Wednesday 9 September 2015

Not due yet, but one month old!

Abbey spent half of her first month in hospital, the other half at home - but she really should have spent it in the womb as she wasn’t due out yet!
One month old, Abbey has her brace on under her padded dress

She had a hectic first month and although looking back it seems to have gone in a flash, I know that to be untrue, the nights were long, very long.

Smiles already or polite wind?!
At three weeks old, she shed her still small  premature clothes and became a much larger baby with a whole body harness for her dislocated hips. Just when we thought we knew how to change her nappy, the game changed, she now had to wear two nappies, interwoven around a large square brace. Despite the chore, she seemed comfy and content in the brace.
Now not only was she tiny, but she was also awkward. We couldn't hold her like a newborn cuddled into the crook of our arms, she was either flat down or up on our shoulder. She seemed to like the height, so she spent most of her time perched on our shoulders.

We tried to not hold her all the time, but she developed a hatred for her cosy and warm Moses basket. A calm sleepy baby became erratic one we laid her down in it. After trying tilting the basket, moving it into a dark room, a bright room , swaddling, not swaddling we found the solution.



Our solution is not recommended - by anyone, especially health officials. But the only way we could get her to sleep was to put her lying on her tummy. We have learned since that babies are spoiled in SCBU as they are allowed to sleep on their tummies as nurses are constantly checking them. A SCBU nurse did tell me while we were there that lying a baby on his/her tummy aids digestion.


Sleeping on mummy ... on her tummy
I was scared when we first tried it, but also relieved. After nervously telling our family, both my mother and my husband’s mum revealed we had slept on our tummies as babies (I still do) and that it was the recommended advice in the 80s.
So we checked on her more often than a sane person should, but she slept soundly, maybe it was the brace, maybe it was genetics - or maybe it was Abbey’s way.


There was no routine at one month, she fed from my breast about 2.5 hours during the day and every 90mins or so at night. Some days were better than others, but it was a sea of exhaustion and newborn cries.

Thankfully we did limit visitors as she had not had any of her vaccinations, so despite the difficulties it did give us a chance to get to know our new family member and she seemed to warm to us!
She is opening her eyes for longer and longer each day, loves being talked to and loves sleeping on her daddy!

10 comments:

  1. Oh she is absolutely adorable! Our daughter would only sleep on her front too and we felt awful for letting her, but my mum told me that when I was young the rules were to lie us on our front, when my little sister was young it was the side and then with our childrens generation it's the back. I bet you're so glad that you're all home and well. It sounds like she's completely thriving now and it's amazing that you've established feeding especially after her starting off on tubes!!! That's incredible!! You must feel so proud (I hope you do anyway!) xx #maternitymondays

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    1. Thank you. Yes I know the advice on how to put your baby to sleep keeps changing but on the front is working for us! I feel so proud of her, thankfully she is a hungry baby!

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  2. Aww bless her she is so lovely. I am a firm believer in doing what is best for your baby. Well done you #maternitymondays

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    1. Thank you, I believe the same, but it still was scary!

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  3. Aww bless her, she's absolutely gorgeous. My little one was in SCBU and I remember a lot of the other babies on their fronts. Mine was probably only on her back because she had a tube in her chest. My mother is another one who said she used to put me on my front. I wouldn't worry too much, I'm sure she will be fine xx
    #maternitymondays

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    1. Thank you,yes it seemed to be the advice in the 80s and we survived! I'm fine with it now, but the first few days were scary!

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  4. Aww bless her, glad she has found a comfy way to sleep. did you know that maxicosi loan out special car seats to children with a pavlik harness?? I read it on facebook somewhere. Hope she continues to do well. #maternitymondays

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    1. I never knew that about maxi cosi, I will look that up, thank you.

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  5. Aww she's so cute! Glad she has figured out her favourite sleeping position too! Took us a while to figurer it out with our guy but he ended up sleeping on his left side only with a slight tilt in the mattress, still does and he's almost 2 and a half now :)

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    1. Yes it must stick throughout life, because I still sleep on my tummy!

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