What We Thought of The Baby Show

After my rather excited post last night, featuring Baby Thor and Batman, I realised I’d probably not told you enough about what we got up to at the show and what we thought of it, so here goes.

Plus Points

• Fabulous baby change area with unlimited Pampers nappies and wipes and fab Stokke baby change units. I love my M+P baby change unit, but it was nice to test out something different. Baby Thor obviously liked it as he wee-d all over it at our last change. Also, all the nappies and wipes from the show were being recycled by a clever initiative called Nappies2Go. Not only will they come and collect your dirty nappies for recycling, they also deliver Pampers nappies and wipes. 
• Following on from this, I was really pleased to see several stands offering re-usable nappies – although it’s not for me, it’s great to see this being taken up by so many people.
• The baby first aid talk from the British Red Cross. Super-duper important IMO – the last time I heard this information I was sitting next to Baby Thor’s cot in SCBU when he was 5 days old – so this refresher really helped as I wasn’t really in the best state of mind before! I was sad to miss Clare Byam-Cook’s talk and also Prof Robert Winston though.
• The loot! Paying £2 for a `goody bag` was a bit of a surprise but with copies of the latest issues of Prima Baby + Pregnancy and Practical Parenting + Pregnancy as well as full size samples of various products and mini samples of others I was quite impressed. I actually prefer the sample sizes as they’re great for popping in your change bag when you’re out and about. Here’s a quick snap for you

Dealing with a sleepy newborn – pt 1

After SH’s experiences with her firstborn, M (check here and here), she’s kindly come back to tell us about her experience dealing with getting her son’s posterior tongue tie dealt with. Tongue tie is not always diagnosed correctly – and posterior tongue tie is even more tricky to diagnose (more info here). Here is part 1 of her experience with E:

“After a fairly dramatic birth (heartrate plummeting, crash team called in, emergency ventouse, apgar score of 2, resusscitation) I was just relieved to get E onto me for some skin to skin time. He made his way to the boob and had a long feed, and continued to feed well for the first 24 hours. I was delighted, as M hadn’t latched on at all in that time, and had been readmitted to hospital with jaundice after a couple of days. E’s latch didn’t feel 100% right, but it wasn’t terrible either, and looked okay (as confirmed by the midwife) so I was hoping that it would sort itself out within a couple of days, and be easier for him anyway once my milk came in. I’d breastfed M until she was 2, and was a year into training as a breastfeeding counsellor, so didn’t anticipate any major difficulties in getting feeding established.

Almost as soon as we brought E home (24 hours after birth) things seemed to have shifted + he was much sleepier and less inclined to feed, and also feeding less well when he did manage it –  bobbing on and off. Within a day or two he was clearly a bit jaundiced, and with our experience of Megan, we were eager not to let it get to the stage of a hospital readmission again. So I started doing a bit of hand expressing of the colostrum and letting him lap it out of a spoon. My milk was beginning to come in, but he didn’t seem to be getting the hang of feeding. He was getting sleepier, not pooing and just losing interest in feeding completely. My nipples were also getting sore by this stage – with all the bobbing on and off he was doing it was near impossible to ensure a perfect latch every time, and he was also scrabbling at me with his hands, and rubbing his face over them too.

So we decided that things were spiralling out of control, and we were going to take a step back. We decided on a plan of 24 hours of expressing & bottle feeding, aiming to get an ounce or two into him every few hours and then once we were satisfied that he was hydrated, we’d go cold turkey on the bottles and do lots of skin to skin to re-establish breastfeeding  and be able to fully concentrate on latch/positioning without the worry that he was getting more and more jaundiced.

He did seem brighter after that 24 hour break and had no trouble going back to the breast, and the midwife reassured us that he didn’t look terribly jaundiced and that he was only 1oz under his birth weight of 6lb 12oz. I think she thought we were being rather over anxious parents. I did ask her to check for a tongue tie, as it would have fitted with both his behaviour & the damage to me, but she thought it looked fine.

By this time, it was clear that my nipples were in a pretty horrific state. Although I was aware that the latch wasn’t 100% perfect 100% of the time (mainly through all this on/off/on/off action), I was a bit taken aback that I’d obviously got it so wrong without realising. I was absolutely rubbed raw, cracked, bleeding at times and very, very sore. I read up on moist wound healing & started using jelonet gauze patches as well as lansinoh.

