Friday, March 6, 2009

5 months + 5 days = sleeping through the night: Devon (February)


We have arrived. Devon is sleeping through the night ... at least I hope last night was the beginning of a beautiful nightly tradition. The night before last he slept from 8:30 pm until 6:30 am, got up to feed, then back to sleep until his usual get up time at 8:30. Last night he went to sleep at 8:30pm and I basically had to wake him up at 8:30 am! He was laying in his crib doing that creepy eyes-half-open thing and I just said, "Good morning" and he came out of that all smiles and coos. Things are looking up!

On a related, but different baby topic this is for all the nursing mothers out there. I know that "generally speaking" it is pretty easy to nurse. If they latch on, get in the right position, you eat properly, drink plenty of water, and nurse often then there should be plenty of milk. This has not been that case with me. About a month ago I noticed that Devon was pretty fussy after a feeding and seemed like he was still hungry. He was agitated most of the day and wasn't napping well. He was eating every hour to hour and a half and my body can't make milk that fast. 2 weeks ago he was particularly cranky and wasn't calming down and in spite of our best efforts Joe finally asked me if he could make the baby a bottle. I sighed a heavy sigh of defeat and gave him a bottle of formula. Not only did he inhale it he was happy, cooing and even laughing afterwards. We both noticed that in the last few weeks he wasn't cooing at all so it was nice to hear his little voice again. For the next few days I was struggling with the decision of switching to formula (which I was giving him at every feeding) and pumping what I could. I would pump every 4 hours and get only drops or nothing at all so I knew there wasn't enough for him to nurse. I know that Mama's milk is best so I gave it one last shot and called my doctor. I heard there was a pill that was available to help increase the milk supply. It is often given to mothers with a low milk supply, adoptive mothers who want to nurse and has even been shown to induce lactation in men! Wouldn't that be nice. I figured that if the pill didn't work that I could definitely say that I tried my best before switching to formula. Well ... it worked. "They" say that it should take 2 weeks to kick in, but it is already working for me and though he isn't totally off formula it is no longer the main event. At the end of the day you have to decide what is best for you and your baby and sometimes fighting to get them to nurse is not worth it. If your body isn't making enough milk then you have to make sure that your baby is getting the proper nutrition weather it comes from the breast or the bottle. But for those of you who are committed to it, and think that you can make it work then there are things out there that can help.

P.S. On a side note the pill does make me very, very drowsy which is a very common side effect.

4 comments:

yo nance said...

Annie, I know how important nursing is to you, but I didn't know you were having problems. So very glad there is something out there for you and that things have worked out. I didn't know there was a solution like that, so maybe there are others who didn't know either. I'm glad you shared.

Kim said...

I didn't nurse Sam for very long... being in the NICU made it a challenge but with Abby, it was so much easier & I loved it. I'm glad you are able to continue! Congrats on the sleeping thru the night...my kids were like 6 before they slept thru the night.

The Desjardin Family said...

Annie, he is just the most perfect little baby! SO BEAUTIFUL! I am glad you have gotten the nursing thing worked out.

Kate said...

just getting to reading this now...so glad that things are working out. I pumped like crazy while Charlie was in the NICU and luckily have a bit of a stash in the freezer. I hope that I am able to nurse for as long as I like, but never heard of a magic milk pill...glad to know