Three Months Old

I know everyone says it, but I honestly have no idea where the last three months went. Sure, at the time some days felt like they would never end, particularly in the first 6 weeks, but overall the last 90 days seem to have flown by.

Daisy is holding her head up for significant periods now, so a couple of days ago we broke out the Bumbo and she loves it.


I found a load of clothes on Sunday in one of the drawers in Daisy's room that I didn't know were there. I thought that drawer was full of 3-6 months clothes but there's quite a lot marked newborn or 0-3 months, so I'm trying to put all the outfits on her over the next few weeks before she's too big for them. It's a good job she's small for her age!

Talking of small, we went to the weigh clinic this morning and she's 10lbs 7oz, which is small but she's roughly following the 5th centile line on the growth chart. That's to be expected for a 3-week-early baby. I actually like the fact that she was small - it means we got to experience her as a tiny baby. I've lost count of the number of babies I've heard of being born in the past three months at 8 or 9lbs - makes me glad Daisy was small; I thought delivering a 6-pound baby was painful enough!

Night times are getting much easier. I bought a blogging app for my iPhone so that I could blog while I was up in the night, but she only usually wakes up once a night now (although when she wakes up for the second time around 7am we go back to bed for a couple of hours) and only then for about half an hour, so by the time I've checked Facebook, Twitter and my RSS Feed there isn't usually time for blogging as well :). For the past few weeks we've got into a routine of bath at 17:30, then a feed, then bed at 18:00 and a bottle at 23:00. This will send her through to anytime from 03:00 to 06:00 - usually closer to 04:30 - then we get into a 3-hour cycle during the day. I'm happy with that; much happier than if she was insisting on being fed every three hours at night. She has got the idea that the day is for being awake and the night is for sleeping, which is great, but she hasn't realised that she still needs to sleep a good portion of the day, and she only really sleeps if she's on the move - in the car, in the buggy or being carried. Unfortunately all of those things require me to be awake, but as I'm getting a lot more sleep at night I rarely need a nap during the day.

Every morning when she gets up I see a load of hairs on the sheets, but I guess that's to be expected. She sleeps on her side, switching from one side to the other each time she feeds, and during the day when I'm not holding her she's on her back, so she's losing hair all around her head. She looks like a monk in reverse ;-).

Another picture? OK. Here she is in her favourite place.

A Week at Nanna & Grandpa's

Daisy and I just got back from a lovely week at my Mum & Dad's. We left last Thursday and drove to Manchester - the journey was fine; she slept all the way and when she woke up I pulled into the nearest service station and fed her, then we got on our way again - and we spent the afternoon with Grandma & Grandad (aka Rob's Mum & Dad), Auntie Kath and Uncle Tom, then we went round to stay the night with my friends Catherine and Ben, their dog Betsy, cat Chester and as-yet-unnamed 24-week-old foetus. The following day we drove up to Mum & Dad's, and Jen arrived after work for the weekend. Mum had arranged to have people round for a meal that evening before I decided to come, so there were 8 of us for dinner. I got Daisy up at 23:00 for her bottle and everyone cooed over her.

Saturday was my birthday, and I got the best present from Daisy - she didn't wake up till 06:20! Saturday was also the day that my old recorder teacher, Jane, was in town from her home in Peebles with her husband and son. I haven't seen her since her wedding day over 7 years ago so we arranged for them to come round for lunch. We also invited the four girls I used to play in music groups with - first I was in a trio with Lisa and Anna, then Anna and I joined Laura and Louise in a quartet. Lisa and Laura couldn't make it, but Louise and Anna came round with their girls - Anna has Tamsyn and Louise has Eden and Saffron. I haven't seen Anna for 10 years and Louise for 15, since I left for university, but neither of them has changed all that much, except that Louise has done what I've done and ditched the high-maintenance blonde highlights in favour of chocolate brown :).

We made a few attempts to have a group photo, but with 5 kids aged 6, 4, nearly 3, 9 months and 11 weeks, it wasn't all that easy :). This is the best we could do - there's another reasonably good one but Eden is mid-fidget and has come out very blurry ;).

Back: Jane, Timothy, Louise, Saffron
Front: Me, Daisy, Tamsyn, Eden, Anna

Later on my uncle, aunt and cousin arrived from Huddersfield, so there were 7 of us for dinner that night, and again for lunch the following day.

