An Unwell Baby - the next greatest challenge

Whoever said that maternity leave is a 3 month holiday is obviously a man with no kids. No mother who takes care of her kids herself would ever agree with that statement.

Baby Marc is generally good natured and easygoing...I started him on a routine recommended by Gina Ford, author of the "New Contended Baby Book". http://www.contentedbaby.com/
It advocates putting babies into a routine so that there are set sleep, feed and playtimes. I was amazed that Marc actually woke and fed naturally in accordance with the recommended times, and managed to sleep for a 4 hour stretch at night. That was until Sunday.

He got over tired and didn't manage to nap during his afternoon nap which meant that he got super cranky in the evening. This resulted in lots of crying, which may or may not have led to lots of wind in the tummy. He was inconsolable from Sunday till today and between Mum, Dad, the Husband and me, we've been taking turns to console him and put him to sleep. We've also been using colic drops to ease his discomfort. Its heart wrenching to see your baby in obvious pain and screaming his head off, with nothing much you can do to calm him.

Still we are positive and praying that he will recover soon. Apparently they outgrow this phase when their digestive system is more mature.

Since the confinement nanny left, my free time is now a luxury. My days are a blur of feeds, small snatches of times for meals, going to the loo and showering when someone else is tending to him. Still, its important to see the positive side of things. Motherhood trains you to be patient, humble and totally dependent on God. For those husbands out there reading this - your support is absolutely essential to your wife's sanity. Don't think that looking after the baby is "her job" - its a 24 hour job with no lunch breaks, no smoke breaks and no job scope! You must offer to help so that she can take a nap or even pee during the day.

Here are some gift ideas for those of you thinking of buying your friend who is a new Mum something (disclaimer - only applies of the Mum is looking after baby herself, otherwise some items will be redundant).

1) A Waterproof Apron - very useful for baths. Baby normally pees on Mummy just before or just after entering his bath. This will save Mummy less of a laundry hassle.

2) A Massager that can be operated single handedly and without the help of another human being - sore necks and backs are a norm for mum's, whether breastfeeding or not. Imagine holding baby, 6-8 times a day for 30minutes at a stretch, with neck craned downwards towards baby while he feeds. This is a SUPER gift. Don't bother getting a spa voucher, she wouldn't have time to go out anyway.

3) A Breastfeeding pillow - a MUST for breastfeeding mums.

4) A voucher for Nursing clothes - a MUST for breastfeeding mums so that she can feed baby easily in public

5) An IPOD - I discovered its use recently. Good gift for breastfeeding Mums as listening to music whilst looking at babies pictures encourages letdown when expressing milk. To read more about letdown, go to:
http://www.babyworld.co.uk/information/baby/breastfeeding/breastfeeding_early_days.asp#Let-down

The day Aunty Mei Lan went home was a sad day for me. I had a short spell of feeling very depressed cos she has been such a great help. I think she grew attached to Marc as well and gave him an angpow before she left. I admit there was a twinge of envy as I thought to myself - she gets to sleep for 8 hours tonight. But that was quickly replaced with the depression again. My first concern was - what do I do with night feeds? I have been expressing breast milk at 3 hour intervals at night and leaving them in the fridge for her to bottle feed Marc so that I can get some rest. How does waking up at 3 hour intervals equate to more rest you say? Well, feeding time is usually an hour - by the time he's finished drinking and burping. Expressing milk can be as fast as 15 minutes - that's a whole 45 minutes more sleep, which equates to A LOT!

That's when I decided - Marc really needs a routine because I can't be waking up to feed him based on a demand feeding schedule. That's 1 hour feeding time plus additional time to express milk - I might as well not sleep at night! The other great push factor for getting him into a routine is our ability continue to have a life! I can't see how being held hostage by his feeding demands as something healthy, especially if we want to be able to continue serving in Church and for me to go back to work after maternity leave. Plus we never really know what's wrong when he cries, is he hungry, is he tired, is he unwell? With a routine, its easy to tell because you know exactly how much sleep he needs and whether he's had enough and how much milk he needs and whether he's still hungry. It also means we can actually tell people when is a good time to drop by for a visit, or when we can come out to meet them for a meal, etc.

I may not be able to update my blog so regularly now that the confinement nanny has gone home...but I will still try so stay tuned for more updates!