Sarah Thompson: Hi, how are you?

Sarah Remmer: I’m great. Thank you so much for being here, and congratulations on Baby Noah, who is now how old?

Sarah Thompson: So he turns one year old on Friday.

Sarah Remmer: Oh, happy birthday to baby Noah.

Sarah Thompson: I know.

Sarah Remmer: Oh my gosh. Wow. So let’s start at the beginning. I want to hear all about your birth story.

Sarah Thompson: I guess I was one of the lucky ones. My pregnancy was relatively uneventful. And when I went for my 38 week appointment, my OB surprised me with the news that she felt he was a little bit big, and maybe that we would induce a little bit early. I had this great plan that I was going to work right up until my due date. So I actually had my work holiday party scheduled for December 3rd, and I was like, « That’s perfect. I’ll work till that day. He’s not due until the sixth or seventh, so I’ll have the weekend off, and then he can come anytime that next week. It’ll be great. » So that plan shifted really quickly. My OB wanted to schedule me in to be induced on November 30th, but I had a work commitment that day. So I talked to her and said, « That day isn’t great. Is there any way that I could push it one more day? » And I think she thought I was absolutely crazy, but she agreed.

Sarah Remmer: Hold on, hold on. What do you do for a living? Because this sounds intense, that you just shift the date of your induction.

Sarah Thompson: So I’m a lawyer, and I was scheduled in court just on an important matter. So I hope the audience doesn’t judge me too much. It’s not that I wasn’t anxious to meet my baby. I was very anxious to meet my baby. I just had commitments on that particular day, and they had already pushed up my due date about a week and a half. So in my mind I was like, can we push it back one day? Luckily they didn’t have any room to start the inducement process on that date. So it actually was December 1st that I was scheduled to go in to be induced. I think I worked right up until about 10 o’clock on November 30th, and closed my computer and said to my baby, « Okay, we’re good now. I’ve finished my work. You can come anytime. » And I was scheduled to be induced around 12, but my water actually broke at two or three in the morning. We went to the hospital. I had just minor contractions but nothing significant. And so they sent me home, and just said to come back when the contractions were closer together. So I labored all that day. My OB had called and said, « Okay, come back in and we’re going to see if we can speed up the process. » So I was admitted into the birthing suite, and they started me on the Pitocin drip to see if it could speed up the process, which was when things spiraled. Baby crashed, and then I crashed. The nurses were in and out. They had me laying in certain positions to see if that would assist. They weren’t sure if there was something with the cord positioning, what it was that was happening. So we had to stop the Pitocin just because of my negative reaction to it and his negative reaction. And I’d been in labor at that point for about 34, 35 hours.

Sarah Remmer: Oh my gosh.

Sarah Thompson: And it was only four centimeters dilated, and his heart rate just kept getting lower and lower. It was a stressful afternoon, because they had me sitting in such positions that I couldn’t actually see the heart rate monitor, so I couldn’t see the hides and lows, but I could hear it, and then I could hear the alarms. My OB came in. She started looking through his results and looking at the heart rate read, and just said, « This isn’t good. He’s in distress, and we need to get him out. » It was 10 minutes and I was prepped for surgery. It was honestly surreal. And then the very immediate decision to shift to have an emergency C-section was an experience as well. And everything just shift right away. I was emotional because I was exhausted, and just the concern for him was stressful. And then Noah was born at about 10 to five on December 2nd. I’ll never forget the relief of when I first heard him cry. Wow.

Sarah Remmer: As you're telling your story, it makes me emotional, because it brings me back to my first baby and the experience that I went through when I was delivering... Ben is his name. And although we didn't in the end need to go to the C-section, we were almost there. Right there. He ended up having to be vacuumed out, and worst tearing ever. I tore ligaments in my pelvis. Didn't know it at the time. Thought I broke my tailbone. There was 11 different people in the room, residents and student doctors, and it was so contrary to the way that I thought it would be, because I too had a very healthy pregnancy, and I just thought like, yep, I have my plan. I know how I want it to go. And then when things don't go the way that you think they're going to go. You're exhausted, you're stressed. And obviously don't want to scare anybody going into delivering a baby or a first time mom, because it can also go very smoothly. There's so many different ways it can go, but I think the moral of the story is that when you go in with too rigid of a plan or a vision of how it's going to go, it can be disappointing, because it doesn't always go as planned.

