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Premmie, coronavirus, postnatal depression...
Blumumof2
New
Hey all,
Im new here (1st post).
On the 5th of this month i gave birth to my baby boy at 33+4
Weight 1965
Length 42cm
HC 31cm
Due to my little man being prem he is still in hospital at special care nursery
(For weight gain and all suck feeds)
He is putting on weight and i 1 step away from being on all suck feeds,
This may sound completely stupid and all but,
I understand why the hospital's have put in a rule that is only permitting 1 visitor per patient (even for babies)
1 parent at a time...
But, im severely struggling with it all..
Ive already got a 10yr old girl that was a premmie too, born at 23+3...
But for everyone thats had to leave the hospital without their baby, you'd know its devastating...
Then the struggle with the coronavirus rules in place...
On top of it all, im pretty sure im struggling with pnd, as i had it with my daughter so know the signs...
Im currently trying to breastfeed, started off fantastic was getting 100+mls 3 days after the birth...
But now cause of him not being with me, the rules and regulations in place at the hospital and other medical issues that makes it hard to be alone at times I've pretty much lost my milk.. i feel completely useless and like I've failed again..
Anyone else feeling like this or in the same situation?
Thanks for reading my post (blubbah)
Im new here (1st post).
On the 5th of this month i gave birth to my baby boy at 33+4
Weight 1965
Length 42cm
HC 31cm
Due to my little man being prem he is still in hospital at special care nursery
(For weight gain and all suck feeds)
He is putting on weight and i 1 step away from being on all suck feeds,
This may sound completely stupid and all but,
I understand why the hospital's have put in a rule that is only permitting 1 visitor per patient (even for babies)
1 parent at a time...
But, im severely struggling with it all..
Ive already got a 10yr old girl that was a premmie too, born at 23+3...
But for everyone thats had to leave the hospital without their baby, you'd know its devastating...
Then the struggle with the coronavirus rules in place...
On top of it all, im pretty sure im struggling with pnd, as i had it with my daughter so know the signs...
Im currently trying to breastfeed, started off fantastic was getting 100+mls 3 days after the birth...
But now cause of him not being with me, the rules and regulations in place at the hospital and other medical issues that makes it hard to be alone at times I've pretty much lost my milk.. i feel completely useless and like I've failed again..
Anyone else feeling like this or in the same situation?
Thanks for reading my post (blubbah)
0
Replies
Have you spoken to the midwife to get a referral for PND - as you'll know it's better to get help sooner rather than later.
I'm not in your situation now but my baby was born at 33+2 so I know some of the struggles. Although we were very lucky to only be in the NICU for 1 day.
With respect to breastfeeding - don't pile the pressure on yourself. A fed baby is a happy baby - try not to focus too much on the type of milk he has. My little one couldn't bottle feed until he was 34+4 and couldn't breastfeed (his mouth genuinely wasn't big enough) until he was at/close to gestation. My milk supply was never good enough for me to EBF but I was stubborn and kept on with it. Having said that, almost all of his breast milk was from me pumping and he was almost always bottle-fed. It was exhausting.
Having said that, I would suggest that you continue to pump as often as you can but don't worry about the actual amount you're producing or how often you're able to pump. You just want to keep the supply there. I 'gave up' pumping/breastfeeding at 4 months, I didn't pump for over a week but I changed my mind so had to relactate. I pumped probably 7-10 times a day for a few days and got back a reasonable % of my supply.
Overall I'd say I probably produced 2/3 of his feeds up to 3 months, 1/3 his feeds at 3-4 months, and then around 1/5 of his feeds at 4-6 months. We topped up with formula.