Probably a silly post title (almost welcomes things to come undone again)...but things are getting back to 'relative' normal. In the last, slightly desperate, post we noted that Elliott was having a bit of a bad time of it. Lots of crying, not much sleeping (especially at night), unsettled though the day, and sadly not much pooing, the poor little man was constipated.
So what happened next???
Well there was more crying to come that night... and then eventually in the middle of the night, at a loss of what else to do, we tried to give him a bottle. This was simply desperation as there was no reason to think he'd accept a bottle at that stage, after all he had not taken a bottle in the previous 5 months... BUT he took it! He drank 400mls and then went to sleep and had the best sleep in probably 5 days, we did too!
That night he also passed another milestone... it was smelly and filled his nappy, phew!
So it dawned on us that he simply wasn't getting enough milk to be satisfied, and properly hydrated. Kel's milk supply has periodically been going off the boil, and despite loads of advice that:
1) he was still getting enough, he's just more efficient,
2) it just settles down and you think you don't have enough,
3) you begin to get better at just producing it on demand. etc... etc...
He really wasn't getting enough. The subsequent week has been up and down as we (all three of us) try to come to terms with juggling bottle and breastfeeding . It might seem trivial but it has been a real challenge, wanting to give Kel a chance to stimulate her supply, while still giving Elliott a chance to get used to and accept the bottle when necessary.
All this was on the background of Kel's first week back at work, which anyone would appreciate was a pretty big thing for us all. She went into work on Monday afternoon (for an orientation) and then on Thursday (which will be her regular day). I'll let her write about how she felt, but from my perspective she did and is going through all those nervous feelings you get when you haven't done something for a while "can I still do it"? "Do I still want to do it"? She's also going though having to leave Elliott for a morning (ends up being about 5 hrs), which I think only another mother can truly understand. Of course we are really lucky because I'm able to spend that morning "working" from home and hanging out with Elliott. I've only done it once and I got about 2 hrs of work done while he was asleep... time will tell if I can get anything significant done, if I can't I'll just stay later on Thursday nights.
With all this going on, we've been trying to keep things as stable and consistent as possible and on Saturday night we were invited to a fancy dress to celebrate our good friend Beth's birthday. We had decided that we wouldn't make it (7pm start was a little late for the man) but in the end we just turned up really early and helped get things set up. It was a nice suggestion (by Kate) and a chance to still be involved. So at the last minute we decided we'd still dress up, just for fun. The theme was superheros. Kel went as Dangermouse, I went as Brainmaster, and Elliott went as Wonderboy (see earlier posts for episodes I & II of Wonderboy). Dangermouse is fairly self explanatory but just to elaborate on Brainmaster, he first appeared in an Aussie superheros comic book in 1975 (the year I was born) and starred with his partner Vixen in their only dedicated comic in 1977 called 'Brainmaster and Vixen'. I just wanted to find an Aussie superhero and, after all, there's probably no better option for a neuroscientist. I may pull on the swimming cap again sometime, it was quite fun. Beth was dressed as Batgirl, Paul as Robin, Matt came as Batman (new version) and Kate came as a bodysuit-wearing-sequin- clad superhero that matched her little boy Ben (top effort). There's a group picture below.
On Sunday, Elliott woke up with his first full blown head-cold and was so bunged up he couldn't breath through his nose. Luckily we have this snot-sucker thing that Lisa gave us. It must be so uncomfortable for him when we use it. Basically, you squeeze a little bulb attached to some tubing, put the tubing up his nose and then release the bulb and it sucks. This procedure hasn't been without protest but overall he has been an extremely brave and tolerant little boy and doesn't fuss much at all. We've since invested in some Baby Demazin, Karvol and Medic spray and the combination of them helps him get through the night, but at this stage he still needs some serious snot-sucking by the morning. Anyway, that day (Sunday) we had a little lunchtime visit from Nan and Pa (Anne and John) which was really nice. We went for a walk to the wetlands and had a coffee which was nice. On the way back Elliott was carried in his Baby Bjorn pouch by his Pa (the first person other than Kel or I to do that). I think it is safe to say that they both really enjoyed it, Elliott held Dad's hands the whole way.
Elliott and his Nan
Elliott and his Pa
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