Monday, June 8, 2009

Breastfeeding?

As mentioned in my previous post, April was born at 2:48pm. Then according to the now missing blog post (I do have a screen shot, I'll make available soon), at 3:36pm - "Big happy news! After some discussion, the midwifes have decided that this girl needs to eat! They are teaching B how to do it right now. She gets to feed her baby girl!"

While not impossible - as many mothers try to breastfeed right away, I again am finding myself with a lot of questions about a child with such severe birth defects 1) latching on so quickly and 2) that the first 50 minutes of April's life wouldn't be spent doing lots of medical reviews and making sure she was stable.

What's even more perplexing to me is that the breastfeeding started at 3:36pm, then at 3:38pm they moved to the bed room to get more comfortable and then by 4:08 pm April had already eaten and Kelli (a friend) had already gotten to hold her for a bit.

Um . . . I've never had a child - but I have tons and tons of friends and family who have. And I have never seen even the hungriest of babies with well established breast feeding patterns eat in a grand total of 30 minutes. For a child that the parents claim is dying, and for a mother who has just been through a full day of labor and never breastfed before, the chances that this really occurred in a 30 minute period just seem virtually slim to none.

And by the way the 4:24pm update tells us all that April ate like a champ. Does a newborn baby actually eat colostrum like a champ (and in under 30 minutes)???

8 comments:

  1. All I have to do is laugh. I mean every baby is different, every birth is different, every first breast feeding experience is different. Although, I didn't think that the breast feeding was weird (I have had two kids both breast fed) but I did think it was weird that such a fragile baby was busy doing other things (feet and hand casts) rather than being totally looked over. I realize a doctor came but even my two very healthy children had a lengthier exam in a hospital. Is this what happens with a home birth. This I am not familiar with. And by the way, if she was to die soon (as stated), wouldn't it have been easier to do hand and foot casts after? I know that sounds terrible but this shouldn't have been a priority.

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  2. No. Even when my twins were old enough to know how to eat from a bottle or boob they took forever. They were 35weekers and HEALTHY and didn't get fed orally for 3-4 days (had ng tube for nutrition)

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  3. it was a priority to have the casts done memory wise. I think what no one is taking into consideration is there is no fixing this baby. A doctor being there can't fix her or do anything else other than check her out.

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  4. I have no idea about any of this story, I just stumbled onto this blog and was intrigued.

    That said, my ds never took longer than 30 min. to nurse, ever in 15 months of nursing.

    He got down to business and ate and moved on with life.

    So that alone wouldn't suggest anything to me.

    The rest of this stuff? Crazy.

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  5. I find it amazing that a baby with holoprosencephaly could nurse at all, much less "like a champ".

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  6. I was SO tired when I read this yesterday I was almost falling asleep. I have to admit that I'm completely unattached to internet postings. I LOVE Jennifer McKinney for a lot of reasons and I didn't start out that way. I think if I flew through MN for some reason, I would call her up and stop by for lunch...otherwise...I know real people and have enough real issues to fill my time. That being said...I have a friend in Children's...right here in Seattle...going through rounds of Chemo with her 3 yr old daughter and we just did relay for life with my good friend's sisters to support their mom who has had cancer for two years. I remember reading the april rose story and something always sat wrong about it with me...but I just wasn't drawn to it at ALL. It wasn't endearing, it wasn't written well, and there was no thought in the name at all. April Rose? Really? Who names their kids that these days? That name always made it seem unreal to me.

    I know you want to care...but do you want to get wrapped up in the THOUSANDS of people who think of new internet scams every day? They are always evolving. Phishing is always evolving. All of these people need Jesus of course. Every unsaved person needs Jesus. Find your old friends from elementary school on facebook. You'll have a more likely ministry there than internet phishing for a mission field and if you're looking for prayer opportunities and places to serve I PROMISE you will find them the more you invest yourself in your coworkers, neighborhood, community, and church. I promise. Talk to people about how they are doing and they will talk to you. Some of our closest friends are people we've met at Target, yard sales, play groups, people who replied to ads on craigslist, and neighbors who walked by while we were gardening, etc. That's how you build community...

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  7. I have NO idea about how quickly sick babies can nurse, and how quickly babies nurse for the first time, but I DO know that some babies are vastly different in the amount of time they nurse. My best friend has two nephews (1 and 2 years old) and the 2 year old took FOREVER every time. It seemed as if he was always nursing. The 1 year old is super-fast, and only nurses about 10 minutes, sometimes less, and he's healthy and growing. So, that's not necessarily what I'd use to discount this story.

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  8. 1... most babies born with a trisomy under 21 (18, 16, 13, 9) do not know how to suck, and have to learn...
    2...i did say "most", so the part of them that do, dont suck/eat/breath at the same time properly.
    3...i'm sure there are many more other people can add....
    So terribly sad that B has exploited this because i infact have a living trisomy baby who was not supposed to live. a true miracle. i had emailed her to give her some "hope" but never ever heard back....

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