Three days after we were discharged from the hospital we were told to visit the hospitals lactation consultants to make sure Chloe was feeding well. I was nervous when we arrived, because I didn't know quite what to expect, but didn't think there would be any concerns. When they called me to the back they had me remove all of Chloe's clothes and change her diaper. We then weighed her, she was 6lbs 13oz, more then the typical amount of weight loss you expect to see in the days after leaving the hospital. Then starts the great anxiety. I was then instructed to go ahead and nurse her for 15 minutes. After the 15 minutes were up they took her from me and weighed her again. The purpose of this was to determine how many much food she was getting during that time period. She comes back to me with Chloe and lets me know that she hadn't gained anything during that space of time, add even more anxiety. She let me know that our pediatrician likes to supplement with formula in cases like mine. The lactation consultant then proceeds to tell me how we will do the supplementation. Basically I have a bottle of formula with a long skinny tube that I insert into Chloe's mouth at the same time while she is nursing. This should hopefully stimulate my milk supply rather than interfere with it since it is not through a bottle.
It has been a week of doing this now, and we have a follow up appointment for Chloe on Thursday. It has definitely been frustrating and scary. She is supposed to intake 19oz of the formula in a 24 hour period, so about 1.5-2oz per feeding. There have been nights that I just cry begging her to eat, because she will just fall asleep after 5 minutes and only drinking 1/5th of the bottle. I admit I walked out of the appointment feeling like kind of a failure that I wasn't able to give her all that she needs, but I am hoping the supplementation is working. I feel like she is getting heavier. In the past couple days she has been doing so much better at eating the full amount in a feeding. Which means her feedings can be spaced out more. I really pray that the doctor will not be so concerned with her weight at the appointment and that she will be doing a lot better.
Teresa- do skin to skin. Grant was 7 lbs at birth and went down to 6 lbs 5 oz before we ever left the hospital. That is a lot of weight loss and I was really concerned too. My milk took forever to come in and newborns are sooooo sleepy you wonder if they will eat. Honestly when the baby gets used to your smell, they will automatically want to eat- that's the one thing they do know how to do. Of course they are going to recommend formula, but I didn't use it at all! I really believe that not using formula is what really helped kick my milk into gear and doing skin-to-skin is what got my baby eating. Do it as often as you can. Just go home and watch a show and do skin-to-skin. Read a book, take a bath- just put the baby on you and I promise it is magic!!! Oh and by 2 weeks Grant had not only gained his birth weight back up- he weighed more! He was up to 8 lbs, 2 oz!!! Also, I know there are herbs that help with milk supply- I never have taken any of them but my cousin did and they helped a ton- sorry I don't know which ones she took but it did help! Don't let them scare you because it is so normal for babies to drop weight and for milk to take a while. Anyway you can do it!!!!
ReplyDeleteI have used Fenugreek and Mothers Milk (herbal tea) to help with milk supply. Both can be found at GNC.
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