Emily’s Journey Part 1
Emily was born on a public holiday in May 2019 and right from the get go she drew attention. Jeremy had joked whilst I was in labour “imagine if Meghan Markle is doing this on the other side of the world as well” everyone in the room rolled their eyes and went haha yeah right - unbeknownst to us she was! Emily shares a birthday with Archie and as a result of this I was interviewed by ABC radio the morning after she was born as Emily was the baby born closest time wise to Archie at the Mater Mother’s hospital in Brisbane. I can say they asked some very odd questions about guessing the new prince’s name but I can’t recall any thing else from that interview haha
Our paediatrician at the time was the on call doctor seeing as Emily was born on a public holiday and I completely forgot to pre-book Benji’s paediatrician - oops - anyway I can distinctly remember him coming to see us the following day and he asked how the night had been, I said it had been ok but neither of us have slept much. He replied “Sorry to tell you but they only get more alert and aware from here on in”. Thanks mate this isn’t my first baby and if you met my son Benji you’d understand why that’s an alarming thought haha - neither of our kids sit still for more than 5 seconds!
Being a private patient Emily and I were allowed to stay for 5 days in hospital. Jeremy and Benji would come up every afternoon, bring the camping high chair and we’d have dinner together as a family. During this time I noticed that feeding Emily was incredibly difficult and painful, I mentioned it to the midwives and the paediatrician who said she might have a small tongue tie but its nothing to worry about! Knowing what I know now it was definitely something to worry about and Emily needed help with her latch and suckling skills then and there. I went to the in hospital breastfeeding class as suggested by the paediatrician only to cover the exact same information I already knew from Benji - remember there’s only 18mths between our kids so it hadn’t been that long since I’d breastfed a baby!
At 7 weeks of age I’d had enough of just trying to battle through with Emily and her feeding hadn’t improved - she was obviously struggling to feed, had been started on reflux medications and barely slept as she was always distressed by something. I managed to find a last minute appointment with a highly regarded IBCLC in Brisbane and off we went to see her - that woman honestly saved us all that day!
Within in minutes she had picked up on numerous issues that were causing poor little Emily distress including a severe tongue tie, lip tie, cheek ties and overall muscle tightness in her head, neck and shoulders! At the advice of the IBCLC we saw an amazing paediatric chiropractor and I honestly couldn’t speak highly enough of her - we still see her every couple of months and Emily loves her Chiro sessions!
