Philadelphia Nesties
jessica0602
member
Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
welp, ebf-ing is over
As of yesterday, we have officially started supplementing with formula. I am torn between being sad and ecstatic. Basically I've had a very happy boy, but his weight gain has been ungodly slow. DH and I decided after much hemming and hawing that now is the time to start supplementing. We gave him a bottle of some RTF samples that we thankfully kept from the hospital. He sucked it down in minutes. I wanted to cry. Now I have to wonder if I've been starving my kid. I'm still pumping and bfing but we'll more than likely do one bottle a day now so he can plump up.
In other news, I have a bonafide thumb sucker on my hands. Yikes.
Re: welp, ebf-ing is over
I commend you for hanging on this long. BF-ing just wasn't for me and I think the women who could do it are great. He is so cute and Im sure you are doing the right thing.
Good job making it this far! Every drop counts.
I want to say I had to supplement in the hospital b/c Luciana was losing a lot of weight. We fed her with a cup or a syringe. When the formula hit her belly I could hear it - it sounded like her belly was completely empty. I cried and cried b/c I thought I was starving her. It's an awful feeling.
You're not starving your kid. Trust me-he'd be miserable! Slow weight gain is stressful but it is still weight gain. He sucked it down b/c it's just easier for them to get milk from a bottle nipple then it is from you. Also, it's their instinct to suck pretty much anything that goes into their mouth.
Hopefully you can continue to bf/pump if that's what you still want to do. If you still want to bf, stick to the newborn bottle nipple (we still use it at 11 months) and continue to put him to the breast. Lots of people say nipple confusion doesn't exist-but IMO they know it's easier to just refuse the breast b/c the bottle is less work. Supplement AFTER feeding at the boob.
Good luck and congrats for doing it this long!
It's impossible to know how much he's getting! Don't fret, you did good mama.
FYI - yesterday I went to a BF support group in Abington and plan to keep going. Mostly because the LC will answer all my crazy questions for free and it gets us out of the house to safe-to-stick-your-boob-out-in-public place with others who can commiserate. If you're interested, send me a message on FB and I can give you details.
The only way to know is to do a weighed feeding.
JRM do they do this at your group? I went to a support group while on mat leave and I loved it. It got me out of the house in the dead of winter. Even though I didn't have too many bf problems I considered it preventative maintenance.
At our group you would weigh the baby, then feed her, then put her back on the scale right afterwards. The difference in weight is the amount of bm consumed. It has to be an accurate scale that shows ounces.
It didn't seem as structured as you described, though I was a newb and didn't know the protocol. Everyone else just walked up to the scale and used it. I asked the LC to help me since I was a first-timer. So we just did a weight check, not pre or post feeding. Yes, the scale showed ounces too.
I had a friend who combo fed from about five monts on, and she always says she doesn't understand whit isn't presented more often as an option. It doesn't have to be all or nothing.
Ditto going to a support group, especially for the way ins. Trust me, I am not a tree hugging granola hippy dippy, and I figured I would hate it. I knew some people who had some pretty sucky experiences with the LLL groups. But the one at my pediatrician worked for me -- everyone was normal and just wanted to make sure their kid was gaining weight and to sit around and commiserate.
You can do that too!
The more structured weigh in is helpful if you're planning on giving a bottle - it allows you to figure out how much he's taking in. You can only do this if you weigh him ahead of time and right after the feeding, keeping conditions the same (i.e. same outfit and diaper.)
I know that exact feeling as if you are starving him/her. @ Danica's 2 week appointment when she had not gained ANY weight from after leaving the hospital, I cried my eyes out and felt absolutely horrible that I was starving her. That night DH was awesome and reassured me that starting her on some formula would be a good thing for both her and I. Same and Lil V, Danica sucked a bottle down in minutes. I felt horrible. I felt even worse 3 weeks later when we found out about her tongue tie and that was the cause of it.
The girls are right. It doesn't have to be all or nothing. I know so many people who BF in the morning, do formula during the day and then BF at night before bed simply because pumping does not fit into their work schedule. Every little bit certainly counts. You have been doing great and don't let anyone put you down or make you think otherwise.
I don't want to sound like crazy bf pusher, but keep in mind that supplementing doesn't have to end EBF'ing. You can always go back to ebf once you get his weight up to a level that makes you and dh comfortable. It's not an all or nothing proposition.
If not, that's ok too! Either way, know you're doing what you think is best for little V. You've already given him a great start. Best of luck and let us know how it goes!