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You're listening to Luke's English Podcast.
For more information, visit teacherluke.co.uk.
Hello listeners, welcome back to Luke's English Podcast.
How are you doing today?
Hope you're doing fine.
Here we are with a brand new episode.
And although it's been only a week since I uploaded the last one... which was what, episode 842?
I think it was called the pre-baby ramble, summertime ramble or something like that.
So it's been, in podcast world, it's been only a week since I uploaded that episode.
So two months between the last episode and now for me.
Now that I'm saying these words to you now.
So in the last episode, which I recorded just a few days before my son was due to be born...
I talked about how it felt to be on the verge of becoming a dad again for the second time.
And during that episode I said that I would probably record another episode after the birth to share my thoughts on how it went and all that stuff.
So that's what you're going to get in this episode.
I'm joined by my wife this time, which is nice.
It's always nice to have her on the podcast, although that doesn't happen all that often.
And the recording that you're going to hear was done about six or seven weeks ago, just a couple of weeks after our son was born.
And you'll hear us talking about the pregnancy, the birth, how it went, and we'll describe our feelings about having another child and seeing him come into the world and all that stuff.
Also, at the end of the episode you'll hear a short recording with my daughter to get her comments on what it's like to become a big sister.
She's five and a half years old now.
And actually, as I'm recording this introduction, I've got...
The little boy here, he's strapped to me in one of those baby carrier things.
And he's sitting here.
He's sort of yeah, as I said, strapped to me, kind of sitting in this carrier.
His face is right in front of me.
Hello, are you going to speak?
Obviously, he can't speak.
He's only about seven weeks old, but he might make a couple of noises.
But he seems to be fairly curious about the computer, the microphone.
He's thinking, what's this?
This is a podcast, yeah.
You might hear about podcasts more and more as you grow up.
It might be a bit boring for you, in fact, to hear me talk about podcasts all the time.
But here you go.
This is your first experience of it.
What do you think?
What do you think of podcasts?
Nothing, no comment at all, just a kind of curious look on his face.
So yes, a conversation with my wife and then some thoughts from my daughter as well.
So just before I start playing you the recording of my wife and me, let me give you a little bit of information about my wife, just in case you don't know.
So she's French and English is not her first language.
She learned some English at school, like most people do, and then went on to improve it in adulthood.
She's been on the podcast a few times before, but this is the first time she's been on the show for a couple of years.
The first time she was on was when we talked about the birth of our daughter in episode 502.
And then she was on a few times after that as well, talking about, for example, what it's like to be married to an English person.
As a French woman, what it's like to be with an English guy.
And also we talked about the Netflix series, The Crown and The Royal Family and stuff.
But this time, yes, talking about family stuff again.
So five and a half years ago, As I just mentioned, we did another episode which was called The Birth of My Daughter which, as the title suggests, was all about the arrival of our first child.
That was a popular episode.
And we got lots of nice comments from people who appreciated the opportunity to hear our personal account of the birth, sort of firsthand.
And so here's another one.
This is very personal stuff, of course.
And I don't want to share too much of myself and my personal life on this podcast.
But having said that, I suppose one of the things that makes this podcast what it is and what so many listeners have always responded to over the years is the personal stuff.
So, talking about things I've done places, I've been to, experiences I've had the people in my life hearing directly from my friends and my family.
This is often the stuff that my audience really responds to and probably is kind of what makes the podcast what it is.
So, although I don't want to overshare, I don't know it just feels like since I did an episode like this for the birth of my daughter, it just seems logical to do one for Child two, this little boy here who is hopefully going to fall asleep.
Are you going to fall asleep in a second?
He's thinking about it.
Maybe if I put this pacifier, this dummy in your mouth, that will help.
No, you don't want to let me do that, do you?
There it is.
Okay, there you go.
I'm standing up as well, facing all the cupboards in our bedroom because I'm trying to find the quietest place in the apartment for doing podcasting.
Standing up with this kid here, waiting for him to fall asleep so that I can do the same thing.
Because to be honest, I'm tired.
I need a nap.
But anyway.
So, by the way, there was lots of noise in the background while recording this episode and I thought that it might be a bit of a problem.
But thankfully my podcast recording setup is so professional that you can't really hear the noise too much.
But my wife and I refer to it quite a lot.
We talk about it quite a lot.
It's just the noise of the street outside our flat and work being done in nearby buildings, the usual drilling, hammering and all that stuff.
You can't really hear it too much, but we do mention it a few times.
So I thought that I'd just explain why we're doing that.
So we're about to start.
I should just say, so this is just a conversation, right?
But if you're looking for specific vocabulary teaching on the subject of having babies, giving birth, pregnancy and all those things, then you could go back to an old episode from the archive.
I've done.
I've talked about this topic quite a few times, but episode 162 was called having babies.
Vocabulary slash, a male perspective.
And in that one, I went through a big list of sort of pregnancy and childbirth related vocabulary.
And, In fact, all the episodes I've done about this subject.
I've listed them all on the page for this episode on my website.
But the vocab ones would be episode 162 and more recently, episode 814, which was called The Language of Children and Parenting, talking about the way we talk to children and the way we talk about children and all of the sort of vocab for the different items involved that come along with the children like, for example, the pacifier that my son here is not keeping in his mouth and nappies and all those other things.
So 162 and 814.
But also there's lots of other episodes too on this subject.
And you can find a list of those episodes on the page for this episode on my website.
Okay.
So all right, without any further ado, I will stop going on here in the introduction and we can get straight into it.
And you can listen to the lovely voice of my lovely wife.
And here we go.
That noise in the background is a bit much.
Tell me about it.
But apparently the little one is coping well.
Yeah, he sleeps through this noise quite well, better than us.
Yeah, I think when he's too silent, he doesn't like it.
So he prefers the noise.
He's a city boy.
Yeah, exactly, because he doesn't have the choice.
Yeah, living in this flat.
Why is there so much noise?
So I'm asking you during this conversation.
I'm probably going to ask you questions that I know the answer to.
Right.
OK.
You know, that's for the audience's benefit as well.
And our audience.
I don't want you to think I've got no idea what's going on in my own life, in my own home.
Well, that's OK sometimes, no?
Probably, yes.
But, you know, only to a certain extent.
OK.
So why is there so much noise?
Because we live in the street where there is work at every number of the street, right?
Yeah, including our number, above us, below us.
Yeah, they're selling all the flats or they sold all the flats.
So they're being renovated and it's exhausting.
Yeah, and plus the building across the road is being redone.
It's a massive project.
For another year.
Yeah.
Plus the bean boys.
That's right.
So I'm just going to turn up the volume for a second, just so that everyone can get a little sample of the noise.
Here we go, listeners.
Of course, when I turn the volume up, they stop.
But I guess there's no need for me to really give everyone a full sample, because they'll probably hear it during the conversation.
Anyway, hello.
How are you?
I'm fine, thank you.
How are you?
I'm not bad, thanks.
Again.
That sounds like we haven't already seen each other this morning um, considering we woke up in the same bed.
So um anyway, too much information.
I can.
I can cut things out yeah, i know you can, if necessary.
So you're fine.
Yeah yeah, i'm great okay um, here we go again.
Another episode with you as my guest.
Do you know how many times you've been on the podcast now?
Three no, i think it's more than that.
I think this is probably the fifth time.
No yeah, but you weren't on for you know, years and years.
Yeah, and my english hasn't improved since last time.
But the first time you were on the show was was after we had our daughter.
It was the episode was called the birth of my daughter.
You haven't interviewed me for the wedding.
I didn't interview you about the wedding.
It was a sort of mission then.
Yeah, I just talked about it on my own okay so, but we yeah, so you came on for that and that was like the first time you'd been on the show.
And then we talked again a couple of times after that as well, including one long conversation about the crown and the royal family and stuff.
But I just I love this topic.
I just wanted listen to that everyone.
Anyway yeah noises, background noises, exciting background noises.
