firstly, the baby. when darren was discharged, the nurse oredi informed us abt the slight jaundice appearing around the cheek area. upon returning home, as my milk has not come, wai po tried to give him the pre-mixed formula milk from the hospital. but everytime, little darren only drank a bit, abt 10 to 20ml, and he was taking forever to finish that little bit. Darren was so sleepy that he didn't even wake up for milk most of the time. so the very next day, we went to his PD, Dr Ong WH for check up. when he opened up his diaper, there was little reddish dot there which the doctor said the urine has crystalised. it was a big worry to hear that as he is on the verge of dehydration. so Dr Ong suggested we go to the parentcraft to let the nurse there to help us. and at the same time, he drew some blood for jaundice test.
Wai po trying hard to feed me but i am just too sleepywhen we went to the parentcraft, the nurse helped me massage the breasts and pumped out the first milk - colostrum. To my surprise, the milk has already come and quite a lot too. meanwhile, they also tried to feed the baby via bottle as well as cup.
that afternoon, the jaundice report also came out and the jaundice level has gone up which also explained why he was so lethargic to drink. The nurse at the PD's clinic asked us to continue to monitor him as well as going back for review in two days' time.
tat evening, my confinement lady came. auntie Jin Hua took over the duty of feeding little darren, yet she also had not much success in doing so. he was still drinking so little. that nite, hy bought an electric pump for me. and since then, i started the routine of being a cow and religiously pumping milk every 3 hours.
when we went for the 2nd jaundice review, the result was even higher and since baby darren was still not feeding well, the doctor suggested to admit him for phototherapy as well as monitoring of his feeding by the nurse. so there we are, back at TMC. This time round, we opted for single room as well so that while Darren was having his suntanning at the nursery, we can stay with him and passed milk to the nurse to feed him. and the amount of milk he drank increased too, maybe due to the fact that he was under the light all the time.
Baby Darren under the light
when darren was discharged, the jaundice level went down but was not fully gone yet. so we still got to monitor him. so basically the next week was in and out of PD's clinic for jaundice level. The worrying part is even after the first session of phototherapy, the jaundice returned the next week which the doctor commented it could be due to the breast milk. so being kiasu parents, we sent him back to TMC for another round of phototherapy. it was so uncommon that even the nurse at level 4 (the children ward) recognised us. however this round of phototherapy was not very successful. the jaundice level only went down a bit. since darren was drinking well and appearing well enough, the doctor discharged him to be monitored and do sunbathing at home.
while baby darren faced the problem with jaundice and poor feeding, mommy was not so well too. when mommy was discharged on sunday, she brought home a little urine bag as well as the bladder muscle was not fully recovered from the delivery. After the milk has come, she also faced a whole lot of problems associated with breastfeeding. first of all, the engorgement, then the little blisters on nipples due to wrong technique of expressing. on top of all, the mastitis! mommy wasn't even aware of that untill Mrs Wong saw the breast when we went to the parentcraft. anyway, mommy became the regular at the parentcraft centre until the nurse there recognised her.
however the topmost problem we faced is that baby darren refused to latch on. initially it was your poor feeding. then the confinement lady auntie jing hua bottle-fed you so that mommy can rest. so by the time mommy was well enough towards the end of the confinement, you screamed so loudly everytime mommy tried to put you to breasts. so much so that we almost gave up. we can only tried to latch as often as possible so that you can get used to it. yet, everytime we still had to feed you through bottle.
mommy has really no idea how she survived the confinement month, with so much discomfort from the confinement traditions as well as the pain from engorgement. but the sweetest return she got is that baby darren finally started to drink more. toward the 3rd week, it really delighted us so much that darren started drinking 100ml per feed. and he started putting on more weight.
finally, it's the full month! it was an achievement to both the mommy and the baby after so many things happened. and it's really something worth celebrating for.
our family photo at the full month celebration
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