You can read part 1 here.


Sunday 2nd March
We arrived at the postnatal ward around 3 pm, greeted by a lovely NICU nurse who admitted us to transitional care due to poor feeding and hypothermia. She took little man #2’s temperature again which was still 36 degrees, and because of this we put more woolly layers on him and swaddled him up and I had cuddles with him whilst we waited for the doctor. He was doing his rounds on NICU so we still had a bit of a wait ahead of us. At this point I was glad we took the iPad as little man #1 would have been bored stiff, so I downloaded a Peppa Pig app which kept him occupied! The nurse took LM #2’s temperature again after an hour and it had risen ever so slightly to 36.2 degrees. She also took some bloods to test his blood sugar levels. 


The doctor eventually arrived a couple of hours later and took some birth details, and what had happened since his birth. He checked LM #2 over and everything was OK, apart from his temperature still. It had risen a little more to 36.8 degrees, but it still wasn’t satisfactory for us to go home, so we had to stay the night. At this point I got really upset as this was the place I really didn’t want to be after spending three nights last time, and it also reminded me of my breastfeeding failure as it was the place where I gave up too easily. But on the other hand it was the best thing for us as it meant LM #2 would get better and we would have extra constant feeding support from the NICU nurse too. Unfortunately the one who admitted us had to have handover but the new one was also lovely. 


After it was decided that we would be staying, hubby took LM #1 home. Our neighbour was amazing as she offered to look after him whilst hubby came back for a while – he needed to fetch my hospital bag anyway which I packed just in case we needed to be transferred during my home birth. She gave him some tea and then in fact he fell asleep there whilst hubby was back at the hospital so he stayed the night and hubby collected him the next morning. 


As LM #2 still wasn’t latching on and showing no interest whatsoever – most likely because of the hypothermia – we decided that I would express overnight and the NICU nurse would cup feed him as I didn’t want to introduce him to a bottle at this point. Before every feed I would also try him on the breast. Instead of hand expressing, I was introduced to this amazing machine which became my new best friend:

I was shown by the HCA how to put the bottles and bits together and attach it to the pump – and then when I was on it hubby of course had a perverted chuckle when the HCA left the room! This first time I was on it, I got 14 ml of colostrum in total which I’m told is very good. This would be given to him for his next feed and then I would express again – the routine which became very familiar…


Hubby left around 9pm, and I just burst into tears. I so didn’t want to be here – I should have been at home with the rest of my family; my husband and my LM #1. The poor little guy. He had just welcomed a brand new human, and then this human and his Mummy just disappeared. Such a big change for him in such a short space of time. 


When hubby had left I went to bed for some much needed sleep. The NICU nurse would come in every 3 hours through the night to wake me to try LM #2 on the breast, and if there was no success then she would feed him with my EBM. Needless to say, even with her help, he still wouldn’t latch on. I tried to remain positive, but it brought back so many memories of my experience and my breastfeeding guilt with LM #1.