Introducing Misha Tioe

Another long overdue post....I'm not going to say much about the pregnancy. Except it was a lot worse than the first time. Morning sickness was bad (lost like 3 kgs the first trimester). Luckily it went away after that but I was sooo tired all the time. Luckily Meera was very understanding and didn't get extra clingy (I heard some kids sense these things and require more attention than before).

Delivery was faster than with Meera. No epidural and no vacuum. Went to the hospital at 5pm and baby was out by 9.30pm. I'll be recounting the whole story in Misha's scrapbook.

So this brings us up to date :)

2 weeks in and already there's so much to report.

Misha
This time round we were a lot faster naming her. Mostly due to the fact that everyone was nagging us to 'get to it'. Plus this time we weren't so occupied with hospital visits so we had more time to decide on her name.

Jaundice
Once again we are facing this situation. After the delivery I let my guard down a little since we didn't have to use the vacuum for her. But apparently other factors come into play. Seems like if the mother is blood type 'O' the chance of jaundice is higher. Go figure. And Misha is 'A+' so it lends itself to some sorts of ABO incompatibility issue.Needless to say we are more prepared this time. When we got discharged on day 2 she was already at 157 umol/L. So the following day we checked her levels again and had to admit her for phototherapy. After one night she got discharged but her levels are still on the high side 2 weeks on.

I've come to realise that as much as breastfeeding is good for the baby, it sucks for jaundice. The whole treatment plan for jaundice is hydration. So when your milk hasn't come in how to hydrate? All the breastfeeding advocates will tell you to just let the baby suck and suck but that actually doesn't work. They are so hung up on promoting breast milk that other options are not considered. Based on our previous experience I already prepared myself to give formula if necessary. Of course there is that small part of me that resists but I know my milk is no where near enough to hydrate her.

After countless visits to various doctors a few truths have emerged.
1. Its okay to give baby water (they normally discourage cos most people may go overboard)
2. Formula can be diluted. Contrary to all the advice you are given, in this instance its okay to dilute as much as 50%. (so if normally 1 scoop to 30 ml water, you can dilute with up to 45ml water)
3. Baby needs to be woken up every 2 hours if possible to feed. (this was really challenging cos she was so sleepy). We had to practically strip her down to her nappy, use wet cloth on her face. Even during the feed I had to constantly work at keeping her awake.

Breastfeeding
So far its been going ok. A lactation consultant came to see me during the hospital stay to give advice. Four years later and some things are familiar but some things are not. Initially she wasn't latching properly so I did have cracked nipples. Ideally after the baby unlatches your nipple shape should still be round. If it looks 'slanted' like the tip of a lipstick, then the latch is wrong. So once I saw that lipstick shape I knew I was in trouble. Unfortunately, although I knew it was wrong I couldn't seem to correct it. It took a few days and eventually it got better. Although I don't really know what changed. I did work on trying to position her better but in all honesty I don't know how it got better. I'm just thankful it did.
Misha does not seem to need much comfort sucking. I notice that she usually feeds for 10-15 minutes and after that she either stops or unlatches herself. Time will tell if this continues. Most advice say baby should suck for 20 minutes or so but she hardly ever does. I can only hope she is efficient at it. I do wonder if she's getting enough but I figure with me feeding her every 2-2.5 hours maybe that's all she can eat in one sitting. Once I space out the feedings then maybe it will be longer.

Sleeping
According to the confinement lady, she doesn't sleep so well in the night. There are times when she needs to be carried or held to sleep.  I read somewhere that babies born in the night tend to be active at night so maybe there's truth to that. Hopefully she gets it right in time...

Confinement Lady
We got a different lady this time. A bit disappointed with her. Overall she is okay but compared to our previous ones she's not as good. Initially I was so upset with her I even contemplated sending her back! I'm going to say it was hormonal (I'm allowed to use this excuse for the next few months). For 3 days I ate practically the same thing for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I vaguely remember my previous lady cooking fantastic food. This time round things are edible. Enough said.
Other things which were different: she only uses disposable diapers (no cloth diapers), she use the washing machine to wash all our clothes, food is served downstairs (previously I was upstairs the whole time...even food got sent upstairs).
Although they are mostly inconsequential things, we just feel a bit cheated. We're paying RM3700 this time (4 years ago it was RM2800) but getting less for it.
I just keep telling myself better someone than no one. Hopefully I can keep convincing myself till the end.

Meera
So far she's been great with the arrival of the baby. Of course it's hard to tell since she's living with my parents right now. She seems quite excited about the baby but then she only sees the baby once in a while when she comes to visit. It will be interesting (for lack of another word) when she comes home.