Going to Scone

Monday 25^th June

Today we decided to go to Scone in the Upper Hunter to spend time with Jason’s family. joaquin is only 2 weeks old but we thought we needed to spend time with family for support as Jason and I were going crazy at home. I felt tied to the couch all day feeding and not sleeping well at night. In fact he cried so much at night and did not want to go to sleep. We were still not sure if we should travel or not considering that Joaquin still was not back to his birth weight.

So that day we left at 1pm and went to Randwick to weigh him at the Pharmacy and he weighed 3.67kg. So we decided to go from there. He was restless as we walked around Randwick with him in the baby capsule and we knew he was hungry. But we decided to drive for an hour and then feed him near the freeway. He slept once Jason started driving. At 4pm we then we tried to find a park to park near and stop so I could breastfeed him and we ended up parked in a street with big leaf trees.

We fed him for an hour and then Jason kept driving. Jason drove and Joaquin slept most of the way from there, and we were quite content to have some adult time in the car, talking while he slept. Most of the way I had to check if he was ok as he was very quite so we had to stop and I would check if he was sleeping well and had not been covered by any blankets. These are all new parent fears.

We got to Scone at about 7pm and Jason's parents were happy to see him. In a way I was happy to get out of home as i had not left home in the two weeks since he had been born and it was nice to be at Jason's parents home with the fire going and Jason's mother making lovely homemade meals each night. It really was a treat.

The hardest thing was trying to get him to sleep at night and once he was asleep, it was hard for us to sleep and then wake him feed him and try to get him back to sleep again. Some nights he cried a lot, some nights he went to sleep after a feed. There were times I kept feeding every hour or so, and times I fed for more than an hour. I really did not know how to breastfeed or know if he was sucking well or feeding well. It was frustrating for me and for him and even for Jason. Jason would ask "Is he asleep or is he sucking" I would say "sucking" but then look down and see him asleep. We had a few arguments over this!

I was also worried I was waking everyone up as Jason's day had to get up at 5am to go to work each morning, Jason's mother was on holidays at that point but I was sure that by Joaquin crying I was waking everyone up. Jason's mother said that i should not worry as Jason's dad was not able to hear anything once he fell asleep. In a way that did make me feel slightly better. But I think in retrospect it was only a few nights that Joaquin cried and cried and I could not get him to sleep. Then Jason would lie there and tell me that I was not getting him to sleep properly and I should not change tactics midflight. If i was rocking him I should keep rocking him, if I was walking around the room I should keep doing that. We decided that Joaquin just did not want to sleep in his baby moses as previous to this in the first weeks of his life we would have him sleep with us in the bed on my chest or Jason's chest. Now at two weeks we were trying for him to sleep in the little moses cot with its stand, but this was right next to the bed. So i would hear his every move and sounds and would wake when he woke and wanted a feed, it was like co-sleeping but safer.