Zoe comes home

After 3 days in the SCN, I was wondering how we would ever get Zoe out of there. My breast milk didn't seem to be getting any more plentiful and she was still getting formula down the feeding tube.

At this stage, the midwife on the ward suggested I start expressing milk using a pump. So began a love-hate relationship that may continue for a while yet.

The breast pump has plastic tubing that you attach to it, and the other ends fit into these 'cones' that suction to your breast, and funnel the milk down into a bottle. The pump basically creates a suction that pumps rhythmically, kind of mimicing what the baby does when it sucks.

The whole thing is a huge palaver. We need to sterilise two funnels, two collection bottles, and a feeding bottle for every pumping session, although everyone seems to have a different opinion on whether the sterilising is necessary.

I was advised to pump after every breastfeed for at least 10 mins, so with 6 breastfeeds a day and 6 pumping sessions, that doesn't leave room for much else. Still, if I had a term baby, she would probably be feeding 12 times a day anyway.

I really hate the pumping but I try to keep reminding myself that it is really important to increase my milk supply until Zoe is strong enough to suck it all for herself. So each session, we would collect the expressed milk and take it to the nursery to be added to the 'top up' formula.

At first, I could only get 5 ml (that's from both breasts) with 20 mins of pumping. But it slowly did increase, although excrutiatingly slowly.

To get Zoe out of the SCN, we had to jump over three hurdles (more hurdles! thought we had left them behind with IVF :-(

Firstly, she had to have two weight gains in a row. Secondly, she had to suck from the breast for 24 hours with no food through the tube, and finally, I had to demonstrate an adequate supply of milk.

The big issue was whether I would be allowed to stay in hospital a little longer for her and me to achieve those goals. The hospital allows women who've had caesarians to stay 6 days max. Unforunately for me, they were completely overwhelmingly busy, so very reluctant to let me have another night.

The good thing was that the SCN nurses and paediatrician were very keen for me not to go home without Zoe. So they agreed on Thursday morning that they would discharge both of us home. On goal one, we would have to wait until we came back on Saturday to see the weight change, we achieved goal two (with only a wee cheating on one feed) and I was a bit doubtful on goal three.

We were given formula to top her up if I didn't have enough expressed milk, and also advice on the best bottle to use for a premmie (Pidgeon peristaltic, wide version, if anyone wants to know).

I was also prescribed Motilium, which is a galatogogue. It is actually a drug to treat nausea, but one of its side effects is that it increased prolactin. As far as I can tell from reading stuff on the internet, it seems quite safe and there are little if any side effects. After taking it three times a day for the last 5 days, I haven't felt any side effects so far.

Lovely husband and I were both over the moon that we would be taking out beautiful babe home with us, but I was a little apprehensive about whether we would cope with enough milk.

We arranged to go back to the SCN two days later on Saturday for a weigh-in to see if Zoe was gaining weight.

It was a mad scramble to pack up our room, where it felt like we had been camping for 6 days, and get ready to leave. LH had to work out how to fit the capsule in the car, since it was one of the jobs we had planned for the Saturday she was born. It took him about 4 trips to the car to get everything down there, since I was no use to carry things.

Finally Zoe was strapped into the capsule and we were ready to leave. What a fantastic feeling. I didn't feel nervous - just really happy that we were out of hospital and taking our wee girl home.

It was the strangest feeling to walk in the front door and know that now there would be three of us living in our house. There were lots of photos, hugs and relief all round.

Next post: Surviving the first week at home