I contemplated writing for quite some time, phrasing and organising words in my mind whenever the ideas come. Today, I have decided to write, hopefully to share my journey, probably to answer some questions, and hopefully to inspire other mommies / mommies-to-be out there who might read this.
My son was born in the early morning, which made the beginning of my journey quite smooth. I’m saying that because despite staying up (mostly) all night for labour - I was in labour room from midnight till approximately 8 am - I was feeling energetic and, well, not as sleepy as I imagined having delivered at night would be.
The first time I fed my son was on our way back to the ward from labour room. We were both doing quite fine. Unfortunately, a few hours since then, (nearly four, to be exact) my boy kept on sleeping despite my numerous attempts at waking him for his feed. I voiced my concern to the nurse, and they even tried to wake him up unsuccessfully. After a brief discussion with the HO at the nurse counter, they decided to take his blood sample to check his glucose level. The results came back normal, thank goodness. I do understand that a newborn’s tummy is so tiny that they need frequent feeding in small amount, so, I did not give up. He had his second feeding quite successfully and I felt better. Then, we struggled for his third feeding as he prefers to sleep and sucking poorly. I was in distress, but I chose not to worry about it too much. That evening, we were allowed to be discharged from the ward, so we went home to stay at my in-laws house for a week until my husband had to go back to work again.
Delivery was the most tiring thing I had ever gone through. During the wait for my son to be delivered, at 40 weeks, I felt so tired I had wished and prayed and cried for my baby to please end his stay in my womb. My whole body was aching due to the relaxing hormone which was acting on my ligaments to ease delivery. I could barely sleep at night. The frequent toilet pit stops, the swollen ankles, aching back and pelvic and so much more. I thought after the baby is born, I’m going to get my old body self, and be as strong and fit as before. I was so wrong. *chuckles*
Anyway, during the nurse visit on his second day of life, my son was told to get his blood test done for bilirubin. Apparently he’s starting to have jaundice. The worse thing was, he refused to wake up to feed despite our many attempts. He’ll either sleep or cry loudly but still refused to drink. Alhamdulillah, I was blessed with plenty of milk that I had to pump out to prevent engorgement. To tell you the truth, the first few days after delivery, the milk letdown was so awfully painful, that during the rare time my son would suck from me, I wish to scream STOP because it was so painful. Otherwise, we had to force-feed him via bottle.
to be continued...
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