Red Rose Baby: Little E is Two Weeks Old
It's almost impossible to think that two weeks, well, sixteen days, since Little E arrived. The time has passed in something of a blur but now Ian is back at work and Bud is back at school so LM, Little E and I are settling down in to the new normal during the day.
Little E is a very different baby to his brother and sister, he's an inquisitive little soul, even in these very early days and loves to spend time being held so he can look around. Last Saturday he only slept for ninety minute between 10am and 10pm, he clearly hasn't received the 'newborns sleep for around twenty hours a day' memo! He has a long line in funny expressions and I can spend hours just watching his serious little face. It's so strange to have a little baby in the house but we're all so pleased with him.
I'm breastfeeding Little E and he's a hungry little chap. I was expecting breastfeeding to be easy this time, I've done it twice before, right? Wrong. Little E has quite a lazy latch which has taken rather a lot of training. This combined with a fierce suck led to a few days of horrible soreness with bleeding on top. No fun. Thankfully he's started to open his mouth wider and I'm just about healed so we're feeding without too much pain now. There's probably a full post to come on breastfeeding but I think that if I'd had these problems when I was feeding Bud I probably wouldn't have stuck at it, then who knows if I'd have gone on to feed LM and Little E? We're still currently under the Midwife as he hadn't regained his birth weight when she visited us this week. He was only 80g away though so I think he'll comfortably reach it by next week's weigh in.
Although Little E hasn't learned to sleep during the day yet he's doing OK at night.I generally get one four or five hour block and have been able to function if I do. We've only had a couple of nights which have been disastrous as far as sleep is concerned and it seems like he's already getting the hang of the difference between night and day. I'm loving using the Little Green Sheep Snuzpod at night time and it's lovely to have him sleeping safely within arm's reach. Daytime sleeping happens in our gorgeous Moba Moses Basket which is tucked in the corner of our lounge. He does sleep well in there and the combination of the two seems to be working well for Little E.
I was rather anxious about how LM would deal with the arrival of her new sibling but, so far, she's been completely delighted with him. She calls him Baby and brings all visitors to see him when they arrive. She's just as clingy as she always was, unsurprisingly and, since Ian went back to work, I've had to become accustomed to feeding Little E with his big Sister sitting on my lap too. Bud has taken Little E's arrival in his stride, apart from a couple of days just after we arrived home from hospital. He's loved showing his new Brother off to his friends at school and is very excited to tell people that he knew he was getting a Brother!
Just two weeks in it feels like Little E has always been here. He's a chilled out, calm little boy who is pretty easy really. I think the shock has been the change from two to three children to look after, for me, and the lack of time I have for other things has been surprising. I think the memory of LM and Bud's newborn days faded very quickly. I'm trying to enjoy him as much as I can and give him as many cuddles as possible. He will be our final baby, our family is definitely complete, so I'm treasuring every moment of these precious baby days. The first two weeks has flown by and it feels like he's always been here now.
In just over a week Little E and I will be off to Britmums Live, I'm so looking forward to the conference but rather daunted to be attending with such a little baby. Hopefully all will be well and I'll tell you how we got on in our next Little E update.
