Tired Mammy & baby
Work has stepped up a gear now and I’ve got an A4 page full of lists of to dos. It was really daunting at first thinking about doing work again, but when I set my mind to it and gets lots ticked off it feels good. I know that in a few weeks time, once I’m in a routine it’ll get easier. At the moment trying to think about everything that I need to do, whilst juggling a baby, running a home on an average of 5 hours sleep a night is tricky. I’m sure it will get easier (well that is what I keep telling myself). Yesterday I found myself sitting at my desk, sending out a last minute press release whilst bouncing April on my knee. I’m sure I will get the best of both worlds – being known as ‘Lisa’ as well as Mammy, keeping the money coming in, whilst spending lots of quality time with my little girl.
April is doing great. She’s started on colic drops this week and it seems to have taken the edge off her crying…touch wood. When she came out of hospital she was so placid and hardly ever cried, but she has certainly found her lungs now! She is still pretty much in a hospital routine, feeding every 4 hours, but on Tuesday night she missed her 2am feed. I felt positively refreshed when she woke me up at 5am having that bit extra sleep…although I did fall asleep in front of the TV at 8pm!
Eve helping out
On Saturday we took her on her first shopping trip to the Metro Centre as both her and Eve had a few gift vouchers to spend. She was an angel and slept most of the time. It was only in Next when it was packed with pushchairs, very hot and she started crying. Luckily Eve is a little gem and pushed the pram whilst I carried April and we managed to get to the till and out of the shop!
Talking about being hot…I’m constantly hot since I’ve been taking blood pressure medication. The doctor is slowly weaning me off one type of medication. Since the last change two weeks ago, but blood pressure has been consistently low (for me) it was 113/65 the other day – a bit different to 184/110! The drug I’ll be on for life, my doctor said it prevents heart disease and will increase my life expectancy by about 8 years, so I’m not worried about taking medication if it means it can prevent me being poorly.
In good hands
I had a visit from my friend Emma yesterday. Emma is a midwife and one of my closest friends – she was there for me when I was in hospital and explained to me what was going on…whilst telling me what to ask the doctors. I think she knew April was coming before I did really. Since April has been feeding we’ve struggled with bottles for her as she dribbles everywhere. We’ve tried 3 bottles types and umpteen teats. We have to change her after every feed and it’s always messy. Anyway, one of the first things Emma said was that April was tounge tied. This means the little bit of skin under her tounge is really short, which can cause problems feeding – and it’s probably the reason she found it difficult to latch on when I was breast feeding. It was also really good to talk to someone who deals with poorly ladies and babies for a living. I didn’t have to explain what happened and I could talk about things I’ve not told anyone else, about worries I have and to reassurance that all the emotions and feelings I have are normal. It was like therapy talking to her.
My fashionista
April is now in size 1 nappies. She has been in micro nappies since hospital. Phil and I stocked up on nappies before she was born, however we’ve only just started using them as we didn’t think we’d have such a tiny baby. She has also just gone into newborn clothes. Her tiny baby and premature clothes are just a tiny bit tight now. I love trying all her little outfits on now though and dressing her like a proper little girl. It’s also lovely being able to make sure of all the lovely presents people bought us, rather than her wearing just baby vests all the time!
April Jackson's Journey 