But I just wanted everyone to know that yeah, you don't only come on this podcast when you've given me a child.
I don't know.
You decide who's a master.
You don't.
No, I, yeah, no, I don't.
Yeah.
Otherwise it would be the last time.
Otherwise, this would be the last time.
Yes.
Yeah, because that's it.
We're not going to have any more than this, are we?
Well, we never know, but I think two is already a crowd.
Two is plenty, isn't it?
Yeah.
Okay, so this episode is going to be called The Birth of My Son.
What do you think of the title?
It's very Star Wars.
It is, isn't it?
Is there a difference between saying my son and my daughter?
I mean, this is...
Not for me.
I think maybe for you, but not for me.
There isn't really... Well, except that one of them is a daughter and one of them is a son.
But yeah, it does... We've said before, it does sound and feel a bit Star Wars, doesn't it?
My son.
I don't know why.
But yeah, so you're all right, are you?
Let's give some context for the audience, since this is about our new baby and the experience of, you know, bringing a new life into the world.
How long has it been since he was born?
Two weeks today.
Yeah, two weeks today.
He's two weeks old.
Where is he?
In the bedroom.
Wait, wait, wait.
You lost him already.
He's sleeping in our bedroom.
Yeah.
Okay. but he may interrupt the recording at some point.
I can see him through the window.
He is wriggling, wriggling around, moving around.
It's a matter of seconds.
He's waking up any minute now.
We're going to hear him crying, I expect.
So he's doing all right then, is he, yeah?
Yeah, he's great.
So we should probably try and tell the story.
What do people normally ask in this situation after, let's say, they've seen you, you've got a newborn baby, what do people normally ask?
Uh, his name then, how he is, how i am, how was the birth um, and the pregnancy of all, if they haven't seen me before?
Yeah, so how is he?
I know he's fine, but i mean, is that it any more details that we can give the cutest?
No, he's super cute, he's nice, he's great.
I don't know what to say.
I mean, of course, i'm not objective, i guess, but it could be worse.
Yeah, i mean, especially at night, he sleeps.
The key things are how, how the child sleeps uh, the health of the child um, And you know whether, the way he behaves, although a newborn baby is pretty basic.
Yeah, I think he's finding his pattern yes, but he's sleeping well and he's surprisingly, surprisingly more noise.
Um, like his, like his sister, he can sleep six hours in a row before feeding.
So that's quite the luxury, i think, considering all the stories we hear about babies waking up every hours or so, especially when they're breastfed.
He babbles in his bed.
He doesn't even cry right, he babbles and i feed him and back to sleep for everyone.
Yeah um, he does cry sometimes, of course, of course, but not at night.
Yeah, right during the night.
Yeah, we didn't have a major crisis.
We've been sleeping okay, haven't we?
Yeah, that's why I feel great because I have my number of hours.
Yeah, your minimum number of hours of sleep have been accrued.
To be honest, mosquitoes have kept me awake more than this baby.
Yes, that's summer for you.
Summer, yeah.
There's always a mosquito that wakes you up in the middle of the night, and then you have to kind of hunt the mosquito and kill it.
That's the worst.
Even during that, even the nightly mosquito hunt, he still sleeps.
By the way, listeners, we invest... I bought a...
One of those electric mosquito killers.
Do you want to describe it?
It looks like a tennis racket.
It's absolutely ugly, but very efficient.
And I made fun of you the first time.
I must say that the most efficient way to kill them.
And plus it's like stain free on the wall or everything, because when you kill a mosquito it's like blood stain on the wall.
And plus, you miss it most of the time.
Yeah, the old-fashioned way, which was just to smack it with a book or smack it with your hand.
Sometimes you'd miss.
Most of the time.
Yeah, they're really annoying.
You think you've got it, and then just at the last second, they just breeze out of the way.
But if you do get them, then exactly, you leave a big blood stain or a big mess on the wall.
But with this thing, it's kind of a lot of listeners will know.
It's a bit cruel, though.
It seems to be cruel, but I don't know which one is worse.
Yeah, true.
Killing a mosquito with this thing or just obliterating it against the wall.
But a lot of listeners will know about these things, but it's kind of like an electric fly killer.
And as you said, it looks like a tennis racket, an ugly plastic tennis racket.
You're going to have complained.
Do you think?
Because of animal welfare.
No, no one's.
No one gives a shit about mosquitoes.
No one's there defending the rights of mosquitoes.
Everyone hates them.
Well, apparently they're useful.
So you know, it's like the cycle of.
Of course they're an important part of the ecosystem, but not when they come in my bedroom.
Yeah, true.
Yeah, they can ruin your night, really.
They can ruin your life.
They're the number one killer of humans.
When they carry the disease.
Yeah, in terms of animals, what do people think?
Sharks, bears?
No, it's mosquitoes that are the number one killer of humans in the world.
Okay.
Yeah, so, you know, I have no...
Are you convincing yourself, though?
You legitimate murderers.
Yeah, it's okay.
I don't know.
Maybe karma will come back to get me eventually.
It's like when I'm ready to go to the next life, they'll look at the list of your infringements.
It's like, well, 1,469 mosquitoes.
At least.
Yeah.
Sorry, you're going to have to come back.
You're going to have to do it again, but this time you're going to be a mosquito.
No!
No!
Yeah.
So, yeah, he sleeps, which is pretty good.
What about the how about the pregnancy?
I was going to say I was going to say, how did it start?
But we probably shouldn't.
We probably shouldn't talk about it.
We all know how it started.
Yeah.
But how was the pregnancy for you?
Great.
Yeah.
Really?
Yeah.
I'm saying, yeah, really, as if I don't know.
Again, I know the answers to these questions already, listeners.
Yeah, you witnessed it.
No, it was great.
I haven't listened back the previous episode, so I don't know what I said for the first pregnancy.
But now, if I recall, I think it was as great as the first one.
Why great?
Pain-free?
Yeah, because you... Maybe I'm going to repeat myself to the other episodes.
I don't know.
But...
You hear all these stories where it's like dramatic and painful and it must be for some women.
But luckily for me, it was just a bliss.
And I loved being pregnant with this one like I was with his sister.
So that was great.
Yeah, it's fascinating to kind of track the pregnancy.
There are apps you can get which show you, after so many weeks, you know the size of the embryo, the fetus, the child.
And you can kind of track its development.
It's fascinating to see that.
And just to imagine that...
This little kid who's now sleeping on our bed used to be the size of a grain of sand at one point.
Like, what?
Yeah, that's fascinating.
People, I find it a bit cheesy, but this is a miracle of life.
But in some way, it's quite miraculous.
Yeah, I did actually say in the last episode of this podcast, which I recorded before he was born, I talked about, I tried to express what it's like when you go to the hospital.
There's, in our case, three people in the family and then you come back, there's four people in the family.
Like where does that other person?
There's another person and they arrive and there's a spirit behind its eyes, you know, and it's it's got a personality.
You know, it's not evident exactly at the moment, but there's a character in there and it's kind of like where does that spirit come from?
That's so strange.
I know what you mean.
Yeah.
Okay.
So the pregnancy was good.
I mean, we, it was a bit worrying at some points because you got flu.
We both got flu.
Horrible.
You got COVID as well.
Yeah.
For the second time, for the second time during the pregnancy, but no fine, he's so far as far as we, as far as we know.
Who knows?
Yeah, touch wood yeah, touch wood, that's still, everything's all right.
Um, okay and um, we were concerned that, it being um a summertime uh birth, that uh, the heat would be a problem.
Yeah and uh, how's that been?
Mostly, we haven't had heat wave yet.
We haven't been struck by heat wave but we had one or two weekends at 35 degrees in Paris in June where I was like nearly at the end of the pregnancy and that was a bit much for me because it was a comfortable and You know, when you have like swollen legs With the water retention business Plus, it's just a comfortable for anyone, even when you're not pregnant.
So when you're pregnant and you have this extra weight, you don't have a lift, you have to go out.
