So Leila is now one month old - it's all gone so fast and those first few days seem a world away from life with Leila now.
Since being discharged from the ICU we are really thankful that Leila has continued to be healthy. The first week at home wasn't easy as she was still on anti-biotics which gave her diarrhoea (TMI probably, but it was watery green - almost like a runny mint sauce!!) and can't have been nice for her. For us it meant that nappy changes were somewhat a baptism of fire (!) and it meant that we didn't really know what was 'normal' or what to expect - in terms of nappies, and in terms of how she was feeling too.
The antibiotics were given by injection which again wasn't going to be great for little Leila, but the doctors from Tabibi 24/7 were amazing. They came to the house to give the injections and were great with her. We're so glad that we found and decided to use Tabibi as our doctors as they have a doctor on call on the phone 24 hours a day and will do house calls which means we don't have to take Leila to a clinic and sit around in a waiting room. They must have about a dozen doctors on their 'books' and we have had a different doctor every time we have had them out, but all of them have been great. We have had a few house visits so far for general health check-ups and to give her injections but we have also taken advantage of their "24/7" feature as we did call them at 5am in the morning in the first week she was home! We were worried because she was 'snuffly' at night and we were worried about her breathing. We managed to speak to a doctor on the phone within half an hour and he reassured us that this was probably not a problem and that we could give her some saline drops to help dissolve the mucous in her nose.
Feeding
We knew that we wanted to breastfeed, but had been worried about it working because of flat nipples. When we were in the hospital Alice first expressed milk for Leila to be fed by bottle in the ICU, but after a few days they allowed Alice to try breast feeding her. The first time doing this was really hard as not only was Leila hungry (and therefore cry-y) but it was difficult for her to latch on. The hospital advised us to try nipple shields as a way of providing a nipple for her to latch on to. With practise this worked and Leila was able to feed off Alice directly - we just had to sterilise and prepare the shields for each feed. The shields not only provided a teat for Leila, but also started to draw Alice's nipples out. You're not really meant to use the shields for this (!) or for extended periods of time, and so after the first week we were trying to stop using the shields. This was really hard at first as Leila just couldn't latch on, and so we were trying to start with the shields and then swap part-way during feed. Gradually we have got there and now Leila can latch on herself.
We've been experimenting with different pillows and cushions and seats for feeding to find the best position for Alice and for Leila for the latch. The body sleep pillow that we bought in the UK was meant to be a feeding pillow too, but doesn't seem to be of much help. After trying various combinations this month Alice is now trying to feed without a pillow and just supporting Leila on her arm as this is the least complicated option!
The feeds themselves are taking a long time and as she feeds every few hours it seems like Leila is constantly feeding! We're glad we had the tip-off about Lanisol as Alice has needed it!
Sleeping
We've been really struggling with sleeping. The first night home Leila slept in her moses basket beside our bed, but on the second night she just wouldn't sleep there and kept crying (this did coincide with a mozzie in the room that we tried to rid using the fancy organic citronella patches, which rather than putting the mozzie off probably put Leila off with the scent). The only way we could get her to sleep that night was lying on our chests and so we took it in turns to sit up in bed with her on us.
Since then we have been trying her in the moses basket, but she wakes herself up every time she "Moro's" It seems that she is really sensitive to the Moro reflex and shocks herself awake. The only way around this that allows her to get some decent sleep is for her to lie on us, so for the first two weeks at home we were taking it in shifts to be 'up' We then found that she would sleep if she was lying on her front (in the same way that she lies on us) but all the advice is that babies shouldn't sleep on their front so we have been in a real pickle. We have ended up having her on us (mainly having her on Alice since Scotty went back to work) to sleep for the majority of the night and only getting her into her moses basket for the final sleep.
At the end of the month Nanny came out to visit and brought with her an Angelcare monitor that we have started to use. We had rather snorted at these monitors that have a sensitive pad you place under the mattress to monitor every movement (i.e. breath) that the baby makes, but in this case they seem to be the answer. The other thing that we have found from all this is that despite all the advice being for 'back sleeping' there are a number of people out there whose babies will only sleep on their fronts - it's just that people don't like to talk about it.
Leila tends to go to bed around 9pm and we tend to do with her as she is sleeping on us. For her naps in the day she sleeps on the play mat in the living room.
Crying
Like all new parents we are trying to figure out what her cries mean. We tend to just go through the list of options until we find the right one; feed, change, wind. Her main cry though seems to be "La! La! La!" so she is truly an Egyptian baby! We have been taught a little trick by the main doc at Tabibi which we use if we need to distract her or temporarily stop a cry - the finger suck! We just give her our little finger and she can suck away at it while we do what it is we need to (i.e. one of us gives her our little finger while the other one changes her). It is also proving a good way to figure out if she is hungry or not depending on how hard she sucks!!
