One month in and we're slowly getting used to this!

After being home for a month, B had to go back to work. It was great that he was able to take so much time off, to get to know his daughter and to allow us to settle into a routine. It was also a great help to me because I wasn't allowed to drive initially. My obstetrician said it was up to me as to when I wanted to start driving again, but as I wasn't really allowed to do anything else either, I just let B do all the driving. I wasn't allowed to lift Charlotte in the car capsule or lift the pram, I couldn't really bend down easily, I couldn't put my arms up past shoulder height... so B had to do everything.

I'd asked Mum to come down for the first few weeks to do most of the 'grunt' work while B and I got used to being parents. That was a tremendous blessing for us to have her help. It wasn't always smooth sailing as B was trying so hard to do everything for me that sometimes he got upset when Mum did something instead of him. But I know he'd agree there was no way we would have managed without her there to help with the cooking and to generally be another set of hands when we needed it, and to offer much-needed emotional support to me. I very much under-estimated my emotional reactions to the whole parenting thing, probably made worse by having a c-section rather than a natural delivery. My body just suddenly stopped being pregnant and it was taking a little while for my hormones to settle down again. I cried at the drop of a hat, I was moody, I felt like a failure as a parent because I really felt I couldn't cope. No doubt it was extremely difficult to be around me, but somehow B and Mum (and Dad) managed it and we slowly settled into a routine.

Unfortunately our time was made harder by the fact that Charlotte was a chucky baby. She would regurgitate just about everything we fed her. Thankfully she was a happy chucker so she didn't really seem to be troubled by her regurgitation. This meant she probably didn't have reflux but it didn't make it any easier on us. I felt I couldn't really cuddle her without the risk of her bringing something up and the inconvenience of having to change her clothes or my clothes, or wipe down the furniture. But the fact that she took to formula and was generally a happy, peaceful baby was a real god-send. So I guess you have to take the good with the bad, eh?

At one point I tried her on a new formula for reflux and regurgitation - oh boy, that was a mistake! The formula was a thickened one, that went thicker in her stomach in an effort to stay in the stomach. But the only thing this did was constipate her and give her bad wind pains. So we went back to our old formula after 24 hours and realised that a happy chucky baby with wet clothes was easier and better than an upset, in pain constipated baby!

By this time (one month) we were starting to see that Charlotte had a little bit more head control. Nothing too exciting, but she was definitely starting to be able to lift her head up for longer periods and wasn't so 'bobble-headed' all the time. She was also starting slowly to pay more attention to her environment and started to really see some of the stuff around her. For example, it was around this time that she discovered the musical mobile that we had hanging up over her cot. We would lie her under that and wind it up and she'd be entertained for hours! (well, for the few minutes the winding up would last). She would kick her little legs up and down in glee and make all sorts of cute noises to show her appreciation and excitement.

Onwards we go, past the one month mark. I'd like to think we're slowly getting better at being parents, but I suspect other people probably think we're doing a better job of it than we think we are!