Baby's First Bath

Finally on day 3 after watching a midwife give a bath demonstration... we undertook to give our baby boy his first bath.

I endeavoured to get Lance to give the bath but was unsuccessful (he chickened out). So he was the camera man and support person whilst we bathed the little man.

He loved his bath with no complaints throughout. He kicked his cute little legs and arms and was thoroughly relaxed through the bath and his oil massage afterwards.

Swaddling

The lovely nurses showed us how to swaddle our baby. Lance watched carefully and was so particular about how to swaddle him (poor baby had to ensure Lance redoing the swaddling numerous times until he felt it was perfect enough - so cute!).

We still hadn't named the baby yet as we wanted to spend some time getting to know him in order to ensure we picked the best name. We had pre-picked a list of about 7 names to choose from.

Lance stayed up with the baby after we got to our hospital room. It was wonderful to be able to get a couple of hours sleep. Poor Lance was up the whole night - listening to him breathing, rocking him in his arms at every little whimper and watching his little faces.

When I woke up the first thing my lovely tired husband said - 'he really is very cute and makes all these little faces!'. It was so adorable and I was so pleased they had that time to bond. No one else could make Lance stay up all night and not be grumpy :). And so our sleepless days and nights continued. For the first few days/nights the baby slept pretty good during the days but woke intermittantly all nights, wanting to use Mummy as a milk bottle/pacifier. Poor little man was still getting used to life outside the comfort of the womb.

Lance was able to board at the hospital in our big double bed and order meals with me on the menu and everything. St John of God Hospital was really great (so glad we were able to go private, covered by medical insurance). So he stayed the first couple of nights to help out so I could snatch a few hours sleep. All in all over the first 4 days I got 5 hrs sleep... amazing how you can still run on adrenaline...

Family Visits

My bro and sister in law Mike and Sarah visited on baby's birthday along with our son Cale who was happy to see his new little brother.

My bro Jo, sister in law Justine and two gorgeous little nieces Rita and Louise visited to cuddle the baby.

Then the proud Grandparents stopped by for a hold of baby Asher.

A Star is Born!

I went into pre-labour with contractions starting the early morning of 13th Feb.

Lance had an interview for a job that morning so Mum came over to 'baby sit' me for an hour whilst Lance rushed off to his interview. His interview went really well and he got the job - yay!

Mean while my job was only just beginning... we started off to St John of God Subiaco hospital at around 5pm once the contractors started getting stronger and were 5-7 mins apart.

My Poppy from Melbourne happened to call whilst we were in the car to check up on how everything is going and was pleasantly surprised to hear we were off to the hospital - he said he had a feeling it was going to happen...

We got the beautiful large birthing room at the hospital, given our desire for a completely natural delivery. I wont take you through all the 'gory' details but after a grueling labour (is it ever not grueling?) our son was born at 12.37am on 14th Feb. Just like his Dad - he had to be on time. And he made it just into his due date and Valentines Day. Our perfect little gift of love :)

The little man was gorgeous and not really so little at 8.75 lbs and 54 cms. He came complete with gorgeous little round chubby arms, his Daddy's broad shoulders and beautiful little rosebud lips.

The nurse immediately passed him to me and I was able to hold him and feed him. What a good little feeder he was - right away he took to breastfeeding... a good eater (again just like his Dad).

Lance had a hold of his new son and bonded whilst we organised to move to our lovely hospital room. My lovely husband then stayed up with the baby all night so I could snatch a couple of hours sleep. He listened to his breathing to make sure he was ok, jumped at every little sound and held him all night :) Amazingly he made it through the night and wasnt even grumpy in the morning. The first thing he said when I woke up was 'he's really so cute and makes all these little faces'.. awwwwwhhhhh!