After having suffered two miscarriages, we decided to go down the IVF route, as to be able to test the embryo (doctors believed the miscarriages may have been due to a chromosomic problem). There were no problems with the pregnancy per se, but I felt very ill throughout the whole pregnancy. I was induced in the end at 38+ weeks.
I went to the hospital in the morning, my waters were broken and we waited a little bit to see how the contractions would behave. As little happened the doctor decided to give me oxytocin. The labour itself went very smoothly, I had an epidural when I was about 6cm dilated and the pushing stage was very quick, about 15minutes. However, an hour after delivery, the doctor realized my uterus was filled with blood again, and I was haemorrhaging. I was rushed into theatre to do a procedure to stop the bleeding, which thankfully worked well. I was paralysed from the waist down due to the epidural for the most of the night and received an iron transfusion the next morning.
As I had a lot of epidural for the procedure, I could barely hold her or feed her for the first night, until I regained movement.
With my first baby I wasn’t able to breastfeed at all. Nothing would come out and the doctor decided to give me a medication to dry the milk, which in hindsight I regret deeply. With Ana I was determined to try harder so I spoke to a breastfeeding consultant before delivery and also talked to my doctor letting her know I really wanted to try.
This time around we were able to see colostrum coming out of one of the breasts, so I fed her in the first hour before we realised the haemorrhage.
Then, I was doing a mix between formula and breastfeed, as I was very weak and had to have an iron transfusion, due to the blood loss.
I had very little milk coming from only the one breast but kept offering her the breast every feed before offering the bottle.
When she was about 6 weeks only 30ml would come out a day and so we decided to move entirely to formula.
The only issue was colic in the first 3 months. For that she was prescribed Infacol which she took for about 1 month.
Also may be worth mentioning, Ana was always a very calm, smiley bubbly baby. When she was about 6 weeks old, my husband moved to Luxembourg from London and I stayed with the kids until the school year was finished. At that moment, my 4yo son, felt very insecure so he started sleeping in my bedroom on a mat on the floor. After a couple of weeks having them both in my bedroom, which was not working well, I decided to move Ana to her bedroom and I was going back and forth during the night to attend to her needs. At that time already she was waking only once or twice during the night to feed. When we moved to France she was 4 months old and her sleep pattern got much worse.
Lately, she had a viral infection and right after that she had bronchitis (still ongoing ) and her routine is all over the place. She is not eating well, is barely sleeping more than 40min at a time.
Typically, Ana wakes up around 6am (lately since the viral infection it has been more around 5:30), I change her, and give a bottle (she would drink anywhere from 150ml to 210ml). We than go to the breakfast table all of us and I offer her some fruit / yogurt. She takes very little, if any.
We leave the house around 8am, drop her off at the creche, drop her brother off at school.
At creche, Ana usually sleeps to anywhere from 15min to 30min around 9am. She has solid lunch (purees) around 11ish and then they offer a bottle around 11:40 (she drinks anywhere from 120-180ml).
I pick her up at 12ish and we go back home. I try to put her down for a nap between 12-12:30. She usually wakes up about 40min later, and I go back in the bedroom to try and resettle her again. Usually, she sleeps in total 1:30 hours.
Around 2pm she has another bottle (around 210ml).
At 2:40pm we leave to pick her brother up from school. We go back home and around 4:30 I try to put her down for a power nap, which usually lasts 15-20min. This power nap has been increasingly more difficult.
Around 5:00 I offer her some dinner, which is usually a mix of purees and BLW.
At about 6:00 she has another bottle (about 200ml),
At 6:30 pm we give both children a bath, then Ana goes to her room to be changed and for bedtime routine (nappy, PJs, Sleeping bag, white noise on, then a book and a song).
Initially I was able to drowse her by rocking her, then I’d put her in the cot and stay in the room replacing dummy / patting a bit and then getting away until she slept (around 20-30min). At the moment, since she’s been ill, I’ve been rocking her to sleep.
Regardless of how I put her to sleep, she often wakes up after 30-40min and I have to go back to the room.
At 9:30-10pm we give her a final bottle (dream feed of about 150ml).
Before the viral infection she was able to replace her dummy by herself sometimes and put herself back to sleep sometimes. Other times she gets worked up and just waves arms and legs and doesn’t even try to find the dummy.
I honestly believe that she has already acquired some skills to self-soothe (as she has slept throughout the night a few times), but I’d like this to be consistent. I believe I need some help with her schedule, wake times etc, as well as with her food intake during the day.
The worst moment for me is also when I put her down during bedtime – She always gets worked up and cries. I would love to be able to put her down for the night without crying.
