Cyril Tuolumne Week 1
I had planned to write about the birth story but to be honest I'm still traumatised and feeling guilty about the whole affair so I'd rather not dwell on it, perhaps I'll write about it in the future when I'm more emotionally stable :)
This week has been the most difficult and demanding week of my life. I cry every evening in anticipation of the night shift which consists of feeding Cyril every 2-3 hours, sometimes more frequently, on sore, bloody and cracked nipples. I know attractive right? I don't know why they don't warn you of this in the breast feeding classes. Every teacher, and article on the web, says breast feeding shouldn't hurt, you should just feel pressure. Well that's a big fat lie! It's excruciating, perhaps more so to a first time mom. And why shouldn't it be, after all you have someone sucking on a very sensitive area for 4-6 hours, sometimes more, everyday, around the clock, with no rest. My life consists of feeding Cyril, eating, and taking power naps in between feeds, and that's it. I suppose I can count myself lucky because my husband has forbade me from doing anything but feeding the baby and sleeping. He does everything else, the cooking, cleaning, laundry, grocery shopping, heck he even ran out to buy me pads the other day because I had run out, now that's a husband! He's also offered to share part of the night shift. I feed Cyril around 8 or 9, then Josh settles him on his chest and I go to bed until he starts to stir for his next feed around 11 or 12. This makes the long evening somewhat more bearable as I can sleep in a bed and not on the couch. I seriously don't know how single moms do it, if I didn't have Josh I'd probably need to admit myself to a mental hospital for postpartum depression. At the moment, with all the raging hormones, lack of sleep, and pain from my breasts and stitches, emotions are running high. Josh gives me a pep talk every night to keep me going and it helps immensely. I think I find the evenings so challenging because I'm not a night owl at all. My whole life I've gone to bed before 9pm and woken up before 7am, even at University. Usually by 5 am my mood has improved and I'm ready to face the day.
Description of the birth... Well it was traumatic for both Josh and I but little Cyril's heart rate and oxygen levels were steady throughout, signalling that not only was he not in distress but he was perfectly content with staying inside. When I first arrived at hospital he still hadn't dropped into the pelvis even though I was in labour. After 35 hours of hard work, 2 hours of pushing to no avail, an episiotomy and forceps delivery, Cyril Tuolumne Soper finally emerged. He put up a fight until the very end and even lodged his arm horizontally inside so the doctor had to work to manoeuvre his arm to deliver his body. I was however thankful that the doctor didn't decide to perform an emergency caesarian, as this was discussed, fortunately Cyril wasn't in distress otherwise I would have gone into theatre, making these first few weeks even worse than they already are!
My first words to you... You're a little chunker, Josh he has your sausage fingers!
Who cut the cord... The doctor, Josh was too woozy at that point
Who dressed you... Papa Soper
First Outfit... Red and orange striped bamboo nappies, he had a temperature so we were instructed to put only a nappy on him
Who cried... Both of us cried, although I think half of my crying was from the pain, trauma, shock and guilt of having a forceps delivery.
Date of Birth... 6th of March 2014
Time of birth... 1:51 pm
Day of birth... Thursday
Place of birth... Royal Victoria Hospital in Newcastle
Weight... 9 lbs 1 oz
Length... Tall, not sure of the exact measurement as they don't do this in England
Hair colour... Dark brown
Who you look like... We haven't yet decided but I think he looks like a little Polish baby and my mom said that he looks a little like I did when I was born. He definitely takes after my family in the weight department and my father says he's going to be a little bruiser and wants him to move to the USA to play NFL football.
Your name and why you were given it... Cyril was selected after Josh's grandfather. He almost didn't have a middle name because everyone kept criticising our selections so we decided that if and when we came up with a middle name, we wouldn't tell anyone, although we did tell Al, Morgan, and Stefan but knew they wouldn't judge :) One day we were in the car listening to Eddie Veddar and the song Tuolumne came on, we both looked at each other and thought, that's a cool name. Josh said that it was named after Tuolumne Meadows in California. I asked him if it was OK to have a place as a name and Josh pointed out that a lot of names are after places, such as Paris. Anyway, I looked up the meaning of the name, it's a Native American name that means people who live in stone houses or cavemen. The deal was sealed after reading this description as we were still currently living in our stone building house, much like cave men.
