Nursing Prayers

I am praying, too, Misty.  I do know a lactation consultant.  I just emailed her, I’ll let you know what she says.  (((hugs)))  I know how you feel, too, because with my 4th (a boy after 3 girls), I could not make enough milk for him right from the get-go.  My lactation consutant at the hospital said to use a shield.  Big mistake!  If you are using one, stop right now.  That actually makes the problem worse.  Unfortunately, I found that out way too late.  (I had a hard time with trying not to be so angry with the consultant for this bad info she had given me.  I was so incredibly disappointed that I wasn’t able to nurse my baby.)  Also, make sure you are getting a lot of rest.  You may think you are, but I found out, again too late, that I wasn’t getting nearly as much as I really needed.  Let others do as much as work as possible so you can sit a lot with Baby.

That’s as much as I can tell you from my own experience.  I will let you know what my friend says.  Hang in there!

Sara

I, too, just signed up to reply to your message.  First, I will pray that things get better for you and baby.  Second, if you haven’t already, please look-up and contact your local La Leche League leader.  You can find her on the website http://www.llli.org.  If you can’t find one locally, email or PM me.  I’d be glad to help.

Hi Misty.  I am praying for you and your baby girl also, that you will have the needed strength in a busy home and the nourishment that you both require.

I wanted to tell you that we also had some babies that were fat and others that weren’t.  They also grew lengthwise but never became as fat as the others.  They were always healthy other than that, if a little small for their age. 

I think our biggest was thirty pounds at eleven months (she is now eleven and five feet three inches), and our smallest was a mere nineteen pounds at the same age (she is nine and is still only fifty something pounds).  Both of them are healthy and well – but built very differently.

A friend of mine who had three children said that her oldest was very chubby and ate everything, and when she had her second son, he was not as hungry and was always a long, thinner baby.  She stopped nursing him to give him formula because she thought he wasn’t getting enough, but he didn’t fatten up on formula either.  He was also healthy, just different. 

We have a neighbor who has recently gone through the same thing – smaller baby, healthy, just not a big chubby one.  She has gone through trying to nurse him, then trying to supplement, pumping to measure how much he is getting – he is still not big or fat.  But he is healthy.

I guess what I’m trying to say is the baby can be healthy without being as chubby as some.  Obviously you know if your baby is healthy or not, but I wanted to give some perspective on a few other babies that never have fattened up, and that is just the way they were.

Rest when you can – I know that ‘s hard in a home with so many young children.  I have taken to breaking from school for a month when we have a baby, and eating simple but nutritious meals.  I am a keep going person also, and I still do, but I have learned to do so in a different way – I knit, or sew, or do other productive things that are quiet. 

I pray that God will bless you and your family during this special time.

Gaeleen

I just wanted to add in that breastfed babies aren’t always chubby, and that some of those growth charts are designed for formula fed babies.

My son was born at about 8lbs 6oz (about 50th percentile)… and he ended up “dropping percentiles”.  I did end up suplimenting him some, and ended up stressing out a lot…. he even dropped down to about the 1st or 2nd percentile over the months…. and the health professionals were all worried…. but eventually the doctor said that my son was doing what he should, and was healthy… and eventually said that he was following his genetics.

My daughter did a similar thing (and again, the health professionals got me all worried) – she didn’t drop to such a low percentile though… (she has a bigger build than my son)…. but they had me all worried….

Then – the same thing with my daughter number 2…. a period of her not gaining, etc….

So then came my little girl who is only 4 months now…. and I went in figuring I knew the score and would be able to breastfeed her without worry……. and she isn’t feeding well.  She only latched once the whole time I was at the hospital (I ended up finger-feeding her…. and eventually went to bottle feeding.)  I still nurse her in the morning and at night….  But I feed her in the morning (it takes forever) and a half hour to an hour later she is hungry.  At night I feed her after I’ve fed her.  It is different, and I know it is different.   She feeds from me and is still hungry.

