Seven weeks old already!

I simply can not believe that my little boy is 7 weeks old now.  The time has gone by far too quickly.  He is no longer that tiny wrinkly, curled up baby anymore.  He has filled out and definitely grown longer in the last 7 weeks, well, the last 4 and a half weeks really as it took him 2 and a half to get back up to his 7lb 5oz birth weight.  I was just beginning to think that he would never put it back on as he was only gaining an ounce or so every other day, when he suddenly put on 8 ounces in 4 days.  Since then, there has been no stopping him and he is now a bouncing 9lb 12oz boy.

At one week old and tiny - being cuddled by big sister

Three weeks old and starting to fill out

Six weeks old and a lot bigger

So, apart from feeding Nathaniel lots to get this large weight gain, what have the last 7 weeks involved?

Two days before Nathaniel was born, the car dramatically broke down and a week after he was born, we found out that it would cost too much to repair due to the nearest part being in Japan!  So, we had to find another car, and quickly due to me already taking my car off the road as we couldn’t afford to run two cars while I was on maternity leave.  Amazingly, two friends of ours were thinking of selling their eight seater people carrier and by the end of the day, we had a car sat outside our house.  Please note, that it wasn’t on the driveway as we had two cars on there already – one SORN and one broken.  We looked very greedy with three cars!

My other son, Michael, has been taking his GCSE exams since Nathaniel has been born.  It has been a little strange to have one son finishing his secondary education while my other son is a newborn.  It certainly emphasised the age gap between them and made me feel both old and young at the same time – after all, there are not many 34 year olds with a 15 (nearly 16) year old and a newborn.  Things are certainly different from when I had Michael though but that is a whole blog by itself.

Nathaniel’s early arrival messed up our paternity leave plans as it meant that Laurie went back to work at the start of half-term when he should have been off for that week to help me out.  It was a difficult week with five children, the youngest being only two weeks and without a car to get out and about.  But we all survived and used our legs and a double pushchair to get fresh air.  In fact, there is nothing more therapeutic than fresh air and sunshine.  Of course, it would have been better to see the sun more over the half-term but did I really expect good weather during a school holiday?!

One weird thing that happened in the first couple of weeks after Nathaniel was born was that the nesting instinct kicked in.  There I was, supposed to be resting, when all I had the urge to do was scrub floors and clean cupboards.  My house sparkled!  Unfortunately, with five children and a husband, the house never stayed clean and tidy for long.  And, unfortunately for whoever made the mess, my ‘new mum’ hormones and sleep deprivation meant that I would certainly let them know that I wasn’t happy.

Overall, the last seven weeks have passed so fast that in many ways, I wish I could relive them, especially as Nathaniel is my last baby (despite what everyone else says).  We have had some lovely times, like all going to the zoo on Father’s Day, watching him playing on his playmate, sharing the bath with his sister and going for walks along the river.  Then there’s the cuddles that are unique to a newborn baby and the lovely smell.  If I could just stop time, it would be lovely but then I would miss out on him growing into a child with his own personality and that is just as enjoyable.