The First Night

When I said that I was expecting it to get worse, well, I think that happened last night!

No problems or anything, but both Claire and I have been the ‘wandering zombie’ in the middle of the night... Head Chef Claire was busy preparing the gourmet meals for our son for the course of the night (i.e. milk production and storage) and I fed Jack twice; once at 01:15 and the other at 05:15. On both occasions, he was much easier to handle and deal with than I had imagined it would be, as I think I had a picture in my head of him screaming all the way downstairs and not stopping until I had fed him, changed his nappy and got him back in bed. But in fact, he stopped crying as soon as he was picked him up and didn’t cry any more after that, which was good, and didn't put up a fight about his nappy either, which was even better.

During the night, it was really strange having a baby in the room, as I was conscious all night that he was there, and kept looking over each time I stirred in the night, being a really light sleeper myself. He had a mini nose-whistle going on too – you know, the one where your partner is completely unaware as they sleep that each time they exhale through their nose, a single toned whistle is made. Normally, I’d [softly] nudge Claire or turn over myself, which causes her to stop doing it without needing to actually wake her. (I haven’t yet needed to use the last-resort tactic of attempting subconscious surgery on her nose to stop the whistling.) But with Jack, it didn’t seem to matter too much - and I certainly didn’t contemplate wedging my comparatively huge finger up his hooter to pick out baby-sized chunks of dried bogies to stop it!! (Maybe one day...)

Last night, we made the decision not to sneak around and whisper while Jack was asleep, as this would mean that he’d only sleep in the quiet and the slightest noise or disturbance would wake him later on.

Quite a few years ago, we went to visit our friends' and see their new baby girl, and when we got there, she was asleep... in the living room, to the side of the telly... which was on! But they said exactly the same thing about the noises and sleeping, etc., which might sound more than obvious to anyone who has had children, or very small brothers or sisters, but as the profile about me says on the blog site, I have had zero experience of children up until last week. So, not knowing you could do this, and then seeing a baby in a crib near the telly in a room with all of the lights on, with people talking at normal volume and doing normal stuff, seemed... weird – until I asked and they explained. And then it was fine.

This morning, Claire got up to go and get more food ready for the new boss of the house, and I stayed in bed until just before 09:00, but sleepyhead Jack stayed there until about 09:30! Lazy ol’ boot. But even then, he’s woken up and had a look around and then dropped back off again, without making a noise or anything. Marvellous.

Apparently, we’ve got the community midwife coming out to visit us today. I’m not sure when, but it will be one of the midwives that Claire might have seen before she went into hospital, as now we’re back on their turf, it’s their role to ensure care after the birth.

But I’m certainly glad that they are both home – Claire said she’s had a fantastic night’s sleep, as trying to sleep in a ward of five beds, with four other mums and four new babies, each crying and screaming individually is bad enough, but when they all let rip together, it must be a nightmare!