First month

Sam turned one month old on Father's day over the weekend. It was a beautiful sunny day and the in-laws came over for lunch. Simon cleaned the house and cooked most of the meal. We opened a bottle of 'Joseph Pirrier' champagne to celebrate. The first month has gone resonably well thanks to Mum and in-laws's help.

Looking after a new-born is tiring and emotionally taxing. The night feeds, especially the frequency of it in the first two weeks was very exhausting. Being told Sam was not gaining weight, trying to clear lumps in breasts every other day and the worry about getting mastitis again added more anxiety. Luckily my recovery is much better this time and we are more relaxed as parents. It helps too when Sam is a good, relaxing baby. He sucks well and sleeps well (as well as a new-born would be!). Feeding is getting better and shorter (from 8-10 feeds a day, each lasted 1-1.5 hours to 6-7 feeds now, each 45-60 minutes long) Yes I sit at my feeding couch a lot, it's my full-time job!

Lara is not too impressed with my new job. She loves her little brother and wants to help but she suddenly fell over a lot, cried for the smallest reasons, couldn't do things that she used to do before, called me to "see" things frequently and needed a lot of "help". It made things worse when she got a bad cold last week. Antibiotics seemed to help but the attention-seeking behaviours stayed. I feel sad and sorry that I couldn't give Lara more attention but reminded myself this is one of the reasons we had another baby so she could 'share'. Lara did 'share' her cold with me and now I think Sam's got it...

I concentrate on completing one or two chores a day when I am more rested. Some days though, I don't go out at all and live in my pajamas whole day! Hopefully we will have more good days and less bad days from here on and the second month is better than the first.