How I am feeling now you are here... Well that's a bit of a loaded question. We're absolutely thrilled to bits by our little cutie but it's not all fun and games let me tell you. I can't believe I thought I'd be up and exercising the day I got back from hospital and taking Cyril on a million outings, the thought of leaving the comfort of our home actually frightens me. Mostly because I haven't mastered breastfeeding yet so it requires about 6 pillows, 2 muslin cloths, sometimes more, a sterilised shield, mug to collect the milk which pours out of the other breast, sorry for the description but Josh and I find it hilarious, he told me to go to the farmer next door and ask me to hook him up to his machine that he uses for the cows, I seriously considered it. I still haven't managed to put on anything to wear besides pyjamas, and why would I when I drench every outfit with milk, and there are days when Josh and I think, what have we done. But there are also days where we just look at Cyril and can't believe the love we feel for someone we hardly even know, I think these first couple weeks will be challenging as we get to know one another better and adapt to our family but we're both relieved that he arrived happy and healthy and he makes me smile everyday :)
How I feel not being pregnant... Well last night I thought, God I wish I was still pregnant so that I could actually sleep in the same bed as my husband and not on the couch. I've decided to sleep on the couch until Cyril gets into more of a routine, it was too difficult for me to breast feed him in bed and it didn't make sense to get out of bed every couple hours to set everything up for our feeding downstairs. He also doesn't like to sleep on his back so we have to settle him lying on our chests for right now. I'm sure I would get reported by the SIDS foundation if they knew that both Cyril and I fall asleep together on the couch, underneath a duvet, but it makes us both happy so for now that's how it is. Once he's fast asleep I try to move him to his crib, but he usually only sleeps soundly in that for 20 minutes or so.
Who I spoke to first about your arrival... I called my parents first but no one was home so the first person I spoke to about the birth was my brother Benny, which reminds me that I still need to ring him back to finish our conversation because I was getting transported when I was on the phone with him.
Birthstone... Aquamarine
Birth flower... Daffodil
Zodiac Sign... Pisces
Things I couldn't live without right now... Nipple shields, Lanolin, breast pads, nursing bras, steam steriliser, pacifier (we finally joined the bandwagon and shoved one in his mouth last night when he wouldn't settle), muslin cloths, tea with milk and honey, Bugaboo Buffalo (he currently sleeps in this downstairs and we were able to wheel it in front of the window when he was jaundice), painkillers, Baby Bjorn (when Cyril can't settle he goes in this), V-Shaped nursing pillow, and my husband :)
Some things that have happened this week... Cyril was jaundiced but Josh and I made short work of that and took advantage of the rare English sunshine to take him and Hobo on walks. He also lost 10% of his birth weight 3 days ago and was down to 8lbs 1 oz, however the midwife weighed him yesterday and he was up to 8lbs 11 oz and had nearly gained back his birth weight which doesn't usually happen to babies until they're at least 2 weeks old. This made me so happy because it means that despite the pain he's feeding well, so if nothing else my hard work has paid off. There were a few other things I wanted to add under this question, but he's ready for his next feed so I'll have to update it later ;)
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| He's so cute I can't even stand it |
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| Mark from forceps :( |
Who cut the cord... The doctor, Josh was too woozy at that point
Who dressed you... Papa Soper
First Outfit... Red and orange striped bamboo nappies, he had a temperature so we were instructed to put only a nappy on him
Who cried... Both of us cried, although I think half of my crying was from the pain, trauma, shock and guilt of having a forceps delivery.
Date of Birth... 6th of March 2014
Time of birth... 1:51 pm
Day of birth... Thursday
Place of birth... Royal Victoria Hospital in Newcastle
Weight... 9 lbs 1 oz
Length... Tall, not sure of the exact measurement as they don't do this in England
Hair colour... Dark brown
Who you look like... We haven't yet decided but I think he looks like a little Polish baby and my mom said that he looks a little like I did when I was born. He definitely takes after my family in the weight department and my father says he's going to be a little bruiser and wants him to move to the USA to play NFL football.
