Aimee's first Xmas

Aimee just experienced her very first Xmas ever. She spent a week staying at the home of Grandparents Mac and boy did she enjoy it! Fussed over like a little Princess, Aimee had everything she needed and more. Nanna Mac had renovated the second bedroom into a complete nursery fitted out with everything a baby could ever need. New cot, new carpets, new toys, new everything!
Of course Aimee received the most number of presents this Xmas and the biggest! Causing her mum and dad the dilemma of how it was all going to fit inside the car. But no mind, Aimee responded to her copious gifts with almost a smile. Won;t be long before she smiles properly.
Aimee is now back at home and of course, without all the fun and excitement of Xmas - is taking some time to settle back into a more chilled pattern. But she has just had a bath with Mum in themain bath and obviously loves being in water. This has helped calm her down and hopefully, will sleep better tonight.

Cranium

Cat and Aimee are up in MK already leaving me back in London to go back to work for the few days before Xmas. I forgot how much attention, questions and quizzing from work colleagues went on before Aimee was born, but now, rather than shoulder shrugging and blankly responding that Cat was not yet in labour, now, I can talk endlessly about life with Aimee. In fact, I go on so much about it that I think people are now avoiding me. Especially since I do like to give colourful and incident-filled reports about how tough the birth was and how gruesome the nappy changing can be. But I love talking about Aimee, and my new audience is other parents - who also love talking about their kids so now, I am in this totally new club.

Whilst Cat was in MK, she saw her osteopath and he gave Cat a clean bill of health concerning her hip bones. But when he l examined Aimee he noticed that her skull was slightly compressed on one side (the side she had her fist held as she was born) which could be the reason why she is exhibiting some tantrums during feeding and not sleeping well. This field of cranial osteopathy is new in the UK. Whilst it is not tree-hugging hippy medicine, it is something not really known about by midwives and doctors. My friends Charles and Liz also went for treatment with their baby daughter, and can attest that it works. Aimee is due for a couple of cranial treatments this week so I am keen to keep track of how it affects her behaviour.

One thing we did learn was a pressure point just on the left side of her belly which could be massaged to encourage wind to pass through the system, either as a belch or a fart. Aimee is quite a trooper with the wind, she either selfishly harbours her wind until it causes her pain, or she lets off with the most embarrassingly loud parps. Either way, we welcome any help with getting the wind out of her system fast.



Anyway, for me, it is great to finally get a full night's sleep. But Cat is already making sure that I make up for it when I go up to MK with a full quota of nappy changing duty.

My next report will be on Aimee's first Xmas - in MK with the family Mac.

Bitty

The past two days has seen Aimee feed with the appetite of a Tyranosaur. Every 1.5-2 hours she is demanding her breast milk and she must be fed within two minutes of her getting agitated or she'll wail the house down. Poor Cat's boobs barely have time to recover. Aimee is draining one breast and trying her best to empty the other, before finally succumbing to fatigue and falling asleep. We hope this is a growth spurt, as usually happens with babies, and will settle down to a more boob friendly schedule in a few days. Ironic though, that for three weeks, the boob was rejected, and now, she can't get enough.

We went to the baby weighing clinic yesterday. Aimee is now a whopping 4.33Kg (9lb8oz). In just four weeks she has put on a kilo of solid Aimee mass. This, according to the chart, is slightly above average. Oh no, I fear we are rearing a blimp. But her appetite is insatiable. Maybe we are weak, but we dare not ration her feedings since she is big enough to beat us up now.

Message in a bottle

Well, it's been four days since Aimee last touched the bottle and I'm happy to say that she is breast-feeding with gusto now. It is not all plain sailing, sometimes she protests so much she goes onto fits of hysteria. We now know that she is actually not always that hungry and she needs simply to sleep for one hour, so we papoose her. One hour of close-contact swaying later - blissful suckling. We are also learning that complete peace and quiet is actually a bit annoying to Aimee. She loves the buzz and excitement of new places, new faces, outdoors, cold, warm, bright lights, flashing colours, music very loud. This cacophony actually calms Aimee into a peaceful lull. Amazing!

This morning we attending a breast-feeding clinic. Actually it was more of a mother's social gathering where they chatted about life with a young'un. I felt initially a little self-concious as the only bloke there but it was very friendly. The woman running it was incredibly impressed that Aimee could breast feed now especially after three weeks of bottle. She offered some interesting tips about improving positioning, including an unusual down on all fours version I have never seen before. Surreal, but refreshing to talk about these things with someone who is not a midwife or health visitor (they perhaps unintentionally do make you feel slightly useless).
Anyway, there were dozens of babies of all ages there and all the mums offered very sueful personal experiences and advice about all sorts of things.
I was most impressed with a young toddler (maybe a year old) who was dipping in and out of his mother's breasts like you would snack on a packet of peanuts! At one point, he was standing upright, extending his neck to suckle on his mother who's breast drooped to just the right height for him - all the time, she was chatting quite unperterbed.

Amazing Aimee

Something amazing happened today. Aimee breastfed for the first time. Not just a dabble or a lick - proper full on thirty minutes a go breast feeding just like all the propoganda those leaflets from the NHS show. It's a bloody miracle and I can;t beleive it has actually happened.

It started this morning. Aimee had her feed from the bottle but only finished three quarters. She seemed happy but not sleepy so as Cat began her usual slog of expressing nilk inthe other room, I was playing with Aimee. I noticed after a short time that she began rooting with her mouth. Unusual I thought since even a 3/4 feed would normally stop her from feeling hungry so soon. I placed my finger knuckle close to her mouth and she reached out with her mouth to suckle on it. Blimey, I thought, what if my knuckle were a nipple instead?
I ran over to the other room and made Cat present her nipple. With Aimee held vertically under the arms like a floppy kitten, I put her to the breast....Darn! It worked. Soon she was gulping down milk like a seasoned breastfeeder. You cannot imagine the feeling we had watching this phenomenom when we thought all hope was gone. I nearly cried.

