- Hi, guys, so today, I'm going to
be filming Jackson's one week update,
and one week postpartum.
I was hoping to be holding him for this video,
but he's so peaceful asleep behind me
there in his little Sleepyhead.
So, I've just left him to it.
He may wake up during this video,
but we'll just see how it goes.
But, yeah, I can't believe it's already been a whole week.
It was literally this time last week
that I was in labor with him.
He's fitted into the family wonderfully.
The boys, his brothers, are absolutely in love with him.
They spend loads of time stroking his head,
which is both cute and scary, at the same time.
'Cause you're like, "Gentle, gentle."
To be honest, Matt and I forget
that we've even got him, he's so content.
As long as he's full up, he's just quiet.
And then, every now and then, he'll make a sound,
and we're like, "Oh, yeah, Jackson."
A really chilled third baby, and we're totally in love.
This week's been really nice
because Matt has had loads of time off,
so he's been around, and my mom's been around,
and Matt's mom's been helping, as well.
So, I've had loads of help.
So, I've been able to enjoy the baby so much.
And when the boys are at school and nursery,
Matt and I have had like a few dates just with Jackson.
And it's been really, really special.
I know I've just had a baby,
but I feel like we've had like a little bit of a holiday.
We've had quite a nice amount of visitors.
I think 'cause it's our third,
and people know that we've got other stuff going on,
we've haven't been inundated
with people wanting to come around.
We've literally just had family,
and like, two close friends visit this whole week.
So, it's been really, really chilled
and spaced out and just really nice.
There's been no pressure to like,
make constant cups of tea,
or put makeup on, or anything like that.
It's been really relaxed.
So, I think I'll update on Jackson
first and how he's doing.
And then, I'll talk about myself after that.
But he is doing really well.
We had a midwife come around today.
And we realized we actually got his birth weight wrong.
They do it in kilograms and he was 3.45 kilograms at birth.
And it's even on my birth vlog.
She says it, and you can see it.
So, when he was weighed at birth,
whoever converted the kilograms to pounds in the room,
in all the craziness, converted 3.35 kilograms,
which is seven pounds six ounces.
So, that's what we all thought it was.
'Cause they just said, "Oh, he's seven pounds six."
And we were like, "Cool."
Today, we've realized that 3.45 kilograms,
which is what he was at birth,
means that he was seven pounds nine ounces.
So, we've already had cards and frames,
and we've emailed him saying
that he was seven pounds six and all of this.
But he was actually a little bit heavier.
So, he's actually quite a good size,
which makes more sense because he was 11 days overdue.
But, yeah, anyway, he was seven pounds nine at birth.
And the midwife weighed him today,
he's exactly a week old today,
and he is now seven pounds 15.
So, I'm so proud because I am just breastfeeding on demand,
and I feel like all I do is feed.
And it's obviously working
because he's put on at least an ounce a day.
So, he's really thriving.
So, if you saw my birth vlog,
you will know that we decided to call him Jackson Leo.
We just loved the name Jackson.
I know I kept talking in my pregnancy updates
about how I wanted a surname as a name.
I don't know why, I just really like those kind of names.
And Jackson was the only name that Matt also really liked.
So, it was like the one for us, so we chose Jackson.
And we decided to spell it like Michael Jackson,
rather than with an X.
And lots of you have already picked up
on why we chose to make his middle name Leo.
That is because our eldest son,
Fraser, our five year old,
when we told him that we were having a boy,
he instantly went, "I want to call him Leo."
And then, he carried on saying
the name Leo throughout my pregnancy.
He really wanted his first name to be Leo.
But we have kind of told Fraser
that his name is Jackson Leo.
So, it's like his whole first name.
It's kind of not, but we just wanted to keep him happy.
And he is thrilled that we got the name Leo in there.
And I think it's quite a nice story
that his brother sort of gave him his middle name.
The name really suits him,
and we've already got a few nicknames for him.
We're already calling him Jacks,
and Matt keeps calling him Jacko,
which (chuckles) I don't love, but it's quite funny.
Jackson also looks a lot like his brothers.
He is a real cross between his two brothers.
But I think he might be leaning towards
looking a little bit more like Fraser at the moment.
He's got the same beautiful big blue eyes,
and the same lips that his brothers did.
It's just funny how Matt and I
just seem to make this one type of baby.
It's like we make this kind of boy,
and that's what they look like.
He's obviously only a week old,
so he has basically spent the whole week sleeping.
He has just been feeding and sleeping and burping.
And he's actually really easy to wind.
He's really good at burping,
which I think has really helped with the night times.
(gentle music)
(Jackson burps) (laughs)
Because he can feed quite quickly,
and then he can get the burps up, as well.
So, so far, he's going about two
or three hours between feeds.
The first couple of nights, you know,
when they're full of mucus, he was going four hours.
And I was like, "Oh, my gosh, this is amazing."
And then, it starts to hit,
they start to get the hunger and stuff.
His umbilical cord has already fallen off.
It fell off on day four.
And I was actually a little bit sad
that it happened so quickly.
I was like, "He's growing up so fast."
But I didn't keep it, I looked at it.
I was like, "Aw."
I was like, this is so nice
because it's like the thing that tied us together.
