8 weeks

Imogen is 8 weeks old today. I thought I'd be posting a lot more here about what was happening day to day, but it's all been so difficult that I've not really managed to do very much except survive. Those of you who follow me on Twitter will have seen more of the emotional rollercoaster in action (and I've been very grateful for both the personal support from individuals and the general trickle of human interaction that Twitter provides -- I'd have gone mad by now without it). addedentry has been wonderful (the role of Dad definitely suits him), and my mum has been an absolute lifesaver, staying over for days on end and helping us through the endless nights of inconsolable wailing (from not just baby but me as well).

It's amazing just how much Imogen's changed already in those 8 weeks. She's gone from being a very tiny waily animal (when she cried at first she looked just like a spider monkey) who did nothing but cry and feed and sleep and poo and wee, to being a tiny person with facial expressions (including smiles!) and quite a little vocabulary of noises. When she's not wailing and kicking and screaming, she's wonderfully cuddly; there are few things as lovely as letting her fall asleep in my arms. (Admittedly she still doesn't do very much. Everybody says this time is magical and I shouldn't wish it away, but I'm very much looking forward to a time when she can interact a bit more.)

There are loads of things I want to write about -- from specific things like breastfeeding (though Juliette has written an excellent post that says a lot of what I'd want to say) and nappies (honestly, what is all the fuss about?) to the more general issues of guilt, joy, tiredness, panic, confusion, and love -- but I'm too tired to put words into sentences. I'll write more when I'm next awake and have both my hands free. So, see you all some time in 2012...

Here's what you missed on LJ

BTW, I have not been following LJ very much at all recently (I am only really following the internet with one hand on an iPhone, and the LJ app for iPhone is rubbish), so if anything has happened in the last 2 months that you think I should know about, please comment here & let me know (or point me at the relevant posts) and I will try to read those specific bits.

I also can't check my chiark account on the iPhone, so if you've emailed me there, it's highly likely that I haven't seen your email, because I don't get many chances to look at it and when I do it's absolutely overflowing with rubbish so I may well have missed important things. If you want to email me, gmail is probably more reliable: I have the same username on gmail as for my chiark account. NB I still don't check email as much as I used to and don't get anywhere near as much opportunity to reply to things! Twitter probably works best if you need a quick reply.

Will try to keep in touch a bit better as things start to get easier.