Story from birth
- Straightforward pregnancy.
- Blood stain liquor at 39+2 weeks, contractions did not start and therefore induced, initially with pessary at2pm, fully dilated by 10pm, extreme pain and then contractions eased, epidural given and oxytocin dripstarted. Baby born vaginal with ventouse at 2.02 am weighed 3.25kg. Second degree tear with post-partumhaemorrhage of 1.2litres. Not transfused.
- Initially had skin on skin for 5 mins and then had haemorrhage so husband given baby.
Feeding
- Attempted to latch after 1.5hrs, baby struggling to latch and slipping off. Told have flat nipples, and baby cannot latch. Told to hand express, nothing coming out, baby was crying lots and then told as hungry should consider giving formula. Still persisted to put on breast but had very very little support with this and in hindsight breast support was very poor. Baby mainly had formula in hospital. I did notice some colostrum on day 2 when hand expressing but again I didn’t know how much I should be expressing and wasn’t encouraged to keep going with it.
- Stayed in hospital for 3 days predominately for pain, I do feel pain relief was inadequate and affected myability to help baby latch. Due to pain hadn’t really done much skin on skin.
- Arrived home day 3, had face time consultation with lactation consultant who helped lots, advised to usenipple shields helped with latch, advised to drop formula onto nipple shield to encourage baby to latch andstart pumping. Only had hands free single pump. Nothing initially and then Day 5 pumped 40ml from oneside. Continued to pump aiming for 6-8 pumps a day but doing more like 4-5 pumps. Baby still struggling tolatch and getting very frustrated so having moisture of expressed milk and formula. Still attempting tolatch at breast with shields. Told have low supply.
- Day 10 hospital grade pump arrived and since then till about week 6 would pump 5-8 times a day.Technique and flange size not checked so difficult to know how successful it was.
- Baby initially lost 7% weight and then regained this by day 16. Continued to gain weight since
- Up to week 6 is a bit of blur, essentially triple feeding, getting very broken sleep, eating plenty and mymum came to help with meals. We were slowly trying to taper down the top ups but baby always seemedunhappy/crying. Again in hindsight maybe wanted more skin on skin/cuddles.
- Week 4 started domperidone 1 tablet three times a day for 2 weeks, then advised to increase to 2 tabletsthree times a day. Was told by NHS lactation consultant that she thought my supply was now there but thedomperidone would help increase flow as baby getting very agitated when latching.
- From week 6 everyone in the house getting very tired with what we were doing so opted to get somegeneral advice. Put on a routine to help increase milk and help with sleep. Routine involves feeding 3-4hrlywith awake time and naps and bed time routine. Encouraged to actively feed baby at breast. This helped ustremendously with our day giving it some structure with the triple feeding.
- Supply has now gone up quite a bit and now told I have an oversupply(!) but not enough milk during theday. Hence having to top up. It’s frustrating to me that with a low supply I was topping up and now with anoversupply I’m topping up as well!!
- Weight has remained stable
24-hour schedule
- Wake up 6.30-8am
- Breast feed approx 45mins both breasts
- Pump to empty (usual amount 180ml)
- Awake 2 hrs and then nap in crib
- Breast feed at approx 11am
- Top up with EBM until full
- Pump till empty
- Awake 2.5hrs and the nap in crib
- Breast feed approx 2pm
- Top up with EBM until full
- Pump till empty
- Awake 2hrs and then nap in crib
- Breast feed 5.30/6pm
- Bath
- Bottle of expressed breast milk given amount 140-180ml
- Bed
- If wakes at night to give feed
- Until 2 days ago I was also pumping at night but finding that affected my morning feed
Sleep associations
- White noise
- Struggles with day naps max 45mins and then struggles to sleep after this unless as contact nap
Baby night waking and soothing patterns
- Sleeps well from 8pm-3am then wakes, sometimes has small feed, mostly just wants to be held (we think) often gets restless and noisy after this and broken sleep until we finally wake up.
- Usually can put straight into crib after feed as pretty sleepy
Family medical conditions/history
- Skin conditions
- Diabetes
- Heart disease
