Sunday, April 18, 2010

LC visit more reassuring

We spent 1.5 hours with the lactation consultant yesterday. Can I say I totally love that Ontario's health care system provides this service for free? Don't know what I'd do without them. Same with the multiple nurse visits for weight checks.
She measured K as being up to 3394g (had a dry diaper before the weight check, for once, then proceeded to soak it with pee and have a diaper blowout a couple hours later), for a weight gain of just over 16g/d over the previous 2 weeks. Acceptable, and she didn't seem concerned.
She was happy to see that my pumping output seems to be trending up (average of 146cc/d in the first 3 days a couple weeks ago, to an average of 240cc/d in the last 3 days). Milk transfer remains a little crummy at 26cc with two feeds on each side, but when we supplemented the 30cc of EBM at the breast instead of by the finger, K got another 10cc out of that side while she was at it.
K wasn't too happy to be manipulated by the LC to try to get a deeper latch though. And especially not happy with trying to tube feed at the breast, since the LC would try to get her latched and then stuff the little tube into her mouth. That did not go over well, and she kept slipping back up the nipple, worsening the latch and making things hurt.
Instructions for the week (with a repeat visit next Sat) are to feed on demand or at least every 3 hours, and supplement with 30+cc at the breast after she's had a couple goes at the first side each feed. She apparently requires about 68cc/feed for 3h feeds (160cc/kg/24h), so we're almost there. I was also told to up my domperidone to 4 tabs TID in an attempt to increase the supply still more.
On our way home, I caved in and bought a My Br.est Friend pillow to try to make feeding her a little more comfy. Not so impressed with the pattern, but it is much more less of a strain on arms, shoulder and back to use it vs the pillow+blanket setup I had before.
It's so hard to believe that she's been with us for almost 5 weeks already - time is flying!

4 comments:

K said...

Good luck, hope the changes help!

MMC said...

It's nice that we have those things available freely in Canada - LC's and public health nurses coming to the house for weights etc - but for me, I found it added a great deal to my stress, rather than alleviated it. I was glad to end that part of things.

I'm SO impressed at your dedication to breast feeding - I found it so hard, and domperidone made me really sick. As you know, I couldn't stick it out after a few weeks, and have been bottle-feeding ever since. I still have a lot of guilt about that, but I guess we can only do our best. And you're clearly doing great! :)

Jill M. said...

Let me know if you like the "My Brest Friend" and if you think it's better than the boppy pillow. I'm considering getting one. Thanks!

R.J. said...

Thanks for your congrats :)
Glad to hear BF is going better. I hear of so many people that struggle with it and give up quickly. I hope someday (when needed) I have your perserverance.