I went back to read what I wrote when Nathan was 2 weeks old, and it seems that it’s been much easier the second time round in most respects.  Part of that was knowing more about babies, part was that I didn’t have to stay in hospital, part was because I didn’t have surgery this time, and part is probably due to baby temperament. I didn’t have swollen ankles/legs this time, Toby (so far) can be put into the hammock while asleep (in contrast to Nathan who I couldn’t put down because he’d wake up, but then we didn’t have the hammock when Nathan was a newborn) which means I have a little more capacity to do other things around the flat, breastfeeding has been a lot easier and not painful at all this time round, and Toby is generally sleeping around 6 hours at night.  He is a very noisy sleeper, much noisier than Nathan was, and I’m always worried he’ll wake Nathan up!

I wasn’t sure if the group midwifery thing really worked for me, though it was a bit complicated by the fact that Bec had a sick child of her own that she had to look after which meant that I didn’t see her for a couple of my visits, but looking back I think it was a great move.  I didn’t have as many appointments with this pregnancy, and Bec seemed pretty relaxed (she said because I was always so relaxed at the appointments) and so I didn’t even have appointments as often as I was told I would.  Bec even came to the flat for one of my appointments, because she was in the area and thought it would save me a trip to the hospital while heavily pregnant.  It was a little unfortunate that she missed the birth by a matter of minutes, but she did take over afterwards and it was nice to be looked after by someone I knew rather than a hodge podge of hopsital staff.  She then came to the flat three times to check on how Toby and I were going, and I’ll have my 6 week checkup with her in February.  All in all, I think the continuity of care has been a beneficial change, from the point of view of the pregnant woman.  I asked Bec how well it worked from her perspective and she said it suited her, particularly as it was possible for her to juggle her sick child and all his hospital appointments with her work, but because noone now officially looked after the Birth Centre (as your assigned midwife goes to wherever you give birth which obviously may not be in the Birth Centre) there were issues like supplies of various items could run out.  Overall, I was really happy with this new system.  Not only did it provide continuity of care, but I had a phone number and someone specific I could contact if I had any problems along the way.  All they need to do now is offer a homebirth service, which I believe the hospital plans to do at some stage.  🙂

My parents came to Sydney for a week, arriving just 2 days after Toby was born, though they didn’t stay with us this time since we’ve run out of space in our flat to put up an airbed.  They came over every day, though mostly we didn’t do anything terribly exciting and just stayed around the flat.  It seemed really difficult to get out of the flat together, as every time we thought we were ready to go Toby would start crying and need another feed.  We did manage to get to Sydney Park a couple of times where Mum and Dad met up with us.

We had a lovely Christmas.  Andew bought a whole heap of fancy foods and a nice ham on the bone, and mum brought a pudding that she’d made for dessert.  Nathan didn’t really get the whole Christmas thing, but was happy enough to open presents and help others open theirs.

So far I’d say that Nathan is adjusting to having a baby brother quite well, though it all depends on how tired he is. He loves to give Toby kisses, often asks to hold him, brings Toby toys and food, shows Toby how to do something if we say that Toby can’t do it yet (like crawling).  Nathan also wants what Toby has, so Nathan loves to sit in the bouncer, climbs onto the change table to lie there, wants a wrap behind his head in the car (I roll up a wrap and put it beside Toby’s head so it doesn’t roll around in the capsule when we’re driving), and has been wanting to breastfeed much more regularly than he did before Toby was born. Nathan even tries to fit into the car capsule!  It’s also been hard to get him to sleep at night.  I generally try to breastfeed him to sleep because he just will not relax otherwise, but Toby feeds almost constantly at night until he goes to sleep for his 6 hour stint and often I don’t get a window where he’s happy (or asleep) so I can help Nathan get off to sleep.  Andrew has been trying to help, but so far Nathan has only gone to sleep with him once.  The pram has made several appearances when we’ve become desperate, but Nathan knows that we bring it out to get him to sleep and he doesn’t like it and just wails when we put him in it.  He’s so miserable that it breaks my heart…he cries, screams, and ends up saying “Mummy” over and over and over again.  So even the pram isn’t a good option for us these days, as I just don’t want Nathan to be so miserable while going to sleep every night.

Andrew has one more week off work, and I’m almost dreading him going back to work and leaving me with the two kids.  I don’t know how I’m going to manage to get a meal on the table at night as it was always hard enough to manage that before Toby was born.  I guess we’ll just have to see how it goes.

Toby’s first bath (he fell asleep)

Nathan brought Toby a good selection of animals…

…and then read him a book.

Oma with Toby.

Opa with Toby.

Nathan and Toby cuddles.

Toby having his hearing tested.

Toby using his Potty Bowl.

In the car.

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