How it’s going – being a new mum

I can’t tell you how many times I wanted to write my blog but just didn’t get the chance…  Life as a new mum is quite hectic! I mean, this is probably obvious to everyone of course. I’m just such a newbie to this.

Isaac is almost eight weeks old. And as everyone says in that cliché way, it has gone by so quickly. He’s no longer the tiny little newborn. He’s now quite the unit at 12lb 5oz! I mean to be honest he was never teeny tiny to begin with being 8lb 4oz, but he is so big now, and so LONG. Probably because Kyle is 6ft 2 (and his whole family are on the tall side).

We probably got a few days’ worth of him using his newborn clothes. Now he’s barely squeezing into the 0-3 months. This is a bit sad as there were so many cute outfits he never got to wear.

So how have things been? Well, the first weeks was a complete whirlwind of not knowing what the hell we were doing. I second guessed everything I was doing – from feeding to burping to sleeping. Not being a hugely maternal person or baby person in general, I literally knew squat about caring for a baby. Everything was pretty scary to begin with.

It’s funny because I’m surrounded by so many of my friends who have had a baby/babies and yet I was never keen to find out more about how things were going. You know, the details. The nitty gritty. My own fault entirely and probably quite selfish of me. And now I’m deep in the trenches and finding out about the sides of my friend’s lives that I never asked about.

Cake and boob – perfect combo

I’m still breastfeeding and it’s going very well. I actually can’t believe how well it’s gone. Isaac latched on straight away from the get go and we never had any issues there. Right at the beginning I had some soreness and amost a blister on one nipple, but then after that it just got easier and there were no issues. After listening to podcasts, friends and family hearing about how hard it could it be I was prepared for the worst. So to find it so easy almost feels like I’m cheating. But I am so so grateful.

The only problem I have with breastfeeding is that I don’t know how much Isaac is actually getting. I worried (and to be honest still do) about how often to feed and if he’s getting enough. But as people  keep stressing to me, if he was going hungry I’d know about it. He’s a very content and happy baby and we feed on demand.

It used to be every hour, then every two. And now we’re 2.5-3.5 hours and that seems to work perfectly. I thought I’d be on the sofa for hours at end breastfeeding but actually Isaac is a super quick eater and on average is done within 10 mins.

While we’ve been super lucky with so many aspects of the pregnancy, birth and Isaac himself, sleep has been the one thing that hasn’t been that great. At first he was waking up every our in the night. And we really struggled to get him to fall back to sleep. It was exhausting. Rocking and shushing in darkness and lowering him into his moses basket with the precision of a bomb disposal unit, it was relentless.

We were staying awake in shifts so Isaac could sleep on one of us or on the bed next to us in one of those sleeping pod things (which are unsafe to for a baby to be left sleeping unassisted). But eventually we got out of that and he would sleep in a crib next to us thank god!!

Getting four hours sleep a night was classed as good. However now we seem to be in a better place. It’s sort of a predictable lack of sleep… but we’re averaging 7-8 hours on a good night and 6 on a bad night so can’t complain! Isaac will usually wake up at least twice in the night and then in the morning. It’s relatively easy though as I just feed, change and he goes back down straight away.

And through the day I’m just led by him. We tried to dictate a bit of a routine but that didn’t end well. So now we just follow his lead. He sleeps when he wants and I feed every 2-3 hours depending on what he’s doing.  Reading back this sentence, old Anna would be aghast at such a baby-dictated schedule but honestly it’s the best for us. I don’t want to stress about “awake windows” and nap times. Isaac doesn’t sleep a huge amount in the day despite us trying. He’s a “wakeful” baby. If we take him out in the car he’ll sleep and it’s 50/50 if he falls asleep in the pram. But he seems very content so we’re happy with this.

As much as a routine and strict times would work well for us to plan our day, I’m much more relaxed with how we’re doing it at the moment. In the future I might change things up but I enjoy our days much better when we have a general rhythm rather than a strict timing situation. It’s so funny because pre-pregnancy I was so set on making sure we’d have a routine. Funny how things change!

In terms of what I do through the day, Isaac and I are doing a lot of seeing friends and family. Going for coffees, going out for lunch or brunch. It’s actually quite wonderful. Usually every week I might have one day completely free of plans but every day tends to have something in it, seeing someone or going somewhere and I love it. I’m very lucky to have a strong and large network of support around me to help – whether that’s help with looking after Isaac or just being there for me so I can mentally unload.

So almost eight weeks on and things are going well! I think we’re out of the initial haze and panic of the initial stage thankfully. However I know we have many more hurdles to come. But at least we now have the foundations set inplace. Like, I can keep a baby alive for a few days at least 😉

2 Replies to “How it’s going – being a new mum”

  1. Glad it’s all going well for you. At least now with restrictions lower you can meet up. A couple of my friends had babies in lockdown and felt really lonely (and like their mat leave was almost wasted) because they couldn’t do any of the normal stuff.

  2. Hello I’m Denny, I live in USA, I was finding for a Absolute Security & Automation services for the last 2 months of my one of my social media. Friend recommend me a services provider of Absolute Security & Automation, They have Technical & certified and experienced team members, I got the services of Garage Door Control Phoenix AZ

    in cheap rates, You guys also contact them for best services!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

CommentLuv badge

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.