8 weeks

[j4]

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...

Comments

[j4.livejournal.com]

I was quite confused about the charts -- thank you to you & Juliette for clearing things up here!

Even if they are bf baby charts, though, the health visitors et al don't seem to realise that if they're based on average sizes, some babies will be below the average, because that's how averages work.

What's the fuss about nappies?

Lots of people seem to go on about how much hassle/mess/ick it is to keep changing nappies. Doesn't seem a big deal to me (partly because I've been so worried about the feeding that everything else has paled into insignificance). I did worry a lot about the frequency (or otherwise) of poo, though.

[k425.livejournal.com]

YB went with almost every feed - a clean but wet nappy was cause for celebration! A friend's baby went on a Thursday afternoon - we met at the GP's baby clinic now and again, which was held on a Thursday, and she was ready...

Lovely to hear from you, and that picture of Imogen is fab. She looks completely "WTF!".

[hsenag.livejournal.com]

Even if they are bf baby charts, though, the health visitors et al don't seem to realise that if they're based on average sizes, some babies will be below the average, because that's how averages work.

Alex (now 2 1/2) has been somewhere around the 2nd to 9th percentile all his life and has never had anyone questioning his weight (that I can remember/know of). I think the worry comes when they suddenly start dropping off the curve they were following, rather than from being below average per se.

[juliet]

Yeah, when L was born (I did most of his daytime nappies for the first couple of weeks) I was baffled that this was supposed to be a big icky deal. Although admittedly meconium is a PITA.

Re being-interested-in-things: A was talking this week about an academic paper she's supposed to be writing this summer, and worrying that her brain has expired. But when she actually explained to me what the abstract was and so on, brain & knowledge were definitely still there. Now she just needs to work out where to find the *time* for it...

I am glad that the good parts are lovely, and sending good wishes for the hard parts.

[jvvw.livejournal.com]

I don't find the nappies much a bother really either. They're getting slightly worse now we're on solids, but not much. I do find the constant cleaning up after meals a bit exhausting but I"m gradually getting it down to a fine art. The mess pales in comparison to sleep issues.

With the birth charts, there are two issues I guess - whether you are moving percentiles and which percentile you on. Owen is below the 0.4th percentile but because his graph is the same shape as all the others these days, the docs seem to have decided that he's just genetically small, and apparently has the 'genetic potential' to be because I am. But any baby below the 2nd percentile should be checked to be on the safe side according to my friend's husband who is a paed.

[scat0324.livejournal.com]

I'm getting a bit fed up that we're still dealing with nappies (or multiple changes of clothes during the day) for the 3.5 year old. The nearly-5 year old "got it" a lot earlier.