NotSheep

Toby is two days old, and he’s fabulous

I thought he might be up most of Sunday night, after sleeping most of the day, but he really only had one wakeful period, from about 2.30 until about 5.30 am, and once he’d sussed staying latched on, he was quite happy to breastfeed lying down, so even during those hours, I got to doze. I couldn’t quite believe how not tired I felt yesterday - I was starting to fade by about 4 pm, but considering I’d missed an entire night’s sleep between Saturday and Sunday, I don’t think that’s too bad :-). My friend J came over yesterday and Scratchy went to work - he has three days of parental leave to take, plus he has a flex-time day, so this way he gets to have the rest of the week off. Having J here was great - she fed us all, stopped the kids from causing too much havoc, and held Toby when I needed to use the bathroom or whatever. I do like people who come and visit and don’t expect to be waited on ;-). Had a midwife visit late morning; nothing to report there (unless you count that I’m apparently going to have to actively decline health visitor services *sigh*).

J stayed until Scratchy got home and then he made dinner and I got to have a bath. One of our neighbours came in to see the baby, and then between us all we cleared up the living-room, which was a bit of a mess since that’s where the birth-pool had been - furniture had been moved about to make room etc. After dinner, Scratchy took Barney, George and Freddy to their first-ever ju-jitsu lesson, and I took Jack and Toby off to bed. Jack brought a book, “read” about three pages, got up to go pee, came back to bed, lay down and promptly fell fast asleep, so I got to lie down and gaze at Toby for a while

The ju-jitsu went well - Barney and George came home and demonstrated a few moves to me, Freddy had chosen to sit on the side and watch (which is his style - he likes to take things in before he gets involved - I expect he’ll join in in a week or two). They all went for groceries afterwards (we seem to be constantly buying groceries these days - I suppose we should get used to it, as it seems it’s likely to continue for the next 15 or 20 years :lol:), so by the time they got home they were all tired. Barney is still asleep as I write, at 9.40 am, so he’s obviously making up for lost time!

Oooh, remember our “half-cat”? The one that lives here and we feed but it’s not really ours? He was most miffed last night to find that his box in the back garden had been taken over by a large hedgehog! The hedgehog didn’t stay though, which is a pity because it would have been cool for the kids to all see it this morning, but I suppose it’s not a pity for Littl’un (cat) who’d have had nowhere to sleep!

Oh, and Freddy announced that he has finished the first Harry Potter book. Since I wasn’t aware that he’d even started it, this is quite a surprise. When we bought #6, George started reading the whole series - he’s onto #5 now, so he’s getting through them at nearly two books a week - and he mainly reads in bed since he’s out playing most of the day. Freddy had, at that point, decided to read the first one, but gave up after the first page - he could manage all the words, but it was a bit text-heavy for him, and he kept losing track of which line he was on. So when he came looking for book 2, I suggested he should really read #1 first, but he already had! I wasn’t sure if I should believe him at first, but after talking about it and asking him what his favourite bit was, he’s definitely read it. “What was your favourite part?” “Um…a chapter…I’ll show you….” (flicks through book) “This one!”. Not bad for a kid who really didn’t pick up on reading until about eight months ago.

My milk started to come in yesterday evening, and overnight Toby has slept and fed intermittently. He’s getting pretty good at nursing now - he still does that frantic-bobbing-head-where’s-the-nipple thing, which I’d forgotten all about :-), but once on he’s got a good latch and he’s suckling well. All of the boys except Barney landed in our bed this morning to check he was still here ;-). It was quite strange to be sitting here with four boys on the bed and realise there was still another one elsewhere in the house! Toby slept again this morning while I got to wash and eat and dress - very cooperative :-). I always find it makes a big difference if I get even 20 or 30 minutes in the morning to get myself sorted out, but with a new baby you can’t necessarily expect that! He’s asleep again now, all tucked up in blankets on the sofa with Scratchy (and three of his brothers) watching over him - so I even get time to blog! As for those people who are demanding birth stories - you’ll just have to wait until I figure it all out!