As a first time mother, I had very little preparation for handling babies. Prior to motherhood, I wasn’t exactly the mumsy type (well, I still don’t think I am).
I did a lot of reading about pregnancy. I did the NCT and NHS courses in preparation for labour and breastfeeding. But actually preparing for the bundle of joy, nothing.
It was only on the maternity ward that I learned how to change a nappy. A very helpful midwife showed me how to do a fold so that the nappy didn’t touch the cord whilst at the same time stopping leaks of wee.
So I quickly learned the basics, feed every three hours, burp, sleep, change nappies. What I wasn’t expecting was reflux. As it happened, all three of my children had reflux from birth until they were firmly on solids.
Six months of very high maintenance babies. Dozens of bibs a week to wash (the plasticised ones of course, otherwise it would be dozens of baby clothes too).
The first frustration was finding that it’s really difficult to buy plasticised bibs. Most shops that sell baby clothes will only do fabric ones. I ended up buying some at M & Co, Mothercare and eBay.
Most of the first bibs had to go to the bin straight away – very difficult to get those colostrum stains off.
The use of the dummy was also a must. It helped them keep some of the milk in.
But of course the biggest frustration was the slow weight gain. They all fed really well (and I purposefully ate lots of carbs too) but I always felt like half of the milk was coming out straight after.
Then there was the muslins… dozens too. Always loads of spare clothes, bibs and muslins in the baby change bag.
We had to lift the top end of the cot so that they would sleep at an angle, helping the milk to stay down. There wasn’t much playing about up and down with them at this stage because a bit more movement generally meant more milk out.
With Miss Z, as she was only 2.4Kgs at birth, we were quite worried and went to the GP. They prescribed Gaviscon for babies. It acts by thickening the milk in the stomach so as to make it harder to come up. It worked to the extent that she kept more of it in. However, the side effects were difficult to deal with. It gave her constipation. I found it hard to deal with the situation. Every time she needed to poo, my poor little girl had to make an enormous effort. Such a tiny little human being… We decided to half the dose and although that meant she still brought up some milk, at least she could poo. I drank a lot of prune juice so she would get some through the milk. At some point we gave her water with a bit of prune juice too.
What helped us a lot was a gel they sell in Portugal (called babygel). It’s sold without prescription and you put a little in their bum and it forces them to poo. I used it if she went more than a week without pooing.
It was a trialling time. After Miss Z had it, we sort of knew what to expect and just rode the wave with the other two. That’s not to say that it was easy. But we could see the light at the end of the tunnel. And that kept us going.
Once they were weaned and started having 3 meals a day regularly, the problem went away naturally. Now, it’s just a distant memory, thank goodness.