Skip to main content

Liam is going home

Image
By
Loads to do today.  Gerhard and I need to learn how to bath Liam, clean the umbilical cord stump, dress Liam, and feed Liam.  All the things that other parents learn on Day 1. 

So it’s time for us to give him his first bath.  You hold his head like a rugby ball, soap all over, ears closed.  The little guy hates water!

Now to put on some of those adorable clothes that mommy packed (the first 2 days in NICU Liam was naked and yesterday he wore some NICU clothes).  Guess what, these things are all way too big!  Never trust other people when they tell you that nobody wears new-born clothes.  Anyhow, we get a whole sheet of instructions, telephone numbers, and dates for follow up visits with the paediatrician and paediatric neurosurgeon and finally, we are off. 

Gerhard drives at around 10 kilometres an hour, we live 10 minutes away from the hospital and it takes us half an hour to get there.  Gerhard went shopping when I was still in hospital; we have a new baby bath and a breastfeeding pillow.  Liam's camp cot and angel care monitor has been set up in our room and so begins our "babymoon". 

We spend a full week in our bedroom, cuddling, watching Liam with amazement and just being at peace with the world.  After 4 days of pure hell, this is bliss.  I love my little boy to bits.  Gerhard tells me that my boobs are huge and I can see him secretly hoping that they will stay that way.  Gerhard is a fantastic dad, getting up for every feed and every diaper change.  We realise just how lucky our escape was and we are so thankful for our little miracle.  We actually joke and say that we will call him Miracle in the African tradition. 

I am of course still paranoid and I start reading to Liam on Day 5, I also show him shapes and colours and sounds.  I play Mozart and other classical music.  I am STIMULATING Liam; I will not let my child be even a millimetre behind his contemporaries and so begins 6 months of maternity leave and post-natal depression. 



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

I had a stunning Louis Vuiton Bag

By
I love handbags, I am crazy about them, I would forgo food for a good handbag.  Everybody has a 'thing' and mine simply happens to be handbags.  Big ones, small ones, madly expensive ones and el cheapos that you get at the flea market, grey ones hand crafted by old ladies at the old age home, shiny metally ones.  I love handbags. Well guess what?  No, not that Guess, not as in the handbag...I now have a diaper bag.  A red one, and it needs to double as my handbag.  There is just no way in hell that I can manage a two (almost three!) year old, a two week old, a diaper bag and a handbag, something had to give and in this case, it was my poor almost new chunky Louis Vuiton bag.  I miss it already... The thing is, when you have a baby, some things are just not meant to be. At least this time around, I have managed to paint my nails (all of them, fingers and toes) twice, and I have worn make up on at least four separate occasions.  With Liam a...
Post a Comment
Read more

Hello from Sydney...still feels weird to call his home now

By
We arrived in Sydney without too much drama, kids were generally good on the plane and we even managed to get some much needed sleep.  A twelve hour plane ride followed by a one hour shuttle to our lovely temporary home in Elanora Heights and an extended four hour wait for Gerhard followed, no phone this side as he had to take mine. That meant that I got rather frantic at one stage waiting for him. Safe to say that in typical paranoid Niki state, I actually marched the two kids off to the next door neighbor's house and borrowed a phone... The sun here sets after 8, so we went to Woolworths (where else) last night. Ate dinner at 10, all in bed at midnight. Liam, Luka and I slept like babies, by the grace of some paracetamol for the two smalls and a sleeping tablet for mommy...imagine my surprise when we woke after 8 this morning. So today the fun bit starts, big shopping! Gerhard needs a laptop and printer, we need cellphones, a car, a house, furniture, I was born for this.  ...
Post a Comment
Read more

On the eve of my first protest

By
It is the eve of my first ever protest about anything really.  I am a little scared, a little excited, a little apprehensive but extremely motivated.  For those not following South African politics, our President last week fired our honest Minister of Finance and the South African economy took a tumble and we were downgraded to junk status by ratings agencies. Economic and political uncertainty ensued all because of one man’s greed and corruption.  Junk status has dire implications for our country and as always the people who will be most affected are the poorest of the poor.  Interest rates will rise, so will inflation and food prices, jobs will be lost, the list of horrible things goes on. Ordinary South Africans have now had enough and for the first time ever people from all walks of life are united behind a common cause, to save South Africa.  I have never in my 40 years on this earth been moved by any cause, not enough to actually take...
Post a Comment
Read more