Foods to avoid for the first 6-8 weeks:
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Monday, August 08, 2011
Foods that cause colics
I breastfed my daughter and I am now breastfeeding my son. My daughter had colics for the first 3 months and this time around I put everything on my side to avoid my son having them. And it starts with what you eat. If you avoid these foods during the first 8 weeks, while the digestive system of the newborn develops, you're putting good chances on your side... My son is 8 weeks today and no colics till this day =D
Foods to avoid for the first 6-8 weeks:
Foods to avoid for the first 6-8 weeks:
Friday, July 29, 2011
A true nightmare or what a birth should not be
I gave birth to my son Nicolas on June 13th. What should have been an easy and beautiful birth became a nightmare the minute I requested an epidural. It was 2am and a sleepy nurse missed it three times, one of them releasing liquid from my spine. She truly did not have a clue what she was doing as the pain from the contractions came back every 90 minutes and she had to give me more painkillers each time. Had I known this I would have certainly skipped the epidural as I experienced most of the pain from the contractions and had post-partum complications due to the wet spinal tap. Nicolas came out with three pushes in a matter of minutes at 12.15pm.
To make a long story short, I soon experienced unbearable spinal headaches and neck pains when sitting or standing. I was therefore told I immediately needed a blood patch. That's when a butcher anesthesiologist came and with no local anesthesia, sitting up in bed, he injected 20cc of my blood in my spine. I will never forget that pain in my life. I then had to lay flat for 24 hours, not being able to nurse or attend to my newborn baby. I left the hospital 2 days after the birth and the neck pain and headaches soon came back. My OBGYN prescribed ibuprofen against the pain and "to make sure the blood patch worked" he said, and the only thing I could do was lay flat on my back for ten days. Thank God my mother was there to help with my 3 year old daughter and my baby.
I started looking online and found a community called Brain Talk Communities.One of their forums is about spinal leaks and that's where I found out more about what they had done to me and how a blood patch should a. have been done with local anesthesia, laying down on my stomach and therefore be painless b. have been done 24 hours after the birth and c. have been stopped the second it started to hurt, i.e. too much blood had been injected in my spine. That is also where I found a recommendation to see a neurologist. My OBGYN wanted me to go back and have another blood patch since the pain had not disappeared, but that I refused. I went to see the neurologist specialized in spinal problems and had to have an MRI to make sure I did not have a blood clot in my brain given that too much blood had been used during the blood patch. He also explained that I should have never taken ibuprofen against the pain as it is an anti-inflammatory and the purpose of the blood patch is to cause an inflammation in the spine so that the leak created by the spinal tap can close itself. As a result it will now take months for my leak to close itself, if it ever does. I should not be carrying anything heavy which is obviously impossible with a 3 year old and a newborn baby. But if the pains I am still experiencing in my back and neck have not disappeared by mid/end of August, I need to go back to see Dr. Adams.
The reason why I am writing all this is because no woman should go through what I went through during a magical moment such as birth. All this happened at the Mercy Hospital in Miami. Avoid it at all costs and make sure a certified anesthesiologist performs your epidural, not a nurse. Inform yourself.
To make a long story short, I soon experienced unbearable spinal headaches and neck pains when sitting or standing. I was therefore told I immediately needed a blood patch. That's when a butcher anesthesiologist came and with no local anesthesia, sitting up in bed, he injected 20cc of my blood in my spine. I will never forget that pain in my life. I then had to lay flat for 24 hours, not being able to nurse or attend to my newborn baby. I left the hospital 2 days after the birth and the neck pain and headaches soon came back. My OBGYN prescribed ibuprofen against the pain and "to make sure the blood patch worked" he said, and the only thing I could do was lay flat on my back for ten days. Thank God my mother was there to help with my 3 year old daughter and my baby.
I started looking online and found a community called Brain Talk Communities.One of their forums is about spinal leaks and that's where I found out more about what they had done to me and how a blood patch should a. have been done with local anesthesia, laying down on my stomach and therefore be painless b. have been done 24 hours after the birth and c. have been stopped the second it started to hurt, i.e. too much blood had been injected in my spine. That is also where I found a recommendation to see a neurologist. My OBGYN wanted me to go back and have another blood patch since the pain had not disappeared, but that I refused. I went to see the neurologist specialized in spinal problems and had to have an MRI to make sure I did not have a blood clot in my brain given that too much blood had been used during the blood patch. He also explained that I should have never taken ibuprofen against the pain as it is an anti-inflammatory and the purpose of the blood patch is to cause an inflammation in the spine so that the leak created by the spinal tap can close itself. As a result it will now take months for my leak to close itself, if it ever does. I should not be carrying anything heavy which is obviously impossible with a 3 year old and a newborn baby. But if the pains I am still experiencing in my back and neck have not disappeared by mid/end of August, I need to go back to see Dr. Adams.
The reason why I am writing all this is because no woman should go through what I went through during a magical moment such as birth. All this happened at the Mercy Hospital in Miami. Avoid it at all costs and make sure a certified anesthesiologist performs your epidural, not a nurse. Inform yourself.
Friday, February 04, 2011
Ups and downs
Life is full of ups and downs lately. I was up yesterday when a company finally hired me for a part-time consultant job. I am down today, after going to my third prenatal testing and the doctor spoke Chinese to me announcing that our 21 week old baby might have a kidney problem. A double collecting system of the kidney. Which is apparently a possible symptom of Down.
Doctors in this country are terrible. They are so money driven. They keep telling me that I need to have an amniocentesis because I am older than 35 and the risks of having a child with down syndrome is higher. But my friend who is a doctor and specialist in prenatal medicine in Spain assured me that it has been proven long ago that there is no link between down syndrome children and the age of the mother! I refuse to have an amniocentesis unless it is completely necessary. No matter what they tell you, it is invasive for the baby. And there is always a risk involved.
Doctors in this country are terrible. They are so money driven. They keep telling me that I need to have an amniocentesis because I am older than 35 and the risks of having a child with down syndrome is higher. But my friend who is a doctor and specialist in prenatal medicine in Spain assured me that it has been proven long ago that there is no link between down syndrome children and the age of the mother! I refuse to have an amniocentesis unless it is completely necessary. No matter what they tell you, it is invasive for the baby. And there is always a risk involved.
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