Jessica’s blog.

Well, the weather was better for today’s venture outside.

As hoped we got out for a walk and went to visit our friend Anna. Two of her boys were around: Adam, the second eldest child, and Mark, the youngest. As Mark and Jessica will probably play together when they get a bit bigger and will be eventually in the same school year, we thought that it’d be good to introduce them. Neither of them seemed the least bit interested though. Adam, however, was fascinated and seemed to like Jessica’s soft hair.

Seeing Jessica next to another baby really makes her jaundice stand out. We’ve had the poor thing in her carry-cot for her daylight treatment, for as much as possible today. There were a couple of yellow patches on her ankles that seem to have disappeared, so hopefully she is starting to get rid of the bilirubin. She fed well last night and snacked a lot during the day.

Anna and Gabriella swapped babies for a while and Adam gently paid Jessica more attention – although he was concerned that this swap was permanent, until Anna re-assured him that it wasn’t and he would get ‘Mini-Mark’ back.

Now we’re back at home, we’re taking it easy for the rest of the day. Things are starting to settle into some sort of routine.

Ian.

The original plan was to pop over to a friend’s house this afternoon, but that had to change – I’m sure it won’t be the last time either.
When the midwife called, she was a little concerned how yellow Jessica appeared and referred us to the Childrens’ Assessment Unit (CAU), at the East Surrey Hospital (ESH). Jessica’s also been a bit listless and not taking a full 30 minutes to feed. A quick phone to my parents was made to arrange a lift. (Our car being written off definitely happened at the wrong time.) Thank goodness they’re around and willing to taxi us about!

The midwife did suggest that we put Jessica as close to the balcony door as possible, to maximise her exposure to daylight. Coupled with Anna’s (the friend we were supposed to be seeing, who has 4 kids of her own, ranging from 7 yrs to 4 months, so she’s an old hand) advice to put Jessica on a white sheet, which will relect the light back onto her, we will try this in the coming days.

We were met at the appointed time, in the CAU, by a nurse who took a few details. Then a doctor saw us and asked a few more questions about the birth and feeding patterns to get a bit more of a background. Jessica was a good as gold while he took a few blood samples from one of her hands. I was able to hold her other hand to re-assure her and she hardly struggled and didn’t cry.

The test results came back and she’s well below the level to cause concern, so there is no need for her to be kept in for white light treatment. Let’s hope the sky in the next few days is not so overcast.

Anyway, we’re all back in the flat now and Jessica has just had a good feed. She’s in her carry cot by the balcony door, where her Mum’s taking a few photos of her. I’ll insert one in here before I publish this post.

Tomorrow we plan (is it wise to try to make any plans…?) to visit our friend and half her brood. Her husband, Phil, won’t be there but I hope to catch up with him at the weekend, for a pint to belatedly wet the baby’s head.

Jessica’s a week old now, but it really feels like longer. I mean that in an entirely good way, there’s been so much change.

We’ll hopefully post again tomorrow, with details of her second outing and anything else that happens.

Ian

It’s been a pretty quiet day today. No excursions in grotty weather, just safe and warm in the flat. Jessica’s been lying on my lap for quite a bit this afternoon, giving me the opportunity to teach her to play the air guitar and air piano. Virgin Radio’s got a good selection of music for these activities! She wasn’t really awake during her lessons so I’ll no doubt have to repeat them. (Maybe on camera next time…!)
We managed today to add Jessica’s hand and footprint into her baby book. It was a lot easier than we expected as she can be a real wriggler. She even helpfully stuck her leg straight out, allowing us to press the book onto her foot. The hand wasn’t so easy as she likes to stick it in her mouth a lot. Still, we got a decent print and managed to avoid her eating the paint on her hand.

Jessica says that she’s ready for visitors now so if you want to pop round then give us a ring.

Ian.

Our third night home – the night before last – was much better than our second. Was able to feed Jessica regularly without resorting to any of the formula we had ready in the fridge, she slept soundly in between and I even managed to catch a bit of shut-eye… Can apparently take 7-10 days for Mum and baby to both take to this breastfeeding lark, so as with everything else it’ll be one step at the time.

After lunch we had another visit from a midwife – not my usual one this time, but another lady, who’d brought scales and lots of little needles. It was time for the five day newborn blood spot screening test, and I guess you can imagine what Jessica thought of that…! Still, it was soon over with. Baby’s first “weigh in” since our hospital stay showed that she had only lost 140 grams – as weight loss in the first five days can be as much as 10% of the birth weight, we felt reassured that she’s eating well.

