Unexpected difficulties

Fair warning: this post is in regards to feeding issues, read at your own risk.

Toward the end of week five, I started to get worried about the whole weight gain issue. I thought that surely my child would alert me to the fact that she was hungry. For the most part she played the part of a well fed, happy child. She rarely fussed for long periods of time, and usually could be soothed quickly. However, as I started to read more articles online I started to get concerned about the any number of problems that could be lurking beneath the surface.

The IBCLC website listed a place in League City that would do home visits. Within a day I got a response to set up a visit with a lovely IBCLC named Leah. She came down and spent a couple hours with us to see what Ada's intake was during a feeding, watch how she fed, check for any noticeable problems, and from there create a plan to combat the weight issue.

We learned that Ada was only taking in about 2/3 of the amount of milk she was needing at each feeding. Her latch wasn't great and she was not sucking very well. The consultant identified three main issues that were working against Ada: an upper lip tie, a potential tongue tie and a bubble palette. The lip tie was preventing her from being able to phalange her upper lip and get a good seal and the bubble palette made it difficult for her to get milk if she didn't have a deep enough latch.

Our first plan seemed simple enough. First was to contact an ENT in Houston that she trusted for a consult and revision. In the mean time we were to begin giving her supplements in addition to her normal feedings and I was to begin pumping 6-8 times a day. A daunting task, but it seemed do-able. In addition I was to up my intake of herbs to help boost my supply. My original goal was to exclusively breast feed for the first six months before introducing solid foods along with breast feeding. I had already started pumping and building a stock in the freezer. Sadly it wasn't as much as I thought/hoped it was, but it got us by for the first few days.

We visited the ENT a couple days later. He confirmed the lip and tongue tie within minutes and had them snipped in no time. While baby girl was displeased at the time, she seemed to get over it quickly. I had hoped that with this fix, and some of our steps to increase my supply things would be back to normal in no time. Hahaha, not....

The following Sunday the LC dropped off a scale for us to check her weight and see how our progress was going. Sadly, Ada had only gained an ounce or two. I was devastated. After talking things through, and swallowing my pride, I went to the store to buy formula to use as supplement when I was out of breast milk and waiting to pump enough for supplementing.

Two weeks after getting her upper lip and tongue revisioned, we went back for our follow up. Thankfully everything had healed correctly. Now the biggest challenge seemed to be building my supply and baby girl's muscles. By this time I was taking More Milk Plus and Fenugreek several times a day trying to increase (along with pumping and lots of feedings). Since we had the scale we were also doing weight checks with each feeding to track her intake from me and know what to supplement. Being the scientist that I am, there was lots of experimenting with times and techniques to get the best results.

Things were going well, and she began gaining more weight. Our LC decided that it was time to make another visit and move us to the next step: nursing and supplementing via sns instead of a bottle. This would allow Ada to be in more control of how much extra she needed with each feeding. We stopped the weight checks with each feeding and relied on her cues. This worked for a couple weeks before Ada's weight gain stalled and then began to dip.

Frustrated, I tried switching things up during the day. Some sns, some bottle. Then last week I decided to do a check of an afternoon feeding to see how much I was producing (since it's normal to have a dip in supply in the afternoon/evening). Much to my surprise between the feeding and pumping there was 2 full ounces. If my afternoon gave me such a good feeding, surely that was a good sign. So I did a full 24 hour weight check, hoping badly that I was producing enough to stop the supplements (or be closer). Such was not the case. In the weeks since I started monitoring my supply I'd only increased by a couple of ounces. Not nearly enough to come off the supplements.

In the past weeks I've tried a number of things to help boost my supply: taking pills (more milk plus and fenugreek), eating lactogenic foods, making lactation cookies. None had seemed to work. Recently I started an herbal supplement called Shatavari, which has worked for other women. I'm hopeful that it may be working for me as I've recently seen a jump in my pumping volumes. Later this week I will do another 24 hour check to see if things have gotten any better.

No one ever said that breast feeding was easy, even though sometimes it sounds like it should be. I've had my fair share of days where I can't seem to hold it together and cry out of frustration. Frustration with myself that I'm struggling to produce enough milk. Frustration with my child who has to ability to taken a full 2 ounces a feeding, but doesn't always. I'm taking things one day at a time, hoping that my supply will get there but preparing for it not. I'm thankful that my baby girl is getting as much of my milk as I can give her at this time, and for the strength to endure this experience. Baby steps....