Carrie Bickmore says she didn’t sleep for 3 weeks after birth of third child
When Carrie Bickmore and partner Chris Walker welcomed baby Adelaide together last year, the mum-of-three assumed that she’d take it in her stride. The couple already had plenty of experience parenting four-year-old daughter Evie and son Ollie, who is eleven. They figured things would simply fall into place.
How hard could it be?
But their little girl – who they call Addie – had other ideas. Well, to be fair, she had some health challenges which made being a no-fuss baby pretty difficult.
The now six-month-old was suffering from reflux, but it took a little while to figure that out. In the weeks before her diagnosis and resulting treatment, Carrie really went through the wringer.
“I think, arrogantly, I was like, ‘I’ve had two, it can’t be that hard to have another one,'” Carrie said in an extensive new interview with The Australian Women’s Weekly.
“By then there’s already chaos, there’s already mess, so what’s adding another one? But it was pretty full on. And it certainly challenged me in ways I didn’t know were possible.”
“I literally couldn’t put her down”
Addie’s reflux meant she wasn’t feeding properly or settling … or even sleeping. The days were a fog of projectile vomit and exhaustion, which Carrie told the AWW had her wondering if she was suffering from postnatal depression.
“I literally couldn’t put her down without her being uncomfortable. So I held her pretty much for six weeks straight, which meant I didn’t sleep.”