After his night feed at 04:30 the baby boy slept (yes, he was asleep) until just before 08:00. They brought him through to me, but he didn’t want to feed. He wanted to go back to sleep.
They didn’t bring him back at lunch time. Instead they brought the monstrous pumping machine, in an attempt to make sure I was actually producing milk, and how much. Even I know, as a complete newbie, judging how much milk a mother is producing and how much she manages to pump, are two entirely different things. You would think they were aware that it takes a few days for milk to come in, especially in c-section births.
This single nurse has been telling me at every available opportunity that I’m not producing enough, and that I will need to supplement his diet because “He is BIG baby”. I keep stipulating that I want to exclusively breastfeed, but they do keep trying to get me on formula. However much they have argued with me, they have maintained the “no formula” edict. They didn’t stick to no pacifier though, that made me so cross.
Dr Maria came to see me today and asked if I was eating. Hahaha! I don’t think so. My baby boy seems to be following the same feeding schedule as the hospital catering staff. Every time a meal arrives for me, 30 seconds later my darling baby boy is wheeled through the door to my room, demanding to be fed. His timing is spectacular.
On two occasions, my Honey has had to feed me, while I was feeding the baby boy. Otherwise, I would have missed every meal that day. Considering they won’t let you leaving until you’ve passed fecal matter, I needed to eat.
Just a brief departure from my baby boy to the hospital food.
I was admitted with gestational diabetes. As a consequence, I was kept on a “light diabetic diet”. I think the hospital catering got confused. My ‘light’ diabetic diet seems to consist entirely of white, high carb items.
White bread, white pasta, white potatoes, chicken thigh, clear broth, I wanted a packet of pens to colour-in my food. Can you believe it has taken until today to get a salad? Who would have thought it would be so difficult to get a salad in a hospital.
Back to the baby boy and me
Tonight, my little cherub has had a wonderfully long feed. There is a relief and a release of tension when he latches and drains what he needs. It’s so relaxing when he is content. Even at 01:00 he had another long feed.
I think one reason that he has been feeding better tonight, is that I had my IV feed removed today. Three canulas in three days was getting just a little too much. There has to be a better way for nursing mothers to receive IV fluids. Having a canula in and elbow, hand, wrist etc. when trying to breastfeed a baby is just not practical.
Every time I attempted to feed the baby boy, he would rest on the canula, which couldn’t have been comfortable for him, and was very uncomfortable for me. Additionally, every time the canula would kink or break, fill with bloody backwash, and get clogged. Obviously, that meant I wasn’t getting my pain medication, antibiotics, or fluids. Good times.
This morning I had a shower. It felt so good. Unfortunately, today had to be the day the big (tall and stocky), Russian nurse wasn’t working. Today I had the help of three tiny (short and delicate-looking) nurses, not one of whom was tall enough to help wash my hair. It still has the remains of conditioner, that I couldn’t rinse out with one hand, in it.