The first week home - Baby related 🍼

Coming home from the hospital in the car with your new baby is exciting, emotional and scary at the same time. I didn't take my eyes of my little fella, while holding onto my scar. I was feeling knackered beyond belief but going on adrenalin.

So the ph nurse visited the first week and everything seemed fine on my end. I had no major concerns. Baby was feeding every 3 to 4 hours. I was a bit stressed about my scar and terrified I would get an infection. It was scabbing on one end (which took weeks to dry out completely). It's 7 weeks now and still a little bit of scab there..

I really feel that every new mam needs support about 4-6 weeks after baby is born. Someone to pop upto the house to see how mam and baby are doing. At this stage mams have so many questions..

7 weeks on... I have still had so many questions and finding it so hard to get someone to give me a straight answer.
My little fella seemed to be wakening from naps screaming with a pain. He would fidget and grimace in his sleep. Grunting and moaning until he would wake up with the pain. It would take me about a half hour to comfort him. I would then try to get him back down to nap. I spent most of my day picking him up and putting him down. It started to get worse and started at night time too. It was the same.. About an hour after been fed he would be fidgeting and grunting until he finally woke. I felt like I was awake the whole night. I wasn't sure if it was wind? Lactose intolerant? Stomach ache?
I felt everywhere I turned nobody would give me an answer. The only answer I was told was to go into hospital with him.. Which I really didn't want to do unless I had to.
I am lucky enough to have an amazing mam who helped me out by staying over days at a time to help us catch up on some zzz's. in the past 4 weeks I have tried the following.. Infacol, then Colief, then comfort food, then comfort food with infacol, then no.2 teeth.. I will break it down

First thing I did..

Infacol- helps to bring wind up by making all the little air bubbles in the babies belly into larger
bubbles so they can burp. You give one dropper before feed and upto 2 drops if symptoms persist's.It is harmless and doesn't go into their system. It doesn't say wether you can give one dropper at the start of bottle and a second half way through. I do, as I find that it is the end of the bottle is harder for my LO to get his wind up.

Baby was still very windy...

Then 2nd thing I did..
Colief- this helps to break down the lactose in the milk. So it is easier to digest and aparently can also help with wind. Lactose can create wind.. Well so I read. Using this is a task! If your making your bottles in advance (I did).. You put 2 drops in every bottle when it's at room. Then when totally cool, put in fridge but can't use until at least 4 hours has passed.. And need to be used in 12 hours. Which ment I could only make 3 at a time. This didn't work for me and also babies nappies went watery and yellow. Also some days he could poo 3/4 times.

Baby still unsettled..

3rd thing I did
SMA comfort - this helps with easier digestion of the food. I used this with infacol. Baby still seemed unsettled! I was at my wits end...

I had my 6 week check up and I was telling the nurse and doc. The nurse said it couldn't be lactose intolerant as baby wouldn't be putting on weight. He had gone from birth weight of 6,13lbs to 9,13 lbs.
She said it sounds like wind as his little organs and muscles are still developing. I asked her what she suggest I do. She said changing formula is not recommended and even though it's not lactose to just stick with the comfort food as we didn't want to upset him further.
So now I am still using the comfort food with infacol.


The lesson I learned was to try not swap and change things too much and to really try to stick one thing out.
In my defence though.. I asked midwives, pharmacists and emailed companies about their products and nobody would give me an answer... I also left a vmail on ph nurse phone who never returned my call.

Baby manual?... I wish!

So my mam always says... 'A baby doesn't come with a manual!' I hope to help some mam's and dad's out there by writing about my experiences.

I'm a mam of 2 (a 4 year old, going on 40 year old girl and 6 week old boy).

The reason I am starting this blog is, I feel there is a lack of realistic support out there for new parents. For example, one thing I found very difficult, was when it came to feeding my babies, nobody could tell me what brands and products to use for different concerns. I spent most of my days (like most parents) on google trying to find answers to help my LO.

After having a c section, I found my time in hospital quite challenging. It was a challenge to sit up never mind trying to attend to a crying baby. I wanted nothing more to get home, as I was sleep deprived and needed my own bed, not to mention my own shower with all my own bits and bobs around me. I was feeling sore and my LO was being fed every 3 hrs (formula fed). I thought once I got home and had a good night's sleep that everything would be grand and I could start to get on with things..
They say you forget after your first, and I did! This was my second c section and I couldn't remember any pain, never mind the hormone surge and dealing with a new born. It was HARD!!