An Update on Abel's Weight

My last post was about Abel's one month checkup and lack of adequate weight gain.  He weighed 7 pounds at his 1 month visit and Dr. Meredith said he should've been at least 8 pounds at that point.  We left the doctor that day knowing we'd need to supplement his breastfeeding diet, but I was pretty clueless as how to do it.  We had a week in between his one month visit and his weight check, so I had to get creative that week to figure out how to get more food in his system.  My pediatrician suggested using formula after feedings to save me time, but I was bound and determined to hold off of formula for as long as I could.  Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against formula.  Cooper was on it in the NICU and stopped breastfeeding at 7 months, so he was on formula until he went on whole milk.  Clark was a really good breastfeeder, so I was able to go straight from breastfeeding to whole milk with him without using any formula.  I think I got it in my mind with him that I could do it again, so I think his situation made me a little OCD/crazy/stubborn on the formula front.

Anyways, for the first few days I used my frozen supply to supplement after his feedings, then I would pump.  My milk supply was pretty low the first few days of supplementing, but I pumped faithfully after every feeding, and now I'm making more milk than I can keep up with.  After a couple of days I was able to keep up with his supplementing schedule just from pumping, but it WORE ME OUT.  I would breastfeed him, give him 2 ounces of breastmilk in a bottle (or as much as I could get him to take), then I would turn around and pump.  I felt like a machine/cow the whole day and I was really exhausted and discouraged with the whole situation.  Half of the time I couldn't get him to take a bottle and the other half of the time he would spit it all back up.  I spoke with several of my friends who had been through similar situations with their babies and one of them told me she bought a scale to keep up with her daughter's weight gain.  That sounded like a great idea to me, and I was so worried about it that I broke down and bought one.  We had been to the doctor on Thursday and I got the scale on Tuesday.  At that point Abel was up to 7.9 pounds, so I knew all the work was working.

When we went to the doctor on Thursday Abel was up to 7.12 pounds, so Dr. Meredith was really pleased with his progress.  He asked what I was doing, so I explained our little routine, and told him it was wearing me out.  I also asked how long he thought we'd need to keep up the supplementing, and he told me I could slowly start cutting him back some.  We started with every other feeding, and now we're down to supplementing once or twice during the day, then I usually breastfeed him between 8:00 and 9:00pm, then give him a 4 ounce bottle of breastmilk when he's done.  Most of the time he won't take the full 4 ounces, but at least it helps get his belly full before bed.  I've cut myself back to pumping 2-3 times a day now instead of every feeding, and my milk supply seems to be great.  Abel also seems to be waking up and eating a lot better now, so I think that's helping a lot too. I weigh him every night, around the same time, and he's consistently gaining, and has already passed the "normal" weekly weight gain of a breastfed baby, so I feel comfortable with our cutting back on the supplementing at this point.  If he starts slowing down again, I'll pick it back up, but hopefully he'll continue to improve with his eating.  Last night he weighed in at 8.4 pounds, so I can definitely tell a difference in the way he looks.  He definitely isn't fat by any means, but he looks chubby to us!

Abel's 1 Month Checkup

Yesterday my mom and I (and Clark) took Abel to Dr. Meredith for his 1 month checkup.  I'm still not driving yet, and Clark usually goes crazy in the doctor's office, so my mom helped us a ton!  Anyways, at Abel's last visit he weighed 6 pounds and 10 ounces, and his birth weight was 6 pounds and 11 ounces, so I was anxious to see how much he weighed.  When the nurse put him on the scale, he only weighed 7 pounds even, so that worried me.

