Hi fellow Dec 1-15 mums! Goodness, I'm the first to post - I've been keeping an eye open for this thread, so I'm pleased to see it's finally made its appearance!

Briefly, our story: DS2 Jacob Thomas was born 11/12/09, a day before his due date. He was a solid 3.6kg and 52cm long. Our birth was approx 5-6 hours and I was lucky enough to have another natural, drug-free labour using the hypnobirthing method. Our first couple of weeks have been quite calm. DS1 (now 21 months) was a placid, "easy" baby, and it seems DS2 is even more chilled out. He rarely cries and so far isn't suffering any (mild) wind pain like DS1 did. He even lets me sleep up to five hours at a stretch overnight !

I last weighed Jacob on Dec 23, and he's already 4.3kg (clothed) - not surprising given the kid is a bottomless pit ... he feeds every 3-4 hours (approx) during the day, and 4-5 hours overnight. Fortunately he's had a good "grasp" of BFing since day 1, so he's quite an efficient feeder now.

Jacob was born with a reasonably severe tongue tie, which we had snipped five days after he was born. In his case the end of his tongue was attached to the floor of his mouth - which meant he couldn't extend his tongue outward to suck as well as he might otherwise. A midwife suggested we get it snipped sooner rather than later, and after consulting the dr, it turned out the quick snip was painless (no blood supply to the piece of skin which attached his tongue to his mouth) and virtually bloodless. It was all over and done with in less than a minute. Now he attaches and feeds perfectly, and it was all done with minimum fuss and (as far as I can tell) pain.

Jacob is a delight so far. The hardest part of parenting the second time round is dealing with an active toddler who wants to cuddle, kiss and basically smother with affection his baby brother whenever he has access to him. Fortunately my parents came to stay with us a few days before Jacob was born, and they're here for another week or so. The help has been incredible, giving me time to ease into caring for two kids under two.

While I only get on BB a couple of times a week, I look forward to getting to know you all and I hope you're all enjoying your new babies. I learnt the first time around how quickly they grow up, and while we haven't ruled out another baby down the track, I'm conscious that DS2 could be our last, so I'm trying my best to stop and smell the roses and "soak up" these infant days .

Wishing you all a lovely Christmas and New Year season,
Andie