Settling in

After all the to-ing and fro-ing, it’s good to be home and settling into some sort of rhythym. Janel’s feeding is reasonable (not great – because she’s still jaundiced, it sometimes takes a Herculean effort to get her to wake up enough to feed), and is somewhere between every 2 and 3 hours. This means that she is putting on weight (finally!), albeit slowly, but also means that I’ve had very little sleep, or rather, the sleep I have been able to get has been very broken. Either way, I am really tired. I have been trying to sleep when Janel does, but am finding it hard to sleep during the day, particularly in the afternoon. I’m hopeful that I’ll learn to do so before too long, because othewise I know I’m going to burn out.

We had planned to split the night-time feeds between us, with me expressing milk, so that I could get some longer undisturbed sleep, but (Murphy’s Law!!) the breast pump we bought was faulty. Fortunately, the manufacturers have been brilliant, and sent us replacement parts, which arrived over the weekend. So, hopefully now I can get on with expressing and then Graeme can take on one of the night shifts. Oddly, although he’s had more sleep than I have, he looks more tired than I do.

I’m looking forward to having Graeme at home with us. He’s got another 2 days and then he’s home for a week. Sadly, he has to work between Christmas and New Year, but then he has another week off to be at home. We haven’t done our Christmas shopping yet, nor put up the tree (which I usually do WELL in advance), so it doesn’t feel like Christmas to me yet. Hopefully all that will change in the next few days, because I’d hate for our first Christmas as a family to be an anti-climax.

Last night Janel made her debut at church. We decided to go to the carol service, and I’m so glad we did because the service was absolutely fantastic. I’m not one for carol services really (over-exposure at school, especially having to sing them in Latin… not really conducive to enjoyment!), but I really loved this one. It was also good to to be able to introduce Janel to all our friends who hadn’t yet visited us. She was a darling and well-behaved (there are some benefits to this jaundice thing!), and also managed her first proper bottle feed. (Good to know she tolerates a bottle… means I have less worries about leaving her with someone.)

Anyway, I need some breakfast and already I hear her stirring for her next feed…

Happy Christmas to you all – may you celebrate the birth of the Saviour with joy and may the peace of Christ rule in your lives this festive season!

Nicole