Bethany and I went to the midwife’s office today for our checkups. Mine went very well. That was the good news.
Bethany’s wasn’t quite so good. She started out by getting her heel poked for the PKU. She didn’t appreciate it.
Then she was weighed. Let’s just say my midwife wasn’t as happy as I was about Bethany sleeping 7 hours at a stretch. She has only gained one ounce in the past week. Ann recommended that I wake Bethany at least once during the night.
However, Ann was willing to grant that her slow weight gain might be due to nursing difficulties, and recommended that I try nipple shields for my own comfort and healing and to help Bethany learn to latch on better. She didn’t have to tell me twice! I was at Babies R Us an hour later.
I do have several other excuses to offer on Bethany’s behalf: a couple of our babies have been very slow gainers and stayed petite; my mother-in-law is very petite, as are several of my sisters. It could be partly genetic. We just don’t do butterball babies in our family. Also, Bethany had only lost 3 oz. at her 3 day checkup. She may have lost a little more after that before she started gaining (newborns typically lose up to 10% of their body weight in the first several days). And finally, on her 3 day checkup Ann weighed her in the afternoon just after her hungriest time of day; today she weighed her in the morning after a long night’s sleep. It may have been an unfair comparison.
In spite of all this, Ann felt we needed to keep an eye on her weight, so here’s the agreement we came to: I’m using shields, and feeling great relief and optimism after just one feeding. I’ll feed Bethany as much as I can during her awake times using our new-and-improved-pain-free delivery method, and weigh her several times over the next week. If she gains at least 1/2 oz per day, we’re all happy. If not, I’ll start waking her during the night for a feeding – at least for a week or two. I’m hoping we can avoid that route because she sleeps like her dad. It might take a cold bath at 3 AM to get that little girl going!
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Hi there, I have been reading your blog for quite a while. I love it. I thought we had a large family … but we have only 4 kids! I wish I would have more but like I read before “Men organise and God laughs”. Any way I feel for your struggles regarding the weight of your baby. I had the same struggle with all of them. There is such a pressure on the Mom. My last one was also sleeping a lot. I had to wake him up every 3 to 4 hours to nurse him. He started feeding and would go back to sleep very quickly. It was a nightmare. Then the paediatrician said I should supplement him. I was afraid my baby would start prefering the bottle because it is easier to suck. But actually he did really great. He is now almost 10 months and I still nurse him and give him the bottle. He is healthy but not chubby. He is also very active and eats a lot. I pray that you will be encourage not to give up. I hope that your breast pain is getting better and that Bethany can gain weight and sleep at night! Love and prayers
Praying for you and your new little one. : )
~Rebecca
actually when you mentioned she was sleeping that long at night the first thing I thought was that she might need to eat then to gain weight I know you feel lucky but to me thats just not normal this early anyway, hopefully you can make the required adjustments and all will be well without the wake ups but if not its only temperary. Ah the pain of nursing I remember that too my first was like that, the pain was so strong when he lached on but it WILL get better and it is all worth it!
I too felt blessed when my daughter who is now 6 slept throught the night after coming home from the hospital. Well, she had not gained any weight so I was told to wake her up. I struggle to keep her awake, thumping her little foot, giving her a gentle shake….I would cry in frustration trying to keep that little one up.
i thought the same as maryjo. I had some jaundice babies and nursing issues on a few and they were slow gainers… I wonder if there is a correlation? I want to ask God that when I get to heaven… these things always stump me…
I’m sorry you are still hurting!
I know you didn’t ask for advice and you could teach classes on nursing after nursing so many blessings! LOL But I’m going to share this anyway, for what it’s worth, because it has helped me so much.
When I nurse a newborn, first I latch them on as best I can. Then I reach in with my free hand and use my thumb to pull gently down on their chin. This makes sure their lips are flared, and helps teach them to open wide. Doing this can really help if they aren’t opening their mouths wide enough or positioning their lips correctly. You mentioned her tongue being an interesting shape, so maybe this won’t help. But it wouldn’t hurt to try!
And I agree with the pp’s…. jaundiced babies can be very sleepy.
I hope the nursing situation improves soon!
