Happy December!
This post is short and sweet, like Noah. Next week’s should hopefully have a training program or two though! Exciting times!
6 weeks done and dusted. For some reason 6 weeks feels like a milestone, although I'm not too sure why. It might be because it’s the halfway mark into the Fourth Trimester but is probably because in a few days I go back to the OB and to my physio to hopefully get the all clear to start training again!
This week I successfully made notes at the end of each day to help me remember what happened. Good thing too - it was a busy week!
Firstly, we got the results of the x-ray and she's in the clear! No more haziness and no more cloudy lungs, this means her pneumonia is well and truly gone.
In terms of milestones this week:
- We worked on animal noises in the first half of the week. So far she's nailed perfect imitations of the following animals: sea lion, disgruntled deer, toad in heat, fish, and anteater. We worked on giraffe but I don't think we're quite there yet. She's not a fan of horse noises.
- We've decided to raise a girl boss which means at the ripe age of 6 weeks old she's already sat in on a board meeting, 2 project implementation meetings, and a Calibrate team meeting. She slept through all of them which doesn't bode well but we'll let it slide for now. (Side note: for those that don't know - Jack and I co-founded and run a renewable energy charity based in HK with projects in Nepal, thus the board meeting and project meetings.)
- We found a bottle she will take! After battling her with the Dr. Browns bottles, she’s taken to Nuk bottles beautifully. This means it might soon be time to invest in a pump so Jack can take over a feeding or two.
The Week
We actually had a pretty great week, only one minor hiccup on Thursday (more later) but for the most part it was fairly smooth sailing. I think we're both finally getting the hang of this whole new thing.
She slept a lot more this week (again, except for Thursday - more later). Normally she sleeps a lot overnight but for the past 2-3 weeks hasn't napped much which lead to nighttime witching hours. This week she slept much more during the day. She is also much more talkative, alert, and smile-y. She still mostly looks like an angry Danny DeVito but she does have a very expressive face and a gorgeous smile.
On Monday she was outrageously fussy but then she had an explosive poo (again at Landmark) and was very happy and content after that.
On Tuesday we went for a 2 hour stroll in the morning, she slept in the carrier the whole time while Jack and I got some steps in. We had a rather quiet late morning and then set off for Stanley in the afternoon to walk around. The walk didn't last too long as she got a bit hungry and overstimulated so I took her in, found a darker place to hang out in, and she settled right down.
Wednesday morning was rather poop filled, she pooped 3 times in the first 90 waking minutes. The rest of the day was spent either strolling or just lounging.
Thursday was an interesting day. She woke up at her usual 6:30/7am and then proceeded to spent the next 2 hours pretty forcefully vomiting everywhere (one vomit required a floor disinfection). Jack went into the office to get some work done so I went over to my parents' so I'd have some vomit help. After a bit of a snooze in the morning she then continued to vomit everywhere all the time for about 3 hours. We sent a message to our paediatrician who said it would be best if he could see her.
At 4pm we went to Central for our appointment and despite getting the great news that she's growing super well we were very quickly sent off to the Adventist for an ultrasound. Some newborns develop pyloric stenosis (a narrowing of the stomach opening between the stomach and small intestine) which requires emergency surgery to fix. Apparently we needed to rule this out as a cause for her projectile vomiting. After a fairly traumatic experience (she was starving but wasn't allowed to eat because the ultrasound had to be performed on an empty stomach) the attending paediatrician at the Adventist ruled out pyloric stenosis. We just have a reflux-y baby who vomits forcefully.
After her traumatising vomit-y day we took her straight home and she slept for 12.5 of the next 13 hours.
After an eventful day yesterday we opted for a quiet day on Friday. My sister came over in the morning and at about 9am she and I set off for Repulse Bay to run some Christmas errands. Noah slept all the way from Pokfulam to Repulse Bay, slept through our smoothie stop at Pure, slept through our stop off at Bookazine, and slept for half the car ride to Shouson Hill. The afternoon was spent watching a Christmas movie (Happiest Season) and we started to decorate the house for Christmas.
Saturday morning was WONDERFUL. I managed to convince Noah to go back to sleep at 6:30am so we all had a nice lie in and didn't wake up to start the day until almost 9:15. It's probably been at least a year since I last slept in that late! After our slow start we went for a morning stroll and had lunch with the family. We went for another walk with friends in the afternoon and found ourselves in Repulse Bay at happy hour. We're firm believers in not passing up a beach side happy hour so we hung around for an hour or so. The babies then dictated our departure as both got a bit fussy and hungry. We went back to my parents' for a hot pot dinner.
Sunday was Christmas Tree and Gingerbread House decoration day. Noah's first tree and first gingerbread house! We walked over to my parents' in the morning and spent the day there doing all things Christmas. Unfortunately Noah also spent most of the day being pretty fussy. Tired but unable to sleep. We tried it all, rocking to sleep, nursing to sleep, carrier/walking to sleep. Unsuccessful. Eventually I think she was just too tired to fight it anymore and finally went down at 3:30 (and took me with her). Oh well, I guess there will be days...
The fun stuff
If Noah gets a solid 90min nap in the late morning she's far less likely to be fussy in the afternoon. If the morning nap is not successful then the afternoon is very long for me. Luckily (so far) regardless of her day time naps she does sleep very well in the evening. This week she was out for most of 6:30/7pm - 7am.
She's still a very clingy baby though - she'll go to other people if she's in a good mood but if she’s even remotely fussy, no one can calm her but me. As frustrating as it is for other people, quite frankly, it’s even more frustrating and exhausting for me. It kind of makes me feel like I have a super power but that does mean I don’t wish others had the same power too. I just keep reminding myself that if I’m what she needs to feel safe, not only does it make complete sense but it also means I definitely don’t worry about whether or not my baby is bonding with me!
Because she went to the doctor on Thursday she was also measured and weighed. She’s up 200g and 0.5cm since last week which is growth in the right direction so that’s good!
Next week is the exciting week for me. I hopefully get the all clear from the OB on Tuesday and my physio on Thursday to resume training. This means next blog post might very well have some training programs! Fingers crossed!
Until then we’ll just keep on Christmas-ing and keep on keeping on!