Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Fill'er up
This afternoon Carter had his first weight check appointment. This was different than with Logan - with him, an in-home nurse came to check-up on us for a couple of days, rather than us having to going to a small clinic (due to different insurance plans, I'm sure). It wasn't too bad though, because Logan stayed at home with Bill. I just had to show up with Carter ready to nurse.

We got there & a nurse/lactation specialist asked me a bunch of different questions about Carter & his eating/elimination habits. He's scored an A+ on all fronts there. Breastfeeding is super easy for us again & actually even easier than with Logan because I'm not having a fast letdown & drowning Carter with my breast milk. So, he's eating well & having more than enough wet & poopy diapers. The nurse put him on the scale & he weighed a little less than he did at discharge from the hospital. He weighed 6 pounds, 10 ounces at birth & dropped to 6 pounds 3 ounces the day after (which was within normal limits). He weighed a little less today, but nothing that was concerning. I nursed him & then he was weighed again. The nurse was very pleased that he was getting plenty to eat (2 & a half ounces, maybe a little more) & was very confident that Carter would be back up in weight by tomorrow.

I thought this was a great appointment because it was just concrete proof that everything was going as it should. I know I'm very lucky that breastfeeding comes naturally for me & my kids when it's not that way for so many other moms. I don't mind the sacrifices that I have to make for my kids to be exclusively breastfed. Sure, I'm the only one that's getting up in the middle of the night or "on tap" every three hours all day for a year (or a little more). I won't be able to eat or drink anything without thinking about how it will effect Carter, but it's worth it to me in my book. Especially because it is so easy.

5 comments:

Dawn @ Bent, not broken said...

Yay for breastmilk!!!
lol
I so wish I could have successfully breastfed both kids. But knowing that it actually does come easy for you and others is pretty awesome.
And yay for Carter (and you!) for being so healthy!

Smurfette said...

i'm thankful also that breastfeeding came easy for me as well even if the letdown isn't fast.

I'm also going through weaning right now after a year. What did you do to replace the breastmilk when it was time to wean? Nothing I read talks about what its replaced with. The baby is too young for milk and I don't want to use formula and she doesn't want to drink water....

angie said...

I struggled for the entire first month with breastfeeding, but I wanted to do it so bad I never fought for something harder. Then just like *that* it was easy!

You do have to sacrifice a bit, but you're right - it's SO worth it!

Elisabeth said...

I too loved breastfeeding. Though it was hard at first, it was so worth it. I firmly believe that it has made a HUGE impact on Stinks eating very good eating habits. Glad to hear things are going well!

Eriness said...

I loved breastfeeding too. With Sophia, it was VERY hard. But with my second, it was a breeze. Glad things are going so well for you!!