Olive Day 10

Great news! Olive slept from midnight till 6am in the crib. Hooray! Not what we expected after such a sleepy day yesterday but a big bonus. We even felt bold enough to venture out for lunch enjoying a pub lunch at our local, the Leather Bottle. It felt like a date! It was a spontaneous outing, and the first really frosty day (1C) but sunny day of winter. Very special!  It did make me feel a bit sad about Joel returning to work next Wednesday. Boo! Mum arrives from New Zealand later this afternoon though. Exciting times!

Olive Day 9

Today we took Elsie to rhyme time at the Earlsfield library. Olive and I went along for the walk too and we managed our third family outing of the week! After rhyme time Sharleen and baby Ethan came back for lunch. We managed to feed three babies, bake bread, make soup and miraculously get all three babies asleep at the same time. We were so surprised we had a glass of wine to celebrate. Awesome. The only problem today was just that we could not keep Olive awake. She slept solidly all day waking only to take a lazy 10min feed every three hours. It doesn't bode well for this evening!

Olive Day 8

Better night! Operation Prod Baby worked a treat. Olive slept in her crib for 2x three hour blocks and only had a quick feed in between. Hooray! Belinda visited this morning with her 6 month baby Natalie bringing lots of lovely gifts for Elsie and Olive. Elsie went to the toddler gym again this morning and came home knackered ready for an early nap.

When she woke up this afternoon I figured I was ready to try a walk so we took our second ever family outing (and first time with the new double pushchair) and headed to the 1 o'clock club in the afternoon where we caught up with Sharleen and baby Ethan. We realised at some stage today that it was actually our third wedding anniversary so we made a quick stop at the Italian deli in the way home. Some taleggio, porcini and red wine later and we were ready to head home to celebrate.

Olive Day 7

Rotten day. Last night poppy miraculously awoke just as Joel and I were heading to bed. She decided to stay awake until around 3:30am when we both grabbed a few hours sleep. This morning we were all grumpy to start with then an incident with a double espresso rendered me super wound up! Elsie was bored and whingey and fell off the sofa twice trying to clamber all over Poppy and me as we struggled to get her latched. We have now launched "Operation Prod Baby" for the rest of the day so we can hopefully all sleep tonight.

Olive Day 6

Today was a great day! After a really restful Sunday (thanks to Donna for babysitting Elsie) i felt energetic (and claustrophobic)  enough for an outing Monday. We decided to try and stick to Elsie's normal routine as much as possible.  So we headed out to Moodfood cafe at 8am despite Joel and I waking up at 7:40am. We were quite proud that we were up, dressed and had both girls ready to go by the time our cleaner Danka arrived at 8am. Danka normally fusses over Elsie , playing with her and helping her into the pushchair etc. Danka is a big hit with Elsie! Today Danka made a fuss over the new baby instead and Elsie did not like it. Not one little bit! But we managed to avert full blown meltdown and made it out the door to Moodfood.

Joel and I ate almond croissants and drank the terrible coffee, Elsie had her usual (toast with jam and a fluffy milk), and Lila had breast milk. Oh yes, we also decided to start test driving baby names this week starting with Delilah/Lila today. Elsie was spoilt because Lucy, the cafe owner, made Elsie an extra fluffy on the house to celebrate becoming a big sister!

After Moodfood we normally head down to the gym where Elsie attends creche and I go to a 10am spin class. Well that wasn't going to happen today! But we headed to the gym anyway where Elsie got to say hi to all her friends before we took her to play in the soft play area (think slide and ball pit) then toddler gym (think bouncy castle and music). Elsie loved it! She was so cute bouncing all around and dancing to the music. Lila was brilliant too. Slept through most of it and I was relieved to just get out of the house!

Olive Day 3-5

Today is day 5! Here's our update from the last couple of days.

Me:
Last couple of days I felt quite manic and stressed. A weird underlying feeling like I was about to give a speech. Luckily this time I know that it's just my version of the baby blues. Although yesterday that insight still didn't stop me from shouting at everyone then hating myself for "ruining everything" then sobbing. So pretty typical post-natal stuff really! Feeling much better today. Elsie is spending the morning with aunty Donna and I've had my first proper sleep. Yay! Perspective is a wonderful thing! Physically I'm still feeling more sore and achey every day. Which surprises me. It was good to hear that Francine found a similar thing. Combination of achey muscles everywhere and the obvious! But there are also lots of bits that are just returning to normal so much more quickly than after the Caesar which is wonderful!

