Sunday 4 March 2012

Newborn

Max was born at 39 weeks and weighed in at 6lb 12oz. He appeared perfect and the Medical and Nursing staff remarked on what a beautiful baby he was. We were delighted with our long awaited little boy and Emily was thrilled to meet her new brother. Over the first two days in hospital a couple of little niggles fluttered through my consciousness, Max was very sleepy, cried like a premature baby and never once opened his eyes.Several of the nurses commented on his appearance and one Nurse even asked me if my husband was Oriental, a comment that caused Richard much amusement.When it came time for us to be discharged home  I mentioned my concerns to the Pediatrician undertaking his examination and she reassured me that he was fine. 

We were discharged home on 26 TH  June which was  my Mums Birthday,I remember her saying "he was the best Birthday present she could ever have". It soon became obvious that Max was struggling to feed from the breast. The Community Midwife visited every day and I tried everything possible to get Max to feed from the breast. After 10 days ad a visit to A and E , I was told that Max had lost a large amount of weight and would need to be bottle fed. This also proved difficult with him seeming unable to suck from the bottle , eventually we used teats designed for premature babies. Each feed took over an hour and Max had to be woken for feeds. He was slightly jaundice so his poor feeding and sleepiness were attributed to this. He was such a lovely placid baby, feed times were difficult but we soon learnt to accept that it would just take time.  With hindsight I realise that these problems were due to his Chromosome disorder but at the time I was so delighted with the whole experience of being a Mum again I just got on with it. Apart from at feeds Max was a lot easier than my friends babies, I secretly congratulated myself on being a relaxed second time Mum and thought that his laid back nature was due to this. I had no idea of the roller coaster ride we were about to undertake.

4 comments:

  1. I like your blog. I hope that yours goes better than mine. I really need to take some time and update my posts on it.

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  2. Your newborn story sounds just like mine. I thought I was oh so clever for hypnobirthing and bringing this relaxed little fellow into the world. Little did I know! My boy is still undiagnosed, he's had the CGH array which showed nothing, off to the geneticist in a few weeks...

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  3. Hi Mavis....have just started reading about your " little orange " in your blog. Hope you get some answers soon xx

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  4. Hi there, just found you on twitter :) I always wonder when people first start reading my blog whether it's obvious or not that Orange is a nickname, or if they think I've done a Gwyneth Paltrow...!

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