Grandma giving her first feed.

Still here and as per the last Blip, I have continued the 'saga' of staying in a Chinese hospital.

Because Terri had a C-section, she didn't have milk straight up and we had to use formula. We hadn’t expected that and so I had to go home to get the formula we had bought. Meanwhile, back at the hospital, they just bought some at the little supermarket inside the hospital. I have no idea whether or not they sterilised it or even washed it but it was out of my control and done by the time I got back. The doctors to Terri that Sally should have 30ml of formula and that information was passed along to me.
The formula we had (a good Aussie brand) is only made up in 60ml batches using the included scoop. At the next feed time, I started to make it up and told ‘people’ that I needed to make a 60ml batch. They went crazy. They kept saying over and over and over and over that I had to make 30ml. I explained over and over that the scoop made 60ml and I wasn’t going to mess with that. They all said that was ridiculous but if I wanted to use our formula, then the other formula scoop was suitable for a 30ml batch. I couldn't get it into their heads that it wouldn’t work because the scoop didn’t even look like half our scoop. BUT… they went on and on and on and so I just shrugged my shoulders and said to go for it. Terri’s mum had assumed control for the situation and started to make the formula up. The bottle I had brought along only started at 40ml and so she put the “30ml” of powder into the bottle and was trying to guess what 30ml of water would be. I just grabbed it, took it to the sink and threw it out and made up 60ml of formula and amidst all the “30ml, 30ml, 30ml” calls. I was finally able to convince them that even if I made 60ml, they didn’t actually have to give Sally 60ml they could stop after 30 ml. They finally got it and Sally was fed. Of course, everyone wanted to feed her but when it was done, no one knew how to burp her and so I was left with the task. Keeping the unused formula for the next feed was out of the question and the looks I got when I tipped it out were…. Ummmm.
The next feeding fight was a cracker. Some stupid nurse told them that if the baby is crying and sucking its hand, it is hungry. Now… that is probably true. However, that is not the ONLY reason a baby sucks its hand. So now the ‘instructions’ were being followed to the letter. Every time the Sally cried or even looked sideways at her hand, they filled a bottle and fed her. A baby that age should have 60ml. One feed consisted of two and a half bottles (150ml) and some water shoved down Sally throat. All on the advice of this stupid nurse.

I don't like to put my foot down against the run of everything so I just left and went home to do some proper research before heading back to face the fray. Turns out that babies suck their hand for most every uncomfortable situation. Turns out too, that the bottle we were using was feeding Sally too fast and her body wasn’t registering that her tummy was full. She also wasn’t being burped properly. The strategy was then to feed her a small bit at a time and stretch the feed out. Spend more time burping her and spend more time trying to settle her after a feed rather than just whack another bottle in her mouth to shut her up. All this was explained to Terri’s mum and for the first feed I gave her (slowly) it worked. When she started crying after that all I could hear from Terri’s mum and dad was “She’s hungry” over and over and over. I knew that wasn’t the case and that I would just have to persevere amidst the chatter and do my thing to settle her. She was, of course, sucking her hand and so I still heard “She’s hungry” “She’s hungry” “She’s hungry” I was doing fine until a nurse. Not sure if it was the same one came in and looked at the crying Sally and said “She’s hungry.” Well that was it.. Hands thrown in the air in disgust and the stupid foreigner who knows nothing about feeding babies of raising babies or in fact anything… I still persisted and after a lot of effort, got her to sleep.