Sarah Thompson: Oh, for sure. Yeah. You have to be fluid. I remember someone said, "Don't think of it as a plan. Think of it as best case scenario." I'm very A-type personality. Had everything scheduled down to the minute, and it spiraled very quickly. Things are very much out of your control, so you just have to lean into it, and just take it as it comes. That's all you can do.

Sarah Remmer: I love that. Lean into it. I feel like as parents, we have to just often lean into it, whether it's starting solids, or picky eating, or whatever challenge we're going through. Delivering a baby. Sometimes you just do have to go with the flow. Hey, it's Sarah. For more helpful insights and support for your adventures in parenting, be sure to check out enfamil.ca. Now back to From Bump to Baby, presented by Enfamil A+, your trusted source for baby nutrition. Tell me a little bit about the support that you had postpartum from your partner and healthcare practitioners, and how that helped to shape your experience.

Sarah Thompson: I was really lucky when it came to the support systems that I had in place. I have family that lives really close, which was very helpful. My partner was great. I felt really lucky to have him there, because my recovery was a bit different and more complicated than I expected it would be. In terms of the other supports, when I was in the hospital, I had my OB, who was obviously my primary care physician in the hospital, and she was fantastic. We honestly received such good care from start to finish throughout my pregnancy, and then postpartum with Noah when we were addressing some of the weight issues that we had with him. So I was really lucky.

Sarah Remmer: Yeah. Sure line of support, and people surrounding you to help. You had mentioned that there were some struggles with Noah and his weight. Can you tell me a little bit more about that?

Sarah Thompson: Sure. We go from having a baby who they were telling me was trending bigger the entire time, to a baby that just wouldn't gain weight. So when he was born, he was seven pounds and he was healthy. He had dropped weight, which was typical, but he had gone down to, I think, six pounds five ounces, and when they weighed him again, he had lost another ounce or two, so they were monitoring it. I had good supports in the hospital, just with the beginning stages of breastfeeding, because Noah's my first child. I had no idea what to expect when it came to breastfeeding, and in total honesty didn't really give it a lot of thought. I think I was so focused on the pregnancy initially, and then on the labor and delivery, that all of a sudden all of that is done, and you're like, oh, okay, so now I have to learn how to feed this child that I have created. The nurses were great support in helping. They seemed to think that he was latching, and it felt like he was latching, and my milk seemed to come in a somewhat timely manner. There didn't appear to be any initial issues. We had an appointment with my family doctor on the Monday just to do the initial weigh in, an initial check with him, and Noah dropped quite a substantial amount of weight. We went back later that week. He seemed okay, again, seemed to be latching, didn't appear to be any obvious issues, but he was just so tiny, and he just didn't seem to be gaining any weight. I was concerned, because I didn't really see any changes in him. So it was at that point that my doctor had some concerns with respect to his weight gain, so suggested that because he needs the calories, given how little he was, that we needed to start supplementing with formula. It was just a difficult process, because with the feeding, once we started supplementing with formula, his weight did go up, which was good, but he was struggling then to breastfeed. So I was trying to just start with breastfeeding, and then just finish with formula supplemented in a bottle. But the more he got the bottle, the less he wanted to breastfeed.

Sarah Remmer: Yes. Oh my gosh, I can relate to this.

Sarah Thompson: Yeah.

Sarah Remmer: Well, and you feel almost like, what is wrong with me? Is there something wrong with me? Am I doing something wrong? Is there something wrong with my body? Why isn't this just working?

Sarah Thompson: I know. I contacted a lactation consultant, and then I started researching what supplements or what foods I could eat that may assist with milk supply, and was drinking all the teas, and eating all the cookies, and whatever I could that they say might assist with it, but it just didn't. It didn't really seem to be working. And then I started pumping just to try and keep my supply up, or to generate more supply, and I really wanted to try and still do the breastfeeding. He was only a month and a half at this point, not even two months, but he's rejecting this breastfeeding, and he needs the calories. So there were some long nights where he was crying, and I was crying, my poor partner was like, "I don't know what to do."

