Saturday, April 10, 2010

Breastfeeding Blues

Well, buddy Paul will be 4 1/2 months old this week. That is so crazy to me! He was just my sweet, little baby boy just yesterday I feel like! He is getting so curious about everything. He has recently discovered that he has feet and he can bend to play with them. He thinks that's pretty hilarious. His new favorite--and I mean favorite--thing to do now is blow raspberries. He started doing this about a week ago and he does it mostly when I'm changing his diaper (weird, right?). He's doing really well with sitting...he obviously needs support but I don't think it'll be long before he won't. We also don't think it'll be long before he'll be crawling.

I'm excited about the coming months. He's already changed and developed so quickly and I'm so looking forward to everything else he's going to be doing...it's just getting him to that point. It's really draining having a baby that doesn't gain weight easily. What's weird is that his height and head circumference are exactly where they need to be. If they weren't, I would worried. But, I always go back and forth on why he isn't beefing up from my milk? It makes me feel like I can't satisfy his needs. It also doesn't do much for my ego when I see babies born 3 months after him and are already surpassing his weight or close to it. Don't get me wrong--I deeply enjoy breastfeeding...I just don't know what I'm doing wrong after ruling everything I can think of out.

Anyway, I needed to get that out.

Update: I got through the tough two weeks of my dieting and exercising and so far I've lost 8 pounds! I'm 19 pounds away from my pre-pregnancy weight and 39 from my goal weight (yeah, I gained a lot with Paul, thus I weigh a lot!).

4 comments:

  1. I'd tell you what I know about weight gain but it's probably the same as what you've read on Kelly Mom or the other good sites. You could always go to an LLL meeting or contact an LLL leader - the leaders have seen everything and could give you comfort on what is normal. And it's free expert advice.

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  2. Aimee had the same problem with Tanner when he was little bitty and it was because she has SO MUCH milk that he wasn't getting the "fatty back milk." So she had to pump and then feed. Sounds like a pain but it helped them :" love you!

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  3. Hey Catie, just found your blog, I love it! I just wanted to say I agree with Naomi...all of the fat and nutrients in your breastmilk comes out last in the hindmilk. The foremilk has more water to hydrate them immediately. I had this problem too. I would always try to nurse Madison on both sides instead of waiting until she got done on one. I finally figured out that she needed to completely finish one side before I switched her. Then just start on the other side the next nursing. Or I've heard some women just have more skim breastmilk, which is fine. Good for you for keeping at it though!

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  4. Hey, guys! Thanks for your encouragement. You don't know how much it helps (really, it does!). I don't have an oversupply or anything, Paul has a pretty weak suck so he would only get the foremilk and not enough of the hindmilk and would always end up falling asleep on me and would never empty me completely. I'm pumping and nursing him now which is great because we're both relieved/satisfied. He's always full and I'm always emptied. It's tiring because I feel like I'm either chained to him or my pump because my milk is pretty skim. But hey, he's gaining and I'm happy!

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