One down, two to go!

Freya had her first lot of jabs today and boy was she upset!

She was asleep in my arms when we went in to the nurse's room (after having some boob due to being cranky while we waited). When she woke up she was cross! Cross that I'd put her down and led her on a strange hard bed and cross because some nasty lady stuck something sharp in each of her legs!!

She cried and cried and it was such a sad little warbling cry. She really sticks her bottom lip out when she's upset - it's going to cause Daddy to buy her lots of things when she's older! It made me a little choked up as I knew she was genuinely upset - not just being bad-tempered and Noah had hardly cried at all with any of his jabs!

It took a good 5 mins to console her and ended up with her doing those involuntary gaspy sobs for a while! She bled a fair bit (on my top) and already has a bruise on one leg.

She's been a grouch this evening too so I actually gave her 2mls of Calpol and she's now asleep in her swing chair. Hope she doesn't have too bad a night.

8 weeks old!

My baby girl gets more beautiful every day!

Poorly Girl

Freya's got another cold. Her 2nd one. I guess she's getting more than Noah had at her age as he didn't have an older sibling to pass them onto him. And we didn't go to toddler groups when Noah was this diddy.

Freya had been ok with the cold at first. Sleeping a lot in the day (tilted up on my bed on the v-pillow) and then waking, having a sob, struggling through a feed before going back to sleep. The worst way it was affecting her was how snuffly and snotty she was...she kept over-feeding to make herself sick to bring all the mucus up. Nice.


Last night she was 'orrible!!

It took her ages to settle to sleep - got there at about 10pm in the end after lots of 'little bit' feeds.

She woke up at 2am, which is unheard of, had a feed and then cried and cried and cried and cried until 6.50am when she eventually fell asleep. Noah woke up at 7!

I think she was just feeling so rotten. She was warm to touch and sniffling and grunting and mucussy. Plus I think she had awful wind cause by all the gulping she does when she feeds. It was a a hard night with lots of tears from both of us!!

Typically, she's happy as Larry today and hasn't even wanted to catch up on her missed sleep like I do!

I've NEVER had to pull an all-nighter with a screaming baby before (apart from that almost bad night a few weeks ago)- such a shock to the system!

Weight Update

Birth weight: 6lb 13oz
5days old: 6lb 9oz (-4oz)
11days old: 7lb 2oz (+9oz)
2wks 3days old: 7lb 9.5oz (+7.5oz)
3wks 4days old: 8lb 3oz (+9.5oz)
5wks 4days old: 9lb 1oz (+ 14oz)
Today (7wks 4days old): 10lb 3oz (+1lb 2oz!)

Trouble with bottles...

6wks 5days

She hates them! Well the two types I've tried her with anyway - Avent and MAM - bought one of each as 'just in case' supplies before she was born.

I've been expressing milk every night for the past couple of weeks and freezing it should I ever need to not be with Freya for some reason (eg. the day Noah has his operation - wouldn't want to bring poor Freya to the hosptial all day and would want to give Noah my undivided attention!).

I pumped last night and left it in the fridge as I knew I was going to be out for a while rejoining Weight Watchers tonight and wanted to have some milk available for Sy to give her should she be desperate for some while I was gone. He didn't need it in the end as I wasn't gone long but I didn't want to waste the milk!

When Freya needed feeding I tried her with the bottle and she just coughed and spluttered and choked. The teat made her gag (she has the same reaction to dummies!). Just in case it was because she was with me and knew boob was nearby, Simon tried but she was the same.

I think I might try and give her a bottle of expressed milk once a week just to get her used to bottles otherwise it might make life harder in the long run. She's only had my milk from a bottle once before but that was in the early days when my milk first came in and I'd expressed because I was so engorged and she hadn't yet developed such a strong 'nipple' sucking action - toally different to how to suck a teat! She just doesnt get it!

I'm not trying her on bottles because I want to stop BF as it's going so well and I'm really loving it but I do want to get her used to having a bottle with my milk in so I can go to WW once a week and not have to worry she's at home screaming and starving! Until she's happy to drink my milk from a bottle I won't stay for the meetings after the weigh-in though - will come straight home to feed her.

Am going to buy a Tommee Tippee bottle as they look really booby like! I think it's going to be a case of trial and error for a while...

Happy girl!

Freya's been in a super-smiley mood today so I managed, at last, to capture it on camera!

I think her new swing chair has made her happy. It's made me happy, lol as it keeps her occupied for a few extra minutes so I can get jobs done and give Noah a bit of time. She's awake so much that she gets bored really easily but she likes to be in her chair! Glad we finally got round to getting one (good old ebay sales helped us afford one!).



These photos really show how much she's filling out too! She's going to be a chubby one!

6 weeks old!

Freya had her 6 week developmental review at the Doctor's surgery yesterday. The appointment only took 5 minutes...which is great as we'd been waiting half an hour in a hot, stuffy waiting room and both Noah and I were feeling a bit hot, bothered and fed up!