Things got worse and worse over the next few days and by the time he was a week old we really weren’t having much fun. Each feeding time seemed to be a horrible battle – it felt like we were fighting each other, E was just so “angry” with the process and we’d regularly both be in tears for an hour or so, during which time he’d have small patches of actual sucking amidst all the screaming or alternatively he’d latch on only to fall asleep instantly. I switched to rugby ball hold as I just couldn’t bear any more pressure on the same parts of my nipples that were so damaged. He was sleepy, scrawny (at 10 days he weighed the same as he had done at 4 days) and we were again getting worried about his hydration – we saw some urate crystals in his nappies, and he was pooing alarmingly infrequently. I’d express a little if he refused to latch on completely, and then try him again  and then if he hadn’t taken much at all, I’d try to express some more and get that into him. I hadn’t built up any stock of expressed milk, so it was just whatever I could get off at that moment. Feeding him on demand wasn’t an option as he just wasn’t demanding it, but we were unsure as to whether we should be trying to feed 3 hourly or more frequently and with each feed a 1-2 hour battle, there was barely any time for E to sleep in-between, let alone me to rest…”

Sounds like a stressful start to the breastfeeding relationship – after a tricky birth as well. Check back in a few days for part 2 and diagnosis of the tongue tie. Does any of this sound familiar to you? Feel free to email with your experience – you may help another mummy or mum to be – ourbreastfeedingexperiences@gmail.com

Thanks,

Becky + Baby Thor

Difficult Early Days: Mastitis + Thrush – Cloz’s Experience

Following on from this post describing how she got through the first week with a terrible cracked nipple, here Cloz’s story continues with her experience of thrush and mastitis….

“Continued from Week 2…..L started to fuss at my good boob, my flow was too fast and he would choke and cry throughout the feed. At BF clinic on the Friday I burst into tears, I felt rotten, a bad headache, hot and cold flashes and now my baby would not feed even on my good side. I was exhausted. That night my H noticed that evil boob had a large red patch, I had mastitis…

H insisted on calling the out of hours doctor and within an hour I was seen and given antibiotics. I took a bad turn during the night and felt so terrible that I could not latch L onto speedy boob, I got so upset I refused to feed him and H took over with bottles. I had failed totally.

Over the weekend we continued feeding L expressed breast milk and topping up with formula. I was now terrified about putting him back to speedy boob too in case it ended up like evil boob. I hardly got to see L, when he needed to feed my H would do it whilst I expressed, including overnight.

Week 3: At BF clinic on Tuesday I explained what had happened to the BFC and she helped me work on latches on ‘speedy boob’ which would slow the flow for L, she also checked my evil boob and said not to feed from it yet as it was still too damaged I was told to reduce the amount of expressing I was doing on that side to let it rest more. At the Friday BF clinic it was suggested that as I had been using lansinoh for so long with no change that I try Jelonet gauze, the BFC also thought I had the beginnings of thrush.

Week 4: I saw the GP to get a prescription for the gauze. The GP suggested I stop BFing as it obviously wasn’t working for us but L continued to put on loads of weight so I was obviously doing something right! Evil boob hurt constantly, even when not in use. L would only feed on ‘speedy boob’ if we were both naked and lying down…. not great for BFing when out and about!

I began to withdraw from my friends who were all finding breast feeding easy, I felt like a total failure and that no-one understood what it was like for me. Why was it so easy for some people and not others? I started to resent people who found it easy and was paranoid they were judging me for giving L a bottle and for topping him up with formula. I found it easier just to not see anyone.

Week 5: L continued to fuss at ‘speedy boob’ despite the flow slowing positions. He would cry, hit my boob, tug it about it would take about 30 mins to get 10 mins worth of milk into him. I also tried expressing before a feed but this just led to my boob thinking it needed to make even more milk. This meant feeding in public was a nightmare as he would pull off with no warning and I would spray milk everywhere, it was impossible to feed him discreetly. ‘Evil boob’ was showing signs of improvement although I was terrified of actually getting to the point where I would need to latch L onto it again. The HV did the Post-Natal Depression questionnaire with me and I scored 13, not good.

Week 6: At BF clinic on the Tuesday we latched L back onto evil boob. No pain, a long feed. I was SO happy. There was still lots of fussing at speedy boob the BFC suggested I try nipple shields to slow the flow. That night I fed L totally by breast, no bottles for the first time in ages. I felt we had turned a corner. This went on until Wednesday night when I noticed large areas of the surface of evil boob were coming off leaving raw red skin underneath. The nipple was very tender and it hurt again to put L on. H insisted we go back to expressing on that side before it got any worse. I placed the order for some medela nipple shields (the avent one s were too big for me). They arrived on the Saturday and we took to them straight away. No more fussing at speedy boob, less pain on evil boob.

Week 7 : We were still using the nipple shields and loving them! My BFC says they are unlikely to affect my supply as I have so much milk. I do sometimes latch L to ‘speedy boob’ without the shield so he doesn’t forget what a real nipple is like, but I can’t see that I will ever put him back on evil boob without a shield. Evil boob now has a scar where the crack was which the BFC says will never go, so I am branded for life! I am however feeling more positive then I have in ages. Using shields is not ideal, I wish I didn’t have to, but at least I can still feed L. I am hoping this is it for us now, but then every time I think things are getting better something else goes wrong so not going to get my hopes up too much. I still pretty much just try to survive between BF clinics, there is one on Tues and one on Fri, I just try to keep going until a clinic, speaking to other mums who are having problems helps me feel like less of a failure.”

