Sterling hasn't gained any weight since her last doctor's appointment on Monday. Here's the plan as it stands right now:
-Add more supplementation. She's getting enough milk from me to hold her weight steady and to pee and poop regularly, but she's apparently not getting enough to gain weight. We've been supplementing her a little bit before bed (otherwise she won't fall asleep), but we're going to start doing it more. We're now aiming for a total addition of 4-6 oz from a bottle.
-Continue with Mother's Milk Tea and tincture from birthing center. I'm also going to start drinking protein shakes (sounds lovely).
-Try to pump more regularly. This is good for nipple stimulation and we can feed the milk back to Sterling.
Here's how I'm going to try to work our schedule:
Typically, Sterling wants to nurse again 2-3 hours after she's filled herself up. At that point, I'm going to nurse her for about 5 minutes on each side (or as long as she's actively nursing; she tends to slow way down and fall asleep after not too long). Then, we'll give her a bottle and see if she's still hungry. Once she's full, she usually falls asleep. After about an hour, I'll give pumping a try. An hour or so later, baby can nurse again and we'll repeat the process. Dr Liz says that the fact that she sleeps in 4-5 hour stretches at night is fine and won't affect my production, but I think I'm going to try to get in at least one pumping session at night, too. At least for the next couple of days.
We go back in for our next weigh-in on Monday.
Hang in there!
ReplyDeleteOh man, that sounds so stressful. I'm so glad you have knowledgeable people there to help you! Hope things are going a little better on the nursing front soon.
ReplyDeleteUgh, this all sounds SO familiar, right down to the formula on our doorstep. Diya lost 17% of her birthweight within the first week. She didn't latch well, kept falling asleep while nursing, and I was slow to produce as a result. Sounds like you guys have a handle on it, but if you have questions, feel free to hit me up. Our doc actually had us waking Diya up every 1.5 hrs (and every 2-3 at night) to nurse, and we'd do all sorts of things to keep Diya awake through the session. With you pumping in between, I think it's the same schedule basically. It was brutal, but it does get better as the baby gets bigger and learns to nurse properly. I went to see a LC at some point too, who watched us nurse, gave pointers, and suggested weighing before and after each feed to get a sense of how much Diya was eating.
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