But It was okay at the end.
We don't have a lift in our building.
We live on the fourth floor without a lift, which, I mean, I have to say...
I know this is going to sound cheesy.
You were totally amazing, darling.
But it was pretty impressive.
You went to work all the way up until maybe a week or about five days before the due date.
You were still going out to your office, going on the metro, climbing up and down our stairs.
Wow.
Pretty impressive.
But yeah, we got fairly lucky with the heat.
We haven't had a major heat wave yet.
Yeah, it's just a few little sort of peaks of spikes of heat.
It's not like it's been in some parts of southern Europe this summer which have been incredibly hot, So okay.
Good.
Good.
Good.
Did he arrive on time?
No, it was late like his sister.
He's French Yeah, it was five days later.
They had to induce me to induce the birth.
Yeah.
So they have to provoke.
Come on, slow coach.
What's the matter with you?
They had to make it happen.
Okay, you're not using... Provoke, no.
Provoke normally would be to provoke someone's behavior.
Like, for example, if you're... Well, they provoked him.
Yeah, I suppose so.
They induced the birth.
Yeah, no, they induced it, made it happen, and...
Luckily we live in a country where we can have an epidural and I must say, compared to the first birth, where I had contractions which were painful, but it's like for almost every birth I never imagined I could have a birth without any pain at all.
And that was the case this time because I had the epidural and then they induced me after, so I didn't really feel much, but i still feel, felt a bit yeah um, the first time i pressed the pump of the epidural too much so i couldn't feel anything at the end, which made it a little bit more difficult because i couldn't feel like my the lower part of my body.
But this time it was amazing quick pain-free blissful yeah great right, hold on a second.
I just want to close that window because the noise.
Hold on Yeah, because with his sister.
So she was late.
But the way it went was that you had your due date and then, five days after the due date, if the child hasn't been born, then they induce the birth.
They do certain things to basically make the child come out.
It's not a cesarean, which is where they operate and the child doesn't go through the birth canal, but they kind of, I don't know.
They essentially cut open the uterus and remove the child, like that.
Yeah um correct yeah uh, but inducing the birth just means that how do they do it?
They use a kind of hormone, apparently different uh, way of doing it.
But what they did here, they put the epidural.
I don't know how you describe it.
They gave you the epidural.
It's kind of... It's actually a spinal tap, which is the name of a band as well.
But they essentially inject the epidural into your spine.
Yeah.
Which is always a scary moment.
Yeah.
Luckily, this time it was...
Less scary than the last time.
Yeah, the first time I had, like, strong contractions, they don't move.
Yeah, well, easy to say.
Yeah, when you're having contractions.
Yeah, but not this time.
So they injected the anti-pain.
How would you describe it, Peter?
It's like anti-pain?
Is it an anesthetic?
Yeah, anesthetic.
Yeah, it's incredible, actually.
It's amazing the way they've developed it, where they can inject this kind of anesthetic into the spine and they can locate specifically the spot where they need to put it.
Yeah, so that you the you lose feeling in that specific area.
Yeah yeah, all the across the middle.
Yeah essentially, where they reduce the sensations in that specific area where you would be experiencing a lot of pain and discomfort with contractions and the opening of the cervix and everything.
They can locate that specifically.
But also, but do it so well that the rest of your body works fine, you can move your legs, you can feel, you could feel your toes right and your hands and everything.
They just it's incredible, absolutely amazing.
But what I was saying is that the first one, My water broke.
She was late, yeah.
And we were going to go in the next day to be induced, right?
But that night, so the night before your water broke, just an hour after we'd gone to bed, you managed to get to the bath.
Yeah, you know, before most of it the, when the water break, that breaks, that's basically the amniotic fluid coming out.
It just means you know the baby's ready to come out.
Um, in hollywood movies it's always like that.
You know, it's like water on the floor.
Oh, my god, my water's broken.
But um, so you're the first one.
Your water broke and then you're experiencing contractions.
We had to kind of get ourselves to the hospital And then they told you to walk up and down a bit in order to try and encourage the cervix to open further.
But you were experiencing contractions, which is where the uterus basically squashes together to try and help push the baby out.
You're very knowledgeable.
And those contractions are really, really painful, right?
Yes, I remember.
Like we were walking in the corridor and I was like grasping your arm in pain.
Um no, that wasn't the best uh moment but, as your mom told me before i gave birth like oh, we forget the pain, and she's right.
Um, and that's how we start again.
Yeah, because we forget eventually.
If you remember the pain, you probably no one would have another child.
Um, but yeah, so that first time you experienced those painful contractions, we walked up and down the corridor, You grabbed my arm and dug your fingernails into my arm every time a contraction arrived and you kind of like bent over and stuff and it looked horrible.
And yeah, you went through quite a lot of pain and discomfort.
They gave you the epidural therapy while you were having contractions, which was quite scary because you couldn't stay still.
And I was thinking, oh my God, they're going to stick that needle into her spine when she's moving.
And it was pretty stressful and painful.
But after the epidural had been given, then it was a little easier for you.
This time round, he was so late.
He didn't arrive of his own accord.
Um, and so we went in on the last day and, just as you said, it was much easier, much smoother, because they gave you the epidural before.
You're almost like cheating, you know it's like cheating.
Yeah, this birth was just amazing and pain-free, like is it possible really.
And the first one, his sister, was born.
Well, we stayed up all night.
So we went in about one or two in the morning and she was born midday the next day.
So we went through this long night of, like you know, waiting for the birth to happen and stuff like that.
It took ages.
It was exhausting.
But for this one, we went in in the morning.
Just after after rush hour, we kind of went into the hospital and spent a couple of hours.
I had a sandwich.
And then and then, if just a couple of hours later in the middle of the afternoon, after you'd been given the epidural and they broke the water and stuff.
Wait, so we haven't finished.
So they gave me the epidural.
They gave me, I don't know how you say in English, a citizen.
It's a kind of omen to help provoke.
Yeah, provoke.
Provoke's all right.
Provoke contractions.
Yeah.
And then they broke the waters artificially.
They opened and then the body worked itself out.
Yeah, the body did its thing.
Yeah.
It's like the cervix opened, the baby was pushing and Yeah, and then, you know, a couple of the midwives came in and they sort of said okay, you've got to push now, you've got to push now.
Yeah, I was a bit surprised because she said oh yeah at the end of the day and said oh no, it's now.
Okay.
Yeah.
Yeah, we thought it would happen later and later, but then just mid-afternoon, like around tea time, just push push, push.
And I was ready to, you know, go through the same thing that we'd been through before.
I was just warming up.
Come on, you can do it.
Come on, come on.
And then you know suddenly suddenly, they like oh, here's your son, and they they.
Um, you know, it was pretty quick, they get, they had they.
So he came, he how do i explain this?
He came out.
I wasn't like watching, i was by your side uh, but they pulled him out and that's that describe that moment of when, the when you first see the baby, i was crying As like the first time it's so there's a full of emotion coming to you.
Because you just spent nine months with this kid in the most intimate way you know, him growing inside you and then nine months of expectation.
And then you're crying again.
Oh, and then suddenly here he is.
Yeah, it's...
Nine months of waiting to see his face, nine months of waiting to meet him, nine months of wandering, maybe worrying and expecting, and then he arrives and Um it's, it's also strange.
There's no denying the strangeness of it, of the way he looks, where baby looks when it comes out.
It's kind of like it's been vacuum packed inside.
Yeah.
You know?
No, it's strange.
Yeah.
As you said, because you live nine months and you interact in a way with the baby, even if it's not like as if when it's out of the womb, but you know it's inside you, you live with him, you cohabitate quite well.
Um, you try to when you eat you think of him uh so you try to eat the right things and everything it's like a kind of a process for nine months and plus he didn't want to leave so and i think i kind of retained him as well i didn't want him to leave um And yeah, when it arrives, it's like a kind of a breakup in a way because, you know, but at the same time you meet him, it's also like falling in love again, you know?
