Sailor is now 16 days old.
I'm so bored of hearing myself say the following words and I'm making it my mission to find a new way to express the feeling of shock and awe at how quickly time passes....but....WHERE HAS THE TIME GONE?!
Seriously, it feels like moments have passed since we were laying together in that hospital ward, trying to soak up all of our time together as just Mummy & Baby before heading home to our hectic household of 5.
I really wanted to savour and enjoy that time we had in the hospital together because I knew that once we got home, it would be difficult to get any real time alone with Sailor...his brothers are still so little and needy themselves, that there just isn't always enough of me to go around and it can feel like one of the children is always being short changed.
Because Sailor is the little one...and he's pretty content if his tummy is full and he's warm and snuggled, then it tends to often be him who seems to end up waiting until last for attention. His brothes are older and they can demand what they want more easily, you see...
I'm sure this will change as they all get older and more vocal, Sailor will learn to fight for attention I'm sure! But right now, I just look forward to the evenings when the bigger ones are in bed and Sailor and I can sit together and snuggle while he feeds.
That's when I start to notice little things, like how much more alert he is now....his little eyes are open so much more and he sits looking all around the room taking everything in.
His facial expressions really make me giggle, he looks ever so serious and perplexed by what he's seeing...as though he can't quite figure out where he is or what's happening!
As for the details - well Sailor is now FINALLY over his birth weight! Only by an ounce, but still...it seemed to take us a while to get there and I'm glad he's finally done it.
He has already outgrown one of his outfits - one of his Tiny Baby sleepsuits is now too short for him! His brothers were in tiny baby for longer, which seems strange because he's a lot lighter and skinner than they both were at this age...but I think he must be longer legged.
He is still in Micro nappies which are still way too big for him, he haven't lost any hair yet...he has quite a wild spiky hairdo going on which is still dark although it's starting to look blonder in some lights - the jaundice is starting to get better as his eyes are whiter now rather than yellow, and his skin looks lighter.
Sailor's cord fell off at 10 days - we worried at first that he might have an umbilical hernia like Tyne did as a baby but it all looks normal now.
He sleeps really well at night at the moment (though I'm well aware this will change!), he usually only wakes to be fed once around 3.30/4 am and within the hour he is back down to sleep and tends to stay there until morning.
He LOVES to be cuddled, and gets very upset if he's set down by himself for more than 10 minutes or so - I have him on me in our Amawrap sling most of the time and he seems to really love this, he is always perfectly settled on me when he's in it and I love using it too as it means I have my hands free to get things done (We're using it right now as I'm writing this post up, and ySailor is sound asleep!). I've been enjoying babywearing a lot more this time, and I'm excited to order our first Tula sling this week!
Last week Daddy and I took Sailor for his first time out - Tyne & Noah were with their grandparents so we took him out in his pram for a stroll along the seafront. Afterwards we called in to the library and had him officially registered, so his is now an official little person!!
We also ventured out for the first time this weekend as a family of five - we'd been putting it off as Daddy & I were quite nervous about the whole thing, having the three children in the car at once, getting them all in and out safely and so on! The logistics of 3 children so young are so much more challenging than two....more children than adult pairs of hands is a difficult one to figure out!
We only headed to some local shops, but we managed and we all survived...Tyne was actually the most difficult to manage as he was in Threenager meltdown mode but Sailor was pretty laid back about the whole thing! We're hoping to venture out to the park this week, so we'll see how that goes!
I still can't quite figure out what color Sailor's eyes are going to be - whether he's going to be fair haired and blue eyed like Tyne, ginger haired and brown eyed like Noah (Although Noah's hair is getting blonder all the time, his eyes are definitely staying brown!) or whether he'll be entirely different and his hair will stay dark! At the moment he looks a lot like Tyne did as a baby so we suspect he may end up with Tyne's colouring - time will tell!
As for how I am doing 2 weeks after the c-section, things with the recovery have been quite smooth this time although there have been a few issues recently.
I spent the first ten days wondering where the pain was...anybody who has experienced a c section birth will know the pain I mean, that searing pain when you cough or laugh...the aching when you try to walk after sitting down for the long periods of time. I haven't had ANY pain whatsoever this time - I'm not sure if that's because the area is numb from scar tissue left from the two previous c sections but whatever the reason, the recovery has been almost 100% pain free which has been amazing.
I was feeling tired very easily in the first couple of weeks, but that seems to be getting a little better each day now.
Unfortunately it hasn't all been smooth sailing, as I went to the Dr last week with some extreme pain in my lower stomach area - he discovered I had a raised temperature and diagnosed a post operative infection. It's not a wound infection this time but he suspects a deeper infection and has me on some antibiotics.
The pain has eased since, but I have had some very heavy and very dark bleeding from the urethra which has been worrying me a little as it's not something I've experienced before. The Dr says this is probably part of the infection and so I'm waiting to see if it clears up once the antibiotics are finished.
My lochia stopped at 5 days post partum this time, which was also when my milk came in.
I have been having the same painful back spasms that I had after Noah was born, I think this must just be down to nerve damage after the pregnancy and hopefully will sort itself out.
My skin, hair and nails all seem normal after the birth - I did have some baby hair breakage just before Sailor arrived but I haven't had any more since thankfully!
I suffered a lot at 10 days post partum with very painful trapped wind, and constipation - this is something that always seems to hit me around Day 10 after a csection, a few days of peppermint tea and peppermint capsules along with a herbal constipation remedy and some prune juice seemed to help things along and now at 16 days post partum everything is back to normal!
My scar seems almost completely healed and is now just a faded purple line...I can feel the stitching when I run my fingers along the right hand side, but hopefully this will go down over time. It has been getting quite itchy which I think is a sign of it healing.
I weighed myself just before delivering Sailor and had gained a total of 13 lbs during the pregnancy, I weighed myself again at 2 days post partum and had lost 10 lbs.
When I weighed myself again this morning I had lost a further 11 lbs, so I am now down below my pre-pregnancy weight which is encouraging. I have a LONG way to go as I hadn't lost any of my previous baby weight from having Noah before falling pregnant with Sailor, so I have around 5 stone to lose - at the moment I am simply trying to watch what I eat, but from the end of this week I will be going back on the slimming world diet properly. Wish me luck!
As for my hormones and emotions, I have yet to have my first post-baby period and I have a feeling this will be a big tidal wave of hormones as I never actually got as far as having my first post-baby period with Noah as I was already pregnant again before it arrived! So after not having had a period for over 2 years, I'm expecting it to kind of knock me for 6!
I am feeling quite emotional very often, not a day passes when I don't tend to have a cry about something! I don't feel that I've been suffering with post natal depression as of yet as my mood is generally good and certainly far better than before Sailor was born, I feel that babywearing often has helped with this as I tend to feel calmer and happier when I have him in the sling - however I do feel that my anxieties are worsening a little, and I feel quite worried about taking Sailor or the other children out, worried about germs, etc. This is something I'm going to be keeping an eye on but I will be seeing a CBT therapist shortly anyway, and I think that may well help.
That's all our news for this week,
Lots Of Love
Mummy xoxo
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