A Little Round Up...

I'm writing this from my parent's house as I'm here for a couple of days to rest up.  I wasn't able to fully rest at home and my c-section wound has got infected.  Saturday was a blue day as it was sore and i was back to the emergency doctor's.  He said that i f I'd left it until Monday it'd be much worse but I was still gutted as I've showered and carefully cleaned and dried it daily and can only assume I've over exerted myself, rubbed it on a pair of trousers or the heat and humidity we've had hasn't helped.

At home its too easy to forget that you've had an operation and take longer to heal than a regular birth.  There was always too much to do and Steve being busy with work didn't have time to prepare all the meals or do the washing or all the household things that need to be done so In was doing a lot of that in between looking after Joel in a sleep deprived state and irs too much and as a result I'm feeling more tired than before and am realising to look after Joel well I have to be fit and thus am back at the parents for proper nursing.

The mastitis I've managed to keep at bay with massage, hot showers and expressing so it was a blow to know that Joel will have a funny tummy for yet another week.

Steve's parents have been up again for the weekend and enjoyed Joel cuddles.  \He's having more 'awake and alert' time every day and he's changed so much in the last two weeks that they've seen him.

Joel did make it to Church yesterday!  We didn't go to the service, just the lunch afterwards and it felt good to see my friends and be in a different place.  I tired out pretty quickly though so was home again within a couple of hours.

Joel is such a contented baby most of the time.  He seems to cry when he's frustrated over the simple checklist - hungry?  nappy?  sleepy?  or windy?  So if he does cry we run through the list (although hungry does come last as he'll always eat and if it was nappy that was the issue it's best to sort that first as he takes such a long time over it!!)  And most of the time he just sleeps, eats and gazes.

He focuses on dark objects, we have a black photo frame on a cream wall and he looks at it for a long while, and our mirror is silver and he enjoys gazing at that as well.  Oh, and the light, he'll look towards our south facing window with dark purple curtains too.

He will look at our faces and study them intently.  If we stick our tongue out at him, he will stick his back out at us in reply!  We are practising using his hand grip, so when we put a finger into his little hand, his fingers grip around ours quite tightly.

We met the health visitor last week and he had his hearing checked and all is ok there.  She's coming again on Thursday to weigh him and check him over after his tongue tie procedure which is Wednesday.  I'm not looking forward to that whatsoever, but it has to be done for his own benefit in the long run but to see my baby hurting will be rather agonising I'm sure.

But I'm sure it will all be well and next week he'll have no anti-biotics in his system, his toungue will be free and we'll see what will happen.  If he just feeds and sleeps and is fuller and feeds for less time, he'll be a perfect baby!  To be honest, he's perfect to me regardless!  I even don't mind that he peed all over my hands last night when changing his nappy at 2.30am!!

Here's some pics downloaded form my camera...

Anyway, it's a sunny day today, Joel is being pushed around by Grandad and Grandma is out buying more nipple cream for me!  Elizabeth (a friend from church and antenatal classes) is called round shortly with Trudy (who was due after Joel but arrived first!!) so it'll be lovely for them to meet!