Sunday morning we went to church, thereby killing lots of birds with one stone as we saw quite a few people who wanted to see Daisy. On Sunday evening Mum & Dad babysat while Sarah, Jen and I went to the cinema to see a recording of the 25th Anniversary Concert of Les Miserables, which took place at the beginning of October at the O2 Arena. It was fantastic - Jen bought me the DVD for my birthday but it isn't released for another couple of weeks; can't wait to get it and watch it again!

On Monday my Godmother and Aunt came round for dinner (that's 6 for dinner that day, for those keeping count - Mum did a wonderful job feeding everyone!), on Tuesday morning Suzanne came round, Tuesday afternoon Jen and I went to visit Carlie and her boys (Noah is 2 and Ben is a couple of weeks younger than Daisy), and on Wednesday we went round to see my friend Sue and her son Theo, who's just turned 1. Jen went back home on Wednesday evening as she had to go back to work on Thursday, while Mum, Daisy and I went up to Durham to see Susie, who I worked with last year in Winchester and who is now at the university studying Music. So not exactly a quiet week, but we had a really lovely time and are looking forward to seeing Nanna, Grandpa and Auntie Jen again in a month.

I took this photo while we were there; makes me laugh every time I see it ;).

Ten Things I Didn't Know Before I Had A Baby

1. I'm not too proud to leave the house with no make-up on and baby sick on my clothes and in my hair.
2. The first few weeks are really not rewarding at all.
3. Mums never catch up on lost sleep - they just learn to live with less of it.
4. Poo consistency really is a legitimate conversation topic, but only with close family/other parents/health professionals/friends who know you really well and love you regardless. Don't try and talk dirty with just anyone.
5. There's no such thing as too many muslins.
6. It's not just boys who can pee directionally when having their nappy changed.
7. 'Sleep when baby sleeps' is absolutely essential but much easier said than done when there's laundry to be done, dinner to be eaten, bath time stuff and toys to clear away, milk to be expressed, bottles to be washed and sterilised, groceries to be bought...
8. When I breastfeed, my feet tingle.
9. My stomach muscles ache every time I stand up, and have done since she was born.
10. The world is a much better place after a hot shower.

A Month of Numbers

Daisy is one month old already. Here's a numerical summary of her first month.

Weight lost in first 3 days: 9oz (down to 5lbs 4oz from 5lbs 13oz)
Weight gained since then: 1lb 14oz (now 7lbs 2oz)
Net weight gained: 1lb 5oz
Inches grown: 1 (19.5 from 18.5)
Days before umbilical cord fell off: 8
Visitors to the house: 38
Midwives/health visitors seen since being home: 6
Bunches of flowers received: 7
Teddy bears received: 5
Balloons received: 7
Cards received: 54
Baby-gros received: 67
Baby-gros that are still a bit big: 66
Nights spent in own room: 6
Hours' sleep at a time: 2
Average dirty nappies per day: 10
Feeds per day: 8
Cotton wool balls used: 100s
Loads of baby laundry done: 18
Trips to Hedge End: 6
Trips to Southampton: 1
Trips to Winchester: 2
Sundays we made it to church on time: 1
Sundays we made it to church, albeit a little late (OK, a lot late): 1
Trips to the swimming pool: 1
Days Mummy hasn't cried in the last month: 2
Times people have said 'She's so tiny!': lost count

Here's a picture of her in the only baby-gro that currently fits her :)

Pregnancy Perks and Pitfalls

In no particular order, here are some observations on the highs and lows of my pregnancy: -

1. Morning sickness isn't just reserved for the mornings
I had a pretty textbook first trimester. From the day before my doctor's appointment to confirm that I was actually pregnant until my 14th week, I felt sick in the mornings and the evenings. Not every morning and evening, but enough to notice a pattern. I didn't realise that the sickness comes in the form of lightheadedness, rather than a stomach ache. I had a fairly unpleasant flight to the US in February, and I had some degree of morning sickness every day throughout the 5-week trip - its abatement coinciding with coming home, actually :-(. I found out that it was worse if I didn't eat within about half an hour of getting up in the morning, so I developed a routine of having half a packet of ready salted crisps first thing while waiting for Rob to wake up so we could go to breakfast.

I have to say, I don't know how women manage morning sickness during subsequent pregnancies, when they already have a child (or children) to look after and all they want to do is lie in bed. Medals all round.

2. Great skin and hair!
Actually, I didn't notice the hair all that much as mine is really thick anyway, but I LOVED the fact that I no longer had teenage skin. Unfortunately it's come back with a vengeance now :-(.

