Wednesday, June 06, 2007

In these shoes...I doubt you'd survive

Been home for two days and things are going fairly smoothly. Ted is feeding really well, which feels like a great achievement to me as I found feeding very hard with A, and struggled on for four months using shields and expressing, and the occasional formula feed. It was a relief when it was all over, but so far, thanks to preparation and great support at the hospital, and a breast feeding midwife friend on stand by at home, I actually seem to be able to do it this time. Night times haven't been fabulous, but bearable. Ted had terrible wind on Monday night, and my milk came in at the same time so we were a bit miserable, and basically I was up from 12midnight until 5.30am with him, trying to get him to feed, expressing and trying to wind him, ably aided by M from 4.30am. Eventually M took him off downstairs at 6am and I slept till 10. Last night was better - up 12midnight till 4.30am, mainly because all he wanted to do was feed, catching up from the night before. Tiring, but less stressful, as there wasn't much crying, just demanding to feed. Again, once he was off I got another block of sleep until ds came in at 7.15am. I have sent M to the spare room for now, as A is on half term and one of us needs to be compis mentis in the day, although my lovely Dad has taken him out for lovely treats today, so it's been peaceful.

I've increased Ted's daytime feeds now my milk has come on, and am making him feed every three hours, in an attempt to get longer stretches at night, does that sound right? Ted is mainly sleeping in between feeds in the day, which also sounds about right I hope? Midwife said that she didn't see why not. Anyway, if I have another wakeful night tonight, I'll try and keep him awake a bit more in the day tomorrow. It's all trial and error isn't it? He's so scrumptious I'm finding I'm not too fussed about the broken nights, although I am tired today.

In terms of recovery I am feeling pretty ok. My tummy is feeling good, I am sure that the arnica I started taking last week has really helped a lot. I'm on paracetamol and Diclofenac together for pain relief, and had the stitches out this morning, which has really helped, as they were beginning to catch a bit. Bleeding has much reduced, I think as they were quite quiet on the Delivery Unit, they cleared a lot of the cack out when they did the section.

In other exciting news, I had a pair of wedges delivered from La Redoute today, and was so excited that my puffy feet have reduced enough for me to try them on that I have been wearing them all day long - not sure on the exact heel, but 3-4 inches: I'm back baby!!!!!

2 comments:

Sally said...

Feeling your pain on the sleep front. For the first three weeks Toby was nocturnal - awake all night and sleeping a lot in the day - couldn't keep him awake so good luck! It's really hard to sleep when baby sleeps when you've got an older one - once A is back at school just nap nap nap!

Glad you're feeding well. I just bought one of these - a breastfeeding necklace - http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Lait-D-Amour

The Candid Bandit said...

Oh Zoe. I feel a little helpless being here and you're there.

This will pass, you know it will and it sounds as though you are taking steps in the right direction to extend his feed times for greater sleep.

A minute at a time darlin.