This isn’t the end of Cloz’s story, we have a final post to come – a 6 months on update! Yippee – go Cloz! Hopefully her story will inspire all of you who may be struggling and unsure of what to do. Always seek help and never be ashamed to try things like nipple shields or bottles if that’s what’s required 🙂

Thanks,

Becky + Baby Thor

Difficult Early Days: Cracked Nipples – Cloz’s Experience

Here Cloz tells us about the tricky first few weeks with her son  L, where she suffered from cracked nipples, mastitis *and* thrush. Despite all of this, Cloz got to that magic 6month mark! Before I post part 1 of her story, here is a quote from the very end that I think is very true :

“My advice to anyone with problems: – See a BFC asap, make sure they see the baby latch on and if you nipple hurts make them inspect it. – Don’t be afraid of things like nipple shields or expressing and giving bottles if it is the only way you can get though it. A good BFC will be able to help you ensure the baby is still able to latch onto the boob.”

Cloz’s Story:

“I was going to BF, there was no question I wouldn’t. I assumed any problems could be fixed by ‘correcting the latch’ just like it said in all the books and on my antenatal courses. People who quit obviously didn’t try hard enough…after all it is instinctive for the baby isn’t it? Ha how wrong I was.

Week 0: L was born at 0.43am on a Tuesday and was put to the breast but was not interested. We tried again frequently through the night and the next morning but nothing. At midday a new MW came in tried some different positions, he would latch on then immediately fall asleep. The MW checked I had milk and then manually expressed for me into a cup and fed it to L by syringe. But it was only a tiny amount…about 3-4 mls. It was decided that we couldn’t go home as feeding was not established. The rest of Tuesday was spent trying to get L onto the breast with no luck, he would latch on, suck twice and fall asleep. I was put on an industrial breast pump to get some milk to syringe feed, it was really painful and only a few mls came out. The MW said we would need to give L formula. I was asked what formula I preferred, I left the room and locked myself in the bathroom to cry whilst H and the MW fed L. I felt I had failed.

Over night we continued to try L on the breast, at about 4am a MW succeeded in getting L to latch on and stay there and we did a 50 min long feed! The next day Luca went back to not being interested and we were again told we could not go home. Towards the end of Wednesday we had a breakthrough, Luca suddenly seemed interested in my boobs! We managed our first feed with no assistance, an be discharged the next morning!

The next couple of days at home were great, we had to wake Luca to feed him as he never asked for food. BFing was pain free and wonderful, I was so happy. Then my milk came in, I was so engorged I could not latch Luca on. Expressing was painful, in desperation to feed him and relieve the pressure I allowed some bad latches which left my nipples very sore. After a day my breasts settled down but I still had a lot of pain in my right nipple.

Week 1: Luca wanted to feed frequently and for long periods, I was happy to do this as had always planned to demand feed. The pain on my right side got worse. I started taking painkillers as often as I could. and continued to slap on the lansinoh. I went to the hospital BF clinic on the Tuesday and was told that the latch looked fine. The pain continued to increase to the point where I was crying during every feed and starting to dread Luca waking up. On the Friday we went to another BF clinic and had the latch looked at by several MW’s, BFC and HV’s….all said it was fine. At no point did anyone inspect my actual nipple. Luca was weighed and had only lost 3oz in his first week so was thriving.

At the weekend I noticed that my right nipple sort of folding over on itself in my bra, I had a good look at it and realised that this was because a massive chunk of nipple was missing on the right side of it. I had a giant crack. I spent hours on the internet reading Kellymom and looking at videos and diagrams of how to latch a baby on to what we were doing wrong. L would not do the ‘reach up over nipple’ move, no matter how much ‘tummy to mummy’ and ‘nose to nipple’ we did. I became frustrated. The BFC looked at my crack and said it was the worst she had seen and that as it was on the side it would take a long time to heal as it was reopened with each feed. I read everything I could get my hands on on crack healing.

Week 2: I continued to feed Luca on evil boob, relying on painkillers and a towel to bite on. H went back to work and I spent most of the week in tears. I tried calling the NCT BF line spoke to a lovely lady, but she didn’t suggest anything I had not already tried. We decided I would switch to just expressing from that side to give it a break and let it recover. It was so painful to feed him I was getting upset at each feed which in turn was upsetting L. We introduced a bottle gradually and would feed L from good boob first, then nappy change, then offer bottle in the place of evil boob.”

To be continued tomorrow….