So, about 20 minutes after DS2 was born, he fed and fed well. His blood sugars were taken a couple of hours later and were 2.4, which was "borderline" - they wanted them to be 2.5.
This went on for a few feeds and he was 2.9 once and 2.4 a couple of times, then in the middle of the night, he dropped to 2.1.
And then the "fun" began...
The midwife who did the test said that she was worried about his blood sugars and she wanted to top him up with formula...
Er, no, I said. No way. I would hand express colostrum if she brought me a syringe to express it into.
She frowned at me and said she didn't think I'd have enough. How much did she think I'd need, I asked. 30ml, she said
So, I fed him, I hand expressed (5ml) and he had that and still his sugars weren't high enough.
A paediatrician came up to see us and repeated that formula was the way forward... I said no.
Fed and had sugars taken the rest of the night, then in the morning things looked a little better, with a couple of 2.4s in a row, but still not high enough.
Paed who came to see us in the morning asked if I was "medical" as she'd had no idea you could hand express colostrum
I said I wanted to go home, but they weren't happy to let me, so brought up another paed (top guy, apparently - he was very nice). I was going to discharge myself, but decided to stay in and make sure DS2 met their "targets". I had a lovely midwife on my side by this time who promised me an amenity room too, which swayed things - the ward was a vile experience!
Paed said DS2 needed two consecutive readings of 2.6 or above or he wanted him taken to the neonatal unit and given iv dextrose. The first was 3.2 (woohoo!), the second was 2.6! I filled in a feed chart overnight and he fed 11 times in 12 hours - my milk came in this afternoon, earlier than I'd expected.
So we were discharged today and I feel quite proud of using nork power It saddens me that the health professionals who are meant to support breastfeeding are so quick to resort to formula.