Edward is a much bigger concern at the moment, and keeps my attention firmly away aikido most of the time. This is helping me stay a lot more relaxed about the grading, as I have less time to think and fret about it. That said, I doubt this effect will continue right up to the grading. In fact I hope it won’t, as hopefully Edward will become less of a source of worry and fatigue as the weeks go by and we all settle down to a more relaxed routine.

Edward doesn’t seem in any discomfort, but it’s worrying for us to keep seeing dried blood on his clothes; after two weeks his umbilicus should really be fully healed, especially as the cord stump dropped off after just three days.

Elaine has been struggling a little with breast feeding, and the night feeds have left her feeling tired and frustrated; the health visitor assured her that she is doing extremely well, and that Edward is thriving. In fact, when she weighed him, we were amazed to see that his weight is already up to eight pounds, a gain of twelve ounces in thirteen days, so he’s clearly getting plenty of nourishment. The health visitor was only expecting him to be back up to his birth weight, so she was very pleased with his progress.

She also told us not to worry about occasional vomiting, as this is apparently quite normal. Unfortunately, she also told us about a condition that some babies, particularly boys, can suffer from as they get older, which involves quite violent projectile vomiting. Obviously Edward was listening to her and thought this was an interesting idea, as a couple of hours after the health visitor left, he decided to have a practice run, and hosed his mum and the sofa with curdled milk.

Since we got home at about five o’clock Edward has fed well and is now sleeping soundly. If he makes it to the next feed in a couple of hours without being sick then we can be pretty sure that his stomach has settled down again, and that he’s back to his usual voracious self.