Four Weeks of Parenthood

Four weeks ago today, Kaleb came into the world and it was a big life-changing event. Throughout this post, I'm going to share some pictures of us, and talk about how things have been going in the last month.

Two Months of Parenthood >

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Here's a little selfie me and him took together while sitting on the couch.

Parenthood
To be honest, it has been pretty good. I'm not saying it has been easy, but we are coping with it all pretty well. Overall, he is pretty easy going and only really cries when he wants a bottle, or a nappy change so that's pretty good, although, people have been saying enjoy it now while it lasts.

Typically, he has a bottle every 3 hours, sometimes it can be 4 and sometimes 2, there has been the occasional time when he has gone close to 5 hours without taking a bottle, it doesn't happen often though.

This is a picture of him, less than a week old. I had never been around newborn babies and was shocked at how aware he was. I know they say that they can't really see for the first while, but it was like he was actually looking around, especially following voices.

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Sleep Deprivation
I don't think I'd really class it as deprivation, but neither of us has had a full night's sleep in four weeks, although, in fairness to my partner, she hasn't had a full night's sleep since back in October, due to cramps and pains that would often wake her up. The pains got worse as the months went on. The moment she had him though, those aches were gone.

We both get up to sort him out when he wakes up; one of us will change him, while the other goes downstairs to get his bottle ready.

It was fine, but it is a lot to get used to, I've never liked sleeping during the day, I always tend to wake up feeling groggy with a dry mouth and in general, tend to feel worse than I would have if I'd just stayed up.

The routine is, typically he has a bottle around 11 or 12, goes to bed, we get to sleep, my partner is usually first to go, but I tend to get distracted by my phone or whatever. Then, we're up at around 3 or 4 for another feed and change, then up again around 7 or 8 for another one, that feed is the one we tend to get out of bed for to go downstairs and get a coffee or tea.

This is Kaleb when he was one day old; he was kind of messing around and we managed to snap a picture of him while he was giving his first middle finger.

Sometimes when he's down for a nap, my partner gets some rest too while I watch him and try to take that time to do a few things on the laptop; those things consist of writing a post, working on the Hive script, or editing some of the stories I've written so I can get them published.

I filmed a music video recently, so editing that has been a priority at the moment, and I have another three videos booked for this month and the next so I just want to knock some of these out as quickly as possible so I can focus on writing.

Also, at the end of the month we have a gig booked down in Cork, so getting back into rehearsing and playing music is up on the list of things to do, not only with Dangerous Dave and the Side Effects but with The Undercovers too, because there are a few pubs looking to get us back once things settle down.

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This is him in his second week, and never a truer phrase was spoken, "Always Hungry," is bloody right. He never stops.

Food
When we first gave him a bottle, he was drinking about 15 millilitres, and that was kind of a struggle to make him drink the whole lot. But, once we got him home and started warming his bottles it was easy.

Over the course of the first two weeks, he was drinking upwards of 2-3 ounces in a sitting, and it was funny when he'd get milk drunk and pass out. Luckily, he'd tell us when he had enough because he'd got tight-lipped.

Then, by week 3 we noticed that he was consistently polishing off 3 ounces, and looking for more. Now - after speaking with our home visitor nurse, who's a really nice woman - we have upped it to a 4-ounce bottle, but we're afraid that he may need to be put on the hungry baby formula because now he's finishing off 4 ounces in about ten minutes and sometimes looks for more.

Here's the culprit, caught red-handed.

Also, the home visitor nurse told us to look out for signs of him being hungry, clicking his lips, and sticking out his tongue. He does that, for all of two minutes, and then starts screaming the house down. He has literally turned purple before screaming, in the time it has taken us to prepare his bottle.

Moving to the 4-ounce bottle was the best thing to happen though, before, we had to boil kettles and heat the bottle up in a bowl of hot water, then we'd look away for two seconds and it would be piping hot, so we'd need to cool it in a bowl of cold water.

Now though, we have a type of coffee machine that does it instantly, and the water is heated to the perfect temperature each time.

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Here's my partner with the baby, this was taken about one week after he was born.

Calming Him Down When He's Restless
One of the best ways we can calm him down, and something he loves doing, is going out for a walk.

Usually, when he is fed and has had a change and is still upset, we just put him in his pram and take him out. It can only take about 5-10 minutes of walking before he is passed out.

The process of getting him ready to head out was scary at first and seemed to take ages, but we've gotten into the rhythm of it now and it only takes us about 5 minutes to get him ready.

Here he is in his little Winnie the pooh blanket, ready for his walk. This time he was asleep before we could even leave the house.

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Issues
We had a few little issues and worries, when he was first born and they did some testing they found that he couldn't hear in one of his ears, but said it could be gunk or whatever and that they were booking him in for another one a few weeks later. Well, we did that test and all is good, he can hear in both ears which is a relief.

By about week 2, he had some constipation, and it was torturous to see and hear him crying while not being able to do anything for him. He had it for about 2-3 days, and our home visitor gave us some advice which helped. We tried massaging his stomach, namely the left-hand side, another thing we did was rotate his legs like he was riding a bicycle, neither of these helped too much.

We gave him some water, and then finally, a bit of prune juice, about half a teaspoon mixed into 3 ounces of water. That did the trick and the next day he finally went.

I have never been so happy to see poo in all my life, and after cleaning him up and changing his nappy - me, my partner and the baby had a group hug to celebrate.

Here's a picture of Kaleb getting ready for the big fight, and also, you can kind of see his skin is all peely on his hands. That's another little issue he has been having.

His whole body has all this peeling skin on it, we have been putting moisturising lotion on him constantly, and even putting some into his bath water when he has one, but it hasn't completely gone away yet.

It isn't too bad, and it doesn't seem to irritate or annoy him, so that's a plus and not a huge worry.

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Here's Kaleb, getting himself prepped for his first party, and he has a teddy that his great-grandmother knitted for him. He's not really old enough to appreciate toys yet, but he was holding it for a minute when I gave it to him so I wanted to snap a pic.

My Partners 30th
Yesterday was my partner's birthday, and she wanted to do something small for it, so decided to have people around the house for drinks and food.

It was a really good day, and the first proper time either of us have been able to drink or do anything a bit wild. Neither of us went too mad though, it started at around 3 o'clock, and everyone left at about 10:30. She had about 3 gin and 7-ups, and I had 5 bottles of Heineken, a glass of vodka, and a gin and 7-up to finish off the night. I was kind of worried about being hungover today, but I've been pretty good.

Here's a photo of us before the first of the guests arrived.

Friends and family all came up, and we were kind of afraid of the baby being upset or getting sensory overload. He had a few moments where he cried, but only when he was hungry or needed a change, for the most part, he slept, even while being dotted over by everyone that arrived.

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To end the post, here's a picture we took while messing with him while he slept. I think it could be a good one to take out and embarrass him with when he's older.

Conclusion
Parenthood has been great, and he is an absolute star, I am really looking forward to when he can sleep through the night though, but, by this stage, I think we have both fitted ourselves into his routine.