I've been reading some of the posts and found some encouraging words. So glad that these forums are here. I've yet to air my heart completely, so bare with me.
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With my first daughter born 10lb 8oz I was threatened by the doctor at my 2 wk appt that if I did not supplement her and get her back up to birth weight that he would admit her to the hospital and feed her himself. I never returned to him and only went to the doctor at about 5 months when I needed to begin vaccines. I was already stressed out by the WIC people who were trying to help me as well. None-the-less, I had the wherewithal to notice that she far exceeded all the milestones for a 2 wk old baby and was constantly moving. I followed the simple guidelines of feed on demand, but she was so colicy that I had to begin spreading out her feedings to at least 2 hrs to minimize the gas problems. It helped. Despite all of this she still weighed about 10lbs at 4 months. I continued to receive pressure to feed her solids although I desired to keep her off of them as long as possible due to allergies on my DH's side. I ended up pumping almost every night and come to find out much later I overproduced milk the entire 20 months of breastfeeding. In fact, I had to wear cloth plus paper breastpads at night and I still oversoaked them because she slept through the night at 4 wks. Due to the C-section and her kicking me in my incision and having nightmares about rolling over onto to her I moved her into her own bed and she quickly slept up to 8 hrs a night. With all the extra milk I pumped I attempted to feed it to her to increase her weight gain and all it did was make her more gasey and produce more stools. She didn't need the extra milk, she was about 14 lbs at 6 months and then 22lbs at a year.
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My second daughter was born at home weighing 9lbs 6oz and she had a condition called "Laryngomalacia"
 where her larynx was not fully closed. Well, the oversupply problem became apparent to me and I realized now that I had overproduced, not underproduced with my first. My second choked almost everytime my milk letdown. I found the football hold was best, but difficult to do when you are not at home. None-the-less, she did regain her birth weight at around 2 wks, but then loss a little and then began to regain once discovering the laryngomalacia. Again, the doctors were beginning to hound me about her weight gain and continued to do so upon discovering the laryngomalacia. The ENT said she would most likely outgrow it and she did at about 9 months. Otherwise, she met or exceeded all developmental milestones. I decided to only consult with the lactation consultant at the hospital and avoid the doctors all together. We analyzed her weight gain and she gained 6.5oz every two weeks consistently. As I had told her, I did not care how much that she was gaining only that she was gaining. I did take the recommendation of my friend and fed her one breast for 12 hours and then the other. It was an extremely hard thing to do, but she began to gain more consistently. In order to regulate my milk by her demand I avoided pumping and would go to her whenever possible to feed her when I worked. Interesting to see how evenly she gained though. She ended up not taking the bottled breastmilk like my first and would just eat solids in place of me being there. By a year she was 20lb, but gained the bulk of it in the 6-12 month range just like her sister. Both of these patterns are the complete opposite of all your growth charts.
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My first son (third child) was born at home weighing 10lb 9oz. He regained his birth weight by 10 days and by 6 weeks he was 12 lbs. He is still 12 pounds at 18 weeks, but thriving! He began sleeping through the night the first week of December (at 8 wks) and has slept between 6 - 10 hours at night since. He sleeps really long actually, but then goes through spurts where he only sleeps about 2-3 hours at a time all day and maybe 5 - 6 hrs at night which I believe are his growth spurts. None-the-less, he is my happiest, most content baby yet and has not had any colic. My friend asked me if I had weighed him recently and I said "no". I haven't had even taken him to the doctor for anything other than obtaining health assessment necessary for registering on base for possible childcare. He's so happy, so I am not worried about weight, but after reading several articles I believe that I do have an oversupply problem and probably need to apply the block feeding more heavily with him as well. It worked well with my second. I think it will help him get more of the hind milk in every feeding. The tricky part has been that I was still breastfeeding my 26 month old and she in now down to once a night. She used to clean up all the extra milk and made it easier for him to get more hind milk, I think! None-the-less, I am waiting to see if this little one is going to follow the same pattern as his sisters. He is beginning to show interest in solids, but I want to wait until after 6 months, perhaps even longer if he will begin to gain well again with EBF.
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I'd love to here your comments, inputs or experiences as well on this subject as I have had very difficult and stressful times with this whole issue and defending myself to the medical community. I have to be very careful that I don't allow this to affect me emotionally as it did with the first and second. It makes me want to avoid the doctors altogether.
