Jaimie I get so excited when I see on my subscribed threads page a post by you! : )

It's nice to get an update when you are so busy!!!!

The only experience I have remotely similar is when we first brought Marlow back from the ER after her weekend long seizure, when she still had pnemonia. She was waking up about every hour or so from her massive coughing fits where she needed to have her chest pummeled a bit or meds given, or she was having to go to the bathroom STRAIGHT away b/c all the meds she was on were giving her explosive diarrhea. I had to put her in bed right next to me so I'd know if she had a seizure. We were taking turns...dh would stay up with her as late as possible and I'd go to bed early and then he'd bring her in the guest bed with me and go to sleep in our bedroom. It was grueling waking up so much and being up with her but every time I saw her cute little baby puppy face I didn't mind taking care of her at all. I'd snuggle her back to sleep......I remember thinking at the time that was how new moms do it-that seeing your own little baby's face must be 100,000x even more precious/special/amazing than that! Sleep deprivation had been the one thing I'd been the most scared about (I think we'd been ttc 11 months by this time) so I always thought God/Universe was trying to show me something then!!

Speaking of pushing did you need an episiotomy or have any tearing? I know that our birthing center makes a HUGE deal about having this only happen in about 5% of their births or something but it sounds like things got pretty intense for you at the hospital.

And WOW there were lots of people and things IN YOUR PANTS during your labor!!!! I was trying to figure out what actually was going on during the cervical lip inspections/treatment and if that's as awkward as it sounds or if you just don't care anymore......and what is it like for Eric when that's going on.

So nice to hear from you Jaimie!

Totally sounds like cluster feeding - he will be building up your milk supply so will want to feed, feed, feed! Plus there is also a growth spurt at one week, three weeks and six weeks I think...breastfeeding in those early days and weeks is like a full time job huh? So true though that just seeing their little faces makes the lack of sleep worth it a million times over.
Sounds like you are doing great - I have so many questions to ask but don't feel like you have to answer anytime soon!
Just super keen to hear how you are feeling in general. And how breastfeeding is going - are you finding it ok? Is Milo latching on ok?
The photo on FB are just so gorgeous. He really is beautiful. And you look amazing!
Have you felt pretty ok emotionally? I know I found the first week super tough emotionally, with all the hormones and baby blues etc etc...but I know some people find it fine - hopefully that is the case for you.

Thinking of you heaps - looking forward to hearing from you again when you have the time (so maybe in a few months time then )

Ditto to luckys questions! Also want to know your experience of birth emotionally. When you have more time (ha!) to respond. I type on my phone while feeding all the time which is why my punctuation and spelling is all off now. You doing ok with the cluster feeds? I'd find myself in tears sometimes by the end of the night. Six weeks he got super fussy then read fussiness peaks at six weeks. He's much more smiley now at eight weeks. Love it.

Today I moved all his newborn clothes to a separate drawer I don't use much. So crazy how much he's grown. Made me a little sad. But was super cute that I held up and outfit to him to see how much bigger he is and he grabbed it and snuggled. Guess he thought it was a toy.

Kristi I loved that story of poor little Marlow while he was sick. You're such a good mommy and I'm sure he appreciates you even more for it.

Jaimie, your baby and family is so beautiful! I'm sorry I'm so late. Hope you are all doing well.

I haven't read the story yet, it opened blurry so I have to figure out what I did wrong.

I love how Jill and Titi were keeping up with things.

Kristi, oops, just went back and read my post and realized I called Marlow a "he." I'm sorry...I always do that weird thing since my dog is a boy I automatically default to calling every other dog by male pronouns by accident.

Hi dee! Stupid Bnb has an absurdly small limit on PDF file sizes, that's why it is blurry. I am going to copy and paste the text into my parenting journal, once I start it. The story needs some annotations

Titi- a newborn does require the same amount of energy to attend to, but it is far easier to cope with a healthy baby than a sick puppy if you ask me. Emotionally that must have been awful !! I've had my moments where I get nervous that he has stopped breathing suddenly, but most of my mind knows this is really unlikely. Poor Marlow was a very sick little girl and you had to hope she'd get better.

Once I get more time on a computer I'll post about how I've felt since I went into labor and how the early days have gone. Overall I'm really happy with the care we got and the team of people that helped us bring milo into the world. During labor I was blaming myself for the fact that he wasn't descending as quickly as normal labors go. But after some sleep and processing it is clear that his position just wasn't going to allow a normal pushing phase. He also had a super short cord so the midwife wouldn't have been able to turn him, even if I could have tolerated the attempts better. We definitely needed the extra help at the hospital.

Thanks so much for checking on me!!

love the updates.......thank you for managing to share what you can!!!!

Alrighty, so I started a parenting journal and just noted everyone's questions - which I'll answer over there. I put the link in my siggie.

I've been keeping up with you ladies by reading your journals, but I don't always get a chance to respond. For some reason I thought I'd have more time to myself with Eric's parents here but I still find the urge to play hostess with the mostest. Hopefully I'll wise up and ask them to take care of themselves more : )

Hi everyone,

I was looking for some advice:

A close friend of mine is due her baby in about 4 weeks, this is her first and she doesn't really have any other friends that have babies.

I was wanting to put together a little gift pack of really practical and useful items for after the birth, things like nipple guards for breast feeding etc

Does anyone have some suggestions for the little things that would help for those first few weeks etc?

Hmm it's kind of a blur but the things that I appreciate most were my nipple cream and nursing pjs that looked like loungewear so I didn't need to change if people stopped by. Thing I appreciated most from people were meals. But I'm not sure how you can wrap that up.