Well, it's very cheesy what I say, but... It's all right.
Well, I'm sure some people will relate to what I say.
So now it's miraculous and he arrived and yeah, he looks like all just creased and Creased up and contained like he's been vacuum packed.
Yeah.
There was a worrying moment though for us, wasn't there?
Yeah, they put him on me but they haven't cut the cord yet.
And then they cut the cord yeah, and then he couldn't breathe by himself for a few seconds.
He was all purple and he kind of started to go dark purple, yeah.
And yeah, they cut the cord and normally at that point the baby just instantly starts breathing on its own and crying and stuff, and it comes to life.
You know, in in a, in another way, in the way that you know, inside the body they get all their nutrition, their oxygen, everything through the umbilical cord.
But after it's been cut yeah, I don't know what it is that triggers it, but the baby kind of snaps into another way of existing, where it breathes through its lungs and stuff like that.
But he didn't do that.
No, he didn't do that.
And they didn't say anything.
They were just like getting really quick, like to put the tubes in his mouth.
They took him back.
They were sort of tapping his back.
One of them, another one grabbed him, like giving to me.
They were kind of handing him around.
And we looked at each other like, oh, shit, what's happening?
And we noticed as well that, you know, he wasn't breathing.
Yeah, he wasn't breathing, he wasn't crying.
You can tell, you can normally tell when they kind of snap into life.
And that just wasn't happening.
He wasn't breathing, he wasn't crying, he wasn't really moving.
And they were handing him around and this one nurse took him and put him up, turned him over and tapped his back, and still nothing.
And we were like thinking, oh my God, how long can he hold his breath?
And they took him away onto another table, put some tubes down his throat and Yeah, because he swallowed too much liquid.
So he couldn't like get it out.
Yeah, I guess he had like fluid in his lungs or something.
And so luckily, he finally cried.
Yeah.
And it's like when you're happy to hear your baby crying.
It's like really at this moment.
Yeah, there were.
It seemed to take ages and we, there was like this horrible long moment where nothing was happening and we couldn't hear any crying and we would just there, just like you know I don't know how to describe it listeners, but you kind of like, you know you, you clench your fists and you, you just hold your, you know, you cross your fingers and you, you know whatever, you just pray in that moment and um, it's excruciating.
But then yeah, then he started crying and, oh god well, that was a welcome sound, it was a relief.
Um, and yeah, he was kind of purple, but as soon as he started breathing, the color came back into his body.
He went from this purple color he just started going pink, which was amazing as well.
And just describing the kind of visceral side of it, of the way the baby looks and the color of its skin and things like the detail that you can see.
You know, like you can see, it's his ears and his feet and you kind of, you kind of don't know quite where to look.
You know, you're kind of thinking you're looking at his feet, his hands, his his face, his head.
You kind of think, what does he look like?
Is everything all right?
Is everything in the right place?
Yeah.
And to our relief and to our good fortune, everything was in the right place and still is.
Yeah, so far.
So far, so good.
Let's hope that continues.
And yeah, and he kind of came to life and was crying and they gave him to you and he started feeding, which is another incredible thing, like the instinct.
Very intuitive, yeah.
Yeah.
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Nicotine is an addictive chemical. the instinct you've chosen to breastfeed yeah i love it can we talk about that yeah why did you choose to breastfeed some women don't right uh yeah well i think it's the choice of every woman i mean you know if you up for it um if you can do it because apparently some women can't um So I don't know.
Just I decided.
And I think for our daughter, I had a conversation prior to the birth of our daughter with your mom.
And she was quite helpful because I didn't know what to expect.
And she breastfed both of you.
And when you don't know, sometimes you're a bit scared of what you don't know, and your mum made it look like it was just natural and easy and everything.
So I said okay, I'll try, and it was great.
I loved it the first time.
What's so great about it?
I don't know.
It's just so natural, you know, like to be able to provide what your infant needs.
And plus, you know what you give him or her or them.
Because in the formula well, I guess it's safe, but you don't know really what's in it, and everything like just natural.
And some reports say it's better for the kids, so.
Yeah.
Well, it's certainly amazing that it does contain everything the kid needs and more as well.
Stuff like, I mean, some of the things you told me about this are a bit mind-blowing.
Like the fact that the breast milk, when it first starts to come, it smells of amniotic fluid.
Yeah, apparently it smells of amniotic fluid.
So the baby knows its way like, and it feels like it's what he had for nine months.
Yeah so yeah, apparently.
And also, when the baby first comes out, starts breathing, he starts uh, all his motions are motions that help him find the breast.
Yeah, so the way his hands move, the way his mouth moves and his head moves much, but apparently they can see dark color.
Yeah, so your um breast, for the nipples gets darker um, so the baby knows its way again.
Yeah, it's no, it's incredible.
Everything looks so logical, you know, kind of everything seems to Make sense.
Make sense, yeah.
Yeah.
And so it's great and I feel fortunate to be able to breastfeed.
Yeah.
And plus, on the pragmatic side, it's very convenient because if you can be anywhere with your baby, if he needs to be fed, you can provide.
You don't need to go to the supermarket, you don't need to carry anything with you.
You remember the first time when we switched to bottles, we were we're gonna do like.
You know, there was a moment of we shouldn't forget it and everything.
But i think we i think only once we forgot went to a trip to normandy.
We forgot, like food for the baby, but um no, it's great, Okay.
Right.
Well, fine.
Good.
Anything else that we can add?
I don't know.
What else can we add?
Okay.
Another question.
How about his sister?
She's now five and a half years old.
How has she reacted?
She's the sweetest.
Yeah, totally.
Yeah.
She's absolutely in love with him.
Yeah, she's very positive.
And that's funny because we talked a lot earlier with her prior to the birth, and say, how do you feel?
And sometimes you remember, sometimes she said i feel happy, but also angry and jealous.
And i thought oh, this little person can express her feelings and that's great and it's good.
She gets it out and at the same time you're like okay, she says she's angry and jealous.
How is it gonna turn?
Well, I think we had.
We had said we'd prepared her.
We'd said, you know, having a baby means this, this and this and this.
And you know you might feel a bit jealous sometimes because you know the baby's going to need to be looked after a lot.
It's going to need a lot of attention, a lot of time.
And, you know, and so we did explain that stuff.
So I think that maybe when we asked her, how do you feel?
She kind of she kind of replicated.
It just regurgitated the things we'd said to her, which is like you're going to feel nervous about it.
You're going to feel it might be annoying if it cries a lot.
So she probably, she said that she felt a bit nervous and she felt jealous and stuff.
Yeah, maybe.
But then you can say things and...
You know, we can say it's normal, but everything's going to be okay.
And sometimes it can turn out differently.
I mean, she's only five and a half, but so far she's great.
She's really helpful.
Yeah, the important thing is the way she's actually behaving and responding now that the baby is here.
When the baby cries, say, mommy, mommy, you need to give him the tétine.
Tétine, in French, this is the dummy or pacifier, the little thing that the baby sucks in his mouth. and she said oh mommy is hungry or you need to change him so she's very aware of the baby's needs um and when it's time to change the nappy she's like can i see can i can i look can i look at the nappy and she's kind of fascinated by that and sometimes i kind of make fun of her a little bit and say okay it's your turn to change the nappy and she's like me no i don't want to like that um She's great and she wants to kiss him and she's very caring.
Yeah.
And proud to have a brother and she always says, my brother, my brother, my little brother.
And I think she's delighted to be a big sister.
Yeah yeah, because in her little games and things she always plays these roles where she's in the high status position.
She likes to be the teacher, she likes to be the big sister, she likes to be the queen or whatever it is.
So i think she's delighted that she is now the big sister for real.
Yeah um yeah, okay.
Do you think it would have been different if it had been a girl, if she'd had a little sister?
I have no idea.
Like no, we don't know, do we?
I don't know if gender really has an impact on the relationship.
