When my baby was born she was very tiny with a dark reddish tone to her skin, almost as if she was sunburnt. During the initial checks the midwife advised that she was fine and her colouring could be due to her being slightly overdue. Few days later she had further checks and was diagnosed with Jaundice. She had to undergo phototherapy, it was painful to watch. My daughter really didn’t being under the light naked. She was suppose to be under the light for 12 hours but after 5 hours she was pooping and crying, the process was distressing and emotional. Luckily she was showing signs of change and can be taken off a lot earlier.
The first month was really difficult and exhausting, B need frequent feeds, days were a blur with the feeds, nappy changes. this is a big learning process for me and my daughter, working out what B wanted was trial and error, some days takes me ages to work out what she wanted. One of the difficulties I had was winding B.
B’s umbilical cord fell off a few days after we left the hospital, I found it in her sleepsuit (I was told not to cover with the nappy so it can dry out faster). I didn’t look very clean so I got my sister to look at it, the health visitor came later and said it was fine. Couple of days later the dark ring fell off too.
Towards the end of the month B started to develop cradle cap, it invaded her eye brows too. We used coconut oil and reapplied it often. When we washed her hair we used a gentle shampoo with a fine bristle brush to help brush it off. It took a while to get rid off it.
Lesson Learnt.
- Apps are useful to monitor feeds and poops
- Tuck a clean nappy underneath whilst changing to minimise mess
- Top and tail is the best way to clean initially
- Heating is not good for their delicate skin
- Sunlight is recommended