Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Feeding problems
When I was pregnant with Brianne I read about the difficulties babies with DS have when it comes to nursing. I was thrilled that minutes after she was born she latched on and nursed quite well, in fact, she continued to do so for a few days. This soon changed and due to low muscle tone she just wasn't able to get enough milk to keep her body growing and satisfied. I had to supplement with formula. Then my milk supply started to diminish because Brianne wasn't stimulating milk production well enough. Thus began 2.5 months of pumping milk, supplementing with formula and feeding her by a bottle. I grew to hate this. After a rather stressful day of tears and frustration, (an upside to the day--it was a Tuesday and we got to go to Macado's for dinner--I didn't have to cook), I decided that I was going to stop and feed her solely formula. I had bittersweet emotions about this, feeling of guilt but ohh so releaved (and overall quite happy) at not having to be teathered to a pump. However, during that week she had so many problems with two different types of formula--she had mucus in bm's and considerable amounts of gas (this was on a formula that was suppose to help with gassiness). While on a different formula she had projectile vomiting (and still gassiness, although not as bad with the other brand). It was during FHE, after she showered me with the whole bottle she just drank that I decided that even though I was only giving her 50-80% breast milk, it was still much better than 100% formula and I couldn't let her go through all the pain of a strictly formula diet. After a phone call to my visiting teacher/friend, who happens to be a lactation consultant, we have a plan and hopefully I'll get my milk supply back up, perhaps even better than before. My attitude has changed, now I want to pump because it's really beneficial for Brianne's abdominal wellness. So back to pumping every 2-3 hours (I even need to commit to getting up once in the middle of the night) What really stinks is that after 5 babies I finally have a baby that will sleep through the night. I can even put her to bed awake, but drowsy and she will go to sleep all on her own. Murphy's Law is alive and well in our home.
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Yeah, Murphy's Law is the pits.
ReplyDeleteYou are such a great momma. I know it is hard to be teathered to anything. John used to have to have 4 breathing treatments a day that took about 40 minutes each. I felt like climbing the walls after a while.
You are doing a great job, Vicki. I love that
Oh, I published too quickly...I was going to say I love that you look at the bright side.
ReplyDeleteYou are an amazing example!!! Go Mom.
ReplyDeleteThank goodness for visiting teachers. :) Not that it helps, but I totally understand the pain of getting up at night while the baby is sleeping. Darn that Murphy's Law!
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