First off thanks so much for the comments/emails/texts with your words of support, encouragement and assistance on my last post.
I can't believe only 2 weeks have gone by since i wrote it. Feel like we were put through the ringer there but made it out with just a few scrapes and bruises. So here's what happened since my last post.
The Bub and I were on our thawing milk, pumping, bottling schedule and we flew off to NJ to visit the folks and friends. One of my very dear friends, after reading my post, put me in touch with one of her best friends, who happens to be a La Leche League Leader (for more info on what that is
click here), who i now call my BreastFeeding Jane.
After much back and forth, talking about the different issues that could be at work - undersupply, oversupply, how milk is produced, food allergies, gas etc., she helped walk me off the ledge and come to the decision that I was going to do 3 things:
- Stop the pumping - its really hard to manage and control supply when you add this outside element in with nursing and bottle feeding and to be honest extremely exhausting with all the cleaning and timing.
- Let the Bub decide when and for how long she wants to eat. Not to get her to keep trying and instead offer her the boob every so often and let her eat on her own schedule. Mind you I still watched the clock.
- Stop the fenugreek - although its uncommon, i do believe at that amount it was causing me a lot of gas.
Miraculously, she started eating better. She still fussed, but then we took a break or tried again later. We tried different positions, like the one that worked at bedtime - what i like to call The Dead Man's Plank. Imagine if you will the chalked man outline, now take the hand that's over head and get up on the elbow in a semi-plank. With the other hand help steady the breast as if it were a bottle while the bub is lying down. Talk about getting a work out. Switch as needed to work that core and of course feed on the other side.
The gas though seemed to get worse. And so did her sleeping habits. She went from sleeping 12 hours with 1 wake up to twice, then three times, then 4! Every 3 hours trying to pas gas and sometimes succeeding but getting used to being soothed on the boob and expecting it. Not having much control over her belly and how her insides are growing I decided to restrict my diet. I've taken out dairy, soy and gluten completely. No bread, no cheese, went out and got gluten-free oats, using a lot more coconut products (flour, oil, milk) etc. Seems to be helping, well me at least.
After a very long day of flying she woke up 1.5 hours after her bed time screaming. Damn gas. The Hub hadn't seen his Bub in over a week and was having a hard time dealing with the tears, as was I. After some tooting she continued to cry and we continued to try all that was in our arsenal - gas drops, belly rubs, doing squats, singing, running a bath.. until we finally realized that we were in fact making it worse and what she really wanted was to just sleep. Put her back in her crib and after a few minutes of crying out she passed the f*ck out.
A call into the pediatrician the next day resulted in us trying some fruit juice. We had attempted to give her prune juice a few weeks back but I think it was too strong for her system and made it worse. The nurse said any juice starting with P would do and so off to whole foods I went to get some organic no sugar added 100% pear juice. She had said up to 1/2 cup a day would be okay to give her - to help move things along. I did the math and decided that 15 mls every other feeding would be more than plenty.
She is still gassy but the juice seems to be helping to move things along. Also just being at home and sleeping in her own crib I think has helped. Also now we can get back into our sleep training.
All in all I'm learning that as they grow and make more developmental leaps, babies have periods of being more fussy and cranky than others and all we can do is help them ride it out in any way we can.
Thanks again for your continued support
x
BMJ
