Bug = 3 years 6 months
Bub = 1 year 8 months Linus at this age
Bud = 15 days – Linus at this age – Ada at this age

Zoe’s been home for a week now. She’s mostly slept, broken up by lots of feeding, a little crying, and lots of cuddles with everyone in the family.

She’s sometimes enjoying napping in the hammock, but really prefers napping on people (e.g. in the Puku Pouch). She’s so tiny that I barely notice that I’m wearing her at this stage, so I’m managing to get a lot done around the house with her asleep on my puku.

At night she’s sleeping in bed with me. The cot is set up as a sidecar, and while I’d happily put it her in at times during the night, the main complication is temperature - Zoe would need to wear more to keep warm in the cot than in bed with me, so I’d have to dress or undress her every time I changed her location. And I can’t be bothered

Saturday

• umbilical stump fell off
• met Uncle Kyle
• met Kiki
• took the day off doing poos in order to try to get Mummy worried (it worked)

Sunday

• first family road trip and picnic

Monday

• met RG and family
• met DJ and KH (and had a lovely long sleep on KH)
• fell asleep on Daddy while he was putting Linus to bed

Wednesday

• found out she’d gained 240 grams in a week (way to go!)
• first trip to Pak n Save
• met BC and PR
• first bath, shared with Linus and Ada (which she didn’t totally hate, but we’ll have to work at getting her to enjoy it)
• first try of the Puku Pouch on Daddy – a mighty success, with Daddy hosting a 1.5 hour sleep in the evening!

Thursday

• first La Leche League meeting
• first wee in potty
• first poo in potty

Bug = 3 years 6 months
Bub = 1 year 8 months Linus at this age
Bud = 13 days – Linus at this age – Ada at this age

The price I pay for quick, easy births is apparently small, jaundiced babies. Overall, I have to admit I recommend it!

Our Health

Zoe and I spent 9 1/2 days in hospital. During that time, I was ridiculously healthy with absolutely no symptoms of having given birth to a baby.

Because she was premature and weighed under 2500 grams, Zoe had to have her blood sugar levels monitored for the first couple of days, and after that had to receive phototherapy for jaundice. This was sometimes in the form of lights over an incubator, at other times using a biliblanket.

Stressors

• After a few days, being away from my “big” kids for SO long was hard.
• I worried about how Daddy and Nana were coping being with my children for SO long.
• There were many ups and downs of Zoe’s jaundice levels - she was in and out of the incubator at various times, and often had a hard time settling in there. Balancing getting her plenty of good feeds with getting her plenty of phototherapy was very stressful, especially after my milk came in and her feeding seemed to get a bit less reliable.
• Swine flu has meant that visiting terms are quite restricted and being fairly strictly upheld. My family didn’t have anything like the flexibility in terms of visiting that they had when I was in with Linus and Ada. (Only partners outside of visiting hours; no visitors’ children; only two visitors at a time.)
• The midwives changed every 8-12 hours, and it was sometimes tough – especially if I was having a bad time – when a new person came on shift and it was someone completely new or someone I didn’t click with.

Pleasures

• I had peace and quiet.
• I had time to focus solely on Zoe instead of having to share my attention between three children. I was able to sit feeding her and picking vernix out of her hair.
• Tasty, hot meals and drinks were served three times a day.
• Laundry was dealt with my dumping it in a hamper in the hallway and forgetting about it.
• I had time to write blogs, look at photos, and begin writing up Zoe’s birth story. Bob brought my laptop in on day 2 or 3, and I managed to catch up on quite a backlog of podcasts.
• I was able to consult the lovely Queen Mary lactation consultants (Stefanie and Carrie) over and over again.
• The midwives were for the most part wonderful and helpful and encouraging.

Excursions

Because I was completely healthy, I was free to take a few “trips” out. I went to the supermarket a couple of times; went to my office (which is in the hospital buildings) so I could use the internet; and went to a baby gear shop and bought a 00000 t-shirt for Zoe. The Queen Mary staff were even happy to watch Zoe while I went out, but I felt more comfortable leaving my baby with family, so Daddy or Nana stayed with her every time I went out (and I don’t think the boring little girl woke once for them!).

My only other notable excursions were to see my kids after I started to miss them quite badly and worry about how much they were missing me. On the Sunday, Daddy brought them in so I could play with them for an hour (while Daddy watched Zoe) at the hospital playground. This playground is completely fenced (i.e. low stress), and is probably the only place in the central business district where you can take children to have some free, outdoors fun. I wasn’t ready yet to be “mum” to a couple of preschoolers – I just wanted to have a concentrated dose of fun with them to give us all a boost!

Unfortunately my inspired plan was foiled by a locked playground. I guess the people out drinking on Friday and Saturday nights would make too much of a mess in there   Instead of a relaxing, fun, stress-free time at a fenced playground, I had to walk the two kids a couple of blocks to a cafe. It was far more stress than I’d bargained for, and I was very lucky that I had a friend – a mum without her kids – as an ideal companion to help me cope.

On the Tuesday, we tried the plan again (with Nana this time). It was far more successful! Nana watched Zoe up at the hospital while I played happily with the kids – joined by Gaga – down at the playground. It was a lovely reviver, and I was pleased to see that they did remember me. (I even got Linus sitting on my lap cuddling me for a while – quite uncharacteristic!)