We learn as we go...

Random observations from the first 3 weeks of motherhood…

• Nitrous Oxide gas during labour – gives you a really swollen and sore soft palate and throat for days afterwards. Swallowing really hurts!
  
• It’s a cruel joke of mother nature that your baby “wakes up” and becomes hungry and alert about 2 days after the birth, and my milk didn’t come in until about day 4.
  
• Public Hospital food was surprisingly good! Porridge for breakfast was awesome!
  
• Breastfeeding really HURTS for about 2 weeks after the birth. It felt like razor blades being sucked through my nipples for the first 20 seconds every time, even when she was supposedly attached properly. Using the breast pump hurts the same. Its only been in the last week that its stopped being painful, and its such a relief!


• The middle of the night, sitting alone in the quiet, dark house - feeding, burping, changing and settling a windy/colicky/grizzly baby is one of the loneliest feelings ever .
  
• Every single midwife in hospital has a completely different opinion on how you should do things. They often contradict each other. Eg – one midwife talked to us about Skye’s long fingernails and told us we could nibble the ends off with our teeth. An hour later, the next midwife told us that on NO ACCOUNT should we use our teeth!
  
• Baby swings are awesome, at least I can put Skye down and get a few things done, she loves to look around.
  
• Some days feel absolutely overwhelming and frustrating. I think Skye has reached her 3 week growth spurt yesterday – she fed almost every hour, with very little sleep in between and lots of wind in between too. It made for a very grizzly baby and an emotional wreck of a mummy. Today though has been great!
  
• Having not had any nappy/baby experience before, I cant believe how often babies poo! Skye must think we have shares in Huggies Nappies I think, with the rate that we are going through them. The other day we changed it 3 times in half an hour – the first was wet, so we changed it, then 5 minutes later she’d done a big poo – changed it again and 10 minutes later she finished the poo!
  
• Some poos (think American Mustard!) cannot be contained by a mere nappy and I’ve been hammered twice already, once from side seepage from sheer quantity! Oh and I’ve discovered that its crucial to wait until she’s finished… initially I would jump up and change her straight away after hearing the telltale fart of her pushing one out… well I quickly learned to beware of this, as she often isn’t finished and will squirt more out onto you when she’s on the change table! It pays to wait a good 5 -10 minutes!


• All the days start to merge into one another, and I no longer know what day of the week it is.
  
• Press studs on baby clothes. Clearly they have been put there for the benefit of sleep deprived parents because nothing could be easier to fasten, right? However I’m constantly surprised by just how difficult and complicated it is to line up 3 little press studs and get them closed when you have a wriggling, squirming little bub on the table, and you are half dead with tiredness!