Bristol Children's Hospital

I took Eve to Bristol Children's hospital yesterday morning to have her checked over by a paediatric doctor.  The hospital is just at the bottom of the hill from our flat. It is a specialist hospital and patients go there from all over the south west, so I felt very lucky that I didn't have to push her in the pram too far as it was pouring with rain.

http://www.uhbristol.nhs.uk/patients-and-visitors/your-hospitals/bristol-royal-hospital-for-children/

The doctor checked her over and said that she looks perfectly healthy, strong and alert. Eve has put on 200g, double that of last week which is great as it proves that the domperidone (along with the tongue tie cut) is doing it's job by increasing my milk supply. I figured this was the case as she has been sleeping so much better these last few days. She now weighs 7lb 2oz. 

We've also started her on formula this evening. This is something I never planned for or wanted to do, but I guess this is the thing about parenthood; plans go out the window. I've been very reluctant to give her formula previously, but feel that I've persevered as much as possible with breastfeeding and expressing, which has been incredibly tiring. I feel like I've been chained to the sofa expressing for the past month, so it was with great joy that I put away the pump last night. I'm going to carry on breastfeeding and will offer her a bottle after every feed. Hopefully not too far down the line I might be able to breastfeed without formula, but we'll see what happens.

I'm really glad that I stuck to my guns this far resisting formula. If it was down to the midwives we'd have been giving it to her from birth. We've almost done 2 months purely breastfeeding. I did check with the midwife and our gp to see if we could obtain milk from Bristol Milk Bank but I was told that milk is in low supply and is only available for premature and ill babies. This is fine, however I've just found out today that this is possibly not true. I shall investigate and come back on another post about this.  I'm quite annoyed that the midwife and health visitor did not inform us of the other avenues to go down until now, we could have looked into all these areas weeks ago. I'm very thankful to friends and family for all their advice, which has kept me sane.

Breastfeeding is wonderful and I really enjoy the bonding experience with Eve, especially when we do skin to skin.

I now have lots of milk which is great, but a bit sore when the ol' boobs are so full. But this is of course a great thing, making me very happy.








Now that she's more content after having a larger quantity of milk, breastfeeding feels easier and is not so much of a chore. I am actually managing to find some time to clean the house, make my own lunch and get out and about. Plus, having a bit of time to relax with Samo-daddy in the evenings is absolute bliss!

Cow & Gate

The midwife informed us of this a while ago, so I checked when I was buying it in Boots yesterday - Cow & Gate and Aptamil below are both made by the same company. 

Cow & Gate was re-branded and marketed into Aptamil for the middle classes and is more expensive.  If you check the ingredients each box is exactly the same - no difference whatsoever, and you'll save about £2 each time by buying Cow & Gate, which they market towards the working class.

Aptamil

Exactly the same as Cow & Gate.

Slightly annoying that when buying formula it is not possible to obtain or use Boots Advantage store points. Apparently this is something to do with Government legislation. I'm guessing perhaps it is linked to Child Benefit in some way?