The midwife also gave us the tip to keep Jessica cooler during the day than at night – e.g. not put a blanket over her daytime – to encourage her to be more active and gradually learn to separate day from night. Which hopefully in time will help allow Mum and Dad to keep slightly more sociable hours…

Also went out for Jessica’s first walk yesterday afternoon, and my first bit of fresh air since going into hospital. As the midwife arrived just as we were about to get ready, the lovely sunshine had unfortunately turned into drizzle mixed with downpours when we eventually got outside. Having felt all cooped up in our flat I was still enjoying every minute of it, whereas Jessica simply slept through the entire Big Event. Still – we can always show her the piccies when she gets older… After a necessary stop at the shops (should point out that Jessica and I waited outside while Ian dashed in), we did a lap around the Memorial Park. No speed records were broken, as I’m still a bit of a slow and careful walker, but we got plenty of opportunity to test the 3-wheel drive of Jessica’s terrain vehicle around puddles and over grass verges.

Gabriella

We were both too tired to write yesterday as Jessica kept us up most of the previous night.
It all started shortly after her 11pm feed was over: she began hiccuping violently which didn’t seem to want to pass, despite efforts to burp her. A quick phone call to the staff on the Burstow ward (maternity ward at East Surrey Hospital) assured us that it wasn’t serious or dangerous.
The hiccups continued with Jessica looking more and more perplexed, poor thing probably didn’t know what’s going on, and Mum and Dad finding it amusing as she looked so cute (the word cute is going to appear frequently on this blog methinks!). I have to confess that we did video her, well you have to…! Even if it’s just to embarrass her in later years!

A while later, the hiccups did finally pass and after a nappy change, Jessica settled for a while. She did ask for a feed a couple more times during the early hours but attempts weren’t really successful. I, at least, manage to get a decent bit of kip, Gabriella wasn’t as fortunate. By 4am, we were both up trying to prepare a formula feed: me reading the instructions, through bleary eyes, Gabriella comforting an increasingly ravenous (and vocal) daughter.

With formula-feed prepared, Jessica was finally able to gorge herself. Another nappy change later, Jessica still didn’t want to settle. So at 5am Gabriella went to get some shut-eye, whilst I sat up comforting Jessica with bottle of formula-feed at the ready. Each time she looked like she had nodded off, I tried to put her back in the cot. Nope, she didn’t like that, so it was back to sitting in the living room with her resting in my arms.

Around 7am, the nappy needed changing again (where does it all come from…?) and the screeching woke Gabriella, who decided to try breastfeeding again. At least I was able to go back bed for a couple of hours.

Thankfully when Stewart, the midwife, called round later yesterday morning, he was able to suggest a couple of things to make it easier for us. A used pillow case of Gabriella’s for the undersheet and a hot water bottle prior to putting her in the cot should make her more inclined to stay there. Both of these made a difference last night.

We were so tired last night that we went to bed at 7.30! On a Saturday night! I don’t think I’ve ever done that in my adult life, even when I’ve been ill!

As Gabriella was to able breast-feed Jessica (and get some sleep as well), I got better night’s sleep last night with just a 6am nappy change to deal with. Boy was that an eye-opener! I’ve not seen baby poo before! The descriptions I’ve heard are pretty accurate…

Jessica taking (another) well-deserved nap. The baby gro is a little large for her. How long will that last though…?
We hope to take Jessica for a walk later. It’ll be the first time Gabriella’s ventured outside since getting back from the hospital. Hopefully, we’ll have a few more pictures to post too.

It’s good to be able share this with you.

Ian.

You’ll have noticed that the style of this blog has changed somewhat. It seems that the fault was down to the theme (how the page looks) that we were using. I did have a look through the code that is used to generate the comments function, but couldn’t find where the bug was.  Anyway, with this new theme it is possible to post comments, so we’d be delighted to hear any thoughts or feedback that you may have.
When posting comments, please note that they won’t appear instantly.

On another technical note, there’s now a link from our main photo gallery to this blog.

As Gabriella’s updated you on today’s events, there’s not really much I can add at this point.

Ian.

Still tired, but over the moon about having Jessica with us (and that she was a week early considering her birth weight…). Feel really privileged to have had the birth that I wanted. Was really hoping not to have to use anything stronger than gas & air for pain relief and dreading having to go into theatre due to some complication or other, but ended up having a “nice, straightforward, natural birth” (to quote the delivery midwife). In spite of seeing loads of different midwives due to shift work (and NHS understaffing…?), the 24-hour professional and caring support I had in hospital helped boost my confidence about caring for our little ‘un.

