I could stare at her for hours thinking “I can’t believe we made her”. She’s so tiny and fragile yet perfect – her blonde hair, blue eyes and button nose. ❤️ There is nothing quite as intense and unconditional as the love for your own baby, is there?
It must be nature’s way of ensuring parents will look after their offspring even when they get colicky, feed constantly and poo remarkable volumes of mustardy yellow substance 30 seconds after you changed the nappy.
Since we are new parents, everything is an adventure! So far we’ve been incredibly lucky to have a healthy baby but even without any “extra challenges” it takes practice to learn to care for her. Also the responsibility for her wellbeing can feel quite overwhelming! I am exclusively breastfeeding Maia and because she is a small baby, I definitely feel the pressure to succeed in feeding her as she doesn’t have any (fat) reserves to fall back on. Overall, the three biggest challenges we’ve faced in the first two weeks in chronological order have been with
- Breastfeeding : how to do it when both mum and the baby are a bit clueless?
- Sleeping : unplanned co-sleeping as she won’t sleep alone
- Colic : kicked in on week 2 making our baby girl very cranky and sleep short
All very common struggles but that’s little comfort particularly during those long solitary hours at night with a crying baby…
How is Maia doing?
Our baby girl is now 12-days old and has got us completely wrapped around her tiny finger! She’s a little character with her hilarious facial expressions and puppy dog noises. So far she has ticked all the boxes in physical examinations and we’ve only been concerned about her weight. But even that seems to going in the right direction! Newborn babies often lose about 5-10% of their birth weight in the first few days but usually regain it pretty quickly. By day 4 Maia had lost 5% of her birth weight of 2.55kg but by day 9 she was only 10g from it! We will go in for one extra weighing on Monday when she’ll be 16-days old and hopefully she’ll have continued on the right track and mummy’s milk is doing the job!
Maia loves being held and has generally been a little angel as long as she’s in someone’s arms. Her favourite spot is inside her daddy’s bathrobe on his chest (the most adorable sight -> *melting heart*). She’s been visited by her grandparents and does not seem to mind who holds her! The flip side of the coin is that she will not be put down and hates the Moses basket. She does however love the pram and sleeps through our daily walks. We’ve also just bought an Ergobaby wrap sling to help as it’s absolutely impossible to get anything done holding her all the time. Hopefully she’ll enjoy the sling, otherwise I’m not sure how I’ll manage on my own next week when her dad goes back to work!
Maia’s umbilical cord stump has fallen off and we bathed her for the first time on Wednesday. She doesn’t like to get undressed and always cries (= screams) through nappy changing and so I thought she wouldn’t enjoy the bath either. But turns out I was wrong and she didn’t cry at all! Maybe even enjoyed the warm water. Her skin is quite dry which is apparently normal and we’ve been advised to use sunflower oil (or any natural vegetable oil) on it which seems to help.
How is mummy?
I didn’t think I’d say this but I feel perfectly normal. Apart from sleep deprivation and the related headaches of course! I feel like I recovered from giving birth super quickly, which was of course helped by the fact that I had a straightforward labour and I didn’t need any stitches. During the first week after giving birth I had light bleeding and stomach cramps as my uterus started to shrink. Breastfeeding and walking make the cramps stronger but I don’t mind as my tummy flattened very quickly. Of my 10kg pregnancy weight gain, 4kg were gone after giving birth and another 2kg during the first week (I have not weighed myself since). I suffered from engorgement around three/your days after giving birth when the milk came in but it only lasted for a few days and is now manageable with frequent feeds.
I’m eager to get back to exercising especially since I feel back to normal already but I try to be sensible as the recommendation is to wait until the 6-week postnatal check up. This recommendation is for all women however and is therefore based on the average recovery time from all kinds of births. I think it’s fair to assume that for a fit and healthy woman with an “easy” labour the recovery time is shorter. I think the key is again to listen to my body. While I feel recovered from the birthing, sleep deprivation of this extent is a new thing…
My plan is to continue my walks and do some home exercises (especially for pelvic floor strength) during December and go back to the gym in January. We’ll have to see how our life shapes up with me at home with the baby and her dad at work. That’ll mean little sleep for me and limited time for my own training. But I’m sure we’ll figure something out!
Today we are off to register Maia’s birth!
xoxoxo,
Sini