Eat-Sleep-Love | Maryland DC & Virginia Sleep Coach, Baby Planner, Maternity & Child Consultant

Maternity & Parenting Center

Good Day Today

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Today was a good day. My supply seems to be doing a little better (although we still have a way to go), and Micah seems to be eating better. One of my best friends came over today to watch the inauguration and help me out with the feeds. We even managed to go OUT to lunch today! It was the first time I took Micah to a restaurant. We just went down the street, and we made it back in plenty of time. I even got to take a bit of a nap. Micah is currently napping with Elliot on the couch.

I’ve got another lactation consultant coming tomorrow – wish me luck!

Rough Week

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This week has been tough. Micah has been struggling with a cold, and then it affected his eating/nursing. We’ve been having a difficult time getting back on track. He seems to be feeling much better, but he is still congested. At the doctor’s appointment on Thursday (we went in to have him checked for his cold), he had only gained 4 ounces – about 5 ounces less than we would have liked. We have no way to know whether this slowed weight gain is merely due to his cold or if it signifies a bigger eating issue.

I’m a bit frustrated right now with breastfeeding. He was doing a great job eating, and we were on a pretty good schedule until he got sick. He wouldn’t eat for about a day, so I had to pump and bottle feed him. All I can say is this began a long cycle of crazy stuff . . . first I was feeling like I had an oversupply, and then it felt like my milk supply crashed. Micah finally got his appetite back, but he has been cluster-feeding pretty much non-stop for the past several days. We finally resorted to giving him a few bottle formula supplements because I just couldn’t nurse him that many hours a day. I think he was nursing for about 12 hours straight on Thursday and Friday. Yesterday was better during the day, but then Micah would not stop nursing overnight and would not go down to sleep. I had a horrible migraine, so after nursing him for 9 hours (with about 45 minutes of breaks TOTAL), I finally told Elliot to give him a bottle of formula so I could try and sleep my migraine off. I’ve been concerned that Micah is nursing like crazy because he isn’t getting enough from me. The formula did the trick last night and Micah finally slept for 5 hours straight. He seems to be nursing more “normally” today – we’ll see what happens tonight. He has been difficult to wake for his feedings today, so I’m concerned we are on a bad cycle here.

I’ve tried calling a few lactation consultants. Right now, everyone seems to think this is just a growth spurt (although I’m not convinced). Did I mention he is pooping green? I am concerned this means there is an issue with my milk, but who knows. He isn’t exhibiting other symptoms of a foremilk/hindmilk issue (and he nurses for very long periods of time – sometimes 30-50 minutes on each breast – and yes, he is actively nursing that WHOLE time). I may have another appointment with a lactation consultant tomorrow.

Overall, today was a good day. Niki and Eric and their kids came by to bring us bagels for breakfast and take a tour of our house. I then went to meet a new contractor to get a price quote on fixing up my condo for resale. Micah has been nursing easily and quickly going down for his naps today, but tonight will be the real test. I’m still obsessing about his weight (and my milk supply) and whether everything is okay, but I’m trying to hang in there for a few more days.

Breastfeeding is tough . . . and so is jaundice

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Well, a new day, a new set of challenges. I was originally going to post about the difficulties of breastfeeding, but now I’m also going to talk about hospital staff and jaundice. Micah breast fed pretty well shortly after birth. Unfortunately, we were having some latch issues, and we really did not get another good feed in the rest of the day. I kept seeking help from the nursing staff, but there was very little assistance given. Some of the nurses were great, but the bottom line was we were not getting Micah to latch. Yesterday morning, I set up a meeting with the lactation consultant. At 9:00 am, I got one good (but brief) latch in with Micah, but I was worried about adequate nourishment. DH & I asked if we should be pumping and using this tube contraption attached to the breast to supplement his feedings (my SIL had to use that). I was basically told I was over-reacting.

With the help of the lactation consultant, Micah fed for about 1 hour at 10:00 yesterday morning. I was ecstatic – I thought it meant we were over the hump. Unfortunately, he was too tired to do much more than latch at his 1:00, 3:00 and 4:00 feedings. Then, right at 6:00 pm, he woke up angry and hungry, and we got a good latch and he nursed for about 50 minutes. I was thrilled – I thought that perhaps we were over the hump. At 8:00 pm, he fed again for about 45 minutes, but his latch was not perfect. We tried again at 11:00 pm, and he kept latching and then pushing away and crying. I couldn’t get him to actually nurse and he kept getting frustrated. This same thing kept happening throughout the night – at 1:00, at 3:00 and at 5:00 am. By morning, I knew there was an issue, and I spoke to the nurse about meeting with the lactation consultant.

Right around 7:00, they came in to test Micah’s bilirubin levels. The lactation consultant came in at 8:30, and quickly realized that he was dehydrated and could see that he was too weak to breastfeed. After much discussion about options, we immediately got me a breast pump so we could see how much milk I had. I was able to pump about 5 ccs, and we decided that we would “fingertip/syringe” feed Micah with my breast milk combined with an additional 10 ccs of formula. He took all the food, and seemed a bit more alert. At 12:00 pm, we did our 2nd feeding – this time, 8 cc of breast milk and 12 cc of formula. We have to feed every 3 hrs, and I’m supposed to practice latching and breastfeeding before each feeding. Once he perks back up, I have a contraption to supplement his feed while we are breastfeeding – I’m hoping to be able to try that tonight.

We have to go back to the doctor in the morning to check his levels. We need to get him peeing and pooping again, and hopefully he’ll bounce back and we’ll be able to stick with the breastfeeding. Wish us luck! I’m off to the breastfeeding class now, but I will probably come back on to complain about the lack of support for breastfeeding here. I really believe that if when I started having problems yesterday they encouraged me to pump and add the pumped fluid to the breastfeeding, Micah never would have gotten so weak and we would not need to rely on formula now. Regardless, I’m just hoping we can get him over this hump!