The First Year

I can hardly believe that a whole year's gone by! In some ways it seems like no time at all since last Christmas, when Zeph was such a tiny wee baby, but it also feels like I've had him for ever. I love watching him grow and develop and learn, and I think he'll have a lovely time this Christmas, with so much to see and discover!

We tried to take a photo on the 18th of each month, although we sometimes forgot, so these pictures are a pretty good month-by-month look at Zeph through his first year.

Troll Baby!

Zeph's usually such a cute baby, but occasionally he manages to pull some very unattractive faces. I don't know if you remember those troll dolls that were really popular a while ago (and when I say 'a while', probably 20 years or so), but today Zeph ended up looking scarily like one!

To refresh your memory, a troll doll...



...and this was Zeph today.





See what I mean? Mind you, sometimes he's a cute little pixie instead.



Whichever, I still love him!

Hospital update

Zeph's appointment went well. When we got there he was weighed and measured, then after a short wait we were called in to see the paediatrician. She went over his medical history, discussed his feeding habits then she gave him a thorough examination.

The result of all this was that he is most likely fine! Apparently breastfed babies often grow slower at this point in their development and he may just be a small baby. She advised starting him on solids right away, which we were planning anyway, so last night he had his first try of proper food. (Well, I wouldn't count baby rice as proper food, but then I'm not a baby!)











Tomorrow we'll try him on puréed carrot and see how that goes!

In which Zeph is rather small, and also goes swimming for the first time

We have an appointment to take Zeph back to Sick Kids on Friday. His weight gain has never really been great. He regained his birth weight quickly enough, but since then he's had a steady but slow gain. A few weeks ago he didn't put on anything for a fortnight, put on double the amount the next two weeks and is now gaining very little. He's been really weird about feeding since he had a really nasty cold. Sometimes he refuses to feed from one side or the other, and this is leading me to have problems with my milk supply. The health visitor thinks that his slow gain is probably because he's a very active baby, but she and the doctor would like him to get a complete check at their clinic.
Other than that his development is fine. He's learned to roll from his front to his back, and tries really hard to roll the other way. He can pull himself up to a standing position and keep himself upright.

He's hugely social (like his daddy...) and makes friends wherever he goes - the parenting group at the clinic, the Rhymetime sessions at the library, everywhere! We meet up with the other mums from our antenatal class at least once a month, and Zeph is rather enamoured with Flora, the only girl born to the group. When we met a month ago Zeph was desperately trying to climb over to see her, stroking her arm and trying to hold her hand. She pulled back with a look of 'You're being a bit forward!' and Zeph turned his attentions to Flora's mother instead, holding her hand and 'talking' to her!


Today Chris had the day off work so we finally took the plunge (I'd apologise for the pun but I'm not at all sorry!) and took Zeph swimming for the first time. We were really unsure how he'd like it - he likes going in the bath with us, but that water is a lot warmer! Things were fine at first...



... but went rapidly downhill when the showers before the pool went cold. I think that even the most good-natured baby would scream at a strong jet of cold water in the face! Things didn't improve much when we got Zeph into the pool. The water wasn't very warm, and although he gradually stopped crying he soon started getting quite cold. When we noticed that his hands and arms were going grey we quickly got out of the pool and I went and stood under the (now nice and warm) showers with the boy to let him warm up. As he got dressed he fussed less and less, and while we were dressing he just lay on the nappy changing table, sucking his soother and giving us pointed looks!

I think we managed about ten minutes in the pool, which is probably enough for a first go, and we're going to try to take him swimming regularly. There's also parent and baby sessions too, which might be fun.

I'll post an update after his hospital appointment.

How Zeph arrived and other stories

Apparently when I said 'I promise there'll be more frequent updates!' I lied!
So, to the story at hand...

On the morning of Monday 16th we had to go to the hospital for various checks to make sure that both baby and placeta were ok despite being two weeks overdue. We had a foetal heart trace done, plus an ultrasound to see the placenta and cord. Everything looked good, and the consultant advised us to go ahead with induction then on the basis that we might as well do it while there's no problems.

About 4pm I has the first dose of prostaglandin gel, which caused fairly mild contractions all night, another dose the next morning and another half-dose later that afternoon. The gel was having an effect - I was starting to dilate. By Tuesday evening, the contractions were getting very painful, especially round the left side of my back and the baby's heartbeat was worrying the doctor. I went to the delivery room where they broke my waters, and found a lot of meconium there. I also needed a drip as I'd been throwing up all day and was getting very dehydrated. I was in a lot of pain by this point, couldn't sit or lie down and was too exhausted to stand up any more, so when I was offered an epidural I decided to take it, especially since I was told that the baby had turned back-to-back which is why it was hurting so much, and that they wanted me to have a syntocinon drip. Apparently I needed to be contracting harder to get Zeph round the right way to be born, and I know I couldn't have coped with that amount of pain. I dozed for a few hours, and was ready to push by 11.30 the next morning. It was really difficult, though, because I had so little feeling, and after an hour of pushing I still couldn't get his head out. The doctor was getting really concerned about the baby and had a surgeon and anaesthetist in the room just in case. I ended up delivering him myself with the help of Chris and several midwives supporting my legs and two midwives using a kiwi (mini suction device) on his head, plus an episiotomy.
He wasn't moving much when he was born, and wasn't making any noise, so Chris got to quickly cut the cord before Zeph was rushed out to have his airways suctioned. They were concerned about him breathing the meconium but it seems to be ok.

It was so weird seeing him come out of me - he looked too big to have fitted in there! We had to stay in hospital for three nights, partly because he hadn't had a wet nappy in over two days and the staff were worried that he might have a kidney or bladder problem. The paediatricians took blood samples to check that he wasn't dehydrated and had a lot of trouble getting any blood out of him. He had needle marks all over the backs of his hands.
He eventually had a couple of wees - the first one was like Niagara Falls! We were allowed to go home on Saturday afternoon on the basis that we'd bring him back for further tests on Monday if he didn't start weeing more but he's been weeing fine ever since (in his own face twice one day... ).

You know the weirdest thing? All this hasn't put me off wanting another baby in a couple of years!

Here we are, a few minutes after he was born.

Zephram Arthur Anderson, born 18th November 2009 at 12.42pm, weighing 9lb2.



Oh, and the proudest new daddy in the world!