Catching up

We don't get much spare time right now so here are the highlights!

The midwife (Alison) came on Monday and weighed Lucy. She has lost much less than the benchmark 10% of her body weight in the first 5 days so she is feeding just fine. The breastfeeding is going well, but as with Oliver one breast is preferred to the other!

The doctor also visited yesterday (to our surprise) and gave both mother and baby a clean bill of health.

We don't like to tempt fate, but Lucy has been going 4 or even 5 hours between feeds in the night, meaning Hayley only has to get up once in the night for about 1-1.5 hours. She seems to feed a lot during the evening. Long may it continue. (Though this evening she has been eerily quiet!) Hayley feeds her in the spare room where we have a sofa-bed and soft lighting. It seems to be working quite well.

Lucy is very close to her Mummy. Hayley clearly adores her, though she does also miss having time with Oliver. I think if Lucy could spend all day in Hayley's arms, either feeding, sleeping or just watching the world go by, she would. And who can blame her! Hayley did manage to get some grocery shopping done today.... by doing it over the internet whilst holding Lucy and talking to her cousin Becky on the phone!

Last night, a good half hour after Oliver had been quiet in his bed, Lucy started to cry for milk and over the intercom we heard Oliver saying quietly "don't cry Lucy". Tonight he took the little teddies off the bouncy chair one by one and gave them to Lucy in her swing. He's been a very loving big brother to our new arrival.

Today Oliver went to Debbie's house. He loves it there. When he came home it was like he'd come back from University. He was talking away to me, telling me all the things he likes. It's hard to capture how fast his language skills seem to be developing. All I can say is that Hayley perceived a change in the time she was in hospital and almost every day I feel he is saying new things and putting together more combinations of words. I have to remind myself sometimes that when he doesn't answer me it might just be because he doesn't understand!

While Oliver was at Debbie's, Hayley and I took Lucy into town to Mothercare where we bought her some clothes and also a new sprung mattress for Oliver's cot-bed. We then bought some sandwiches and came home. I've moved the changing table from Oliver's room to the spare room which should be more useful.