Heather Rae El Moussa Reveals Newborn Son Had Health Setbacks
Heather Rae El Moussa has opened up about giving birth and revealed that her newborn son initially had some health setbacks. Over on Instagram, the Selling Sunset star shared a photo of her holding her infant swaddled up in a blanket, with her adorable pup sitting near them. In a lengthy caption, she let fans now that she has "been in mama hibernation mode for the past couple weeks" but was finally taking some time to soak "up some fresh air today with my lovey."
Rae El Moussa went on to offer an update on mom life, revealing some medical issues that she and her husband, Tarek El Moussa, have had to navigate with their new baby. "As promised, I want to talk to you guys about my breastfeeding journey because it's definitely been a journey !! I thought.... I'll just pop him on my boob and feed him anytime. Ya no!!! Tristan had tongue tie, cheek tie, lip tie and jaundice which were all caught very early on thanks to my incredible lactation specialist and [Tongue Tie Tribe], they're literally baby fairies."
She added, "I'm so lucky to have found them for the knowledge & support, but it made it very hard for him to latch & suck and 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. 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.
Elaborating more on her breastfeeding experience, El Moussa said, "Having a lactation specialist and someone you can turn to is something I highly recommend if you choose to breastfeed. I had many tearful nights in the beginning because I'd be up at 3am trying to feed him [and] felt so defeated. Nutrition [and] hydration also needs to be a focus which is a little hard because when you're breastfeeding [and] pumping non stop there's not a ton of time to take care of yourself- you get so focused on your baby [and] 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. I also suggest getting on a meal plan if you don't have time to cook especially in the beginning.
Finally, she wrote, "Even with all this going on, I genuinely love breastfeeding. I love the skin to skin connection and think it's such a beautiful bonding experience. It might be hard and challenging at the moment but it is such a special experience that I get to share with our baby boy and we're working together to make it easier like we're a little team."