So here's the story

[Aliantha]

I wasn't quite sure how to start this thread or exactly what I wanted to say for a number of reasons, so it's just going to be a bit stream of consciousness.

I've been having some problems with Max almost right from birth. He has great difficulty feeding, and even now it can take over an hour to get him to have even 200 mls if he'll even have that much. By this stage he is supposed to be having over 1200mls/day, but I'm lucky if I can get 800mls into him, which is why I started him on solids a bit early (41/2 months), in the hopes that I could sneak formula into his food and he'd get a lot of his nutrients elsewhere. So anyway, it has worked somewhat, but it's still a stuggle every time it comes to feeding time which is of course about 5 times a day. I've tried all different combinations of formula and teats. Nothing seems to make much difference, so we struggle through with the one that works the least badly. To add to this difficulty, he has some movement issues. He strongly favours his left side, and doesn't really move his right side all that much, and certainly not the way he should. My brother works with one of the worlds premier cerebral palsy experts (who is unfortunately based in Prague) and because of this relationship my brother (who is a chiropractor by profession) who specializes in rehab therapy and in fact has a masters in the subject suggested that there is some cause for caution and that Max needs to be monitored. He has also given us a range of excercises to do with Max which should (hopefully) help develop those motor skills which are slightly lacking.

So anyway, all this has obviously caused me some stress (espeially the fighting over feeding) and that coupled with a husband who works a lot of hours and has even less luck with feeding the baby, has really made me feel quite isolated. Like I'm in a situation that seems endless. I mentioned about the memory blanks and things that I've been having, and on top of that, I've had a number of other emotional issues to the point where I've nearly lost the plot completely and it's been getting worse.

So, I went to the doctor yesterday. He says I've got post natal depression, most likely brought on by the ongoing issues with Max, so he's put me on medication do manage my moods and he's given me a referral to a pediatrician to try and get help with Max's feeding and to discuss the movement issues and where we go from here.

So that's the story.