It's been a crazy week over here. I feel like I always say that but this time I really mean it. I guess it's really been 2 weeks actually. Christmas "vacation" truly ended when I returned back from Bellingham and took Emma for her well check up on Monday. At her appointment the month prior, her Dr was a little concerned that she'd dropped from the 90th to the 75th %ile for weight. She said it wasn't a problem unless she dropped again so encouraged me to pay attention to my milk supply and try and get in the habit of pumping daily. I did my best but seeing that showers are a little hard to come by, it's not surprising that daily pumping sessions were as well. Then we went to Mexico and I wasn't about to pack my pump....and then all of us girls got sick over Christmas which resulted in poor nursing for Emma....I bet you know where this is going.
Back to her appointment on Monday. She dropped to below the 50th %ile--yikes! Looking back, it all makes sense but I was so just trying to survive the busyness of all our Christmas celebrations that I didn't even notice. But in retrospect, it was obvious--my milk supply had tanked! Emma had been waking up to 5 times a night when I was at my parents and I could not figure out why. And she was taking upwards of an hour to eat and never seemed satisfied afterwards. And then when I really thought about it, I realized I wasn't waking up engorged anymore and wasn't experiencing any random mid-day let downs like I had been. I'm sure my own illness, decreased appetite and severe sleep deprivation due to the frequent wakings didn't help anything. My doctor also said 4 months of age is the common time to experience a decrease in milk supply because it is the point in time where your body can no longer draw calories from your reserves to make milk as well. So basically if you aren't eating enough, you won't make enough. This sort of surprised me because I had been *cough* thoroughly enjoying the Christmas goodies so didn't think I could possibly be deficient there!!
So began the week. Ever since Monday morning, I have basically been nursing and pumping every 2-3 hours and then attempting to give her a bottle of milk if she's still acting hungry. I started taking Fenugreek and am now trialing another herbal supplement that is supposed to help. I am drinking more liquid than you would possibly believe and have taken the "increasing my calories" recommendation to heart. I even choked down a chocolate stout and then sort of "enjoyed" a couple Belgian Whites because the nurse practitioners at work always told moms that beer helped. To add to all this, Emma hasn't really been napping (I think she's been hungry) and then I already mentioned how our nights have been going.
Then for whatever reason (maybe she was feeling left out?), Isla decided to make 5 AM her new waking time. All week she has been crying and wailing for about 2 hours every morning, asking us to "come fix my blanket" or "leave the door open" or "turn the light on" or "come pick Isla up." Fun times, eh?
Yesterday morning I woke up and literally the first thing that came to mind was I need to go sleep at a hotel. Ha! But, despite these new challenges, I was sharing with Graham this morning that I thought I'd actually handled it all quite well and was feeling pretty proud of myself. I should be a complete mess, I kept thinking but I was actually feeling really good about the progress we've made.
Of course then I came home and accidentally threw toilet paper in the sink (gross, yes, but not as bad as it sounds and no need to worry, the sink has since been thoroughly disinfected!!) And I found a bottle of breast milk in the cupboard. And I also made dinner plans for tonight, totally forgetting I had a MOPS meeting that I had organized this evening. Well, I may be emotionally and physically healthy, but mentally? That's a whole different story!
No comments:
Post a Comment