When they're that little, I don't know.
Yeah.
Because, I don't know.
How do you feel having a girl and a boy?
I feel delighted.
But I would have been if it would have been two girls.
No, it's great.
I mean, every kid brings their own Love love, and they're all different.
But light adds a little bit more difference to the experience because it's two different genders.
But because this one's got a penis and balls yeah, that's a way of saying it.
Um, very crude of me.
In in the midst of this lovely emotional, cheesy episodes, there's me bringing the tone down.
I apologize.
What?
No, not that much, it's fine, it's the right level of cheese Okay.
No, I don't know.
But I see we have like some friends who have a boy and a girl and it goes well.
Yeah.
And they play together and just great.
So we'll see.
I think it's also our job to make it go well.
Yeah.
And It's not a gender question.
It's just the dynamic of the family.
But it will be interesting to see you know if he's different in certain ways, whether he plays differently or if he's interested in different things or just generally has any different kind of behavior.
It's hard to tell when your sample is only two children.
You know, to get a proper representative sample or to get the right understanding of the difference between boys and girls, you need a much, much larger sample size than just two kids.
But it'll be interesting to see if they're different.
I just can't wait to see if he's gonna look like you when you were a kid.
You think you think he will?
Yeah yeah, he already looks like you so much.
Oh God, poor kid.
No, not true.
Should we talk about how he looks or is that personal, do you think?
How he looks, it's difficult to say after two weeks.
He looks like a baby, everyone.
Yeah, no, he looks like a baby, but he looks like you.
I can see some traits of you and clearly he's a carbon copy of his sister when she was a baby.
I mean it's like wow, almost shocking how they look similar, yeah.
So i'm very curious to see how it's gonna develop, but not too fast.
I want to keep him as a baby as long as possible.
Um, we don't mean to make it sound all completely lovey-dovey and perfect.
There's going to be difficulties and challenges and stuff, Right?
I mean, at the moment, it's kind of nice because we're in the newborn phase.
Things change as the child goes through different phases.
So the next... Yeah, sometimes it can be very difficult.
The next challenge will be when he starts moving around.
At the moment, we can just leave him on the bed where he's still sleeping.
Yeah.
But, you know, the next phase might be that he doesn't sleep so well.
I think the first year for his sister was great and then when she started to walk, because you have to monitor everything and you're scared of like a domestic danger in the house and everything.
So yeah, when they don't move, I think it's the best.
Yeah basically, just he's immobile.
All he does is feed and sleep.
And then when he's not feeding and sleeping, he's kind of, I don't know, really.
Sometimes he cries.
And in those situations, we have to carry him and walk around with him.
Or I've got the yoga ball, which is the method that we used with his sister, which is that when she cried and sometimes she would wake up in the middle of the night crying and for whatever reason.
I would take her in my arms and sit on the yoga ball and bounce up and down.
And that's like an amazing method that it always seems to stop the kids crying.
Yeah, because I think it replicates the movement in the womb.
You know, when you walk, I think they're...
The movement is kind of like... Bouncing.
Bouncing, elastic kind of feel.
And soft.
Yeah.
Like on a cushion.
Yeah, yeah.
So immediately it's incredible that it works.
Yeah.
Instantly.
But I have to keep bouncing, because if I stop bouncing he kind of like goes hey hey, you stop bouncing.
You know, he gets all upset and starts crying again.
So there are... That can be difficult.
And like my...
I've got like really bad, painful shoulders, but it's nothing compared to what you went through.
Well, it's not a competition.
It's not a competition, is it?
So there's that.
And yeah, we'll see what happens when he starts moving.
Next thing is that he'll start rolling.
And then we've got to kind of build these protective fortresses of pillows around him so he doesn't roll off the bed.
And then he'll start crawling and crawling quickly across the floor.
And then he starts getting up on his legs and then he'll start falling over and smashing his head against things.
And then he'll be running around and tripping up and falling over.
I remember one particular time when his sister was, I guess, about two.
It was Christmas time to her grandparents.
She ran along and tripped on the carpet and smacked her forehead against the coffee table.
And there was a big, big, big red egg came up on her head.
And then, about two days later, she was in the kitchen sitting on a chair and we were all crowded round her for some reason.
I don't know what we were doing.
And she just slipped off the side of the chair and smack and landed on her forehead on the floor of the kitchen, on the same spot that she'd hit her head on the coffee table.
So she had this red bruise.
Yeah, Hopefully this isn't this not long-lasting damage.
You know, you can only hope and I'm kind of joking about that, but also not.
But these are the worries and fears and stresses of being a parent, of the, just like the, the scary side of it, of just suddenly being responsible for this, for this person, and that is again another part of the mix of emotions that, when the child arrives, there's a wonder and incredible feeling of wonder and that sense of love, but also this huge heavy responsibility suddenly arrives uh, on your shoulders as well.
So uh, quite a complicated um, mix of emotions, isn't it?
Yeah yeah, all right then.
Well um good, we could probably bang on about this stuff more and more, but i think we probably won't uh, so that's it.
So are you never going to be on this podcast ever again?
If we're not gonna, if we're not gonna have another child, I don't know.
There will be another season of The Crown, no?
Yeah.
Coming up.
Yeah.
I mean, you're kind of like the royal family correspondent in a way.
I love it.
Although for the coronation, I didn't talk to you about the coronation.
I talked to my parents.
Did you enjoy watching Prince Charles become King Charles?
Well, less than your daughter.
She was completely like hooked on it.
She said, I want to see the crown.
I want to see the crown.
Yeah, I loved it.
I mean, that's a part of history.
So we'll see how it's going to develop.
Yeah.
Yeah, we will.
The saga continues.
Yeah.
And I'll have you back on the podcast.
We've been talking about other ideas, like about talking about how you've expanded your vocabulary in English.
Well, it can take time then maybe, but it's not just from listening to, not just from living with Luke, from Luke's English podcast.
You, actually you surprise me all the time with your, with the phrases and expressions that you come out with.
Yeah.
Where did you get that from?
You know, you just come out with these words and phrases.
It's a, it's, it's amazing.
So we, well, now I have two teachers at home because I'm being corrected by my daughter as well.
She's a bit like ruthless.
Well, Like, what does she do?
The H when I say howa or awa.
And she looks at me and says, mummy.
She'll correct your English.
And sometimes she makes fun of me.
Yeah, but I mean... My ego is hurt.
But what about my French?
I mean...
Well, she actually helps me.
She actually helps me with my French.
I'll say to her, how do you say this in French?
And she'll tell me and then I'll use it.
So she's like my little French teacher.
Impressive.
Well, okay.
She's our daughter.
So again, objectivity is maybe a thing.
Yeah.
But the way she can switch to one another language.
I mean, it's really impressive.
Yeah.
In, I never know, in a split of a second.
In a split second.
In a split second.
In the blink of an eye and in a split second.
In a split second she can just translate something to you or to me in our language.
It's very impressive and I think she's doing great and I hope she'll be a great example for her brother.
Yeah, me too.
She knows some words i don't like.
Sometimes i have to like the word might, so this is like a.
This has become a running joke.
She's like okay mommy, like what does she say?
Okay um pull, pull with all your might.
She said to you and you're like what And?
And so might is a word that so might listeners.
Yes, it's a modal verb.
I might go to the cinema.
I might have a pizza.
Right.
But also might as a noun.
So to do something with all your might.
It means strength, but it's the sort of word that usually comes up in children's stories.
Like, for example, the one about the enormous turnip.
You know, it's from that story.
He pulled and pulled with all his might, but he still couldn't pull up the enormous turnip, you know, to pull with all your might, or to do something with all your might, to muster up all of your might meaning, meaning to get all of your strength.
Um, so she's heard it and read it in children's stories.
But yeah she, she said it.
She said to you like pull mummy, or push with all your might.
And you said what?
No, I didn't know this word.
So sometimes she comes up with words and I mean, it's very impressive.
Like, and proposition.