Your name and why you were given it... Cyril was selected after Josh's grandfather. He almost didn't have a middle name because everyone kept criticising our selections so we decided that if and when we came up with a middle name, we wouldn't tell anyone, although we did tell Al, Morgan, and Stefan but knew they wouldn't judge :) One day we were in the car listening to Eddie Veddar and the song Tuolumne came on, we both looked at each other and thought, that's a cool name. Josh said that it was named after Tuolumne Meadows in California. I asked him if it was OK to have a place as a name and Josh pointed out that a lot of names are after places, such as Paris. Anyway, I looked up the meaning of the name, it's a Native American name that means people who live in stone houses or cavemen. The deal was sealed after reading this description as we were still currently living in our stone building house, much like cave men.
How I am feeling now you are here... Well that's a bit of a loaded question. We're absolutely thrilled to bits by our little cutie but it's not all fun and games let me tell you. I can't believe I thought I'd be up and exercising the day I got back from hospital and taking Cyril on a million outings, the thought of leaving the comfort of our home actually frightens me. Mostly because I haven't mastered breastfeeding yet so it requires about 6 pillows, 2 muslin cloths, sometimes more, a sterilised shield, mug to collect the milk which pours out of the other breast, sorry for the description but Josh and I find it hilarious, he told me to go to the farmer next door and ask me to hook him up to his machine that he uses for the cows, I seriously considered it. I still haven't managed to put on anything to wear besides pyjamas, and why would I when I drench every outfit with milk, and there are days when Josh and I think, what have we done. But there are also days where we just look at Cyril and can't believe the love we feel for someone we hardly even know, I think these first couple weeks will be challenging as we get to know one another better and adapt to our family but we're both relieved that he arrived happy and healthy and he makes me smile everyday :)
How I feel not being pregnant... Well last night I thought, God I wish I was still pregnant so that I could actually sleep in the same bed as my husband and not on the couch. I've decided to sleep on the couch until Cyril gets into more of a routine, it was too difficult for me to breast feed him in bed and it didn't make sense to get out of bed every couple hours to set everything up for our feeding downstairs. He also doesn't like to sleep on his back so we have to settle him lying on our chests for right now. I'm sure I would get reported by the SIDS foundation if they knew that both Cyril and I fall asleep together on the couch, underneath a duvet, but it makes us both happy so for now that's how it is. Once he's fast asleep I try to move him to his crib, but he usually only sleeps soundly in that for 20 minutes or so.
Who I spoke to first about your arrival... I called my parents first but no one was home so the first person I spoke to about the birth was my brother Benny, which reminds me that I still need to ring him back to finish our conversation because I was getting transported when I was on the phone with him.
Birthstone... Aquamarine
Birth flower... Daffodil
Zodiac Sign... Pisces
Things I couldn't live without right now... Nipple shields, Lanolin, breast pads, nursing bras, steam steriliser, pacifier (we finally joined the bandwagon and shoved one in his mouth last night when he wouldn't settle), muslin cloths, tea with milk and honey, Bugaboo Buffalo (he currently sleeps in this downstairs and we were able to wheel it in front of the window when he was jaundice), painkillers, Baby Bjorn (when Cyril can't settle he goes in this), V-Shaped nursing pillow, and my husband :)
Some things that have happened this week... Cyril was jaundiced but Josh and I made short work of that and took advantage of the rare English sunshine to take him and Hobo on walks. He also lost 10% of his birth weight 3 days ago and was down to 8lbs 1 oz, however the midwife weighed him yesterday and he was up to 8lbs 11 oz and had nearly gained back his birth weight which doesn't usually happen to babies until they're at least 2 weeks old. This made me so happy because it means that despite the pain he's feeding well, so if nothing else my hard work has paid off. There were a few other things I wanted to add under this question, but he's ready for his next feed so I'll have to update it later ;)
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