Leaving my baby to go into hospital - finding it hard to imagine

[bobthebaby]

As anyone that has seen my sinus thread will know, I have been having a lot of trouble and pain. When I was pg I couldn't take anything and now I am bfing it is not much better. So the best option is to have an operation to widen the gap into the sinus and perform a bit of liposuction on some swollen bits. It's a simple operation and I have private health insurance, so I can have it done whenever I want. I would have to stay in overnight.

Now comes the but. I have never been away from ds for more than 4 hours (and that only the once, its normally more like 2.) The thought of not being in the same place as him overnight is terrible. I also can't decide when would be the best time to have the operation in terms of feeding him. BTW He's a year old in 3 weeks.

I'm sure lots of you have left bf babies overnight for all sorts of reasons and will be able to persuade me that we will both be fine.

Will he take EBM from a bottle, bob?

I left my dd for a couple of days at around this age to go on a course, and she was fine! She was at nursery all day, then dad gave her a bedtime bottle of EBM to get her off to sleep. He said she didn't miss me at all, which made me feel rather unwanted, but also glad that it was so painless for her. I, on the other hand, felt like I'd had a part of me cut off, and had to express milk which had to be chucked away, as there was nowhere to store milk/ wash equipment where I was staying.

Are you sure you have to be in hospital overnight? Maybe if you had the surgery early morning, you'd be well enough to go home that evening?

Hi Bob,
I spent two nights in hospital when my baby was 6 months old and still fully breastfed. My dh brought him into hospital and I fed him just prior to going into theatre, then again late that night, then first thing the following morning. He stayed in hospital with me for a while the following day ( memory a bit hazy here) but was completely fine. I think I left behind some ebm which wasn't used.
Good luck.

I've just rung the hospital to ask about it and they said I can have a double room to myself with a cot in it. As long as someone looks after him while I am in theatre the rest of the time the nurses will help me by changing nappies, giving him EBM (like to see them try that one!)or passing him to me to bf, burping and settling. He can even stay overnight. I am amazed.

The ward sister bf herself for 15 months and believes strongly that mum and baby should be together. I am so glad I rung.

BobThebaby, very pleased to hear that this has been sorted out for you.

If anyone else has this problem, it is worth asking the hospital, (even in the UK!!!!) because if they have a breast-feeding policy it should support mothers continuing to feed if they are patients. In my own case, I was practically force-fed (unwanted) NHS dinners when DS aged 1 was in hospital on the grounds that they always feed b/f mums, and given a private room.

I'm in NZ. It is amazing, especially as ds is at the age where people are saying to me "are you still doing that?"

Well I've had my op and baby was welcome. They gave me a double room to myself and put a cot in. Trouble is it took him about 2 minutes to decide how to lauch himself out of it, so he had to go home at night with my mum. So apart from tiny meals that wouldn't feed one person let alone a bfing mum (their solution to allergies is to remove all the allergens and not put anything in their place, leaving breakfast as 1 slice of toast (jam no marg) and 3 apricots.) and a silly recovery nurse who pumped me full of morphine because my eye was watering and the first thing I did was ask if my son was okay it was okay. Still it was better than I was expecting.

Great to hear it all worked out for you