Home sweet home

Aidan is now home.  Hurrah!

 

He's heavier now than he was when he was born. Hurrah!  

He's a lot less jaundiced than when he was when went he went into hospital. Hurrah! 

And the doctors are happy with him. Hurrah!

There's another thing too.  The midwifes, in hospital, wanted him to fill as many nappies as he could.  And they wanted the fillings to be similar to specific substances.  First they wanted Nutella. Then they wanted pesto. And finally English mustard. 

English mustard is now being served.  Grandma is about to change him. 

Another night

Erin and Aidan are taking full advantage of the full board treatment at St Thomas' Hospital again tonight. But they are doing great. Erin's exhausted but is keeping her strength up.  And Aidan is getting stronger every feed - so are his dirty nappies.

Hopefully, after the doctor has given the go ahead, they should be back home for the New Year's Eve celebrations.

Aidan has put on two ounces since entering hospital and everything the doctors were worried about has either dropped or risen the way it should.  He's getting more energetic - especially after feeding - and seems to be learning new tricks.  This morning he sat on his mum's lap, raised his arms in to a yogic pose and looked like he was meditating. This afternoon I'm sure I caught a smile at his grandma.  And this evening he didn't pee while we changed him. 

I still worry but, hopefully, things are getting better.

Silence is not golden

I have to say a baby who sleeps and is quiet all the time is as scary as one who continually screams the house down. We've been worried about Aidan since around the fourth day when he was becoming extremely lethargic and more jaundiced.  And things came to a head yesterday.

Erin and Aidan are tonight spending a second night in hospital.  For those of you who don't know, they went back to St Thomas' on Sunday after the midwife came round to our house.  We saw that he was jaundiced and getting worse throughout the week, and worried, but because of the holidays we weren't able to get a visit from doctors or midwifes.  He also wasn't latching on to Erin to feed so we fed him through expressed milk and a medicine dropper.

When we got to hospital on Sunday they said he'd lost a little more than 10 per cent of his body weight and was jaundiced and needed to stay in for a few tests.  It was an awful feeling but we were, however, reassured that through what we'd told them, they said we'd done everything right.

The tests showed that he was dehydrated and slightly jaundiced.  He and Erin have now been feeding every three hours.  It's exhausting for Erin, but as ever, she's been a trooper and is digging deep.  Even after a full night of feeding and not too much sleep she had the patience to get Aidan feeding this morning by singing songs to him and livening him up.

Tonight he was being cheeky and playing with us (and his food), showing a lot of life, so he's certainly on the road to recovery.

I'll let you know when they're back home, hopefully, tomorrow. 

4th Day

Grandma De Vos and Roby are around at the moment with the Waller Grandparents.  Photos are being taken by the family-paparazzi.  Aidan knows what Posh and Becks feel like. Here are a few favourites:

Three generations of the same hairline.

At his most active.

A wrinkle for every time he kicked his mum inside her belly.

What a difference a day makes

Here's Aidan on his second day.

He slept most of it.

Here he is...

...with mum.

And taking centre stage.

The reason for this blog

Just to let you know, Erin and I are the proud parents of Aidan John Waller who arrived on December 22nd 2008 at 17:26hrs, weighing in at 8 pounds.

More to follow...

On the other side

This morning I woke up late and walked into our lounge.  Erin was sitting at the computer and asked if I wanted to go out for Sunday breakfast as 'it will possibly be the last time we'll get the chance as just a couple'.

I thought this was great idea.

The choices were to either go to Clapham or Wandsworth.  We settled for Wandsworth (or Nappy Valley) to go buggy and bump spotting.  I wanted to go to the usual cafe called Boiled Eggs and Soldiers but Erin insisted we try another place.  This led us to going into Crumpet. 

If we'd have gone in here nine months ago we might not have been in the state we are now. Even if we'd have gone in 6 months ago it would have been scary.  Admittedly today was a little worrying.  But exciting too.

There are two sides to Crumpet.  The first, where we sat, as you enter, is a normal coffee/brunch place for DINKY types.  As you go further into the cafe you see it opening up a little.  There is a buggy park opposite the tills.  Then deeper still, is a larger room with high chairs, family friendly space and a dolls house in the back.  It's a bubbling hive of activity. Possible frightening to those who haven't even thought about tears and nappies yet. But a haven to parents who want to escape the walls of home a little. 

We thought our life of papers and coffee on a Sunday morning might be over.  Not after today though.  Crumpet has opened up a whole new world.  Life-as-we-know-it, officially, does not end after a baby arrives. 

Waiting

As I write, Erin is pushing the buggy around our flat finding areas where it's tricky to manoeuvre. She's just been sipping on Raspberry leaf tea after eating a curry.  She's a little antsy.

Yes, she's due in 10 days but is ready. The baby bag is packed, mother's bag is packed and dad just needs to put his spare clothes in.

People must know we'd like an early arrival as we're also getting texts to see if there are any signs.  There aren't.  

This week has been a bit up and down too.  Erin went to see the midwife and was told she had high blood pressure and possible symptoms for pre eclampsia .  This news sent the blood pressure even higher as she worried about all this would entail.  A lot.  The next day she saw the doctor and the blood pressure was down.  Life was back to normal. Phew.

Inactive birthing class

Recently, Erin and I attended an active birthing class.  We went to learn some ways to make childbirth more bearable and so I could learn breathing and massaging techniques to hep Erin.

