***Too much information warning, more breastfeeding mentioned ***
Kaitlyn’s 6 weeks today~! I am still breastfeeding, well, that, and expressing. With mum here helping during the day, pumping is a little easier, as I could hand baby to her to hold while I pump rather than getting very frustrated when Kaitlyn doesn’t settle straight away. I bought my own pump now, an Avent ISIS IQ UNO (and an Avent ISIS IQ DUO on its way from the USA) . I have come to accept that this is likely to be the only way I can feed my baby breastmilk. I don’t know how much longer I can go on, thinking too far ahead is a bit depressing as a lot of the time I’d rather be holding and bonding with my baby than dealing with my pump. But, I am taking it one pumping session at a time and a day at a time. I am already very happy and proud that I made it this far considering all the difficulties we encountered on the way. I know each additional day from now on, is a bonus. Right now I am especially happy because I pumped 125mls in one session!!! Considering at the very beginning I was getting 25mls in an entire day of 10 session, this is heaven.
Tomorrow, I am taking Kaitlyn to the GP and once again going to ask for a referral to the Tongue-tie Clinic. It’s such a simple fix really, a little snip and her tongue-tie will be gone. But I have seen 3 different doctors and and everyone goes on about it’s not really a problem (yet, till she starts to speak), and seeing she is taking the bottle ok and gaining weight, no one seems to care that it affects her ability to breastfeed and how exhausting it is for me to have to feed and pump and feed constantly. While I understand their reluctance to NOT perform any surgery (yes, even a slight snip of the tiny muscle connecting the tongue to the bottom of the mouth is a surgery) if not totally necessary. I feel it’s still a stumbling block in her being able to feed properly. SO, until a paediatric dental specialist tells me that it is NOT going to affect her at all, now with feeding and later on with speech, I am going to keep seeing different doctors till one is willing to give me that damn referral to the tongue-tie clinic.
Kaitlyn also has been spitting up and vomitting a lot, as well as getting gas pains. So she’s been fussier than usual. I still think she’s a good baby though because she really still only cries when she is hungery or hurting. We suspect that she has acid reflux as she would wake up 1 to 2 hours after a feed screaming beacuse she just throw up again. We tried feeding her less more often, holding her upright for 30 minutes after each feed, burping her thoroughly etc. She still throws up constantly and it’s making her voice go a bit hoarse. So tomorrow, we will see if the GP will give her anything for it. Perhaps we just have to ride it out and hope that in a few weeks/months as her digestive system matures, she will outgrow this problem.
She’s now smiling a lot… sometimes, in the middle of the night, when I am really really tired, her smiles keep me going and makes everything all wonderful again.
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