The Ubiquitous Mr. X

It’s been a busy couple of days, as you might imagine.

Cora, our kraamverzorgster, is a real blessing. She cooks, she cleans, she bathes the baby, she tends to Sarah’s nether regions, she does the laundry, she washes up. There’s not much that she doesn’t do. We love having her around.

We settled on Mr. X’s new name Monday evening. I went down to the stadsdeelkantoor today to register his birth, but soon learned that the burgerzaken department closes at 14:00 on Tuesday. Wednesday is the last day for registration, so I’ll be there in the morning to take care of it. Until that happens, we’re remaining tight-lipped about the name. That also allows us to have a last-minute change of heart. We’ve already had one of those this afternoon, so we don’t expect any more.

Eloïse got to hand out beschuit en muisjes at peuterspeelzaal today. In English, it’s crispbread with tiny little aniseed sweets on top. It’s traditional to have this with either pink or blue aniseed sweets, depending on the gender of the baby. It was good for her to be able to do this, because — in spite our resolve not to neglect her in favour of our new acquisition — the simple fact of the matter is that time spent breastfeeding the baby and changing his nappy is time that is no longer spent with her. Prior to last Sunday, all of our time went to her, so it’s taking a little getting used to; for all of us.

She also got to ring the bell at the end of the day and spend some time sitting on Wanda’s lap, so she came home looking pretty lucky. The mums and dads of the peuterspeelzaal had had a whip round for us and bought Mr. X his first toy, a cuddly red car. They also bought us a puzzle book, which Eloïse loves. She’s already done all of the puzzles in it. This was a really kind gesture and serves yet again to indicate what a special place her play-school is.

Mr. X himself is doing excellently. He sleeps enough for ten men, has taken to the breast like a professional, and cries only when his nappy is being changed; no doubt due to the cold air circulating around his rude bits.

Jackie (the doula) came around Monday afternoon and talked to Sarah about how the labour had gone. This afternoon, Laura (the midwife) came over to see Sarah. We are so impressed with the loving care that Sarah has received from everyone involved during pregnancy and birth. It really couldn’t have been any better.

So it’s all going perfectly, really. No breastfeeding issues, no nothing. The meconium nappies finally passed today, giving way to the instantly familiar scent of breast-milk based poop. It smells identical to my memory of Eloïse’s early nappies.

Check out our gallery for some day two and three snaps.

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