15 weeks pregnant.

Definitely starting to look more like

a baby bump!  I'm starting to show

through some of my t-shirts now too.

The reveal...

You might remember that I mentioned a pretty cool project I was working on a while ago.  Well, I can now allow a sneak preview of this work in progress.

It still needs a bit of work; its head a bit too Roswell Incident currently.

A work in progress.

We spent an hour at the Ultrasound Department today whilst the staff struggled to get a decent image for their measurements.  It turns out our little Parasite is a wiggler, and would not keep still!  Between that and an overfull bladder (boy was I aware of its fullness!) it made the sonographer's job pretty difficult.  After a couple of trips to the loo to empty my bladder a bit, and a call to the radiographer for help, the baby had finally settled down.  Unfortunately, in completely the wrong position.

The radiographer then suggested I bounce my bum off the table a few times to wake it up (the baby, not my bum).  It slept through that, and I had to then roll on my side and wiggle my pelvis until it woke up.  Eventually, after being allowed to completely empty my bladder, they got an image they were happy with!

Although this was probably very annoying for the staff, Gareth and I thoroughly enjoyed being able to spend an hour watching our baby wave, flail about and generally having a whale of time not doing as it was told (something I hope it gets out of its system before it's born).

I'm 12 weeks 2 days, which is exactly how far along I thought I was, and Little Parasite is due 22 December 2012.  Which is only 6 months away... there suddenly seems an awful lot to do before then.