Ben's Blog

Well…it seems that Ben wasn’t suffering from Colic at all, but he is actually teething already!  This is a bit of a shock as babies don’t usually start to teeth until at least 3 months, although it isn’t unheard of.

Kelly found this out yesterday when she went to visit the health visitor with him.  The health visitor checked Ben out and found that there was one tooth in particular that was trying to push through at the front left of his mouth.  No wonder the little chap has been so restless!!!

We have now got some powder and medicine for him to try and keep him calm and to take away the pain of it coming through, and it did seem to settle him down a bit last night.  At least we managed to get a bit more sleep.

He is going to be a super baby, what with teething already! 😉

Unfortunately, Ben is now suffering from what we suspect is bad colic.  He wakes up at 2am every night crying and grunting, as if there are waves of pain going through his tummy.  This of course means that we are awake from this time every night, well….we do manage to nod off a bit, but there isn’t anything we can do for him apart from give him some cuddles.  We do have some medicine for this, but it doesn’t seem to work all the time.

Apart from that, he is still very good…growing fast….and is now starting to smile and laugh! 😉

How??  I really don’t know….the time has gone so fast!

He has grown so much in his first month of life its unbelievable.  He is longer for his weight, so he is going to be a big boy when he is older, and the size of his feet…..they are quite big already!  He has already grown out of most of his newborn vests and baby grows, only his T-Shirts, trousers and various other bits fit him now.  Lucky we have stocked up on 0-3 months clothes for him, just in case.

The last few days he has also started smiling and babbling to himself, which is a little early than expected.  He has a very cute smile and grin! 😉  He has also taken to lying on his back on his blanket on the floor and staring at the TV, so it looks like he will be a telly-a-holic when he is older.  He is always kicking his legs while he is lying down as well, which is good exercise for him and leads me to think he is going to be a bit of an athlete!

About 2 weeks ago he had his first bath, which he very much enjoyed!  He was kicking away as well!  Kelly bathed him the first time, and then I bathed him last week.  He didn’t enjoy it much the second time around, but I think that was due to pains in his tummy at the time and excessive wind.  We have got some medicine for that now, so hopefully it will settle down a bit.

He has mostly been sleeping very well at night, it is just a bit of a struggle to put him down as he always wakes up.  He prefers to be cuddled and easily goes to sleep whilst being cuddled.  Last night was a bit better though, as I think the medicine started to take effect, so we all had a much better nights sleep.  We are still shattered though!

Ummmmm…what else has happened with him??!?!!??  I can’t think to be honest! 😉  We have taken him out in his pram on several occasions and he seems to enjoy it.  He doesn’t cry anyway!  We also took him out in the car for a proper ride on my birthday.  He was settled when the car was in motion but cried a bit when we stopped up.  Kelly then had to give him some food to calm him down again.  We went out to Cadover Bridge on Dartmoor and took him outside for a bit, but he was fast asleep so didn’t take much in.

If I think of anything else, this will be the first place I will report it! 😉

Here are some more photos of the little fella.

Hi all, well…….everything is mostly going great with Ben.  Unfortunately, he is having a bit of pain in his tummy (well….that is what we think it is!?!) so he is crying a lot at the moment.  When he is ok, he is lovely and quiet, and very aware of his surroundings!  I think he is going to be very intelligent when he is grown up (like his Daddy! 😉 ).  He likes his food which is great, and he also likes filling his nappy, if you know what I mean! lol All in all, he is very adorable!

Finally, the baby was born at 19:09 on Wednesday 1st October, and it was a little boy.  He weighed in at 7lb 4oz, has dark hair and blue eyes, and arrived sucking his thumb! 😉  The only problem with that was that it caused some problems with Kelly, who lost a lot of blood and had to go up to theatre to have a few things done.  I am glad to say that everything went fine in theatre, and she is now recovering on a ward in Derriford Hospital.

Well…..labour started at 2:00am in the morning, and we went to the hospital (via Mum) at about 520am, when the pain got too much for Kelly.  Kelly was examined within the hour and she was already 5cm dilated, so ourselves and the mid-wife thought the baby would be out within a few hours. No such luck!! 😉

It got to the stage where she was stuck at 7cm, so had to be put on a drip with a drug that helped increase the length and strength of the contractions.  So finally, she was fully dilated at about 1820pm after several hours of drugs, gas and air due to really painful contractions!

After a while pushing as hard as she could, little Ben arrived on the scene and started crying straight away, which was a very good sign.  He soon settled down and breast fed almost immediately, which was fantastic, as it usually takes a while for this to happen.  But, unfortunately, Ben came out sucking his thumb which caused some tearing in Kelly.  So she had to be taken up to theatre to get sorted out, so I was left getting to know Ben.  This was the first time in the whole day that I managed to get to a phone as well, and let the family know what was going on.  Everyone was very excited as you can probably imagine. 😉

By about 22:45, Kelly was out of theatre and was in the recovery unit, so Ben and I were taken to be with her.  She told me that everything went very well, but she would have to stay in hospital for a few days as she couldn’t walk or even move much.

We eventually got taken up to the Norfolk Ward which is where all the new Mum’s are taken when they have a baby.  By this time it was nearly midnight, and I wasn’t allowed to stay for very long.  So I said my ‘goodbyes’ to Mum and Son and was taken home by Darren and Marina.

What a long day, but I am very VERY proud of Kelly for everything she went through (and is still going through whilst writing this!).  And I am also proud to have a Son called ‘Ben.’  He is very cute and cuddly, and I love him to bits already! 😉

Here are some pics of the little rascal, and Evertonian to be –