Caroline gains weight -- at last!

It's time for another update on the nursing situation. This one is a GREAT update!

About a month ago, a La Leche League leader referred me to a lactation consultant at a nearby hospital who dealt with the same issues we've been dealing with when her 3rd baby was born. I spoke to her on the phone almost every day for the first week, and every couple of days the second week. She was absolutely invaluable because she had actually been through this and knew exactly what I was feeling and how dependent I felt on the supplemental nursing system (SNS) and the scale. She said that she finally had to just trust her body and her baby and just lock the scale in the closet and stop the supplements cold turkey. I was very nervous to do that, especially given my supply issues, but I saw an increase in my supply when I started up one of my medications again, so I decided to give it a shot about 2 weeks ago. At that point, she was 6 weeks old, and her latch and suck had magically improved, just like everyone said it would, so I decided it would be worth a try to see if nursing her frequently would improve my supply.

The first week was tough. Really, REALLY tough. She nursed constantly, especially in the evening, when my supply seemed to be the lowest. Sunday evening, I gave in and supplemented her with a couple of ounces, just to get her through the night because she'd been nursing nonstop for almost 5 hours, and I couldn't hear her swallowing at all when she nursed. That was the last supplement she had.

The first week, she gained about 2 oz, which wasn't much, but at least she was gaining. She was also having copious wet and occasional poopy diapers (usually one or so a day). I was a teensy bit concerned about the low weight gain and the smaller number of poos, but the LC reassured me that Caroline was probably just utilizing all of the breastmilk she was getting and recommended sticking with it and seeing how the second week went.

Boy, am I glad we did! Last Friday, Caroline was 9 lb. 13 oz. on the hospital scale. Today, she was 10 lb. 7 oz! So she gained 9 oz in a week. I did a before/after weight check, and she gained about 3.5 ounces when I nursed her. Previously, the most she had gotten was 2 oz (that was only once), and it was usually more like 1.5.

I am so proud of Caroline for finally learning to nurse effectively, and I'm proud of myself for making it this long. So after consulting with 6 lactation consultants, 3 La Leche League leaders, a chiropractor, a craniosacral therapist, and a speech pathologist, Caroline is finally 100% breastfed, and I plan to keep her that way for a good, long time! She's still nursing for 45 minutes every 2-3 hours (usually closer to 2), so I'm not getting any long chunks of time to get anything done, but I'm hoping she'll start spacing them out on her own in the next few weeks as we both get better at this nursing thing. Evenings are still difficult, and she cluster nurses from about 5 p.m. until bedtime around 11:00. She's sleeping well at night, though, and we usually get a 5-7 hour chunk in there somewhere so that we can actually get some sleep!

Anyway, there's the update. Thank you all again for your help and prayers during our difficult time. I think the prayers really worked! I'll update with new pictures as soon as I can!