Six days old :)

Elijah is 6 days old today. Yesterday he had his heel prick test and did great. I was glad to hold and feed him while they did it, rather than hand him over for the whole thing like with some of my other babies. He was a brave boy! :) They also weighed him again, even though it was only 48 hours after they'd come to weigh him when he was 3 days old. She said that she might as well, while she was here! He weighed 6lbs 7oz!!! That's pretty good considering he was 6lbs 1oz 48 hours earlier!

My milk is well in, leaking and hurting like crazy when it lets down, so he is getting per-lenty when he feeds. And he feeds pretty much all the time, and has cat-naps in between, so I'm not toooo surprised that he's gaining weight well now! :) See now, I'm writing about my milk and even though he's fast asleep, I'm leaking milk all over my top, lol! I am so happy to have milk flowing again! I love lactating! :)

Benjamin nursed at bedtime last night! He had said he didn't like the taste, and it was for The Lijah (this is how he pronounces Elijah's name, soooo sweet!) and not him anymore, bless his heart! He seemed a bit sad but was happy with a cuddle instead. The next night I asked if he wanted milky but he said he didn't like it and it was for The Lijah now. Last night I asked him again, since he was watching me breastfeed Samuel at bedtime, and he just nodded yes, as though he'd never decided not to the previous two nights! He didn't nurse for long, but he seemed happy enough. He said he liked my special new milky, so who knows! Arthur did pretty much the same thing when he was 3 (Benjamin is 4 months younger with his 2nd younger sibling than Arthur was, due to slightly smaller age gaps the last few babies) - didn't like the new milky (very upset though!), and then went back to it as though nothing had happened after a few days, and continued until I weaned him at age 4! So perhaps Benjamin will now carry on as normal? I'm happy if he does, but I don't mind if he weans. He has breastfed for 2 years and 10 months, which is wonderful for him, and my goal for all my children is at least 2 years for the very best I can give them, so I am happy with what we've achieved! :)

Okay Elijah is now snuffling and squeaking and wriggling about, so I am going to feed him! I'll try to add more later.

I took some photos of Elijah at 4 days old, like I said last entry, and didn't get chance to post them before, so here they are now :) He was having some calm alert time and I put him across my lap for a few minutes so I could take some photos. You can't see it in the first picture but I took this one as a personal happy memory shot - my long-awaited view of my 'parkly toad (love that Benjamin-ism!) beyond my sweet new baby, here at last! :D

He saw me, and then the camera :)

So weeny on my lap!

Thank you afresh to Meg for sending this sweet teeny little outfit when Nathan was born! It's one of my favourites but all the babies since Nathan have been too big to wear it, until now :)

Elijah is so funny when he's calm and alert. He has such a look of... I don't know, a cross between amazed, perplexed and aghast, lol! ;) His little mouth sort of sits open - it has the same semi-circle shape (straight bottom lip) as newborn Nathey. When it's closed, his top gum often sits over his bottom lip, again just like Nathan - none of the others have this. Heather says that if you draw an imaginary line across his face just below the bridge of his nose, everything above it is Benjamin, and everything below it is Nathan, and I think that's a pretty accurate observation. He most definitely has Benji's brows! He currently has dark murky eyes, and so far only the two boys with some brown to their eyes have started off like that, so I'm excited to see what they settle as! Arthur's are brown, and Benjamin's are grey but now have a ring of true brown around the pupil, about half the thickness of his iris.

Here are a couple more pics of Elijah at 4 days old, with the look I referred to earlier! ;)

He's sooooo still and calm and quiet when he's like this. He just blinks occasionally and moves his eyes, and occasionally his tongue, hehe! Sweet little fast baby-breathing, and no other sounds. Love him!! He has the usual dark hair that they've all had as newborns, but less than some of his brothers. The unique thing about Elijah's newborn hair is that he has a sort of slightly nappy fuzz on top - definitely the least amount of hair there that any of them have had - but the usual inch-or-so long hair on the back and sides, lol! Sweet little pea! He reminds me of a little old man with his hair and his lack of chub!

I love to take photos of him sleeping. He is starting to sleep longer stretches between feeds, even 2-3 hours now on occasion. He almost always sleeps on my front or attached to me in some way, which I have the luxury of doing with him while I'm on my "babymoon", resting up mostly in bed. If I put him down, I tend to put him on his side (he startles awake quickly on his back, although less so if I put something at his feet with his legs bent up at the knee - he really likes the comfort of the fetal position still. Anyway I lay him curled up on his side and put a little rolled up baby blanket behind his back. If I lay him down, he wakes within 5 minutes or so, but I am trying to do so at least a couple of times a day and using that time to do stretches and stuff (GENTLE stretches!) because I am getting some tight sore muscles, especially in my shoulders and back, and it helps to stand up and walk and stretch them out as often as possible. I have had the most horrible sinus (maybe?) headache for 2 days that has hurt like crazy in every bone of my face, and the base of my skull at the back. Even my teeth hurt, which makes me wonder if I'm grinding my teeth in my sleep or something? Anyway, paracetamol hasn't touched it (I don't find it a very effective drug for me anyway) and it has been so sore that I have not known what to DO with myself. Last night I decided that I would just try to stay asleep as long as it lasted, to escape it. Every hour or two I woke with Elijah to feed him and it was still there, so when morning came I just carried on "night feed" style, just breastfeeding him lying side-by-side and going back to sleep - he was very accommodating, thankfully! He's not old enough yet to want or need to be "up for the day" at any point! :) When I woke with him at 10.45am, I was relieved to find my headache much better! Still there, but totally manageable, yay! So I got up, andd thankfully it hasn't worsened all day. I've had allergies since Elijah was born, so my sinuses are annoyed.

I'm sure there are some random things that I've been meaning to say but forgot... Oh! The GP came round to do Elijah's newborn check the day after he was born, and she did his head circumference which was 34cm :) That's 13.4 inches, and the weeniest little head I've delivered yet! My last two babies had 38cm (15 inch!!) heads!!!

I gave Elijah his first bath 2 days ago, this time by getting in the bath myself and taking him with me! :) Ahhh it was a lovely blissful bonding experience until he started to fuss a bit. I put him straight to the breast and was just smiling in pure contentment while he nursed in the warm water, when the inevitable happened. Yeah, he pooed. And when I say he pooed, I mean he POOED. Yellow squirty seedy breastmilk poo, one whole nappyful. Then it stopped and I sat frozen, looking at it all swirling around me in the water. I was still sat frozen when he did round two. Oh yes.

So we got out and I washed out the bath and ran a second one! ;) It was okay in the end! Funny story though, one I'll remember fondly for sure! :)

Today I took a few photos of my little treasure sleeping, so I will post them here and then I must go to bed, as it's now really late!

He is sleeping on my chest as I type this, and now I am going to put him down and brush my teeth, and go to bed with him snuggled against my tummy. These days are such bliss and such a fleeting privilege! I am cherishing every second, praising God continually for His goodness, and praying (already, lol!) for more precious little ones to hold and love and cherish. :)