RSS feedThe last few days have been pretty routine. The hospital want parents to do most of the work, which while exhausting, is best for everyone so the parents are well rehearsed by the time baby is out of hospital. So our days now revolve around 4th hourly cares and feeds, 24×7.
On days I’m not working at a client, Louise is up at 6am to express, and I’m up at 9am to check in on urgent work emails. We’re at the hospital by 11am and we do cares (temperature and nappy change) and a breastfeed, followed by Louise doing an express and me giving Molly a bottle top up. Molly and I then hum, sing songs, and burp a lot, while waiting for Louise to return. Molly’s won most of the burpathons, but I must admit I’ve cracked a few corkers over the course of the week.
Then we head home to do mandatory home chores, I have a few hours sleep and Louise does an express and catches up on emails and other stuff. I’m awake again by 6pm, just after Louise has done yet another express, and we’re at the hospital by 7pm to do exactly the same thing we did at 11am. We’re out by 9pm and head home to have dinner, and lunch as well if we haven’t had it. I catch up on any urgent work stuff, and spend a few hours on stuff that’s been waiting since before this whole thing happened a month ago, such as bills, invoices or projects, and this blog on the odd occasion I finished things early, and Louise catches some sleep on the lounge. Around 1am or 2am I’m off to bed, and Louise wakes up to express, and then comes to bed as well. That’s a normal day for us, and there’s no relaxing time, it’s all work.
On the days when I have paid work during the day at a client, I simply miss out on everything up until 6pm, and then have to shoe horn everything into the few hours I have left before I go to bed. Also, every second day is Molly’s bath day, so that gets factored in as well. They never said it would be this hard in parenting class, it was just all about the pros and cons of epidurals vs. gas, and how to breath. They didn’t say what to do if you don’t actually have time to stop and breath.
For the last week I’ve been humming to Molly at feed time, while Louise is off expressing. Moby Dick by Led Zeppelin is a favourite, but tonight we also did Deep Purple’s Smoke on the Water, and Zeppelin’s Stairway to Heaven.
When Louise turns up, she usually pulls out the old boring standards, like Miss Polly and Her Dolly, or The Teddy Bear’s picnic. I tried the The Teddy Bear’s picnic tonight and Molly started to cry, I don’t blame her. When I switched back to Stairway (“if there’s a bussle in your hedgerow, don’t be alarmed now”), she started smiling and having fun again. She really enjoys lead breaks, whether it be guitar or drums, but that just may be my delivery.
But Louise is insistent, so we haven’t heard the last of those childish Teddy Bears. Louise has also promised to learn the actual words at some point, so that’s certainly worth looking forward to.
The photos are continuing to be updated every few days. The most recent ones are with Molly in the pram on her very first trip outside of the nursery.
Today the container load turned up. Hooray! We’ve yet to go through it, but it’s calmed us down a little. Also today, Louise heard the lactation consultant say “she should be allowed home soon” or words to that effect, which just scared the shit out of us again.
Did I mention Led Zeppelin at all? “Your head is humming and it won’t go, in case you don’t know, the piper’s calling you to join him…” Classic.