Parenting has begun in earnest today. Where have all the hours gone?
Between breastfeeding, nappy changing, doing the laundry, preparing food for Sarah, tidying up, cuddling the baby and fielding phone calls, the whole day has somehow almost unnoticeably been devoured.
Time has ceased to have meaning. In my mind, the baby was born yesterday, but it was, of course, actually the evening before. The hours are all starting to meld together, because the days are no longer clearly separated by distinct periods of sleep and waking.
Pearl came over this morning to give Sarah lactation advice and check her fundus. The baby has a partially receded chin, compounded by the bad habit of pulling in her lips when she suckles (a habit probably picked up from sucking her own fingers whilst in the womb), so she’s predisposed to be a little difficult to breastfeed. With perseverance, I’m sure we’ll get there, but it’s been tricky work thus far. You’d think there was nothing to it, right? Here’s a big tit and a hungry mouth: make these things work together. Unfortunately, it turns out to be a little more complicated than that.
The little one appears to have a blocked tear duct in her left eye, so it’s oozing some yellow gunk. Our paediatrician advised us to drop some chamomile tea in there, which we’re now doing. Sarah is now also hand-expressing a few drops of milk into her eye, as the anti-bacterial properties of the milk are also good for her.
The phone has rung many times today. Many people are calling to congratulate us and express their desire to come and visit. Both Sarah and I are pretty exhausted, however, so I think we’re going to avoid making any visiting appointments until further notice.
Soon after publication, Sarah had second thoughts and pulled the labour gallery from the Web site. She somehow found a few moments to audit the photos and hide those that she considers too private, so an expurgated labour gallery is now once again available.
Sarah’s breasts are now rapidly becoming engorged, as the thick colostrum makes way for the normal supply of milk. The physiological changes in her are visible with the naked eye. They’re swelling up and getting firmer by the hour. It’s quite remarkable.
After several nappy changes today, the final remnants of vernix are starting to disappear from the cracks of the baby’s legs, as wiping away the poop inevitably removes the last vestiges of the cheesy substance that protected her whilst she was in the womb.
The reason some vernix can still be found in the cracks of her limbs is that she has not been bathed since birth. She therefore still has her newborn smell, which is a curious, inoffensive and endearing scent, quite unlike anything else I’ve ever smelt.
Speaking of birth-related material, her back is covered in a fine layer of lanugo that is incredibly soft to the touch. It’s as if she’s half gerbil! I’ll try to capture it in a photo if the opportunity presents itself.
Rosanna’s coming back for another visit in the morning, just to check up on things. That’s pretty much our only scheduled obligation for the day, but we only had one today, too, and yet that managed to sail by with no problem at all.
Anyway, we made some progress on finding a name today. I think we’ll be ready to make an important announcement tomorrow. Watch this space.
We only managed to squeeze in a few new photos today. Basically, we’ll put up a new album each day for the first week, then just selected new photos. We don’t want to bore you all to death.