Sling!

You can't see much of Asher in today's photo.

In fact, I took another one to show you what he's doing:

Sleeping!!

Asher does like to sleep. It's just that he hasn't really got the hang of doing it by himself yet. Noah is his favourite bed, and I'm a close second. After people, the pram is the next best bet - but only if it's moving. Same with the car seat (but he doesn't tolerate traffic jams). The one place Asher really doesn't like sleeping is, of course, his moses basket.

We're working on it.

In the meantime, tying him to my chest should fool him into thinking he's got my undivided attention as a mattress whilst I get chance to Do Stuff*. Win!

* "Stuff" probably won't include cooking over a naked flame. Or using sharp knives. Or, you know, bungee jumping or even going on a trampoline. I wonder if I could use my sewing machine...

Desk Drawer

Asher went to see Daddy at work today.

Noah: I bet he'd fit in my desk drawer.

Me: Nah, he's too big!

Noah: I bet he would... I've got a big drawer.

Noah was right.

So that's babysitting sorted out for the next few weeks!

Official

Yesterday was an exciting day for Asher. He became the proud owner of a document he will find invaluable in his future life, both as a child and when he's grown up (which seems an impossibly distant prospect at the moment!)

That's right... We got him a library card!

And also a birth certificate.

First we took a trip to see the registrar (our original appointment was for Friday, but they cancelled because of the snow). Asher, ever soporific during car journeys, slumbered peacefully as we gave the registrar our details, checked them over and purchased two full copies of his birth certificate (in case the American Embassy needs one at the same time as the Passport Agency).

Outside the Registry Office

Once this excitement was over we decided to pay a visit to the library. I had hoped to get Asher a library card before he had a birth certificate, just because I could, but it's been so very cold and snowy that I didn't want to take him out unnecessarily. Still, there was less than half an hour in it, so not bad. Ash now has one 'Baby Sees' library book in his own name. He seemed to enjoy the first two pages, particularly the black and white spots.

Asher's first trip to the library!

Believe it or not, our trip out was not the only excitement for the day. In the morning the health visitor came to give us leaflets and information and to weigh and measure Asher. He's now 9lb, a very respectable weight that puts him on the 75th percentile. I found this very reassuring - I was a bit worried about how breast feeding was going, but clearly it's doing the trick. At 55.5cm tall (they call it 'long' but I prefer 'tall') Ash is on the 91st percentile for height, which confirms my mum's suspicion about his being a tall baby.

Two Weeks

We've been parents for two weeks already.

In some ways, Asher has changed a lot since he was born. He looks much bigger - less skinny and bony, and more like a real chubby baby. His arms and legs have started to stretch out and he already has a powerful grip (although I doubt he knows he's using it). He seems to have been sleeping more in his second week - though still not when we want him to, and still preferably in somebody's arms!

Two weeks ago: much more wrinkly and bundled up

Yesterday: more hair and chubbier cheeks

In other ways, looking after Asher is much the same. His feeding and sleeping schedule still seem to be totally random - sometimes he goes an hour between feeds, sometimes as many as six hours (and then we have to wake him up). Sometimes he feeds for ten minutes, sometimes an hour and a half. Sometimes he'll be awake, alert, and looking at things for an hour or two; other times he'll spend most of the day asleep. It's so confusing taking care of him! Every time I take the opportunity of his napping to try and sleep myself, he seems to wake up straight away - yet at the moment he's slumbering peacefully in his pram and has been doing so for at least an hour.

Earlier today with his Uncle Ned

Google is not my friend in this task, either! It's so easy to spend hours looking up his behaviour online, trying to see whether it's 'normal' and what I should be doing about it. But everybody seems to have something different to say. Or I feel like I am following the advice, to no avail. Better to stay away from that search box, I guess, and just concentrate on loving Asher.

Feeding Frenzy!

Asher will not stop eating!

(Well, he did stop about 20 minutes ago - I've got to rush to fit in a blog post before he starts grumbling again).

I wouldn't mind, but half of the 'feeding' time is actually Asher stressing out, wriggling, grunting and pushing himself away from the milk he so clearly wants. Babies are crazy!

Still cute though...

I'm amazed he kept his hand still long enough for me to take this (even though he was asleep)

All bundled up for our first family trip out for coffee the other day

The Invisible Baby!

Unfurling

Asher is stretching out.

In his first few days, his little legs were always curled up in a tiny bundle. It made him seem very small! Now that he's started to stretch out his limbs he suddenly seems massive. His feet dangle when I'm holding him.

Talking of feet... here they are! They had been hidden in a babygrow until Tuesday, but here he's wearing the first pair of trousers I made for him (back in the summer holidays I think). I made them using this free pattern from Made By Rae, a blog I rather enjoy reading. I've also bought this pattern from her website and both are very good: clear instructions, and the trousers are sized appropriately to fit a cloth nappy in - unlike some of the other clothes he's got. I love making baby trousers (because I'm impatient and they don't take very long?) so expect to see more of them here soon!

More cute photos from Tuesday:

Sleep...

