6 months of Luna
Written by Nez, Posted in Motherhood, Comments: leave another one
Last year September this day our youngest Luna was born. I am a mom for the third time but each experience has been completely different. We wanted Luna so much, we prayed for him. He is our blessing, everything we have been hoping and waiting for.
I wrote this when Luna was six months. He is now 7months and I am going to go on and publish it. It shows how busy life is.
It was new to me when we had to schedule his arrival. His two sisters came at their own time. Life is unpredictable, that’s what makes it fun.
The day of his scheduled birth, we woke up early. The thought that I will be having a baby just after 10am was foreign to me. When I felt labour pains in my previous two pregnancies, I just thought the time is near. It might be in the next 2hours, 4hours or even 36 hours. This time I knew the exact anticipated time for his arrival. I felt the feeling of excitement tempered with a feeling of fear and anxiety. The feeling was familiar, yet no amount of experience could take away all the concerns surrounding the important event in my life that was about to happen.
This is the last pregnancy pic with Luna. It is blurry but I like it. This picture makes me emotional because the brand new person who is to be born in few hours from the time I took this picture, has been part of me for 9months. Now I am about to hold him in my arms.
Luna, when he was born. He lached immedeatly and it seemed like he will never stop latching in his life time because he held on and never let go for hours. He was a calm baby from day one. Only waking up to eat and then sleep.
Luna at one months. Lets just switch a bit to the reality of new born life. This time I had cracked nipples. I switched off from breastfeeding him to pumping and bottle feeding. I quickly asked for help. I met lactation specialist who assisted me with some laching techniques. Best decision ever. I went for one round of nipple laser. Tears were shed and doubt was raising its ugly head. It was a comforting to have my sister with me to help. My sister was very helpful. In 9days we were back at breastfeeding. Today 9days seems like a short period of time, but when I was going through the new born phase it seemed like eternity. Things have been good since.
Luna at 8 weeks. Oh the throwing up. I have never experienced this in a new born. It was feeking me out. One day I took him to the ER to seek help. I hated the fact that I could not help my child. One moment he will be latching nicely and just when she finishes and about to burp he will throw up all the milk he just took. I could not leave his sight. I was watching him all the time. Girls will be playing around while I’m watching him. I guess that’s why he can sleep soundly in a noisy environment. He was examined and found nothing was wrong with him. Some infants do this and outgrow it. He outgrew it. I was exhausted. Cullo was helping a lot yet I was exhausted, we were both exhausted. In all the exhaustion there was contentment in both of us. Our home environment was peaceful. Big kids were proud to be helping with the baby.
Luna at 3months. The cracked nipples and the throwing up were behind us. We have adjusted to a life of family of 5. Everyone was happy. Somedays when I feel the energy I will drop kids to school. We were planning for a trip to Mafikeng to see my Mom. My Mom was not feeling well days leading to Luna’s birth, she could not come to help me. My sister came to help for the first three weeks. I could not wait to meet my Mom and let my guard down. You know that moment when your child hurt themselves whie playing with other kids, s/he comes running to you and burst into tears just when you hold him/her. That’s how I was feeling. I wanted my mom so badly.
Luna at 4months. He already travelled a round trip of 2600km to and from Mafikeng. He is a sweetheart. He likes his bath time. He smiles a lot. He hates to be hungry. He feels deeply offended when you take away his toys. He surely knows when he is left alone and he wont have, he wants to be where the fun is. After going to see my parents I felt rejuvenated. I could feel present for all my kids. I started dropping the girls and picking them up. Cullo can do that but I wanted to do it myself. I knew soon I will be back at work and miss this.
Luna at 5months. He is the most content baby ever. You will find him with his hands on his legs becouse he has just discovered his legs and wont let them free. He likes his bath time. He laughs a lot when he is held standing on his feet. His giggles are so adorable it hurts. He likes to chew on his lovie blanket. He is starting to like tummy time because he get to reach many things with his hands. He laches very quickly, which is good when im running some errands. I just go to a fitting room and he is done in few minutes. He likes his sisters. They like to surround him and sing for him. He sits there and look at them adorably.
Luna at 6months. Finally, the time we spend together in the middle hours of the nights are paying off. Ha!. He is very expressive when he wants his mamma, and there is no stopping him. He started solids, he is a good eater and a picker. If he likes some food he eats to his heart content and if he does not want it he does not eat. Her favourite is butternut and baby spinach. He does not like yoghurt or beetroot. He has not tried many foods yet. He can sit, roll. He is practicing to sit from a lying position. He is a very strong boy. I have many of her scratches on my face to prove it. He likes to say mammmma, it is the sweetest sound.
As I am writing this, the whole country is in lockdown. There is a pandemic called Corona virus. South Africa has about 3000 cases of people who have tested positive and about 50 people have lost their lives due to this virus. It is odd days. I have not been outside since the night of the 26th March when the president announced the beginning of lockdown. Cullo is working from home, my maternity leave is over but I could not go back to work because of lockdown. The kids are on online education. I teach them during the day. The days are long. I am honestly not looking forward to any day. I am leaving my days to the fullest as I know how. I know and I have faith that things will get better. Staying home is the best way to fight the virus at the moment.
Take care,
Nez