8 weeks

When you have a baby, you get all sorts of advice. It usually comes from "they". This person called "they" is very smart, and knows all sorts of things. For instance, "they" say that you shouldn't wake a sleeping baby. How true is that. And "they" say that breastfeeding shouldn't hurt if you are doing it right. Bollocks to that. Another thing I disagree with is when "they" say that the first 6 weeks are the hardest. Utter rubbish.

Yes those first 6 weeks are hard. You are overwhelmed with this new life you have created. Who doesn't have a manual and is trying to work things out himself. You are sleep deprived, physically drained from the birth and pregnancy, and at times just a little bit irrational and deluded. But you seem to struggle through. There is that new baby high you have. And usually there is a fair bit of support on offer as everyone wants to come and visit to meet the new baby.

Unfortunately once you hit the 6-8 week mark alot of this support just seems to disappear. But you are still tired. You still don't know what to do with this baby who seems to change the rules all the time. And you are somehow expected to get back into doing normal things, like housework. My physical reserves have taken a battering and I am now sick (thanks to some sharing of snot from Charlotte). And it is hard work taking care of a newborn and a toddler when you are sick.

We found with Charlotte that her reflux, and therefore her behaviour, got so much worse at 6 weeks. I can remember the day when she wouldn't sleep AT ALL during the day and just screamed and screamed. Her reflux peaked at about 4 months and then things gradually got better.

Unfortunately Angus took a turn for the worse last week. We had a number of days where he wasn't feeding well, and would scream and arch his back for up to 90 mins after a feed. We managed to see the paediatrician earlier and he confirmed that he has reflux. So we started on losec and I have my happy little baby back! The losec takes a while to build up completely but immediately we saw an improvement. He is back to self-settling, feeding well, and is still sleeping well overnight. We have even seen a sudden increase in smiles. Yesterday he sat in his bouncer quite happily for over an hour, smiling at the world. I hope that we managed to get onto the reflux quickly and so some of the damage was limited. He still pukes though, that won't go away for a while. It does make it easier to manage though when he smiles at you, pukes all over you, then smiles some more, especially at 2am.

So yes the first 6 weeks are hard, but I wouldn't say they are the hardest. I think this time period is probably the hardest. But at least I know that things can only get better from here.