Sparrow Lorelei photo gallery

First days at home, up to one week old, 12-16 May, 2009

All together now: awwwwww.... We're enjoying some air time here.

Daddy is helping.

James and Sparrow in the rocking chair.

A close up of Sparrow being rocked, in the panda hat which is just way too cute.

From across the room I hear "What do you think? Should I trade Malchesky or not? ...Excellent idea." Sparrow is helping James work out the trades on his fan football team, with some sage and pertinent advice.

My belly barely changed size in the operation, which was unexpected. It's hard to believe they took a 3.7 kg baby plus placenta out of it. The day I got home the shop guy downstairs saw me and said "You must be due soon!" Then James walked into view carrying the capsule. Over the course of the week it is slowly shrinking as the uterus contracts back down, work done. I had a moment the other day where I bent down to put my shoes on - and I could. This was pretty amazing! The first few days home it felt like I was losing about two to three weeks worth of pregnancy size each day. My belly is getting squishy-feeling, too. I remember my mother's belly feeling like this when I was quite small and cuddling her in bed. Now I kind of recognise where it comes from.

Here's the belly and scar. This photo was the first time I saw the scar myself, as it's not easily visible in a mirror being tucked so far under where my belly was. By the end of Sparrow's first week the belly had shrunk enough that I could push bits of it out of the way to see the scar a bit at a time, but there's still a substantial overhang.

Bath time. This is her second bath - the first was in the hospital the night before she came home, as a demo baby in the ante-natal class. This is the first time we've used the bath part of the change table, and it worked reasonably well apart from the draining pipe not actually draining. It was also our first attempt to bath her, and I think we did OK.

Fast asleep on the pentominoes mat that I made.

Speaking of sleeping. We realised that one thing we were short of was warm baby-sized blankets to wrap her in while sleeping. We'd just not considered buying anything like that, even though we'd bought the little bed for her to sleep in. I don't know why we didn't think of blankets, but we didn't. However, a search through the bag of "stuff wot people gave us" produced this lovely blanket from my mother's friend Nola, which was exactly what we needed on these cold nights. Thank you, Nola! After this I went through the bag more carefully so I knew what was in it. During the pregnancy I had a lot of trouble keeping focused on things like that, but now that my brain is shifting back to normal it's better.

Here's her actual sleeping arrangements. We decided that hammocks were great but too hard to actually get, bassinettes were cute but expensive for something that was only really suitable for six months (and the hammocks were even more expensive!), and choosing a cot was just too hard. This little bed was an ideal solution for the first six months. It's also portable, so we can put her in it in another room if we want, or take it with us should we go visiting of an evening. The child health nurse looked down on it because she's a traditionalist who doesn't approve of co-sleeping, but she relented a little when we explained that the bed doesn't go under the doona (which is a SIDS risk). The only downside to it is that I can't help but think she always looks like we've put her in a sarcophagus. The original plan was to push our bed against the wall so she could be on one side without risk of falling out, and James and I could snuggle. Unfortunately the C-section means I needed to be able to get in and out of bed easily as well as be next to her for ease of picking her up for night feeds, so the temporary solution is for her to be between us. Not ideal, but we are finding ways around it.

The cord slowly shrank, darkened and shrivelled, and at the end of one week, fell off. I suggested keeping it and giving it to her on her 21st birthday, but James said no. And now little Sparrow has a bellybutton.