We started with a meditation.  Erin had to lie on her favoured side and I lay on my back. The leader of the group spoke to us and relaxed us.  He took a long time to relax us making sure we were very relaxed.  After a while he asked the relaxed men to place their hands in between our partner's shoulder blades.  A few seconds after he had said this Erin nudged me to see why I hadn't done as he asked.  There was a reason.  A big one.  I had relaxed so much into the meditation, I had fallen asleep.  I had no idea where my hand was supposed to be, what I should be doing or where I really was. Erin looked at me and whispered: 'Remember why we're here.' 

Oops.

To be fair I haven't been well and I'm still not completely over some fluey symptons. 

After that little mishap I concentrated.  Lots of breathing and massage and general birthing tips then came our way.  

Place your bets

Ok,  so I've noticed that this blog is getting a few more hits on average per day.  I know it's not because the writing is getting any better, so it must be that you all realise that the baby could come any time now.

And if you didn't know that, well, the baby could come any time now.  Erin's at 37 weeks which is full term. The baby is now ready for the real world, but of course, might be a little shy.

So we thought it would be a good idea for whoever reads this to guess when the baby will finally arrive.  You have from now until week 42.  That's until around January 12th.

So leave your dates in the comments section.  The winner gets to push the Bugaboo.  Around the block.  Twice.

On a side note...A very big congratulations to Adi who recently became a doctor.  I  don't think it's the kind of doctor we're going to need very soon, but still very exciting. 

Christmas cookies

Last night we had a few friends over for Erin's Annual Christmas Cookie Decorating.

It sounds nerdy and it is. One of the boys who was painstakingly designing a psychedelic Christmas tree simply said: 'If only my 18 year old self could see me now.'

With all the preparations and baking during the day Erin was quite tired. She was also uncomfortable with the baby positioning itself with what seems to be his or her elbow in between Erin's lungs and ribs. Half way through the evening Erin got up and as she was stretching, started chatting with one of our friends. The next thing we heard was this: 'Oh yes I can feel it. It's so nobbly. It really is very nobbly. I think you've got a monster in there.'

The other girls went over to see what was going on while the boys started singing What's that In Erin's Belly, Is It A Monster? to the tune of The Automatic's Monster.

If Erin did have a monster in her belly, that would be scary. She doesn't, so it's not. But what was truly frightening was when someone got a little carried away with one of their creations and ended up with Ginger The Funky Angel.

You've never seen anything like it.

It looks warm but it isn't

After this was taken we went to pick something up from friends.  If you saw two people struggling on to buses with a moses basket and a white wooden stand then that was us.

Nesting?

When I have a day off I find time to waste on the internet, read books I never finish or listen to mid '90s indy rock B-sides.  

Erin had her first day of maternity leave this week and tidied and cleaned the flat.  I mistook this for nesting but she reminded me that this is what she does when she's off.  She does.  I don't.  I was reminded of that too.

Amid this, she packed her hospital bag and the baby bag.  Erin and I ran though the final things to put in them this morning.  I now know what's in and what's not.  What's needed and what's not. This is unlike last weekend when Erin said she felt funny, thinking the time had come, and I went into a complete psychotic-fumbly-panic, worrying what on earth we had to get ready. Now I know.  I can't promise I won't fumble when the time comes but it will be less psychotic.

The baby's bag has the cutest things in it, boys' blue and girls' pink tops - we honestly don't know the gender, unlike some people think - and simply the cuddliest all-in-one white winter snow suit to come home in.

I think we're getting ready.

Christmas lunch

I told her I was going to write this so I better had.

We had our Christmas lunch at work today and one of my colleagues who occassionally reads the blog started talking to me while there was a bit of a lull in the general conversation. 'Just don't do what my husband did when I went into labour,' she must have been bored and been in a bit of a daydream as this was out of the blue.

'Why?'

'Well,' she continued. 'We didn't have mobiles in those days and I started contractions while he was out. I tried to get hold of him but couldn't. I left messages everywhere. Well, he'd got one of the messages but didn't call me back. I didn't hear from him for ages. I was worried sick.

'The next thing I knew I got a message from the hospital saying "I've got your husband here, I'm going to send him home, as we can't start without you".'

I hope I don't do that. But we'll see.

Transition

'What's it called when women go a bit mad during labour?' said the husband of one of Erin's workmate's to his wife at Erin's leaving do last night.

I much prefer talking to men about labour than women. The most women give is, 'you'll never know the pain unless you go through it yourself.' But most men don't have the filter in their brain to stop themsleves.

'Transition, that's what it's called,' his wife answered, having answered this question a few hundred times before.

'Yeah, transition, that's it. Wow, it's awful. You'll get called everything under there sun, they have no idea what they are saying,' he said looking at his wife for confirmation.

He got it and carried on, 'They tell you they don't love, never loved you, hate you, that you'll never go near them again and you shouldn't have been near them in the first place. There is anger and venom in their voice. They lose it.'

He let go of the emotions which he certainly couldn't during this tirade in labour and ended 'But when it's all over they have more love for you and the baby than you will ever know'.

Later we snook into his son's bedroom. Erin and his wife didn't know what we were doing and thought he was showing his son off. What he was actually doing was letting me feel the temperature of the bedroom. Showing that children need the room cooler than we do. 18 degrees to be precise.