My horrible first weeks home from hospital continues

I just want to go back to my wonderful hospital stay and start again I think.....Well, the thrush is gone and breastfeeding is going really well and Dominic finally is over his mouth ulcers when Kadence wakes up this morning with............. you guessed it mouth ulcers, so now she is on antibiotics for the week and another week of no preschool. Nate continues to be a perfect baby whisperer book baby and is on a 3 hour Eat, Activity, Sleep, You time routine, with his big sleep being after lunch same time as Nic's big sleep and I am going to start dream feeding him tonight as he has started doing a 5 or 6 hour stretch at night already, so Mummy is going to move it to a bit later so it coincides with me going to bed. Nic has finally taken notice that there is a baby in the house and gave Nate his first cuddles and kiss this morning. Not the best pics yet but I got some. Col is fine and is back at work. He is on night shift this week which means I have him home in the afternoons which gives me time to prepare dinner and he baths kids before work. NOW for me, well the breastfeeding is fine, still that first couple of sucks is tender but the nipples will toughen up eventually. I have almost mastered feeding Nate laying down already and he is only 2 weeks old. But last Thursday was my first day home with 3 children and I thought i'd be really clever and put the slow cooker on at lunch so Col got home to dinner cooked at six and me and the kids coping fine together. Well, our day was going really well until I chopped the cauliflower and the knife slipped. I had cut the top of my pointer finger on my left hand in a big v cut on the top section and it bled profusely. While i held pressure on it and called Col to come home from work and the ambulance to come get me as I was feeling really dizzy, the kids offering me water and asking "are you ok mummy?" Luckily Nate was in his long sleep and not demanding a feed. The ambulance took me and Nate to hospital and I got 6 stitches in my finger. The locals hurt more then the actual cut. When the doctor told me that it is going to hurt for the coming week but I could safely take panadeine for the pain, I asked how much it would hurt compared to birthing a 9 pound baby last week and 4 stitches in my bits. He told me it wouldn't hurt THAT much. WEll, it hasn't and I have managed to look after the kids with it and lots of surgical gloves to keep it clean and dry. Stitches come out on Thursday. Ok, I have prayed now and told God that I am done with doctors, chemists and hospitals I will promise to slow down and please get Kade better so we can just start again next week on a normal schedule. I have to laugh at the last two weeks since I got home because if I don't i'll just cry!!!:)) On a happier note I have managed to figure out how Nate fit in my belly - check out the belly mask photos!!:)) even though he was actually head down, bum up but he wouldn't lay still for those photos and his legs weren't tucked in.

Introducing Nate!! Long post

Well, I type this as my baby boy turns 1 week old already and I can't believe I was in labour this time last week. Last Sunday after two lots of accupuncture and still no movement in the station I was discussing my concerns with Col about having to be induced if I made it to Wednesday. I had an appointment booked with my ob who came back from Hong Kong, on Monday 6th April. He had told the baby to wait till he got back to be born but I never expected the baby to be LATE, after one being on the day and the other being a week early. But to my relief my baby boy decided at 3:15am to start his move, I had a "show". I woke Colin up and told him he wasn't going to work cause we were going to have a baby in the next 24 hours. My contractions were all over the place all morning and by 11am I'd had enough of them not progressing. So Col and I got the kids and dogs and walked to the BP service station for milk and back home. It worked!! after lunch my contractions were 9 minutes apart for an hour I was sitting on the pilates ball and leaning onto a chair, so I rang Dr Tuicolo and asked him if I needed to still see him. He said to stay at home and he'll see me in the labour suite later that night. At 3:30pm I asked Colin to call his Mum and Dad to come look after the kids. I was now in the bedroom leaning onto pillows on the bed watching TV. My contractions were 5 minutes apart when they arrived at 4:30pm but if I got up and walked around they got to 3 minutes apart. They were still manageable but were getting closer. We left for NorthWest Private Hospital and I arrived just after 5pm telling my midwife Tracey that I wasn't sure if we were too early. She checked me and I was 4 1/2 cm dilated so I was staying. Colin rang Mum to come to the hospital as she was videotaping the birth for me. I laboured mostly in the shower sitting on a pilates ball and having one nozzle on my back and one on my belly, but standing and swaying my hips for the contractions. After the shower just wasn't comfy anymore I moved to kneeling on foam at Col's feet. Tracey kept coming to check on me. I then moved to leaning on the bed where my legs became jelly so Tracey and Col helped me onto the bed. I resumed the all four position which I used for Nic and found it easier to deliver. Tracey was an AWESOME midwife and told me to push when my body told me to. So that is what I did. But after 15mins of pushing this bubba just wasn't moving. I was in labour land oblivious to everyone around me and completely fell asleep between pushes. BIZARRE feeling! Tracey felt the side lateral position was perfect for this bubba so we tried it and 2 pushes and his head was there. Dr T came in to help with the delivery and got me to stop pushing and huff/puff and little pushes when the head crowned. I then had to wait for another contraction to push the body out, the pain had gone and it felt like I was waiting for ever but at 8:24pm my baby boy was born. He was passed straight up to me and my first glance of him was amazing, I said"He's bigger then the others" He looked chubbier but sooo cute. We all took bets on how big he was, even Dr T, but we were all shocked to find I had delivered a healthy 9 pound 2 baby boy with a 37cm head. No wonder he was harder to push out!! Great labour but hard work. and perfect timing my little man due to it being Easter Daddy has managed to have Thursday through to Tuesday off work at his new job!
This week has been a challenge for us. My milk started coming in the night of day 3 along with contracting ductal thrush by day 3 from the antibiotics during labour for my heart condition and breastfeeding. I have used a combination of doctors drugs and naturopath herbal remedies to finally be almost free of it a week later. I rang my lactation consultant by day 4 who gave me a phone consultation on what to do. Thanks Jan!! Colin has done a mad dash to Woolies for cabbage leaves on day 5 for engorgement. I got a urinary tract infection on day 6 and had to send Colin for a mad dash to the chemist for Ural. Nate has had 1 night of feeding every 2 hours. 2 nights of cluster feeding from around 4 till 8pm. But last night he slept 9pm till 3am after his cluster feed, then slept from his 3am feed through to 7am. I don't mind cluster feeding if it means sleep!!!!! And worst of all my Cheeky monkey Dominic has been really sick since I got out of hospital on Thursday with a throat/mouth infection and ulcers all through his mouth.
But here we are a week later and almost have the breastfeeding sorted and I am suprisingly very calm and patient with the frequent feeding and suprisingly coping with the lack of sleep third time round, better then any other time. Maybe because I really wanted the third baby to complete my family and knew what I was getting myself into.
Nathaniel Benjamin Tunney or Nate for short
Born 6th April at 8:24pm
9 pound 2
37cm head
52cm length
5 hour natural labour