As per usual, nursing has been a bit of a struggle. I wish my hormones and my babies would just get with the program and do their jobs: making milk and drinking milk. Doesn't seem too difficult to me. And yet, it is. Anywho, Ava has been shrinking until about two days ago and has finally started putting some of those measly ounces back on. she hasn't reached her birth weight yet, which means she's a little behind, but at least she's growing now.
The problem, you ask? I have already started running out of milk somehow. I am usually bursting at the seams at this point with my others and, this time around, I am nearly empty and what I am managing to make is little more than water. I officially make skim milk. The biggest bummer about the whole situation is that Ava is actually very low-key and well mannered. She only cries when she's hungry, but she's hungry ALL the time. Poor thing. Life would easy if she was formula fed but I refuse to supplement at this point and have just been taking any advice that my lactation consultant, LLL counselor, and friends have been doling out. I've been feeding her non-stop, pumping after each feeding, drinking as much water as possible and even taking Fenugreek supplements to help increase my supply. By Tuesday, both the lactation consultant and LLL lady agreed that it has to be a hormone issue based on how quickly my supply is diminishing. (Although, things seem better today so hopefully we're on the up.) I had my hormones checked with my endocrinoligist today so we'll see how that went. He thinks my prolactin hormone is off due to temporary pituitary damage during pregnancy or delivery or something. Huh? Whatever, we'll see. :o)
In the meantime, Ava is having issues latching now due to the bottle feedings of the pumped milk. So, I bought this little guy pictured above. Hopefully it works well for my needs. I just need it to be as much like my breast as possible until I can start solely feeding her at the breast again. I'm confident. After all, it looks like me (tmi?). It didn't have the best reviews for convenience, but it's won awards for shape and is BPA free which is ALWAYS a plus. And nothing is "convenient" right now, so that's not the ultimate goal. I have some backup plans, but I'm really hoping this one works. Wish us luck, it comes Tuesday. Oh, and I have never used one before, but have had to use a shield with Ava which is annoying and may also play a role in my milk issues. Just another reason for the bottle above. It is so much like my breast that I am hoping the slow-flow (small, slow drip) nipple will be rewarding and engaging enough to entice her to take to it and latch successfully rather quickly. I am just hopeful that if she can successfully use this bottle, she can then successfully learn to feed from me, sans shield. Hopefully. Again, wish us luck.
5 comments:
Good luck Steph! I am sorry you are having such a hard time.
ah.. the whoas of nursing... all I can say, is, been there, done that. hang in there and good luck!
You've never really had it easy nursing your kids, have you? That really stinks, especially when it can be something you can really enjoy. Interesting that your hormones may be causing a low supply. I haven't had a huge supply with either of my boys to start out with, and they were both big babies so that was hard. The first week couple weeks it seemed we nursed every hour and I was raw, but in the end, consistent nursing and doing it often gave me a great supply. And I know what you mean about skim milk. Every time I have ever pumped, my milk looked like water, but my boys beefed up fast the first 6 months so I guess looks can be deceiving. Big huge ((HUGS))!!!
What's the name of this bottle you are getting? It looks really cool, and I hope it works well for you!
Sigh...nursing can be so rough. I really hope it gets better. Nursings one of those things, it's great when it's great and awful when it's awful. Good luck friend!
OH I feel ya. I so feel ya. Because we didn't see Peyton for 8 hours and then she was in the nicu they bottle fed her which means it set us wayyyyyy back. I had to do the shield. I REFUSE to next time. I hated it. We had to work so hard to get her to nurse and then work so hard to get her off the shield. I ma so interested in this bottle and would love to find out more and blog about it. Can you fill me in?
I really hope that ervrything works out. I remember being so frustrated at times especially when I was drying up without even really getting to nurse. BLEH!
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