The Bad
What a day yesterday was for me and Kian! From my last post as you know Kian hasn't been sleeping well and Jamie has been working a lot so stresses and lack of sleep have been taking their toll on all of us. Kian has become better with sleep though so at least that was going well.
The Worse
Yesterday afternoon we went to see our lactation consultant, Andrea Heron. I am still breastfeeding and hope to do so for at least until Kian's a year old. Lately the way he's sucking has been different - it's like he wants to put the whole breast in his mouth - so I thought that maybe my milk supply was down.
When I go to see Andrea I bring Kian ready to eat. Before I go into my appointment they weigh him naked and then I dress him and they weigh him with what clothes I wan to feed him in. Then I go in to see Andrea and after we are through with one breast she weighs him and sees how much food he’s getting. To make a long story short, Andrea said that Kian does not have a strong suck and since he doesn’t it has depleted my milk supply. He should have 4 ounces every feeding and he only gets about 2 from me. He was as happy as could be in the visit! It was odd because you would never know that he was still hungry or looking for more food!
So, right now I am working on getting my milk supply up. I am taking herbal supplements – 8 pills in all to swallow 3 times a day with meals – these herbs are known to increase milk supply. I am also using an SNS (Supplemental Nursing System) while I am feeding Kian. Here is what it looks like in use: http://images.google.com/images?q=tbn:4I8dlhQsRPEJ:http://maternaloutreach.com/Merchant2/graphics/00000001/snsfeeder.jpg I put formula or my milk in the bottle part and there are two small tubes come from it to the nipple and as Kian sucks he will be encouraged to keep sucking because he will be getting food which will encourage my milk to kick in more. I am also pumping after every time I feed him because he doesn’t empty my breasts and that is what has caused the depletion. After I pump I give him another two ounces of formula or breast milk to help fill his belly.
Andrea will see us again next Wednesday and she seems to think that my supply will be back up by then. I certainly hope so. I really want to continue breastfeeding – not only is it cheap it’s healthy for me and gives Kian great immunities against illnesses.
The Pretty Gosh Darn Bad
We just got back from the ER about a half hour ago. Kian has been throwing up since about midnight last night and threw up after every time I fed him. Finally at 5AM we decided to head to the ER being afraid of dehydration and that something serious could be wrong. So, we got dressed quickly and piled into my car to find that we had a flat tire as we left the carport. Luckily we can all still fit in Jamie’s truck – not comfortably but it’s doable.
We were in the ER for about 3 and a half hours. The Dr. assessed Kian and said he didn’t think he was dehydrated but that we could give him some Pedialite to help him out. Of course Kian vomited that up – twice. He was vomiting bile by that time. Poor guy :( He had X-rays and a test of his blood sugar since his was so low at birth they wanted to rule anything related to that. Poor Kian was so tired he was falling asleep in my arms without a swaddle or a pacifier which he almost always needs to go to sleep. The Dr. thought there might have been an obstruction or something else wrong with Kian, but he didn’t present any other signs it being something serious and he didn’t want to put Kian at risk doing something more invasive – Jamie and I agreed. He talked to our pediatrician and he said that he had seen a lot of kids lately who had symptoms just like Kian’s and that if it didn’t get better by this afternoon I needed to call him.
We are relieved that Kian doesn’t have anything serious wrong with him, but it sure makes trying to get my milk supply up pretty difficult. We are just praying he will be better soon.
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