first fever :(

with 7 months and 1 day pea had a fever for the first time. i know we are very lucky he didn't get any earlier but still i thought it's horrible. we went to the dr and she told us that is was an ear infection. luckily the medicine worked very quickly and it was gone soon.

vinegar socks baby

1 month health check

we went to the 1 month health check to find that everything is perfect with our little pea.

he weighed 4280 gr and was 56 cm tall.

witching hour

after we found out that pea needs to be fed with formula in addition to breast milk we thought his crying in the evening will stop. but it didn't... like a swiss watch it started every evening at 6:30 and it lasted for about an hour. sometimes a bit longer sometimes a bit less. 

there was nothing we could do but cuddle him, carry him around and wait until it was over. usually he fell asleep right after it as he was so exhausted.

although we knew it will be over after an hour there were evenings where it was quite hard to stand. luckily it stopped after about 3.5 months.

babymoon

when we found out i was pregnant, chris gave me a book called first-time parent by lucy atkins. it's an honest guide to parenting.

in chapter three they talk about the top tips for the first few weeks. number 1: take a babymoon:

"your priority as a new mother should not be to slim yourself concave in the first four weeks. your body and mind need to adjust and recover. a significantly better way to embark on motherhood is to have a "babymoon". just snuggle up with your baby and do little else but eat, sleep and feed.

to have the ideal babymoon

• stay in your pyjamas for at least three days
• have lots of skin-to-skin contact with your baby
• stay in bed a lot. have all the things you need to change your baby's nappy and clothes in one place. have a large bottle of water and some snacks nearby. just chill out together"

and oh yes we did! the days went by with cuddling and watching pea. i could have continued doing this probably until now... but i am very glad we did take this time in the beginning and chris could take the first 1.5 weeks off work.

pea only wanted to sleep with something covering his head... :)

first days at home

3 days old we got to take our pea home. i couldn't wait to leave the hospital but the minute we were home i really wanted to go back :)

we decided that he will sleep in a moses basket in our bedroom for the first few months so we put him there and went to bed quite early. but all of a sudden he started to scream and we took him out again. when he didn't stop screaming i got quite worried as he had some trouble with his digestion the first three days. we finally decided to take him back to the hospital. after an examination the dr told us that everything is fine and it might just be the change from being at home for the first night. also he might feel that we are a bit nervous about it. relieved we went back home and cuddled him for the rest of the night.

luckily the midwife came the next day for her first visit. she told us that pea might just be a bit colicky and not to worry. also she showed us how to swaddle him to calm him.

we put a warm grape seed pillow (mike zebra) on his tummy to sooth his ache which seemed to help a bit. we also took him to the osteopath which he seemed to enjoy a lot.

after another few days the midwife found that pea has lost weight. she advised me to pump to see how much milk i produce. we found out that it was not enough and in addition to breastfeeding we started to give him the bottle with formula.

after all it wasn't colic but pea was just hungry. realizing that made me quite sad as i thought i should have known as his mother. but everyone reassured me that one never knows and everyone has to find out these things in the beginning...