Sheila’s Diary

JUST ten minutes after giving ‘birth to baby Elliot I was asked to breastfeed him. I succeeded in doing so and it felt so nice that I promised myself to exclusively breastfeed him for six months. One month down the line, I could not stick to my promise; my nipples cracked terribly. After breastfeeding my baby, I could see dark remnants of my nipple skin peeling stuck on his lips. Breastfeeding became so excruciating that whenever I breastfed him I would shed tears of pain.

My husband came to my rescue. He helped me make the decision to wean our baby earlier than we would have wanted. We settled for formula milk, which we introduced gradually. However, we decided not to completely remove the baby from the breast. I thought that by breastfeeding him, my nipples would heal, but that was not the case. My son pulls the breast down and prefers to stay on the nipple, as opposed to the areola. That really pains! I have to break the suction over and over again because of the pain. Reduced breastfeeding leaves my breasts so full that they leak and sometimes the cracked nipples bleed on the sides.

My Weight
My baby is three months old and I have still not lost the weight I gained when I was pregnant. I was 85 kilogrammes before delivery and after delivery I still weigh the same! I have started getting worried and decided to start working out. My meals are mainly Ugandan because I do not know how to make my husband’s American dishes. I eat the same amount of food I used to eat before pregnancy, when I weighed 65 kilogrammes, yet I am this big!

Episiotomy had delayed intimacy
It has been three months and the episiotomy has not healed. I still feel the sensitivity. I sat on salty water for six weeks as directed by my doctor and even added myself some extra weeks but i still feel touchy even though my gynecologist checked me and said i had healed.  I think with my other babies I will opt for a C-section because an episiotomy has made resumption of my normal love life difficult.

My husband is God-sent
Just before delivery, my husband bought a massage kit which he used to rub my back. It helped me a lot during labour. During the first nights after we were discharged from the hospital, the baby would wake up four times a night! Lucky me, my husband has been assisting me with nursing the baby. He would wake up, feed the baby with formula in the middle of the night, and change his diapers. I also taught my husband how to bathe the baby so he helps me with that too. He came up with this idea of waking up at 6.00 a.m. because that is the same time Elliot wakes up. He takes him to the sitting room and they watch TV as I sleep. I wake up at 8.00 a.m., shower and after which I bathe the baby and then relieve my husband so he can attend to his other duties. Thank God he enjoys taking care of the baby.

Scars of pregnancy
My tummy looks ugly, coming from small slender lady to this wagblebe figure. The skin is darker than the rest of my body. I look at myself in the mirror and think, ‘The outcome is beautiful but the scars are ugly!’ I tied my tummy for one month and it was uncomfortable because of the stitches. It did not work!

Life after delivery is testing!
The most challenging thing about motherhood is when the baby screams and you don’t know’ why. I get frustrated whenever this happens. Bathing him seems to make him feel better although sometimes he does not stop the shrill. At such times I get him out of the house to a new environment. I take walks and if that does not work, I try shaking, rocking, etc. The first three months of bringing up a baby can be very challenging!

END: PG 11/56