Our little yellow jelly bean

We've just gone past Theo being out for 1 week and what a week it's been. The highlights and scary moments were:

Monday 17th: Jackie had no sleep on the ward at hospital and Theo was being stubborn at feeding from the breast. Throughout the day we continued to get advice on breastfeeding from the midwives but at our discharge appointment with the paediatrician Theo still hadn't feed  so we stayed in a bit longer for further support. The midwives were very good at showing different breastfeeding techniques and reassuring us that it is not unusual for newborns not to latch on straight away. What they didn't provide us support with, were what our alternatives should be given he was not getting much food. We left the hospital around 8. Marshall gave us a lift home, we had a bit of a challenge getting our car seat fitted but got there in the end and got Theo home and into his bed.

Tuesday 18th: Theo still hadn't feed much, he had gone 2 days now with hardly anything to eat. I went out to the pharmacy to buy him some newborn formula because he had to have something. Jackie called her community midwife team. They were supposed to have been informed by the hospital that she was home and would need a home visit but the hospital had not sent over the paper work. Jackie asked if someone could come and see us but the best they could offer on that day was an appointment for us to go an see them, which was fine as it was just down the road. The midwife was very good, we established a plan so we would feed every three hours trying on the boob first, then expressed breast milk and formula to top up. She also identified that Theo had jaundice and a mild tongue tie and his weight had dropped a little more than she would have liked. The jaundice made him yellow (we started calling him our yellow jelly bean) and sleepy which would make it more difficult to get him to feed, which is a bit of a downward spiral because feeding is one of the best ways of overcoming jaundice.  We left with an appointment to come back on Thursday.

Wednesday 19th: We stuck to our plan and were feeling more confident as we knew Theo was getting plenty of food. We even took Theo out for a walk, stopping in at the new cafe in the lobby of Du Cane Court. It was at this point we found out that the main entrance to our building does not have a door wide enough for a pram, we have to unlock and open the second door in the double doors to get in - not ideal.

Thursday 20th: Having stuck to our plan for two days we were feeling a bit better although Theo still wasn't feeding off the boob, was still quite yellow and still very sleepy. We were still very worried. The midwife today was a nice Canadian lady. She was pleased with our feeding progress and Theo had put on some weight which we were very pleased with. She was however very concerned about his jaundice and wanted to refer us to hospital to get his blood tested to see if he needed UV treatment. This involved us being referred to our GP to get referred to A&E. So we left the midwives, quite concerned. Went straight to the GP who was very good and actually a paediatrician at another local hospital. We decided with her to go to her hospital (Chelsea and Westminster). Before going we bought another car seat to avoid the faff we'd had when leaving hospital initially. We got a taxi to the hospital which is kind of in the city. They were very good there from the receptionist, the nurse who saw us as soon as we arrived, the paediatrician and the breast feeding advisor they were all really good and reassuring. The test for jaundice only takes a few minutes and we were pleased to hear that Theo's levels were not so bad that he needed time on the sun bed. By this stage he was also noticeably more alert, were we through the worst of it? We took a black cab home with a very entertaining driver which perked us up even more.

Friday 21st: Having been given positive encouragement and having had a better night sleep we went into Friday with more confidence. We went in to town, bought some supplies and popped in to a market that one of the churches was hosting. We bought some nice lemon and poppy seed cake.

Saturday 22nd: A reasonable night sleep  meant I was able to get out for a jog for the first time since Theo was born. We had a midday midwife appointment where we were given some great encouragement for getting through the first week and turning around Theo's jaundice. His weight was back up to close to his birth weight which was a huge achievement. We decided to go out for lunch to celebrate. Theo's first meal out. He was very well behaved. We went to Gazzette, a local French restaurant which we thought was fitting given the RWC final the next day. It is also a nice restaurant but reasonably priced and welcoming of prams. The food always takes a while to come but we had lots to catch up on so didn't mind the wait.

Saturday evening we had our first visitors. Marshall and Fiona came bearing gifts and dinner. We had a lovely evening with yummy pie and even a bottle of red wine.

Sunday 23rd: At our first pregnancy appointment about 8 months ago, the 23rd was indicated as our due date (it was later pushed out to the 27th), we certainly did not expect to have a 1 week old baby at this stage but here we  are. After a decent night sleep Theo was dressed in his AB's jumper ready to support the team. I went round to a friends house to watch the game. For the second time this week it was a tense time with elation and relief at the end. And what better way to celebrate the AB's win than to come home to my wonderful family. We're planning a nice Sunday meal to celebrate our first week of parenthood (and the AB's win of course)

We're hoping the week ahead will be less eventful than the past week! At least that way I won't need to write such a text heavy blog!