So I think yesterday was the most difficult day of my life, ever! Joe and I were running a little low on sleep yesterday but we were feeling pretty good about things. I am breastfeeding and I felt like things were going ok, it is hard hard to tell when you don't have a way to measure the milk. Lorelai was feeding well when she wanted to eat but if we had to wake her she didn't eat so well. She was making plenty of messy diapers so that was our measure of success.
Well, about noon yesterday Lorelai started crying and would not stop. It wasn't constant, she would cry for about an hour and then settle down. We were able to feed her some and she was making messy diapers still so we thought she had gas. We continued with the sleep for 30 minutes - cry for an hour - feed for 5 minutes cycle that she seemed to be for the rest of the day and ALL NIGHT LONG! About 2:30am we called the pediatrician and he said she sounded hungry, try to keep feeding her and bring her in, we had an appointment today already. She feel asleep about 5:00am and did sleep until 7:00.
At 7:00 we woke up and I fed her a little bit and then she slept the rest of the morning until 11:00am when we went to the pediatrician. Dr. May weighed her and she was down from her birth weight of 6 lbs 10 oz to 5 lbs 10 oz - which was 14% of her body weight. Dr. May discussed our options with us, bottle feeding or breastfeeding. He recommended a lactation consultant at Newborn Concepts and called and made an appointment for us.
We met with Robyn at Newborn Concepts and she checked Lorelai's ability to suck at the breast and we learned that her "suck" was not strong enough, which could be attributed to her low weight and energy. Robyn also thought that even though my milk appeared to be in, because Lorelai was not strong enough to suck that my milk was probably not plentiful enough yet. We then discussed our options, our only concern being that Lorelai put the weight back on and become stronger and the goal to be able to breastfeed again. We decided to formula feed her from a bottle until I could pump enough to supply her milk. Once she put the weight back on and I was producing enough milk for her we would switch her back to breastfeeding.
Oh my gosh, what a relief we felt. We caught it early and were able to get a good plan in place before she was too sick or dehydrated. We are feeding her every 2 hours during the day and every 3 hours at night. Every time we feed her I also pump so that my milk supply will soon match the demand of feeding. As soon as I get enough milk she will be bottle fed with breast milk but until then we have to give her formula. We are already noticing a difference and I cannot explain how much better we feel. I know that she will be all better soon.