Phew – thank goodness I was able to get out and about on the weekend, as I was starting to climb the walls at home! We had a lovely weekend and I hope you did too?
We took James on his first voyage on the boat on Sunday morning. It was so beautiful on the river.
My brother Greg and his family visited us from the North to meet James for the first time. We ate beautiful food whilst Poppy played with her big cousins!
fam·i·ly
/ˈfam(ə)lē/Noun: A group consisting of parents and children living together in a household.
After two long weeks, we were able to take our little boy home yesterday!
Little James has positively ‘beefed’ up since he was born, and now weighs a healthy 2250 grams. He has put on 220 grams in 15 days!
Before James could come home he needed to feed independently from me, without having any ‘top up’ feeds via his ‘drip-feed’ tube. The tube was removed on Friday morning as he was progressing well. As a result, I came back into the hospital to “Room In” with him for the weekend and for the first time, I was able to sleep in the same room as our little boy!
Yesterday morning we got the all clear from our Pediatrician and Poppy was very excited about having James home, as were we!
I feel so blessed to have had the amazing support from our fabulous family, friends and all the staff at the Hobart Private Hospital.
It was time for us to leave – as I was getting quite used to the hospital food! Now we can get on with it – with our family of four!
Our little man James, is 11 days old today!
It has been quite the emotional time as Master James was unable to come home with us last Thursday, due to his size. He is in fantastic care in the Special Care Nursery being monitored 24 hours a day, until he can feed from me independently with no ‘top up’ drip feeds.
To be honest, it was the hardest thing I have ever had to do – leaving with Nick and Poppy without our little man. I was holding it all together until Poppy looked up at me and asked so innocently: “James’ coming too Mummy?”.
I stepped out of the hospital into Argyle Street (not exactly an epicentre) but I was overwhelmed with urban stimulation. I felt like I had stepped out into Times Square in New York. I had been shrouded in a hospital bubble for the past 6 days and it was incredibly confronting – not to mention the hormones zig-zagging around my body. I sobbed into Nick’s shoulder and dragged myself away from our pint-sized man in the Nursery.
No sooner had I got home – I was back with him, and for the past 7 days I have been with him every day. I miss Poppy and feel guilty I am not with her and Nick and when I am home, I miss James and feel guilty I am not with him! Arrgghh – the Mother’s Guilt!
We are progressing well – he is feeding ok from me and gaining weight. He is now a whopping 2140 gms (over his birth weight of 2030 gms) yet some days I feel as though we take two steps forward and the next day a step back. I am desperately tired from feeding and expressing relentlessly, but you do what you have to don’t you? This little beauty – the Medela Electric Symphony Breast Pump has become my new best friend:
My day-to-day language has also changed from Tourism Training terminology to birth weights, weight gain, amount of milk expressed, breast shields and the amount of poo in one tiny Huggies® nappy! I am also bombarded with such fantastic (yet at times conflicting) advise from all the mid-wives – dummies/no dummies; bottles/no bottles; breast shields/no breast shields! As a result there have been quite a few tears shed during times of tiredness and frustration.
My rock throughout all of this, is my beautiful husband Nick, who is such a champion. He has been dropping me off and picking me up (as I can’t drive after my C-section), looking after Poppy, feeding us and basically holding it all together. We have also had such great support from our friends and family, which it is very humbling.
I am incredibly thankful we have a healthy little man, who just needs fattening up. I hope one day when I complain about how much he is eating, I will look back at this time and have a little chuckle. He he xx.
As the world is in a flurry with the arrival of a Royal baby boy, we also have our own announcement.
Here ye, here ye – three weeks early James Edward Davies arrived on Saturday evening the 20th July 2013 at 7:12 pm. Half the size of his royal counterpart, James is a tiny little fella weighing in at 2.030 kgs, but with fire in his belly and spark in his eyes!
It has been an amazing couple of days but little James needs his Mummy, so I won’t be posting that regularly for the next little while!
However, I can’t help but share a few photos of our handsome little man. Poppy is pretty chuffed with her little brother and can’t wait to take ‘Baby James’ home!
All I hope is that Wills and Kate don’t call their little Prince, James – it’s taken!! Xx
Nick has been teaching Pops the ‘thumbs up’ and to say “Hey Man” at the same time! It is very cute.
I hope you all have a lovely weekend. Xxx
Here’s a very pensive looking Poppy this morning with her Pom Pom regalia!
For the past several months I have been reflecting on her name and the many thousands of choices for our new baby.
When I was pregnant with Poppy we had several names on our short list for both genders but when she was born Nick said: “She looks like a Poppy!“. That name wasn’t on our list and after 24 hours of consideration – Poppy was perfect for her. I still LOVE the name and it suits her down to the ground.
However, with 6 weeks until we have our next baby, I am starting to feel the pressure as Nick and I haven’t even got a short-list this time. We are hopeless at agreeing on names and I randomly throw suggestions out there, with very few making ‘the list’! I love many names but don’t really love their derivatives and then there are the names that we like but family or close friends have snaffled them!!
Mmmm … maybe we will just use the same strategy and wait to meet our little boy or girl and make a decision then. I best remember to pack the Baby Names book again!
Last night Poppy started with the dreaded ‘why‘ questions! I was asking her to come and put on her pyjamas after her bath and her response was plainly: “Why?” Any ideas or strategies on how to deal with Miss Intrigue??
Poppy and I donned our aprons on Saturday morning and made a Date & Banana Loaf. She was incredibly helpful (albeit a little messy) but we manage to get the mixture into the loaf tin and turned out this beauty! She was proud as punch. x
I have been a little slack in recording Poppy’s milestones in her ‘Baby Book’. I have published notable moments on this page, but could have been more diligent in recording her first words and expressions.
Poppy’s vocabulary is expanding week-by-week and each day there is something new shared.
Her most frequently used words include (in order):
BOAT
DADDY
TOAST
SHOES
NOISY
NO MUMMY
MAISY
PEASE (Please)
TANK YOU (Thank You)
HOOT (as in Giggle & Hoot)
WEET-BIX
DOLLY
BYE
SHIP
CAR
SCHOOL
Poppy is also a little parrot at the moment – repeating words that we say. As a result I have to be quite careful with what I say now!
The Poppy Files 