Thursday, February 17, 2011

William David

William David Watt
10 Lbs 9 ounces (4.810 kilos)

By now you'd all be aware that Pete and I welcomed a beautiful son, William David Watt, into our family on Australia Day (26th Jan). A condensed version of the birth is on Facebook, and I really can't be bothered writing it all over again on here, just for the sake of minor details that are no doubt more pertinent to Pete and I than anyone else. So for now I thought I'd give a snap shot of the first 3 weeks if Will's life.

Will loves eskimo kisses. His first smile was at his dad when he snuggled into Will and gave him an eskimo kiss. This was when he was 4 days old. I was so excited when today (at just over 3 weeks old) he grinned at me when I called him a snot bag and gave him an eskimo kiss. Now the term snot bag was said with affection as I cleaned the boogers from his little nose :-)

Will loves being sung to. His favourite is Yellow Submarine. In fact he seems partial to all the Beatles songs. Definitely gets that from his mumma! Pete and I were really struggling with settling Will just over a week ago due to him having colic. One night after an hour of him screaming, Pete and I held Will together in a family snuggle and sang Families can be Together Forever to him. During the whole hymn he was silent and calm and I felt completely embraced by the Holy Ghost. A very special family moment.

Will is SUPER strong. He is already supporting his neck really well and cranes it to look around for ages. He likes to headbutt me when he's hungry. He headbutted Pete the other day though and connected with Pete's collar bone. Needless to say it hurt, and he cried :-) Will is also standing up when I have him close to my chest. He stand up against me and basically tries to jump at me. Again, this is when he's hungry. This brings me to my next point...

Will is a greedy guts. He LOVES to eat. (He definitely gets his current nickname "bottomless pitt" from his Dad). Whilst I am doing well with breastfeeding (after a very challenging first week) I am struggling with the fact that my body doesn't really belong to me anymore. I found pregnancy so easy - no morning sickness, minimal discomfort and just loved being pregnant overall. The evenings are the hardest. Will can be on the boob for up to 3 hours and still not want to settle down for bed, and still demands more. I've had to top him up each night with an additional feed of expressed milk. It seems to be what he needs though and he generally sleeps about 4 hours straight after that. It's funny though, because no matter what time we start the evening routine he still doesn't settle until 11:30pm. At least he is generally only waking between 3-4am and then again about 7-8am.

Will has the most amazing head of hair. As many have commented when seeing his photos or seeing him in person "Look at his hair" seems to be the most common first reaction. When he was placed on me after the birth that was the first thing I said "Look at his hair!" Unfortunately, his curls seem to be growing out. His hair gets really curly when it's wet though.

Will is really alert. He loves looking around at anything and can really focus on mine and Peter's faces. I took him on a tour of the house today. Sounds strange, but I'm trying to find things to do with a newborn other than kiss and snuggle them and put them in a bouncer or on a mat. His eyes lit up and he really seemed interested when I showed him the bookshelves in the study. I pointed out his Dad and mum's favourite books and told him I hoped he'd love reading as much as we do.
By the way, does anyone have good tips for playing with a newborn. I'm so used to teenagers.

Will LOVES the bath. We were bathing him in the laundry sink but it just got too small. Will was using his legs to kick off the side of the bath and was donking his head on the other side. We are now using the big bath and he loves being able to move around freely. He does this frog kick thing with his legs. It's really cute

Will HATES being naked :-( Even though he looks so cute in the buff!

Will looks great in Blue, I really think it's his colour. He looks terrible in purple. His dad accidentally dressed him in a girl's onesie a couple of weeks ago. It was not a good colour for him!

Pete and I are loving being parents. I'm finding it really challenging though. The first couple of days we were home I said to Peter. This is SOO much harder than working full time. Only a week before I had Will, I had a huge cry about being worried that I'd be bored being a stay at home mum and that I'd crave stimulation and really miss my job. Yeah, well that hasn't happened. The day goes so fast and I really don't have a moment to myself (well not many). I know a lot of you mothers reading this are probably thinking, of course you wouldn't have much time to yourself and of course it's hard. Well, as much as people would tell me how crazy it was to have a child, and how little time I'd have and how sleep deprived I'd be, nothing could have made me understand what they were saying until I experienced it for myself.
Mothers out there - you are amazing!

Will leave it there for now. Much love to you all. xxx
My fav photo of Will

Thursday, January 13, 2011

38 weeks means....

Waddling. I not only waddle, I also have trouble walking in a straight line which means I'm constantly bumping into Peter.

I can't see my feet anymore and have to get Pete to cut my toenails - surely that is a sign of true love hey!

I find it hard just getting up from the couch so Pete helps me up.

My feet (whilst not the horrendous cankles they were in Adelaide) are puffy and often sore.

I wake up every morning with extreme numbness/pins and needles in my hands and fingers. They are also puffing up big time. My face is a bit puffy but it could be worse.

Whilst Pete sits on the couch shivering, I demand the fan to be blaring right on top of me. He just has to suck it up and put warmer clothing on if he's cold.

I cry easily. Enough said!

I know where a convenient toilet is located within a 10 radius from our house.

I wake up countless times during the night, just to change position.

Climbing stairs is nearly impossible. Pete and I caught a train into Melbourne to test what it will be like for his journey to work. We had a walk around the Docklands area near the Ericsson office and then headed back towards to Mall. We climbed a flight of stairs and it stuffed me so much I had to go take a break in a food court and get Pete to run the errands we had to do in the city...I just couldn't walk any more.

I have to hug Pete sideways so my belly doesn't get in the way.

My weekly pregnancy shot no longer shows the "pregnancy glow." I simply look exhausted and 'over it' (at least, that's my opinion anyway)

Having said all this, I'm actually doing pretty well. I just really want bub to come as I'm so excited to meet him/her.