Since being discharged from the ICU we are really thankful that Leila has continued to be healthy. The first week at home wasn't easy as she was still on anti-biotics which gave her diarrhoea (TMI probably, but it was watery green - almost like a runny mint sauce!!) and can't have been nice for her. For us it meant that nappy changes were somewhat a baptism of fire (!) and it meant that we didn't really know what was 'normal' or what to expect - in terms of nappies, and in terms of how she was feeling too.
The antibiotics were given by injection which again wasn't going to be great for little Leila, but the doctors from Tabibi 24/7 were amazing. They came to the house to give the injections and were great with her. We're so glad that we found and decided to use Tabibi as our doctors as they have a doctor on call on the phone 24 hours a day and will do house calls which means we don't have to take Leila to a clinic and sit around in a waiting room. They must have about a dozen doctors on their 'books' and we have had a different doctor every time we have had them out, but all of them have been great. We have had a few house visits so far for general health check-ups and to give her injections but we have also taken advantage of their "24/7" feature as we did call them at 5am in the morning in the first week she was home! We were worried because she was 'snuffly' at night and we were worried about her breathing. We managed to speak to a doctor on the phone within half an hour and he reassured us that this was probably not a problem and that we could give her some saline drops to help dissolve the mucous in her nose.
Feeding
We knew that we wanted to breastfeed, but had been worried about it working because of flat nipples. When we were in the hospital Alice first expressed milk for Leila to be fed by bottle in the ICU, but after a few days they allowed Alice to try breast feeding her. The first time doing this was really hard as not only was Leila hungry (and therefore cry-y) but it was difficult for her to latch on. The hospital advised us to try nipple shields as a way of providing a nipple for her to latch on to. With practise this worked and Leila was able to feed off Alice directly - we just had to sterilise and prepare the shields for each feed. The shields not only provided a teat for Leila, but also started to draw Alice's nipples out. You're not really meant to use the shields for this (!) or for extended periods of time, and so after the first week we were trying to stop using the shields. This was really hard at first as Leila just couldn't latch on, and so we were trying to start with the shields and then swap part-way during feed. Gradually we have got there and now Leila can latch on herself.
We've been experimenting with different pillows and cushions and seats for feeding to find the best position for Alice and for Leila for the latch. The body sleep pillow that we bought in the UK was meant to be a feeding pillow too, but doesn't seem to be of much help. After trying various combinations this month Alice is now trying to feed without a pillow and just supporting Leila on her arm as this is the least complicated option!
The feeds themselves are taking a long time and as she feeds every few hours it seems like Leila is constantly feeding! We're glad we had the tip-off about Lanisol as Alice has needed it!
Sleeping
We've been really struggling with sleeping. The first night home Leila slept in her moses basket beside our bed, but on the second night she just wouldn't sleep there and kept crying (this did coincide with a mozzie in the room that we tried to rid using the fancy organic citronella patches, which rather than putting the mozzie off probably put Leila off with the scent). The only way we could get her to sleep that night was lying on our chests and so we took it in turns to sit up in bed with her on us.
Since then we have been trying her in the moses basket, but she wakes herself up every time she "Moro's" It seems that she is really sensitive to the Moro reflex and shocks herself awake. The only way around this that allows her to get some decent sleep is for her to lie on us, so for the first two weeks at home we were taking it in shifts to be 'up' We then found that she would sleep if she was lying on her front (in the same way that she lies on us) but all the advice is that babies shouldn't sleep on their front so we have been in a real pickle. We have ended up having her on us (mainly having her on Alice since Scotty went back to work) to sleep for the majority of the night and only getting her into her moses basket for the final sleep.
At the end of the month Nanny came out to visit and brought with her an Angelcare monitor that we have started to use. We had rather snorted at these monitors that have a sensitive pad you place under the mattress to monitor every movement (i.e. breath) that the baby makes, but in this case they seem to be the answer. The other thing that we have found from all this is that despite all the advice being for 'back sleeping' there are a number of people out there whose babies will only sleep on their fronts - it's just that people don't like to talk about it.
Leila tends to go to bed around 9pm and we tend to do with her as she is sleeping on us. For her naps in the day she sleeps on the play mat in the living room.
Crying
Like all new parents we are trying to figure out what her cries mean. We tend to just go through the list of options until we find the right one; feed, change, wind. Her main cry though seems to be "La! La! La!" so she is truly an Egyptian baby! We have been taught a little trick by the main doc at Tabibi which we use if we need to distract her or temporarily stop a cry - the finger suck! We just give her our little finger and she can suck away at it while we do what it is we need to (i.e. one of us gives her our little finger while the other one changes her). It is also proving a good way to figure out if she is hungry or not depending on how hard she sucks!!
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