Sarah Remmer: Yes, it's really hard. You had mentioned the whole concept of leaning in, and I would say, in my experience anyways, with breastfeeding, especially with your first baby, very, very hard to just lean in and trust the process. Just to give you a little piece of mind, I had a very similar experience to you where my milk wasn't filling my baby up the way it should. He didn't grow enough. He lost a lot of weight. I think honestly, the stress that I was under with my first baby really actually impacted my milk supply, and then I went on to have two other babies and had oversupply of breast milk.

Sarah Thompson: Yeah. I do take comfort in that, but when you're in it, you're immersed in it... I just think back to those 3ams where I'm just crying because I'm just pathetically trying to be like, "Why won't you just take my breast and breastfeed?"

Sarah Remmer: Oh, I know. What I say as a dietician, when I have a client who's struggling with nursing... We talk a lot about the stress piece, but we also talk a lot about just making sure that mom is eating enough, and listening to her body, and tuning in and being intuitive with her eating.

Sarah Thompson: Yes. I found once I had Noah, your focus isn't on you as much as it is on the baby, and you forget that connection where you need to be nourishing yourself, because it's your body that's providing sustenance for the baby.

Sarah Remmer: It seems odd to be making yourself eggs and toast at 3 a.m., but when you're nursing, you're expending a lot of extra calories. Protein is really, really important. I think that a lot of moms neglect that protein piece. So important for healing and making sure that blood sugar levels are stable, energy levels are stable, they're full for a certain period of time. And fiber, too, is a really satiating nutrient. Really, it's just pull nutrient dense foods that you should be eating, and a nice balance in those meals. It's so important to have that support available, through partners, through family, through friends, to help keep you nourished. Right? Bring you meals. I always said my favorite gift... Don't bring me stuff. I just want food, like meals, snacks, muffins, energy balls. Please bring that, because that's really what you need.

Sarah Thompson: Yes.

Sarah Remmer: Let's switch gears a little bit. You had talked about your lack of sleep. How did you get back on track with your sleeping?

Sarah Thompson: Gosh, motherhood is such a ride. Everything is such a blur at the beginning, and everyone jokes and says, "Get ready to be sleep deprived," but it is something that I was painfully unprepared for, especially in the first couple of weeks. And I'm someone that can survive on somewhat little sleep. But once you have a child and you're up at all hours, and time loses all meaning... People will say to you, "Sleep when the baby sleeps." And I saw this funny video where it was like, "Yeah, sleep when the baby sleeps. And then do dishes when the baby does dishes, and do laundry when the baby does laundry, and..." I was like, I-

Sarah Remmer: It's as easy as that.

Sarah Thompson: Yeah. I was like, I respect this because it's so true. Because when the baby does go down, whether it's a few minutes or if you're getting longer stretches, you have this laundry list of things that you want to get done. But it is important to prioritize just, even if you can't sleep, just some downtime just to give your body some rest, because I'm not going to lie and say that it's pretty. It's not pretty, and the sleep deprivation is something that's real, but-

Sarah Remmer: It's real.

Sarah Thompson: You emerge on the other side through the fog.

Sarah Remmer: I know. And just also throw out that laundry list of things that you think you need to accomplish. Like laundry, like dishes. But whatever it is, delegate to the people around you that can help with those kinds of things. And I love that you said you do emerge, you do come out of the fog. Sometimes it's hard to believe that you will when you're deep in that.

Sarah Thompson: When you're in it's not as funny, but it's all part of the wild journey.

Sarah Remmer: Speaking of a wild ride, I want to dive in to the introduction of the solid foods. How did it go?

