The drive home from the hospital was so strange. We had a baby. We had a baby! All the cars around us seemed to be flying by as though they didn’t care that we had a baby in the car. Wait a minute, they didn’t care! Ha ha.
When we got home, I decided the first order of business was a tour of the house. So I took bub for a walk and told him what everything was. That was fruitless. He couldn’t care less. At this point I felt a little lost. What am I supposed to do now? Do we hold him? Do we put him down? What do we do? Our life in hospital had been confined to one room and there was only one spot to put him. Now we had a whole house to work with. I was pretty keen to unpack and get sorted with all of our luggage so I left bub with hubby and set to work with that.
The first few days were pretty easy as he slept a lot. I still had hubby at home for another week before he had to go back to work. It would usually get to 10pm when we were ready for bed and I realised we had to put bub to bed. So I’d do a feed, he’d fall asleep and I’d put him down. This took about one to two hours so it was usually 11pm by the time bub was actually down for the night. But he slept for six-ish hours so I was pretty happy with that. It seemed that he was born with the knowledge of night and day. I am so grateful for this as I have heard they come out not knowing. For the first few weeks it didn’t crossed my mind to start the process of getting him to bed earlier. We had many habits that were yet to change. Prior to having a baby, 6pm until 9pm was usually prime time for getting tea ready, watching telly and just generally relaxing. But for the moment, I kept going with this non-routine-put-him-to-bed-whenever because, as I have mentioned before, I know nothing about babies. We had a few bad nights with him being so gassy, but some more experienced mums on Facebook got us onto Infants Friend, which was a big help.
The next big step for me as a mother was the day hubby went back to work. This would be the first time I was left alone with a baby. I hoped he’d have a short day and be home early, or at least have time to stop in for lunch.
Bub was awake when hubby left for work at around 8.30am and I was too scared to put him down anywhere as he seemed to cry when this happened. So I carried him around with me as I took rubbish out to the bin, put a load of washing on and made myself some breaky. It was only about 9.30am when I heard hubby pulling into the driveway. Yes! Hubby walked in the door and said “I have half an hour to kill so I came home. You want me to take him?” “Yes!” I said with excitement. This was awesome! But it wasn’t long before he left again. This time I thought I’d attempt putting him down somewhere. So I put him in his bouncer on the kitchen bench. He seemed pretty happy there so I decided I’d clean out some shelves in the pantry. Maybe he knew I was nervous being home alone with him so he was being a very good boy. Before I knew it he had fallen asleep in his bouncer, so I carried him to his cot where he slept for a few hours. Wow, this is easy. If only it stayed that easy! When he woke up, I fed him and then he had some awake time. I felt so stuck as to what to do with him during his awake time though. He didn’t want to chat and didn’t know how to play. How does one entertain a two-week old baby?!
For the most part bub was pretty good and over time I learned how to handle being with him when he was awake. Mostly I’d put him in his bouncer, bounce him and have a one sided conversation with him. It was still too early to get him into a routine I felt. I had read a little on establishing routines with your baby from birth but there was no way this kid would do that. I’m the routine queen. I love them. Actually, I need routine for my own sanity. But this kid was all over the place and just wouldn’t bow to a routine – not yet anyway. I still had hope for the future though!
He was feeding every one to two hours unless he was sleeping, which was super annoying. I found this really hard as I had very little time from the moment I finished feeding before he was hungry again. I came to inwardly groan every time I heard hubby say “I think he’s hungry.” No! No he’s not. Leave me alone. Go away. I had such little time to simply eat, go to the toilet, catch my breath and so on. Hubby had hours to himself because bub was always feeding! I would feed bub just before having a shower and by the time I got out, hubby was standing there with him saying, “I think he’s hungry.” It seemed like that was an easy out for hubby. He wasn’t able to feed bub so he would just say he’s hungry and then I’d have to deal with him. I learned very quickly to take my sweet time in the shower because it was the only few minutes of alone time AKA sanity I would get in a day. Plus I had missed having long hot showers during pregnancy so I thought I deserved to enjoy a shower again.
After seeking some advice from family and friends who suggested I don’t let bub feed less than two hours apart, I decided to implement that. This made a huge difference to my sanity and didn’t seem to upset bub at all. Was probably good for him to stretch out his feeds. It was also good for hubby who couldn’t palm bub off to me any time he got fussy saying “I think he’s hungry.” Win win win!
