Not Such a Baby - Alex: Sunday 2011-12-18

Its been a few days of ups and downs.

I'd been feeling pretty discouraged about nursing. We'd been working on it 1-2 times per day and Alex would latch a little, but would get tired and frustrated after a few minutes. As his nurse put it this weekend "He just hasn't figured out how to organize it all yet." And my milk supply hasn't really stepped up to the plate either - despite pumping 10 times a day. (I'm totally serious). I've visited with the lactation consultant several times and we are going to try a supplement that may help. The staff here also introduced the idea that we may need to be open to formula/bottle feeding if he figures out how to eat and my supply hasn't kicked in. So I have been worried that this may be something that also despite our best attempts will not go as planned - and ultimately something that we end up abandoning. I was pretty teary the last couple of days.

And then today, he had a great nursing session this morning. Thanks to some help from nurse Lori (have we mentioned how awesome the staff are here at the ISCN?), he latched on properly and nursed for 40 minutes!!!! Definitely a confidence booster for both of us. This takes a lot of energy for him, so he will sleep for a good chunk of the day. If he is awake later, we may try again, but tomorrow is another opportunity.

Bath time again! This time he got a heater above him to warm any little body parts exposed above the water line. Mike's hair nearly caught fire instead though!