Week 3

9th - 15th January 2005

Caroline's Entry

Monday of this week was the end of my Christmas holiday and time for me to go back to Uni. Emma wasn't looking forward to it at all but thankfully my timetable is fairly light and as long as I'm able to study at home I don't have to be there all that much. One thing that did worry me though was the sleep I was getting. At night times it was taking 1-2 hours to get Evan off to sleep then I found that I kept waking up with his little kicks and fidgets. Then of course he'd wake up screaming several times a night needing a feed and the time it would take to feed him, change him and get him settled again is easily an hour or more. Even though Emma actually did all the work I found that I just couldn't sleep whilst all that was going on.

A rare moment amusing himself on the play gym

I love Uni but I only enjoy it when I am alert enough to be able to concentrate. Plus some of my lecturers are dreadful and could send an insomniac-on-speed to sleep! A couple of days before going back I suggested to Emma that I would sleep downstairs on the futon. She wasn't too impressed but I think she knew deep down that I was going to do that. It's been a godsend! Even though I still wake up from Evan's crying because I'm in another part of the house I'm able to fall back to sleep again and as a result I've not been tired at all this week and my first week at Uni was fine. This was a huge relief because before he was born I had visions of falling asleep in all my lectures, not being able to concentrate, falling behind in my work etc so I'm really glad that it has worked out ok.

This week I've been experimenting with new tricks to settle Evan when he's grizzly. Last week I'd already established that he likes movement and I had started bouncing on our exercise ball but sometimes that's not enough. We also discovered that he likes music, and not soft lullaby music but rock or dance music that's on MTV! 4.30 in the morning there I am in the middle of the lounge, MTV blaring, dancing away with a little baby in my arms! Thankfully it seems to do the trick within about 2 songs and he'll be fast asleep in my arms.

This can get kinda tiring though so another thing we tried this week was to take him for a walk outside in the pram. The movement of it seems to settle him. The first time we tried this was around midnight one night when he'd been grizzling for hours and we no longer had the energy to dance. We wrapped him up nice and warm (screaming), put him in his pram and almost as soon as we stepped outside he stopped crying. Even though it was pretty cold it was nice. Emma and I had a chance to chat and we got some fresh air. We walked around our local neighbourhood for around half an hour.

Unfortunately Evan's a clever boy and he seems to have some sixth sense when it comes to our attempts to put him down to sleep. Once we got back from our walk we gently brought the pram indoors, removed his blankets and left him in it for a while - at least, that was the plan. He lasted all of about 2 minutes before waking himself up and screaming all over again!

Caroline

Emma's Entry

Jump to Caroline's Entry

After the recent evening events with Evan and his sleeping problems we decided it was probably best if Caroline moved downstairs to sleep on the futon. I was not very receptive to this suggestion but I do understand how much Caroline needs her sleep for University as she struggles to stay awake in lectures anyway!

We had our first visit from the health visitor this week as we were no longer being cared for by the midwives. Evan certainly doesn't have a problem eating and breast feeding is going smoothly, this is reinforced by Evans continual weight gain, he now weighs in at 9lb 6oz.

It's very difficult to tell but we are sure that Evan smiled at Caroline for the very first time this week. Most of the time, his smile-like look is an indication that he has wind but this week we saw a glimmer in his eyes and it wasn't the usual crooked smile.

Completely zonked out! Too much boob! :-)

Another medical scare happened this week and it was just typical that it would be me to find it! Fortunately it was a Tuesday and Caroline was at home to hear my screams.. I was in the middle of changing Evan and I had a feeling his umbilical cord would fall off soon as it had started weeping. I could see through the vest that it had fallen off because something was stuck to the vest too far down to be his belly button so I was half prepared for something nasty. It was awful and no wonder change time had made Evan cry lately as his cord was sticking to his clothes and probably irritating him when we removed his clothes. The belly button looked all infected with lots of puss just sitting in his button hole. I cried out to Caroline as it didn't look right and in the end I had to get her to finish the change. I took him to the nurse that afternoon and she said it looked particularly nasty and warranted a second opinion as to what course of action to take. Poor little Evan ended up having it burnt with a nitrogen stick and he cried in the same way as he did when they did the Guthrie test on the heel of his foot. Luckily it only needed burning once and it went all black and dried up again a few days later. It took us a while to get his belly button all cleaned up properly and the poor little man had a few burn marks that needed to heal as well.

Babies bring out smiles and kindness in everyone and that was evident this week. I find that whenever I am out with Evan, people always smile and have a passing look at him. Strangers just seem to smile all the time and they are more than happy to talk to you when you have a baby, especially one as cute as Evan! We were doing our weekly shop when the lady serving behind the deli counter had to stop serving customers to come and have a look at our beautiful son. We had a brief chat whilst being served but before we moved on she came from behind the counter to see Evan who was sleeping peacefully but still looking totally adorable. I could just stand and look at him for an eternity. Even the customers waiting didn't complain and I am sure the only reason they didn't was because of Evan :).

Emma