Stepping out with the new one

Our first full day at home after a fairly disrupted night, baby S was awake every hour it seemed and it was 77's first experience of the sleep deprivation that I had begun to experience when on the ward. I was still feeling fairly broken but 77 was superb and helped out with every feed, changed nappies, traipsed downstairs and brought tea, toast and Jaffa cakes to keep us both going and there with words of support of encouragement in the wee small hours when morale can dip...

In the morning, life seemed brighter, we had our first visit from the lovely community midwife Ruth who reassured us that we were doing great and not to take on too much. Day 4 apparently can be a bit rough with milk coming in and hormone levels all over the show so have a good cry if required was her advice, as she said they don't give out balloons for being heroes, but they do want to know if you feel like your struggling as its a significant part of their job to make sure everyone in the family including the new dad is coping.

After lunch, we decided to go for a wee stroll to get us out the house. Even though we only went about half a mile, I felt whacked afterwards and in a lot of pain...not good. Then food, and prepare for another night of potential sleep deprivation...fortunately baby S is a chilled out wee thing, and its great to just watch him sleeping with his hands all bunched up and then uncurling in his sleep like a starfish, such moments make it all worthwhile.