well, yesterday we made another trip to the hospital. dr. g sent us to children's hospital to get an ultrasound of annabel's brain. yes, her brain. we thought it was weird too. when a delivery includes a placental abruption though, one thing that the doctors worry about is bleeding in the brain. not that dr. g thought that annabel really had any bleeding but she just figured that there was no harm in getting it checked...except that it worried the heckfire out of her poor parents. but in the end it came back fine. she does indeed have a brain and it was not bleeding. :)so after getting a good report from the ultrasound we headed back to our pediatrician's office to hop back on that awful, awful scale. now you may remember that on thursday she weighed 8 lb 13 oz. friday after 24 hours of nursing and supplementing with formula we put her back on the scale and it read...9 lb 2 oz! in a day she added 5 ounces to her bottom line (and i guess her bottom...)! wow! both of us, the nurse and dr. g saw that and blew a huge collective sigh of relief.
so what does this mean? well, it means that annabel was most likely "calorie deficient" this last week. we do not know if its a quantity issue or a quality issue, but bottom line is that she just needed a boost of calories. so giving her some high-calorie formula did the trick. cheryl will be going in this week to get her milk tested and see how fatty it is and will probably work with some good lactation people to see what else we might be able to do. this whole thing has been pretty tough to work through but it seems more and more like annabel is just a lousy nurser. now i would never tell her that to her face...but the signs all point to it. she's really good at lots of other things. smiling, sleeping, burping, winking, riding in cars, being ridiculously cute, and so on and so on. but being a breastfeeder just does not seem to be one of her strengths. whatever we end up doing in the end though, you can guarantee that this girl will get her three
squares a day for as long as she's under our roof. that much we know. somehow, some way, she will be fed.so that's the long and the short of it. we go back to the pediatrician on tuesday for another weight check. surprise surprise...what would a week be without a trip to the doctor. we are plenty happy that this did not end up being a major medical emergency but its still something that we're working through day by day.
i saw a joke the other day and it seemed pretty appropriate for us.
doctor, doctor, i think i'm suffering from deja vu.
i know. i treated you yesterday...
some days that how it feels in the robison house. :) st. ann, pray for us.
3 comments:
Although all the books will tell you that breastfeeding is the most natural thing in the world, there are many moms that can attest that it just isn't true. Hang in there Cher & "Grow Annabel Grow!!!
You guys write so well on your blog and have been through so much. I think you should write a book about the reality of having a newborn and just what those other books don't tell you about that can and will go wrong. Where are those people who have the perfect pregnancy, birth's and the most wonderful experience of having a newborn at home. However, you can also share the truth and let them know that things will go wrong and all the feelings that you have are normal and you will be ok and you are alot stronger then you think. And also remember "this too shall pass"
I don't know if you remember, but Ian and I were not the most successful breastfeeding team either. At his 6 month appointment, Ian was in the 3% and the doctor wanted him in the next week to see if anything had improved. We'd had weight struggles since he was born, but by this point, like you, we thought we were past it. It was hard not getting the support we were looking for from relatives and friends ("maybe breastfeeding just isn't working for you...") because it had been so stressed to you that it was the best thing for your baby. I couldn't help feeling like a failure because I couldn't even properly nourish my child. I felt like I was doing him more harm than good. But my lactation consultant reassured me that we are lucky enough to live in a country where we have formula to help in situations like this. It was hard to accept, but it was ultimately the best option we had. Of course, I still nursed Ian as much as I could and took fenugreek and blessed thistle, ate oatmeal, drank mother's milk and anything else I could do to help with milk production. Whether or not it's Annabel's primary source of nutrition, it is her primary source of bonding and closeness with you, Cheryl. Hold on to that for as long as possible!!
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