Our First Week

The standards of hygiene and behavior in this house have really gone downhill since Isla came along. Now it seems that is perfectly acceptable to spend all day in your pajamas burping and farting, eating when you want and snoozing on and off. I've got to admit that I've enjoyed this new routine but I draw the line at spewing on myself or soiling my pants.

It's been a week now since Isla came home with us. Isla has settled into the swing of things really well; it's been Julia and me that have needed to do some adjusting. Isla has been feeding well and sleeping well with only the odd grizzly moment so far. I'm sure there will be plenty more of those to come. She is more alert every day and I look forward to our chats - it's a great opportunity for me to get some stuff off my chest and she seems absolutely fascinated by what I've got to say.

Now there are three of us! And that is taking some getting used to. Daily life revolves around the baby and I have been learning lots of ways to cope. Sleep when you can and eat when you can. I've always been a super fast eater (I was trained by the best - thanks dad) but now that skill has finally come into it's own. I can race down my dinner just in time to pick up a crying baby or grab a towel for her to be sick onto. Julia has managed well so far, especially with having to feed Isla every 2 or 3 hours through the night, while I am in bed happily snoring away. I've got up a few times to help out but I've discovered there's not much more you can do as a man - just try and give support where you can. So much of Julia's time is now spent feeding Isla there's not much chance for her to catch up with anything else. At least we've been lucky and there's been lots of tennis on TV to watch (the Australian Open).

Our first week has been quite eventful. We had our first big adventure together as a family. The health visitor came round on Thursday to check on Isla's health and feeding. She weighed Isla on her scales and then told us that Isla had lost 900g of weight in the last 10 days! What! According to the scales our baby had lost almost a quarter of her weight since birth. We talked about feeding and Isla being sick and whether she had any other signs of ill health. No, we said, she appears healthy and happy but the scales don't lie do they - there must be something wrong. The health visitor said she maybe wasn't getting enough to drink so we should  feed her more often and Julia should express extra milk to feed her with on top of that. She then arranged a visit with our local doctor for the next morning and another visit at a health centre across the other side of town to have her weighed again.

It was a very stressful and anxious night as we both ran around trying to make our sick baby better. Julia was constantly feeding her and then expressing extra milk. I was sterilizing bottles and pumps half the night on the stove. We didn't get much sleep; we were too busy and too worried. Isla was oblivious to all the fuss and just carried on eating and sleeping and looking every bit the healthy baby.

The next morning, very tired and concerned, we walked down to our local doctor to see what the problem could be. The doctor put Isla on her scales and our eyes almost popped out. Now she weighed 3.7kg! She had actually gained a good healthy amount since birth. She was a fit, thriving baby girl. She wasn't going to peg it in the night after all. It turns out that the health visitor had made a hash of weighing the baby. We were incredibly relieved and also a bit angry. What a night!

Since then we've just been trying to enjoy our family time together as much as possible. We really appreciate it. We managed to get to the park on Saturday with Isla and we all enjoyed the fresh air and sunshine. Julia was very happy to be out of the house.

And we're both convinced that at 1 week old Isla has said her first word. Isla was coughing and gagging and when she recovered Julia held her up and said, "Are you alright?" and this noise/burp came out of Isla's mouth that sounded exactly like, "Aye." Her first word is scottish!