Adventures in Breastfeeding – Part 2

When Miss C was born I was adamant I wanted to breastfeed. I didn’t have a very good experience with Miss B but I know that it is best so wanted to try. I spoke to the midwife when I was in labour and was insistent that I wanted to let her try to latch on as soon as possible to establish feeding. About 6 minutes after Miss C was born she was snuggled into my side and latched on. I was elated!!! I have a naturally large chest and really struggled with latching with her sister and was worried I would have the same problems again. A few hours later I tried to feed her again and latching was an issue. I was given fantastic help from the Breastfeeding Support Workers on the ward but unfortunately then all the drama started!

She was in the incubator but I was allowed to take her out to feed her, and I tried for three days with no success. I had a long, tearful chat with a Midwife and a BF Support Worker and they suggested I express my milk and feed her that way. It was the best of both worlds, I could pump my milk, she was getting the best and I wasn’t stressed out every time she was due a feed!

This continued for two weeks after I got home. I would pump my milk when she was due a feed and her Daddy would feed her and it was working well. The only real downside was lack of skin to skin which then had an effect on my milk production. I tried to snuggle her as much as possible when I wasn’t expressing but it was really hard because she needed her space and peace too. A week after Dad went back to work I made the decision to stop expressing. It was a difficult decision but ultimately it was the best for us. She had three weeks of my milk and all the colostrum but the guilt still killed me.

I bought a tub of formula milk from the shops and started using it. Within a few days she was a different baby. She was unsettled, in pain, windy and had bad diarrhoea. After three days I noticed she had blood in her poo and took her straight to the local Out of Hours centre. The Doctor didn’t seem worried and didn’t look at her bottom at all. I had taken a nappy with me that had blood in it but he didn’t look and told me she had an anal fisher. I wasn’t wholly convinced but took her home. The Health Visitor was due to come out a few days later so I kept an eye on Miss C and showed the Health Visitor my concern. As soon as I took her nappy off she immediately put on a show and was able to let the Health Visitor see first hand what the problem was! She was concerned and sent me straight to the GP surgery to have her seen. As before, as soon as I took her nappy off she gave him a very up close and personal show of the issue. He was horrified and sent us straight to the local maternity hospital because it had a Paediatric Ward. She was admitted and they asked loads of questions, tested her and were really thorough. After a few hours the Consultant came back in and told me he thought she was allergic to Cows Milk Protein. I had never heard of it before but she was really patient and explained everything to me and then got a Dietician in to talk me through what I needed to know. She was fantastic and explained what cows milk protein was and how it was different to someone who was Lactose Intolerant. She talked me through the symptoms and that the blood in her stool was most likely the lining of her stomach being striped away. I left the hospital with a tin of prescription milk, a few booklets on CMPA and a head full of information.

When she was due her next feed we gave her the prescription milk. The first thing that hit me was the smell. It was vile. The Dietician had told me that it was a blessing that Miss C had been diagnosed so early because older children usually refuse to drink the prescription milk due to the taste and smell. I could immediately see what she meant, it was just awful. The second thing was the texture. Normal baby formula is really light and falls straight down into the water and dissolves but this stuff is thick like flour and just sat on top of the water in the bottle. She took the milk with no issue and within a few hours was much more settled. After a week or so she was a totally different baby. She was settled and happy and didn’t pump every few minutes but most of all, the bleeding had stopped. The Dietician told me that they would see me when she was around 5 months old to talk about weaning but if we had any problems just to contact them straight away.

I can tell you that all of this did NOTHING to help with the guilt I was still feeling around giving up breastfeeding, but I was reassured that she would still be allergic to Cows Milk Protein but since my diet doesn’t contain a lot of dairy it would just show itself at a later date.

So there we are, the start of an interesting journey into the world of being dairy free. Let’s see how this turns out!

Cx

Then There Were Four

Well we are now a family of 4 after our recent new arrival.  I’ve been asked loads about the birth etc so thought I would blog about it now I have some time on my hands (more on that later)

Baby B was due on the 28th August and due to my Gestational Diabetes we discussed me being induced early to make sure the baby wasn’t massive and neither of us was at any risk due to his/her size.  So when I went along to one of my routine appointments the consultant who was looking after me gave me a date of Friday 22nd August to go in.  The plan was that I would go in on the Friday night about 8pm, be induced on Saturday morning and see what happened from there.  We didn’t tell anyone other than my Mum because she was looking after Miss B and so I got planning. I arranged for the three of us to go out for dinner on our own to one of our favourite places and Miss B thought we were going to the cinema and she was having a sleep over at Gugs.  Aunty Eileen came and collected her from the restaurant and Mr B and I made our way to the hospital.

When I got there I was taken to a bed and met with a lovely midwife who sat and had a chat with us about what was going to happen. She had a look at my notes from the clinic and decided to take a look and see if there had been any movement and if that was the case she was going to get things moving. Before I knew what was happening, I was in a labour room having my waters broken! It was the strangest sensation lying there in the bed with my waters flooding out! The first time round they went naturally so it was really odd.  I was told she would give me an hour to see what I could do on my own and then get me on the drip. So Mr B and I were on our own again.  At this point I put my playlist on, I had been working hard for weeks making up my labour playlist and making sure that it was full of my favourite songs and songs that meant something to me.  The midwife came back in about half an hour later and was laughing at me dancing round the room in my jammies trying to keep my mind off things 🙂

After just over an hour she came back in and started me on the drip, it was really strange again because last time I was walking around and Mr B and I were pretty much left to our own devices but this time I was attached to a drip and stuck to the bed.  I managed on my own for about an hour or so and then asked for some gas and air. My contractions were all over the place and we were trying to get them under control and in some kind of regular pattern (I don’t think my dancing and singing was helping at this point, I blame Stevie Wonder). Finally my contractions got into a decent pattern and I was in full blown labour.  The whole experience flew past in a blur and the labour was just over 3 hours from start to finish. I remember asking for something stronger and I was given a shot of diamorphine and some anti-sickness drugs, then it was go time.

The midwife took the gas and air pipe from me and told me it was time to start pushing, and I did and less than 3 minutes later our gorgeous new bundle entered the world.  My labour was great but there was some drama 11 hours later which I will blog about later as it’s still quite emotional to talk about and I’ve been pretty poorly since too, but that’s also a post for another night.

Here are some pictures leading up to the introduction of Miss C:

Our last picture as a family of three

My last bump picture

Our first picture just after she was born (sorry for the tear stained face, I was really emotional)

Having a wee cuddle with Daddy

Meet Miss C 🙂

With her big sister.

It’s fair to say that I always knew what a great big sister Miss B would make, but I think I genuinely underestimated just how amazing she would be. She is so loving and caring and can’t do enough for her little sister. Even when she is crying or making lots of noise, Miss B just gets on with it and loves cuddling into her as much as she can. She is relishing in her role as big sister and loves her wee sis to bits 🙂 Long may that continue!!

Miss C is a very placid baby and if she isn’t sleeping she’s smiling. It’s amazing how much joy a new baby can bring to a  family, but she just fills me with happiness every day and I am so thankful that I have two happy and healthy little girls in my life. It was my worry before she was born about how she would fit into our family routine as what we has in place worked so well, but she has fallen into a fantastic pattern and thankfully it has all fallen into place.

      

I am really looking forward to our first Christmas as a family of four and can’t wait for all the other amazing things that are coming up soon.

In the meantime, thanks for reading and taking the time to comment and I leave you with the song that Miss C was born to 🙂

Cx