Then, this afternoon we tried again, with semi success, we still needed the bottle to finish her feed. Then, tonight, she protested quite a storm, but after a lot of calming, she eventually took andfed for 40 minutes. Really gulping too. We need to learn the best time to do it. Too early and she is too asleep, too late and by the time she is crying, we need her to calm down. The silicone nipple protector helps too as it fools herinto thinking itis a bottle teat. Other than that, it is persistence I guess that will eventually turn her into a permanent breast feeder.

It is only the beginning and it won't be easy, maybe it will never happen again, but it has given us hope to continue trying her on the breast. This is truly a significant breakthrough and I am only too happy to continue reporting in the next few entries Aimee's progress from bottle, to breast (surely a minor miracle after 3 whole weeks bottle feeding).

Timing

Aimee is getting good at timing her wee-wees. She'll do it the minute you take away her old nappy and place a new one on. On a good day, she will release an arc of baby wee about two inches into the air, and just powerful enough to coat your hand which is holding the new nappy, plus it wil also leak onto the towel beneath her, hence requiring yet another item to add to the laundry bin.
But she is pretty calm during nappy change since we are beginning to suss out that we can pretty much do what we need as long as we feed her before hand. We are now adopting a new strategy of dosing her up on an extra ounce of milk just after her nappy change to ensure a full tummy and sleepy baby. So far this has not worked as planned since her wind is too painful for her to get any length of sleep.
Yesterday we all ventured out on our biggest excursion yet. Cat, Aimee, me and MIL travelled to the BBC to see Cat's work colleagues. You can't imagine the logistical nightmare that preparing that trip involved. Since we are bottle feeding, we needed to pack all the pre-chilled bottles, nappies, changing mat etc etc, but also we needed to bring the electric breast pump and all the accessories for that. But we managed it. And clearly, Cat's work colleagues enjoyed seeing little Aimee, who put ona charm offensive worthy of an Oscar.

Come on feel the noize

Little Aimee exhibits a startling array of vocal grunts, groans, wheezes, whimpers, yells, screams and cries. We dub her the Pterodactyl since we imagine she kind of sounds like a baby dinosaur. At night,she is more like a 'Terror' dactyl as she can scream her face off for no apparent reason. Her signature wail is the undulating high pitched cry after a prolonged bout of normal crying. This usually signals the end of one period of crying, as she takes a breather ready to begin the next round of wailing.
Cat and I, whilst not enjoying the crying, are at least managing to view this as simply something Aimee does and after we feed her, change her, check she is ok, there is not much more we can do other than soothe her or rock her.
I asked the health visitor if she had colic, and the reply was that this was nothign compared to colic. Gulp! God forbid she develop colic. At the most, Aimee wails for about 40 minutes - usuallyt cos she wants feeding earlier than usual. Once fed and changed, she is generally fine, though refuses to go to sleep. Colic babies wail despite all attempts to find a solution. They wail for hours and hours and hours. The pain must be unbearable. No one knows the real reason for colic. I hope Aimee doesn't get colic, pleeeeeease.

The other day, we did manage to step outdoors for the first time together. It was a bright winter's afternoon and we ventured the buggy out and ate lunch at a nice local restaurant. The was quite an adventure for us and Aimee seemed to fall instantly asleep in the pram, despite the cold. The whole trip lasted amybe 1.5 hours but exhausted us. That afternoon, when we got home, we completely zonked out and slept for 3 hours. Luckily, Mother in Law was on hand to look after Aimee while we rested.

An eventful day

One of the joys of having a newborn is that you get to show off your pride and joy to close friends and relatives. Yesterday my sister came round to visit from Thailand and she seemed to love little Aimee, depsite her screaming and crying. After a short while of getting acquainted, Aimee took to the arms of Sylvie and fed like a trooper. She'll have to get used to the company as Aimee has a lot of aunties and uncles. Yesterday was quite a crowd actually, with my parents, sister, Cat's Mum, Cat and me all in one room. Aimme didn;t seem to care long as she had a bottle to feed from.

Textbooks - throw them all away!
I'm having a textbook versus instinct debate with Cat at the moment. For me, I beleive Aimee should feed every 3-4 hours no matter what. Cat feels Aimee should be allowed her five - six hour sleep if needs be (books and the midwife advise against this), or two hour feed if that is what she wants. I am nervous about letting Aimee sleep too long for fear of her missing a feed and getting dehydrated. Last night, we did it my way, I woke Aimee up after five hours of sleeping had elapsed. Darn! I paid the price with three hours of crying hysterics after a copious feed and nappy change. So today, we do it Cat's way and feed on demand and leave well alone if sleeping for long periods. If the weather is nice, we may even venture outdoors for a stroll in the pram for the first time.

Aimee is now two weeks old. It's amazing to think we have survived two whole weeks. The first week was definitely the toughest days of my life - and of Cat's. No amount of planning can prepare the first time parent for this period.
But we have found that each day gets a tiny bit better. We learn and discover new things about coping with Aimee. We hope also that Aimee is learning to trust us and certainly seems a bit calmer.
The trick is always trying to decipher her cries. Nappy changing and hunger is fairly obvious, but we are learning that around 7pm each night, she simply gets bored and cries unless you take her around to other rooms in the house and play with her. After that, she is fine.
I'm not saying it will be easy from now on, but today seems a watershed. Cat and I will leave the house to go out and do some shopping for the first time since Aimee was born. Tonight, I may even go back to doing some jujitsu. Our lives are sort of coming back together again, and it is some relief. But as ever, Aimee comes first. She always will.