I'm sorry I've been MIA, I have been reading at times. but otherwise just too busy to get on the computer much at all. One day I need to work out how to access BB from my iphone so I can catch up while feeding!
Thor is 6 weeks today, and I think we're finally starting to get things together. The only issue we've had is feeding, but it's been a big one. He wasn't putting weight on at the start, and took a full four weeks to regain his birth weight. For the first month we had hospital or clinic appointments almost every day, seeing lactation consultants, the physiotherapist (for laser on my nipples,) and my godmother the paediatrician. Finally, at 5 weeks, the paed was happy with his rate of weight gain, and although I'm still talking to the LC most days, we seem to be finally getting on top of things. Now it's only 2-3 appointments a week - it feels like a holiday!
Obviously the main problem was low supply stemming from my history of breast reduction. We started to add formula top ps at 13 days, and at 21 days he still was well short of his birth weight. We started 'force feeding' him - or at least that's what it felt like, squeezing milk into him through a supply line, rather than letting him take what he wanted by sucking - but that seemed to make all the difference and he started to gain weight much more quickly. He's now getting just under half of his total milk intake as breast milk, most direct from the boob and the rest as EBM top ups.
We've chopped and changed, god knows how many times, between syringe feeding, bottle, supply line with syringe, and the supplemental nursing system, but finally have settled on the Calma bottle, and it seems to be working well for him, and he is no longer getting mixed up between bottle and boob and sucking on me like the teat, which was why we stopped the bottle the first time. The SNS continued to present issues with the air return valve, and I think, retrospectively, that this is why we *thought* he was getting his fill of milk and not finishing what was offered, but was in fact still hungry and couldn't get any more milk out.
We've been seeing one of Perth's best known LCs, who works with the university Human Lactation Research team, and amongst other things, she has loaned us a set of baby scales, and we weigh Thor before and after each side he feeds from, so we know exactly how much he gets from each boob. It's not something I'll keep doing for ever, but while i'm still trying to build my supply, it really helps to know if whatever we are trying is actually making any difference.
At the moment, I'm feeding both sides, weighing before, between and after, then topping up with either EBM or formula, then pumping after every feed as well. The whole process, if I do it alone, takes the best part of an hour IF he is happy to be put down after the bottle so I can express. Thank God DP is still off work so I can hand Thor over for the bottle feed. Thor is also pretty refluxy, so we also try to keep him upright for 20 minutes after feeds. At the moment we're trialling the effects of cooked vs raw vs no lactation cookies, trying to increase supply, and also with feeding football hold, to increase the proportion of milk he takes straight from the boob, in the hope that I can cut some of the expressing sessions without reducing by much the amount of BM he gets.
So feeding has been a big thing for us, but now that I know he's getting enough milk to grow, I am a lot more relaxed about it, and I'm sure that not being totally stressed about it all is also helping my supply.
My left nipple finally healed up at around 4 1/2 weeks, but my right nipple is still ulcerated, and is painful pretty much all the time, with little sharp, shooty pains interspersed with a burning/itching/aching feeling. The first 10-15 seconds when he latches on is agony, then it's not so bad. I've been swabbed again for bacteria, and will probably go on a second lot of ABs shortly. Everyone thinks his latch is perfect, so the cause has to be poor blood supply, therefore fast tissue breakdown and slow healing. Not fun!
As for things other than feeding, things are going great. He's been regularly going 6-7 hours between feeds at night, usually going straight back to sleep afterwards, and when he cries there's usually a good reason for it, and he settles fast with a feed, a nappy change or a change of position. He loves tummy time, can push up on his elbows and lift and turn his head. He'll happily entertain himself for about 5 minutes on his tummy, or up to 15 minutes on his back, which is great. He's been smiling since about 3 weeks, and is starting to coo and gurgle at us on a regular basis too.
DP has been amazing, and does a lot of the bottle feeds, frequently takes him to sleep on his chest or in the sling in the afternoons so I can have a nap undisturbed, and he's taking on a fair bit of the housework and cooking, too.
Altogether, now that we're on top of the feeding, we're really enjoying him, and finding that life with a baby is good. As I finally stress less and relax a bit more, I should hopefully be able to pop in and post a bit more often.
Bookmarks