I can't believe James is 17 days old today...I know every new mummy says this, but time goes really fast!
I've not taken any belly shots this week because it looks pretty much the same and as for weight loss this week, I lost 2lbs so I'm now down to 9st8 and have 11lbs more to lose. I've not really eaten healthy or done any exercise yet (midwife told me to wait till 6 week GP checkup), and I don't feel too worried as I know it will gradually come off, particularly as I get out and about and do more.
I think I forgot to mention in my last post, but the week before I gave birth my blood pressure shot up quite a bit and I've been on medication to bring it down for the past two weeks. They did blood tests and it wasn't pre-eclampsia, but pregnancy induced hypertension. I also have a subconjunctival haemorrhage in my right eye, which is a large area of redness in your eye. It could have been caused by the high blood pressure or from pushing during labour, but I'm very happy to say it's starting to fade because it looks quite scary!
As for James...
Height/Weight: I'm a bit confused what his actual weight is because the Health Visitor and my Midwife gave me different figures. He's definitely still under 8lbs though, but is starting to look a lot chunkier.
Routine: He's still feeding approximately every 2.5-3 hours, but most days he also cluster feeds for a few hours somewhere throughout the day which is quite draining.
Sleeping: He sleeps a lot still and if he's not sleeping he wants to eat. At night he'll usually do 2 hour stretches of sleep which means most nights I get about 5 hours of broken sleep. The most frustrating thing about when he sleeps is the noises he makes - he grunts and squeals all night while passing wind or pooping. Apparently this is quite normal for newborns but it's quite hard to sleep through.
Eating/Feeding: As I said above for our routine, he feeds every 2-3 hours. I've also started expressing and tried him with a bottle of it on the weekend - which he loved! He seems to sometimes be a bit uncomfortable after breastfeeding and I think it may be something to do with me having a fast let down because after the bottle he was completely fine. I've struggled with breastfeeding quite a bit, but not for the reasons most women seem to talk about. I've not necessarily found it that painful, that passed after the first week, but I have found it quite depressing and lonely. I often feel like I have to hide away when I feed him or draw the curtains. It makes me feel quite trapped because I'm the only person who can feed James and when he cluster feeds for hours at a time it only makes it worse. When I expressed and gave him a bottle, I felt a wave of pure happiness and I wondered whether that was the feeling I should have when feeding him all the time. If anyone has experienced this with breastfeeding I'd love to hear how you coped with it.
Sizes: He still fits into Newborn and Up to 1 month clothing. Most of the time I have him in a plain white sleepsuit because I didn't want to spend lots on Newborn clothes when he probably won't be in them too long.
Milestones: He does little smiles and seems to be quite strong already during tummy time.
Thanks for reading
Katey
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