One other thought…. “they” try to tell you from the growth charts that a baby that is such-and-such weight at birth should be “this” weight at 1mo, 2mo, 3mo, etc…..   Well, by that logic, you should be able to tell what a person’s weight will be when they are 40 based on their birth weight!

Here is the website from the Breastfeeding Expert (in Canada) – it has a lot of great info…  http://www.drjacknewman.com/

And from another site… http://drjaygordon.com/pediatricks/newborns/scales.html

Look at the Baby, Not the Scale

It sounds simple doesn’t it? Yet I have seen so many moms whose babies have looked healthy, nursed well, met developmental milestones one right after the other and have lost all confidence in breastfeeding due to someone telling them that their baby’s weight was not on the charts. This someone was looking at the scale and charts, rather than the baby.

In the first 24 to 72 hours after birth babies tend to lose about 3-10% of their birth weight and then regain that weight over the next 2 to 3 weeks. If a mother receives lots of IV fluids during labor, the baby could be born “heavier” because of the increased water. The somewhat higher weight could be measured if a baby were weighed right before it peed for the first time. The difference of this extra fluid retention might only be a few ounces, but some parents are told to be concerned when, at their baby’s two week checkup, the baby is a few ounces under birth weight.

Another common problem at early checkups is a baby that is not gaining what the practitioner considers to be “normal weight gain.” There is not general agreement on normal weight gain and the range in texts are from 4 to 8 ounces a week. Some babies are genetically destined to be a lot smaller or larger than others. As I mentioned in the first paragraph: Easy concept, isn’t it?

If you have been told that weight gain is not acceptable, look hard at this list of questions:

• Is your baby eager to nurse?
• Is your baby peeing and pooping well?
• Is your baby’s urine either clear or very pale yellow?
• Are your baby’s eyes bright and alert?
• Is your baby’s skin a healthy color and texture?
• Is your baby moving its arms and legs vigorously?
• Are baby’s nails growing?
• Is your baby meeting developmental milestones?
• Is your baby’s overall disposition happy and playful?
• Yes, your baby sleeps a lot, but when your baby is awake does he have periods of being very alert?

If you have answered yes to the above questions, you may want to progress on to two important questions which the “charts” seem to ignore.

• How tall is mom?
• How tall is dad?

If someone were to ask you what weight a 33 year old man should be, you would laugh. The range of possibilities varies according to height, bone structure, ethnicity and many other factors. Yet babies are expected to fit onto charts distributed throughout the country with no regard to genetics, feeding choice or almost anything else.

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all three of my boys (especially my twins) stayed at or below 10% until they were well over 9 months old. Everyone, including the pediatrician worried about them – but I knew they were fine – like the list above, they were progressing. I did end up supplementing one bottle of formula before bedtime with my twins when they were older (I am very small and just couldn’t keep up with their demands – that was VERY hard for me to do because I nursed my first exclusively and wanted to do the same with my twins, but I did give in to supplementing a little). I did nurse them to one year. Looking back now with all the stress it caused the whole family though, I maybe should have done things differently. Any nursing is better than none (even though I know supplementing can start a downward spiral for some) and even though nursing is the best, you would not be failing your baby at all if you fed her formula – if that made for a happier baby and mom, and everyone else, that could be best. No matter the source, if you are providing good food for your baby that is helping her grow and thrive, you are doing what you should! (I feel very hypocritical saying that as I was staunch on nursing all of mine no matter what – these are just my hindsight thoughts – and I still believe strongly in nursing if you can). Hang in there, pray for wisdom and do what you know is best for you, your baby, and the rest of your family. God gave that baby to you because he wanted you to be her Mommy, not anyone else!

some of the tips that folks gave me for helping milk production were: blackstrap molasses, bananas, fenugreek (herb tablets), Mothers Milk Tea, mixing dry milk powder with milk for extra calcium and protein (with my twin pregnancy and nursing I had milkshakes with extra milk powder every night).