Prego Mego

Thursday, June 28/18 Colic is something that I feel is incredibly vague and weird. Is it gas? Is it unconsolable crying? Am I experiencing the Period of Purple Crying? What is going on with my baby?! My daughter as a very newborn baby had no problems whatsoever, and seemed like a relatively calm and content little gal. She was a confident and easy burper (and an especially good farter, all of her baby book comments mention it) so I never really thought she'd ever have any issues with trapped gas or stomach pains. THE BEGINNING In my experience, colic got progressively more difficult as time went on. It almost makes it a bit more difficult to diagnose the condition because it sort of stars quite slowly and you just get used to longer fussy periods that your baby is experiencing. Alongside thinking that they may be experiencing growing pains or maybe going through a developmental leap, or perhaps their personality is coming through and they're actually quite fussy and partic...

Sunday, June 24/18 Sometimes labour just doesn't come naturally, which actually is a nonsense sentence because babies do have to be born eventually, but occasionally labour is brought on with a helping hand when you are induced. Some women are induced if they are very overdue, sometimes for concerns with the mother's health such as raised blood pressure. Other times women are induced because of complications with the baby. It's a process that many women try to avoid, but for the most part it's done with the best intentions for the safest delivery of your baby, both for mother and child. WHY I WAS INDUCED My labour was induced because as a Type 1 Diabetic my baby was measuring about 2 weeks ahead of schedule, and the longer that I held on, the higher my risk of having a c-section. There seemed to be a fine line of being induced too early or too late, and in my case anything before 37 weeks had risks of baby's lungs not developing properly and the baby needing as...

Thursday, June 21/18 Today's topic is all about combination feeding my little one, and this post is specifically regarding breastfeeding. My last post talked all about formula feeding, the pro's and con's, and the reason why I was combination feeding in the first place. I thought I'd share the pro's and con's of breastfeeding in this post, and I hope you enjoy! A few things I didn't or don't like about breastfeeding: - It's not easy. For something being considered so natural, a lot of fricken work goes into it. At first it's a struggle to get the baby to latch, then it becomes painful and it takes a lot longer than it would to give the baby a bottle. - If, like me, your milk didn't come in very quickly and had to be built up overtime, the pressure to pump is overwhelming. The sound of the Medela double-breast pump will give me nightmares forever. For a while I liked my little Avent hand pump better, and then I realized the continu...

Sunday, June 17/18 Hey everyone, today I'm writing a post all about Father's Day. It's my husbands first Father's Day, and for the 3 months he's been a Dad he's been wonderful, and I am so thankful I had him with me throughout my pregnancy, delivery and particularly through the first really difficult weeks of being a mother. This post really isn't meant to be helpful, or to make my life/marriage etc. seem perfect, and I can completely sympathize to those who don't have a father in their child's life, or any other number of reasons that Father's Day may not be important to you. So, if it isn't- feel free to ignore and skip over this post, and if it is, enjoy! Sorry it's quite a personal one! PREGNANCY My very patient and supportive husband did a lot of things while I was pregnant that made my life so much easier. This picture is just one example- painting my nails because I couldn't reach. He also put my shoes on or tied laces f...

Thursday, June 14/18 Today's topic is combination feeding! My last post addressed why I was unable to exclusively breastfeed as I'd hoped to, so I decided today I'd write about what I do to feed my baby, and the pro's and con's that I've encountered along the way! I hope you enjoy! FORMULA FEEDING I want to start this off with a disclaimer that what I think about feeding your baby really isn't an important perspective. As far as I'm concerned, a fed baby is a happy baby, and however you choose to feed your baby is totally fine by me. I understand that breast is best, and that breastfeeding has countless benefits for your little one, but it's also important to note that not everybody has a good experience with breastfeeding, cannot physically breastfeed, or perhaps choose to formula feed from the beginning just as a personal choice. As I stated before, I had planned to exclusively breastfeed my daughter. Because her blood sugar levels were low, s...

Sunday, June 10/18 The pressure to breastfeed is something that I will be the first to admit is mainly self-induced, at least in my case. I had always intended to exclusively breastfeed for the first 6 months, or until solid foods were introduced but this didn't end up working for me. I thought I'd share my experience, and follow this post with another about how combination feeding is working for me! ESTABLISHING BREASTFEEDING If you didn't already know, I delivered my daughter at 37.5 weeks after an induction and 12 hour labour ending finally with an emergency c-section. I breastfed her very briefly in the recovery room with help from my nurse, and when we were taken to the Mother and Baby unit my daughter's blood sugar levels were dropping because she was producing too much insulin. (I am a type 1 diabetic- not gestational) When her sugars were dropping I was told to hand-express colostrum (the first stage of breastmilk- full of important antibodies for baby), an...

Sunday, June 7/18 Being alone with your newborn for the first time can be very daunting. For me, it was made even more daunting for the fact that I actually hadn't spent much time with her in the hospital as she was in the NICU and I was recovering from a c-section down the hall. Because I'd spent the week prior to giving birth in the antenatal ward, and Ivy and I were in the hospital for 4 nights after I'd delivered meant that my hubby had to get back to work quite soon after coming home. If I remember correctly, (I do, I will never forget) we were discharged on Sunday afternoon, and my husband worked a 3-11pm shift the following day. Luckily I'd enrolled my Mum to come and help which made it all much less scary, plus I couldn't really do too much 5 days post-surgery. But being alone with your newborn, properly alone, is pretty scary stuff. MY FORGETFUL EXPERIENCE I don't remember exactly how long it was after having her, but my husband worked a night shif...

Sunday, June 3/18 Baby Blues is a funny thing. Most people had told me that by day 3 when your milk comes in, you'll cry for no reason at all and be very, very hormonal as your body adjusts. Day 3 came and went, and nothing. (Although my milk hadn't really come in yet due to my lack of breastfeeding while my baby was in the NICU.) Then at day 5 we went home, and I still felt pretty great as far as my hormones were concerned. My husband went back to work the following day and I cried, but I think that was more out of fear of being alone with the baby than anything else. By day 7, I thought I'd actually skipped the baby blues all together and that felt pretty great. The first 3 weeks of having a newborn have been compared to living in hell (with all of the amazing things and feelings still being there- but just because it's so incredibly difficult). I'd have to agree with the 'hell' statement. I was incredibly sore for 2 out of the 3 weeks from having a c-...