Stackin' it on

It is three weeks since Thumper graced us with her presence... three weeks that have gone by so fast!

Thumper had another weigh-in this morning: the 'two-week old' developmental assessment for newborns (one week late), where the local Maternal and Child Health (MCH) Nurse weighs, measures, pokes and prods Thumper and simultaneously (though more subtly) assesses my competence as a parent. Compared to the frequency that BallFiend was weighed and measured (every few days or so it felt like!), the local MCH nurses don't seem very obsessed interested in Thumper's growth. Guess they figure if I didn't stuff up BallFiend too badly, I must know what I am doing this time around.

Anyway, we both 'passed' with flying colours:

• Thumper has put on a 780 g since she was 4 days old (that's over 45 g per day). Proof that mum's milk is super juice!
• Strangely though, Thumper has shrunk a little, measuring 51.7 cm in length (compared with 52 cm at birth). According to NurseVirginia, this can be explained by the fact that 'those midwives in the hospitals don't know how to measure babies'. Another factor might be that it was a student midwife who weighed and measured Thumper in the hospital.
• Whilst Thumper still has a teeny, tiny head, it has grown 5 cm in circumference since her birth 3 weeks ago: now 38 cm.
  
• As neither DeepSpice or I have dropped, drowned or broken the baby (as yet), there is no need to call in the child protection people.
• Everything else is normal, normal, normal.

On the home front, Thumper is a star-baby... does everything just how the textbooks say she should...

• Feeding: feeds every three to four hours during the day (and sometimes even less often if I don't wake her!) and overnight has a feed around 10.00 pm, then another sometime between 2.00 am - 4.00 am, then has her first feed for the morning around 8.00 - 9.00 am. She feeds quickly - around 5 - 10 minutes per side.
  
• Sleeping: overnight, sleeps between 4 - 6 hours at a stretch, occasionally longer (one night she slept from midnight until I woke her at 8.45 am!) and in the daytime she sleeps anywhere from 2 - 4 hours at a time.
• Settling: almost always settles herself to sleep if we place her in her cot when she is drowsy. (Complete opposite to BallFiend who we conditioned from birth to require rocking to sleep in someone's arms or breastfeeding to sleep.)

The only difficulty is with Thumper's reflux which really seems to bother her. She does the normal baby burping and possetting in the first 15 minutes after a feed. But then an hour later (and once as long as two and a half hours later) she vomits very forcefully (we're talking projective milk-spew out the nose!). It obviously causes her distress - she screams and her face contorts in pain. If she is asleep when this happens, it wakes her up. So we are currently debating about whether to take her to the doctor to see if any medication is recommended, or just wait it out and see if she grows out of it in a few weeks/months.

Thumper just after a reflux-out-the-nose episode.

It is really nice to have a baby at home again - and I am making sure I take lots of time to enjoy the experience (since this is it, there ain't no more!). In hindsight, I am realising that I didn't really get much time to enjoy BallFiend's early days, because I was so sleep deprived and in pain when breastfeeding. Whilst we loved having BallFiend as a baby (and continue to love him of course!), it was hard to enjoy the experience at the time because we were so tired and busy learning how to be parents. It is so completely different this time... it is wonderful! I feel very blessed!

My advice to any would-be parent: have your second child first.
--