Thanks for all the words of encouragement and support after our last post. As of yesterday I have mastits - again. So my quickly-dwindling milk supply has been almost completely wiped out. I mean we're talking I'll pump for 15 minutes and get maybe a quarter of an ounce total, whereas a day or two ago I was getting between 0.75-1 ounce. Still not much, but much more than what I'm getting now. I have a feeling my pumping days won't last a whole lot longer. Right now I'm pumping every 4 hours at the advice of the lactation consultant/nurse practitioner at the pediatrician's office, in hopes to not get a third round of mastitis. I'll gradually stretch this to every 5 hours, then every 6, etc. until I'm completely weaned and not producing anything. At the rate I'm going I don't feel like that will take long. I'm on a different antibiotic for the mastitis and hopefully this will clear it up once and for all. It's definitely not fun.
I'm still really grieving the loss of breastfeeding Eleanor. It's something I so badly wanted to do, but I'm not sure we could have done anything differently to make it work. When there's not much milk and it's not letting down and your child doesn't have enough to eat...well, there's not a whole lot you can do. The LC at the pediatrician yesterday made me feel better about our decision to switch over. I was slightly nervous to tell her we weren't breastfeeding anymore but she was completely reassuring that we had made the best decision. She said that as parents we have to make hard decisions and sometimes what's best for our kids isn't the choice that we would prefer. She reiterated several times that we had made the choice that was best for Eleanor, even though it's not the choice we wanted to make. And I can already tell a difference in Eleanor in the few days she's been on mostly formula, with some bottles of breastmilk thrown in. She's sleeping better, is more alert, acts full when she's finished eating, and just all around seems happier. And she's gaining weight! As of yesterday Eleanor is weighing in at 7 pounds 9 ounces! Woo hoo! That's almost big enough for me to wear her in my Mo.by wrap and the Er.go carrier :)
And because it's not a post without a cute picture of little miss Eleanor, here she is enjoying some tummy time - she loves it :)
I'm still really grieving the loss of breastfeeding Eleanor. It's something I so badly wanted to do, but I'm not sure we could have done anything differently to make it work. When there's not much milk and it's not letting down and your child doesn't have enough to eat...well, there's not a whole lot you can do. The LC at the pediatrician yesterday made me feel better about our decision to switch over. I was slightly nervous to tell her we weren't breastfeeding anymore but she was completely reassuring that we had made the best decision. She said that as parents we have to make hard decisions and sometimes what's best for our kids isn't the choice that we would prefer. She reiterated several times that we had made the choice that was best for Eleanor, even though it's not the choice we wanted to make. And I can already tell a difference in Eleanor in the few days she's been on mostly formula, with some bottles of breastmilk thrown in. She's sleeping better, is more alert, acts full when she's finished eating, and just all around seems happier. And she's gaining weight! As of yesterday Eleanor is weighing in at 7 pounds 9 ounces! Woo hoo! That's almost big enough for me to wear her in my Mo.by wrap and the Er.go carrier :)
And because it's not a post without a cute picture of little miss Eleanor, here she is enjoying some tummy time - she loves it :)
She is totally adorable! Glad to hear that the feeding change is making for a happier baby - and hopefully a more relaxed momma too!
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