****Make sure to go down to read four other posts I've made today as well****
I'm behind. I've been posting something every day and I'm still over 2 weeks behind. I really wanted to come and quickly update what is happening right now.
Amelia is proving to be a pretty laid back baby. She is easy going about most things with the exception of right now. Right now she is demanding that I hold her and admire her pretty eyelashes and adorable little nose.....
Okay, I think she is going to tolerate hanging out on my lap while I get the rest of this posted.
The day before she was 2 weeks old, Amelia started sleeping through the night.
The first night I was grateful. The second night was absolutely delicious.
However during the afternoon of that second day, I realized Amelia had slept most of the morning and hadn't woken up to eat as many times as I would have expected. We've had to work harder at nursing with Amelia than we did with William (more on this in a later post). So, when she wasn't waking to eat on top of not eating well, I started to get concerned.
I stepped up my efforts to get food in her by setting alarms and really devoting my full attention to the time she was feeding (note: extremely difficult with a 2 year old in the house). After a few days of this, my worries were intensified. So, I talked it over with John, my mom and basically anyone else who would listen. In the end, I called our pediatrician office and brought Amelia in last week on Thursday (4/16) for a weight check. If you'll recall, Amelia was 8lbs 8 oz at birth. At 2.5 weeks, she was 8lbs 9.25 oz. In two and a half weeks, she had gained only 1.25 oz. Clearly, this was not good news (and confirms that trusting the Mama instinct is critical).
The doctor came in to examine Amelia out and told me she was beautiful. There wasn't anything physically wrong with her (as she was full on bellowing/crying) and she was maybe just a slow starter. I got instructions to feed her as often as possible and wake her up during the night (maximum daytime=3 hours, maximum night time=4-5 hours depending on daytime feeds). I needed to follow up with a weight check on Monday (4/20). Babies in general are expected to gain roughly an ounce everyday. The doctor wanted to see Amelia gain a minimum of 4 ounces over the weekend*.
So, we stepped it up. I fed Amelia at every opportunity and pumped after every single feeding. I set alarms at night and drank gallons of water. I talked with a lactation consultant and supplemented Amelia using pumped milk. By the end of the weekend I was dreading our appointment at the doctor office.
Yet, her weight on Monday was just acceptable. 8lbs 14.25 oz. Exactly a 4 ounce gain. We saw the doctor again and discussed our plans. Again, there doesn't appear to be any physical reason that Amelia isn't gaining weight like we would expect (based on our experience with William she is positively starving...but different kids, different personalities, etc. etc)
So, we go back on Friday to check her weight again and we will followup at her one month visit the Friday following. Of course, I am doing what I can by eating everything in sight and consuming thousands of extra calories per day. Like they might decide to weigh me instead and be impressed by my own weight gain. In four days? You gained eight pounds? That is amazing! Of course your daughter will be okay!
In the whole scope of things I DO know that Amelia will be okay. At some point, she'll realize that she needs to eat in order to have a full belly and having a full belly is fun. However, in the meantime, I am consumed by my job of feeding her little belly and trying to make it grow. I do know that it will eventually all be okay...it is just right now this very minute? It isn't okay and I'm pretty stressed out about that.
I apologize if you call and want to talk about something other than Amelia and her lack of eating.
* I very much love our dr for not pushing us to supplement with formula and supporting me to continue trying to nurse Amelia. I know she would support our decision to use formula if we wanted to go that route to without any problem as well.
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2 comments:
She is BEAUTIFUL! Kids are so different from each other, aren't they? It would be nice if they all really came with a handbook... like a choose your own adventure for parenting. I hope all the feeding things work themselves out. She is almost a month old... Where is time going?
Henry "slept through the night" very early on too. Alarm bells should have been sounding in my head immediately, but I was way too tired to care at that point. Little did I know that after his hospital stay for jaundice, we'd be back with RSV and pneumonia to follow that (he couldn't stay awake for anything because the illnesses were keeping him pretty well sedated). It's never a good thing when I newborn sleeps through the night apparently. I personally didn't want to be one of those anal, paranoid moms that rushes her child to the clinic for what I thought was nothing. Now I realize that things can quickly turn for the worse with a newborn.
Glad you got Amelia all checked out and that she is growing at such a glorious rate now!! Looks like things are going pretty smoothly and William figured out that he doesn't need to actually physically give her his toys yet. Bailey liked that a lot... then when Henry wanted them later on the battle began and never ends.
Congratulations again on your precious baby girl and being a family of 4!
Love
Andrea
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