Wow, where have the past 8 weeks gone since I last checked in here?!
Reading back over my last post takes me back to a very difficult time and makes me feel a little sad. I’m glad that those days are behind us but whilst the sleep has got a little better, we recently had Mali diagnosed with reflux. Although she’s been on the Aptamil anti reflux and regurgitation milk for a while now, she’s never really been settled. I kind of brushed it off as perhaps she was just a clingy baby and wanted to be held. I also spend most days with my Gran who would be there to hold her whilst I got on with jobs in the house, so I probably never really noticed it as much had I been on my own during the day with her. At baby massage the other day, I noticed how she was the only baby out of around 10 others that just would not settle on the mat in front of me.. meaning I wasn’t able to massage her but sit there for the duration of the course just trying to soothe her on my knee.
That day, Josh had also ordered the Sensational Baby Sleep Plan book by Alison Scott-Wright, which I initially refused to read after hearing negative feelings towards it not being the right thing to do for a baby but because I found Mali such hard work on my own throughout the day, like not being able to put her down for her naps and wanting to be constantly held, I was intrigued to read it and I’m so glad I did. Not only did it help me understand a lot about babies and the importance of sleep but it also gives a lot of information on reflux and dietary related intolerances. There is an extensive list of symptoms relating to reflux, which Mali did have. It also explains that reflux doesn’t necessarily mean that your baby will vomit, which is referred to as silent reflux, but may have a couple or several other symptoms that would suggest they are suffering from heartburn and indigestion. Anyway, from this I decided to contact my health visitor who asked me a few more questions and then asked the GP to prescribe some medication to help. I’ll pick the prescription up tomorrow and see if it helps with being able to put Mali down for her naps during the day and update you on our progress. I just wish I had had more knowledge on this before having her, so I could have looked out for the signs earlier. It’s upsetting to know she’s in pain and not getting the sleep she needs to develop as an infant because of it but it’s also tainted the first few months for us meaning we haven’t enjoyed parenthood as much as we would have, had we had the right treatment earlier.
Last weekend we had our first mini break away as a family of three – Erik not included because it was a city break to London to get a Thai birth certificate for Mali, so we can eventually get her a Thai passport to have dual nationality. I was unsure how it would go, especially as we’re still co-sleeping. I was actually so pleased with how smoothly it went, from the car ride down to Luton, to jumping on and off the underground with three bags, a pram and a baby. I did worry I would forget something but then reminded myself that anything we did need could be bought whilst we were there. The best thing we did was visit London Aquarium, which was so much better than I thought it would be. Mali absolutely loved it because of the dark rooms and the changing coloured lights, it was so lovely to watch her little face! And because we travelled in by train from Luton, we booked tickets through daysoutguide.co.uk where we got 2for1 tickets, making it much more affordable. You can do this for a lot of other attractions too, like the London Eye, Madame Tussaud’s etc.
I am definitely much more relaxed about going away as a family now, knowing that I needn’t worry about packing too little or not being able to make milk when needed, which was my main concern. All the cafes we asked for boiling water from were happy to do that for us and if we were struggling, we had packed a jet boil so we could boil our own water out and about as a last resort. And if we had struggled to do that, I did pack a couple of the pre made ready to drink bottles of Aptamil for emergencies!
