One of those big changes in life that come with parenthood is the ease with which you talk about and deal with poo. It’s not unusual to get covered in the stuff, you discuss its consistency, clean up the product of a caught-short potty trainer with whatever is it hand, be it leaves, post-its or Co-op receipts and, of course, blog about it.
For the past week, we have been waiting for Eleanor to poo. She did her meconium poos fine, so we knew that she had the mechanism to do one. But she had not done a proper poo yet. Combined with her having lost over 13% of her birth weight within the first week (over 15% and they have to refer to the paediatricians), this was rather worrying, though she was producing plenty of wet nappies and was very well in herself. She has now put on some weight, after changing her feeds to a combination of expressed breast milk (as much as I can produce) topped up with formula (a whole other, very emotional story, which I will go into soon), and the midwife assured us that she would poo. Once she was getting enough milk into her, it would just be a matter of time.
And lo and behold, she just did poo. Lots and lots. Not quite an explosive, leak-everywhere poo, but pretty impressive nonetheless. I have never been so happy to mop up runny brown goop with cotton wool and warm water.
So, has a poo ever made you incredibly happy?
Sadly, it was my dogs poo that once filled me with joy. She had gone through surgery on her knee (one day I'll blog about our $6000 free dog from the pound!) and was in too much pain to poop, and constipated from the morphine, I was worried she had some kind of nerve damage from the surgery since she went 5 days without pooping. When I finally saw that huge steaming dog turd in the garden I was over the moon. So I can totally relate! Yay for Eleanor's big poo!
ReplyDeleteOf course! Both my children's first ones, my own first ones after birth or surgery, or on holiday, and my son's after a bout of constipation. Poo is a joyful thing. So glad she did her poo.
ReplyDeleteNot sure that it made me happy, but it gave the jumping bean more space.....have to say that the Pocket Dictator lost 13% of her weight in the first five days. I didn't stop breastfeeding. Even when we subsequently shifted to formula she was, and is, still just dainty (belies the size of her poos believe me). Hope it's not worrying you too much x
ReplyDeleteWe had a similar poo situation - we went 10, then 12, then 14 days without one, coupled with less than ideal weight gain. I can tell you, nothing made me happier than seeing it.
ReplyDeleteYes I can identify with this. My first was about 8 weeks old when he didn't poo for over a week. And when he did I was overjoyed - never mind that we were just about to head out of the door and he required a complete change of clothes. Hope you're all doing well, I can't stand that weight gain stress in the early weeks, hopefully Eleanor will gain weight ok from now on.
ReplyDeleteIt makes me chuckle that we worry so much about our children's poo. I'm the same, especially now we're potty training. It's almost like I'm willing my daughter to have a poo if I think she's been too long without one.
ReplyDeleteNot surprised you were thrilled by that poo! Poor babies. One minute they're safely tucked up inside, all cosy and warm and floating around. The next, they're in the big wide world, and everyone is monitoring their poo.
ReplyDeleteMy baby boy lost weight in the hospital, and I was introduced to the pump, and to donor milk. We brought frozen donor milk home with us (this was Christmas time, and we didn't know if we could buy a pump quickly enough...). For 6 weeks I dealt with bleeding nipples and scabs, and such pain! (thankfully no mastitis, though I did have to clear a blocked duct with a sterilized pin on several occasions). The 6 weeks are a blur of pumping, syringe feeding (my husband fed while I pumped), nipple shields (these work well to help feed from one nipple - and help it heal while you pump from the other), hot wet cloths, and eventually bottle breast milk feeding alternated with the breast. Every other day was a new tactic, and with the help of my midwives, and a fantastic breast feeding consultant (who came to my home) he started to gain weight, and it all started to feel less panicky.
ReplyDeleteWhat saved me is that my friend Katie, who had been through it all herself, said "it will all be fine by six weeks: just hang in until then". And I did, and she was right, and this has been the case for countless other women I have talked to. My son is now 2+ and still nursing at night and I am starting to stratagize about how to get him to stop breast feeding! The trauma of how we started seems a million years ago...
I can't believe I almost missed a poo story! You're far too prolific for a new mother - 2 posts in 2 days! Good job I scroled down hey?! And as for poo, well you know that poo and I are best friends...I thank God for poo every day (or at least the days that allow me to write a good post on it)! xx
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