Being Momma G: Day 25

We trialled the Miracle Blanket last night, with mixed results.

After the 11.45pm feed, I was so tired I could barely keep my eyes opened. Jonathan took one look at me and although he was dead tired himself, he sent me to bed and bravely tried to settle Sean all by himself. Sean was putting on another show of screaming and crying, which I was becoming quite immune to, so I took myself off to bed and fell asleep straight away.

About an hour after I went to bed, Jonathan came and woke me, having had enough of Sean crying and screaming and fighting against the Miracle Blanket. It took me about 20 minutes to settle Sean - Jonathan had done all the hard work, all I did was put in the dummy in Sean's mouth and after a while, he did finally settle down.

An hour later, Sean woke for his next feed, and I tried to feed him in bed with mixed results. I was so tired I didn't care whether Sean got what he needed - as soon as he had been suckling for 20 minutes, I'd shift him to the other side, and waited for him to suckle for 20 minutes before putting him back into the bassinet. Sean woke for a short time around 5am, and Jonathan and Sean had a few cuddles before Sean settled down and went back to sleep.

At 8.30am, Sean woke for his next feed, which meant that I managed to get a few good hours' sleep. Amazingly, Sean then went back to sleep straight after the feed, which allowed me to have breakfast and have a shower before our next feed. It was important to get a few things out of the way before the 12.30pm feed, as we had plans to head out to Mothers Group at the West Ryde ECHC at 2pm today.

There were plenty of new parents at the Mothers Group. There were around 15 babies, including Sean, and amongst the adults were a few fathers and a grandmother who tagged along with the mothers. Catherine convened the group and ran through the housekeeping bits (telling us where the bathrooms and the baby changing table were) before outlining what the sessions would hold for us. For the next 6 weeks, we would discuss certain topics, such as settling and feeding, and we would be shown DVDs on each topic and with time to discuss our experiences at length afterwards.

Catherine asked each of us to introduce ourselves and our babies and to tell the group something good that happened this week. My good thing for the week was that I have managed to keep Sean alive for 3 weeks, even though I was managing on average 3 hours of sleep a day. The other parents laughed and agreed that it was indeed a good thing. The babies ranged from 2 weeks to 3 and a half months, all of whom are just so gorgeous - what a good looking bunch of babies!

The DVD that Catherine showed us today was one Jonathan and I had seen at one of our baby classes, all about interacting with our babies. After the DVD, we were let loose amongst ourselves, so I started chatting to the ladies next to me. Soon, we were joined by more ladies and their babies, and we all share stories amongst ourselves. Such a multicultural bunch - there were 3 other Asian ladies and 2 Irish ladies. I only wish I can remember their names - I'll try harder to remember their names next week!

Sean was really unsettled towards the end of the meeting, for it was a flipping hot day and although the air con was on, Catherine had left the big double doors wide open and let all the cold air escape. Sean was getting hungry and was quite overheated, and totally over stimulated as well, but he needed to be weighed, so I took him to see Catherine.

It appears that our little man is not putting on the prescribed amount of weight (around 100g to 150g per week) and Catherine suggested a number of things - that we feed Sean every 3 hours, whether he was awake or not, or we continue feeding on demand, but top up with 40mL of formula at the end of the breast feeding. Catherine also suggested that I visit Dr Siva again and ask her to prescribe me some motilium to help me produce more milk for Sean. And last but not least, Catherine also suggested that I contact Dr Arnold, Sean's paediatrician to see if we can get an earlier appointment to see him, based on the facts that Sean was very unsettled and he was only gaining half the weight he should be gaining each week.

Yay. After a perfect pregnancy, it was only fair that we face a few hurdles now, right?

Sean and I left the West Ryde ECHC after speaking with Catherine. Sean really needed to be fed and he was getting very impatient. We had to stop at Woolworths to get milk for me, and he let everyone in the supermarket know he was tired, hot and hungry. By the time we got home, Sean was totally covered in a lather of sweat and he was so hot he had no energy to cry or scream.

Jonathan arrived home about 20 minutes after we got home, and I told him what Catherine had told me. It was decided that we trial the feeding by schedule method - waking our son every 3 hours to feed, whether he liked it or not. If that method didn't work, then we would move back to the feeding on demand with a top up of formula. So, after Jonathan and I had dinner, we went and woke Sean for a feed and he settled down straight away afterwards. It was really hard going feeding a sleeping baby, who was more asleep than awake. I spent more time trying to wake him than feed him. I have no idea how much milk the little man actually drank, but I hoped he got enough to keep him going till the next feed.

Sean is due for another feed at 10.45pm, but I can barely keep my eyes opened and my head is starting to feel so heavy for my neck. I think I'm going to lie down for a bit. Jonathan has promised to wake me at 10.45pm. I'm really not sure about this feeding on a schedule thing, but as I'd agreed to give it a try, I shall persevere.