Elliot George Riley

If you follow me anywhere other than this (badly neglected) blog you might have heard that I had my third baby a little over a month ago. Elliot is seriously the sweetest thing ever and with his arrival I finally feel like my family is complete.

Elliot's birth was straight forward and uncomplicated, an elective c-section 3 days before my due date. He came out healthy and happy and started to feed while I was still in theatre. Just like with Max and Lincoln it was love at first sight for Sean and I, we couldn't believe how perfect he was! Towards the end of my pregnancy I was so sure that he was going to be much smaller than Lincoln and he definitely was. A tiny 7 pound 9 ounces (3.4kg). As soon as we saw him we knew he was little, but I think we were both surprised to see that he was less than 8 pounds!

  

Max and Lincoln came up to visit a few hours after he was born, something I was looking forward to so much. Max fell head over heels in love with him and has been amazing ever since. He loves talking to him, playing with him on his mat, tickling his little feet and singing to him when he cries. Such an amazing big brother! Elliot has started smiling back at Max in the last couple of days. My favourite thing ever!! 

Lincoln still hasn't quite turned two yet and I was really nervous about how he would react to Elliot's arrival. I don't think he really understood that there was a baby on the way or even that Elliot would be coming home from the hospital with us. When he first met Elliot, Link was surprised and curious, but if got too close to the baby he would yell out 'NO'. Although once we got home he got used to Elliot very quickly. Now he likes to kiss him goodnight, says 'hello bebe', pushes him in his swing and even tries to give him a dummy when he cries. Very cute!

The first few weeks at home were absolutely blissful, my Mum and Sean's Mum took turns staying with us for the first three and a half weeks and then Sean took 3 weeks leave so he could enjoy some family time too. Having the Mums here was exactly what I needed, I took heaps of naps, did barely any housework or cooking and was super happy knowing that Max and Link were getting plenty of attention. It was the best thing in the entire world.

These last couple of weeks Elliot has been having a bit more trouble settling both during the day and at night. He went from sleeping really well and only feeding once or twice per night to staying awake from midnight to 6am and fussing a lot during the day. We've invested in a sling and a baby swing and have also started using a white noise app at night time. It seems to be working and I'm happy to just keep going with the flow and switching things up as his needs change. All in all I am so happy with all three of my boys (and my sweet husband), being a mum is the greatest thing on earth and I am very lucky to have three gorgeously healthy boys.