Zoe takes a small step forward

Actually, her mother took a step forward today as well. Three days after she was born, I had to measure my fasting blood glucose and then 2 hours post-meals all day to make sure the gestational diabetes had gone away.

Most of the measures were fine but two were on the high side (>7 mmol/L). This happened on the dreaded day 3, when I had my meltdown at 11pm at night and was just one more hassle I really could have done without. I was envisaging having Type 2 diabetes and being on the awful GD diet for the rest of my life, and insulin injections etc.

Anyway, I called the endocrinologist, and she said the best thing to do was to wait until this week when I was back home and remeasure again. I did that on Wednesday, and fortunately, all my readings were fine. I must confess that I did watch what I ate on the carbs front so they wouldn't skyrocket, but I had a fairly normal day of eating.

So today I celebrated by doing something I promised myself when I was in the couch exile for 9 weeks. I went up to the coffee shop on the corner and had a hot chocolate and a ricotta cheesecake. I was so nice to just order and eat whatever I wanted. I won't be doing that on a regular basis but I just had to get it out of my system ;-)

And so to our lovely little girl. Yesterday we went back to the special care nursery to have a weigh in. Zoe had gained a small but significant (to me!) 44 g in 5 days. She now weighs 2754 g. This is much less than she should have gained in 5 days (should have been 25 g a day) but at least is heading in the right direction.

After discussing it with the midwife and paediatrician, the paed said things might have only turned around in the last few days by the sound of things with my milk. So she may have lost some more weight since Sat, before she started to gain. They advised keeping up the 30 ml supplement at each feed and trying to breastfeed and express as much as possible.

I think we made our mistake in the first few days at home by sticking with the expressed milk only, even if it wasn't much. We should have just topped up to 30 ml each time with formula.

The wee girl herself is starting to act more and more like a newborn baby. She has about two fussy periods each day. Unfortunately they are usually at night. Last night, I fed her at 9pm and we didn't get her off until 11pm. She was fretting and crying unless we picked her up for a cuddle. I think she just needs to learn how to get herself off to sleep.

We are also starting to learn what her different cries mean. When she goes red in the face, and her little legs start going like she's riding a bike, there is usually a burp or a fart brewing inside. Once it comes out, she stops instantly. It's the bottle that is causing the burping. I can't make her take it slow enough. When she just sucks breast milk, she doesn't burp.

The other cry is just a wingey one and she usually stops on her own, or with a cuddle. The full blown wailing with no apparent cause doesn't happen very often, but at least we can console her with a tight cuddle. Sometimes its only me that can get her to quieten, which I think Lovely Husband is finding hard at times. I told him its just that I smell of milk, so she might prefer me to him sometimes.

Anyway, its all a sign of normal behaviour so we aren't too worried and are managing to cope pretty well. It helps that there are two of us to help settle her.

My milk is still slowly but surely increasing. We only need to supplement the expressed milk with formula at 6 and 9pm now, and some of the morning feeds I even get more than 30 ml. I broke my own record this morning with a haul of 42 mls at 9am - very pleased with myself.

Anyway, its all heading in the right direction. I really am not sure how we will get out of the expressing/top-up situation but for now I am happy to do it and see her gaining weight.