PARENTING DIARIES

PARENTINGDIARIES

Pregnancy In France part 4

Tia Malcolm

Our first day together. Everyone gave me the advice to ‘sleep when the baby is sleeping’ but I couldn’t, not because it was noisy, quite the opposite. I had my own room, TV and internet, it was quite plush but all I kept doing was looking at him. ’I created him’ was all I could think, and he was utterly perfect.

What the midwives had neglected to tell me in the parenting books, is that when I change a little boy’s nappy, keep the nappy until I have everything ready to go because his aim is amazing! Over the course of the next couple of days, I had a steady stream of friends coming to see Alfie, which was lovely and it broke the long post partum days up. I was in hospital for almost a week from

I was all fingers and thumbs on the first day. I didn’t want to hurt him, after all he was so tiny and when it came to the first nappy change, which I will never forget, it was hilarious! He was on the baby changing unit, I leaned over and he pee’d straight into my ear! Quite the awakening!

start to finish and it was lovely while I was there, it was almost like a safety blanket. I would have the midwife checking on me each day and the paediatric nurse looking after Alfie, it was ultimately up to her whether I was ready to go home. I just could not believe the service I was getting. Three course meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner, I felt really looked after. The day finally came to go home, and I didn’t want to go! It was all very daunting and a little scary if I’m honest. The day before, the paediatric nurse came in and inspected the car seat and the clothing

he would be going home in and she was mightily disappointed in Stuart’s choice of clothes for Alfie! She asked Stuart if we had any knitted clothes and if we did, then he needed to bring them in tomorrow and we would be allowed to go home.

Home time loomed and off we went, saying goodbye to the nurses at the hospital and everyone we passed congratulated us on the arrival of our new baby.

It was odd, because even when we were out shopping, it would take forever with everyone congratulating us but lovely to see people’s faces light up because there was a new-born about. A couple of days into being back at the chateau with Alfie and feeding time came around again. Only this time, it was around 3am and I just remember being extremely cold and shaking, so I grabbed the duvet and threw it over the both of us to try and heat us up! I was quite disturbed by it, and it took a few minutes to calm down. I asked the midwife the next day what that was and she said it was exhaustion! I needed more sleep! Still, it was a good excuse to have a nap in the afternoons and I was supposed to be on maternity leave, but I will save that for next addition of the mag!

Tia