Mateo

I had a normal pregnancy with Mateo, without any issues.

When I reached 41 weeks plus 6 days I was induced. The induction took a long time and I was in the pre-natal ward for a full day and night before being moved to the labour ward and put on an oxytocin drip. Things were progressing slowly and the epidural that I eventually asked for did not work. Although Mateo was doing ok throughout and was never in danger, the consultant intervened in the end. He had to use forceps and Mateo was born at 42wks plus 1 day. I had lost quite a lot of blood and was absolutely exhausted.

I breastfed Mateo but we soon realised that he was not latching on correctly and not getting all the milk out. We gave him a little bit of formula on the side in the first week at the insistence of the health visitor because he was slightly jaundiced although it turned out when he was weighed that he had not lost much of his birth weight, well within the normal range. I had to express milk after every feed to keep the milk production going which added to my exhaustion. We then got a breastfeeding consultant in, and it turned out Mateo had a tongue tie that was stopping him from drinking efficiently. After we had it snipped feeding was much easier and I continued to breastfeed him up to 14 months. He never had issues with reflux.

Mateo was not a good sleeper from the start and, except for a brief period when he was almost 2, has always needed us to fall asleep. As a baby he was very sensitive to sounds. He was early with turning over, crawling and walking and has always been very active.

Mateo preferred milk over solids for a long time. I think he only really started developing an interest in solids when he was about 10 months. He has continued to be a picky eater, sometimes refusing to eat at meals, although at the moment he is eating relatively well. He has always grown well so he must be eating enough. He does not have any food intolerances. At his first nursery where he started when he was around 12 months when I went back to work (this was a full day nursery) he always ate well. At his current nursery he brings a packed lunch which he often doesn’t eat even if it’s food that he would happily eat at home.

Mateo is a very active, sociable, alert and sensitive child with a lively imagination. We raise him to be tri-lingual (English, Spanish and Dutch) and he speaks/understands all three languages well. We have a wonderful nanny, Jessica, who started with us in September last year. She speaks Spanish with the children. Mateo likes her and always looks forward to seeing her. She is with us from Monday to Thursday, 8:00am to 18:00. On Fridays I don’t work and the children are with me.