Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

What a wonderful Christmas I've had at home with my wee family. I took Sorley to his first church service on Christmas Eve for the midnight service which has always been a favorite service of mine and he farted through his first prayer!

I'm very fortunate to have such a happy contented little baby, we are now into a routine where I get him to sleep between 10.30 - 11.30pm, he sleeps to around 4am then wakes for a feed, goes back to sleep until around 8.00am then wakes for a feed and then goes back to sleep for another couple of hours. This is our routine every night! I'd say the down side is that he feeds during the day at least every 2 hours, I was feeling a little house bound because of this but yesterday we went out for the day as we had a friend over from N. Ireland and I was able to breastfeed fairly comfortably in public in two different restaurants. I've haven't quite worked out where it's acceptable to breastfeed, should one breastfeed on a train for instance? Anyway we had a nice day out. The picture above is Sorley on Christmas day in his play gym surrounded by all his toys.

Here's some more pics of proud parents and my wee darling - it's amazing how quickly he is growing already, today he is 4 weeks old, sometimes I just sit and stare at him for ages, he is so lovely, I feel very blessed.

Time Out

Thanks for all the well wishes, support and for reading my blog. I'm going to take a little time out from blogging for a bit just while I find my feet as a new mum. I will be back blogging again but just need some time over this busy season to settle into my new role. Thanks again, Sorlil x

Some pictures as promised

Top picture is Sorley on his sunbed for jaundice in the hospital, bottom picture is Sorley at home, 5 days old.
They kept me in hospital longer than I would have liked because he lost some weight after the birth but after a night of constant breast feeding and expressing in between he put the weight back on. It's great to be home with my precious little bundle, he sleeps reasonably enough at night and he just loves to suck on my pinky when he's not feeding. I don't know what the consensus is on using dummies (pacifiers) but this little boy sure loves to suck on something.

Survived and Home!

Thanks to everyone for all their well wishes, it sure has been some week! Me and my beautiful baby boy finally got out of hospital on Tuesday and I'm just snatching a moment to blog while he's sleeping and I'm not too bleary eyed after a not too bad a night with him.

I guess you want to know how it all went so here's a quick overview, those not into birth stories may not want to read on!!
A week last Tuesday night (seems like a century ago) I was up for around five hours in the middle of the night with 10 minute contractions and was preparing to go to hospital when they stopped - yep false labour, I was so disheartened.
Around five pm on Wednesday they started up again as hourly contractions, by nine pm they were back to every 10 mins and by 1.30am they were every 5 mins so off I went to the hospital. I was in labour at last!
On arrival the midwife checked me over and my cervix was dilated to 4cm. Husband, mother, mother-in-law and I all sat in the dayroom playing cards in between my contractions, at this point all I was using was a Tens machine for the pain (little electrodes attached to my back that sent out feel good signals to help counter the pain). This went on all night and by 10am when they checked my cervix had not even dilated another cm, by midday they put me in the birthing pool to see if that would bring things on, by this time I was on the Entonox (gas and air) as with each contraction my back was in agony. I was in the pool for two hours and my cervix was still no further on.
My local hospital just has a midwifery unit so if there are any birthing problems patients are sent up to the city hospital. By 4pm they decided I had to go to Glasgow but there were no ambulances available so I had to wait until 7pm for an ambulance to take me up. The weather outside was miserable and very stormy, subsequently the ferries were off (I live on a peninsula) and I had to go in the ambulance for a 2 hour bumpy journey in a storm swinging around the winding loch road with strong contractions every couple of minutes. My back was in agony with every contraction - it turned out that the baby was facing back to back with me causing this. By the time I got to the hospital I was shattered, in agony and really had had enough, they gave me 10 ml of morphine and then put an epidural in my back. I was able to rest for a bit to work up the strength for delivery. By around 1am, I think, the doctor broke my waters and after a some hours of pushing I finally gave birth at 4.35am to an 8lb 3oz baby. They then spent the next hour stitching me up - they had to cut me several times to get his big head out!!
So Sorley has arrived and he is a right little character! He was a bit jaundiced and lost some weight in the days after but with lots of breastfeeding and expressing he's put the weight back on and is now a right little feeder and is in fact a very contented baby as long as he gets his feeds!
It's great to be home and get into a routine, I just adore having my little boy.

Blogger won't let me upload pics so I'll add then as soon as I can.

Update by Husband

We are now the proud parents of a baby boy of 8lbs 3 oz. My missus is still in hospital. If you check out her links and go to husbands blog you will get more details there as well as a picture of him. She will update her blog when she is home and well.

The proud father.