Freya now weighs 9lb 3oz (she was 9lbs 1oz two days before!). She is now 53cm long - so has only grown 2cm! Noah was 58cm at his 6wk review - they were both the same length at birth! Her head circumference is 38cm - 6cm more than birth. Hips, reflexes and the rest of it all passed with flying colours too.

She's now fitting perfectly into her 'Newborn' clothes at last! Although I'm sure she'll only be in them for a couple of weeks at the rate she's piling on the pounds and I'll soon be digging all the 0-3months stuff out! She's been ravenously hungry the past 2 or 3 days so I think she's got a growth spurt on!

Also, the Health Visitor kept prodding her naked flesh while we were there and exclaimed - 'I think she's just a dark-skinned baby, you know!'. Duh. I knew she was looking for signs of remaining jaundice but it's definitely all gone. She's going to be a lucky girly when she grows up as she has the kind of skin that tans well, lol!

Freya's a lovely little girl and fairly content most of the time although she does love to be cuddled and also prefers to be on the move! We've just invested in one of those swing chairs to hopefully keep her settled for a bit longer! She is so alert when awake and her little eyes dart about as she tries to find the noises and voices she hears!

She's still only waking once during most nights (sleeping from 8pm until 4am and then until 8am after she's fed). The breast-feeding is going really well. I'm finding it much easier this time round. I enjoyed feeding Noah but he was one of those constant feeders - very close together and for a long time! Freya still feeds every 2 hours roughly during the day but only for ten minutes or so. Being confident enough to feed her in public has made it that much easier too. I'm hoping she continues to be such an efficient feeder and I can keep it up until she's at least 6 months.

We've been enjoying the sunshine this week and time with family and it's been great. The first six weeks of a new baby are supposed to be the hardest but just like her brother, Freya has been a real joy. We're so lucky!

Bubbles in her tummy :(

Yesterday was horrible. From 3pm until about 1am Freya was having a really hard time and pretty much cried the whole time, sleeping a few minutes every now and then when the crying wore her out and feeding a little only a couple of times and for only a minute or two before she remembered her pain. It's the first experience I've ever had of a baby that cries like that! Hats off to the women who have babies that scream 24/7!

I think she had trapped wind. It was such a sad little cry. Surprisingly it didn't stress me out at all - it wasn't a high pitched wail - just constant sobbing. Bless her. Nothing would settle her especially as she was in too much discomfort to really feed. I think the wind was caused by her snuffly little nose and having to gulp a bit when she feeds. She certainly wasn't happy.

She finally drifted off properly just after 1 this morning and woke up at 4am for a feed back to her usual self. She fed again at 6.30am and since then has probably been the happiest I've ever known her to be! Hasn't grumbled once - led on my bed awake for an hour without making a sound while I slept a little more after her 6.30am feed, sat for ages in her bouncy chair and has been happy and alert with less than an hours sleeps since she first got up this morning! She's been a real joy!

I hope we don't get too many repeats of yesterday.

Comparing...

Noah: 2yrs 4mnths
Freya: 5 wks

I don't know whether it's a boy/girl thing or a 1st/2nd baby thing but already I am seeing complete difference between my two!

Noah was soo laid back as a baby. Never really grumbled - happily led and watched the world go by. Fed constantly for long times with short intervals.

Freya gets really bored when she's awake and makes bossy little noises at us until we entertain/cuddle her. She's an efficient feeder and although still feeds fairly frequently is done in 5/10 minutes and is then content.

Neither of them have been babies that cry and cry, thanks goodness. Also, even though Noah happily laid awake without being entertained at Freya's age, he did already have a dummy by then so I think that made a difference. Both have been happy little souls - Freya just seems to have a shorter attention span and likes to have her own way! I think she's going to be bossing Noah about before long!

Both have been fiercely determined to lift their heads from a very early age (one or two days old). Both did their first smiles at 4weeks although Noah's then came all the time whereas Freya is not so generous. She did her first full 'eyes and all' beam at me today - was heart-warming. Until now all she's done is two or three little 'smirky' smiles!

Noah is and always has been a skinny little mite. I think Freya's going to be a bit of a podge. Her face has really filled out and you can see her little thighs thickening up a bit (yay! I need some chunky thighs to squeeze).

The main thing is that they are just so different to look at! Noah is definitely mainly a Spayes. He's just like the men on my side of the family - fair hair, blue eyes, fair skinned. Freya is becoming more and more like a mini-me of Simon every day! She has dark hair (what's left!) and eyes and olive-skin. They're going to be one of those brother/sister's that you wouldn't know were brother and sister by looking at them I reckon. Funny, as they were so similar at birth. You do see a look of the other one in them occasionally but not often at all. Here they both are at around 4 weeks old:



They really are two such individual little people and it's lovely to be able to experience all sorts of characterisitcs and behaviour from the two of them. Can't wait to see how they both develop and grow as brother and sister and as individuals!