T+11 Days

Well, little baby Peach is now 11 days old and both healthy and happy. She’s put on a bit of weight even – now she weighs in at 4.14 kg/9 lb 2 oz, up from 3.85 kg/8 lb 8 oz at birth. She’s got chubby cheeks and I can see that her belly and legs are definitely filling out and becoming fuller.

She’s changing her rhythm day by day. A couple days ago she was happy to feed for 30-40 minutes, then sleep for 3 hours before waking up for another feed. In the last 2 days she’s now feeding for only 10-15 minutes, then falling asleep for about 30 minutes. Then she wakes up and wants another feed of 5-10 minutes before settling down.

She’s also more awake during the day. Instead of falling asleep immediately as before, baby Peach now tries to stay awake if she notices there are new people around or things going on. She’ll sit or lie there obviously falling asleep but you can see her fight it all the way, trying to force her eyes to remain open so she can see what’s going on.

At night we’re very lucky in that she sleeps pretty much solidly for 2-3 hours at a stretch. Add in about an hour or so per feed and that means she has 2 feeds at night, usually around midnight and then about 3 am and 6 am. As I’m off work right now it means I get about 5-6 hours of sleep a night between 1-4 am and 7-10 am. I’m not sure how this is going to work out once I head back to the office on Monday.

Anyhow the mass of chaos that was the last week and a half is dying down. Mom is much better and mobile again. For the past 4 days she’s been able to get up and walk around as well as sit again. She’s much more full of energy and in general looks and feels much stronger. This is a good thing!

As well on Monday both sets of grandparents will be heading home. Not that we don’t like our parents, but having two sets of extra people around fussing and wanting to visit is difficult. Mom’s parents don’t speak any English; my parents don’t speak any French. This means that Mom or I have to act as translators (and my French is very limited – think toddler level). It can be exhausting, especially when we’re having to cook dinner and do laundry and clean up while looking after baby Peach.

Anyhow, that’s the update for today. I’ve been collecting notes and photos of significant events/things any guy who’s thinking about becoming a dad should know about… and with some luck I might even be able to write things up in the next week or two.