A Record Of Daniel Peter's First Milestones

Daniel will be exactly 4 weeks tomorrow and we have already experienced some important milestones that I would like to keep a record of:

Weight:
Birth: 7 pounds 6 ounces/3.34 kilograms
Leaving hospital - 2 days old: 6 pounds 15 ounces/3.15 kilograms
4 days old - first appointment with the Pediatrician: 6 pounds 15 ounces/3.15 kilograms
14 days old - second appointment with the Pediatrician: 7 pounds 6 ounces/3.34 kilograms (back to birth weight as expected)
26 days old - weighed at home with Linnan's scale: 8 pounds 8 ounces/3.86 kilograms (wow, the breastfeeding is working, thank God!)

Umbilical cord:
Fell off: 13 days old

First smile:
Day 23 as Jonny was holding him in the morning - still waiting for more smiles, should start to get more frequent in the next couple of weeks, can't wait!

Bathing:
First sponge bath at home: 5 days old
First full bath: 24 days old
First bath in tub with me - so special: 27 days old

First bottle for one night feeding:
15 days old - thank God he accepted the bottle well!

First outing:
Walk around the neighbourhood: 23 days old

Tummy time in the morning:
First time on tummy for about 10 minutes - he did not complain: 24 days old
First time that lifted head and turned face from one side to another: 26 days old

Daniel Peter Is Here!

Wow, this is the first time in almost 4 weeks that I have been able to sit down and start writing this blog. I know that I may not be able to finish it in one sitting but at least I've started and it feels great to finally do something different - outside of feeding, changing diapers and trying to get much needed sleep whilst the baby sleeps. I just managed to get him to sleep so hopefully he will have a nice long nap...

Our sweet little boy, Daniel Peter, arrived at 5:35 pm on Monday, March 3rd. He weighed 7 pounds and 6 ounces and was 20 inches long. After all the moving around inside of me, I was relieved to discover that he was head-down when I went into labor - amazing, he had been breech only 2 days before I went into labor and I was already 39 weeks. My contractions started regularly in the early hours of March 2nd, I was officially admitted into the hospital at 3:30 pm that same day but he was only born about 26 hours later. Even though this was my second delivery, my cervix was slow to dilate but thank God, once I got passed 6 cm it went very quickly and he came out after pushing through only about 4 contractions.

The moment of hearing him cry, the relief of knowing that he was indeed healthy and well was truly amazing...I don't have the words to describe the feelings of joy and relief. Child birth is indeed a miraculous event, I still can't believe he came from inside of me! We had the best care from our midwife Kathleen and I will in particular never forget how she helped me with getting him to start breastfeeding soon after birth. Without her help, I think it would be much harder. Nursing is harder than I thought it would be - even though I already "theoretically" knew that from all my public health work. Thank God it is going well though, I have lots of milk and I'm getting used to it - but it is indeed very demanding and I can now understand why women choose not to nurse.

Daniel Peter is so cute and I'm growing to love him more and more each day. It is so special to look at him and know that he is our child and no one elses. It is an amazing feeling, though definitely overwhelming at times since it's hard work and exhausting! The first two weeks were the hardest but it's getting a little easier each day as I get used to the sleep deprivation and he has started to sleep for about 3 hours at a time at night - as opposed to 1 and a half hours! Jonny has also been giving him a bottle once a night with my expressed milk for the last week so that has given me a chance to sleep a bit more which has really helped. I have also recently started to go outside of the house - spring is here and I've been able to go for short walks around our neighborhood and yesterday even managed to go to the hairdressers with him - with my mother's invaluable help.

Jonny is an amazing father. I always thought he would be, but seeing him with Daniel is so special. So far, he has been the only one to bath him, since he just has this special way of doing so with much care and tenderness. He takes such good care of him and is a perfectionist when changing his diaper - my mother was happy to have him around to teach us to take care of his "bits" since he is the only one around who understands them! It's still a common occurrence to be peed on but I think we are getting better at predicting and containing the "mess."

Wow, he is still asleep... it's been 55 minutes and I've been able to write this peacefully. I hope to upload photos soon, the next time I get a chance!

Just waiting and many questions...

So now we're officially “just waiting”. I'm 39 weeks pregnant and Daniel Peter could arrive at any moment but we just don't know when - the estimated due date, March 7th, is now only 6 days away. Every few hours we ask ourselves: Will it be today? When will it be? Will we have to leave for the hospital in the middle of the night? What kind of delivery will I have? Will he be head-down? Will it be quick or long? So many questions that will soon be answered - but we just don't know when!

Everything is ready waiting for him, my mother is here, our hospital bags are packed, both Jonny and I finished in the past week important work-related tasks we wanted to... so... “Come baby, we can't wait to meet you!" I know that I'll soon look back at this "waiting time" as a special time, but it's hard at times since I'm feeling more and more uncomfortable and feel that we can't do much else to prepare except to be very patient and resist our natural desire to want to be in control of events...

Yesterday, was a fun day and I was thankful for feeling more energetic than usual. After our weekly appointment with the midwife and finding out that he was again in a transverse/breech position (we're still hopeful he will turn again, he continues to do so every few days!), I went to get my hair washed and blow-dried at a salon and then had a luxury pedicure. It was fun to be pampered and get my toe nails painted since I haven't been able to reach my toes easily in a few months and will probably not have time to take care of them for a while!

Anyway, I hope that the next blog I write will be to announce his arrival and to write about our first moments together... but in the meantime, we will continue to “just wait" and enjoy this special time of anticipation and many questions...