Sunday Update

Things are going well I'm glad to report - Daniel's health remains excellent and his weight has already started to creep up again, following the (entirely normal & completely expected) slight decline whilst we sort out breastfeeding. Nights are, yes, a bit broken, which, again, is normal as Daniel is - essentially - heavily jetlagged; this slow progression is expected to continue and, with luck, we should have a routine sorted out by the 3-week mark (if only we'd had him born in Australia!).

More generally, the support we're getting is - and remains - astonishingly good: my parents have been a massive help in terms of shopping & the production of food (though, we've had a lot more football in the house in the last 48 hours than... well, ever really, & as with anyone in the house who is used to doing things their own way, they keep on rearranging the kitchen dammit!). My father has relaxed significantly since he's figured out that being slightly deaf is a major advantage and he can watch Arsenal vs. Liverpool with a Dutch commentary - with the sound turned off. Result! Give him silent tiny men running around the screen on a green background & the score in the top corner and he's in lavender!

Aside from that, the Kraamzorg service cannot be more highly recommended to those of you who are thinking of having kids: I mean, seriously consider moving to the Netherlands for this, and this alone. She turns up, advises on breastfeeding, cleans, randomly irons my shirts, checks and advises C on post-birth medical issues, changes the bed-linen, does stacks of laundry, runs the vacuum cleaner round, scrubs the bathroom every day, and - as some sort of triumphal afterthought - throws people out of the house for 2 hours each day, takes care of Daniel for several hours and sends C & myself to bed to ensure that we don't look like post-apocalyptic zombies by day 4. Seriously, this is heaven.

I had anticipated returning to work by Easter Tuesday and, yesterday, told them as such; C has, since then, asked me to recant this intention and return to work on the 2nd of May; she wants me to be present on the 26th onwards, as this will be the first week that we will have been on our own, and she wants to get a routine in place, to ensure that the post-apocalyptic-zombie issue doesn't reoccur. I am, of course, only too happy to do this - not only do I not want to go to work (I could - and indeed, do - spend hours just staring at Daniel), there are ... other reasons.

The aforementioned 'other reasons' relate to the internal vacancy that I'm applying for: the woman who was behind the role and with whom I got on with very well, has been give medical leave until the start of May. She is heavily pregnant and is due to deliver in June - but has had a spate of contractions recently, which is really bad news. As such, I hope that, if I delay this, not only will she have made a full recovery - I also hope that she will be back to work, completely healthy, and we can continue our rapport, resulting in me getting an improved job sooner rather than later.

Still, its early days yet: we are expecting a serendipitous logistical conjunction* in that C's father is due to turn up on Monday at 7pm, whilst my parents will be departing at noon on Monday, giving us 7 hours to either sort out the room, or (more likely) try and help the Kraamzorg lady whilst she does this - and possibly gives the room a lick of paint too, just to be on the safe side. Also, C's sister is turning up on Tuesday for a few days, which both of us are really looking forward to.

Of course, having C, her sister and her father here could cause emotional wobbles; not only will C be in the tail-end of the pregnancy hormones, this will be the first time that she will have seen her sister and father since her mother died several weeks ago. As might be expected, I'm wary - though I don’t expect significant trauma, mainly because of Daniel. His hair has started to turn much darker since his birth, now being a dark ruddy brown - and his sunflowers have started to come through in his eyes.

We really couldn't be happier.

Sleep? Pah! Who needs it?

S

*It appears that with great sleep-deprivation comes great linguistic ability. At least like what he said, ennit?