The Mum Diaries: Leanne Sexton

"Ted is 3.5 and Charlie is 2.5 – only 13 months apart! I fell pregnant with Charlie when I weaned Ted at 5 months old. Woops! It was a huge shock to say the least however we embraced the idea of having them close together and likened it to ripping off a band aid. You can imagine how many people would stare when they saw a heavily pregnant woman carrying a 1 year old baby."

 

"When Charlie was born, Ted was still crawling and we had never spent a night apart from each other. He was utterly heartbroken when he realised that Charlie was a permanent addition to our family and took several months (years) of grieving and accepting that he had to share his Mummy. He was fiercely jealous and had to grow up much quicker than he would have liked. I would often find him throwing matchbox cars at Charlie's head when I would turn my back. Another aspect I found quite difficult was trying to feed Charlie or put him down to sleep with little Ted crying for my attention. In the end, I caved in with my ‘no screen time rule’ and put on the Wiggles to distract him – it was the only way I could sneak into the nursery without him crawling and crying for me."

 

"I also remember feeling emotionally and physically exhausted as they were both waking up several times during the night. Now that they are toddlers it's wonderful because they have a best friend to explore life with. I have never needed to get too involved with their play activities as they keep themselves quite occupied. There is however quite a lot of fighting over trucks, cars of course Mummy but at least they are learning from a young age how to share and negotiate."

Besides issues with Ted sharing his mum with Charlie, we asked Leanne if there were any other challenges she faced?

"My greatest challenge was breastfeeding and the sleep deprivation that followed. Before I became a mother, I assumed that breastfeeding would come very naturally and never imagined myself purchasing tins of formula and mixing up bottles. I understood the enormous health benefits for both mother and child and I was determined to breastfeed for at least a year, maybe two.  From the moment Ted was born we struggled. I was in pure agony every single time he latched – worse than child birth! He was the only baby in our entire ward that literally screamed all night whilst the other little babies slept peacefully. I was in so much pain, bleeding and my milk supply was very low. Ted was waking up every hour throughout the night and never napped during the day. I was told by lactation consultants and midwives that he did not have tongue tie, the latch was perfect and I shouldn’t be experiencing so much pain. I had never felt a ‘let down’ though - so I knew something was wrong. To help stimulate milk production I took a vitamin called Fenugreek 3 times a day, learnt how to help stimulate milk flow by massaging and applying heat packs prior to feeding, hired a hospital grade double breast pump, expressed after each feed and set alarms during the night to trick my body into making more milk and even took prescription medicine Mortilium. Unfortunately none of this helped and I felt that I had failed as a mother because I could not feed my baby, and I could not get him to sleep. All babies do is feed and sleep and I had failed. At 5 months our GP had concerns about Ted's poor sleep, being underweight and my sanity and suggested it was time to give up the fight and ween him onto solids and formula. I felt immense guilt and cried for a few days but it was the best decision I ever made. His sleep improved immediately and he started to put on weight. In some cases breast is most certainly not best, fed is best!"