Small Victories

Ezri had her four month shots today. Poor girl was a wreck! Only got a little nap in before I had to wake her up to leave, so she was exhausted and hurty. Took forever to calm down but then slept (in the stroller! She never does that) for 3+ hours!

Doctor made me feel ten times better about everything. He didn't make a big deal out of co-sleeping, he didn't bat an eye when I told him about how often I feed her, and wasn't in the least concerned about her infrequent poops or her weight. According to his growth charts (I'm assuming the online ones were the old charts based on formula fed babies, I know they've been revised recently), she's actually 15th-25th percentile (not sure why the wide range), not 6th. He said she just seems like a tiny baby, that's just how she is. Put my mind at ease (and we all know what stress does to milk production!).

Unfortunately, he was unaware of the link between POS and low milk supply, but said that if I had to be on Domperidone as long as I was breast feeding, so be it. He also mentioned that she's likely going through a growth spurt right now (worse time possible to miss doses and mess up my supply), thus the extra hungriness. Recommended starting rice cereal in a month, which he said will help with her hunger and maybe even make it so I don't need to supplement because the calories I can't provide will be provided by the solids. But overall, the visit was very positive.

So screw that nurse yesterday. I'm doing just fine (thank you to those who provided me with encouraging messages, comments, and even phone calls after my last post!). I've decided to stick with a formula schedule, give her one bottle in the morning and one at night (at the breast first, of course), because those are her most crucial times (being well fed at those times sets the tone for the rest of the day/night). And hopefully (as I did tonight), that'll give me the opportunity to pump right after I put her down in order to get at least some expressed breast milk to use in the morning (which means less formula). The more I empty my breasts completely, the more milk I make!

Tonight was a strange night sleep wise. Because of her weird napping day, she was tired at about 5:30 (starting to get restless and cranky). I figured I may as well put her to bed, rather than do a late nap and an even later bedtime (late bedtimes, counterintuitively, do not mean I get to sleep in). Nursed her a bit, fell asleep, then failed hardcore at the crib transfer. She did what she did last night: kept turning her head into the pillow. Last night I gave her a bottle of formula (and managed to get a whopping three hours of sleep out of her before she woke up), so tonight I decided to fully wake her up, breast feed as much as I could, and give her another bottle. Brilliant! Full belly, I put her on the breast again to comfort nurse her to sleep and she wasn't really interested. Instead, she fixed her huge eyes on a spot on the curtains and slowly drifted off to sleep. I swear it was just a fluke, but at this point, I'll take whatever I can get!

Picked up another sleep book today, still have to write about the one I just finished. But that is for another time. Right now I'm relishing in the fact that I had the time (and energy) tonight to do some misc tidying and make myself a sandwich (no Lean Cuisines for this mama tonight!).