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!