Today was Juliette's final appointment with the Midwives. It was our first proper outing as the Midwives have a Baby Clinic at the St. Matthias Children's Centre on Fridays. We were scheduled in for 11 am.
We left at 10:45 am as the Centre is about a 5 - 10 minute walk MAX from our flat. Juliette slept right up until the time we needed to leave, and then when I put her in her pram, she started screaming because the poor thing was starving! I figured we'd be there a bit early so I could feed her while my mom and I waited.
Halfway to the Clinic I realised I had forgotten all the paperwork, so my mom ran back to get it and told me to keep walking to the Centre and she'd meet me there. Well, she had no idea where the Centre was so I started walking back to meet her because I couldn't just stand in the middle of the sidewalk with a screaming infant.
Now we had the paperwork (her newborn notes) and Juliette is still screaming. My mom suggests I carry her to help soothe her. This works, but again, halfway there it now starts drizzling. So I made sure she was covered head to toe and we finally made it to the Centre 5 minutes late. By this time, I am sweating profusely, the baby is crying again and I am about to start crying myself! Thank goodness my mom was there because she took the baby so I could get myself together and organised as we were called back immediately for her weigh in.
They made her be buck naked for the scale and she measured in at 3.41 kgs (7 lbs, 8 ounces)!! This is almost a full pound more than her birth weight, which is pretty impressive since babies lose weight in their first few days of life until mama's milk comes in. The midwives were really impressed!
Finally I was able to feed Jules while we finished up with the midwives and then we were on our way home.
I topped her up when we got home and she passed out. My mom offered to watch her so I could take a nap, but as soon as I laid down, my Health Visitor called and wanted to stop by! This was our first appointment with the Health Visitor so I wanted to be accommodating. She was wonderful and a wealth of knowledge. The best piece of news - because Juliette is gaining so much weight and is doing so well, there is no need for me to wake her every 4 hours like the midwives said... on demand feedings only! We'll see if she chooses to sleep longer during the night because THAT would be awesome (not that 4 hour stretches weren't already awesome)!
The health visitors hold once a week clinics that we are able to go to including baby massage and first aid for 0-1 year old. They also offer weekly weigh ins so we can track how she's growing, although Andrew is pretty sure his custom baby scale will work going forward.
8 Weeks is when we start immunisations... I have a lot of reading to do before then as they are a tiny bit different than in the States and here they also recommend a BCG vaccine against TB (which apparently is scarily common in big cities!).
It's amazing how quickly they grow!
We left at 10:45 am as the Centre is about a 5 - 10 minute walk MAX from our flat. Juliette slept right up until the time we needed to leave, and then when I put her in her pram, she started screaming because the poor thing was starving! I figured we'd be there a bit early so I could feed her while my mom and I waited.
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| My "I just ate" face :) |
Halfway to the Clinic I realised I had forgotten all the paperwork, so my mom ran back to get it and told me to keep walking to the Centre and she'd meet me there. Well, she had no idea where the Centre was so I started walking back to meet her because I couldn't just stand in the middle of the sidewalk with a screaming infant.
Now we had the paperwork (her newborn notes) and Juliette is still screaming. My mom suggests I carry her to help soothe her. This works, but again, halfway there it now starts drizzling. So I made sure she was covered head to toe and we finally made it to the Centre 5 minutes late. By this time, I am sweating profusely, the baby is crying again and I am about to start crying myself! Thank goodness my mom was there because she took the baby so I could get myself together and organised as we were called back immediately for her weigh in.
They made her be buck naked for the scale and she measured in at 3.41 kgs (7 lbs, 8 ounces)!! This is almost a full pound more than her birth weight, which is pretty impressive since babies lose weight in their first few days of life until mama's milk comes in. The midwives were really impressed!
Finally I was able to feed Jules while we finished up with the midwives and then we were on our way home.
I topped her up when we got home and she passed out. My mom offered to watch her so I could take a nap, but as soon as I laid down, my Health Visitor called and wanted to stop by! This was our first appointment with the Health Visitor so I wanted to be accommodating. She was wonderful and a wealth of knowledge. The best piece of news - because Juliette is gaining so much weight and is doing so well, there is no need for me to wake her every 4 hours like the midwives said... on demand feedings only! We'll see if she chooses to sleep longer during the night because THAT would be awesome (not that 4 hour stretches weren't already awesome)!
The health visitors hold once a week clinics that we are able to go to including baby massage and first aid for 0-1 year old. They also offer weekly weigh ins so we can track how she's growing, although Andrew is pretty sure his custom baby scale will work going forward.
8 Weeks is when we start immunisations... I have a lot of reading to do before then as they are a tiny bit different than in the States and here they also recommend a BCG vaccine against TB (which apparently is scarily common in big cities!).
It's amazing how quickly they grow!
The *I just ate face* is so sweet!
ReplyDeleteI am so glad for you that baby Juliette is such a little angel, eats a lot and sleeps a lot. What else could you ask for?! Very happy for you!!