It looks like she already masters a proposition when I don't.
After years and years and years.
How humiliating.
Yeah well, it's good for her and i can only learn yeah, from it, but so it's.
It's interesting to see how people uh develop two languages simultaneously in different linguistic environments.
Uh, there's another story for another time.
Okay so uh, our son is awake and probably hungry.
Hello hello, do you want to be on luke's english podcast?
Maybe you're going to be a recurring guest, like your sister.
But at the moment, he's just sitting there kind of looking around.
When I hold him, when he's not like crying or whatever, he's just in my arms.
It's quite interesting to try and work out what's going on in his head.
Like he's only two weeks old.
And so there's not really a lot going on.
In fact, he lies there in my arms and looks up at me.
And I just sort of think, oh, he's looking at me.
And then I move my head out of the way and he's still looking in the same position.
So he sort of looks through you, you know.
But slowly but surely, minute by minute, hour by hour, day by day, he's getting more and more of a sense of the world around him.
And he'll start recognizing shapes and patterns and he'll be able to control his arms and his body more.
I remember with our daughter, one of the key moments was when I remember she responded to me.
And I would sort of say, where's daddy's nose?
And she would actually point to my nose.
You know, where's your nose?
And she'd point to her nose.
So you kind of these changes in their intelligence and their ability to communicate?
They just come gradually and reveal themselves.
But at the moment, he just lies there and sort of looks up at you, looks around.
And he often has this expression of like, what's going on?
What?
You know the expression that you might have on your face when you're just trying to remember something you've forgotten, like that kind of a frown and your eyes look left and right and you have that kind of expression on your face like you've just forgotten something.
Or you've just walked into a room and then you can't remember why you came into the room.
The expression you might have.
He tends to have that look on his face quite a lot, which says to me he's kind of gone, wait a minute.
What's going on?
I'm a human?
Okay.
Where am I?
This, what, earth?
Oh, I'm a baby.
Right, okay.
Oh, I'm hungry.
That's pretty much, I think, what's going on in his head.
Okay, he's feeding now.
I think it's probably time to stop the episode and get on with normal life again.
Okay, thanks so much.
Thank you for having me.
Thank you for sharing those thoughts and feelings and descriptions.
Okay, I don't know if it's going to be interesting, but Well, I mean, you know the last one.
You said that.
You said Oh, there he is.
You can hear him.
The last one...
Well, not the last episode you were on, but in fact, the first episode you were on.
But the last time we talked about having a baby, when our daughter had been born, you said the same thing.
Oh, you know, I wonder if people will find this interesting.
Just a quick sample of the...
How many comments arrived on the website page?
178 comments on the website page, which is a lot of comments for the website page.
Normally, you don't get that many people coming to the website to leave their comments.
But this one really got a lot of people engaged and many people I've never heard of before.
I've never heard of before and have never heard of since took the time to write things down. so for example the most recent one uh yolanta said congratulations on the arrival of your first child luke it was lovely to listen to your wife talk about her experiences talk about her experiencing one of the most wonderful events in her life if i can suggest anything you should invite young mrs thompson to your podcast definitely more often she's really charming oh that's nice how lovely another one uh from someone called as blggg okay i'm not sure that's the person's real name uh quite late for commenting after listening i think this is now one of my favorite episodes yet despite all the things that your wife said about her english and how it might turn off some listeners she is the best pod pal oh that's nice And, you know, just more.
There's 138 of those and they're all really nice.
Another just random one.
Amber.
This is not our Amber, but another Amber.
This is not Amber Minogue, this is Amber from Bosnia.
Hi Luke, such a great episode.
I'm so happy for you.
Congrats again.
Imagine your daughter listening to this in a few years.
I wish you and your family all the best.
Amber from Bosnia.
And the comments go on and on and on.
Yeah, that's a good point.
I mean the kids could listen to the episodes and see we were like cheesy but completely like besotted with them.
Yeah yeah, exactly.
Okay.
All right then.
Well, listeners, there you go.
I hope you found this interesting.
You can leave your comments if you want to.
Only nice ones.
Only nice ones, please.
We've invited you into our home okay, on this special day, so that.
So please be nice in return.
Be polite okay, do the right thing, and if you want to leave a comment uh, go ahead and uh.
But uh yeah, don't waste your time writing something that isn't nice, all right okay, did i mangle that sentence a little bit?
All right then.
So thanks listeners, i'll probably do some sort of ending outro, so okay.
So uh yes good, that's it okay, bye.
Okay, so that was my wife and me just about two weeks after our son was born.
It's now about.
I don't know what is it six weeks later?
Something like that, five or six weeks later.
And I'm still standing here in the bedroom looking at all the clothes in the cupboard, waiting for my son to fall asleep here in the baby carrier, which he's not doing, but he will be asleep.
I predict that he'll be asleep by the end of this episode.
That's my prediction.
Now, I mentioned at the beginning of this that I also recorded some comments from my daughter as well, because I wanted to ask her what it felt like for her, you know, because it's not just about mummy and daddy having another baby, but also her.
It's a huge, huge moment in her life as well, because she's suddenly become big sister.
And I wanted to know what it was like for her.
So here's a recording I made with our daughter talking about what it's like for her to be big sister now.
And she's five and a half years old, by the way.
Okay.
All right.
Here we go.
Right.
So I'm sitting here now with, what should we call it?
I think we're going to call you big sister.
All right.
Big sister.
So, your brother is lying down on the sofa next to us.
Do you think he's going to make any noise?
Let's see.
Hello.
Okay, he made a noise.
So, here's your little brother.
Right, now, how does it feel to be a big sister now?
Good.
Why?
Because I don't know why.
Have things changed in your life at all?
Yes.
What feels different?
Having a new brother.
Yeah?
Okay.
Oh, he sneezed.
Bless you.
Bless you.
Oh, three.
Three in a row.
Bless you.
So what's good about having a little brother?
When he's older, I could play with him.
And I could give him some strokes.
You want to stroke him like he's a little cat?
Yes.
Okay, that's cute.
You just look at him right now.
Look at him there, lying there, looking at us.
What do you think and feel when you look at him?
Good.
Yeah, but can you be more specific?
What do you think of him?
Can you describe him?
He is... Lovely.
Lovely.
Oh, that's so sweet.
So she's now coming over to give him a little kiss.
Little kiss.
Oh, and he likes that, doesn't he?
Kiss, kiss.
Okay, is there anything bad about having a little brother now?
Crying.
When does he cry?
I don't know.
Okay, and does it bother you?
No.
Okay, why not?
I don't know why.
Okay.
Is there anything else bad about having a little baby?
Sometimes he hits and... Scratches.
Scratches me and Mummy and Daddy.
Right, because his nails are actually quite sharp and he sometimes grabs with his hands.
He doesn't know what he's doing.
Yeah.
That's it.
Is that really it?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Okay, great.
All right then, so do you do anything at the moment?
He's only a little baby.
Is there anything that you can actually do with him?
I don't know.
You do things like you come over and talk to him.
What happens when you come over and talk to him in the morning after he's been fed?
I don't know.
He looks up at you, doesn't he?
He smiles.
He smiles and he makes lots of little cute noises.
Like now, hello.
Okay also, you kind of lean over and put your hair in his face and he kind of shakes his head about and smiles.
And he opens his mouth.
That's right, yeah.
He's very cute, isn't he?
Yeah.
You know what?
He's exactly the same as you when you were a baby.
He does all the same things as you.
Maybe he will open his mouth.
Nope, not this time.
Okay.
He does all the same things that you do when you were a baby.
So hopefully he's going to grow up to be a cute child like you.
Let's hope so.
Yeah, I hope so too.
We just had a holiday.
Did you enjoy it?
Yes.
What was the best thing about the holiday?
Everything but not the bump.
What was the bump?
This bit.
Tell us about it.
I was running with my friends and I tripped on a mattress and I fell down and had a lot of blood.
Yeah, why was there blood?
