'I felt so defeated': Heather Rae reveals having 'tearful nights' seeing her newborn son not breastfeeding properly
NEWPORT BEACH, CALIFORNIA: 'The Flipping El Moussas' star Heather Rae Young said in an earlier post that she will update her fans with motherhood details. And in her February 20 post, the star opened up about her struggles as a new mother, revealing that her newborn son with Tarek El Moussa had a tongue tie and jaundice.
Heather posted a photo of her holding the newborn, Tristan, as she sat on the sofa enjoying the sunlight. The 35-year-old was seen wearing black t-shirt and pants accompanied by white jacked and furry sleepers. She held Tristan in her hands who was seen wrapped in a black and white striped onesie. In another photo, Heather smiled at the camera as she posed wearing her black sunglasses.
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Is Heather Rae Young's newborn son OK?
As Heather promised, she gave us an update on her newborn and how her motherhood has been going so far. The star wrote, "Have been in mama hibernation mode for the past couple weeks but soaking up some fresh air today with my lovey." She talked about her breastfeeding journey. Heather said, "I thought…. I’ll just pop him on my boob and feed him anytime. Ya no!!!" Well, the reason was further explained in the post. Heather wrote that her newborn has had "tongue tie, cheek tie, lip tie, and jaundice." These were caught at a very early stage. But, thanks to the doctors and lactation specialists they helped Tristan recover. She wrote, "thanks to my incredible lactation specialist and @tonguetietribe, they’re literally baby fairies. I’m so lucky to have found them for the knowledge & support."
Things were not easy for Tristan at the early stage. Because of not his health he was not able to "latch and suck." Heather claimed, "it made it so that he was burning a lot of calories because it was so hard for him to eat so his weight was dropping." Thankfully, Tristan has gotten past the tongue-tie phase. "We’re now 2 weeks past getting his tongue tie fixed and he’s latching so well on the left side and we’re still working on the right side using non-traditional positions which were shown to me by the baby fairies," updated Heather about her son's health.
Heather Rae felt 'defeated' seeing Tristan not feed properly
Heather recommends all new mothers have a "lactation specialist and someone you can turn to." She claimed the reason, "I had many tearful nights in the beginning because I’d be up at 3 am trying to feed him & felt so defeated." She further suggested all mothers focus on "nutrition and hydration" as things can turn out to be hard at times especially when you're breastfeeding. Besides taking care of the baby, Heather also suggests caring of oneself. She said, "pumping nonstop there’s not a ton of time to take care of yourself- you get so focused on your baby & that you really have to remember to take care of yourself so I have lots of water and special drinks like coconut water and greater than drinks." She added, "I also suggest getting on a meal plan if you don’t have time to cook especially in the beginning."
Even after having difficulty breastfeeding her son Tristan, Heather claims that she "genuinely loves breastfeeding." She explained, "I love the skin-to-skin connection and think it’s such a beautiful bonding experience." She further ended her post by saying, "we’re working together to make it easier like we’re a little team."
Let us further hope for Heather to pass the hard phase of breastfeeding as soon as possible. We will get to see the star's pre-delivery phase in HGTV's new flipping show. 'The Flipping El Moussas' will release on March 2, 2023, at 8 pm ET/PT on HGTV.