The Little Ones

06 June 2011

ten weeks old

my little girl is ten weeks old

Lucy has a toy called Crunchie. It crunches and Lucy loves it. She grabs it and eats it and stares at it. She is becoming more and more alert every day. She winks and smiles and raises her eyebrows.

She does a cute opened eye thing if you take a photo of her with the flash.

She has started to laugh. It's only happened a few times. She mostly just gurgles but a few times she has been really laughing. It's the best.

She has a bit of a sniffly nose again. It was really sniffly on Saturday night. I put her down to sleep and she sounded like a little baby pig. So I called my mum and she said to drop some saline up her nose. It worked really well and she slept for a good long while.

She is becoming much more vocal. She sings along with me and chatters away. She likes words that start with G (gee, gah etc). Her cries are getting louder. She cries when she is overstimulated and sometimes it is tricky to get her to calm down. Myl is a superman at getting her to be happy. He sings to her with his big deep voice and she is in heaven.

She is getting better at feeding (or am I getting better?) Sometimes she is very picky about the side she wants. She will make hunger signs and then wail if I give her one side so I think she isn't hungry till I try the other. It's never the same side though. She is a kook!

We went out for dumplings with my siblings on the weekend. Lucy loves her aunts and uncles. She put on a very good show of smiles and cuddles. Sometimes I think she is better behaved for other people than for me.

I love her oh so much. Looking at her makes my heart ache. Holding her makes me feel so happy. I'm loving being a mama. It is so wonderful.

02 June 2011

Attachment Parenting, Part Two: Birth Bonding

Source: mariolacamacho.com via Eileen on Pinterest

As we learned in Part One, Attachment Parenting is a caregiving philosophy based on attempting to build a strong and intuitive relationship between parents and their child(ren). The way that attachment begins is through a physical, chemical and emotional process referred to as ‘bonding’, which describes the way in which parent/s and child get to know each other.

The bonding process begins well before birth - for some parents, even before conception! During pregnancy, most parents will find themselves beginning to bond with their baby, becoming attached to their child along with their hopes and dreams for their family. For mothers, the hormonal and physical changes going on in her body give a biological boost to the beginning of this bonding process, a boost which is supercharged during labour, birth and the hours immediately following delivery.

According to a number of studies, the hormones and emotions present in the hours immediately following birth make them particularly prime time for bonding to occur between parents and their newborn. Most parents (or babies!) don’t really need to be told what to do during this time, but if you are keen there are lots of ways to make the most of this unique point in your relationship.

First, inform your care providers that you would like some time alone with your baby. Ask if it’s ok for routine procedures such as weighing, cleaning, and any tests or injections to be delayed for a couple of hours (don’t forget Vitamin K can be administered orally). Your baby will find it easier to keep her eyes open in dim lighting so see if it’s possible to turn the lights down or bring in a lamp. Then just spend some time exploring and enjoying each other!

Things like holding your baby skin-to-skin, stroking and touching their body, making and holding eye contact with your baby, talking or singing to your baby, are all really enjoyable and beneficial ways to begin getting to know each other. Breastfeeding during the first hour after birth is recommended for lots of reasons, including that it’s really great for the bonding process. And while most hospitals now have a ‘rooming-in’ policy, you can take it one step further by bringing your baby out of the bassinet and into your arms as much as possible J

Now in an ideal world, every baby would be easily born into a quiet place where time can immediately be spent doing nothing other than resting and enjoying each other. But we all know that the ‘dream birth’ is rarely achieved! Instrumental delivery, c-sections, stitches, medical complications, or even just sheer exhaustion may mean that other concerns need to take precedence before parents and baby are ready or able to begin getting to know each other.

It’s important to remember, then, that while the first few hours after birth are a great boost to the bonding process, they're by no means all-or-nothing! There are plenty of creative ways to get to know your baby in difficult or unexpected circumstances, and the early days and weeks are still an important and special time. The idea of birth bonding is simply to be aware of the uniqueness of the first few hours after birth, and if possible, to be intentional about maximising the potential of this time to begin bonding with your baby. But no matter how it begins, you’ve got the rest of your lives together to enjoy strengthening that bond!

Love, Nic

Resources

William Sears, M.D., and Martha Sears, R.N. The Attachment Parenting Book. Chapter 4: Bonding at Birth and Beyond

http://www.askdrsears.com/html/10/T101100.asp (link title: Ask Dr Sears: Bonding with your Newborn)

01 June 2011

what we wore

This is what we wore on Saturday to go to our friends place. It was so chilly so we got all rugged up and had plenty of cuddles.

Lucy's cute cardi was made by her granny (my mama). She made it during the week before Lucy arrived. It's pretty lovely and reminds me of a week spent with my mama preparing to be a mama myself.