As soon as Dr. Meredith came in he said he didn't weigh near as much as he should (he said he should weigh at least 8 pounds), so he asked me all about how he was eating.  I told him he was breastfeeding every 3 hours, 15 minutes on each side, so he concluded that I'm probably not making enough milk for him, and said I needed to supplement.  Now, I got very upset with that news, feeling like a failure, but he said the more children you have, especially when the older children are still really young like Coop and Clark, your body just can't keep up with everyone.  He said you don't have the time to sit around as much and relax to make more milk, plus you don't have time to eat and drink as much as you should with multiple children.  I know that's not the case with everyone, but he said that's very common and happened to his wife when she had their 4th and 5th children.  I also wonder if having major surgery and such a long recovery from it hasn't affected my milk as well.  I can tell I don't produce as much as I did with the other boys, but I didn't think it was affecting Abel that much.

He told me that I could keep breastfeeding as long as I wanted, but with every feeding he'd need at least 2 ounces of a bottle after I get done feeding him.  He said he knew that would take a lot of time every feeding, so he said if I went straight to formula, he'd need 4 ounces in a bottle every 3 hours to beef him up.  Part of Abel's problem, I think at least, is that he's still a sleepy eater.  He falls asleep almost every feeding, so I knew it'd be a real chore to get him to nurse and take a bottle while staying awake the whole time.

Now, I desperately don't want to give up nursing or lose what milk supply I've got now, and I don't really want to pay for formula if I don't have to, so we're doing a lot of experimenting and trial and error right now to figure all this out.  Supplementing is new to me, so I'm like a fish out of water.  Yesterday I just pumped bottles every feeding (I at least got 3 ounces every time, so I added frozen breastmilk I had to it to get 4-5 ounces), and fed him that way.  He spits up a lot more with bottles, so that makes me nervous that's he's losing a lot of what he just ate.  I don't want to become a slave to the pump either, so today I'm nursing, then giving him breastmilk afterwards in a bottle, but am still pumping to supplement and not run through my frozen supply.  I feel like I'm literally working around the clock to make sure he's getting enough, and I don't know how long I can keep it up.  I know I can just give him formula after I nurse him to avoid pumping, but like I said, I really want him on an all breastmilk diet for as long as possible, and I don't want to pay for formula until I absolutely have to.  I'm hoping he'll become a more efficient breastfeeder soon and that my supply won't plummet, and that this won't be our new normal from here on out.  Who knows though... we go back next week for a weight check and then I guess we'll go from there on how to handle all of this.  If any of you have been in this situation before and have an effective way of breastfeeding and supplementing, I'd love to know how you did it.

In other news from his visit, he'd gained an inch and a fourth in length, so he was 20.5 inches long.  He still had some jaundice, but Dr. Meredith said it was probably breastfeeding jaundice.  If it's not better at his 2 month checkup, he'll check his levels again.  He used silver nitrate to dry up his belly button, and told me not to worry about the congestion he's been having because that's normal for this time of the year and for small babies.  He's also got some cradle cap, but he said we could use normal dandruff shampoo for it if it gets worse.  Everything else looked good, so it's just figuring all this eating mess out.  Hopefully he'll gain weight this week and we'll have a better idea of how to do our feedings soon.

Abel {1 Month Old}

I know I've said this with each one of the boys, but I honestly can't believe Abel is a month old today.  This feels like it's been the longest month of my life just due to recovering from that horrible surgery, but it definitely doesn't feel like he should be a month old yet.  I feel like I've been in a fog for a lot of his little life just due to feeling so bad, but we've been pretty attached at the hip since we both got home from the hospital.  I'm sure time will go by even faster knowing that he's my last baby, which makes me really sad.  Yesterday was his original due date, so technically he's only supposed to be a day old today.  It's crazy how things work out, but I'm so thankful I've got to love that sweet boy outside of my stomach for an extra month.  Here's a little information on my baby man.

Personality:  Abel has the sweetest little personality.  He's a really good baby, and loves to be held.  Andy and I have really spoiled him in the holding department... knowing he's our last one, we hardly ever put him down.  He does get mad and fussy sometimes when we put him down, but that's mostly in the evenings, especially around dinnertime.  For the most part though, he's a really laid back baby.  He's pretty content whatever we're doing due to the fact that he sleeps most of the time.  He's started focusing on us more when we talk to him, and if Andy's close and he hears him talking, a lot of times he'll move his head in the direction of his voice.  He's also trying to watch the boys more when they play with him.

