Anika was 9 days old and we'd noticed these blisters in her groin and one in the crook of her elbow. We didn't think too much of it as my husband said that babies come out with different skin conditions that clear up on their own quickly after the birth. We were at Anika's healthy hearing check (this is a check they do to all newborns to screen for any hearing impairment and requires the baby to have these cups on their ears and electrodes on their head. They play soft clicks to the baby and measure their brain reactivity). Of course Anika was going through an all day long cluster feed and fed the entire way through the hearing check. We casually mentioned the blisters to the nurse. She took a look at them and called one of the other nurses in. Hmmmmmmmm, we think you should take her to your GP.
Off to the GP. The GP took one look at them and said looks like staphylococcus (aka staph!) to me. He popped the biggest blister with a needle and collected the muck that was inside it and sent it off for testing. Our poor little baby, who hadn't even got her medicare card yet, had just been given her first prescription for antibiotics- Keflex :( I'd had virtually no sleep, my nipples were sore from constant attachment and my baby needed antibiotics at just 9 days old. Tears started to stream down my face as we drove to the chemist. Anika was in the back screaming, I was crying, my poor husband was trying to comfort both of us with little success (he probably felt like crying too with the two of us in the state we were in). I walked in to the chemist and handed over the prescription. When it was ready the pharmacist asked me whether she'd ever had this medication before. I looked at him like he was retarded and said 'she's 9 days old, she doesn't even have a Medicare card. No. She's never had ANY medication before'. Oh he replies. Poor guy, he was just doing his job and had come face to face with a sleep deprived, teary, first time Mother. How in hells name do you give Keflex to a newborn who is just getting the hang of sucking? He armed me with a little syringe to draw it up with and squirt it into her mouth.
I didn't want to have to do this. The little bugger needed to have this crap squirted in her mouth for 5 days, 6 times daily, which included over night. It was a pink gooey liquid. It was such a tiny amount each dose, but took a while for her to swallow it. Mmmmmmm sticky nipples. Yuck. All of this was just another thing to add into the mix of getting used to having a newborn baby. It sucked. Poor Anika took it all pretty well considering.
How did she get this???? We were only in the hospital for 12 hours for goodness sake. My midwives told me that they hear about it happening to about 1 in 10 babies born at the Royal. Are you serious????!!!
So now Anika's gut was being stripped of all the good bacteria that had started to build up to help her digest my milk due to the antibiotics. Insert increased crying here post food. Insert less sleep for Mum and Dad here from feeding, administering antibiotics and the topical ointment to the blisters, comforting the crying and trying to run the household. Exhausting. This was all so bloody exhausting. Thank God my Mum was still here. She was amazing. She never asked what we needed done, she just did it. Our washing, shopping, cooking, cleaning, baby duties, hugging, bun buying (there seemed to be a never ending supply of tea buns in the house!) etc. Did I mention Mum was amazing during this time?
We decided to take Anika to my naturopath to see if there was anything we could do to help her recover from the antibiotics. Yes!! There was! I was started on a probiotic and we got these drops called Formula GIT drops. We had to now give Anika these drops with each feed. More stuff to swallow for her. Then my naturopath recommended I put coconut oil on my nipples at each feed to assist in building Anika's immune system up and also help her to feel fuller. All these things were just additional things we had to add into our already overwhelming task of caring for a newborn. Did I mention how exhausting all of this was?
I remember the first time I put the coconut oil on my nipples and tried to feed Anika....... I must have put too much on and she kept slipping and sliding off. I ended up having to wipe the stuff off again for her to be able to feed properly! Anika still never got put down by this point due to all of the 'procedures' we had to do to her and the crying. We did try a couple of times and it lasted for about 20 minutes before she woke again and wanted to be close to us. This was a 24/7 gruelling job. Thank God she was so cute, else we might have left her on the doorstep of a church or something.
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