24 hours is a long time

A lot can change in 24 hours when you have a newborn. This time yesterday I was riding home (I spend most of my time at the mother’s care hospital) thinking what I could write on this blog. Everything was going well. Joshua was eating and sleeping regularly, Kelly was recovering from pregnancy and delivery better than we expected. I was on a high. But during the night things took a dreadful turn for the worst.
I guess it started with Joshua being unsettled. We had some visitors during the day, The Odendaals and Melissa, and that seemed to throw Joshua out of his schedule. It took us some time to get him to go to sleep. But then the pain set in, Kelly started to feel the painful effects of a blocked duct. It was painful to touch and we did not know what to do. We tried massaging the areas, but it didn’t seem to bring any relief. We called the nurses (another good thing about staying in the mother’s care hospital) at about 3am and they said to leave it till the next time we expressed milk and see how it goes. So we get up at 7am for the next time and the pain is worse. The nurse comes up and helps Kelly out. After massaging and expressing milk for 3 hours, the result is that we need to express milk every 2 hours. So adding massage and expressing for an hour out of every two hours onto attending to Joshua makes a very demanding schedule. The lack of sleep frays nerves and decreases patience, but like the dark clouds that have encircled Tainan for the past week or so, the skies cleared in the afternoon and the smiling faces returned.
Joshua has been growing stronger and more alert as the days go by. Now he lies in his bed and does a set of exercises he seems to have been practicing ever since he was in the womb. Left arm, right arm, left leg, right leg. If I didn’t know better, I would say they are Kung Fu exercises. I don’t know whether to be happy or scared.

The Boy Who Rocks My World

Well, it’s the 18th of July and Joshua is 11 days old. It wouldn’t be earth shattering to say that Joshua’s arrival has altered my world. What does surprise me is the way it has altered my world. I’ve heard a lot of dad’s say that the first moment you lay eyes on your off-spring brings a flood of emotions. This didn’t happen for me the way that they said. I’ve been preparing for this moment for 9 months. The greater shock came back then, and since that time I’ve been waiting for this moment with excitement. I’ve experienced other earth shattering events that happened in an instant, this one took 9 months to come along.

The thing that does surprise me about his presence is that the love I have for him grows palpaplibly by the hour. How is it that he seems to grow cuter by the moment? There’s something about his face that is oddly familiar, but I can’t explain exactly what it is. Most Taiwanese say he looks like me, but that’s only because he has white skin and fair brown hair. His eyes were a bright blue soon after his birth, but now they are dark with a slightly blueish tinge.

I remember Damian telling me to disregard the people who say that babies are boring at first because they only sleep and eat. When I watch Joshua trying to move his head or grip something with his hand I must admit that babies are fascinating beings from the get go. I love watching the way his sleeping face contorts into a multitude of expressions.

Another thing that surprises me is the sleep thing. Of course every well meaning parent seriously admonishes you to rest before the birth as everyone becomes sleep deprived. The funny thing is that for the last 2 ½ years I’ve been working studiously and have learned to live with sleep deprivation. But this is something quite different. I can live with 5 hours sleep a night, if they are 5 uninterrupted hours. This is like an hour here, two hours there. Before I could be on auto-pilot a bit, wake up, get dressed, and take the dogs for a walk. Now I’m awoken by a screaming baby. What time is it? When did he last eat? Has he got a dirty nappy? Does Kelly need something?

One last thing, does anyone have any advice about changing nappies? Every time, well almost every time I change his nappy, he pees. And he seems to wait until I have cleaned everywhere, and I’m putting on the clean nappy and then he lets rip with this stream of urine, and it goes everywhere. We are still at the baby hospital, so every couple of hours I come to them with bed sheets, blankets and clothes that are covered in urine. I wonder what they think.

Six Days Old

Joshua is six days old and this is the first post. Shows you how busy we have been. I have learned quite a lot in the past six days. Babies grow and change a lot in the first six days. They become strong. They communicate quite well, they're means of communication are limited, but so are their needs. If it's not food, a dirty nappy or sleep, it must be something else. He is as happy with me as he is with his mum. He does quite well on his own as well. At the moment he is generally very quiet, unless he needs food, sleep or a clean nappy.

The whole breastfeeding thing has come as a bit of a surprise. The baby books make it sound very natural and romantic. Kelly still screams Blue Murder. At first is was because every drop was excruciating. Now it's because she has too much milk. There are ways to turn this problem into a positive, but I worry a little about the weaning process.

Any comments or messages are more than welcome.



Kelly and Joshua together look so right.

Kelly and Joshua's Home for a month

This is where Mum and Baby (and Dad) are staying for about a month. Please feel free to come and see our new bundle of joy, just remember to call first.