Well, it's been 3 long weeks, but it looks as though we are done with the nipple shield and breastfeeding normally! We had an appointment with the lactation consultant (LC) this morning, and Cecilia had a whole feeding on the breast with no shield or other help. She's not an expert, but things are better. She only gained 3 ounces this past week on the nipple shield, so we have some techniques to help her eat better. Part of it is that she falls asleep right away and pacifies without getting a good feeding. So, we are going to have to stimulate her and be assertive about feedings until she starts getting good feedings. Right now she's developing the habit of pacifying on the breast from the end of one feeding until the beginning of the next. This is draining on mom and interfering with her finishing a feeding, rather "snacking all day". Our LC feels that it might interfere with my milk production and prevent her from getting a good feeding. So, we're going to make her stay awake until she's done and then take her off the breast. The good news is that she doesn't mind coming off the breast when she's full, she just won't volunteer to do it.
We've been really worried about her intake the past couple of days because she stopped stooling. Her stools went down until there were none yesterday and only a small one this morning. Well, at the LC's office this morning she let it all out. We were discussing her stools and she let a huge load out. We were laughing about how she'd stored it all up, Ben cleaned her up and got a new diaper on her, and not more than 5 minutes later she let out an even bigger load! She definitely got rid of a couple of days worth of stools. It's amazing that such a little person can hold so much! It was funny that as soon as she did it, everyone (Ben, me, and the LC) had to look to check out the quality and quantity. It's also amazing that being a new parent makes you obsess about urination and bowel movements!
No comments:
Post a Comment