We're finally getting into somewhat of a routine with the new addition to our household! Will is super laid back, MOST OF THE TIME! He is a good eater, and a good sleeper, when his tummy is full and diaper is clean! Sister is an adorable helper...she loves to give him his binky and grab a diaper, or the burp cloth, etc. She has also been VERY interested in the whole breastfeeding thing, and has been constantly asking to "Have a drink of Mommy's milk?" I've been explaining over and over that "Addison drinks milk from a cup, and Baby Brother is too little to drink from a cup, so he has to drink milk from Mommy" etc....but this hasn't clicked yet. Addison also loves to "help" me pump. It's hysterical, she helps plug the cords into the pumping bottles, and turn on the pump and sometimes wants to hold the bottles to my boobs while I'm pumping...and she looks inside the pump and says "Up and down, up and down!" Lately she's been dancing around the room to the pumping sound and she says "Addison's dancing!" She is such a character!As many of you know, I had a breast reduction about 13 years ago. It was always up in the air whether or not I'd be able to BF Addison. I was soooooo stubborn about it, and did everything in my power to BF Addison. I had a low milk supply, (due to severed ducts etc) so I took herbs, pumped endlessly, and did acupuncture to ensure I could BF. I made it to a year with Addison, with minimal supplementation (pumped milk/formula). This time around, I'm making more milk (this is usually the case the second go round with or w/out surgery) but I'm still taking the herbs (Fenugreek) and pumping. At our first lactation appointment with Will, he lost 10% of his body weight and was 6 lbs 5 oz. We were instructed to supplement with a syringe, by pushing pumped breast milk or formula into him, via a nipple shield (I know, TMI for some of you!). At our next appt. he went up to 6 lbs 9 oz. This was only 3 days later, so he was gaining over an ounce a day. Our next appt. is tomorrow, and we think he's back up to his birth weight by now. He definitely looks bigger and is more alert. Hopefully we can switch to a bottle soon for the supplementation, because the syringe thing is getting old! Lots of work!
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Great work! We had to do the supplemental feedings with the feeding tube at the nipple (no shield though) for the first several days with both of our girls too. Definitely is a lot of work! When we took Madison to a "big sister" class at Evergreen before Lexa was born the nurse said that older siblings wanting to breastfeed was incredibly common and that, in her opinion, letting the older sib try to breastfeed (which is generally not successful since they have lost the ability to properly latch) usually stopped the fixation and helped to make it not seem like such a big deal. Madison never asked to breastfeed but I let her taste the milk once in a cup and she didn't like it. Just thought I would pass that on - I remember at the time telling Erik that I couldn't imagine letting Madison try it but it does make sense that then it wouldn't seem so exclusive and mysterious.
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