So Much For That

Baby Bear's weight gain has slowed down dramatically. He's gradually gone from gaining an awesome 50g per day shortly after birth to a measly 5g per day the last couple of days.

Anything Else?

Midwife noticed yesterday that Baby Bear's resps were quite high and he seemed fairly 'puffy'. Something to do with his heart thing maybe? At least I know now that I'm not imagining the odd breathing when he feeds.

She also discovered that he has a bit of a tongue tie and is going to organise further investigations for us. It does explain why his latch tends to slip easily and why he often tries suck the nipple in instead of latching properly. One of the benefits of tandem feeding though is that he doesn't have to work as hard to get to the hind milk and we think that's partly why his weight gain has been so good.

Feeding while out is proving to be a little challenging. It's harder to get Baby Bear to maintain a good latch and he seems to get tired quicker than at home so he falls asleep before he's had a proper feed. I end up feeling full and sore and he ends up cranky, hungry and tired.

Over Thinking and Paranoid

And now I find myself wondering if, as babies, the other kids used to breathe like that when feeding. I remember the suck-swallow-suck-swallow noises but not the pauses and laboured fast breathing that Baby Bear seems to do between swallows. But maybe I'm over analysing because pre-heart-murmur concerns I passed it off as being due to a newborn's naturally fast heart rate and faster breathing.

And I don't remember the others ever getting frothy around the mouth when they cried but Baby Bear did twice today. He's never cried that much before because he's 'in-arms' or we're close by but today in the car we couldn't always stop straight away. Now I'm worried that it's got something to do with the heart murmur.

I tell myself it's probably nothing, he doesn't go blue and lots of newborns have innocent heart murmurs. But the fact that my autoimmune issues gives him a higher risk of having a congenital heart defect is scary.

He is so tiny. The thought of there being something being wrong with his little heart is overwhelmingly scary.

Eight days until his echocardiogram.

Birth Day

  

Wednesday... The day started off with Beanie announcing that Baby Bear would be arriving and that he would be catching Baby with his icecream scoop. :) 

I pottered around all day, restless, irritable and experiencing lots of intense but short and irregular braxton hicks contractions. Painful enough to make me stop and sway and focus on breathing through them. Not labour but definitely working up towards it. 

The OH and the boys took apart a broken battery-operated car that The OH had picked up at the op shop. Shmoo had a great time connecting the wires up to a battery and stuck on a strip of paper with Blu Tack to make a propeller. 

After the kids were bathed and in bed, I took my midwife's advice and had a bath. The contractions were about the same intensity but becoming regular and were accompanied by some pressure and hip and leg discomfort. By about 10.30 pm I knew it was labour and we'd be having a baby some time overnight. I still suspected things were quite a while off though. 

We very slowly started getting set up, not in any hurry as the contractions weren't too bad. I chilled out on our futon, rolling off to stand or kneel during contractions. At 11.47pm, I'd just asked The OH to get the drop sheets out, when I felt a gush of fluid... my waters had broken. Things intensified immediately and The OH called our midwife. Within 10-15 minutes I'd hit transition and needed The OH's physical support. I started feeling pushy around 12.15 am and told The OH to wake the kids but only Shmoo woke enough to come out and watch.

I thought our midwives weren't going to make it and that we'd be having our 3rd unassisted birth but just as Baby Bear's head emerged, they dashed into the room. I could feel my midwife's gentle hands on my back and hear her soft, encouraging words, while our back-up midwife stayed in the background taking photos for us. At 12.27 am Baby Bear was born into his Daddy's hands. 6lb 6.5oz (2910g); our Valentine's Day baby, born on his due date. Our teeny tiniest babe and the only one to make it to 40 weeks. Another beautiful homebirth and beautiful baby boy. :D

Learning Happens

The two older boys have needed a little nudge as far as maths goes so we dug out some of the textbooks and they've been enjoying doing a few pages of 'homework' every now and then. Shmoo's getting his maths mojo back and spent a good bit of time this morning creating and solving sums.

Shmoo was then keen to discuss Drosera (sundew plants) and that led to the ecosystem and how everything is connected. We then noted how the lovely sunflowers friends gave us yesterday were turning to follow the morning sun and talked about why that was and what plants need to grow.

Somehow the discussion moved on to space and the planets, gravity, astronauts, and space exploration disasters.

He then had a look through our book on Australian insects and spiders and we discussed the difference between 'venomous' and 'poisonous'.

Afterwards he chose a library picture book about a friendly spider and asked to read it aloud to me.

For dinner we made our own little pizzas and the boys had fun shaping and topping their own creations. (Okay, we let the breadmaker make the dough. Between my carpal tunnel syndrome and The OH's ASD-related food issues, it's the easiest way!)

That's how learning happens here. :)

Happy Birthday, Beanie Bear!

My baby boy is 3 years old already!

It was such a delight to hear him wake up this morning; his joy at discovering a present in his cot; his brothers wishing him a happy birthday; Shmoo presenting him with a carefully made card; Loo serenading him with songs on his rubber band guitar. Beanie was having trouble opening his present so Shmoo helped him, tearing a tiny corner of the wrapping paper and then encouraging his little brother to do the rest himself. My wonderful, amazing, beautiful boys. :x

Baby Bear dropped even lower yesterday. Still feeling a bit nauseous and crampy, bit of pressure down low. Did a quick check of my cx this morning and I think I'm about 3-4cm, very, very soft and stretchy. Hoping he'll hold out 'til Friday if he can... I'd rather not have the kids share a birthday!

Microscopes

We had to wait to get batteries for the microscope with the monitor/screen/projector thingy but the boys were thrilled to be able to open up their other microscope that The OH found at the op shop. The sample slide with a fly wing particularly fascinated them.

  

Candle Making

The boys loved rolling their own beeswax candles. A lovely sensory experience... The warm beeswax, the texture, smell. And they're looking forward to having one lit at the dinner table.

Anticipation...

Baby Bear's movements have slowed, not so many of the big, sweeping rolls. Hiccups have gone from 6-10 times a day to 2-3 times. The quietening before labour :) I had a few intense Braxton Hicks early this morning that left me feeling quite crampy and nauseous for a few hours.

Midwife stopped by for a visit today and all her equipment is here, ready to go. I have cohosh drops to take as well as the Red Iron drops. She noted that Baby Bear is very low now.

Soon.

Oh No...

:( :-o

I bumped my laptop off the futon on to the carpeted floor (no more than a 50cm drop). It landed on one corner and shattered the screen.

At least I can still use my phone. And I'm fairly certain that it's just the screen that's stuffed so I'll be able to retrieve all the photos and documents eventually. 

Annoying. Bugger. Wish I'd Dropboxed a few more things! *sigh*