Bebo

Greg Sole <gregsole>

	The story of little Caleb Xavier!	290 dagen geleden
	So I've been a dad for just over two weeks now. I thought it was about time I popped on and posted up the full story to date. Caleb (Cable Lentil) Xavier was born on Feb 13 at 7:16PM. He weighed 3.7kg and was about 49cm long. On his due date we found out that he was breech, and before we had any time to try any of the methods of getting him to turn around, he decided it was time to come out. So we went to the hospital at about lunch time on the 13th and made the decision to extract him through a hole in his mum's tummy rather than have him pop out the normal way. About three percent of babies present breech at birth, and birthing them naturally has a high chance to end up with serious complications. So our entire birth plan pretty much went out the window and we decided it was time to go with the flow... After the operation I was left with the new creature while mum was stitched up and spent a while in recovery waiting for her drugs to wear off. I was taken down to the maternity ward with Caleb and stripped off to the waist so I could hold him against my skin while we waited for mum to join us. We waited and waited and waited for almost an hour and a half. I was pretty grumpy about this because immediate skin to skin contact for Caleb and Lon was one of the most important things to me. It was just another part of the plan that had to be sacrificed though. Mum rejoined us by a little after 9PM and finally she got to spend some time with her new baby! The rest of the stay in hospital was, while not perfect, much better than we had expected from a hospital stay. The midwives that we had were at worst good, and at best brilliant. The really good ones were happy to sit with Lon for 45 minutes plus helping her with early feeding and had lots of very helpful advice and heaps of patience. The ones that were less good were still not bad, but I had no qualms about singing the praises of patient midwives while they were in earshot, and they only got better, if anything... Each night I was booted out as we were sharing a room with another new mum, but if gave me a chance to collect extra things Lon had discovered she needed while in hospital, and at least one of us was getting a decent nights sleep. Feeding Caleb was pretty challengin initially. Lon's body was still an entire labour behind the emergence of her baby, so her milk took a bit longer than it is supposed to to kick in. Caleb was never in any danger of starving, but he was getting quite dehydrated by the end of our stay, so on the last night the midwives gave him a few feeds of formula which pleased him immeasurably, even if it didn't make his dad so happy. The move home was welcome when it came. We'd had about enough of hospitals (the food they were giving Lon was incredibly sub-standard!), although being at home meant that I had to come to terms with the actuality of living with a baby. All this time I have thought that I would be a fantastic dad, and I think this is still likely to be the case, but only once my children are not babies any more. I find I have very limited patience with his crying and that it gets to my head in almost no time flat. This is a bit of a shame, because really, he's a pretty well behaved lad. Once he learnt that we will feed him and give him attention when he cries, and change his nappy when it's dirty, he quietened down quite a bit and he rarely bawls any more. Mostly just grizzling when something is not to his liking. I am just glad Lon has the wonderful hormones that make everything that he does seem gorgeous and wonderful to her. At the moment my usefulness is only really in changing nappies and doing housework. Which I don't mind, but I had always thought I'd be a bit more starry eyed over my babies. It turns out I'd almost rather someone else took care of them until they get to be a little more interactive. So instead of being a fantastic dad I'm settling for being a fantastic partner and just an ok dad for the moment. I've decided that's a better option than forcing myself to be a fantastic dad to the point that I snap and the baby goes out a window. I think I still want us to have more and I'm pretty sure they wouldn't let us if I behaved like that... So I'm mainly taking care of Lon now. Making sure she eats, drinks, and doesn't do anything silly while recovering from the operation. Also stepping in when I can see she needs a break and taking Caleb for bouncy walks so Lon can carry out those luxury activities like going to the toilet, having a shower, eating, and sometimes even sleeping. He can actually be kind of cute when he is asleep in my arms and I have time for some one handed computer gaming. I do make sure to sit as far back from the screen and computer as possible though. Don't want to dose the baby in too many EM rays just yet... Plenty of time for that in a few years... Speaking of computer gaming, I'm still managing to get a fair bit in, surprisingly enough. I've had to change the games I play of course, to ones that can be paused or left alone at the drop of a hat. So no more zombie bashing with my friends online for a while at least... That's about all that needs to be told for now. Will post up some more fotos soon and maybe even a vid... Love to all...
	geplaatst door Greg Sole

2 Commentaren:

	Charlotte Chalman zei…	290 dagen geleden
	Aww Greg, chin up!! Lots of new dads feel a bit....left out in the first few months. Simply because there's not really a whole lot you can do (as you've discovered!), but it wont take long for you to bond with him!! ANd the crying on your nerves thing.......Elliot still does that to me and she's 18 months More photos? YES!! Much love to you guys and to your Mum xxx
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	Richard B zei…	289 dagen geleden
	Hey Greg. First thing our Obstritian said to us was "I dont beleive in birth plans, babies do what they want, when they want." One handed computer gaming! Haha. I developed a good technique. You get 1 of those baby rockers or bouncers and put the lil guy in it at ur feet then just rock him with ur foot. Hey Presto 2 handed gaming again!!
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