The worst time we had with bub was when my caesarian cut got infected and I had to go on antibiotics at around week three. Oh my goodness! This went through my milk and really upset bub. My doctor had said it could cause diarrhea and to watch for that, but that was all he said. Bub would just scream and scream and nothing would settle him. His poos went from yellow to green to almost black. I had to take the antibiotics for five days, which doesn’t sound like long, but when you have an inconsolable baby, it feels like forever. It was so bad at one stage that hubby suggested I stop taking the antibiotics. “No way!” I said. “If I stop taking them now, I’m just going to have to start all over again when we realise that my wound is still infected. We’ve come too far to do that.” In chatting with my family, someone suggested we switch to formula. “Oh no, don’t do that,” said my mum, “you’ll lose your supply.” “No, she can just express,” replied my dad. They argued about this for a bit and how expressing wouldn’t keep my supply up enough bla bla bla. But I couldn’t bear doing this to bub anymore so we bought some formula and tried that out for a few days. It was extremely difficult preparing a bottle and pumping at the same time. I have to give credit to all the mums who do formula. That was hard work and I only had to do it for a few days. Switching to formula was a great idea though as bub settled more, but not completely, and his poos returned to a normal colour. Once I had finished taking the antibiotics, it took a week or so for bub to settle completely. I suppose it took that long for the drugs to work their way out of his system. What a nightmare.
Wound care became top priority as my cut was still open and bleeding at one end, so I needed to clean and dress it every day. It continued to bleed and puss until about week seven. Crazy! I had been on blood thinners though for a blood condition I have and I believe this contributed to it not healing as quickly. I was supposed to stay on thinners for six weeks post birth but I made an executive decision and stopped at three weeks (unbeknown to my doctor) as I could see my wound was not going to close up and this put me at risk of getting it infected again. If it got infected, I’d have to go through the antibiotic nightmare again. No thank you! It didn’t help that every time I changed bub he would kick me right where my cut was. Thanks pal!
These first few weeks at home were such a learning experience, not just in regards to how to be a mother, but also learning my son and what he was like. It’s hard work and just so constant and tiring, but I have to say my first impression of motherhood was pretty positive. I think I’m going to love being a mum… now who could have seen that coming?!
When we got home, I decided the first order of business was a tour of the house. So I took bub for a walk and told him what everything was. That was fruitless. He couldn’t care less. At this point I felt a little lost. What am I supposed to do now? Do we hold him? Do we put him down? What do we do? Our life in hospital had been confined to one room and there was only one spot to put him. Now we had a whole house to work with. I was pretty keen to unpack and get sorted with all of our luggage so I left bub with hubby and set to work with that.
The first few days were pretty easy as he slept a lot. I still had hubby at home for another week before he had to go back to work. It would usually get to 10pm when we were ready for bed and I realised we had to put bub to bed. So I’d do a feed, he’d fall asleep and I’d put him down. This took about one to two hours so it was usually 11pm by the time bub was actually down for the night. But he slept for six-ish hours so I was pretty happy with that. It seemed that he was born with the knowledge of night and day. I am so grateful for this as I have heard they come out not knowing. For the first few weeks it didn’t crossed my mind to start the process of getting him to bed earlier. We had many habits that were yet to change. Prior to having a baby, 6pm until 9pm was usually prime time for getting tea ready, watching telly and just generally relaxing. But for the moment, I kept going with this non-routine-put-him-to-bed-whenever because, as I have mentioned before, I know nothing about babies. We had a few bad nights with him being so gassy, but some more experienced mums on Facebook got us onto Infants Friend, which was a big help.
The next big step for me as a mother was the day hubby went back to work. This would be the first time I was left alone with a baby. I hoped he’d have a short day and be home early, or at least have time to stop in for lunch.
Bub was awake when hubby left for work at around 8.30am and I was too scared to put him down anywhere as he seemed to cry when this happened. So I carried him around with me as I took rubbish out to the bin, put a load of washing on and made myself some breaky. It was only about 9.30am when I heard hubby pulling into the driveway. Yes! Hubby walked in the door and said “I have half an hour to kill so I came home. You want me to take him?” “Yes!” I said with excitement. This was awesome! But it wasn’t long before he left again. This time I thought I’d attempt putting him down somewhere. So I put him in his bouncer on the kitchen bench. He seemed pretty happy there so I decided I’d clean out some shelves in the pantry. Maybe he knew I was nervous being home alone with him so he was being a very good boy. Before I knew it he had fallen asleep in his bouncer, so I carried him to his cot where he slept for a few hours. Wow, this is easy. If only it stayed that easy! When he woke up, I fed him and then he had some awake time. I felt so stuck as to what to do with him during his awake time though. He didn’t want to chat and didn’t know how to play. How does one entertain a two-week old baby?!