Because I kept myself very far.
Very deep?
Very deep.
Yeah.
Where?
At my friend's home.
Yeah, but where on your body?
At my head.
That's right, and there was lots of blood, yeah.
What went through your mind when that happened?
You fell down, whack, hit your head, and then there was blood everywhere.
What were you thinking?
I don't know.
You weren't really thinking anything.
I tell you what, I heard your friend shout out.
So you were all upstairs and I heard your friend say that you'd hurt yourself really badly.
And I thought, oh no, this is like a parent's worst nightmare.
You farted with the teeth?
Your mum thought that you'd smashed your teeth in or something.
I didn't know what it would be, but it's a horrible thing to hear someone shout from upstairs that your child has hurt herself really badly.
So I kind of went upstairs nervously and discovered you in your mother's arms with blood everywhere.
You had blood all down your face.
It was like a horror film.
But yeah, you'd hit your head on a step and you'd cut your head open and luckily it's not too bad.
It's a tiny one.
It's tiny but it's quite deep.
So we rushed you to hospital and luckily we didn't have to wait too long.
We didn't need to wait at night.
We didn't have to wait until midnight, thankfully.
Yeah, and your brother was very good.
He didn't make a fuss or anything like that.
And they put glue all over your cut.
They glued it together.
And now you've got to wear plasters.
Yep.
That's right, but it's going to be okay, isn't it?
Hopefully you won't have a... Yeah.
A what?
I don't know.
Skunk.
A scar.
A scar like the Lion... The Lion King.
No, not the Lion King.
Scar is a brother of the Lion King.
Right, yeah.
Well, a scar is a mark on your skin when you've been cut.
But anyway... And a name.
And the name of the baddie in The Lion King, that's right.
Hopefully you're not going to turn into the baddie from The Lion King now.
But anyway, we had a fantastic holiday.
You swam in the sea and saw your friends and we did lots of fun things.
But I think it's time to stop recording now because your little brother is being noisy.
Okay, your turn to interview then.
Go on then.
You can have the microphone now.
So you have to ask questions.
How was it so we came deadly?
The weekend or the whole holiday?
The whole holiday.
It was really great.
We had lovely weather.
It wasn't too hot except for a couple of days.
And we had nice food every day.
We got to spend time with the family.
It was nice to be with my friends and with my daddy's friends and my mummy's.
Which of your daddy's friends did we see?
We saw...
We saw Max.
Yeah, and Amber.
And Amber.
Because everyone on the podcast knows Amber.
Yeah.
Yeah, we saw Amber and her family and you got to play with her kids.
Yeah.
What did we do on the beach with them?
We did sandcastle.
Yeah, what about it?
It was the biggest and best sandcastle that's ever been created.
Yeah.
And when the sea came in...
The first line of defences were destroyed by the sea, but then the huge mountain with the castle on the top was not destroyed and it stayed there all the way until the time when we left and there was just this mountain in the sea that didn't get destroyed.
Amazing.
Still there now, probably.
Yeah.
It's probably a local landmark.
They've got, like, tourists coming to visit it and everything.
It's been very good for the economy.
That's the end of this interview, I think, don't you?
No, I don't think so.
Now...
We won't finish the postcard.
Postcard?
Postcard?
You're like one of my listeners who doesn't know how to spell podcast and they write postcard.
I really like your postcard.
Yeah, no, it's not a postcard.
What's a postcard?
It's a thing we write things for our friends.
And then send them when we're on holiday, yeah.
Yeah.
And that's not what this is, is it?
This is a podcast.
Can you say podcast?
Podcast.
Okay.
There's no fart at the end?
Okay.
No.
Podcast.
Okay, that's enough then.
So there you are.
That was a window into real family life on this podcast and yeah, I'm still here standing in front of all the clothes in the bedroom recording this part about six weeks after the conversation you heard with my wife and just to kind of, I guess, fill in some information since the conversation with my wife that you heard, which was two weeks after the birth.
So there's been like six weeks of our son growing and developing and stuff.
So just to kind of fill in that time, let me just ramble a little bit more at the end of the episode here.
Hopefully the boy will actually fall asleep, as I predicted, but we'll see.
So will my rambling make him fall asleep?
Will it make you fall asleep?
Who knows?
Hopefully it will work on him and you will just be gripped and engaged throughout.
But so our son, yeah, he's still doing fine.
He's moved into a slightly different phase now from the one that he was in when he was a newborn baby.
He's kind of moved into a slightly different phase now, or he's moving into that phase.
And now he is reacting to us a lot more.
When babies are brand new and they've just been born, maybe a week or two ago, they don't really know what's going on.
They've just got no... It seems they have no perception of the world.
Probably their eyesight's very blurred.
They can't really make sense of anything that's going on.
But slowly.
For babies, the world sort of reveals itself to them and they start to kind of wake up and come alive and start to sense what's going on around them.
And this is definitely happening with our son.
It's very interesting to watch.
And he's, as I said, he's reacting to us a lot more.
So, for example, when we look at him, He looks around trying to control the movement of his head and he locks onto your face, stares at you for a while and then a big smile breaks out on his face because maybe he's recognising us, or at least just recognising another face.
I really wonder what it's like for him, whether he's got any sense that he's an actual independent person.
It's really, really interesting.
His brain is just constructing itself still.
And, as a result, he's kind of waking up, making connections, being able to identify faces and voices.
And it's amazing to see his face light up when, uh you know, when he's been fed, when he's been changed, he becomes very smiley and very cute, looking around, making cute noises, with this delighted look on his face when he sees his mum, his dad or his sister.
It's very interesting to see the phases that little children go through.
This early phase that he's in now is actually quite manageable really, as long as the child doesn't have like problems like, for example colic, which I understand is a condition which kind of gives the child bad indigestion, like they have stomach pain which causes them to cry a lot.
So luckily, our boy doesn't have colic, thankfully.
So he's pretty good.
And this phase is fairly manageable really, in the sense that he doesn't actually move around independently yet.
And So you can pretty much put him on the bed or something.
You just lie him on the bed or put a little kind of mat down on the floor and just plonk him down there.
And he's basically okay.
You can just kind of like go and make yourself a cup of tea and he's all right.
Although saying that you can't really leave him alone for long.
And because he starts to cry, you know, he can't be left alone.
And a lot of the time he likes to be in your arms or held in the baby carrier, like now, where he might actually sleep.
He does a lot of sleeping.
It's really important for the development of his brain and body that he does plenty of sleeping.
And so, yeah, just strapping him in the baby carrier is often what you need to do.
And he'll fall asleep there, especially if you kind of move around.
So that's kind of what's going on at the moment.
He's going to become more and more mobile, which of course presents different challenges.
First of all, he'll start rolling, like rolling over and then turning round, which means you can't really leave him on a bed anymore because he might roll off and you don't want your baby to roll off the bed and fall on the floor.
In fact, in this early period, your mind, your brain, does get filled with these random things images and fears of the baby getting harmed or you dropping the baby or something.
For some reason, your mind just will make you think of these things.
It makes you imagine that you're walking down the stairs and you just trip and drop the baby on his head or something.
These thoughts, these weird intrusive thoughts do come in to the minds of new parents.
Maybe it's like the brain subconsciously uh, trying to prevent you from doing that, or your brain is kind of trying to make sure that you stay super careful all the time um, but anyway.
So he starts to roll, he starts to turn.
You can't put him on the bed anymore.
You have to protect the space around him.
You have to make sure, for example, that you build a sort of a pillow castle, a pillow fort.
Pile up some pillows around him on the bed to keep him in place um, and then after that he will start to crawl, you know, moving himself around on his arms and his knees.
And the pillow fort doesn't really work that much at that stage.
When he starts to crawl, we will have to put him on the floor a lot more.
Oh hello, and give him toys to play with, and then he will eventually start getting up onto his two feet.
This probably happens after about 10 months or something, maybe a year, maybe less around that period.
