Sleep?

Not for me! Lainey is not a bad sleeper... she just chooses to do it at the wrong time of day. Yesterday she slept from 11:30 until I woke her up just before 4:00. Who knows how long she would have slept if I didn't wake her up! I wish that long stretch of sleep was at night! She does seem to be settling into a pattern though. She likes to get up in the morning, eat and then stay awake for about an hour and a half. She'll eat again and then fall asleep for 3-4 hours. I am hoping we can find a routine in there somewhere that will help get her on track to sleep a little longer at night.

That 7 hour sleep we had last week may not have been that great looking back. We went to see a lactation consultant (different than the hospital specialist... this one is Board Certified) on Wednesday because I was still having so much trouble getting Lainey to latch on correctly and without hurting me. The amount I was able to pump was starting to decrease too which had me worried. Milk is made by demand... no demand and the supply goes down. I had a feeling that Lainey wasn't getting much milk even though I was nursing frequently. Her incorrect latch was leading to a lowered milk transfer. The lactation consultant, Lori, weighed Lainey at her office and she was 6lbs. 13oz. While this was on track to being back to birth weight by two weeks of age, Lainey had only gained two ounces in the week and a half since her doctor's appointment. She should have gained at least five. After feeding her in the office, we determined that she was getting about 1 ounce of milk from me and she needs about two per feeding at this point. So Lainey probably slept for so long that night because she was hungry, but didn't have enough energy to wake up. :(

Lori was a huge help. She said that my latching technique was actually pretty good and would work great for 70% of women and their babies. But for us, I need to be pretty close to perfect to get a latch that doesn't hurt and gets Lainey the milk she needs. She helped me see what a good latch really is and while I am still having trouble getting it on my own, it's much better than before. Since my supply is low (she wasn't getting enough, so it told my body that I didn't need to make more), I have to work to get that back up. We still aren't getting great latching all the time, but it's getting much better. We rented a hospital grade pump and that is really helping. It gets about twice the amount of milk that my personal pump was getting which means that we are at least able to supplement with only my milk and not formula anymore. I'm also taking a supplement called Lactaflow which might be the most vile tasting concoction on the planet. But hopefully it will help get my supply up.

I am off to get ready for church while Lainey is still sleeping. I had time to update the blog this morning because there wasn't enough time to go back to sleep after feeding time. Thank goodness for Sunday afternoon naps!