after giving birth and being stitched up with dd1 the midwives left. i was still in shock. finally about 20 minutes later, dd1 was about 40 minutes old i asked if she could be latched onto me. she was shocked and thought i wasn't going to bf. she latched her on but she fell asleep. she told me to rest and try later. i then had to start trying myself. wasn't sure whether she was getting anything as she just kept falling asleep.
that night the midwife seen her latch on and as soon as she left dd1 was asleep again. i told her about it and she said she must be happy. i went home the next day, again all she was doing was falling asleep. the paediatrician noticed a heart murmour but nothing else.
the same thing happened at home. the community midwife came the next day and said she looked exhausted. i explained what had happened. she cup fed her 30ml. told me to call her if anything was wrong.
that night i called explained she wasn't feeding again and was now making shallow breathing sounds. by the tikme she got there dd1 was very floppy, eyes were rolling to the back of her head, she was grey and the breathing was worse. an ambulance got called but due to catchment area we ended up having to go to a different hospital.
got to hospital and went to a and e. nurse there told me to show her how i was putting dd1 to the breast, i showed her and she said it was fine. the cubicle we were in had dried blood over the floor. we explained everything to her, even the heart murmour. we then heard her outside laughing that i was a young mum who couldn't bf my baby.
a doctor came, examined dd1 and said he couldn't see anything wrong with her. we got transfered 3 hours later to the childrens ward. as soon as the paediatrician looked at dd1 we were rushed out of the room.
the next thing we knew was she was fighting for life. she had a heart defect and her body had been shutting down. she was in multiple organ failure and stood a 30-40% chance of survival. a team from alder hey came and got her.
she had a hard time in hospital. it turned out she had digeorge syndrome. she had her heart op and was on the mend when just before we were going to try feeding her again a cleft team worker was called in to check dd1's mouth. it turned out she had a small cleft on the soft palate and would never have bf anyway.
i carried on expressing the whole time but she had severe gastric reflux and the dietician put her on infatrini.
dd2 was 11 weeks early. i was so determained to bf her. i'm happy to say she's 10 months old and is still bf. i didn't get much help with her as well but i was determained and there was no medical reason why she wouldn't bf she just needed to grow.