Waiting for poop!

[puppeteermom]

Well, last Friday we had an amazing homebirth! Now we have a new beautiful baby girl (I'll change my sig as soon as she has a name) and are thrilled. She was 8 pounds 2 ounces at birth, 20 inches. Labor was only 8 hours 15 minutes (a big change from my last labor of almost 48 hours!).

Of course, I knew going into this that the hypoplasia would still be there (hemmorhoids go away -- hypoplasia doesn't!). Anyway, I've been following protocol (fenugreek, goat's rue, mm tea) and milk has come in better than it did last time, but I still have to supplement (sigh). :

Now we are just waiting for the pooping to begin. I'm really stressing this. Send any good pooping vibes my way. I don't want to have to go back to the doc tomorrow...I want to be at home in bed with the baby, naked, and having dh dote on us! But I need the baby to poop...when she was born, ALL of her mecomium came out following her birth. She has a huge blow out (mw was very, um, impressed). So we didn't have the typical meconium diapers over several days. We've just had several days of NOTHING. She is having smelly, sulfery smelling poots...but just air. (It's been four days since the birth -- fortunately her bilirubin levels are not abnormal or anything...but I still have to call the doc tomorrow...)

My worrisome brain and crazy hormones have me fearing the worse...What's wrong? Why hasn't she pooped yet? Is something wrong with her digestion? Should I switch formulas? Just look into donor milk? What can I do...? Well, you know how it is being a mom to a newborn...:

Send positive vibes this way, please!
-Heidi

[blsilva]

I'm sorry, because I don't have any good advice, but I can definitely sympathize with the "waiting for poop" stress. Both of my boys seemed to be in no hurry to poop when they were born, either, and it was so hard. Especially when you feel the pressure from the dr every time he asks "Did he poop yet?"
All they told me was to nurse more, but it sounds like you're doing as much as you can. Just hang in there.
And congratulations on your sweet baby!

[Mrs_Hos]

Hmmmm sounds normal to me...both my babies didn't poop for a while after getting meconium out...meconium passed in the 1st 2 days, then no poop for 4-6 days or so--then breastfed poop started--slowly--1 poop a day at first...
Oh, and my 3wk old is still tooting up a storm....

[sonrisa]

Congrats!! on your new babe

Yes, I know so well, what you are going through, the same happened with dd who is now 12 weeks...i too suffer with hypoplasia and am still feeding at the breast and supplementing with the SNS.

My dd at birth weighed in at a big 8lb 3 ounces and had a large mecomium bm twice and then she waited almost 5 days to poop again )oh how we both just felt so nervous) and boy it was scary...that is when we discovered my milk hadn't really came in like it does for other women, and we started to supplement with a spoon first off then the SNS, I started to pump, to do everything. Now I am taking my fenugreek, more milk special blend with goats rue, and just started dom

my dd did have a bm on the 6 day and since then she just has not been a everyday pooper, she has a large sometimes explosive bm about every 3 or 4 days and that is normal, many moms say I am blessed.

What I am saying is that I think you are ok, some babes just do not poop often, but keep a good eye on it, maybe do the donor milk just because it could help, formula is there if you need it, but if not go with the donor milk, and you may see some results. oh it was also very helpful to have a scale so I could see exactly what was taken in and how much to supplement, just to get an idea and start a routine.

Best of luck and felicidades mama

Abigayle

[puppeteermom]

Still Waiting...

Now we are on day #5. Thanks everyone for your words of wisdom, encouragement, and support...

We're supposed to go into the doc again today at 3:15pm...

-Heidi (still working on a name)

[puppeteermom]

Constipated newborn...

Well, we finally had poop -- and lots of it! It was green and really wet and slimy! I was just thrilled. That happened on day #5, late in the day and required rectal stimulation.

Day #6 saw no poop...now at day #7 she is straining with a much drier (older child looking) poop. I had to manually extract some (carefully) with a thermometer. It's terrible to watch her strain -- and we've tried two different formulas so far to supplement with. I had a similar problem with dd#2. I just hate it that my breasts just won't do what they are supposed to do. I'm doing the SNS thing again and have started pumping between feedings. I'm only producing a teaspoon of milk (total) though from both sides. I smell like I fell into a vat of maple syrup with all the fenugreek I am taking. I'm also doing the goat's rue tincture.

Any thoughts on newborn constipation? She's only a week old!

A friend of mine is a mw and she just called saying that she knows a mom who has some milk that she was looking into donating to the local milk bank. She's been screened...and she might be interested in doing a mom to mom donation instead...keep your fingers crossed! I'd love to not have a constipated baby...

-Heidi

[roomformore]

Originally Posted by puppeteermom

Day #6 saw no poop...now at day #7 she is straining with a much drier (older child looking) poop. I had to manually extract some (carefully) with a thermometer.

Any thoughts on newborn constipation? She's only a week old!

-Heidi

Try putting baby in sink with warm water up over abdomen and massage abdomen in a clockwise direction. It make take a number of minutes, but this can loosen things up- it can get pretty messy in the sink.

[puppeteermom]

Update

Well, we had a crazy weekend of really hard, pellet-like stools. I had tried the warm water trick, but no dice. It was just too darn solid.

I called the pediatrician and she wanted us to switch to Nutramigen. I'm not thrilled with this at all as it is primarily corn syrup solids (which I am sure are NOT non-GMO and : ). So now we are alternating between Nutramigen and Organic Similac...

I'm looking into donor milk. I've got one angel of a mom who is expressing an extra 2 to 4 ounces of milk/day for us and would like to find more...makes me want to write letters to congressmen. Seems that formula should be GMO-free! I also wish that Goat Milk formula were an option in this country...grumble, grumble. They have it in NZ!

The poop turned into peanut butter consistency on Tuesday and is now more like cheeze-whiz (nice imagery, eh?).

Oh, the things we moms just agonize over...
-Heidi