Week one, our hospital stay

So there we were, not two but three!

After some lovely skin to skin with my little darling, I tried to breastfeed her, but I wasn't able to get her latched on, I was disappointed but didn't worry as I was sure she would pick it up. Then came the slightly annoying task of producing the placenta... thankfully some of my birth plan was followed and I was given 1/2 an hour to have a physiolocical 3rd stage (birthing the placenta on my own) which thankfully went well - yippee! Daddy enjoyed some cuddles with our newborn whilst I updated everyone on Nieve's arrival, all whilst the midwife set about repairing a small tear with a couple of stitches! Soon after I was cleaned up, polished off my tea n' toast and we made our way up to the recovery ward.

Papa cuddles

We sneaked a moment with my very excited dad in the corridor on the way up, he was thrilled to meet Nieve as strictly speaking it was out of visiting hours, and after a quick cuddle for mum & dad we said our goodbyes and continued up to our ward.  Unfortunately hubby had to leave shortly afterwards as it was just out of visiting hours - booh! but he was tired and so was I, so there we were, just me and Nieve!

Daddy cuddles

What a strange feeling, all of a sudden your a mum, I had no idea how to change a nappy, feed her, or even dress her, but I sure knew how to give her mummy cuddles! Nieve was bathed and changed by the nurse and wrapped up in her crib next to my bed.  Naturally I didn't sleep a wink that night, little Nieve was loving her mummy cuddles far too much and preferred me to her bed. I tried to feed her again but she didn't latch and I had no idea what to do! Not having done this before I didn't worry too much as I had no idea how often I needed to feed her, I was more concerned at the fact I thought she had a dirty nappy and I had no idea what to do...so I looked for someone to help me, god I felt like a plonker.  Eventually in the small hours a midwife came to see me, showed me how to do her nappy, watched me feed her and told me I was doing it all wrong, Thanks! I thought, great for my new mummy confidence, but of course she was right I had no idea what to do. Together we tried to get her latched on but had no luck, so we left her to sleep and someone would come and try again.

A clean Nieve

Morning came and we still had no luck with the breastfeeding, I'm a little fuzzy still on the details as the first few days were a blur of sheer exhaustion, pain and tears.  However some time afterwards the midwives decided that I had left her far too long without feeding, something which  I think could have been taken more seriously earlier on. Nieve had a lot of mucus that she wretched up for days, they thought this may have something to do with her not feeding, but who knows.

Nieve and Mum's Mum

Nieve and Gran Ann

The days that followed were a mix of joy, having friends and family to visit and sheer despair at my poor little starving daughter.  Nieve lost too much weight in the first few days and it was an uphill battle to get her weight up quickly.  In order to get some milk into her and to get my milk supply going I set about hand expressing the colostrum, this was an extremely frustrating process.   For about 20 minutes of hand expressing I would get about 1-2ml of fluid into this little cup, all whilst trying to console my very hungry little girl in one arm. She was then fed this precious fluid by sucking it from a syringe, very cute but heartbreaking at the same time.  On our 2nd night I was told to feed her every two hours, this involved trying to feed her on the breast, then if that failed (which it always did) hold her whilst hand expressing and feeding her by syringe. This process went on for another night until I was allowed the blissful hand pump! I've never been so pleased to see such a contraption! We had a brief glimmer of hope, a whole feed latched on! but it seemed to be a fluke as she wasn't up for it again.  Things moved on and soon enough my little hand pump wasn't cutting the mustard, it was time to call in the big guns.

My little Caterpillar

Smiling insanely after Nieve's first feed

So out came the industrial style milking machine, and my 3 hourly task of trying her at the breast followed by a milking session began, there were no longer syringes big enough, so was told to try bottles, but the next midwife on shift told us off for this, and showed us how to feed her by cup, possibly one of the most amazing things I've seen, she lapped it up like a kitten!  By this point I had been in hospital with Nieve for Nearly 4 days, and was one of my lowest points.  On this particular day 3 car seats had come in to the ward and gone away with babies in, most of which had come in after me, it started to feel like breastfeeding wasn't the easy option after all, and super unfair I was still here with my non-feeding breastfed baby, but I was determined to see this through, I can do this!!

To add to our woes, Nieve had a touch of Jaundice and had to get a heel prick test :0( to see if she needed treatment, thankfully she was 0.1 off needing treatment and we got away with it - phew! that would have been another week of treatments ontop of our feeding and weight problems.  The Jaundice took a while to go away and lingered for a week or so, but all was well.

Nieve giving me the finger!

Looking around the ward at my new neighbours depressed me, I kept thinking that soon they would be gone, and I would still be here, hooked up to the milking machine.  I was about to try and get to sleep with the chorus of new, newborn babies ringing in my ears when a sympathetic midwife came and asked me if I would like to move to my own room.

My feeding tools

Luxury, that's the only way to describe my suite at the hospital room 13, larger than most lounges with an en-suite to boot it was blissful, and so quiet.  Along with my room came a new friend, a lovely student midwife who took a shine to Nieve and her 'case' by this point I had met most the midwifes and they had tried everything to get Nieve to latch on, and my boobs had been handled daily in ways I'd never imagined! With each shift change came a new midwife and a new set of instructions and things to try, some would be off for a couple of days and come back dismayed at our lack of progress, but genuine in their concern. Eventually someone suggested trying nipple shields, as she had no problem taking a bottle and it might make my nipple easier to latch on to, luckily I had bought some so hubby brought them in on day 6 to try, eh voila! a latched on breastfeeding baby- woo hoo!!! It wasn't perfect but we did it, and by day 7 it was good enough to be freed from hospital YES!

So finally in came our car seat, to take our baby home, I was grinning from ear to ear. But hubby had left with my bags to put in the car and Nieve was a hungry horse! what should I do.. I tried to phone him but he didn't answer so I tried to feed her without and she did it, she latched on!! It was the perfect goodbye present for the midwifes, who had been such amazing support through my ordeal.

We did it!

One very excited Daddy, welcoming home our little Nieve.