Being Momma G: Day 3

Last night, after Jonathan left, I tried to leave Sean in the nursery overnight. It wasn't that I didn't want to look after him - just that I wanted to try and get some more sleep, so that I could be even more on top of things today. However, when Sean woke just after midnight, the nurse called and asked me to collect him for a feed. I had been asleep for a couple of hours, so it took some time to register where I was and what I needed to do.

After collecting Sean, I attempted breast feeding again, but as my milk hadn't come in, there was only colostrum for the little man. Thankfully, he was happy with the little he got, and I chose to keep him in our room overnight as the walk to and from the nursery caused me a lot of pain.

During daylight, we did try breast feeding again, but the pain was starting to become quite unbearable on the left nipple. We went to see the lactation consultant, and sure enough, there was some damage, and we were told to rest the nipple for now and to hand express the colostrum with the help of the midwives and nurses, and to continue feeding on the right side.

My folks came by with more soup while we were in with the lactation consultant, and they returned just after lunch to make sure we were fine and I'd had the soup. Mum got her first cuddle today - she'd had had conjunctivitis for a couple of days and didn't want to pass it on any of us. The eye drops had finally worked, and with the conjunctivitis all cleared up, she had her first cuddle with Sean. Dad on the other hand chose to skip the cuddle for now - he has always been scared of holding a brand new baby because they are too floppy. Dad never held any of his other grandchildren until they were much studier, so Sean wasn't to be the exception to the rule.

It had been an exhausting day, so when Sean was asleep in the afternoon, I too took the opportunity to have a nap. Not good news for Georgianna - she had hoped to drop by for more cuddles with Sean, but when she arrived at the hospital and texted ahead to let us know she was downstairs, Jonathan told her we were asleep. With impeccable timing, I woke just after Jonathan had sent the message, and I tried to tell Georgianna to come back for a visit, however, she'd already called Tim to pick her up, and he'd literally just pulled up outside the hospital when I called. Georgianna missed out on her cuddles after all.

Late in the afternoon, we had more visitors. Emily, Penny and Anna paid us a visit and they cooed and oohed and ahhed over Sean and each had a brief cuddle. It was great to see the girls, but the visit was all too brief. When dinner arrived, the girls left us to it, with promises to return for another visit during our stay in hospital if time permitted.

After dinner, Jonathan and I took Sean to have a bath. Jonathan gave Sean the bath while I stood and watched and took photos. I was still too sore to bend down, and giving Sean a bath was beyond my pain threshold. Sean smelled so nice and clean after the bath!

Jonathan left for home shortly after the bath, and I did the best I could to hand express for Sean. I still needed help, but help was scarce as the rooms were full of mothers and newborns and there were only 2 midwives on duty. Poor Hazel who was looking after me was looking very frazzled by the time she was ready to help me with the hand expressing. We had a long chat while she was doing her thing, if nothing else but to keep me awake, keep my mind off the pain, and to keep both of us amused through this horrendous task.

And so we struggle to express some more milk for the little milk monster. I wonder how long I can keep this up.