Night 4 with Ellie already had me wondering whether it would be worth it to make the midnight CVS run for some mylicon (even though I totally think that's just a scam...but desperate times...). After I finished feeding her around 9 pm last night, she was letting out the worst gas pains cry and arching her back and just acting miserable. When this happened with Timmy, I started thinking it must be the food I was eating that was making him gassy, which I now think was totally bogus as well.
I started googling and found this article which quickly had me convinced that her fussiness was being caused by my overactive milk supply. The weigh-in at the doctor yesterday backs up my theory... She is already just an ounce shy of her birth weight after only 3 days when most babies take about 2 weeks to get back there. Not an hour passes when she doesn't have at least one wet and one poopy diaper. And still, I'm ridiculously engorged for the third day in a row.
After speaking with the lactation consultant at the hospital this morning and hearing her agree with my assessment of the problem, I have a plan and feel so much better. Here I am at 5 days post-partum, planning to exclusively breast feed (at least for now) and I'm putting cold compresses and cabbage leaves in my bra and limiting her to one side per feeding. Seems crazy, but now I wonder if I should have done this with Timmy. I had to wear nursing pads the entire 14 months I nursed him, so I'm pretty sure that qualifies as a milk supply problem.
Even though I feel so much more prepared and equipped to handle a newborn after going through it once, I realize now that nothing makes you feel less desperate to try to find a solution when your newborn is screaming and not sleeping in the middle of the night.
2 comments:
Wow. I've never heard this before (and I actually consider myself pretty well-read on breastfeeding-related topics)! But it makes sense, and now I'm wondering if Leah didn't have this problem too... I was so engorged for so long I ended up pumping (just a little, not so much to signal for yet more milk) to relieve pressure.
I only ever fed Z from one side and she was usually completely and totally full after about 5-10 min. That whole switching sides thing just seemed crazy to me. What really helped me do that was the fact that she refused REFUSED to eat once she had had enough to eat. There was no overfeeding that one. If that's what she'll eat, do it. The books can't be all right for everyone all the time. Glad you have a solution and I hope it works!!
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