Ok... so what do we do now?

As soon as we were settled in the room, it was time for Genevieve's first feed. This is to get the colostrum going, and hopefully the milk in a few days shortly after. It also brings about further, smaller surges which aid in getting the uterus back from watermelon, to grapefruit, to orange.

That evening I slept on one of those horrible fold-out beds. You know the ones... you would've slept on one at a friend's place at some stage. Wheel it in, open it up. Yeah... THEM! Suffice it to say, that I must've been tired, as I slept like a log!

The midwives actually prefer it if you don't 'bed-in' with your kid the first night. It's combination of you needing your sleep - or alternatively, if you are a very sound sleeper, you may sleep thru the cries of an upset baby. So we shut our eyes at about 12:15 and then were awakened for a feed a few hours later. Of course, Nai had to be somewhat more awake than I, but both of us only have the haziest of recollections that early-morning feed. Next, we were awakened at about 7, again for a feed. So although we didn't really feel like much time had passed, the time we did sleep was very effective!

During the course of the day, we were :

• given ongoing 'lactation support'. This is the official way of saying breastfeeding assistance. It's amazing how many different tips (and sometimes conflicting information) you get from the different midwives. The trick is, to listen to it all and latch on to the stuff that works for you
• shown how to change her nappies (in particular, how to ensure she is clean before putting the next one on)
• ate
  
• shown how to bathe her - which was started by a midwife but finished by me
• had a hearing test (and came up with a pass)
• Met Nana (pronounced nar-nar... think Banana) and John, Nanna and Aunty Sue and later, Dean & Kylie and Kellie
  
• slept

Nana and John were staying at our place, so they gave Ben a feed and a walk and tidied up the place a bit.

From that day on, I rode my bike home (I'd dropped the car back at some stage), gave Ben a walk and a feed, and quicky rode back. The bike proved to be much cheaper (of course), but also, generally, faster - especially if you factor in the time to park.

So each day, as I got on the bike and started down Grattan Street away from the hospital, the tears of joy would well up into my eyes, to the point that I would be quite literally sobbing. The first day it finished at Kensington. The second, it subsided while riding through North Melbourne. It's so wonderful I can have such love in my life!