Kilifi with my family and friends

So it seems I no longer have ANY free time. I've hardly been on my computer the last couple of weeks. I bet you are all missing my blog terribly.
Basically my family descended on us. Shortly followed by Nolly and Dolly... then we all went off to the coast. Then Nolly and Dolly went home. Then Benedikt and I went away alone, abandoning Nicolas. Then my sis left. Then my pops left.
So now its just me and my mom looking after Nic... and besides from the daily sleep I have we always seem to be out gadding.
Anyway, we are almost gadded out now... only a few more friends and places to visit. So now I start working again and can update my blog too.

So the coast... what a jol. And I didnt even drink!
Here are some of the photos... as usual, hold your mouse over the photo to read about it. And click on the images to view the larger version

Week 3 of Nicolas's life

So I've just come back from my first post pregnancy run. My jelly belly jiggled alot along with my new big bazookas... but I managed 4kms without stopping. Quite proud of my self. And now I am on a exercise high. SO glad my folks arrive on Tuesday so that I can really start running again and lose all this weight. Thing is, is that when you are breast feeding you SO cant diet. But YAY, we have full time baby sitters for the next month!! We are so blerrie organised.

So Nicolas has been a star lately. He is awake a lot in the day and sleeps through in the night. Well practically. Like from 11pm to 5 or 6am. His being awake so much in the day means ALOT of work for me... but it is SO worth it when he sleeps through.

Breast feeding is going much better although he still needs the nipple shield now and then on my right breast as a booster. I have one SuperBoob (left) and one dud. We sometimes give him a bottle of breast milk, usually when we have visitors or we go out, and he takes that no problem. Don't even need to warm the milk which is a bonus. And I'm slowly slowly building up a store of frozen breast milk so that we are able to go away next month for 2 days and leave him with my parents.
He does have SUCH sharp little nails that do claw at my chest though when he is SERIOUSLY hungry or just fed up. And often he likes to just suck for a bit longer even though he is getting no milk out. Not good for sore nipples. But it keeps him settled when he is in a niggly patch. And thats all you want when he just cant be soothed... anything that works! We just started giving him gripe water last night. It seems to help a bit. So between the gripe water, his dummy, his comfort sucking and his favourite position (seated, leaning forward with his chin in our hand) and having his back tapped and rubbed we eventually get him to sleep after a feed. It often takes more than an hour though... thats after an hour of feeding. But he sleeps so well at night now so it almost doesn't bother us.

We had Nic's 2 week check up with our paediatrician last week. He weighed in at 3.5kgs which our paed was very happy with. He also was not as yellow, so less need for cooking him in the sun. And his eye gunk cleared up after I started (finger) pumping his tear ducts thanks to our paed's advice.
I also went to my gynie for a quick check up and my stitches are healing nicely which is good. Hence my ability to go running 3 weeks after he was born. YAY!

Nicolas's his cord fell off on Monday (the 9th) evening. So glad to see that ugly little thing go. And now its so nice to stroke his smooth tummy. I have started giving him baby massages too. I follow a chart. He seems to really enjoy our sessions.

Another milestone reached - I took him out on my own in the car to visit a friend. Hem had her gorgeous little boy a week before us so we had LOADS to chat about. We compared notes on EVERYTHING. And moaned about the delights of our post pregnancy bodies. And swapped books on baby stuff. Hem is such a great girl, I'm so glad to have a friend in the same boat.

We've now had plenty of visitors. We even had a braai at our house yesterday for 10! We took Nic to the shops in the morning (he slept the whole time) then when we came back I had a 2 hour session with him while Benedikt did all of the cooking and organising bless him. So we were ready when everyone arrived. And Nic practically slept through the whole thing in doting arms! So it was easy peasy really. And the fact that our friends were super helpful. Its all about inviting the right people too!

Our first 2 weeks at home with little Nicolas

So we came home on the monday morning with our little bundle after Labour Saturday. I only had to spend two nights in hospital thank goodness as we found the staff in the maternity ward a bit frustrating :-(. On the plus side it was really cool to have friends there at the same time (a couple we'd met at Lamaze) and we had quite a few visitors on the Sunday which was very nice.

