A star is born (at last!!!)

[starlover]

Well... baby starlover is here at last! Can't quite believe it.

Labour started in the early hours of Monday morning, and at 4.45am we made our way to the hospital (myself on only 1 hour of sleep)...
Then endured 12 hours of mostly horrendous pain, alleviated very briefly by gas and air, a bit later by pethidine (which I LOVED) and then by an epidural!
First epidural didn't work, but second one was lovely and I was soon smiling away. Started pushing at around 4.45pm... carried on for over an hour at which point they decided that I needed the help of some suction and Linus William was pulled kicking and screaming, most reluctantly, into the world. He had an audience of Daddy, Midwife, Doctor, 2 medical students and a paediatrician!!!
While everyone cooed over my 9lb 1oz bundle, I was having my 2nd degree tear stitched up when they discovered I had a bleed inside at which point I was whisked away to theatre for an hour while they did nasty (I imagine) things to the insides of my bits leaving me with a vaginal pack (EWWW) and a catheter.
Annnnyway, things seemed better when I met Linus properly. Have just got home due to a lengthened stay in hospital due to the fact that he has a terrible boob aversion and refused to feed!
Making progress with a combination of boob/expressed boob milk/formula... and hoping to gradually wean him completely to boob!

That is the update so far... now must go and change nappy!

thank you everyone!
Linus still has his boob aversion unfortunately... however my milk is beginning to come in so hopefully with a bit more persuasion he'll learn to love it!
So hard now he is used to the instant fix of his bottle though!
my boobs are incredibly sore from expressing all the time... he's lucky he's so bloody gorgeous or I might just give up!

Why is he not cup fed???? Why are you bottle feeding EBM?
You are making it harder on yourself.

that's what they told me to do in the hospital.
we tried giving it to him in a syringe but he spat most of it out

Congrats Starlover!!!!

Seriously try a cup, this baby is going to LOVE the bottle and struggle to BF.... you can use the cup from the bottles and tip it gentkl in his mouth!
I despair at the crap advice women get - sorry !

i despair too pupuce! I was given different advice by every single midwife who tried to help me and ended up in tears several times.
will give the cup a go though and see how we get on

Are there no BF counsellor near you????

Where in the country are you? Do you mind saying which hospital you went to?

Well done Starlover - I've been wondering about you. Sorry about your tear, but it will heal in no time - work that pelvic floor girl! Hope the bf gets going soon but whatever happens, enjoy little Linus. Congratulations

i gave birth at east surrey pupuce...
not sure about bf counsellors

Do try to keep going with the b/f Starlover. I had diffs too with my first one and I so relate to what you said about getting different advice from each midwife and being driven to tears. I was just the same. But ds (or me) got it in the end and it was so fulfilling. I wish I could help out but I am no b/f counsellor (just a 4x mother). Don't you just love the way the midwives grab hold of your boobs and bung them in the poor baby's mouth? So undignified! Hope someone helps you soon.

Have you tried the NCT or La Leche league or whatever it is called?

Message withdrawn

Well I often go to East Surrey... if you CAT me and tell me which town you live in I can see if I can find you a BF counsellor.... or maybe I can come and see you.

I'm in Crawley...
we did make a little progress today.. got him to latch on without screaming and pulling his head back!!!! I think now my milk has come in properly he got some in his mouth quite quickly... so he knows it's there! I think he's just a bit confused because it doesn't feel like the bottle... but will keep trying