one month of marlow
A whirlwind of a month. Marlow Autumn you came into our life on a rainy Monday night and since then it feels like we have been permanently smiling! I'm amazed at how long we can stare at you without even entertaining the idea of boredom! Every little inch of you is perfection. I grow more and more amazed as I watch you grow and develop each day, especially when I consider that I grew you in my belly from only a small cluster of cells.
The initial week following your birth seems an absolute blur. Despite hoping to give birth at home, you came into the world in the Women's hospital in Liverpool. That first week was busy busy busy; we were kept in hospital for a few days, had lots of family come to stay when you were only four days old, and struggled to establish breastfeeding as you were very jaundiced. In that first month I was ill twice with mastitis, and you were admitted to Alder Hey with substantial weight loss! None of it was how we had envisaged but neither of us would change our experiences of that first month because every challenge made us stronger as a family, and more confident as parents and what we were capable of achieving. I'm so proud of our positivity and resilience.
I want to remember so much from that first month.
That wonderful feeling of new responsibility taking you home for the first time.
Trying to wake our very sleepy baby with cotton balls soaked in cold water and fans while nursing.
How soft your baby hair was, and how I used to brush it behind your ear while you were feeding.
It felt like every time your daddy took off your nappy… you peed on him.
How alert you were when the jaundice had worn off, staring at us with unexpectedly big blue eyes.
The unexpected ease of fitting into our new roles and that wonderful moment it sunk in that we were now a family of three rather than a team of two. How right it felt.
