2 week old only gained 35g in 12 days - so stressed
I'm typing this while I feed so it will be kind if brief. Our dd was weighed on tuesday, she was 2 wks and 3 days, and the poor little thing has only gained 35g. I was devestated to say the least. We've been on an expressing mission since as well as breast feeding to see if she can gain something more by tom (Friday). My supply appears to be low as the most i've expressed is 75ml total but a few times it's been as low as 40, so 20ml from each breast. It's so disheartening. I'm taking fenugreek and feeding and expressing as much as possible in an attempt to boost my supply. I'm an emotional wreck though and so tired which I know won't be helping the situation. It's a vicious cycle.
Has anyone else had a slow growing bubs? Has anyone got some advice for me? I'm in desperate need of a confidence boost. I'm worrying about every tiny thing now - is her urine pale enough? Why isn't she pooing as much anymore? What if there is an underlying issue? What if my milk supply doesn't improve? And the list goes on!
Oh honey, massive hugs for you . I know this is a really stressful and upsetting time for you, so go easy on yourself. First things first, although it's not ideal, she did have a gain, not a loss! I have every confidence your supply WILL improve hun, given a little time and effort. It is not something that is going to happen by tomorrow morning!!! Your expressing efforts sound stellar to me, seriously. 70mls is a huge amount, simply huge.
Can you tell us about your DD's feeding patterns? How many feeds she would have in a 24 hour period? How long she feeds for? Does she have one or both breasts?
I would really, really recommend calling the ABA tonight hun 1800 mum2mum. You don't need to be a member to call, and I'm sure you will find the support invaluable. This needn't spell the end of breastfeeding for you guys, far from it!!! You can get through this, I'm sure
ETA I did have a slow-gaining bub, so I completely understand where you're coming from . As you can see we ended up breastfeeding for over two years!
Janie gave you some great advice. I had a really low weigh gaining DD too. She only averaged 100gm a fortnight and I was so stressed too. Turns out my girl is just a tiny tot and that is all she was going to do regardless. It sounds like you are doing an amazing job feeding/expressing. The amounts you are expressing are fantastic. I was lucky to be getting 40 -50 mls in total. It is so hard but try to enjoy feeding your little girl too. Why don't you have a nice bath together so you can relax and she can have a nice float and a beautiful feed. Or even spend the day in bed together with heaps and heaps of skin to skin contact. It would be beautiful for you both.
Keep us up to date darl and use the support and resources on here.
Hi, I can't remember the exact grams but I remember when the mchn visited me at home in the first few weeks she said my ds was not putting on enough weight and I had to express so I went out and bought a pump and spent the next few days an emotional and physical wreck trying to breastfeed and pump my grazed scabby nipples and he wouldnt take any expressed milk from a bottle I seriously cried almost non stop for days. Then my next visit which was only a matter of days he was weighed and had caught up! So I dont know if more milk had just come in or he had just started feeding better who knows but I think I was made to panic too soon. Sorry I cant be of more help I agree call the ABA they will give you some better advice, and just so you know it gets so much easier soon. I totally forgot about this period until I read your post. In the first couple of months once I stopped the expressing and started sleeping when he slept (day or night) I was alot happier. I'm also still b/feeding and he is nearly 2.
Hugs hun I know how you feel!
DS lost to much wg in hospital and then was slow to put on wg till about 8 months!!!!
I was expressing and also getting very small amounts, i found fenugreek upset my belly and also DS but other thing you can try are Blessed thisle and Alfalfa tabs I took both of these for about 8 months maybe more. I also got a script from GP for Domperidone which I took i total of about 200 tabs over a course of a few weeks.
Can your hear bub swallow milk? Is baby settled post feed? Does bub possit?
Keep up the good work. =ts hard work but you will get there! If I had listened to them telling me to FF I would be still BF at 14 months as I am and preg!!!
Hi, I was hoping to hear back from you so I could see your answers, but my eyes are falling out of my head, so I'm going to have to go to bed, sorry!
So I'll just quickly say that it's really normal for babies at this stage to need to feed at least 8 times in 24 hours, even if they're not demanding it. In fact, it's often the babies that don't demand it that need the extra feeds! Once they have some extra milk in them, it kind of helps them to 'wake up' and start demanding food on their own. Rather than expressing, you could try offering some extra feeds, and see how that goes. Liviam's suggestion of spending a day in bed together is a brilliant one, and the first thing that really worked for me and my DS! Within 48 hours he was feeding much more effectively, and frequently, and therefore putting on more weight. You just feed her whenever she looks like she might want it, without looking at the clock and worrying about time. And inbetween you just lie around and read, watch tv, and REST!
So you could try feeding for approx. 20 minutes on one side, maybe changing her nappy, and then offering a similar amount of time on the other side. She may be less interested in the second side, that's okay. Still offer it to her and see how it goes. Making sure that you are offering her feeds at least 8 times in 24 hours. I think you'll be amazed at what a difference that can make.
To give you a real confidence boost, it sounds (with limited info) like your supply is not the issue - it's just getting the milk into your bubba, which is pretty easily remedied .