He'll start getting up onto his two feet and holding himself up, holding onto different objects and then falling down onto his bum, but then eventually kind of walking around while holding onto things and taking his first steps, and then eventually walking around independently but rather unsteadily, which is quite a stressful time because you feel like you need to follow him around and make sure he doesn't fall over and bump his head.
And yeah, those early steps or that period when He becomes a toddler and starts walking around.
That brings a whole new series of challenges again, because he will investigate everything.
He'll be pulling things off shelves, grabbing everything, opening cupboards, pulling everything out and basically making a huge mess and putting himself in danger and probably putting everything into his mouth as well.
And that includes little things he finds on the floor.
For example, my daughter's Lego or other little bits and pieces.
So we've got to be quite vigilant make sure the place is safe for a baby, a toddler, and make sure there aren't like dangerous items lying around.
That can be tricky and it can be stressful, you know.
So this early newborn stage, as long as the baby's healthy, is normally pretty good, especially if the baby sleeps at night.
But then later, the goalposts move.
It's like the parameters of the game change.
And it can become more challenging later, a few months down the line, as these things start happening.
It can be quite stressful.
But of course, it's wonderful to see the development.
And in many ways, things just get better and better as the children grow up.
Our daughter, for example, is now in a really lovely stage where we can have fairly sophisticated conversations with her.
And she can mostly entertain herself and play on her own if we need her to.
You know, if we have other things to do, I can like cook in the kitchen or whatever, and she can be messing around on her own and she'll entertain herself mostly.
We can have pretty good conversations with her.
That's fantastic.
So when you get to that stage, it's kind of a bit of a relief where you don't have to be so vigilant all the time.
But so here we are.
Things are pretty sweet, really.
And I feel, to be honest, I feel extremely lucky, basically.
I am lucky and grateful for everything, for the fact that I've got a family that is hopefully touch wood safe and sound, and you know all those things.
And I just hope that the boy grows up and develops smoothly and transitions to each different phase without too much trouble, and that my wife and I can continue to sleep throughout the night and that we don't get exhausted or too stressed out.
Hopefully, you won't notice me being completely knackered and worn out in episodes of this podcast.
Hopefully, the podcast will remain unaffected.
When my daughter was born, I was concerned.
I was a bit worried that it might prevent me from doing my podcast stuff.
I thought, oh no, we're.
I know that sounds a bit depressing, but you know those thoughts do come to you.
You think this is going to change everything.
I'm not going to be able to do the things I did before.
I was concerned it would stop me doing the podcast.
But in fact, I became even more productive after our daughter was born.
And I became even more focused.
And the podcast actually went from strength to strength.
I launched the premium subscription and also branched out into YouTube more regularly, and did that with some success.
I'll probably get to a million subscribers on YouTube by the end of this year.
And so, you know, it shows that having kids doesn't stop you from doing other things.
And although it can be a lot of extra work and also a sense of responsibility on your shoulders...
The good things outweigh the bad things, and it's a wonderful thing to do if you really want it.
Now, you have to want it, of course, and you can't have it imposed on you.
Some people do have children imposed on them, and that can be problematic.
And also, there are other factors, which I should mention.
There's also, of course, the fact that you know, some people unfortunately, really wanted children and would be fantastic parents, but for one reason or another, they can't have them, which is obviously a sad thing.
And my heart goes out to those people.
But there are other factors as well.
You know like, for example, some people after they've had a child, they do suffer from depression, postnatal depression, particularly women who go through so many physical changes and different physical experiences.
But men can go through a kind of post childbirth or child related depression as well.
It's very common.
It's basically a condition which can arrive after the birth of a child and which can cause parents to become unhappy.
It's probably a combination of the weight of responsibility, the changing circumstances at home, the chemical and hormonal changes, the physical changes, the change in the relationship between the mother and the father.
It can be quite disruptive and can cause unhappiness for some people.
Fingers crossed that doesn't happen to us.
Now, I'm not saying it's all roses and all perfect for us in our home.
We've had our ups and downs and our difficult moments, dealing with the challenges of family life and marriage and all the rest of it.
But all in all, on balance, I do feel very lucky.
It helps, of course, that my wife is really on top of things and she is a fantastic mother and a fantastic wife and a fantastic companion for me.
Obviously, that helps.
But fingers crossed, things will go well.
Anyway, I'll stop rambling now.
I hope you've enjoyed this personal episode of my podcast, this very personal episode.
Feel free to leave your comments wherever you are listening to this, be it on Spotify, where I understand you can leave comments now, or on my website, which is always a place you can go to leave comments.
You'll find the link to the episode page in the show notes in your podcast app.
You can write comments on my website.
It's very easy to do that.
You can do it anonymously as a guest if you like, or you can sign up to the comments plugin that I use.
If you want to leave your name and stuff so you can comment again in the future, or you can comment on YouTube.
You know, it would be nice to hear your thoughts.
Please be respectful, as always, in the comments section.
I have no time for nonsense.
If you feel moved to do it, then please leave a nice review for the podcast on iTunes, Apple Podcasts or Google Podcasts.
It really helps to encourage the algorithm to push the podcast in recommendations and can generally help to promote the show.
Just a reminder again if you want an episode about all of the vocabulary of childbirth and having babies, you could go back to episode 162.
And that list of other episodes on this topic.
You've got episode 161, which was called She's Having a Baby.
And that was the first appearance of Amber Minogue on this podcast.
And I spoke to her just a few weeks before she was due to give birth to her first child.
And we talked all about it.
So that's 161.
The next episode, 162, that's the vocab episode about the subject.
And then, when it was my turn to become a parent, I did two episodes with Andy and Ben from London School of English called Becoming a Dad.
And that's where they tried to... Oh, you're all right, kiddo.
He's okay.
I think he's falling asleep.
A little cough and a splutter there.
Are you all right, mate?
There you go.
All right, mate.
There you go.
So they tried to scare the pants off me by telling me in great detail what it was going to be like to witness the birth of the child and all the stress and stuff.
So you could hear that conversation.
That's episode 491 and 492.
Episode 502 is the birth of my daughter, that lovely episode with my wife.
Episode 515 was a conversation with Amber and Sarah.
Amber Minogue and Sarah Donnelly all about bringing up children in France and how parenting styles in France compare to parenting styles in the UK or the USA and sort of learning to become maman instead of becoming a mum but becoming a maman child.
A French mother.
So that's quite an interesting cross-cultural look at childcare.
597 was called Growing Up, Getting Older and Becoming a Father with Paul Taylor.
And Paul talked about the admittedly difficult experience that he had of becoming a father.
And then episode 814 was called The Language of Children and Parenting with Anna Tyree.
And that one is, as I said earlier, all about the sort of language of all the different objects and things that we associate with children.
And also the ways in which we talk to children as well, like parentese and children. and so on.
So we're nearly done.
Thank you so much for listening.
And I'll speak to you again in the next episode, which I expect will be yet another rambling episode in which I spill out lots of thoughts I had during my two month absence, while I was on holiday and also while looking after this little guy whose eyes are closed.
I think he's asleep.
So the next episode will be a rambling episode where I kind of talk about the things that came into my brain during my two-month absence.
I'll respond to some comments to recent episodes and so on.
So that'll probably be the next episode.
And then, over the coming weeks and months, will be the usual variety of episodes on different topics with different guests stories, humour and so on, all to help you learn English through listening.
Don't forget Luke's English Podcast Premium, of course.
If you're interested in LEP Premium and you want to find out more, just go to teacherlukecouk slash premium info and that's where you can get all the information you need.
Okay, but that's it then.
Thank you so much for listening.
I will speak to you again soon.
But for now, it's just time to say goodbye.
Bye.
Bye.
By the way, he's asleep.
I told you.
I knew it.
I knew he'd be asleep by the end.
He's fast asleep.
Goodbye.
Bye.
Bye.
Bye.
Bye.
Bye.
Thanks for listening to Luke's English Podcast.
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