Getting a daily photo was something of a challenge on Sunday. This was because Asher's sleeping schedule is as follows:

10pm - midnight: wakeful cuddles with Grandma
midnight - 4am: feed constantly, refusing to be put down for more than ten minutes
4am - 5am: be soothed by Daddy (having utterly exhausted Mummy's physical capacity)
5am - 10am: sleep soundly and have to be wakened (with some effort on Mummy's part) to feed

In consequence we didn't make it to church (although I had been hoping to) and spent much of the morning in a very drowsy state. Asher had a visitor at lunchtime, and by the time we picked up the camera it was getting dark. Anyway... here's the best one:

Asher spent much of Sunday evening awake so we thought that he might be more sleepy in the evening. No such luck! According to Penelope Leach, new babies sleep exactly the amount that their own physiology tells them to and "there is nothing that you can do to make your baby sleep more than this amount and nothing that the baby can do to sleep less". So I guess we're living with the sleepless nights for a while. Good job Grandma is here at the moment so that I can sleep during evening cuddle time!

Week One

Asher is almost a week old already! I was certainly pretty sure he was on the way by this time last week...

We've been trying to take at least one photo of him each day. (But why stop at one? He's so cute!)

Here's how the first week has gone:

Asher's first outfit (he didn't wear it for long!)

Asher was born in a birthing pool early on Monday morning. He came out wrinkly (but not as wrinkly as some babies) and spent most of his first 12 hours wide awake, just staring at me and Noah. He finally fell asleep just before we left the hospital and, much to our relief (as we were in a daze of exhaustion by that point), he stayed asleep for a couple of hours after we got home. That evening was a blur of feeding him and sleeping, and I honestly can't remember how we got through the night! But we did, and woke up so happy and proud of our baby boy.

Contemplating Uncle Thom

On Tuesday Asher was a whole one day old! Uncle Thom came to see his nephew and was very pleased to be Asher's first real visitor.

Me being all maternal...

On Wednesday morning we were starting to feel a little despairing. Asher had hardly slept all night, apart from a few minutes at a time when he was being cuddled. He seemed to want to feed fairly constantly and we were starting to wonder how people possibly manage to look after newborn babies. Fortunately, that evening, Grandma arrived! Hooray for (grand)parents! My mum has been happy to spend hours just cuddling Asher whilst me and Noah sleep - not to mention cooking for us and doing absolutely loads of laundry! Thanks Mum!

Kicking back on Thursday

Now with three fully grown adults available 24/7 to care for Asher, we finally managed to get a bit of sleep on Wednesday night and woke up feeling much better on Thursday. Here's Asher hanging out in one of his favourite starry babygrows. He's a bit of a fashion icon and likes to have at least three outfit changes each day, preferably into brand new clothes. He has a few different ways of letting us know when he's bored with what he's wearing...

All wrapped up for his very first outing

On Friday we decided that we wanted to get out of the house and take Asher for his first stroll around the block. We put him into his pram suit (labelled '1 month' and so massive that when I was putting him in the pram Noah was concerned that I was twisting his leg, until I explained that his tiny limbs didn't extend into the legs of his suit...) and covered him with blankets then went out for a 15-minute stroll. Asher met a neighbour and two people from church whilst we were out. So many new people!

Bonus photo of Noah striking a "stroller advertisement" pose

Friday night was interesting... Asher fed fairly constantly until about 3:30 in the morning. I was beginning to despair of getting any sleep at all, but Noah took him downstairs where he slept in the pram until about 5am. Then after another feed he went to sleep in his moses basket for three hours! We were amazed! If only we can get him to do this in the night...

Saturday's photoshoot

Unfortunately we had to wake Asher (and ourselves!) up before he finished sleeping because we needed to take him to the clinic on Saturday. The midwife said all was well. Asher had a busy day on Saturday, with more visitors after the clinic. He also decided whilst I was taking the above photo that the first time I laid him on his lovely handmade quilt from his Grandma Leeann would be a good time for another outfit change... grr! Hope we can wash the blanket!

And now it's Sunday, and our seventh day of being parents. Asher is confusing us a lot with his feeding/sleeping plans, but we're getting through it (with a lot of help from Grandma!) and we are both thoroughly delighted with our wonderful baby boy.

Three days

Our son is three days old.*

Asher with his daddy on day 2

Asher James was born at 2:39 on Monday morning, weighing 8lb 6oz.

Special things about the first few days:

The top of Asher's head, with its little bit of downy black hair, is the softest thing ever. I can't stop stroking it!

He has beautiful steel-grey eyes which are open surprisingly often, just looking at things. For his first 12 hours in the hospital he hardly slept - just lay and looked at us peacefully.

Just after he was born the midwife gave him to me to hold. She asked if we knew his name. Noah said no, because we hadn't officially decided, but as soon as he looked up at me I just knew that his name was Asher. Fortunately Noah thought the same!

Look at those lovely eyes!

*OK, so he's four days old now... but it was three days when I wrote this! Looking after babies takes up a lot of time...