Welcome!

Maisie turned 12 months in January and I found myself reflecting on this time last year and how crazy her feeding schedule was. As with my other two children I wanted to breastfeed her and I was happy I was able to do this when she arrived. However I found myself pumping in hospital as her suck wasn’t great and I seemed to be pumping all day! That’s fine when you’re in hospital and you can sit in bed all day but once we came home the pumping and trying to breastfeed Maisie became very exhausting and overwhelming. I lasted 3weeks, when my public health nurse(the wonderful Marie) advised me to stop, well I was so relieved. I needed someone to tell me this and once the decision was made a huge weight lifted. Coming home with a baby who needed extra attention due to her heart condition whilst caring for two other kids may have seemed daunting but I felt more relaxed third time around.  Tom and Evie couldn’t have shown more love and attention to Maisie and Evie’s nurturing side kicked in the evening we came home from hospital, nappy at the ready to change her baby sister🥰

As the days went on Maisie really struggled to feed. Due to the hole in her heart she tired easily and took ages to take her bottle, sometimes not taking it at all. This was obviously very stressful and at a 5 week check up at the baby clinic I was told she would be admitted to Crumlin hospital. I’ll write about the challenges we faced around her feeding in another post but to mention now that from her hospital admission she was Ng tube fed and put on a high calorie formula to help increase her weight.  Maisie would need to weigh 5kg in order for her to heart surgery to proceed between 3-6months. I think this is a good time to say that my firstborn Tom was an impressive 4.5kg at birth! I would often compare the two of them and could never have imagined the weight of one of my babies literally be all time consuming. 

Maisie’s heart surgery was a success, the months that followed became easier and at 9months old we said  goodbye and good riddance to the Ng tube and we haven’t looked back! She has thrived since her surgery but one thing that hasn’t changed is the love and bond I see between Tom and Evie with Maisie🥰