It’s been a week since Jenson was born/delivered (I feel like I can’t say born because I technically didn’t ‘give birth’ and delivered sounds like a postman dropped him off!) and it’s crazy how much has happened. After a rather traumatic birth and extended stay in hospital (more on that in my birth story posts next week), we’re finally home. Although I’ve spent the last three nights in my own home, it’s still been over a week since I slept in my own bed. Recovery from the emergency cesarean is feeling slow and tackling the stairs and getting into a low bed is a tad difficult and stressful at the moment, so I’ve been sleeping in our uber-comfy recliner downstairs. For the first two nights Luke had Jenson upstairs completely alone so I could catch up on sleep but from last night I started helping out in the night. When he brings him down to get a fresh bottle I change Jenson’s nappy, so I’m feeling a bit more useful these days.
Jenson is still jaundiced but he is doing so much better. The midwife came out to see us on Thursday and he’s already back up to his birth weight (8 pounds 9 ounces – did I mention that before? Big baby!). He’s also had plenty of visitors and people have been so thoughtful with sending cards, presents and flowers. I even got a bit emosh when my colleagues sent flowers with a card. Damn baby hormones – it doesn’t stop when you give birth! I welled up at a Save the Children ad too.
It’s incredible how quickly you fall in love with your child and how you fall more in love with your partner. I can sit for hours staring at Jenson, whether he’s awake or not, fascinated by how we managed to make this gorgeous little person. And Luke is so good with him that my heart melts a little bit more every time they do something super-cute together. Dad’s have a really shit reputation for not being particularly involved and I’m glad that he’s so supportive and hands-on. He’s never planned on being anything but which is great. The cutest thing has to be when Jenson tried suckling on his nose. I was so disappointed that I didn’t grab my camera in time. There have been other moments I’m happy to have missed though, such as the first time he peed on me! I’ve had milk, pee, puke and pizza on my clothes today and only one of those was my fault (I have a habit of missing my mouth).
While I was pregnant I wasn’t too concerned about what my body would look like once he was born. The only thing I was anxious about was an episiotomy, which I managed to avoid even though they attempted a forceps delivery. I never really thought about having an emergency cesarean (you try and avoid scary thoughts like that) and how that would change things. My original plan was to ‘get back in shape’ (not that I was really in shape before) by walking everywhere with the pram and rowing in front of the TV every other day from about six weeks after birth. That has gone out of the window a bit but I’ll walk as much as I’m able to and once I’ve healed I will go back to my initial plan. I was 84kg when I found out I was pregnant, dropped to 82kg through morning sickness and weighed 101kg on my due date – pretty hefty! On the day I came home from hospital I weighed 94.8kg and when I weighed myself earlier today I had dropped another 2kg, so it’s nice to know that it’s dropping off with zero effort. Everything looks a lot different though! I might be brave enough to share a photo in next week’s baby update as I’ve liked seeing this realistic post-baby body trend which is popping up online lately. Hopefully it will make more new mums feel more confident about their own bodies. For now, all you need to know is that my belly is kinda just hanging there and it’s pretty weird! I know (hope!) it’ll tone up eventually with a bit of effort but for now I’m just proud of myself and pretty damn impressed with my body for creating this amazing little person.
Here’s a couple more cute little pics from his first few days at home. Yes, he’s even cute when he’s screaming.
I have too many photos of him asleep. That’s not creepy, right?
We went for a little walk! Baby’s first day out! Granted we only went to the shop across the road… Look how teeny he looks in his pram!
And here’s something for all the bottle feeders out there. See how chilled he is. Man, he’s cute.
