PPI anyone? (Proton pump inhibitor that is)

Welcome to 2021, it’s much the same as 2020. We are already back in lockdown not a week into it. We spent the new year watching Britain’s angriest orphan shoot people on tv (Skyfall) before popping Jools Holland on to see in the new year. I doubt the man has ever had as good a viewing figure. We were in bed half an hour later. It’s the least rock and roll new year I’ve had. 2019 we were over in Blackrock, Co. Louth, Ireland, getting hammered in The Neptune. 2018 we were in Temple Bar, staggering the streets of Dublin, Ireland. 2017 I was in Luna park, Sydney Australia. 2016, with friends our in Carmarthen, Wales. I’m not sure I can remember 2015. Either way, I wasn’t in bed by midnight. I know we’re in lockdown and I’ve a 6 week old but Jesus, I am now an old man. Might as well buy a Zimmer-Frame, sign up to an over 50 life plan and get my name chiselled on a grave stone, ready for when when I pop.

I’m glad to report I’m feeling much better though. Baby T is proving to be easier to feed, after the GP prescribed him Omeprazole. It’s working well with the Gaviscon and there has been less, but not a complete stop, of his reflux. He loves going into the sling after feeds and seems to settle in that upright position, strapped to you. After 20-30 minutes you can put him in the crib/cot/pram and he sleeps like a good’un.

He’s much more expressive and is taking great interest in the world about him when he’s not feeding or asleep, which is the vast majority of the time. I do feel I’m starting to bond with him more now that he’s not just screaming at me. I’m more relaxed to it now when he does, and it’s mainly just when he wakes with the hunger. There is literally no gap though; eyes open, I’m hungry, queue screaming. He’s nearly 12lbs already, 6 weeks in and he’s slamming 6oz bottles during the day and 4-5oz bottles on a night. The health visitor says to feed him less but he’s blow the roof of the place if I short changed him with a bottle. Like I said, he’s a hungry boy. Sadly though he’s still waking every 3 hours, but hopefully as he grows that’ll change and we’ll get a full nights undisturbed sleep… fingers crossed.

He still doesn’t like being changed. His position on new outfits and general nakedness hasn’t deviated. You try it and he want to fight you. It’s like being part of an interactive a kung fu film. He’s moving his wee legs with what appears to be such purpose, you’d swear he was reincarnated monk when you when try to dress him or change that nappy. You move into undo/do a button and he parries you with a heal, so you move deflect it to the side only to be struck with another, which has somehow escaped form the confines of the baby grow you just put it in. You go to restrain both legs and he explodes like a frog, legs in then out with maximum vigour. The agility displayed means you can’t quite get them into the baby grow. He knows this and smiles. However the movement is a bit much for him and he vomits on himself. You frown and seek help from the wife. Tag team. Cleaned, changed and the legs get wrestled in the baby gown. You two celebrate and high five. He cries cheat and takes a tantrum. No one wins. It’s like the visual representation of 2020, acted out at a changing station. Everyone is left to exhausted and bewildered to do anything, so you sit and binge watch until it’s time for bed.

Here’s to a different 2021… when it actually starts in March.