New mother/ C section questions

[happymonkey13]

Hi there,

I am a regular reader but don?t tend to post often on mumsnet. However, I am now a mum to my first child (aged 11 days!) and I have lots of questions for you all about newborns and c-sections (ended up with emergency c section after failing to progress).

1. Overdue baby development
   My daughter was 2 weeks overdue in the end and is now 11 days old. I think she is starting to do things a lot earlier than the books tell me ? i.e. smiling, holding her head up etc. Should I consider her to be closer to 4 weeks in terms of development because of the 2 weeks she was cooking in the womb or am I just being one of those ridiculous mothers who thinks their child is very advanced?!
   
   
2. Tramadol
   I am on Tramadol and paracetamol for pain relief after my c section and I am breastfeeding. Does anybody know if Tramadol has any effect on babies that I should be worried about? The doctors and midwives have just told me that it is fine and been quite dismissive of my concerns. I know it is highly addictive and I am going to start weaning myself off it on Monday by slowly lowering the amount I take each day ? do you think my baby will have any side effects when I come off it?
   
   
3. Penicillin
   My c section is now infected (oh joy) and I am on penicillin which is making her poos really explosive which she isn?t too happy about! I finish the course on Monday and am wondering how long it will take for it to get out of her system? At the moment I feel so guilty that I am causing her upset stomach and I hope that things get back to normal soon but I?m not sure it is might take a couple of days.
   
   
4. Diet & Breastfeeding
   The last couple of nights she has also had (I think) a bad stomach ache after feeding and I?m not sure if this is the antibiotics, something else I ate or just something that happens that I haven?t caused. If it is something that I ate, do you know how long it takes for food I eat to go into my breastmilk? I?m trying to work out if it was my lunch, dinner or bedtime snack of crunchy nut corn flakes that could have caused it and then I can alter my diet if need be.
   
   
5. Passports
   I am going to apply for a passport for baby at some point but I?ve just realised that getting passport photos for her might be difficult. In the past I?ve gone into Jessops or Supasnaps and had them taken in the shop but all of these places have now gone into administration. I know I can?t take her into a booth in a supermarket as I?d be in the background holding her! Any ideas of how to do this?!
   
   
   I think that is all my questions for now. Thanks in advance for helping, I know some of these are quite trivial!

[Phineyj]

Congratulations! I can help a little with 1. and 5. My DD was also born by EMCS and as I was very keen to avoid induction was in for her full term, and I have also noticed that she is ahead in terms of development. All the books and websites are based on averages, aren't they, so by definition some babies must be ahead of what they say.

1. We took her photo by laying her down on a pale coloured rug and making silly faces at her from above until we got a decent shot. I'm going to do what I did last time I needed passport photos, which is Google for a template and print them out at home on photo paper (will only work if you have a good quality printer obviously). An alternative if you have a local post office with a photo booth would be to take her down there and ask their advice, as surely they will have encountered this problem lots of times before? Or take your own photo and have Boots print it from a data stick.

[HappyAsASandboy]

Congratulations on your new baby :)

If the midwives and doctors are happy that the medication is safe, then it almost certainly is. There is a drugs in breast milk database maintained by The Breastfeeding Network here, you could double check with them?

With regard to passport photos, I went to Timpsons in my local Sainsburys, they knew the criteria and kept taking until they got one :) Otherwise, lying on a white sheet is probably your best bet.

[BikeRunSki]

Although I have had 2 cs, I took very little pain relief - and then only paracetamol- and no other medication, so I can't answer most of your questions. But, when DS was a few weeks old I got his passport pics done by an independent photographer at his studio. He knew exactly what to do, took about 10 mins and cost about £10, 4 years ago.

[scratchandsniff]

I als

[scratchandsniff]

Bloody phone

I also had a emcs due to failure to progress.

I was given paracetamol and diclofenac. They wouldn't give you something that would affect the baby.

Newborns guts aren't mature and they do sometimes struggle with digestion. What we eat definitely affects our milk. DS was colicky and I found avoiding dairy helped as some struggle to break down lactulose. After a feed I used to keep him upright on my shoulder for about 30mins before laying him down, would wake in pain if not. If she continues to look like she's struggling with wind get some infacol. Avoid coffee and anything spicy or gassy such as leeks, too much onion etc.

Congrats by the way. It's a steep learning curve, but in a few months you'll be giving advice on here.

[appletarts]

1. Not logical I'm afraid, there's no adjustment to age due to baby being bit overdue, baby might be a genius but wouldn't worry about that now, more a case of pfb.
   

1. No idea.
   

1. Babies have explosive poos, probably nothing to do with antibiotics. Take a probiotic if worried but think you're over-thinking this one.
   

1. See 3. Sorry nearly wet myself over the crunchy nut cornflakes. Baby only affected by BIG things in diet like a really hot curry or something they're allergic to like milk.
   

1. No idea.
   

Congratulations!

