Seriously this time is such a blur. All the days blend together.
I am way more confident in breastfeeding this time and have way less anxiety. I am not saying I know it all, but I feel like I don’t need to google the heck out of every little thing. I don’t think I have a huge supply, but it seems like it’s enough. I still have a slow let down and flow. I try really hard not to watch the clock while my baby is feeding.
I’ve basically abandoned all the “breastfeeding pillows” (boppy, etc) that I have – yes I have multiple (they just don’t seem to help this time) and just use our throw pillows.
We continued our pattern of any time my baby got upset (like, really upset – meltdown) trying to calm him down with holding, bouncing and rocking, but ultimately just letting him nurse.
He was eating A LOT. At least every 3 hours (usually more often) during the day and about every 3 – 3.5 hours at night. Maybe because of this, I still never felt engorged or even full, and still never leaked.
That’s how he gained 3.5 pounds in a month and was up to 11 lb 3.5 oz (more than doubled birth weight) at 2 months! This made me feel much better about nursing and my milk supply.
We were dealing with some serious colicky-ness and tummy troubles this month. My baby is super gassy. We did find a pacifier that he would suck on, so that gave me a little break from being his pacifier. We also tried gas drops and gripe water and probiotics. Nothing really made much difference. Maybe it was my milk, maybe he was swallowing too much air (he never burped) who knows??
I was still trying to find out the cause of what seemed to be tummy troubles. Our pediatrician was supportive of me cutting out dairy, but didn’t strongly feel like my baby had an intolerance. After all, he was born early and new babies’ stomach and intestinal systems are still developing, maybe that was the case. He didn’t have any skin or diaper issues.
The month before I had half-heartedly started cutting out dairy, but I realized I was eating a lot of “hidden dairy” that I hadn’t even thought to look for so I got more serious about reading labels.
My chiropractor suggested cutting out wheat, which got me researching food intolerances in breast milk. It’s really hard to do elimination diets, but I wanted to make my baby feel better and be happier as soon as possible. (aka I started feeling desperate – mixed with post partum hormones. fun). After reading about baby intolerances, I also tried cutting out eggs and soy. At the same time I was desperate to find anything to help my baby feel better, but my mommy-intuition told me it wasn’t an intolerance (no spit up, no skin rash, no real diaper issues). And while starting this “elimination diet” possibly driving myself even crazier.
After a few more weeks, I called the Dr. and after describing his symptoms to the nurse, we also got a prescription for baby zantac thinking maybe it was “silent reflux”. I thought we’d try it, maybe it’d be the miracle so many other moms described for silent reflux. But I had my doubts.
It didn’t take long to see that zantac was making no difference.
Pumping
I’ve been trying to pump but it’s so hard when I get less than 3 hours between feeding. The thought of pumping, feeding him with a bottle, then washing the bottle and pump parts seems like SO much more work than just breastfeeding. Especially when I am home with a toddler and no other adult to help. When I do pump, it’s in between feedings and I maybe get 1-2 ounces.
I love my Spectra S1 pump, and am going to look into getting the parts to be able to use the Medela flanges with it.
Overall, I am less stressed about my supply, but more stressed about my colicky baby. I am not obsessing over how much milk to have in my freezer when I go back to work.
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