Baby:
Baby is really really good. Milk has all come in and feeding going well. However, latching is taking a lot of wrangling each time (can take us 30-40mins to get latched) and she needs to generally give feeding some more welly! She isn't nearly as 'hangry'  as Else was! I've had to start pumping a couple of times a day just to prevent engorgement etc. Whereas Else would feed vigorously for 10mins then become sleep drunk and unrousable this little one will feed casually for 10mins then take a break, have a burp, hang out, but stay quite alert throughout. She'll do that a few times so she's getting a very relaxed 30-40min feed that takes 1-2 hours. But it's great because we're all getting lots of wonderful awake alert time with her. 

She is still very sleepy and relaxed. Long may it last! We are sticking to our guns and waiting to see more of her character before naming her. It will be interesting to see it emerge as she becomes more alert. So far only 'peanut' seems to be sticking. So we should definitely give it more time!

Elsie:
Elsie is a great older sister. She is still excited by the baby and seems genuinely pleased that she's still there each morning. She always takes baby a toy when she cries! Both myself and Else find it hard as feeds are taking so long and it's hard to be home with Else but not available to her. I feel like I'm just stuck on the sofa ignoring her. So she has gone off me a bit. Yesterday she was quite challenging - demonstrating some textbook whining and tantrums and she bit me during story time! But she said "sorry" and we had a nice cuddle afterwards. I think it's to be expected and Joel and I are going to try and make sure that she is out of the flat doing exciting things for the mornings so she doesn't feel so frustrated by her boring mum. But on the whole I am staggered and really impressed by how well Else is adjusting and how kind and loving she is toward her sister (I didn't expect that at Else's age) and as feeding becomes more efficient and I get less sore we'll be rocking and rolling me thinks.

Joel:
Is absorbing a lot of moods from Else and myself! He's going to need a holiday after this! But he's being calm and wonderful as always xx

Okay time for a boob wrangle. Thanks everyone for sending all the love our way. It means a lot

X

Jo Joel Else and Peanut

Olive Day 1-2

Hi! Report from day 1. After super sleepy no feedy day in hospital yesterday she decided she was HUNGRY at around 10pm last night and basically cluster fed till 3:30am which is when I got my first sleep in two days! She then fed again at 6am and 10am. So I got about 5 hours sleep altogether. Today 10-3pm she fed and cried constantly. She is vomiting a lot so perpetually hungry and really not wanting to be put down. We managed to grab a couple of hours co-sleeping between 3-5pm today. Since then we've had an excellent long feed, some awake time, and she has finally settled in the hammock. Perfect timing so Elsie got story time with mum and dad and lots of attention at bedtime. Mum and dad now having much needed glass of wine. We are both sitting here thinking - we should be doing x and y but not doing them. Tired and happy x

Day 0!

Contractions to average: all
Average Duration: 44s
Average Interval: 2m 32s
Labor Stage: Second Stage Labor

Start Time: 03:16:58
End Time: 03:17:56
Duration: 00:00:58
Interval: 1m 42s

Start Time: 03:15:16
End Time: 03:16:17
Duration: 00:01:01
Interval: 3m 24s

Start Time: 03:11:52
End Time: 03:12:30
Duration: 00:00:38
Interval: 2m 20s

Start Time: 03:09:32
End Time: 03:10:33
Duration: 00:01:01
Interval: 3m 49s

Start Time: 03:05:43
End Time: 03:06:24
Duration: 00:00:41
Interval: 1m 20s

Start Time: 03:04:23
End Time: 03:04:47
Duration: 00:00:24
Interval: 2m 0s

Start Time: 03:02:23
End Time: 03:02:59
Duration: 00:00:36
Interval: 2m 39s

Start Time: 02:59:44
End Time: 03:00:27
Duration: 00:00:43
Interval: 1m 48s

Start Time: 02:57:56
End Time: 02:58:30
Duration: 00:00:34
Interval: 2m 38s

Start Time: 02:55:18
End Time: 02:56:19
Duration: 00:01:01
Interval: 2m 1s

Start Time: 02:53:17
End Time: 02:53:50
Duration: 00:00:33
Interval: 2m 1s

Start Time: 02:51:16
End Time: 02:51:52
Duration: 00:00:36
Interval: 2m 57s

Start Time: 02:48:19
End Time: 02:49:09
Duration: 00:00:50
Interval: 4m 4s

Start Time: 02:44:15
End Time: 02:44:57
Duration: 00:00:42
Interval: 2m 55s

Start Time: 02:41:20
End Time: 02:42:03
Duration: 00:00:43
Interval: --