3. Back pain like never before
I'm no stranger to back pain. I've had it in some form or another for 20 years, but around my 30th week I developed a pain under my right shoulder blade which became almost excruciating at times. I was quite worried about driving 5 hours up to my parents' house at 34 weeks, and even more worried about driving back home again at 36 weeks. I won't lie to you, it wasn't pleasant, but I managed to find a seating position that wasn't ridiculously painful. Thank goodness I was driving an automatic, though - my seating position involved putting my right hand behind my head at times, and I couldn't have done that if I'd needed one hand for the gear stick and one for the steering wheel...

4. I've got a secret...
I've always thought that parents can sometimes come across as a little smug when talking to non-parents - 'until you've had a child, you don't know...' - and I'm afraid I've now joined those ranks, although I do try to keep my advice to myself unless asked for it. But I honestly did feel while I was pregnant that I had a secret that no one else knew. I know women have been having babies since the dawn of time, but being pregnant made me feel very special.

5. No charcoal or gherkins!
I was looking forward to seeing what kind of food cravings I would get. But apart from eating everything in sight during my first trimester (only in the afternoons though; mornings and evenings were reserved for throwing up), I didn't have any food-related oddities. Shame.

6. So that's what the inside of my belly button looks like...
I've had an inny for as long as I can remember. At around 28 weeks, my inny became an outy, and it looked weird ;-). I bought a silicon belly button bar from a place online, which said it would move with the shape of my belly, so I thought for £3 I would give it a try. If it didn't work, well I can't remember the last time I knowingly bared my stomach in public, so it wouldn't be the end of the world if I had to take my belly button ring out. I'm not 18 any more, after all - and even then, I didn't have a flat stomach so my belly button rarely saw the light of day. Anyway, the silicon bar did work, and my once-outy is now back to being an inny again.

I thought of loads more while I was pregnant, and kept thinking I must write them down before I forget them... If I think of them I'll do another post.

Pregnancy Photos

Keri gave me the idea to take photos of myself regularly throughout my pregnancy. I not only did that, but I also ripped off the style of picture that she used when she was pregnant, standing in front of a window and turning the flash off to create a silhouette. Good for me she doesn't mind ;-).

I usually took the pictures on a Thursday or Friday, although this became more difficult after I no longer lived at the house I was using to take the pictures, so I just took them when I could. I'm really pleased I persevered with this: I think it will be a nice reminder in years to come.

I need to work out how to make a collage of these pictures, but in the meantime, you can view them here.

Surprise!

I had a blog post for today all planned out in my head. It was going to be called 'Fully Cooked!' and I was going to talk about how I'm 37 weeks' pregnant today and therefore technically full term. Then I was going to go on to say that despite being full term, if she decides to show her face before next Wednesday, we'll be having words, as it means she'll be an August birthday and one of the youngest in her school year, rather than a September birthday and one of the oldest in the year below. I was going to say that I had planned a loads of things to do this week so I wouldn't be as bored as I was last week, including going into town to pick up a wallpaper border, lamp shade and pictures for the nursery, waiting in for a delivery of nursery furniture on Friday, dinner with Ben & Jill tomorrow evening, even a trip to the theatre on Thursday afternoon to see Les Mis (I know I've seen it a gazillion times but I thought £20 was a fair price to pay for something to do for a whole afternoon).

Then my waters broke at 06:30 this morning.

I ran to the bathroom and while I was there I looked back at my alarm clock which was taunting me with today's date. 24 August 2010. I sat on the toilet thinking 'This isn't what we planned!' Not only because I never anticipated her coming early but also because, as I mentioned above, I don't have any nursery furniture yet.

Because it was first thing in the morning, I persuaded myself that maybe my waters hadn't broken and I just needed the loo after a night's sleep, as normal. I had a midwife appointment booked in for 09:30 this morning anyway, and nothing else was happening, so I followed my normal morning routine and got showered and dressed - I even had time to straighten my hair! I drove round to Rob's and told him what had happened, then we both went up to the midwife and told her. She checked and confirmed that my waters had broken, and that one way or another we would have a baby by this weekend. She told me that 86% of women go into labour naturally within 24 hours of their waters breaking, and a further 7% of women go into labour within 48 hours, so I should just keep an eye on things.

