We were lulled into a false sense of security. All through his first day home Evan slept peacefully, oblivious to the comings and goings of visitors and well wishers. He even managed to sleep through being prodded and poked and generally manhandled by his big sister. He woke now and then to feed, but then dropped gently back off. “This is great†I said secretly to myself “this is much easier than we thought it was going to beâ€.
Then came the night.
There is only one thing more soul destroying than hearing your baby start crying yet again after you’ve just put him down; and that’s hearing your two year old decide that she wants part of the action too. Kerry took the full brunt of the night’s traumas, being the only one who can actually feed Evan. However I spent around an hour with Amy at three in the morning trying to persuade her to go back to bed, and Kerry’s mum was particularly heroic in taking care of the baby while Kerry snatched some rest. No one in the house was unaffected though; a screaming baby is a hard thing to sleep through.
And then came the next day. Evan reverted back to his placid and peaceful dozing persona, but now we had a tired pre-schooler to deal with. Whose idea was it to have two children again? We coped though, and last night was much better – with Evan sleeping around two hours between feeds, which is much more civilised. The community midwife told us yesterday that the reason he was so demanding on that first night was that Kerry’s milk production hadn’t properly kicked in, so he was only getting a little bit each feed.
Amy’s at nursery today, and we have no visitors booked. So now we can get down to the business of getting to know our son.
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Just keep your last post’s photo in mind. Such a blessing.
Of course, it’s easy for me to have said this with one child and a full night’s sleep. But you know I’m right. ;)
Congratulations!
Oh yes, it’s all going to work out fine in the end. But I’m hoping that we won’t get many more nights like that first one or we’re going to be wrecks.