The Lactation Diaries

It has been quite a week, feeding-wise, with Ellie. First, we had to go to the pediatrician on Monday morning because the Little Miss was vomiting profusely all night before. They ran some tests, asked us a lot of questions and we ended up with a diagnosis of reflux (not terribly uncommon, especially in little babies) and a prescription for liquid Zantac, that we now give her twice daily.

And we found out that she was back down a full pound from her birthweight. NOT GOOD. So I made an appointment with a lactation consultant for Tuesday morning to see what the heck was going on. She told me to bring Ellie, my breast pump, and a log of her feedings/diaper changes so she could help me figure out a plan of attack to get weight back on our little girl. NOTE: Ellie weighed 6lb 10oz at birth. By Tuesday's lactation appointment, she was down to 5lb 9.6oz.

So we developed a plan where I was to feed Ellie from the breast every three hours while the husband prepared a bottle of 30ml formula and pumped breastmilk combined. This worked for a few feedings, but by Tuesday night, Ellie still wasn't nursing well enough off the breast to get any real nourishment and I was in tears. So I called the LC nurse back on Wednesday morning and we decided to stop the "Battle at the Breast" and just have me pump every three hours while the husband fed her a bottle of 50ml formula/pumped milk. And to increase the amount to 60ml if her tummy could handle it. (60ml is about 2oz of liquid, if you've forgotten your metric conversions.)

So far, it seems to be working. Ellie is filling out in the face and belly already and her diaper output has increased a lot too! (This is a good sign - the more that is coming out, the more she's digesting and getting nourishment from the food.) It's hard though - both the husband and I are chained to the schedule so that means we are feeding her often and neither of us get anymore than 2.5 hours of sleep, if we're lucky, at a stretch. I wonder if this is sustainable...I've still put Ellie to the breast every so often, if she's showing signs of hunger, and she'll nurse, but it's still rather ineffective - I can tell by the shallow sucking she does and the few swallows she gets.

Stay tuned for more updates to The Lactation Diaries, a special supplement to your otherwise regularly-scheduled blog.