Rebecca’s weight is now up to 2720g, according to the Maternal Child Health Nurse’s scales, which is a nice improvement over her discharge weight.Everything else has been going well, though breastfeeding, and especially expressing after the feed is not going as well. Bern has also been feeling a little off colour for few days which doesn’t help much
We were able to bring Rebecca Home from hospital on Wednesday the 22nd January at 11am. She had put on a total of 230g since birth, for a discharge weight of 2270g.
We had a couple of difficult times since then, mainly due to the fact that it was sugested that we use Avent bottles with a #1 (Newborn) teat for her comp feeds. This was fine, and we were able to borrow a set of bottles, but the Avent teats are much bigger than the ones we had been using in hospital, and we have found it difficult to get her to open her little mouth wide ehough to be able to get anything out of the bottle. There have been a few breastfeeding dramas as well, for much the same reason.
Rebecca is putting on more weight, up 35g on 16th Jan and another 40g today (18th). Bern’s milk supply is increasing, partly due to some medication she has been given (Motilium) which is also good news. Rebecca is attaching to the breast better and we are making progress.
Some of the complimentary feeds (comps) are now being given to Bec as a bottle (rather than a cup) probably mainly so not as much is spilt. They use a special teat that has a tiny hole so she has to work for the food though, otherwise babies tend to go off the breast, simply because the bottle is less work.
Finally, on a personal note, a huge thank-you to all those who have sent gifts, cards or just called. We really apreciate your support. If you don’t hear from us in a real hurry, I’m sorry, we do still love you. We are really busy at the moment, especially Bern who is racing back and forth to the hospital and even when she is at home she has to be up every three hours to express.
Rebecca spent most of her first 2 days in an isolette, which helped her keep warm, and meant that all the energy she gained could be used to grow rather than maintain body temperature. We still got to hold her occasionally for feeds and baths etc, but it was a little sad to see this tiny person in big plastic container.
As the days progressed, they turned the temp in the isolette down and she was better able to maintain her own temp until we were able to take her out for the last time on Monday morning.
She was checked over by the paediatrician on Sunday and given a clean bill of health. On Monday they weighed her and found she had lost only 60grams, which is less than normal, and a very good sign. After each breast feed she is being topped up with formula from a cup (see photos). Babies tend to loose weight in the first week because they come out with a tummy full of muck and dont eat a real lot for the first few days. 2 days later and she had lost another 25g, which meant that the weight loss was slowing, another good sign.
We started to think she was looking a little yellow about day 5 so she had another blood test and was diagnosed with jaundice, another fairly common complaint, so she had to be put back in the isolette under some bright lamps. The photos of that look really striking (we’ll have them up soon).
A couple of days later she had put 60g back on and today she had put on another 45g to take her past her birth weight to 2060g. She will probably still have to stay in the nursery until at least the end of next week, at least until she is consistently feeding well and putting on a fair bit more weight.
Bernie was allowed home from Hospital on Wednesday, which was really great, but rather sad because we had to leave Rebecca behind but we know she is getting the best care possible at the hospital. Since then Bern has been on the breast pump at 3-4 hourly intervals during the night and heading into the Hospital to feed and express more during the day.
It has been a rather busy few days for us, and there are lots of phone calls coming in every day. We tend to get home at night and then spend up to 10 minutes on the phone just checking the 4-6 messages that have come in during the day. I’ll do my best to keep people up to date with what is happening from here…
As I kind of hinted at the time we saw the Obstetrician (Dr Malcolm Barnett) on Friday 3rd Jan at 11:40am and he said we should meet him at the hospital at 6:45 that night to begin the induction process, as the baby was no longer really growing due to the pre-eclampsia so it was time for her to be born.
We managed to sneak in a quick trip to the movies with Jase (while Mon looked after the kids [thanks Mon]) so that we could see Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. It was a great movie and also a great way to take our mind off what was coming up…
We grabbed dinner and arrived at the hospital about 6:30. Malcolm arrived about 8:00 and started the induction process by putting some Prosten gel on the cervix which is designed to start the labour process running. Bern settled in for the night in the Birth Suite and I decided to go home to get some rest and come back about the same time as Malcolm (between 8 & 9).
Due to the fantastic new blockout blinds we have in out bedroom and the fact that I was dog tired, I slept in until 8:15, so I threw myself in the shower and hotfooted it down to the hospital where I knew breakfast was waiting. I was there by 8:45 for a slightly cold breakfast and Bern wondering where on earth I’d got to..
Malcolm put more Prosten gel in at 9:45 and fairly soon Bern was starting to have some contractions. They started @ about 15minutes apart and 30 seconds long, but by 11:30 they were only 9 min apart. We found going for a walk around the hospital really helped to get things going. By noon they were 3 min apart and starting to last up to 45 secs, but they were still fairly mild. Bern managed to catch some sleep from 1:20 to 2pm but fairly soon the contractions were speeding up to 2-3 min and as long as 60-90 secs.
At 3:45pm Bern’s cervix was 2-3cm dilated and Malcolm was able to break her waters (with a long crochet hook) to start the really intense part of labour. The smell of the amniotic fluid was quite musty and rather pervasive, to the point where it started to make me feel almost ill later.
After the waters broke the contractions became more intense and we found it almost impossible to get a trace on the baby’s heart with the ultrasound. Malcolm ended up putting in a direct trace which clamps to the baby’s head and gives a direct reading. This trace showed a disturbing pattern where the baby’s heart rate dropped from 150 beats per minute down to 120 and then later down to 90 bpm each time Bern had a contraction. This was a real concern as there was a possibility that the umbilical cord might be in front of the baby and being clamped by the contractions.
Things actually progressed fairly steadily for the next few hours with Bern having to pant through each contraction to let it do it’s work without her pushing. During this time, she was unusually introverted, and didn’t say much at all, though I did get in trouble once for not being there when a contraction started. About 7:45pm Malcolm decided to go home to grab some dinner. That was obviously the sign that the baby was looking for, and about half an hour later Bern was getting to the point where the contractions were so intense she almost had to push. The Midwife (Debra) checked her out and found that she was fully dilated so she could actually push with the next contraction.
The first push showed the top of the head, the second the whole head popped out and on the third, the baby was born @ 8:23pm. We had a little girl and the midwives quickly clamped and cut the cord to get her to the baby warmer tray.
Bern recovered almost immediately from her introverted state, and we quickly decided on the name Rebecca Anne from a list of about 4-5 girls names we had prepared.
They wrapped her up and we were able to have a quick cuddle before she was weighed and they tried to get her to breast feed. To be honest I’m not really sure what happened over the next couple of hours, but I do remember doing a few things like carrying Rebecca down to the Nursery to put her in the Isolette to keep her warm and ringing lots of family and friends to tell them the good news.Malcolm arrived back at some stage too and checked over everything.
Bern was moved into a normal room about 10:30 – 11:00 and I hung around till midnight when I left Bern to rest and headed home for some much needed sleep.
I can’t finish without thanking Malcolm, The midwives, (Terri, Debra and Sue) and all the staff at Mitcham Private.
I’m still too tired, but there are photos.
At 8:23pm on 04/01/03, Rebecca Anne Snell came into the world at Mitcham Private Hospital, weighing in at just a tiny 2040g (4lb 7oz). Both are doing really well, and Rebecca got APGAR scores of 7 and 9 (out of ten, one score at 1 minute and again at 10 minutes) which is fantastic for a baby born at only 36 weeks (4 weeks premature)
More after I’ve had sleep……….