Weight update
Yesterday marked the 5th (and last) day of exclusively pumping and feeding per the experiment we’re running with our lactation consultant. I cheated once and nursed him instead of a bottle, but every other feeding was as prescribed.
I am happy to report a 6.5oz weight gain over last Monday. 10lb 7.4oz on 12/8, today 10lb 14oz. That’s nekkid baby and everything.
I’m thrilled… but I don’t know what it means. I’ve managed to scrape by the necessary 27oz. It’s been close every day, but I’ve done it. Based on this our lactation consultant thinks it might be an issue with him drawing enough, but I think it’s probably a pairing between that and a supply issue on my end. We’ll be reviewing my tedious data gathering on Wednesday, though, and hopefully that will pinpoint things a little bit more.
The last five days of pumping and feeding have both been wonderful and hell at the same time.
Wonderful because:
1. being able to feed him in the car (even while moving), or in a restaurant, or in a department store… wherever… without having to find comfortable seating, cover up, etc. is nice
2. S gets to do at least one feeding a day and spend time with G. I love daddy and G time. I also love “me” time 🙂
3. I’m not sure if it’s related, but G has slept through the night every night that we did a day of bottle-feeding. I’m talking 7:30pm – 7:00am (sometimes later) sleep through the night with no wake-ups.
Hell because:
1. G and S can both sleep through the night, but I still have to get up at 3am to pump, and stay up late until 10:00-10:30ish to pump once more before sleep.
2. Pumping while interacting with an attention needy child is difficult
3. Have I mentioned how horrible my hands look now? I feel like I do nothing but wash bottles these days. Bottles to pump into, other bottles to feed out of — I have bottles in my nightmares and my hands, I swear, feel like sandpaper.
In a way last week was good practice for when I return to work, but it also makes me realize I’ll get a little of both worlds. I get to feed G half of the time, and he gets a bottle the other half.
So that’s our news. We have one week of a weight gaining baby. We still have a ways to go in order for him to get back on the graph (he’s still below the 3rd percentile for his age group), but hey, it’s a step forward.
Sounds like overall its been GOOD! Thats great and hopefully he continues to gain while you both still get the benefits of breastmilk & pumping.
ugh – and the sandpaper hands are the worst! Bliss high intensity hand cream has been my saving grace. 🙂
Congrats on the weight gain. Maybe Santa can bring you rubber gloves for the bottle washing?