9

As in 9 pounds, that is. 

Henry has his last weight check in with the lactation consultant on Thursday.  He finally hit 9 pounds gaining 5 ounces in a week.  The l/c wants to see a gain between 4 and 8 ounces a week.  He falls at the lower end but he did gain appropriately, even with me cutting back on supplementation.  At his check in with the midwife later that day he weighed 9 lbs 2 oz on their scale but I know theirs is different than the l/c's scale.  I stick with the l/c's numbers since he's been more consistently weighed on hers.  And he's growing lengthwise as well.  He checked in at 23.75 inches or 60 cm.  He's starting to outgrow a number of things lengthwise even if there is a lot of room around.  He's still skinny.  I checked and Henry is in the 90-95th percentile for length and about the 25th for weight. 

He also seems to be starting his 6 week growth spurt.  He's been super hungry and while I know the l/c wanted me to call her if I had to supplement him I don't know how I can breastfeed him, have him get super fussy (squirm, kick, pop on and off, etc) and not be satisfied ... leading me to have to supplement him.  I had to supplement 3 times yesterday: 2 oz, 5 oz (!) and then 2 oz again at night before going to bed.  He was already supplemented once today around noon because he was hungry.  I gave him 3 ounces not long after breastfeeding and pumping (lovely!) because he was clearly still hungry.  And after than he cried for more.  So he took about a 1/2 ounce more.  He's currently sleeping, which he doesn't usually do during the day.  (On a side note, I think one of the clues he isn't getting enough from me at any time is that he doesn't sleep much.  Nowhere near the 10-12 hours he's supposed to be getting.  I'm lucky if he sleeps about 5-6 hours at night.  But not much during the day.) 

The three nights after my last post were a disaster as far as night sleeping was concerned.  He was waking up at weird hours and feeding poorly.  And I ended up with 3 or fewer hours of sleep/night those nights so I decided to do what was working before:  Start his last breastfeeding session when he is ready anywhere from 10:30 to 12:30 at night and then supplement him.  This works far better because I am able to get at least 4.5 hours of sleep.  Never more than 6 but 4.5 is better than 3 so I'll take it. When I supplement him (usually no more than 2 ounces) he wakes up ready to eat and is far more efficient at it.  He doesn't take 2 hours to eat!  So, as long as that is working I'm going to keep doing it.

I'm already on 4 pills of fenugreek 4 times/day, 5 pills of blessed thistle 4 times/day and 40 mg of domperidone 3 times/day and I can tell Henry just doesn't get enough from me.  He is rarely satiated and rarely sleeps after feedings ... unless he is supplemented.  I find it really hard to sit through a 2 hour feeding session only to barely get time to go to the bathroom and eat, if I'm lucky, only to have to start it all again at most an hour later.  I also struggle to get pumping in as well with that schedule. 

The point of this is that I'm going to have to supplement Henry.  Period.  I have no choice.  I broke down in tears last night whenever he goes through growth spurts because I don't like having to do this.  But my body just doesn't want to do this the way I thought it would.  Damned PCOS!  I'm already past what my m/w can prescribe for domperidone (30 mg 3 times/day) and other than checking out my thyroid I think I've reached my supplementation limit. 

I just have to keep reminding myself that it is more important that Henry eat and grow than where it comes from.  I just hate that I can't give him everything he needs.