Category: dEAr diary

Welcome baby X  -isn’t he so cute.

I just thought I would drop by to introduce him and write a little update of the last few days (which are slowly turning into a bit of a blur for us due to our new circumstances and some unfortunate problems arising quicker than we can cope with them and even worse a total lack of sleep – and we are only the grandparents!)

I think I left you all with the news that new baby X (still no name – no time for that) had arrived into our world and mum, dad and baby all seemed well and content.  I rushed out for a few little gifts to give to my daughter.  Buying blue is new to me – I had two girls, my cousins are girls, my sister had a girl, my SIL had two girls, one of whom has recently had a little girl and my younger daughter had two girls (Little L and Sweetie who you have met).  So having a little boy is quite a novelty and a bit of unknown territory too.  I am quickly getting used to thinking in terms of diggers rather than dolls and dinosaurs rather than fairies.

I found the little grey velour babygrow and the knitted fleece lined blanket in Primark – some of their baby clothes are quite good value.  The white one with blue teddy bears is from Mothercare.

All seemed well until the day after mum and baby arrived home then the problems surfaced.  I don’t wish to say too much here on my blog about the specific problems only that they would normally have been picked up at birth or during the hospital stay and been addressed before discharge – not major things but potentially serious if not dealt with quickly.  Now the problems are compounded due mainly to the many hospital visits in the last couple of days seeing a variety of specialist staff for further advice and treatment which has meant that baby has unavoidably been missing feeds whilst hanging around in busy corridors whilst waiting for one or both of them to be seen (all night, last night).  So now this has caused a problem in itself and baby X who was doing very well initially has not gained enough weight in the last day or so and feeding has to be every two hours now to catch up.

I am worried about my daughter as she is physically exhausted at the moment as well as emotionally drained and they are temporarily having to feed the baby by expressing her milk and giving it to the baby in a tiny cup so the whole process of feeding this way takes about two hours as it is not very easy to administer.

We have been helping out as much as we can with cooking and minding baby X whilst both mum and dad get some much-needed food and sleep (which was only a couple of hours at most between the previous three-hour feeds).

I am hoping things will start to settle down in a few days.  It has all been a bit of an ordeal which is a shame as the actual labour and birth went quite well.  Strangely enough my younger daughter who has recently had Sweetie had a totally different NHS experience in North Yorkshire where the midwives follow-up for about 6 days if needed after discharge whereas here in West Yorkshire it was one visit at home and a further hospital appointment 2 days later.  I suspect we have fewer resources living in a very overpopulated area but should it not be the case that the NHS deliver the same service everywhere?  Don’t get me wrong the midwives and other professionals have all been very good – but she has been passed around so many now with differing advice that she is feeling a little confused and everything is becoming such a blur to her because of the tiredness.  So I may be gone a few days until things calm down a bit.

Hope your weekend is a relaxing one.

Welcome to my new followers and welcome back to Lucinda – her blog is over at Lucinda Sans and well worth a read.