ETA the others have made good points too about weighing practices. Sometimes things like a different set of scales, what your DD was wearing, if she'd just done a big poo, can all make a difference to weighing a baby. But it is important to see good weight gain in very young babies, so I think you're doing the right thing in looking for some support. I hope you're busy on the phone to the ABA .
I'll second the idea of offering extra feeds, whenever she opens her mouth! And staying in bed with your baby, skin to skin, sleeping together as much as possible for a few days. All you need to be doing right now is feeding your baby and letting your body rest and do what it needs to do. Also, allow her as much night feeding as she wants.
Taurean - just wanted to say that your expressing efforts are stellar... when DD was in hossie and I was on the express train at two weeks I was sometimes getting 40ml total if I was lucky but I just kept up the expressing ie more frequently and I found that with the pump I was using (medela swing) that I would get more on the stimulation cycle so sometimes I would just do that cycle two or three times.
What kind of pump are you using?
Also what TMTM said - when we got home on gate leave (cause DD had had a loss of 20grams and we had to go back to hossie on Monday ie two days) each time she was awake I would whack her on the boob and stroke her head (tip I picked up from hossie) if she started to fall asleep... for some reason it still makes them suckle
Taurean, I was in exactly the same situation as you with my DD. She continued to lose weight until she was about 11 days old then started to put it on and was 160g over her birth weight at 2 weeks 2 days. I was freaking out big time when she hadn't started to put weight on after 11 days and was trying to express and feed her that milk as well as offering the breast at least every 3 hrs (whilst being an emotional wreck and crying because I thought I was starving her) My midwife was happy with the 8+ wet nappies per day and loose yellow poos and suggested 3 hrly feeds even if she was asleep. DD went on to have some big weight gains each week after that (300, 450, 380 before it slowed to about 150-200g per week)
Try to to stress as hard as it is, and I hope that you have a good weigh in tomorrow
I had a similar thing happen where from leaving hospital C had lost 70g at 1 week 5 days and then the next weigh in the following week he had put on 540g!
I'm sus that it was a dodgy set of scales because that amount in a week is almost unbelievable. The MCHN was sus on them too and it was the same nurse who did both weigh ins.
How is her output? I'd be taking lots of notes about her nappies to keep tabs because if she's wetting and pooing lots then it is getting in there!
dont stress! my boy lost half a kilo in his first few days and i fed as much as possible but it took ages for my milk to come in and he has only just reached his birth weight at 3 weeks of age and this is with formula aswell!!
Thanks again girls. So much great advice and wonderful support.
Just a quick update...we saw the lac consultant yesterday and she was brilliant. Izzy had gained another 50g in two days - yay! It's a slow gain but at least she's gaining. Hopefully she will just pork it on now!
Lac consultant said my supply seems pretty good so I'll continue to take the fenugreek but I'm often pumping 90ml or more now. Yay Attachment wasn't too bad but she has shown me another method which seems to work well. The two things she did find wrong were that Izzy is a lazy feeder and we both have thrush - boohoo!!!
Izzy generally nods off well before she is finished her feed and just comfort sucks. The LC said that her lack of weight gain is most likely the cause - she is too tired to work for her food, the poor little girl! It should improve once she puts on a bit more weight as she'll have more energy. So we're feeding 10-15 mins max on each side then I offer her 50ml or more of EBM then I express for about 20 mins and save that for the next top up. It seems to be working well, just a bit exhuasting.
As for the thrush, well lets just say it's damn painful! I'm using Daktarin on my nipples and Nilstat drops for Izzy. I've posted in the breastfeeding forum to see if anyone else has some advice. I'm going to try and get into the gp tomorrow too.
I am determined, we will get there..
Last edited by Taurean; September 28th, 2009 at 10:47 PM.
I'm still here and yes, still breastfeeding. It has been so tough though and I came very close to giving up last week. My lovely lac consultant saw us again on Saturday though and has given us hope again.
So what has happened? After Izzy's good weight gain, I decided (a little prematurely) to try to return to mostly breastfeeding with just a couple of top ups of EBM or formula. I thought things were going well beside two very unsettled days during that week which had us at the doctors where the diagnosed her with colic. As it turns out, she was actually just hungry - I was basically starving her again. I didn't find out until the Friday though when my LC phoned me and asked me to get Izzy weighed that day. She suspected the unsettled days were due to lack of supply and not colic. Turns out she was right. Izzy had only gained 100gm that week so we were back on the expressing mission again and almost instantly we saw a positive change in our little girl. I was so sad to be back to pumping around the clock again but glad she probably didn't have colic.
I got into the right frame of mind at first and just took it all in my stride. The thrush was still lingering altough I had taken 3 Diflucan tablets at instructed by my LC. My LC suggested I get onto Motillium to increase my supply and also get the GP to check my nipples again while I was at the doctors. The GP did suspect it was thrush and told me to start using the Daktarin cream again and continue treating Izzy with Nilstat. Bugger, more medication! At least I had the Motillium so my supply would start to increase - hopefully. That was on Monday.