Sarah Thompson: Hopefully this helps other moms, if you're struggling. So I went from having a baby that wouldn't gain weight, that just wouldn't take breast milk, that it was so problematic, to a baby that... He loves to eat. So he loves food, which is amazing. On my doctor's recommendation, we started him on solids fairly early, so I think he was on solids like four and a half, five months. We sort of did an introduction to it, and we just started with your rice cereal, just to see how it went, how he enjoyed it.

Sarah Remmer: Was he showing signs of being ready to start solids? Was he reaching out for food? Was he interested in what you guys were eating?

Sarah Thompson: He was, and then we progressed from there, and honestly it went smoothly. Finally, something went smoothly.

Sarah Remmer: Good.

Sarah Thompson: I went back and forth, because there's lots of ways in which you can start feeding a baby, and some people exclusively want to do baby-led weaning, and other people want to spoonfeed. Of course, I was like, "I don't know. Let's just see what works." Again, I was like, okay, if I've learned anything, it's just that you can't have a strict plan, because it may not go.

Sarah Remmer: Exactly.

Sarah Thompson: Near the beginning, I would set some in front of him just in a bowl or a plate, just to see if he had interest in eating it himself. He had absolutely zero interest in that, so he definitely preferred to be fed the purees and everything at the beginning. And then the more that he got familiar with some of the solid foods, we tried again with of the baby-led weaning, and then he just took to it. And then we'd start with of bigger pieces of things for him to try and gnaw on or eat away at, and he loved it. So then he went from being exclusively spoonfed baby to... He didn't want us to feed him. He would eat it if we were putting a spoon close to his mouth, but he was like, no, I've got this.

Sarah Remmer: The taste of autonomy, right? Feeding himself. Self-feeding.

Sarah Thompson: Yes. That was a good thing for us, that he was able to just pick up and go,

Sarah Remmer: What a relief, especially after all of the challenges that you had with nursing. Just to give some context for those who are listening who don't know what baby-led weaning is, baby-led weaning is a strategy in which you introduce solid foods, where you give baby soft, safe finger foods right from the get go. So right from six months of age, they are self feeding. Of course there's choking hazards, and a few different foods you don't want to introduce right at six months, but as long as it's soft, and it's large enough that they can pick up the food with their palm... It's called the palmar grasp, because babies don't have their pincer grasp yet, which is just using their fingers. So it has to be large enough that they can actually bring it to their mouth, but then soft enough that they can maneuver it in their mouth. The main thing is that you just want to let baby lead, and make sure that you're watching their cues, and just to make the whole experience positive. But it sounds like you did a fantastic job.

Sarah Thompson: It's been a constant readjustment plot twist, in the sense of, we started here. We're going to go here. He is a very easy going baby, in the sense that he would eat pretty much everything that we put in front of him, but certainly more now. He certainly favors some foods over other foods, and he's not as inclined to eat, for instance, at this particular moment, broccoli is not his favorite food to consume. It's adjusting, and finding foods that are nutritious for him that he is willing to eat, and not just, given his age, just throw on the floor and things like that.

Sarah Remmer: When you started talking about, "Right now the struggle is broccoli and throwing things on the floor." I think we could have a whole other podcast episode on picky eating, because you're nearing that typical picky eating phase, which starts around, I would say, 14 months and onwards, but can start a little bit earlier. So maybe for another time.

Sarah Thompson: Yeah, absolutely.

Sarah Remmer: That was so wonderful, Sarah. Thank you so much for being here and for sharing your story. I know that it's going to help so many new moms going through this for the first time, and moral the story is, you're not alone. We're all going through these ups and downs, rollercoaster of events that happens in that first year of baby's life.

Sarah Thompson: That's absolutely true, and you'll get through it. You're going to be great.

Sarah Remmer: Exactly.

Sarah Thompson: Thank you very much for having me.

Sarah Remmer: I'm Sarah Remmer, registered pediatric dietician, and mom of three. Thanks so much for listening. If you haven't already done so, be sure to subscribe to From Bump to Baby wherever you get your podcasts. This is an original podcast brought to you by Enfamil A+, your trusted source for baby nutrition, dedicated to building a supportive community for your adventures in parenting. For more expert advice and helpful insights, go to enfamil.ca.