I live in fear my baby has stopped breathing
Strictly new mum Oti on anxieties & sleep struggles
BY ASHLEIGH RAINBIRD
DANCING on Ice judge Oti Mabuse says fear of sudden infant death syndrome keeps her up all night checking her baby.
Oti’s daughter was born two months prematurely in October and, in a critical condition, had to spend six weeks in intensive care.
After a troubled night over the weekend, the former Strictly dancer, 33, opened up to her fans.
She wrote: “Baby is sleeping so brilliantly every night this week 9pm to 9am (what an angel) but I’m not.”
She explained she had to express milk every two to four hours or she felt like she would “explode”, and feared her supply would dwindle.
Oti added: “All that sleep makes me even more worried because SIDS stays in the back of my mind on a daily basis so I’m constantly waking up to check if she’s still breathing.
BEAMING
“So how do I enjoy getting sleep again but not lose my supply and learn to control mummy paranoia?”
Posting a sleepy-looking selfie, she lamented: “This is the face of a mum who should be beaming but I think I’m even more tired.”
Oti has previously revealed that she contracted sepsis while giving birth. She and husband Marius Iepure, a 41-year-old dancer, went through hell while their daughter, whose name they have not revealed, also suffered with infections, and suffered from jaundice too.
Oti said: “I remember crying because I couldn’t get the wheelchair close to her bed. “Emotionally it was very exhausting. I didn’t get to hold her for about a week.”
But the couple were able to bring her home for Christmas and Oti said: “What I have been through shocked me, but it made me even stronger.
“You can imagine if I’m ambitious in my work, how ambitious I am as a mum.” Last week, she admitted seeing local children made her emotional, as it made her think about her daughter growing up.
She said: “I cried because the school near my house held an Easter parade for the kiddies.
“I imagined my daughter moving out, going to study on another continent because she found out I tracked her on iphone Find Me and wants independence.”