Exclusively Pumping

We have been a little bit concerned about Kaylee's weight gain (or lack there of) for some time now. While it's generally expected that babies gain about an ounce a day, Kaylee's only been gaining approximately 3-4 ounces a week. We tried not to get too worked up at first...she was happy after being fed, having more awake/alert time, developing appropriately in all other areas, and she had never lost weight...but we went to the doctor this week.

We went in Thursday and Kaylee weighed in at a whopping 9lbs 8oz. My doctor ordered some blood work on her, just to be sure that she didn't have some sort of problem, and suggested that she might not be getting enough calories. She had us spend the rest of the day Thursday and all day Friday with me pumping and Kaylee getting 4 ounces in a bottle at her feedings. Doing this at home with Mike's support is no problem, but let me tell you, being alone at work on Friday...pain in the ass!!! I got very little accomplished.

We went back to the doctor yesterday morning and Kaylee weighed 9lbs 12oz. She gained 4 ounces in two days! She gained as much in two days as she had been gaining in a week! Wow!!! So...the official order is for me to continue exclusively pumping and giving Kaylee my milk in bottles. I've been given the option to start some medication that may boost my supply, but I'm going to give the pumping a few days to see what happens. We may also cut some of her bottles with a few ounces of formula. It'll make our supply of milk last a little bit longer, and we have some left from when she was born that's about to expire in February.

I'll be honest, I'm pretty sad. Don't get me wrong...I'm so glad that this is going to work and that Kaylee's finally going to get the calories she needs, but I love nursing and hate hate hate pumping. I'm so sad that I can't hold her to me and know that she's getting what she needs. Sometimes I watch Mike feed her while I'm pumping and I get so jealous. That's supposed to be my job. It'll just take some time. Who knows...maybe once I get my supply going a bit more, we can try nursing again. I'm not getting my hopes up, but who knows...