For the most part bub was pretty good and over time I learned how to handle being with him when he was awake. Mostly I’d put him in his bouncer, bounce him and have a one sided conversation with him. It was still too early to get him into a routine I felt. I had read a little on establishing routines with your baby from birth but there was no way this kid would do that. I’m the routine queen. I love them. Actually, I need routine for my own sanity. But this kid was all over the place and just wouldn’t bow to a routine – not yet anyway. I still had hope for the future though!
He was feeding every one to two hours unless he was sleeping, which was super annoying. I found this really hard as I had very little time from the moment I finished feeding before he was hungry again. I came to inwardly groan every time I heard hubby say “I think he’s hungry.” No! No he’s not. Leave me alone. Go away. I had such little time to simply eat, go to the toilet, catch my breath and so on. Hubby had hours to himself because bub was always feeding! I would feed bub just before having a shower and by the time I got out, hubby was standing there with him saying, “I think he’s hungry.” It seemed like that was an easy out for hubby. He wasn’t able to feed bub so he would just say he’s hungry and then I’d have to deal with him. I learned very quickly to take my sweet time in the shower because it was the only few minutes of alone time AKA sanity I would get in a day. Plus I had missed having long hot showers during pregnancy so I thought I deserved to enjoy a shower again.
After seeking some advice from family and friends who suggested I don’t let bub feed less than two hours apart, I decided to implement that. This made a huge difference to my sanity and didn’t seem to upset bub at all. Was probably good for him to stretch out his feeds. It was also good for hubby who couldn’t palm bub off to me any time he got fussy saying “I think he’s hungry.” Win win win!
The worst time we had with bub was when my caesarian cut got infected and I had to go on antibiotics at around week three. Oh my goodness! This went through my milk and really upset bub. My doctor had said it could cause diarrhea and to watch for that, but that was all he said. Bub would just scream and scream and nothing would settle him. His poos went from yellow to green to almost black. I had to take the antibiotics for five days, which doesn’t sound like long, but when you have an inconsolable baby, it feels like forever. It was so bad at one stage that hubby suggested I stop taking the antibiotics. “No way!” I said. “If I stop taking them now, I’m just going to have to start all over again when we realise that my wound is still infected. We’ve come too far to do that.” In chatting with my family, someone suggested we switch to formula. “Oh no, don’t do that,” said my mum, “you’ll lose your supply.” “No, she can just express,” replied my dad. They argued about this for a bit and how expressing wouldn’t keep my supply up enough bla bla bla. But I couldn’t bear doing this to bub anymore so we bought some formula and tried that out for a few days. It was extremely difficult preparing a bottle and pumping at the same time. I have to give credit to all the mums who do formula. That was hard work and I only had to do it for a few days. Switching to formula was a great idea though as bub settled more, but not completely, and his poos returned to a normal colour. Once I had finished taking the antibiotics, it took a week or so for bub to settle completely. I suppose it took that long for the drugs to work their way out of his system. What a nightmare.
Wound care became top priority as my cut was still open and bleeding at one end, so I needed to clean and dress it every day. It continued to bleed and puss until about week seven. Crazy! I had been on blood thinners though for a blood condition I have and I believe this contributed to it not healing as quickly. I was supposed to stay on thinners for six weeks post birth but I made an executive decision and stopped at three weeks (unbeknown to my doctor) as I could see my wound was not going to close up and this put me at risk of getting it infected again. If it got infected, I’d have to go through the antibiotic nightmare again. No thank you! It didn’t help that every time I changed bub he would kick me right where my cut was. Thanks pal!
These first few weeks at home were such a learning experience, not just in regards to how to be a mother, but also learning my son and what he was like. It’s hard work and just so constant and tiring, but I have to say my first impression of motherhood was pretty positive. I think I’m going to love being a mum… now who could have seen that coming?!
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