Now we are one week

Last night James was one week old. We came home from hospital on Monday and have spent the last few days (and nights) all getting used to our new lives and surroundings. James is generally a happy boy and Cristina is recovering well from the c-section and feels much much better being at home amongst her family.

James has had a week of firsts. In the hospital he met his abuelos and his granny for the first time and was an angel for both of their long visits. Since arriving home, he has met both his auntie Helen, who stayed with us for a few days and his granddad who came for a visit on Wednesday. If he could type (surely only a matter of time) he would also like to thank all of his friends around the world for their presents, cards and thoughts. It's great to have so many friends when you are only one week old. James also played the lottery for the first time - and won (although only £10). On Thursday Helen and I went to the registry office and James is now an official person!

James has also been for his first few walks in the outside world, one with Mama and Papa captured here (thanks to Auntie Helen for the camera work!) and has listened for the first time to England losing a cricket match to Australia (this happens a lot son, but it makes the unexpected wins even sweeter).

We are all working hard to establish some kind of routine for our new life, Cristina is feeding James a lot and he seems to be a pretty hungry boy. Sleep is of course at a premium :) We are extremely grateful that Rafael and Conchita (Cristina's parents) and my sister could be here to help us during the first few days. We've been able to spend so much time with James because they have calmly cared for us all and I will be forever grateful to them for that.

My job in all of this (apart from spending too much time writing blog entries and playing with iMovie) is to soothe James when he is unhappy and to do lots of nappy changes. I think I've been suprised how much I've enjoyed all of these things, caring for and cuddling James is a really beautiful experience. Apart from lots of walking around and rocking him to sleep I've come up with a couple of other tricks to soothe James.

Firstly, amazing as it might sound, James seems to like my singing....a lot. Cristina and Helen found this hilarious, and I guess it must be something to do with low vibrations and all that. Particular favourites are Don't Stop Me Now and Total Eclipse of the Heart so I guess classical maestro might be off the list of future careers. I just wish I knew more of the words.

Secondly, James really loves to be cuddled and lay on my chest close to my heart beat, as I mentioned in the previous blog. I still haven't gotten over how fantastic a feeling this is. It's probably just his weight on my chest, but my heart feels more like a muscle than it ever has before. It feels three times the size it does before and particularly large when we're cuddling. I don't know if men get a boost of oxytocin from the birth but I feel more loving and more loved than I ever have at any time in my life. My wonderful, gorgeous wife is of course a big part of this.