We have had a rough patch, but I think we have finally put that all behind us and are moving forward!
Here's the story:
Charlotte hadn't been gaining any weight - in fact she was starting to lose weight again, so we had been putting an extra push on feeding her as much and often as we possibly could. At the ten day mark she was still down 8% of her birth weight. It was becoming obvious that I just didn't have a big enough milk supply.
At the same time, I had been having a lot of bleeding and passing a lot of really big clots. At first no one seemed concerned, but Wednesday and Thursday of last week things got worse, so my midwife set up an ultrasound for me on Friday to see if something was wrong. Turns out part of my placenta was still attached. So that meant I had to go straight to the hospital to have a D&C. Unfortunately, I had to sit and wait in Emerg from 3:30 Friday afternoon until midnight when I finally had the operation. I didn't realize that they would be putting me under, so I was actually in the hospital until 10am on Saturday. Curtis stayed with me in the hospital the whole time and my parents were at our house with Charlotte. I was able to pump and send some milk home, but they obviously had to start feeding her formula.
My surgery went well, but I was emotional mess. I hated being away from Charlotte for that long. I cried a lot. Since the surgery, my bleeding is basically completely gone and I feel a lot better.
We had to continue supplementing Charlotte with formula for a few days while I got back on my feet, but I am back to exclusively breastfeeding now. The doctors figure that my supply was low because my body was getting mixed signals. Part of my body thought I was still pregnant because I still had a placenta and part of my body knew I had delivered my baby. After the D&C Charlotte seemed to prefer a bottle over me, which was hard to change, but we are doing well once again.
Also in good news, the midwife came on Saturday morning and Monday afternoon and she has finally started gaining weight. She still isn't back to her birth weight (which they hope for by day 10), but now that she is gaining they figure it won't be long.
So that was our weekend adventure. Today is my first day at home with the baby by myself and things are going well so far. Hopefully I will have a change to write up my birth story today also.
Hope everyone else is doing well!
Re: Update on me and Charlotte (long)
Sounds like a rough couple of weeks! I'm glad to hear that things seem to be sorted out and thay you're both on the right track.
Wow! What a rough time you've been having. I'm sorry you had to have surgery, but hopefully things will start looking up for you. Glad that Charlotte is gaining weight finally.
PS - Love the name Charlotte.
Happy Easter
My Blog
yowza, that is a tough time for sure!
I'm glad you are on the mend and that Charlotte is gaining weight.
I can understand why your supply would be dipping - all those mixed signals from the hormones - not sure if you were still pregnant or not with some of the placenta still attached.
YAY for progression!