[holidaysdistantmemory]

Passport photo. Take picture of baby lying on white sheet, stand on chair over him/her. Google 'baby passport photo' and u shld find a company to whom you email the pic and they convert to a passport pic and send it to you, they were great and so easy (and cheapish I recall). Was about 4 years ago, so can't remember company name, but google shld find it, and no need to leave the house!

[canyou]

Congratulations
Passport my local chemist put a white cloth over my top half and I held DC so check your chemist may do the same

[MsDeerheart]

just to say my DS1 was over due and he was a very awake baby who smilled earlier etc - I wouldn't say it made much difference in the long run though

[Eskino]

Hi, congrats on your new baby!

I am just getting over a wound abscess in my c section. I have had 2 courses of flucloxacillin, I was told that it wouldn't pass through to my breast milk in large enough amounts to make a difference but I have been taking a good quality pro-biotic to counteract any effect it might have had on my newborns emerging gut flora.

As someone has already mentioned, You could try and cut out cows milk products for a while in case your DD has an intolerance which could be causing upset tummy and those poos. Just make sure you're getting the fat and calcium from somewhere.

[fairylightsinthesnow]

wow, first of all congrats, second, calm down, you'll give yourself an ulcer by the time baby is 6 months at this rate! I had 2 cs both for failure to progress. 2nd one was infected and had antibiotics. I vaguely remember DD having a couple of nastier than usual nappies but this early, really, it can be anything. Just eat a normal, balanced diet, keep your calories up if you're breastfeeding and just get to know your daughter. As for advanced development - she's not even two weeks old, put the books down, back away slowly and stop looking for where she should be on the progress chart. Pain-relief, just take advice from the MW /HV and you should be fine about 4 weeks after the op. Please relax and enjoy this time, you have years and years of little steps and milestones and get through, they'll all happen in their own time.

[leelteloo]

In my experience a lot of new born babies seem to struggle between about 5 and 10 pm, no idea why. I put it down to colic with my dd but my ds never had colic and still was most grizzly between these hours? I used infacol and gripe water liberally and got a sling so I could jig and move about which helped them to settle.
Passport photo: got dd and ds done as babies and just went to our local independent photographic store. They knew exactly how the shots needs to be taken and it was very cheap. Dd's was at 3 weeks.
Re c section, didn't take much pain relief once I left hospital, hope you get less sore soon.

[TolliverGroat]

1.Overdue baby development
Bit of a mixture -- on average I believe overdue babies do hit some of the earlier milestones before on-time or early babies, but it's not as precise as considering her to be closer to 4 weeks. This is probably one where you just need to relax a bit and enjoy what your daughter is doing (which will be bloody amazing given how recently she was born, because newborns learn so much so quickly that it's astounding) and not worry about two weeks here or there.

2.Tramadol
Tramadol is basically fine, especially given that your daughter was overdue. The Breastfeeding Network's specialist factsheet says "Tramadol is a new type of drug which resembles morphine but is less addictive. It is a stronger pain killer. It produces low levels in milk and a study in breastfed newborn infants found no adverse effects attributable to tramadol. All babies, in particular those born prematurely or who have had difficulties with breathing, should be monitored for increased sleepiness, difficulty breastfeeding, breathing difficulties or limpness. If these are noted the drug should be stopped and medical help sought as soon as possible."

3.Penicillin
Don't know, sorry!

4.Diet & Breastfeeding
It's actually pretty unusual for a baby to have a bad reaction to something the mother eats -- it's not impossible, but I'd have it at the bottom of your list of possible causes well behind the antibiotics and the "probably just one of those things".

5.Passports
Snappy Snaps are still going AFAIK and do baby passport photos, if there's one near you. But everyone else has given good advice on alternatives.

[fairylightsinthesnow]

sorry meant to say re passport photos, a high street photo shop will do this for you. Babies don't have to have their eyes open, but no-one else must be in the shot is all. I sort of held DD at the waist and leaned back.

[happymonkey13]

Thank you all so much for your replies. I do know I'm over thinking quite a few things - I find that my mind races during the night time feeds and I start to worry about these little things and how they might be affecting the baby. I am loving being a mother and on the whole she seems to be really content, so when she does cry in pain then I really panic and feel so guilty in case I am responsible for making her uncomfortable. Part of the problem is that I have been really lucky health wise so this is the first time that I have been in hospital, had an operation and taken anything stronger than paracetamol, hence I keep worrying about the drugs I am now on. The links to the Breastfeeding Network were really helpful - thank you.

I will get the photos done during the week, thank you for your suggestions about how to do this!

We are having a lovely Sunday morning and she is fast asleep on my lap as I read the papers in bed. I feel much calmer about things as we had a better night last night - lots of feeding but not as much crying thank goodness.

[GreenElephants]

My DS was 13 days overdue, born by emergency c-section. He did a few things earlier than the books said in the early days (he is 4mo now) but there is no saying he wouldn't have done that anyway. I would go by the age they actually are and don't read the books too much Congratulations!!!