First Week (30 May to 5 June)
After spending two nights in hospital, getting really frustrated with the conflicting breastfeeding advise I was getting from the midwives (It shouldn’t hurt at all…It should only hurt for 60 seconds…It must just hurt all the time for you), I brought home a slightly jaundiced and rather sleepy baby. My milk came in that night, and I found out about leaking boobs and engorgement. Samantha found out about feeding too much, posseting, and dealing with belly pains.
Because I went home a day early, I was referred to the home midwife service, where the hospital midwives came to visit me at home to make sure I was coping and bub was putting on weight. Unfortunately at the second visit, it was revealed that bub had lost weight and was dehydrated. After a slap on my wrist and some adjustment to our breastfeeding attachment, we were proudly discharged from the HMS two days later, having put on over 100g in two days.
Sam was very unsettled during this week, and Brad and I had quite a few nights of broken sleep on the couch. We struggled to tell the difference between pain and overtiredness, and we’d end up massively overstimulating an overtired baby, compounding the problem. I felt like we needed a medal or a celebration party when we reached the one week milestone.
Aside from periods of unsettledness, Sam pretty much ate and slept on a 3-4 hour schedule. She exhibited good neck control and figured out how to roll on her side really quickly.
We were always keen to use cloth nappies, in particular modern cloth nappies (MCNs). I had 25 multi-fit MCNs on layby that I was paying off, so we were using terry flat nappies in the meantime. A modern invention called the Snappi Nappy meant that we didn’t have to mess with safety pins. We weren’t using any waterproofing over the nappy at this stage, as the wetting wasn’t that heavy, and the pilchers I had bought were still way to big.
Second Week (6-12 June)
I have always been keen to put Sam into a routine. It’s the type of person I am. I like my sleep and a certain level of predictability in my life. However, I waited until I was discharged from the HMS on day 8 to start with the Week One to Two routine from the book Save Our Sleep by Tizzie Hall. While I preferred the routines from The New Contended Little Baby book by Gina Ford, I had to wait until Sam regained her birth weight before I could start on the first routine from that book, whereas the SOS routine was for a baby who was yet to regain her birth weight. The routine itself was pretty much the same as the 3-4 hour feeding schedule Sam was already used to, but the routine gave me suggestions and instructions, particularly on how to settle to sleep and teach Sam how to self settle. She has good days and bad days with self settling, but overall it is getting easier.
At 12 days of age, Samantha decided she missed the hospital and wanted to go back for an overnight stay. I was waking her for her 1pm feed, and I was changing her nappy as part of this. She had wet through her nappy and her clothes, so I was also changing her outfit. Basically, she was crying and tried to vomit up something (crazy, as it was 3 hours since her previous feed) and choked on the vomit. She turned purple before my eyes, reminding me of the purple babe that was placed on my stomach after I gave birth to her. I called Brad into the nursery because I couldn’t believe what I was seeing, and as soon as he saw her colour he told me to call an ambulance. I used my iPhone instead of the landline, but I used the emergency call button and dialled 000, then had it cut out at 1:30 because the iPhone didn’t recognise the number as being a genuine emergency number and thought a thief was trying to run up my bill.
Luckily, by this point Sam was breathing and vomiting again, and the operator had taken my address so the ambulance had already been dispatched. Meanwhile, I called back on the landline and followed all the instructions. Sam was taken to hospital as a precaution. We still don’t know exactly what happened, but we do know that it wasn’t due to a bleed on the brain or an infection. We have been reassured that what happened was supposed to happen or else she would have inhaled the vomit into her lungs. We (Sam and I) spent the night in the nursery of the paediatric ward with the lovely nurses there, and I found out that breastfeeding mothers are afforded certain perks (i.e.. free meals).
We had a visit from the community health nurse (CHN) the next day after we were discharged. At this point, Sam had been weighed three days in a row, and while she was gaining weight slowly, she hadn’t yet regained her birth weight, although she was getting close.
Sam started to change shape this week, particularly in her face, and her hair grew. She was still eating, sleeping and being unsettled – no interaction as yet, although there was a definite excited expression on her face when she was about to be fed.
Third Week (13-19 June)
I was starting to feel like I was getting a handle on things. I could no longer feel my stitches, and I was feeling comfortable with myself and my baby. Just as well, because Brad was going back to work next week. So, I started trying to adjust to life without Brad’s constant support. We also had our first outings this week, going to the doctor to follow up after the hospital visit, going to Centrelink to lodge Samantha’s forms, breastfeeding in the car park after the doctor’s visit and again in Centrelink, and a visit to the CHN clinic.
Samantha was three weeks old when she was officially weighed as being over her birth weight. This meant that I could officially move onto the Contended Little Baby routine, which still followed a 3-4 hour routine, but taught a method of splitting feeds before longer naps to enable the baby to sleep soundly on a full stomach (or that’s the theory anyway). So you wake the baby, feed the baby, play with the baby, feed the baby, and put the baby down for her nap.
Sam started interacting with us this week, participating in mutual gazing.
Fourth Week (20-26 June)
Just when you think you have a handle on everything, everything changes and your primary support person has to go back to work. Suddenly there’s no one to get my water when I forget to get it before I start breastfeeding, and when the baby is unsettled during the day and won’t nap, there’s no one else to take over trying to comfort her while I take a shower, hang out washing, nap or eat. I managed to get most everything done that I wanted to, but I didn’t have very much in mind. I like to keep on top of the washing, because it’s my addiction and because I have to keep cleaning nappies. I also had to make all the various appointments for six week check-ups with our GP, obstetrician and physio. Anything more than that was a bonus.
I started to put away Sam’s 0000 clothing. She’s turning into quite the chunky monkey. Her hair has also doubled in length since she was born.
Sam started talking to herself this week and trying to talk to us. She looks so intently like she’s got something to tell us, but she can’t yet find the words or noises to communicate with us. She also seems to be obsessed with blue objects and will gaze at them for minutes at a time while talking avidly to them. She also has a lot more neck control and can lift her head up to look at you when you hold her chest to chest.
