So that's what they're for...

[rivka]

(Still with the short updates until I can get the whole birth story written up.)

We went to the pediatrician on Thursday, the day after we left the hospital, when Alex was just under 72 hours old. She had lost about 14 ounces of her birth weight, and the pediatrician wanted us to come back for a weight check yesterday. At that point, she had lost another half-ounce, and the nurse practitioner told us to supplement every other feeding with formula, by syringe, after she'd had all the breast milk she was going to take.

I accepted the formula and the syringes and went home planning to get a second opinion from our midwife, who was already scheduled to come by for a lactation home visit that evening. (Reason #462 why I love my midwives: imagine an OB doing lactation home visits.)

Between the pediatrician visit and the midwife visit, Alex nursed approximately every 1 to 1 1/2 hours. A lot of times they were snacky feedings, only ten minutes of vigorous nursing until she was asleep, but still: every hour and a half. By the time the midwife got here, I was much less anxious about whether the Critter would gain weight. She kept up the super-frequent feedings until 3am, when she obligingly slept for four straight hours so that I could get a little rest. She also, between 8pm and 8am, had seven dirty diapers. That's just not the sign of a malnourished baby.

Today the frequent nursing continues, but on a slightly saner schedule - every two hours, on average, with plenty of dirty diapers. She's become much more efficient about eating, just in the last couple of days. If I pick her up when she's in a calm, alert state, she makes ludicrously cute mouth-opening faces, like a baby bird, and tries to dive for my breast. I'm not saying that I don't think we'll have any problems from here on out, but for the most part she really gets it, and I get it too. Yay for nursing.

My family has started a pool on how much weight she'll have gained by our next weight check on Monday. My guess is two and a half ounces, and all without formula supplementation.

Comments

[bohemiancoast.livejournal.com]

Oh, well done. We had a lot of problems getting our daughter to feed; ended up pumping & feeding her milk by cup after breastfeeds (see elsewhere in this thread) until she finally got the hang of things. I had to be super-assertive; it's lucky she was a big baby at birth because I think they'd have had me back in hospital otherwise. Anyway, looking at enormous 8 year old you wouldn't believe it.