So, Tuesday we had our weight appointment and she only gained 1oz. We were so upset. Making her 9lbs 2oz. Last Thursday she was 9lbs 1oz. She should have at least gained 5oz. The doctor was great and understood that I really wanted to nurse her. He wasn’t too concerned yet and wanted us to continue nursing until Friday and then we’d do another weight check. If she hadn’t gained anything substantial, we would talk about switching to bottle feeding.
With Ruby’s heart defects, if she doesn’t gain weight and doesn’t thrive, she could potentially have open heart surgery at 3 months, which is NOT ideal or even safe. If we can get her to the 6 month mark, if she would need surgery, it would be just as safe as surgery on a 10 year old.
After a pretty fussy day with Ruby, Tuesday night, Dale and I were pretty upset that she hadn’t gained any weight. Was it because of the heart defects, the act of nursing, the formula we were supplementing with or the breastmilk itself? We decided to switch some variables.
Dale watched the girls and I, through tears, did some therapy shopping at Target. If you would have seen me at Target, I would have been a mess. My instinct really told me I shouldn’t nurse for another 3 days…I needed to switch to bottle feeding to put some weight on her. I bought some new “fussy” formula and made the decision that we would switch to bottles with formula for 3 days to see how she weighed on Friday and to see if her fussiness changed.
I bottle fed her with formula, which was helpful because then I could actually see how much she was eating. Roughly 40ml was easy to get into her, I pushed her to 60ml (2oz).
Thursday, Dale went to our appointment with us and wallah, she gained 6oz in 2 and half days. Double the amount she was supposed to. She was up to 9lbs 8oz. Sweet. That was good news.
So. We know that either she didn’t have enough energy to nurse or I just don’t have enough milk supply yet since we were supplementing. So with doctor’s approval, we are bottle feeding breastmilk now and will have another weight check next Friday. I am trying to pump every 2 hours to get my milk supply back up -still not where I should be on supply. I have a call out to the le leche league to see if they can help me. If her weight is good on Friday and my supply is meeting her demands then we’ll switch to nursing.
So, good news is she is gaining weight. The fussiness hasn’t changed a bit, so at least we know it is not the breastmilk or the formula. We told the doctor about her fussy episodes, arching back and stuff. He thought it was acid reflux. We had researched that already and since she wasn’t spitting up at ALL, we thought it couldn’t possibly be that. He mentioned that it could still be acid reflux and felt completely positive that it was acid reflux and prescribed Zantax. I’m a little skeptical but will try it. The good thing about this doc is that he completely understood how crazy we’ve been trying to determine if it is a heart thing or normal newborn thing with Ruby. He specifically said, “We need to figure this fussiness out before you drive yourselves crazy thinking it is her heart.” He knew exactly what kind of rat race we are on.
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Eat lots of oatmeal.seriously. It’s very good for milk supply. And if you don’t hear from Lll soon, a good friend of mine is a local lll leader. I’ll get you in touch with her. She’s awesome with stuff like this. Did you call the Pittsburgh Breastfeeding Center? They are stellar.
Yep, oatmeal (you can put it in cookies and it still works:) and make sure that you’re drinking lots. I had to carry around a water bottle to remind myself to drink. Your brain is so not on that with a newborn. Hopefully slinging her will help with some of the fussiness too…it did with Grace. Love you guys and praying!
Well I am happy that she gained weight even if you had to use formula and a bottle to get her there. I completely understand the milk supply issue. With Hunter (full term baby) I had so much trouble getting and keeping my supply. I tried everything and finally switched to formula only becuase I was exhausted. Plus he was my fussy baby…cried and cried from 9 pm – 2 am. He was a tough baby. And the doc may be on to something with the acid reflux. Cameron had the same symptoms you described and did not have any vomiting. The Zatac worked wonders and he was off of it by his first birthday. Good luck and keep up the good work! You will figure this out!
oatmeal every morning and are you taking the herbal supplement Fenugreek? that also helps. Jackson was put on Zantac at two months. he pretty much cried anytime he wasnt being held. he wasnt a big spitter either. but give it time she could become one lol. he now spits all the time. after he burps morghan says “wait for it, wait for it, and there it is” it took about a week to see some improvement but man it was like night and day. they say it takes about that long for the esophagus to heal. i debated about the meds too but i am so glad we went that route.
Dealing with low milk production as well, I know I noticed a difference when I started taking fenugreek. Josh was also really fussy the first 2 months and I would dread when 10PM rolled around because he would fuss from about 10PM to 5AM. Thankfully things got better, not sure if it was our change in the formula we supplemented with (we started off with Enfamil Gentleease and then switched to Similac Sensitive – or if his digestive system was just more mature.
Because of the low milk production, Josh also had weight gain issues – I went to The Breastfeeding Center and the main thing they suggested was to nurse, supplement with formula, and then when possible, to “Power Pump” – where you basically pump for 10 minutes then rest for 10 minutes – going back and forth for an hour. They were also very understanding and encouraging.