Hand hold needed: newborn sick after hospital stay

[petiteoeuf]

I was just wondering if I could get a bit of a hand hold as a first time mum with a seven-week old with a cold! I’ve just been diagnosed with PPA and PPD so please be kind. I know I’m being more anxious than I probably need to be but I’m really struggling. A bit of background: we had an urgent hospital admission when he was 4 weeks old because he went floppy and had a temp and they were worried about sepsis. We were allowed home after five days in critical care and they never really found the issue (one blood culture did show up some bacteria but that was it). I’ve been working really hard to try and put it behind me but now my little one has developed a cold. At the moment he just sounds snotty and occasionally is coughing and spluttering when he sleeps and the snot builds up and he’s a bit restless and unsettled. I know it’s not always something to worry about but it’s the middle of the night and I’m just really struggling to stay calm and not freak out. I also can’t breastfeed which I know is often considered really helpful when they have colds and I feel really guilty about that. If anyone has any positive stories or reassurance that it’ll likely just go away in a few days without being super serious I’d be so grateful.

Aww, it’s rubbish when you're sat alone at silly o’clock feeling anxious. Funnily enough, I'm up because I'm full of a cold!
it’s natural to be so anxious about a young baby, but honestly, a cold is more annoying than anything. Make sure your baby is comfortable, has plenty of fluids and maybe a drop of Calpol. Give plenty of hugs! Make yourself a brew and don't Google the symptoms! Take care x

Anxiety is rubbish but your baby will be ok! I remember how scary the first colds are but we are on cold 10000 and it does get easier.

it sounds like you are traumatised by the previous heath problems and maybe a bit of feeding trauma in there too! No quick fix for that but be kind to yourself.

Hi OP, sorry to hear your DS was ill. My DD had sepsis when she was born and spent 2 weeks in NICU. It is really tricky as it is completely natural that whenever they get ill, you will of course go to worst case scenario. My GP said that babies get on average 10 colds in the first year of life and babies who have had sepsis can be a little more susceptible to being ill. She recommended to make sure we had a good thermometer at home, keep on top of cold remedies and just a low threshold for seeking GP input / 111 help (although when they take baby's history, after sepsis they just always sent us to a&e as a precaution. DD was usually just checked over and we were sent back home).

I also had PND as a result and just battled through it on my own / with a bit of CBT, which in hindsight wasnt enough. Are you receiving any treatment? Definitely look into either medication or therapy, as it will help a lot in the long run.

Hey 👋 you never quite get over seeing your LO in hospital, my DS was in hospital when he was 7 month old on high dependency for pneumonia and again for 5 days at 3 yo for strep A and even now at 9 yo i worry when he gets a cold that it could develop into something nastier, it is especially hard not to worry in the middle of the night, best advice i can give is reassure yourself with facts- temperature check, oxymeter check, dehydration check- if they all come back ok i know he is fine and can stop worrying, sounds a bit extreme for a cold but it helps for me and lets me get some sleep xx