Our first baby - Our experience

Baby Jacob - day 1

As fragile as newborns are, as a parent, we still need to learn to carry them and hence take care of them.

I remember when both my husband and I were offered to carry my nephew of age 1 week old ( I was still pregnant with baby Jacob), our hands were trembling. Literally. Both of us have not held newborns before and in addition, they're so fragile! You'll need to know how to support both their head and the neck. Boy that was so stressful.

Just wanted to share our experience so far that Jacob is now 2 months+ going to 3 soon. I'd love it if any parents out there are able to share their experiences as well. I guess being a parent now, I just love to talk about parenting, I get to learn and share them. It's wonderful.

I'll skip the baby delivery process (I've wrote about it in my own blog) and straight to Jacob's day 0.

FIRST 2 WEEKS

Jacob did not feed within the few hours of birth. As far as I've read all over the internet, it's important! Jacob was placed right on my chest for skin-to-skin bonding as soon as birth. Few moments after that, while I'm getting my stitches, Jacob was brought away to clean up. When he's back into my arms, he's sleeping like a log. I thought that was okay.

I wasn't given coach on how to breast feed a baby and as a first time mom, I don't even know how to carry my baby. It was awkward. Jacob still sleeps soundly though. 7 hours later, a nurse came over to have a look and asked if he has been fed. I answered, no. She was shocked.

I was told that it's normal that baby sleeps for so long and sometimes over 24 hours because they think that they're still in the womb and placenta will do the feeding for them. Nurse then checked if Jacob has passed motion and to her relieve, he did. Black tar-ish poop which I assume is the said meconium.

Why is it important that baby feeds and pass motion in his early days? - To get rid most of the bilirubin (all baby have this, just depends how high it is) which is the cause for jaundice. Both nurse and I tried to wake Jacob up for milk. Thank goodness, he latched. Just a while, but at least he did.

Fast forward to day 8, Jacob was admitted to hospital due to high jaundice level (but not life threatening). He was placed under UV light and diagnosed as physiologic jaundice. We were discharged a day after since his bilirubin level has show sign of improvement. I was glad to see the bilirubin level lowered.

Jacob under the UV light.

AT ONE MONTH PLUS

That happiness doesn't last long. His bilirubin level continues to rise more than fall over a month and was then diagnosed with "prolonged jaundice" - since usually jaundice level will be pretty low by the time baby is 14days old. Since then, Jacob needs to be checked every week to monitor his jaundice level. At the clinic, he'll be pricked at the heel to get his blood sample. My heart aches as I see the needle pricked him and heard his cry.

We went back and forth to the clinic each week until we were discharged from the clinic when his reading starts to constantly drop. That was when he's in his early 2months old. We were so worried back then but after listening stories from other parents that they too experience the same, somehow I feel relieved. We got so many advice to help lower his jaundice level. So many that we don't know which to follow.

When he was discharged from hospital, we were told to NOT "sidai" (put baby under the sun) baby or to feed him with goat's milk. WHICH was what many told us to do to help lower his jaundice level. Ignoring partially the hospital advice, I occasionally put him under indirect sun. (I honestly think what they meant is not to put baby under DIRECT sunlight. So I guess indirect sun is okay). Back at the confinement center, some mom suggested that I could feed him with Chinese herbs or feed him with water. Which I didn't dare to since doctor may want to know what he's being fed and we're suppose to exclusive breastfeed Jacob. I can only control my food intake and avoid ginger as much as I could.

AT TWO MONTHS - NOW

Now that the main jaundice concern is away, my other concern was his feeding habit and phlegm down his throat. Now that I'm back at work, he's usually at babysitter's in the day. Lately, he's refusing bottlefeed again. As far as I've read, babies usually will accept Pigeon brand teat which he did early 2months old. Now that he's about 3 months old, he's showing sign to refuse it again.

When we successfully feed him 2oz of milk from the bottle.

And it seems pretty normal that parents of this issue buys many milk bottle of different brands just to find out which teat does their baby prefers. Even my sister in law bought 5 to 6 bottles of different brands to try out when her baby refuses to bottle feed. It's like gambling since a milk bottle is not cheap either and some teat can't fit into different bottle brand! Otherwise it would save some money to just purchase the teats.

Our other concern would be his spit ups. At times, it's just a little brought up after burping but at times, it can fills up half a cup. And it seems to be a lot of mucus. I was told by babysitter that Jacob has a lot of phlegm and it's most likely because of what I ate while I was pregnant. Not sure what are the facts. I didn't research on that. I have no idea how to help Jacob on the phlegm though.

Of course, we did asked doctor about the spit up volume and the response is always "overfed". So nowadays I pause his feeding every time he unlatches and burp him as often as I could and offer more hind milk (squeeze away some of the fore milk). With this ritual, I realize he sleeps better (less gassy) and he also spit up less. Will continue to monitor. I never actually control my diet but I try to avoid food that is not good for the baby like chocolate, broccoli, onion, soda - food that causes gas.

So far these are our experiences with our baby. As a mom, I'm sleepy-writing this post. I barely get a straight 4 hours of sleep each day as Jacob still feeds every 2 hours every mid night and I'll have to be at work during the day. It's tiring, but it's so worth it when we're able to see that happy smile in our baby's face.