Meeting Dakota in The View from the Terrace

On August bank holiday Monday Hubby and I got to meet our new granddaughter for the first time. She had spent 5 weeks in the Special Care unit so it has been a long wait. My response on seeing her asleep in her Moses basket was, “Isn’t she tiny!” but then Justeen said her weight was up to 6.6 pounds and I realised that she was only a few ounces lighter than Chris who was 6.12 when he was born ; it was me who hadn’t seen a newborn for a very long time.

We stayed the afternoon and I held her for most of that time. Hubby held her too but kept giving her back to me. I think he was nervous. She still had a feeding tube in because she was not taking enough on her own. They are giving her breast milk in a bottle for now as she has difficulty taking the breast but will suck from a bottle with lots of encouragement. I was asked if I wanted to feed her, they didn’t have to ask twice! Justeen was disappointed about not being able to breast feed. I told her not to feel bad, the important thing is the baby is getting her nourishment, things don’t always go the ideal way. I had big problems feeding Chris and allowed myself to get very upset which I regret.

Dakota is a very relaxed baby, like her daddy. I used to call him my little angel baby because he almost never cried. I think her hair is going to be red like her mummy’s and my granddad’s and her eyes are quite a deep blue for a newborn. It was wonderful to meet her at last.

I was home for 3 days so, the day after our visit, we went to Hay on Wye for the afternoon and I had an enjoyable time going around the bookshops. I found 2 great local history books, one on Staffordshire, where a lot of my family come from and one on Shropshire, my home county. I also bought a beautiful anthology of A E Housman’s poems with descriptions of the landscapes that inspired them. Housman is my favourite poet.

After a cool August we are now enjoying another heat wave. Louise and I have been planting pansies to provide colour for the autumn and winter.