Being Momma G: Day 27

We had a slightly better night last night, which we hope was a turning point in our struggle to please our little man.

Sean woke at 10.15pm for a feed, and while he seemed to have had a good feed, he cried and cried and cried for ages afterwards. Jonathan and I tried everything we could think of to make him stop crying. The lungs God gave Sean continued to be exercised all the way till midnight, and in the end, we decided to make up a bottle of formula milk for him. It really was the only thing we hadn't tried, and we had nothing to lose and everything to gain, so we fed Sean 90mL of formula. After the feed, the little man must have been so worn out, for he went to sleep straight away.

Sean woke at 4.30am, fed for 15 minutes on one side only before falling asleep again. I didn't mind - I was pretty tired so when Sean stopped suckling, I put him straight back in the bassinet and fell back to sleep myself.

Sean next woke at 6.15am, fed well, went back to sleep. Jonathan was working the afternoon shift, which meant he didn't have to be at work till 11am, so we were both able to have quite a bit more sleep.

When Sean woke at 9.40am, he was hungry hungry hungry. I fed him while Jonathan got ready for work. As Jonathan had helped me throughout the night with the feeds, it was only fair that we drove him to work. After Sean was fed, we all piled in the car and headed to the city. Sean was pretty good for most of the trip to the city, and just as we were nearing Jonathan's office, Sean started whimpering. The whimpers got louder and louder on our way home, and he only stopped for a few minutes while I pulled into the McDonalds drive-thru at Lane Cove to get something to eat. I was so hungry, I was more than happy to settle for a Cheeseburger and a Fillet-O-Fish.

On our way home, we stopped at the post office at West Ryde to pick up some registered post. I had predicted that it would be Sean's birth certificate, and I was correct! We'd only applied for it 2 weeks ago, so it was nice to receive it already. We can now apply for Sean's passport in preparation for our trip to Hong Kong in April this year.

Sean had settled down somewhat by the time we got to the post office, but with a long line and his hunger pangs worsening, he let everyone in the post office know that they were keeping him from his lunch. Everyone in the post office gave us "the look", including a heavily pregnant woman and a mother with 2 kids in a stroller. I just rolled my eyes when they gave me "the look" - as if to say "can't you control your baby" - what else could I do? I felt like telling the pregnant woman that her turn will come, and as for the mother with her 2 kids, well, I can just bet they weren't perfect at 4 weeks old either! As soon as we picked up the envelope, we hightailed it home.

Sean was so hungry by the time we got home that he gulped down his lunch. He was still hunger afterwards, so I gave him 70mL of formula. Sean was still quite unsettled, but as he didn't finish the formula, I didn't know what else I could give him. Catherine had asked me to see if I could get an emergency appointment for Sean to see his paediatrician Dr Arnold, so I gave his rooms a call and managed to get us in at 12 noon tomorrow. Sean settled down for a short time before we headed out to see Dr Siva, to get a prescription for motilium for me to boost my milk supply.

When we arrived at the surgery, Sean was quite well behaved, and remained pretty good for a little while before fussing again. Dr Siva was worried about me - I was crying again and felt like such a whinger, but Dr Siva told me that what I was feeling and expressing was all part of being a new mother. Dr Siva asked me a lot of questions and wanted to be sure I wasn't suffering from postpartum depression. I assured her that my tears were from sheer exhaustion and frustration from not being able to settle our baby. Dr Siva recommended that we cease the 3-hourly feeding - it was driving me batty, and it wasn't doing Sean any good either as he was too tired to be feeding properly when we woke him. Dr Siva suggested that we returned to feeding on demand with top ups of formula after the feeds. I told her about our appointment with Dr Arnold, and she was quite pleased that we had arranged the visit.

Dr Siva wanted to see me again in a week's time, to make sure everything was going well and to give Sean a more thorough examination. We made the appointment for next Tuesday, before Mothers Group - next Tuesday is going to be one very busy day!

Once we were home, Sean went to sleep straight away. He must have been so worn out from all the excitement of the day. From 3pm, the little man slept all the way through till 6pm, just as Jonathan was walking through the front door.

Again, we breast fed Sean before giving him a small top up - either my milk was better, or Sean was able to get more out of me, for he only needed a very small amount of formula before he pushed the bottle away. It took about 20 minutes to settle him after the feed, which may seem like a long time but in actual fact represented only a fraction of the time it usually took to settle him. Jonathan and I were able to enjoy most of our dinner in peace.

As we were back to feeding on demand with top ups, when Sean woke himself up at 9.45pm, we got our "stations" ready. Again, after getting what he needed from me, he only needed a small 20mL top up. And went to sleep without a fight.

We are now going to head to bed, and hope that Sean will continue to be settled throughout the night. Sean showed signs of improvement last night, so we can only hope that he will continue to improve, now that we are feeding him more.