Almost two weeks old!

We had our 14 day (well 13 day since it's St Patrick's day tomorrow and it's a bank holiday) visit with the health visitor today. She's lovely and did a full check up of our little man. He's gaining weight and cms like a champ. He's up to 9lbs 6ozs and measured at 58.5 cms long. Considering he was 9lbs 2ozs on Sunday when the midwife discharged us, this is pretty impressive. I wish I could say things are getting better with breastfeeding, but they are pretty much the same. He's just such a hungry baby that I have to give him a bottle to quench his thirst first- he throws a fit if I try and put him on the breast first. I've been expressing loads so most of his bottle feeds are at least half breast milk. My current strategy is to get him 60-90mls of bottle (breast milk) and then try and get him latched on. It's working okay, but he's only feeding on me for a maximum of 10 minutes which isn't helping with my milk production or his latching. I'm just going to continue with this strategy and try and get him on the breast more each feed so that hopefully he'll be breastfeeding exclusively. I feel like a dairy cow at the minute with all of the pumping.

He's sleeping pretty well. We've had a few nights of nearly 5 hours already! I don't know how long that will last but I will stay optimistic.

Right, some photos from the week...
I just thought this was a cute photo...
You can see his full lips here... very kissable!
Sleepy little angel...
Liam has been asking to get photos with baby Cian each day. He loves holding his little brother.
Cian was tired of the photos...
Cute little feet. I forgot how tiny and sweet newborn feet are... Liam's are big and smelly these days. Cian has webbed toes- his second and third toes are slightly webbed on each of his feet. Apparently this is good luck?
Cian is a very alert baby. He spends a few hours each day staring at us and looking at the lights or the little hanging toys on his swing.

When Liam met Cian...

Since I had such a short stay in hospital this time, Liam didn't come down to visit. Instead, Oliver took Liam to his Granny's house and we had our first meeting there. Here's Liam meeting Cian for the first time and letting him hold his favourite bear, blanket bear...
Going in for a kiss...
Holding his 'wee hands'...
Liam thinks his little brother is the best and is very gentle and loving with him. He's still a bit noisy and will jump on the sofa when Ollie or I are holding Cian which winds up disturbing his little brother. He's acting out a bit at school and had an accident the other day- the first in months. I know this is all fairly normal and hopefully keeping his routine during the day (going to daycare, etc.) will help him get through the transition. It's really difficult to try and maintain patience when you are exhausted and just want a bit of quiet. Both Ollie and I have been guilty of shouting at Liam when he gets extra excited, acts out or is difficult. We're trying to use more reasoning at gentle voices to discipline him. I'm trying to get him involved in helping with Cian. Hopefully this change becomes easier for him each day.

Cian got Liam a present for being such a great big brother... spiderman costume and Liam loves it!
Liam is very keen to help out and hold his little brother. This is his first attempt at holding him. The novelty wore off quickly and he wanted to get up after a minute...
More Cian pics to follow!

Welcome to the world Cian Dermot!

Well this time around was so much different than the first time. ..

I had my show on Wednesday afternoon (5 days overdue) and started feeling some contractions a couple of hours later. We decided to bring Liam down to Oliver's mom's house in the event that I went in the middle of the night or early the next morning. We stayed in Anne's house for a couple of hours where my contractions got more frequent for a while and then eased off. We left Liam at Anne's and headed back to the house where my contractions got a bit stronger and were about 5 minutes apart. We then decided to head down to the hospital where I had an examination by one of the midwives and she said I was in early labour and gave me a sweep to 'help me along'. She suggested we go home as labouring in familiar surroundings would likely be more comfortable.

My contractions slowed to around 30 minutes apart, although they felt stronger. I didn't get any sleep with the anticipation and contractions. My waters broke around 5:30 and we headed down to the hospital around 6:30 as my contractions got closer- around 10 minutes apart. The same midwife greeted us at reception and did another examination. She said I was around 3cms dilated, but didn't recommend staying to labour in hospital as my contractions were still too far apart. So we headed back to Anne's house where I got some breakfast and Ollie took Liam to daycare. Finally around 4pm, after returning to our house when my contractions became less frequent, we headed back to the hospital. Finally around 6:30pm my contractions were at 3 minutes apart and they brought me up to a delivery suite. I didn't mess about and asked for an epidural straight away. Wow, what a difference!! Whomever came up with that is a genius. The rest of my labour was so relaxed. I was just chatting away to the midwife and a 4th year medical student who was going to participate in the delivery. My contractions slowed a bit but they gave me syntocinon to help me along. I started feeling like I wanted to push around 11pm and little Cian screamed his way into the world at 11:23- I only pushed for 13 minutes! I pushed for 1hr 35 with Liam. I won't say that wasn't painful because it was, but I think being so relaxed beforehand made it all a bit easier.

Cian arrives...
Smaller than Liam, Cian was still above average at 56cms (22 inches) and 9lbs, 0.5ozs. The first thing that I remember Ollie saying was, 'he looks just like Liam!'. And he is the image of his big brother.

I was really worried about postpartum hemorrhage- like I had with Liam, but the shorter 'established labour' and pushing plus the syntocinon helped my uterus to contract after delivering the placenta and I was fine. Also, no stitches required!Because I had the epidural, I had to keep a catheter in over night and was immobile.

Here we are after the fun... notice how exhausted I am and how bright and breezy Oliver is!
They have closed down Johnstone house, the private section of the hospital, for refurbishment. So I was stuck on a shared ward- there were 3 other women in my bay. Over here they don't have nurseries but they do 'rooming in' so you have your baby with you at all times. I didn't sleep a wink that night hearing babies crying. So I wanted out of there as soon as possible. We were able to leave at 5:30pm that evening.

Little Cian in his wee hospital bed.
More pictures in the next post...

Bump pictures

I realise this post is a bit redundant since the bump has arrived, but I thought I'd put them up anyway.
These are all around 40 weeks.
Apologies for this one that I took under poor light in the downstairs bathroom.
All in all, this pregnancy was pretty easy. I was more tired, but that's to be expected with a toddler in tow. I did gain as much weight (around 30 lbs), but seemed to put in in my ass and thighs rather than my bump.
I didn't have as much heartburn and the baby spent a lot of time having hiccups in the last month or so. No cravings as such, although I did want onion rings during the first few weeks of my second trimester.
My checkups were all pretty good. My placenta was very low throughout the pregnancy so I had to have a scan every few weeks- my last was at 40 weeks and it had moved above the head of the baby so I was all clear for a natural birth.

Next post is all about my labour and the birth... exciting!