For the first two weeks they both were in a hospital. At first maternity ward for a week (standard procedure) and then in an actual children's hospital. Some blood toxin levels high or something. Turned out to be nothing, just a leftover from stressful birth.
Now that they are both home, new life and new routines may begin. At first I woke up every time he cried for food, but over time got used to it and now I mostly sleep through the night without remembering those wake-ups.
It is said, that fresh air is good for babies, so I'm having long walks every day. Throw the kid into the carriage aaaand off we go for a couple of hours. Luckily the weather is fine and a supply of podcasts is quite sufficient. At a normal pace can cover 12-15 kilometers in a go, turns out to be a quite nice exercise.
Otherwise we are quite lucky. Some say that parenting is mostly talking about crap (literally), but at first it's more about farting. Wouldn't have even suspected, that such a natural thing as flatulence is actually an acquired skill. Our little dude learned it early on and is farting like a machine gun. Some acquaintances are complaining that their babies are crying due to stomach pains, which arise from inability to release inner pressure buildup.
Since we are trying to be more or less eco-friendly, we decided to go with reusable cloth diapers. Basically, a swath of cotton cloth (kinda like cheesecloth) folded into groin-width strip held together with teethed rubber bands and wrapped around in water(wee)tight "pants". He goes through some 10-12 a day (sometimes more), that would make ~350 a month or over 4000 a year. Multiply that by 2-2.5 years kids can't hold their stuff in, you get roughly 10 000 diapers. At 300g each, that would be 3 metric tons of that absorbent gel + plastic which might outlive the person themselves. Think about it. Instead we have a bit under 30 of them and wash them every or every other day. The inconvenience of washing and folding them is pretty minor.
Wednesday, 30 September 2015
Friday, 11 September 2015
So it begins
It's a boy! Some 3.5 kilos in half a meter of... joy? Responsibilities? Happiness? Fear? The uncertainty of it all is... unsettling.
He was planned. I've known of all the implications for quite a while now. Known, yes, aware - not really. I wasn't scared of all they baby stuff, I did babysit my sister quite often, shitty diapers and backs weren't anything new. Neither was the smell of breast milk or puke. On top of that I did attend a few seminars for new parents.
It was the fact, that previously it has been more of an occasional thing, but now it was my responsibility. Not just temporary, until somebody else comes along, but... for ever?! Suddenly it's an actual responsibility, not something pushed on you by a society or a personal whim. This realization was quite sobering.
She woke me up around 6am, told me that waters broke around midnight, but she wanted to let me have my beauty sleep. Contractions anyway have to be ~2 minutes apart, before that there's no point in going to the hospital. Shit! I've been sleeping like a log while she did all the breathing exercises and suffered through the convulsions.
All the necessary stuff was packed for a week already, we just got dressed, called a cab, grabbed our things and went. Check-ins, ultrasounds and moving into "spawning chambers". An effin' SPA visit. ~10 hours of bed and water procedures, loads of hand holding and moaning. Of course there were complications, the kid was larger than his mother. And, of course, he got out just when I went out. I knew it and went intentionally. Didn't expect it any other way.
After initial holding session, they took him away for checkups, in the meantime we had to vacate the chamber and move to our designated room for the next week. Busy night at the ward, that was. ~20 minutes later we got summoned for a pickup. Already in corridor could hear HIM whine in low timbre. All the other kids had high-pitched voices, ours was already an alto.
First night she mostly slept, that is until kid woke me up and, after dealing with the sewage, I woke her so she could feed him. I was hoping, that in the future I'll get some more sleep.
He doesn't do much, little wrinkly thingy. Sleeps for a couple of hours, wakes up for half an hour, poops, eats, looks around and back to sleep.
He was planned. I've known of all the implications for quite a while now. Known, yes, aware - not really. I wasn't scared of all they baby stuff, I did babysit my sister quite often, shitty diapers and backs weren't anything new. Neither was the smell of breast milk or puke. On top of that I did attend a few seminars for new parents.
It was the fact, that previously it has been more of an occasional thing, but now it was my responsibility. Not just temporary, until somebody else comes along, but... for ever?! Suddenly it's an actual responsibility, not something pushed on you by a society or a personal whim. This realization was quite sobering.
She woke me up around 6am, told me that waters broke around midnight, but she wanted to let me have my beauty sleep. Contractions anyway have to be ~2 minutes apart, before that there's no point in going to the hospital. Shit! I've been sleeping like a log while she did all the breathing exercises and suffered through the convulsions.
All the necessary stuff was packed for a week already, we just got dressed, called a cab, grabbed our things and went. Check-ins, ultrasounds and moving into "spawning chambers". An effin' SPA visit. ~10 hours of bed and water procedures, loads of hand holding and moaning. Of course there were complications, the kid was larger than his mother. And, of course, he got out just when I went out. I knew it and went intentionally. Didn't expect it any other way.
After initial holding session, they took him away for checkups, in the meantime we had to vacate the chamber and move to our designated room for the next week. Busy night at the ward, that was. ~20 minutes later we got summoned for a pickup. Already in corridor could hear HIM whine in low timbre. All the other kids had high-pitched voices, ours was already an alto.
First night she mostly slept, that is until kid woke me up and, after dealing with the sewage, I woke her so she could feed him. I was hoping, that in the future I'll get some more sleep.
He doesn't do much, little wrinkly thingy. Sleeps for a couple of hours, wakes up for half an hour, poops, eats, looks around and back to sleep.
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