One of our very first activities at home yesterday was a family snooze. I only got about 3 hours sleep in total during mine and Jessica’s stay in hospital, so I certainly needed it… The rest of the day Ian and I mainly spent getting our heads around being three instead of two, stopping to look at each other and Jessica every so often and just thinking “Wow…!” (Have forgotten to say that she has light brown hair and deep blue eyes – though this might of course change with time.) Our first night at home went well, with our little girl waking up maybe every 2-3 hours for a bit of a moan or smacking her lips and one of us getting up to check if she needed anything – no big dramas.

Today, Jessica received a nice, big parcel with balloon, teddy and choccies (Mum will be very happy to assist her consuming the latter…!) from Auntie Wendy and Uncle Tom, and some lovely cards from friends and family. In the afternoon, Dad and Jessica “jiggled about” to some Red Hot Chilli Peppers (need to influence her taste in music early!).

My midwife also came over for a check-up today around lunch-time, which gave us the opportunity to run a list of questions by him and get some general reassurance that we were doing things okay. Ian had noticed this morning that Jessica was slightly jaundiced, but in the third day of life this is apparently “text book” and nothing to worry about – she just needs a bit of UV light (though not direct sunlight, of course) and a bit of time to get into the feeding. Also, the midwife advised me that I now need 1000 more calories a day (!) whilst breastfeeding, which actually feels like it’ll be a bit of a challenge at the moment…

Our lives have really changed, in ways that we’re yet not able to comprehend… For now, we’re just taking one thing at the time – it seems impossible to do anything else.

I’m still very new to this blogging thing. You’ll be pleased to know that when you click on a thumbnail, it actually opens up a full-size image.
A couple of the other links don’t seem to work, so I’ll have to spend a bit of time figuring out why not. Modern technology eh, great when it works…

Anyway, Jessica has asked me to thank everyone for their words of kindness in the replies she’s received. She also asked me to say that she’ll be in touch when she (and Gabriella & I) are ready for visitors.

Jessica and Gabriella came home around lunchtime and we’ve all spent the afternoon catching up on sleep. She’s asleep (snoring – but in an adorable kind of way, so she gets away with it) again on the settee at the moment.

The last few days have been a bit surreal, I’m still coming to terms with the fact that I’m a father now. I guess that will sink in fully very soon.

It’s time to sign off now as I need to go and get dinner ready. Homemade soup out of the freezer. We weren’t completely unprepared…!

Hopefully, Gabriella will have the energy today to post her thoughts and feelings.

Ian.

Gabriella and Jessica are staying in hospital for a second night, mainly so Gabriella has someone on call in case she had any questions, as we’re both new to this game. Whilst Gabriella had no sleep last night due to other noisy babies, Jessica was a complete angel to begin with, then at 3am, when everyone else had quietened down, she decided it was her turn and poor Gabriella had to cope with her demands. Despite that both Gabriella and Jessica were up to having visitors today.

My parents were the first:

Followed by my sister a couple of hours later:

Understandably, as Jessica is so cute (is that me being biased…?) she was cuddled lots by all.
Earlier in the day, before Jessica’s fan club turned up, I spent some quality time with both of my girls. I’m amazed how tiny Jessica is. One of her hands is dwarfed by one of my fingers:

Gabriella, being the ever-keen photographer, took the following pictures (and plenty more):

I did manage to wrestle the camera back off her briefly to take this one:

I daresay that there’ll plenty more photos posted in the coming weeks and months – or sooner…!

There seems to be a problem whereby the blog doesn’t want to allow any feedback (thanks to Jerry for discovering this), I will endeavour to fix the problem, that prevents readers from submitting comments, when I get a chance. That’s assuming that this is being read. I certainly hope it is, as we will enjoy sharing our daughter’s progress with anyone that’s interested.

I expect Gabriella and Jessica to be coming home tomorrow around lunchtime, after the paediatrician has given Jessica the all clear.

Anyway on that note, I’m going to sign off.

A Proud Father.

Jessica Sofia Lillsunde-Read was born at 4:37pm today (20th February 2007). She was a healthy 8lb 11oz (3.96kg) – needless to say that’ll change very rapidly!

The birth went pretty well, with labour starting around 6 am. The only pain relief that Gabriella used was gas & air (Nitrous Oxide).
Gabriella and Jessica are staying in overnight and will hopefully come home tomorrow after being seen by the paediatrician. We’ll be taking it easy for the first few days, adjusting to this major change in our lives.

A picture of the delighted (but exhausted) new mum with Jessica.

Born in the Chinese Year of the Fire (Golden) Pig, babies are believed to be particularly lucky. Well let’s hope so…!

Anyway, it’s getting late now. There’ll be more updates very soon.

Ian.