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My Worst Sleepless Night

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Without a doubt, my worst sleepless night EVER was the first night home with my son.  It was so easy in hospital.  Feeding him every four hours, being fed, time to sleep – heaven!  Then we went home….  We were so excited.  His room was all ready.  We gave him his bath – during which he screamed non stop – but we were expecting it.  We could not bear to put him in his own room, so he slept in our room.  He was fast asleep – a little angel – so we went to sleep.  Only to be woken up seconds later by his crying.

And with the crying my breast started aching and burning.  My milk was coming in – yeah!  I tried to feed him but my breasts were so hard the poor thing could get nothing out.  And so started our  my night from hell.  6 Years later, everything is a blur.  I have a few vivid/frightening images of me sitting on the couch in the lounge (trying to give hubby some sleep) with a crying, hungry baby next to me.  The whole house was smelling of cooked cabbage!  I had resorted to the old cabbage leaf suggestion but within seconds of putting them on my aching breasts they were cooked!  So I reached for the breast pump – I have never used one before and was trying to figure it out by myself, while soothing my son as well.  By the time I managed to get it to work and get my milk flowing, the sun was coming up.  My son was so hungry and so tired, he managed to have some milk and went straight to sleep – with us in bed.

I wish I could say that that was the first and last night from hell.  Reality was that that night was repeated for the next 3 nights, till we decided to put him in his own room, in his own bed.  It worked like a charm!  He still woke up every 3 hours to feed (whoever said babies only wake every 4 hours to feed should be shot!), and feeding him took about an hour, so the little sleep continued, but at least we never had a repeat of that first night home! 

Hopeful Mom

 
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