We are mom & pop !!
Thursday, October 13, 2005
Dummies!
A mother's perspective:
Well, here we are now, we have to use a dummy to get a quiet moment with the baby. Against all initial advice and tips from various books and midwives not to use a dummy in the beginning, we are now so far that we have found out how calming (especially for our nerves :-)) a dummy can be.
Our poor Thierry is showing signs of a collic, reflux or at least terrible wind. Therefore he's more or less constantly crying, especially in the evening and during the night. This is his way to communicate with us how painful that is. The only way to calm him down a bit, especially when we have done all things one could do to stop a baby crying, like changing nappy, rocking him, feeding him or singing lullabies, seems to be the dummy.
In beginning we were afraid that Thierry might forget how to suck on a real teat as soon he's sucking on a dummy teat, but he's so good that he can suck them all!
He's already such an experienced sucker that the newborn dummies are too small for him, he's already on those for 3 months old babies.
Thanks the dummies!
¶ 3:15 pm 0 comments
Well, here we are now, we have to use a dummy to get a quiet moment with the baby. Against all initial advice and tips from various books and midwives not to use a dummy in the beginning, we are now so far that we have found out how calming (especially for our nerves :-)) a dummy can be.
Our poor Thierry is showing signs of a collic, reflux or at least terrible wind. Therefore he's more or less constantly crying, especially in the evening and during the night. This is his way to communicate with us how painful that is. The only way to calm him down a bit, especially when we have done all things one could do to stop a baby crying, like changing nappy, rocking him, feeding him or singing lullabies, seems to be the dummy.
In beginning we were afraid that Thierry might forget how to suck on a real teat as soon he's sucking on a dummy teat, but he's so good that he can suck them all!
He's already such an experienced sucker that the newborn dummies are too small for him, he's already on those for 3 months old babies.
Thanks the dummies!
¶ 3:15 pm 0 comments
Nach langer Zeit ...
¶ 2:37 pm 0 comments
..habe ich endlich mal wieder Zeit um ein kurzes Update zuschreiben.
Seit meinem letzten Eintrag sind schon wieder ein paar Wochen vergangen ohne dass ich ueberhaupt merke wie schnell die Zeit vergeht.
Gestern hatte ich mit Thierry meinen ersten Arzt Besuch weil Thierry staendig am schreien ist und wir den Verdacht auf entweder Kolik oder Reflux (Problem mit Schlucken) hat. Als der Arzt sich mir vorstellte, stellte ich gleich fest, dass er auch Deutsch ist!!! Was fuer ein Glueck! Irgendwie traue ich den deutschen Aerzten doch mehr, aber wahrscheinlich deshalb, weil es mir einfacher faellt zu erklaeren was Sache ist. Tja, habe jetzt erst mal ein homeopathisches Mittel fuer Thierry verschrieben bekommen. Mal schauen ob das was hilft.
Im Anschluss meines Arztbesuches traf ich mich mit einer Freundin auf ein schnelles Glas Rotwein, was ich mir redlich verdient habe, und musste allerdings dann doch zwangsweise das allererste Mal in der Oeffentlichkeit stillen, da Thierry ausgerechent dann wieder anfing zu schreien.
Oh je, genau das was ich die ganze Zeit versucht habe zu vermeiden, da das bei mir ja noch nicht so gut klappt wie bei manch anderen "erfahreneren" Stillern :-)
Aber es ging dann doch und zum Glueck habe ich so meine Hemmschwelle ueberwunden.
In der einen Hand das Baby an der Brust, in der anderen Hand ein Glas Rotwein... Welcome back, after all!!!
Heute hatten wir dann gleich unser zweites oeffentliches Stillen!!! Thierry musste zu seinem Hoertest, und nachdem wir dort leider ueber ein Stunde warten mussten, fing der Kleine wieder zu schreien an... Aber zum Glueck bin ich ja jetzt geuebt, ein paar Handgriffe und Thierry ist gluecklich!
Tuesday, October 11, 2005
After bath time
Thierry had a bit of a bad day yesterday. Our health worker thought he might have reflux because he was feeding a lot but also being sick. We treated to him to a bath later in the evening and he just loved sitting in the water and was so relaxed afterwards.
He had a feed around midnight and another between 3 and 4 in the morning. Once again, Classic FM came to our aid and he was soon asleep.
¶ 8:27 am 0 comments
Monday, October 10, 2005
Sleeping patterns
You catch me at 3:35am on a Monday morning. I'm eating a Sainsbury's Strawberry Indulgence ice cream but more to the point, I'm completely wide awake. Such has been the change in our sleeping routine over the past few weeks that the irony of this moment is that for the first time at this hour Thierry is still fast asleep but thanks to my body clock doing an automatic all bells wake up call I am sitting here waiting for the little lad to wake up. The adrenaline of the moment makes me feel like I have the caffeine from a Starbucks triple shot grande skinny wet latte coursing through my veins rather than just the various flavourings and colourants from that over sweet frozen delight.
It's funny how we have adjusted to the lack of sleep and twice a night feeds. During the daylight hours this weekend I've felt a bit jaded but when Thierry's lungs provide us with that night-time wake up call heralding an imminent feeding need the adrenalin kicks in and I scamper around the house to;
One of the by products of the change in sleep pattern, apart from a sweetened tooth and more snacking is that I dream so much nowadays.
Last night I had my wierdest and most vivid to date. In a wood panelled room in Windsor Castle I was having afternoon tea with the Queen and Prince Philip. It was very convivial and we were talking like old friends. We were even discussing the merits of a Breaking News story on the TV about one of their grandsons. ¶ 3:40 am 0 comments
It's funny how we have adjusted to the lack of sleep and twice a night feeds. During the daylight hours this weekend I've felt a bit jaded but when Thierry's lungs provide us with that night-time wake up call heralding an imminent feeding need the adrenalin kicks in and I scamper around the house to;
- boil water to warm up his milk bottle
- remove milk bottle from fridge and find one pint empty jug (always the challenge)
- switch Classic FM on in the kitchen in advance of feed
- back upstairs to fill his cotton wool dish with warm water to clean him at nappy change
- arrange nappy and change of clothes in case he's wet
- (boring point for would be parents: getting all this done in advance of lifting him out of his basket halves the amount of time it takes with baby in arms and is whole lot safer than juggling a tetchy baby)
One of the by products of the change in sleep pattern, apart from a sweetened tooth and more snacking is that I dream so much nowadays.
Last night I had my wierdest and most vivid to date. In a wood panelled room in Windsor Castle I was having afternoon tea with the Queen and Prince Philip. It was very convivial and we were talking like old friends. We were even discussing the merits of a Breaking News story on the TV about one of their grandsons. ¶ 3:40 am 0 comments
Sunday, October 09, 2005
Two important firsts together
It's been barely three weeks and Thierry and I have shared two important firsts together. Namely;
- that very first Arsenal game on TV. We watched Arsenal on 27/9 beat Ajax 2-1 in the Champions League game played in Holland.
- that very first England game on TV. Not a great game to talk about as England beat Austria 1-0 in a world cup qualifier on Saturday 8th October.
An important postscript to this story is that later in the evening England's qualification to the World Cup next year was confirmed when Holland beat the Czech Republic. That means, with a bit of luck that Thierry and I are off to the World Cup next year !!!
¶ 7:10 pm 0 comments
