Friday, July 20, 2012

Welcome Baby Cameron!

Welcome to our family little baby Cameron!
Our not so little cherub is 6 weeks old now and very much a part of our family! We waited and waited for him to come by himself, but after 39 weeks, it was time to come out. I'd been experiencing so many Braxton Hicks leading up to his birth, I was convinced he would come early. But as it turned out, once I adhered to doctor's orders of strict bed rest after my pre-eclampsia diagnosis, those contractions decreased a lot. He was born by cesarean section, and weighed in at a hefty 3.8kg! That was more than 0.5kg heavier than our first born.

And so it begins, the endless comparisons between first and second child... get used to it buddy!

Actually, even at the age of 3, our first born hardly has hints of chinese heritage, but this little guy could maybe be chinese! How surprising, that the same parents produce such different little kiddies.

Then of course there is the question of allergies - well we just don't know do we??!?

As a precaution this time around, we were adamant that Cameron would not be given any dairy formula as a top up in hospital. We tried to convince the attending Paediatrician to write us a script for Elecare, a hydrolysed formula for babies with severe allergies to dairy and soy, but were unsuccessful. In Australia, it appears that a formal diagnosis is needed before we can get government subsidies for this type of formula. Unfortunately the Elecare we had for our first son had all expired and had to be thrown in the bin... what a waste :-( Wow, my sympathy goes out to parents in the US where I believe you have to pay privately for this formula. When we bought a tin of it privately, it cost us 6 times the price it would have been under the government subsidy... Believe me my North American readers, our Australian Medicare system where everybody pays a little bit extra in tax to pay for our health system is well worth the money!

My main focus while at hospital was to get that milk in! Never before has breastfeeding been more important to us - There was a lot of bed rest, a lot of eating, and a little bit of expressing when I could be bothered. Fortunately, everything worked out well, and my milk came in a day earlier than before and there was no need to specially treat our son's jaundice. It was interesting to see the nurse's reactions whenever they read our details with strict instructions of "NO FORMULA" written across all the paperwork.

Now that we're home, baby Cameron is growing well - we're always on the look out for tell tale signs of an allergy and have been extra vigilant with washing hands etc. I really don't know what lies ahead for him in the years to come, but there is a rather long list of doctor's appointments to be made. I am certain though that there will be a lot of love, laughter and excitement in the years to come.

Welcome home...

(Ps. please forgive my rather disjointed thought sequences for the next few months... sleep deprivation is taking its toll!)

5 comments:

  1. Congratulations! Beautiful baby!! :)

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    1. Thanks Tiffany - We're enjoying his smiles these days - it starts on his lips, then his face, then it seems to spread to his whole body! If only we all smiled with our whole body like he does :-)

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  2. Congradulations! I too, kept my second son away from dairy products and breastfed up until just after a year old. I stayed clear of dairy while breastfeeding...interesting to note that on the couple times I did have a tiny bit of milk in my tea, my son broke out in eczema across his forehead just like my first son did! That was all the proof I needed to be vigiligent about dairy products. My second son will be 14 yrs old this year. He does not have a dairy allergy...he has a peanut/tree nut allergy.

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    1. Hi Susan, I haven't actually banned myself from dairy just yet... probably trying to live in denial for a bit so I can still enjoy my Magnum icecreams! My one hope is that our second son seems to be quite different physically from our first, so hopefully his body will react differently too. Time will tell :-)

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