But then, I was like, it's also a dry piece of skin,
so it's kind of gross,
so I just put it in the bin (laughs).
Yeah, we also gave him his first bath
yesterday on day six as a family.
We were all together and we did him
a bath in our utility sink and he really enjoyed it.
We made sure it was all nice and warm, it was 36 degrees.
And it was quite full up, as well,
so he was completely covered.
And he was kind of kicking his legs,
and the boys were washing him.
So, that was really nice.
'Cause I had wanted to wash him all week
because he obviously was born in like the meconium poo.
So, I don't recommend you wash them
until the cord's fallen off, or he's a week old.
So, we waited, but it was really nice
to give him a good old wash.
And then, I've been putting just olive oil on him
because they recommended olive oil
or sunflower oil for his skin.
And 'cause he was 11 days later,
his skin is like a little bit overcooked,
so he is shedding a little bit of skin.
So, I oiled him up, but it feels really weird (laughs)
'cause when he's all naked and oiled up,
he looks like a little chicken
that you should then put into the over.
As for me one week postpartum,
I'm feeling really well and good in myself.
If you saw our birth vlog,
you will know that I got my home birth
and that all sort of went to plan.
We did have to go to hospital after the home birth,
but that was actually fine.
It was a super quick labor,
it was like three hours in total.
But I went from five centimeters
to him being born within just 40 minutes.
So, it was really intense.
There was a fear that I was going to tear.
But I am happy to say that I am completely intact.
In this labor, for the first time ever,
I delivered the placenta naturally.
I did that because you know I had planned to
have my like placenta smoothie afterwards.
So, they recommend that you do it
naturally without the injection.
So, I was so surprised.
It only took 10 minutes and one contraction,
and it just all came out on its own, so that was cool.
But I didn't do the whole placenta smoothie thing
because he had done a meconium poo inside of my womb,
I just didn't know if that was a good idea,
and I went off to hospital and I didn't even look into it.
I just thought if he's had a poo inside,
I don't think I should then,
like whiz it up into a smoothie, so (laughs).
Breastfeeding is going really well, as well.
I'm just completely breastfeeding on demand at the moment.
My milk came in on day three.
And they were huge and so engorged on the first day.
There was just so much milk for such a small little baby.
So, I found day three and day four quite hard
because they were just so big.
And it was like trying to get like a football
into like a little fish's mouth or something.
I was trying to like reshape them, TMI, sorry.
But it was really, really hard,
and I was in a lot of pain on those two days.
But now, it's all calmed down.
I'm just feeding every two hours,
and obviously, he's thriving.
Obviously, it's only been one week,
but I am feeling quite huge already.
And my chest is huge.
My stomach has gone down a bit,
but I haven't stepped on the scales,
and I don't think I will for a good four to six weeks.
I've probably already lost a stone
in baby and liquid and all that sort of stuff.
But I'm kind of scared to step on the scales.
And Frasier, my eldest, the other day,
he asked me if I now just have a smaller baby in my tummy
because there's still like a bit of a pouch.
And I was like, "No."
Just generally, he has fitted into the family so well.
We've been so impressed and proud of our older boys.
Caleb, in particular, he's only two,
and he has shown so much love towards him.
He's forever stroking him, and going, "Oh, baby."
Like, he's always talking to him.
And if he cries, he's trying to like tend to him.
And he's just been so sweet.
And it's really surprised us
because Caleb's personality is a little bit crazy.
So, it's really shown like
this loving side towards his baby brother.
And he keeps walking around and saying,
"I'm a big brother like Frasier now."
And he's just so proud.
I know it's all probably going to change
and be complete chaos soon, but at the moment,
it feels like this third baby
has brought like this calm on our house.
And everyone is just like calm and happy.
And I don't know, it's just all going really well.
I also just wanted to touch upon
my whole Facebook Live birth thing
that I did on the Channel Mum Facebook page.
I cannot believe we've now had like press coverage
in The Express, The Metro, The Mirror, elitedaily.com,
and a few other things are in pipeline, as well.
So, it's just crazy.
I did the Facebook Live because Channel Mum
said would I put up for it?
And I was like, "Yeah, I think I would."
Because I've had such good births before.
So, I did it, but I had no idea
that I was the first woman in the UK
to Facebook Live their birth (chuckles).
Channel Mum have done a video
of my Facebook Live updates on their channel.
I'll link the video down below.
And I'll link my birth vlog down below,
as well, if you wanted to see it.
The press coverage has actually been really positive,
about how I just wanted to show
a positive birth experience.
And lots of them had said how I looked fabulous,
which cracks me up because it's just so fortunate
that I happened to have makeup on
the day that I went into labor.
Because it was the middle of the day,
and I'd already been out that morning,
and I was potentially going out that afternoon.
So, I have makeup on (laughs).
But it's like people think I got glammed up
to then give birth, which is not the case.
I think that's all that I wanted to update on.
Let me know if you have requests
for videos to do with newborns,
or I know lots of you would like me to do
a HypnoBirthing video and also one on home births.
So, I will definitely do that coming up.
And yes, again, I just wanted to say
thank you so much for watching and for subscribing.
And for all the love for Jackson, I really appreciate it.
And I will see you all soon, bye.
(lighthearted music)