Breastfeeding Trouble

Thursday and Friday Cindy and Blanca came over and help out with laundry, grocery shopping, picking up food, watching the baby while we got a bit of sleep and while we got used to our feeding routine -- she seemed to be eating every 3 hours or so, but since I was pumping, the feeding routine would take forever! We would change her diaper, then it would take 30 minutes to pump, then another 20 to feed her, then we had to rock her to sleep, clean the pump and it's parts... it would take forever! By the time she would finally fall asleep, we had to start the whole routine all over again. It seemed like we were on a constant cycle of changing her and feeding her, we never got a chance to get some sleep!











Friday morning we had our first pediatrician appointment. Mila was 4 days old.







Unfortunately, the appointment didn't go as well as we'd hoped. Mila had lost weight. :( Seems like I wasn't getting enough milk for her with the pump. After all the work we were doing to make sure she was eating, she still wasn't getting enough! The doctor smelled her breath and he was able to determine by it's smell that she was burning her own fat to get the extra calories she needed. He was very concerned. My heart just dropped. I explained the trouble I had had with Mila's latch and that I was pumping for now until I healed. He recommended a lactation consultant that could help, but that he still wanted to see Mila again in 3 days to make sure she was gaining weight. If she hadn't gained enough, he would want to start supplementing her with formula -- which I SO did not want to do. Formula is harsher on babies stomachs than breastmilk, you can see it in their poop. It's darker and it's really smelly. And once you start supplementing with formula, that keeps them full longer and that means you feed them less, which then brings your breastmilk supply down and then you end up supplementing more! I wanted to avoid formula as much as possible, but at the same time, I wanted to make sure she was getting the food she needed. I was so sad to hear she was still hungry! I called the Lactation Consultant the doctor recommended and I planned on pumping like crazy! I know if I must supplement, I will, but I'm hoping I won't have to...

Saturday night my mom was feeling much better, so she and my sister Cathy came over to visit and help out. They stayed for the weekend and Sunday my sister went back to Miami to work, but my mom will be staying with us for the week.











With the extra hands around, we were able to get some great pictures with our little girl!