Thursday, August 25, 2011

Five and a half weeks on

Firstly, thank you for all the congratulations on our boy's birth!

The following extremely self-indulgent post is mostly a record for me, so I can write down things about our little peanut's first few weeks before I forget them. So apologies is this is boring (unless you're one of the grandparents or something, in which case it probably isn't).

Blanket testing

The Peanut is now five and a half weeks old, and we are starting to settle more into a routine. J took some extra leave from work, so he was home until the baby was almost a month old, which was a great help as we were finding our feet. As babies go, the Peanut does not seem particularly difficult (I may regret writing this later!) He doesn't sleep all that much, but most of his sleeping happens at night, which is pretty good. So although he's too little to sleep through the night yet, often he only wakes up once, which is not too hard to deal with.

Everybody tells you that babies change and develop really quickly at this age, and it's true (not that I thought they were lying...) When they're born, they don't seem to be aware of very much other than milk. But the Peanut started to "track" with his eyes when he was only a few days old, and we had a Skype conversation with his English grandparents when he was about a week old and you could clearly see him trying to work out where their voices were coming from.

At about three weeks he started to take some interest in objects, usually ones with high-contrast patterns on them (which is what the health visitor said would happen - young babies don't have great colour vision but they can distinguish light from dark).

Freddy the firefly

Around the same time, he started to smile as if he means it.

Something is hilarious...

He's also grown. A lot. He was 7lb 2oz when he was born, and now he's 10lb. One week he gained over a pound. As you might imagine, we are no longer having any trouble getting milk into him, although there have been many days when he has wanted to feed all the time. This makes it a little tricky to do anything other than read or watch TV with the baby in my lap. I haven't worked out how to knit one-handed yet (or blog...)

Here he is at four days:
Starry suit

And this is him at just under a month, wearing the same suit. It's now too small for him (but he has it in a bigger size!) Mum thinks it makes him look like a tiny wizard.

Little wizard

He doesn't look like quite such a new baby any more. His first fuzzy hair is just starting to fall out and his legs and arms are getting stronger. He's still not very chubby, but he's definitely both longer and sturdier.

Jolly face

And we love him.

8 comments:

Lynda said...

Who wouldn't? He's gorgeous! How are you finding the whole parenting thing? Did you have that moment when you get home from hospital and think "Wait. They let us take this little person home UNSUPERVISED??? But we know NOTHING!!!!!" (Or was that just me and my husband?!)

Rosemary Riveter said...

*CLANG*

Thank you for the update,it's good to hear you're doing well.

old_black said...

I love reading about your lives - your own thoughts as well as the more objective and analytical posts of your mother :-)
I agree with Lynda's feelings, that as a new parent I knew very little about parenting.
Having been a parent for nearly 28 years and having 'brought up' three children to adulthood, I have learnt almost nothing, except that I shouldn't have been given that job.
Some people just seem to be better at parenting than others, and I have a suspicion that you'll be one of the good ones. If I'm still alive I'll look forward to reading N's blog to find out what he thinks (or whatever has replaced bogs/tweets/etc by that time)!

Thimbleanna said...

Oh K -- he's just Adorable! I especially love that last picture -- what a beautiful little boy. Aren't you just soooo excited? I hope you're having a wonderful time. I can't believe how quickly he's growing. And I can't be sure, but I do believe he looks like his maternal grandmother LOL!!!

Stomper Girl said...

He's divine.

Doll said...

Hi K,

Love the baby ! He is adorable.
many Congratulations !
I follow your mom's blog religiously and thats how came to yours 2 years back.
I wish you millions of happiness with the lovely baby and hope you guys have a great time together.

Love,
Smita

Pam said...

Yes, he is absolutely scrumptious (she said in a non-biased, grandmotherly way).

Old Black and Doll follow my blog? Really?

Love you, K and N!

Gillie said...

Well, didn't realise you had a blog, was looking for an email on your Mum's and started wandering..... Gorgeous pictures of the wee man. Hugs to you all right now.