Yep, jaundice babies tend to be lethargic and sleepy, making them poor nursers, which then feeds the jaundice, which then makes them sleepy, which makes them poor nursers………
Delaney was my starvation jaundice baby. I had to time the nursings and wake, wake and triple wake her up using chinese water torture (ice water), feet tickling, total undressing, or whatever means I could to get her to wake up to eat. My ped told me to nurse her round the clock every 2 hours. I was literally nursing round the clock. Took 2 months for her jaundice to subside and for her to wake up and care about nursing.
I would push the nursing round the clock and not let her sleep any more than 3-4 hours at a time at the most. I know, I know. It’s nice to have her sleep. But, it’s probably not what is best for her right now.
Also, if you take milk thistle, which is a liver cleanser, that should help her little liver to kick in. It will also give you more milk though! Doesn’t sound like you need that help : )
Laralee
http://www.PlymouthRockRanch.com
Recording the Faithfulness and Provision of God for Future Generations
Praying for you and Bethany!
Take care with nipple shields…they can cause a dramatic reduction in milk supply and make it difficult for some babies latch at the breast without them once the problem has resolved. They should be a last resort.
Have you been over to Jack Newman’s breastfeeding site? He is my favorite breastfeeding reference and his book is worth every single penny, many times over.
http://www.breastfeedingonline.com/newman.shtml
Specifically, look at the headings for Sore Nipples, Breast Compression and Handout #4 “Is my baby getting enough milk?”
Changing the way you latch her on may help with the sore nipples, too. If her tongue is short, you may need to try some suck training. Essentially, you place a clean finger in her mouth, pad up. Do not crook your finger so that the pad goes up into her palate, keep it flat. As she sucks, bring her tongue forward. Do this several time before latching her at the breast.
Milk thistle is a good idea. Also, try the “24 hour cure,” get in bed with Bethany and stay skin to skin as much as possible. Nurse, nurse, nurse. It may be that a good, solid day of nursing will help clear enough of the jaundice that she will wake easier.
Is this getting too technical? Email me privately and I will happily share a phone number if you want to talk in person.
Meg
midwife, breastfeeding counselor
I ended up having to use nursing sheilds, too, with my first. Both of my babies had jaundice. I nursed them as much as possible to get it out and also I would take them in the sun for about 5-10 minutes. That is supposed to help. I love your blog!
I had one baby that was petite and she was the same she just didn’t gain weight like my other one’s. She is going to be 6 and is still very petite but is very healthy. I like the idea of feeding a lot during the day but who wants to wake a sleeping baby especially during the night.
Hi,
Our baby was very sleepy – typical C-section baby (not planned to be a C-section, at least not by us, but God has His own ideas!) plus she had jaundice just to make it even more fun and once she started gaining she gained a pound a week for 5 weeks straight. (apparently I was supplying the full fat version of milk, I guess all that ice cream paid off!)
Considering she started in the 25th percentile across the charts, that is impressive.
So I will tell you what you know, and what I know I wanted to hear those first few days when weight was not what it should be – hang in there and just keep going. I know that you are a pro at this and I am a rank amateur with one and one on the way, but sometimes we just need to be encouraged.
So may the Lord bless you and sustain you, and may He help Bethany nurse enough to start packing on the pounds while helping you be comfortable nursing too.
Blessings!
I may be the lone disenter, LOL. But I think you and Bethany need to see a Lactation Consultant (who has worked with tounge tied babies before). Sore nipples, and slow weight gain/no weight gain are classic tounge tie issues. Although nipple shields will help with the pain, they won’t solve the root issue which is the tounge tie. Also, using nipple shields long term can make your supply drop. If you were in San Diego, I’d send you to my LC who is excellent and has helped me thru 3 tounge tied babies.
But I know you aren’t, so I hope you find someone near you who is familiar with tounge ties.
If your baby is tongue tied, it’s not very hard to clip it. I know it sounds terrible, but my second had a heart shaped tongue and our doctor reccomended clipping the “tied” part. At first I was worried that it would be painful. However, the doctor said that in his experience, they always cry as long as he has his fingers in their mouth and then stop as soon as he makes the nessessary clip with the sissors and pulls his hands out. That’s exactly what happened. It didn’t seem to cause her any pain at all. And she was able to use her tongue much better afterwards.
Yay for nipple shields! They kept me breastfeeding my first. And I truly knew my husband had arrived as a full-fledged daddy the day we visited some friends in the hospital four months after our little one was born. I overheard him imparting these wise words: “Just go ahead and get a nipple shield from the LC to take home with you…”