Baby Update

We went back to the doctor's office today after seeing the pediatrician on Monday because of concern about Saoirse's poor feeding. We were worried and our fears confirmed when they weighed her and she hadn't gained any weight since they saw her the week before. So we've spent the week supplementing her with what we now realize was an insufficiently small amount of expressed breast milk with a syringe and felt confident that she was eating better at the breast as well. Unfortunately when she was weighed this morning, she had lost an ounce. Not anything to freak out about, but definitely a cause for concern. We don't want to give her artificial nipples at this point so we had to scramble around and find a better way to administer her supplement. The doctor tracked down a feeding tube with a larger syringe that we are now using that to "finger feed" her with a much larger amount of milk. I think we actually overdid it tonite because she totally barfed on us earlier. lol.

anyway, it's been a very stressful week, we've been incredibly worried. The thing that kept us from completely freaking out was that all our medical professionals told us that she looked great, and seemed very healthy despite the lack of weight gain. But i've never felt anything as frustrating as being the only source of nutrition for another being and not being able to work together well enough to get enough milk from me to her. I know we'll get better at it as time goes by, but it sucks right now. no pun intended. lol.

We are SO thankful that we have a great resource in our doula Sarah and midwife Suzanne. They not only made sure that we had an AMAZING home birth experience, but have been incredibly reassuring and helpful in the weeks since. They are pretty awesome ladies. :D Sarah has lent us a top of the line breast pump as well as a breastfeeding pillow, and several slings to try. Anytime we have a question or concern we call her and between her and Suzanne, they go out of their way to work with us. I can't sing their praises enough.

Baby is crying, time to go attempt to feed her again. Moo. :)