Peekaboo

Arabelle had just finished feeding and was laid having Mummy cuddles when she put her hand up to her face as if she was playing peekaboo; I just had to capture it.

I have cropped the pic to hide the small angry red spot on Amy's naughty boob.  We've really really struggled today, the baby blues has hit hard and even though Arabelle only lost 2oz in five days, Amy is still questioning whether she can do and is doing it right.

My sister came around to talk to her and reassured her that a) she was doing fantastically and b) that 99% of mums go through exactly this.

We have found it much more difficult than we ever imagined; while we had read a lot about pregnancy, labour, looking after newborns; and we had been to goodness knows how many ante natal classes, nothing can prepare you for the reality of it.

The emotion associated with the shear size of the love for your child combined with the absolute desire to ensure that their every possible need is met means that we've been very confused/upset at 2/4/6am when she is fighting you to feed her, change her and put her back to sleep (all things she needs).

The other thing brought up in conversation yesterday is that 99% of new parents think at some point or another 'what have we done?' - I know that I did.

Saying all of that, when she's settled and laid on my chest, there is no better feeling in the world.

We called the midwife out to come and look at the naughty boob; she found that Amy is running a temperature and could possibly need a small course of anti-biotics; we'll find out tomorrow.

Also Jen and Lyns came around last night to meet Arabelle for the first time; they both thought that she is beautiful and had some lovely cuddles.

Finally, by the end of the day, Amy had hopefully seen the worst of the baby blues and was feeling a little better about herself.  She had given Arabelle a good feed every 2.5 hours, the naughty boob was feeling a little better and she'd fed in 'public' (Jen and Lyns) for the first time without a problem.  We'll live to fight another day :-)