Diary of an (ex)London mum

Baby is now five weeks old and from about three weeks our evenings have been disturbed by what we think is colic.   I had no idea what colic was before I became pregnant and, to be honest, I don't think I know exactly what it is now either.  The descriptions all cite continuous crying at a particular time of day which may be associated with any number of things.  For Baby, we decided that it might have something to do with gas as the crying is normally accompanied by quite a lot of twisting around and then farting and/or pooing, after which he calms down for a bit until the next 'attack'.  I had heard that gas could be a problem with younger babies so had bought anti-colic bottles that have air valves to help Baby avoid taking in too much air while he's drinking.  I don't think his crying is that bad- I've heard descriptions of worse colic- so the bottles probably are helping.  My other half, who does the lion's share of nappy changing, gives hi...

Its a month since the caesarean and I have found it hard to be out and about for too long at a stretch, let alone carry shopping so I have been doing almost all my shopping online.  My partner has been helping with the odd bits and pieces on his way home but there is just too much we need, for Baby and us, for him to be doing it all himself. The main thing is groceries.  We are getting through nappies, baby formula, washing up tablets, detergent and Napisan very quickly as Baby's needs are many in number.  Fortunately the delivery service from Waitrose has been very reliable and efficient.  I have shopped for groceries online from a different supermarket chain before when I had injured my foot and not been able to get out and about.  The problems occurred when the items chosen were not available.  If one chose not to have substitutes, one could find oneself without a potentially crucial item until the next delivery or without a number of things and t...

Like any logical consumer we looked into our options for items that we bought for Baby.  One of the first things we looked into was nappies.  We were concerned about the number of disposable nappies that a baby could get through in the period when it would require the use of nappies- hardly environmentally friendly.  We looked into reusable nappies and although we were attracted to the idea we decided against them in the end bacause of the cost and inconvenience.  There is a signfiicant investment to be made intially in the purchase of the reusable nappies and then in the purchase of disposable inserts which take up the worst of the solid waste and can be flushed down the toilet.  The reusable nappies can be washed first by hand and then in the washing machine, or sent for washing by a hospital grade nappy washing service; the former was too much effort for working parents and the latter involved a significant cost and was not that convenient to use.  We ...

We decided while we were planning to have a baby that we would attempt breast feeding as that is possibly the best start we could give to Baby when s/he emerges from the womb.  In fact I had planned more than to attempt it; I was determined to breast feed as there is much evidence that this is beneficial for Baby and as a mother one would want to do the best for one's offspring(s).  We read up about breast feeding on as many websites and in as many books as we could get our hands on, and spoke with the midwives at the ante-natal classes regarding positioning etc and thought that we knew enough to get us going.  We didn't pack any feeding bottles into our hospital bag, thinking we won't need any, fully expecting the breasts to do the job. Turned out breast feeding was much harder than the books or midwives made it out to be.  My nipples took a battering and Baby was extremely hungry so we spent the first day struggling to keep him calm with just breast milk....

I don't think I will ever understand why people choose to have a C-section.  Its three weeks since the operation and I am only feeling slightly more human now.  Different people recover at different rates; the doctor said not to be a hero and try to do too much too soon, give myself at least six weeks for normality to set in.  It may of course be because I had the C-section as an emergency and was therefore unprepared for the aftermath.  If this had been my chosen method of birth we might have made more preparations for the period of my incapacity after the procedure and, therefore, transition back to normal life would probably have been smoother.  Even small things like getting into and out of bed without causing myself grief were things that required some thought.  Not a small matter when one needs to get up several times in the night to check on Baby.  And that's just one of many small everyday things that are not easy to do after the C-section. ...

We camped out at the hospital in the week following the birth of Sprog so that the two of us could be monitored by hospital staff.  We were fortunate enough to be able to rent a private room and so my partner stayed with us during the first week of his paternity leave.  I cannot say enough times how valuable his round-the-clock care was, as were the daily visits by Mum to bring us clean clothes and other creature comforts.  The hospital staff were very helpful but there was only so much they could do with the hospital being so busy and short-staffed at times.  For one, my bed was a bit too high for me even on its lowest settings and getting on and off it was difficult.  I also couldn't bend or carry anything so he had to help me and baby with just about everything.  This meant he didn't really sleep for a week and he never lost his temper at us; he did get angry at the hospital staff on a few occasions when things didn't get done on time- e.g. the time wh...

I had wanted a natural birth but it was not to be.  Never in the 40 weeks leading up to the event did I imagine that I would end up having a Caesarean section.  I had been so well during the pregnancy that I just thought that the birth would be plain sailing as well.  In the end the C-section itself, and the induction, epidural and continuous foetal monitoring before that, did not worry me that much but the fact that Baby might be unwell, as a result of the ordeal from the birth, in the week after was worse.  There was quite a lot of banter in the theater and time passed quite quickly amidst the good humour.  It was slightly surreal to know that one was undergoing surgery, and feel the pressure from the procedure happening behind the blind in one's lower half, but to not really 'feel' the procedure.  Also my partner was with me and the support I felt from everyone around me made me feel surprisingly relaxed about the surgery itself.  As it was ov...

Sorry for the radio silence but I've been busy giving birth and recovering from the experience.  Sprog arrived on his predicted due date in the second week of March 2012 but the manner in which he arrived could not have been further from what we had in mind. The last nine months were pretty easy- I've had no sickness and generally very little discomfort, worked up to a week before my due date (and then stopped only because my Mum was visiting and I wanted to spend some time with her), and every meausured parameter was within the normal limits.  I did have a feeling that Baby would arrive on time and had prepared my birth plan with the expectation that everything would happen as planned- the pregnancy had been so easy there was no reason for me to suspect the birth would be complicated.  I could not be more wrong. We had kept the birth plan fairly flexible, as advised by the midwives, but our preference was for a natural birth with as little intervention as possi...