We have officially joined the world of the sleep deprived. Barney was awake and wanted to feed all through last night between about midnight and 7.15am this morning. Beth never did this so I hadn't been prepared but the midwife had warned me Sunday morning to expect it. There is a positive spin to it all as Barney's hunger means my milk has come in and hopefully we won't have too many more completely sleepless nights. Hang on a mo - why am I saying "we" since Tom did sleep through the night? Lucky him. Still he doesn't cope as well with interrupted sleep so he's having loads of kips in the day too when he can.
There's something about feeling like you're the only person awake in the world in the early hours to get you thinking about things. Nothing too deep - too tired for that. But it was lovely bonding with Barney. He's so alert! He can express everything to me with his eyes, mouth and hands so far. Most of the messages are that he's hungry - that's always a good one to pick up on. Last night it felt like everytime he'd fallen asleep nicely at the end of a feed and I was just wrapping him up to put in the cot, he'd jerk awake and look at me indignantly. Then he'd start opening his mouth up in a cute little round motion and try to eat his hand. He's good at getting his point across. He also likes trying to fling himself off my shoulder in order to get in the position for feeding to let me know he's ready too. Subtle.
Beth was in daycare today so we got to enjoy Barney in a peaceful house until Tom picked her up at 5pm. She's coping brilliantly with our new addition. She hasn't become unsettled with her routine as yet so she's going to bed at 7pm which gives us a break in the evening and me a chance to go to bed early. She also seems to be calming down a bit around Barney so he's less likely to be poked in the eye or have her shout right next to him, "Hello Barnaby!".
So all is going well and our memories of caring for a newborn seem to have come flooding back to us after a two year break.
I can just imagine Beth shouting hello like that - gave me a good chuckle.