We came away from the midwife's and went back to Rob's house so he could pack a bag and come and stay at my house until we went to the hospital, whenever that might be. I started having mild period pain-type cramps at the midwife appointment and they carried on while we were at Rob's, but they weren't painful or frequent, which were the two criteria the midwife told me they had to be before ringing the hospital or the birth centre. On the way to my house we stopped at a pharmacy and bought a Tens machine, which I put on almost as soon as we got back.

Rob had planned to go to the gym and do a workout, and ask Ben to fit the car seat while he was there, then go to Sainsbury's on the way home to buy drinks and snacks for the labour. He left the house at 12:40 having already decided not to do a workout but still to get Ben to fit the car seat and stop at Sainsbury's. He didn't get to do either of those things; when he left I went upstairs to check my hospital bag (I'd been throwing things into it for about 10 days but was pretty sure I was missing stuff) and by 13:00 I was having painful contractions lasting about 50 seconds, about 3 minutes apart. I rang Rob and told him to come straight back, then he rang the birth centre when he got here. My midwife happened to be there at the time, and when she heard the noises I was making at the other end of the phone, she told us to come in straight away.

Rob ran upstairs and threw everything that was on my bed back into my hospital bag (I was still convinced there were things missing, and I was right) then we had a mad dash along the motorway to the birth centre. We got there just after 13:30 and went into one of the delivery rooms, stopping a couple of times on the way to have a contraction. I told them I wanted to get in the pool, if possible, so they started filling it while I went to the loo. I was examined at 13:45 and was already fully dilated, so as soon as the pool was full and the right temperature (which took what seemed like forever, but was actually only about 20 minutes), I took the Tens machine off and got in.

I had been using the gas & air while waiting for the pool to fill, but once I got in the pool the midwife (not my pre-natal midwife; a different one) told me not to use the gas & air but instead to concentrate on pushing. I pushed for an hour and a half but each time I had a contraction her head came half out but then went back in again as the contraction faded. A supervising midwife came in and said that she thought I should get out of the pool as much more of the same would cause the baby to get distressed. I think that was the impetus I needed, because there was no way I was getting out of the pool, so I begged her to let me have one more try. She said yes, and told me not to forget to use the gas & air. What?? I thought I wasn't allowed to! I'd been pushing hard for 90 minutes with no pain relief, and now she tells me I can use it??? So I did. A lot.

One huge push and a few seconds of the most excruciating pain later, her head was out, then it was no time at all before we were pulling her up out of the water and laying her on my chest. Daisy Rebecca, born at 15:36 on Tuesday 24 August 2010.


I know it sounds corny, but for the rest of the day, nothing else mattered.

I stayed in the pool with her for about 25 minutes, then Rob took her while I delivered the placenta (easily one of the most disgusting things I've ever seen). Then we had some skin to skin time and we tried feeding her. She didn't seem all that interested but she did then feed about an hour later.

Rob went into Southampton at 17:45 to buy a Moses basket (no furniture, remember?) while I was stitched up - I used more gas & air during that hour than I had during the labour. Rob came back at 19:00 with Ben & Ryan for a visit. It wasn't until then that we actually got round to weighing her - 5lb 13oz! I knew she looked tiny but I didn't know she was that small. Although she didn't seem that small when she was coming out of me ;).


Ben had bought today's paper for us to keep as a memento of the day Daisy was born. It was a shame that the paper he chose was the Sun, but he said he picked it because there was an article about Manchester City on the front :). Clare also visited, bringing with her a much appreciated bar of chocolate and a not-quite-so-well-appreciated trashy magazine (seriously, I got to page 72 and still hadn't read an 'article' that was either remotely newsworthy or that concerned any 'celebrity' worth caring about - but Clare knows me well enough to know that's what I would think), then they left when Ben & Jill arrived, armed with a beautiful swaddling blanket and a 'Learn the Alphabet' book in Italian :).

Rob left around 21:30 and for the first time, it was just me and Daisy. I knew I should sleep, but I stayed up till long after midnight just staring at her :).

4D Scan

We went for our 4D Scan today. The sonographer said she was confident enough to confirm that it's definitely a girl. Something about a hamburger rather than a turtle, which freaked us both out enough never to want to hear it referred to as that again ;). We took away a 25-minute DVD, plus 120 stills taken from that DVD, plus half a dozen hard copy photographs that we chose from the 120.

Lots of the 120 photographs are more or less the same image, just taken from slightly different angles, but here is a handful of them. The sonographer spent a long time trying to get the baby to move her hand away from her face, but the ones where you can see the detail of her hand are some of my favourites.
















I like to think she's saying 'Come on, enough now, Mum' at that last one :).