I took baby Annabelle for her follow-up newborn check today, and the little tyke had lost a lot of weight. I had been concerned that she hadn't had a dirty diaper (wet or poopy) in over 24 hours, so that combined with some significant weight loss concerned the ped, obviously. She gave me the formula talk, along with samples, and set me over to a lab to have her blood work drawn. Between feeling like a failure of a mom who is starving her child and then immediately having to watch her foot being stuck and squeezed for blood while she screamed.... I had my first official postpartum meltdown crying. 
I left the lab and called my mom, who pulled some sort of nurse-magic at the hospital and got me a hospital grade breast pump (along with several ready-to-feed bottles of organic formula, since she knew I was heartbroken). On my way to the hospital to pick up the stuff from my mom, I stopped by the birth center and bawled to my midwife, who hugged and consoled me and then gave us almost an hour of her time, weighing Annabelle, getting her latched, waiting for her to fully finish feeding and weighing her again. Meanwhile, she soothed my poor hubby's and my shattered nerves while her son played with my son. We wanted to avoid bottles this early, so she showed us how to syringe feed. She also gave Annabelle a gentle baby-chiropractic adjustment.
We left the birth center feeling better, got the stuff from my mom and came home to start a rigorous schedule of nursing, pumping, syringe-feeding, ad infinitum. So far, Annabelle has seemed content with nursing plus being fed expressed milk, so we haven't had to use any formula yet. I do have to take her back to the lab in the morning to have her bloodwork done AGAIN (urg!!) because her billirubin was slightly elevated, and the ped will hospitalize if it isn't down in the morning.
So yeah, I had a pretty crappy day and spent the majority of it feeling mostly defective and horrible that my baby has been practically starving. *sigh* Not a fun feeling at all.
Trying to look on the bright side, at least we know what the problem is now and are taking steps to fix it. And thankfully I have an awesome support system here, or I honestly don't know what I would do.
And also on the bright side, I weighed myself at the birth center and am down just under 20lbs already. That along with putting on a pair of nonmaternity pants today made me happy, even though I kind of cheated and picked my "fat" pants.
And I didn't particularly look good in then, but I'm gonna take what I can get at this point.
Keep my little babe in your thoughts and pray that her billirubin levels come down and her feeding goes up.
I left the lab and called my mom, who pulled some sort of nurse-magic at the hospital and got me a hospital grade breast pump (along with several ready-to-feed bottles of organic formula, since she knew I was heartbroken). On my way to the hospital to pick up the stuff from my mom, I stopped by the birth center and bawled to my midwife, who hugged and consoled me and then gave us almost an hour of her time, weighing Annabelle, getting her latched, waiting for her to fully finish feeding and weighing her again. Meanwhile, she soothed my poor hubby's and my shattered nerves while her son played with my son. We wanted to avoid bottles this early, so she showed us how to syringe feed. She also gave Annabelle a gentle baby-chiropractic adjustment.
We left the birth center feeling better, got the stuff from my mom and came home to start a rigorous schedule of nursing, pumping, syringe-feeding, ad infinitum. So far, Annabelle has seemed content with nursing plus being fed expressed milk, so we haven't had to use any formula yet. I do have to take her back to the lab in the morning to have her bloodwork done AGAIN (urg!!) because her billirubin was slightly elevated, and the ped will hospitalize if it isn't down in the morning.
So yeah, I had a pretty crappy day and spent the majority of it feeling mostly defective and horrible that my baby has been practically starving. *sigh* Not a fun feeling at all.
Trying to look on the bright side, at least we know what the problem is now and are taking steps to fix it. And thankfully I have an awesome support system here, or I honestly don't know what I would do.
And also on the bright side, I weighed myself at the birth center and am down just under 20lbs already. That along with putting on a pair of nonmaternity pants today made me happy, even though I kind of cheated and picked my "fat" pants.
And I didn't particularly look good in then, but I'm gonna take what I can get at this point.Keep my little babe in your thoughts and pray that her billirubin levels come down and her feeding goes up.
I'm sorry you and Annabelle had a rough day!
for you!
Mama. I hope she is able to start gaining weight soon.
that her beliruben count is down today!!
I'm pretty darn stubborn, though, and am not going to let it whoop my butt.
That is all wonderful news! Yay for poop!
