In Short
It's been a while since my last post and well... a lot has happened. I could have written 50 different posts on all the things that have happened and thing I've observed since my last post but I'll have to trim it down to highlights. So here we go!
The Birth of our Glorious Beautiful Baby Girl
In short, my wife is a champ. She was in labour for a very long time (roughly 12 hours) due to the position of the baby's head. My wife, Lucy, got the epidural which was great as it relieved a lot of the pain. When Lucy was fully dilated they waited about 2 hrs before preparing her to push. She pushed for about 3 hrs, again because the baby's head was positioned in a certain way it took longer and more pushing. Lucy re-positioned herself on her knees bent over (basically on all fours) to have gravity help the baby's head progress down into the birthing canal. It worked and the nurse (who was excellent) was very happy and slapped Lucy's rear end with a big smile on her face. In any other circumstances I would have been shocked by this but I think we were all elated that things, literally, were falling into place for the big push to come. From there on in it was a lot of hard pushing.
Baby Brenna was born on July 22nd at 3:10 pm. She weighed in at 6 lbs 14oz.
After spending a day at the hospital they sent us home at which point I was like "really! you're sending us home with this new person to take care of for the rest of our lives?! Are you sure you don't want us to stick around a few more days?". Any who, we bundled her up in her car seat and I drove 20 km/h under the speed limit all the way home.I Think We Got Lucky With This One
Our little girl was a great sleeper. I know, I know - you hate us. I don't know what to say other then we got lucky. She slept throughout the night. It kind of freaked us out because we were wondering if we should poke her to see if everything was o.k.. Surely she needed to eat or something but she was content and as the old saying goes "don't wake a sleeping baby".
Because at the time I was on contract I did not get any vacation/sick leave or paternity leave and so I had to go to work the following week. That sucked. I remember talking to a few of my friends and they slept in another room when they had to work the next day so that they were not walking zombies. I took this same approach because even though baby Brenna slept throughout the night she was a very noisy sleeper. I'd suggest to any soon to be new dad to discuss this approach with their significant other. No sense in the both of you being sleep deprived and the scale should be tipped towards the one who could possibly be fired from their job if they are not able to perform due to lack of sleep.
Breast Feeding is a Challenge
For a first time mother, breast feeding is a challenge. The only advice I can give is to get as much help as there is offered. Fortunately we live in a city where there are drop in breast feeding clinics and other resources offered for free. The other piece of the advice is to be tenacious. It's a struggle but if you keep at it things will eventually work out. Remember it's not only new for the first time mother but also for the newborn so give it time and you'll end up on the same page.
Grandparents Are Gems
If you are lucky enough to have grandparents around during the first few weeks of when your child is born, it is a godsend. We had both sets of grandparents with us and it was very helpful and we were extremely grateful. They helped with what seemed like little things but were actually big things like getting groceries, cleaning, providing breaks and advice. They are gems!
The More Knowledge You Have the Better Off You Are
My wife, thankfully, had gained a lot of insight from friends and family on all baby related matters from when you should move them out of your bedroom and into their crib to what diaper's, soothers, bottles, etc. should be used. All good advice but it should be noted that these are opinions on what worked for them so grain of salt. One of the best books we got was "The Happiest Baby on the Block" by Dr. Harvey Karp. We also watched a DVD of his which provided guidance on how to sooth your baby and help them from crying. For us, his techniques worked and watching the DVD helped us visually see how to swaddle (very important) our baby. I highly recommend this book.
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