My name is Esther

My name is Esther. I am forty three and a half hours old. Planesimple has asked me to write a piece for his blog because he is so bad at keeping it up to date. So here is my life story.

I was born on Friday. I wasn’t actually due to arrive for a few more days but somewhere along the line someone decided Friday would be a good time for me to come and join you all. It took quite a while for me to arrive. One of the first things I remember is the lots of people talking. When I arrived there were 5 people on the welcoming committee; Mum, Dad, the doctor and two midwives. It was quite funny to begin with. The first person I could hear was Dad. He kept saying the same silly things over and over again… “well done, you’re doing great. Keep breathing, now push.” He was talking to Mum. I thought it was really silly because Mum was obviously breathing, even I know all humans have to breath to stay alive. And she was pushing anyway, it wasn’t like she was only pushing because Dad said to! It really was funny but Mum seemed to really appreciate it from what she said afterwards so I guess my Dad was doing the right thing. I’ve now seen how much he loves mummy so I guess it can’t have been that easy for him to be there on the welcoming committee waiting for so long seeing everything happen. 

Everything happened really quickly once I did actually arrive so I don’t remember everything that the welcoming committee did. I do know though that as soon as I arrived the doctor put me straight up to Mums tummy where I sat for a short time while they sorted out that big bungy cord thing that holds me to Mum. Mum looked pretty pleased to see me but she looked really tired too. One of the midwives was putting this hose thing all over me that was a bit tickley as it sucked up all this gunk off me. I probably didn’t look very elegant at the time, that’s partly why I’m trying so hard to look cute at the moment to make up for it! The other midwife was assisting the doctor as they were making sure Mum was okay.

Then before I knew it, the first midwife took me away to another room. Dad came with me (I think he wanted to make sure I didn’t get swapped! – already by that stage he seemed to really like me!). It was a bit uncomfortable at first because the room was a bit cold and they had to weigh me and check I was okay. Dad kept wanting to take me back to see Mum again but the midwife seemed to have loads of things to do first. She eventually wrapped me in this really warm and soft blanket and passed me over to Dad. I’ll always remember that first cuddle with Dad. He seemed so pleased to be allowed to hold me and looked like he didn’t want to ever let me go. It’s because of that cuddle that I know he’ll always look after me.

Then he took me through back to mummy. The doctor was still helping mummy so Dad got to hold me even longer! The doctor looked as though she was really concentrating but I think that’s a good thing as it will help mummy get better quickly. You see, she’s been walking a bit slowly since I arrived. I think it hurts her a bit to sit down and move around too. She does look a bit better today though. Finally the doctor said Dad could pass me to Mum. It was really fun having a cuddle with Mum too. It was like time stopped but then it also felt like half my life had just passed by!

I don’t remember a lot of what happened next as I think I slept a lot because of the tiring journey. Lots of interesting and funny things have happened from then on so I’ll try and tell you about a few of them. One last thing about the welcoming committee though, the doctor and midwives were really good at their jobs and Mum and Dad were really grateful to them as well. Thank you!

I’d been told before I was born to expect Dad to be a bit of a joker so I’ve been playing my own jokes on him since I arrived. He’s been quite good at trying to help mummy rest by changing my nappies, burping me and making sure I’m comfortable. A few times he’s held me for a while, rocked me gently and taken me for a walk to try and help me get to sleep. So one of the things I do is pretend that I am sleeping so he puts me back in my cot for my proper sleep. But then just after he’s sat down (this is the funny bit) I start crying to show him I’m not really asleep yet! I don’t think he finds it as funny as I do though! It does mean we get to cuddle together a lot more though – even though Dad looks a bit annoyed sometimes!

Sometimes I wonder if Dad really knows my name is Esther. He often calls me other names like beautiful, gorgeous, darling, cutie and lovely as well as silly things like sausage, monster and rascal. He’ll probably learn eventually though, he is still getting used to me. I’ve been told I am supposed to sleep a lot but I don’t think I do. I like to see what’s going on all the time so don’t always want to be sleeping – that’s boring. It’s funny though, Mum and Dad seem to always want to sleep now. Whenever I wake up they seem to be sleeping!

When we were at hospital Dad was there the whole time which was really nice. He didn’t get food like mummy did though. He did manage to arrange to get some nice looking food one day though – it looked really yummy. It was this big round circle with lots of red on it. Dad said it was called pizza and it comes from Italy. I think I’m going to like Italian food.

Mum and Dad keep telling me that I have loads of friends that want to meet me. Dad’s phone keeps making beeping noises then he reads out messages to Mum and me. They both talk about this thing called facebook too. Lots of people seem really pleased I’m here now. I feel a bit famous! I think Dad likes to show me off a bit ’cause he seems really proud! I’m not ready to meet everyone yet, as I get really tired like Mum and Dad do. I have met one of my uncles, one set of grandparents and one of my great grandmothers on skype though and that was really fun. I think they enjoyed it too.

Mum and Dad say that I’ve been given lots of really nice presents from our friends. A few of them are clothes and I like trying on my different outfits. Dad tells me not to make a habit of it as it will cost him lots of money in the future. I don’t quite know what he means but I don’t think he really means it anyway! I’ve heard some people say that I’ll have him wrapped around my little finger. That’s another silly thing people say. My fingers are so small and daddy is soooooo big! I do sometimes try and cuddle him by curling my arm and fingers round his neck when he’s burping me though. I think he likes it. I like to give my mummy cuddles too.

I’m still learning lots about my new surroundings and what I am supposed to do. Some people that have seen me comment that ‘it’s a hard life being a baby‘. They are soooooo right. I’m always having to do something; trying to feed, trying to sleep, trying to tell mummy and daddy what I want. Oh, and looking so cute is not as easy as you would think. Mum and Dad are learning too. They’re doing well. In the off chance that they might be reading, ‘I love you Mummy and Daddy – keep up the good work’!

Thanks for reading. If I get enough comments I might get another chance to come back and write some more!

[I have tried to upload more pictures to this post but WordPress is misbehaving and not uploading pictures properly… sorry]