Sleeping:  Due to being early, he sleeps the vast majority of the day away.  I hold him a lot of the time while he's sleeping, but he does take an afternoon nap in his crib and lots of his cat naps in his pack-n-play or bouncer seat.  He has "come alive" more the last few days as he's neared/passed his due date, so we're getting longer periods of wakefulness during the day.  He's nighttime sleeping is still all over the place and unpredictable.  For the first several weeks he was waking up to eat pretty consistently every 3 hours.  He had a few nights where he had some 6 hour stretches, but the last few nights (besides last night when it was every 3 hours), he was eating before bed around 9pm, then waking up around 1:30am to eat, and then again around 6am.  When he has a few nights of a consistent schedule that I think I can "count on," he usually changes it up again.  Thankfully, he goes back to sleep pretty easily at night as long as I've given him gas medicine and swaddle him in a sleep sack, so most of our middle of the night feeding sessions don't last much longer than 45 minutes from me getting up to falling back asleep.  I'm working on putting him in his crib awake to help him learn how to self sooth and not count on being held or rocked to sleep, and he's doing pretty well with that most of the time.

Eating:  When he was in the NICU Abel was only fed through a feeding tube or bottle, so I was terrified I'd be a slave to the breast pump once he got home.  I was for a few days, then started trying to nurse him, and he got the hang of it!  So, one month in, Abel is completely formula free!  I pumped enough in the hospital to get him through his NICU stay and have a good stock at home, so the few times he's needed a bottle since we've been home they've been breastmilk.  I keep him on a 3 hour feeding schedule during the day so he doesn't wind up hungrier at night (I don't know if that helps or not), and then just let him wake up on his own when he's hungry at night.  He averages 7 feedings a day.  He nurses on both sides, usually 15 minutes or so on each side.  He's a gassy little thing, so I always try to burp him, but that doesn't work every time.  He's also started spitting up quite a bit, but it doesn't seem to be anything out of the ordinary.  He can't handle Mexican when I eat it, but that's the only thing I've really been able to pinpoint that seems to bother him.

Likes:  Abel loves being held, sleeping during the day, cuddling up with his daddy, eating with mommy, and watching his brothers.  He doesn't mind being in his carseat in the car or stroller, and he's learning to love his baths... he loves having water poured over him.

Dislikes:  He gets very mad when we put him down in the evenings, he doesn't like having his diaper changed, he gets the hiccups a lot, which he hates, he hates when I put lotion on him, and he's still on the fence with his baths.

Here are some pictures of our sweet boy (and his brothers) on his 1 month birthday!

Introducing Abel Lee Smithson

I just realized I haven't done a post to formally "introduce" Abel, and given that he'll be a month old tomorrow, I thought today would be a good day to do it.  So, without further ado, here's Abel Lee Smithson!

Abel was born at 8:44 am on Tuesday, February 16, 2016 at Erlanger Hospital in Chattanooga, TN.  He weighed 6 pounds and 11 ounces, and was 19.25 inches long.  He was born 4 weeks early at 36 weeks, and spent five days in the NICU at Erlanger Hospital.  He was originally put in the NICU for breathing trouble and put on a CPAP machine, but then stayed in for difficulty eating, weight gain, and to be treated under a UV light for jaundice.  He came home with us on Sunday, February 21, 2016, and our whole family is head over heels in love with him!

Here are a ton of pictures I've taken over his 4 week life.  Sorry for the overload, but I did leave the vast majority of them out, so I spared you some.  Enjoy!

{iPhone pictures I've taken}

{8 days old - 2/24/16}

{2 weeks old - 3/1/16}

{4 weeks old - 3/15/16}