We had Makenna on Tuesday and got discharged home Friday afternoon. Friday morning her weight was 6lbs 13oz (she was 7lbs 7oz at birth), and her bilirubin was elevated, but not high enough to treat. Her pediatrician said to bring her to the hospital on Sunday to get it rechecked, and she had a doctor's appointment made for Monday.
Starting on Saturday night Makenna started screaming ALL the time, and she wouldn't nurse for very long. She seemed to have a bad tummy ache. This was so hard on me. Seeing her cry so hard, and not being able to soothe her was heartbreaking. There was quite a few times when I would hold her and rock her and just cry along with her.
Added to this was the fact that I was in quite a bit of pain from the C-Section. The Percocet that I was on helped, but I was trying not to take it unless I absolutely had to have it. The worse part was the skin pain... I was not expecting that one. It wasn't around my incision, it was all the way up by my naval.
Monday morning rolled around and we were off to the doctor. When we got there and put her on the scale the result was shocking. She was down to 6lbs 3oz. She had lost 10 ounces in 3 days. The nurse practitioner said Makenna looked good other then her weight, and she wasn't showing any signs of dehydration. Oh and her bilirubin was still under the treatable level. We were instructed to bring her back the next morning after aggressively nursing her for the rest of the day. We left the doctor's office and headed to our breastfeeding support group. It was there that we found the reason for the weight loss and why she was so inconsolable. My milk hadn't come in right and she was basically starving. Our lactation consultant instructed us to go to the nearest store, get formula and a bottle and feed her. She told us we would have a completely different baby 4 hours from then. She was so right!! Makenna was a happy baby after she ate. This whole situation was harder on me then her screaming was. I was starving my baby and I didn't know. I had quite a few episodes of crying over the situation. (And NO I wasn't having baby blues... I was happy and thrilled with being a mommy, I was just sad over indiviual situations.)
The next morning when Makenna had her weight check she was up to 6lbs 10oz!! What a relief! She has been steadily gaining weight since then and is getting quite chunky! Last Monday she was up to 9lbs!
The month has gone by crazy fast. Her 1 month check up is on Wednesday. I am feeling very sad right now because I have to go back to work on the 23rd. I wish we had the means for me to be a SAHM but we don't. But it is crazy good motivation for me to get my RN so I can get a job at the hospital PRN and make more then I do working full time.
**Update (added 6/25/13) I never mentioned how much work I went through to try and get my milk to come in. I was pumping ALL THE TIME and was on multiple meds/supplements, while working closely with our lactation consultant. The most I was ever able to get from one feeding: 1 ounce. It's about the only time the 1 ounce=heartbreak. My body could not feed my baby. I was going to keep trying, but I went back to work on 7/23/12 and realized VERY quickly that it doesn't matter if an employer is required to provide time to pump... if there isn't time, then there isn't time and that's all there is to it. Plus my employer didn't really like the distraction of Makenna coming up to work, so nursing her even on my lunch break was out of the question. The most important thing I realized is that I will NEVER go back to work after only 6 weeks... it WILL be a whole 3 months next baby. END OF UPDATE***
1st day on bottles
1 comment:
1 month already??? That is crazy. She is such a little doll.
I'm so sorry you had to go through all of that with the breastfeeding, but I'm so happy that you were able to figure out what the problem was, and that it was quickly fixed! You guys are awesome parents.
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