Nicolas was still on the colostrum so we were getting by with feeding times. Although I was hellava sore from feeding him, wow. Then my milk came in by Monday evening - and boy I was up a size or 5! Monday night, tuesday night and wednesday night were total nightmares. Nicolas just didnt want to sleep. He was clearly uncomfortable as he was squirming and crying non stop and we couldnt work out why. We thought it must be wind, so we patted him and put him in all the recommended positions for hours but nothing helped. By the 3rd night of torture for all 3 of us I grabbed a bottle of milk I'd expressed earlier and fed it to him. And volia, he downed the whole thing and passed out. Turns out I'd been starving the poor little guy for 3 days and he had been crying from hunger not wind. What a bad mother!
So for the next 2 days I expressed all my milk and fed it to him via a bottle. He was much happier. But boy is the bottle thing a mission. We were determined to get him back on the breast, so we got Imelda around, my doula. She gave us loads of advice and by Saturday we had it right again. Although I was using nipple shields as they helped him get the milk out, they take a lot less sucking.
So our next job was to wean him off the shields as those are also a big pain. A week later he is successfully off them on one side, but not the other. Hopefully as he gets stronger it will happen.
Breast feeding is hard!! Maybe by the time he is one I will have it right.

He is sleeping quite well at night now though. He only wakes up once for a quick feed between 11pm and 7am. So that side of things has significantly improved. I keep him awake a lot during the day and feed him as much as possible and I think thats what does it. I am very roughly following Gina Ford's routine advice and its helping.
He is slowly starting to enjoy bath times too. Benedikt cant wait to bath with him.

I can't believe how little time I have to do things. This baby business is full time boy! During his first sleep of the day I quickly have a salt bath, shower, breakfast, put a wash on, express some milk and sterilize all the shields and the expressing equipment. And catch up on emails if I'm lucky. His second sleep of the day is when I sleep too. Then his third sleep I have another salt bath and try to get a little bit of work done. I have one or two pending issues on sites that I need to sort out - nothing major. Or often I have visitors or I take Nicolas to Naoko, our neighbour, so that also takes up a (welcome) chunk of time.
So that means I have like max 2 hours a day to do stuff.

The frustrating thing is that feeding him takes so long. And its so mind numbing! Obviously I love the little guy and love our time together but boy does it get tedious. Sitting all alone with someone who cant talk back or interact with me for hours every day gets boring! I love weekends when Benedikt is home and I force him to sit with me while I feed Nicolas. Otherwise I've been watching TV or movies while feeding him.

Its quite funny how different the cultures are here... apparently the kenyan mothers stay in bed solidly for 2 weeks after having a baby. Crazy! I would go mad. Out vet came to see mahindi the day after I came home and was horrified to find me in the kitchen baking, with a wash on and visitors coming and organising things in general! And the gate guard was just as surprised to see me driving just 6 days after Nicolas was born :-)

We've taken him out and about quite a few times now. Its fun, pushing a real trolley (Benedikt's word for the pram) around with a real baby inside. And its OUR baby! What a novelty. Benedikt and I peer inside every 2 mins just to make sure he is still there.

So ja, we are learning ALOT every day about caring for a baby. Like what products to use or not use when changing nappies and bathing him. How warm to keep him. How to hold him. How to read his crying and mood changes. Why his eyes are full of gunk. When his umbilical cord stump will fall off. Why he hiccups and sneezes so often. When we should start massaging him. Why his skin is peeling on his hands and feet. Its a STEEP learning curve.

Benedikt has been amazing. He has been doing all the shopping, all the cooking, all the dog walking, lots of chores and on weekends he really really helps out with Nicolas which is great cos by then I need a break. And company! He has done his fair share of pooey nappies too... with only a little moaning.

I have lost 10kgs already which is great. But still have a lot to go. I can't wait to start exercising again. And to get rid of this post pregnancy belly. Having a baby REALLY is a big thing to put your body through. You'd think once its out things go back to normal... no way Hose. You leak from everywhere, still have contractions, and sore breasts, still look pregnant, you get the baby blues and you are constantly tired! Apparently after 6 weeks I should feel normal again. So 2 weeks down, 4 to go!