The Boob vs. The Bottle- Round 2

In following up with my last post about Austin's eating and overall horrible crankiness, I feel as if I have won the battle of The Boob vs. The Bottle.

So here is where we left off last week...

Austin was cranky ALL.THE.TIME. If he was awake, he was a Fussy McFussypants and I was convinced that I had been blessed with an unhappy, difficult baby.

I was trying to figure out what the culprit was, so I started the good ol' Process of Elimination.

Was I not producing enough milk?
Did Austin have reflux or some other intestinal issue?

I needed to know which of these was our problem so I could start to solve it.

I first started with a call to Lactation Services. I told them about my concern of possibly not producing enough milk. I told them I thought this because Austin would nurse for hours and hours, sleep for 15 mins, then wake up starving again.

They told me to take him into his Dr. and have him weighed. If his weight was on track, then he was obviously getting enough food and my body was producing enough milk. Also, seeing his Dr. would rule out problems like reflux.

Off the Dr. we went...

I felt a little silly since we were there basically for "no reason" other than to weigh him and see if he was gaining enough weight. Of course he was an angel at the Dr's, making nary a sound.... (seriously, I wasn't making up the constant crankiness!!!)

Austin weighed in at 9lb, 15 oz at that appt! He gained a pound and a half in just a week and was now in the 50th percentile for weight; and seeing that he lost a lot of weight with his jaundice, how much he gained proved that yes, Mommy was making plenty of milk!

Ok, so we could eliminate that option and I could stop feeling tremendous guilt over my milk production. I was making plenty, and that really made me feel great.

His Dr. examined him, listened to me recount what our nursing sessions are like, and ruled out reflux or any gastrointestinal issue. Other than gas sometimes, his tummy was perfectly healthy.

Ok, that that's out...

So why the unhappy cranky baby???

Between talking with Lactation and Austin's Dr, we came to realize that we had "A Snacker" on our hands.

Yep, Austin already must be following some trendy Hollywood diet or something because he was eating little amounts of milk, several (and I mean SEVERAL) times a day.

He would spend an hour nursing, fall asleep and awaken minutes later ravished because he was never getting full! 

I always knew he was a lazy nurser.. he'd latch, suck, stop, sleep, lick, latch, unlatch... latch, lick, suck, stop, sleep... etc.

He just couldn't focus and get the job done.

Newborn ADD???

So our solution to this issue involved two things:

1. Start pumping and giving Austin a bottle so he's eating a large amount faster and thus be fuller and more satisfied... supplementing with formula if my body needed a break to refill and catch up with his milk demands.

2. Spend more time soothing him to sleep so he sleeps more during the day. His little 15 min catnaps were not only draining on me, but leaving him cranked up and tired as well. He needed to sleep every 2 hours in order to be in a better mood.

I've been following this process for a week now, and let me tell you... I feel like I have a brand-new baby. Austin actually spends some time awake now, and coos, talks, babbles, looks around at the big world and acts (gasp!) happy and content!!

Awake and not cranky... wow!

And now that I know exactly how many ounces of food Austin is getting at each feeding, I have started to figure him out better too. If it's only been an hour since he had a bottle, then I know his crying or fussiness isn't hunger, it must be a burp, a diaper, or discomfort. Knowing that he is getting plenty of food takes a lot of the confusion out of what his needs are.

What a relief it is to no longer be the frazzled Mom grabbing the crying baby, whipping out my boob and crying with exasperation "WHAT is wrong with him??? How is he still hungry??? He ate 30 minutes ago!!!!???? Wahhhhhh........."

Yes, that would be me crying in that scenario, not him.

And for the Mommy guilt about supplementing him with formula? Not there. I quickly got over that when I realized that its better to have a happy baby then try and be the "perfect" breastfeeding mother who never uses formula. Unreal expectations! My job is to fill that belly up (and enjoy the hours of napping and quiet and ensue...) not to be perfect.

So in battle Boob vs. Bottle.. both came out victorious in our case!

Now on to the next issue.... sleeping more. :-)