We have spent the last two nights 'rooming in' at the hospital and I won't lie...it has been really really hard. I guess you could say that I was a little naive. In the nursery, Lilly was being breastfed 4 times a day and tube feed for her other 4 feeds. I figured she was in such an awesome routine that it would be easy to move out into the ward and continue on with this awesome fairytale routine where Lilly woke 3 hourly for a feed and went back to sleep. Boy was I WRONG! But doesn't she look like a little angel here?
Problem 1: Lilly refused to sleep at night and I fell asleep with her either screaming herself to sleep on my chest or sleeping contently beside me in the bed...which was a big no-no in the hospital.
Problem 2: She refused to stay latched to my boob for any longer than 5 sucks in a row. And then she would scream after coming on and off a few times and I'd have to put her to sleep with me in the bed and start the vicious circle again.
This crazy dance of scream-try to feed-scream again continued all night for both of the nights we roomed in. I spent a lot of the night sitting rocking her back and forth with tears streaming down my face...it was hard. So very hard. At 4am the first morning, I messaged my husband with a river practically flowing down my face, chest and into my lap telling him that he needed to take the day off and come in and help me or I'd have a mental breakdown. Of course he obliged and of course Lilly was a little angel as soon as Daddy got there...but we were still struggling with the feeding. I didn't tell any of the nurses because I just wanted to get her home with us where she belonged. Looking back at it now, I should have asked for help but I was just too damn scared.
We finally finished our mandatory 48 hours of rooming in and just had to wait for the pediatrician to come in and discharge us. He took what seemed like the entire day...and when he finally got there and weighed Lilly, she had lost a whopping 100g in two days. We then had to wait for another pediatrician who wanted us to stay another night...but we declined and took her home anyway and looking back now, we definitely made the right decision! The hospital wasn't a nice place to start bonding with our baby and I found it so hard being away from my husband. We packed Lilly up and drove very carefully home.
When we got home, we introduced the fur babies to our human baby and they have pretty much stayed clear from Lilly since! They have found it really hard not sleeping in our bedroom with us and I really miss their warm cuddles but now I have Lilly to cuddle! I must say, being at home feels like a weight has been lifted from my shoulder - I just wish we could sort out these damn breastfeeding issues...but that's a whole other post!