By Thursday I had lost the plot. I was so depressed and my boobs were so sore. The thrush pain had gotten worse and I stopped breastfeeding Izzy and fed her EBM and formula. I just couldn't handle the thought of her little mouth around my nipples - OUCHIES! I had a big chat to my sister about switching to formula fulltime and she was so supportive and made me feel good about the decision. All the pumping, watching the clock and pain was causing me so much stress that I wasn't able to sit back and enjoy our little girl who was changing every day, every hour. I had a big cry to my mum and felt like a weight was lifted off my shoulders. I had given myself a week to improve then I was throwing the towel in. I phoned my LC to tell her what was happening. She begged me to hang in there and booked me in to see her on Saturday.
Saturday came around and I was feeling pretty good as I had been bottle feeding Izzy for 2.5 days. My boobs had enjoyed their much needed break! Kate (my LC) visited us at midday and got straight into it. Firstly Izzy was weighed and she had put on a whopping 400gm in a week!! We were stunned! All the hard work had paid off! Next she checked us both for thrush and was certain we were clear although I was still experiencing the same pain. That had us stumped. I fed Izzy and Kate weighed her after each feed. She was finally sucking well (and attaching beautifully - yay!) and got quite a decent amount of milk from each side (the weigh in before and after each side confirmed that). We were all thrilled. Kate said to up the dose of Motillium and to do away with the pump and just BF and if necessary, top up with formula. No more clock watching either - demand feed and let her sleep - no more waking her for feeds! I was beside myself with happiness but still the pain was getting to me. Kate took another look at my nipples after the feed and spotted the culprit - the tips of my nipples were white. It dawned on her immediately - I have vasospasm in my nipples. It basically means the circulation is cut off to my nipples which causes all the pain. The symptoms are identical to thrush in the breast.
Finally we had some answers and a relaxed plan going forward. There is medication for vasospasm which I'm going to get this week. The pain in horrible so I'm wrapped to know I can take something to fix it.
So that is where we are at. We are breastfeeding and topping up where necessary with formula but my supply is definitely increasing (I have shot Izzy with breast milk several times now and I was leaking AFTER a feed this evening!) so things are a lot more relaxed. I'm so pleased! We just need the other tablets and we should be on the road to recovery. Yerhar!
I'll be sure to let you all know how we go with the other meds. Fingers crossed they work!
Thanks again for your support girls. It has helped us so much
Last edited by Taurean; October 19th, 2009 at 11:20 PM.
Well done darl. You and Izzy both deserve the biggest pat on the back for hanging in there. What an awesome weight gain. So glad to hear that you and your LC have sorted out the pain. Sounds like everything is on the improve and youa nd Izzy will now go on and have a fantastic breatfeeding relationship. CONGRATULATIONS!!! You worked through the hard yards and now you both get to reap the rewards.
hun. You sure have had a rough start! I really admire your determination though - you are doing such a fantastic job hun. I'm really glad that your supply is doing so much better now, and that you know what's causing your pain. Hopefully the meds will help. Warmth, before and after a feed, can help also, so might be worth a try. All the best hun! You have done such a fantastic job to get this far, I hope it's easier from here on in.
Not sure if anyone is interested but thought I'd give another update as I'm so happy because we are finally breastfeeding PAIN FREE!!!
It all came together about a week ago, just after DD turned 7 weeks old. The Nefedipine for the vasospasm kicked in as did the Motillium for my supply so I now have plenty of milk and my nipples no longer hurt. DD is attaching beautifully now (most of the time, anyway) and starting to feed a little faster. I don't mind if she takes a while though as I now know the more she sucks, the more milk I make
DD has been very unsettled during the day since about week 5 and I thought it was supply issues but we are pretty sure it's silent reflux and she started on Zoton for it yesterday. Amazingly, she slept for just over 9 hours straight last night but maybe it was just a coincidence. She has been really hard to settle all day again today so I'm glad we've also booked a day-stay at Ngala, the early parenting service here in Perth. Hopefully we'll learn some valuable tricks and be able to get our little girl to sleep more often during the day.
So, it does seem like our breast feeding issue are pretty much a thing of the past and now we just need to get the reflux and settling issues sorted and we'll be one very happy little family. I'm proof that you can get past all the breastfeeding issues with determination and support
PS: Izzy has had a couple of gains of 300gms in a week now! She was 4.3kg last week - 8 weeks old. That was just over a 300g gain in 9 days. Woohoo!
Last edited by Taurean; November 10th, 2009 at 07:32 PM.
2 week old only gained 35g in 12 days - so stressed
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. I know this is a really stressful and upsetting time for you, so go easy on yourself. First things first, although it's not ideal, she did have a gain, not a loss! I have every confidence your supply WILL improve hun, given a little time and effort. It is not something that is going to happen by tomorrow morning!!! Your expressing efforts sound stellar to me, seriously. 70mls is a huge amount, simply huge. 
.
Attachment wasn't too bad but she has shown me another method which seems to work well. The two things she did find wrong were that Izzy is a lazy feeder and we both have thrush - boohoo!!! 
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