Trial and Error

FYI: This post is about breastfeeding so if that makes you uncomfortable you can stop reading here. This is for documentation purposes as well as to help other moms who may struggle with this. Come back later for cute pictures of the boys! :)


Last week I wrote about Oliver's all day long, extreme fussiness and how we kind of perplexed as to what was wrong with him. My friend Dora had had a similar situation with her youngest son and she found out she was having an overproduction of milk. Because of this her son was filling up on the foremilk and never getting the hindmilk. The foremilk is thin and full of lactose, which can make the baby's stomach hurt if they don't get the hindmilk to help them process it. She offered up the suggestion of just trying to nurse him on one side so that he was sure to get the hindmilk. It made perfect sense to me so we tried it. Hey, I was up for anything at this point!

The first 2 days of this it seemed to be like the miracle solution. He was so pleasant, even smiling and cooing! Dora was my new hero. Then Thursday rolled around and he was back to his old self. I finally called the doctor to see what her opinions were; of course, it was her day off. I finally get a call back from her on Friday and tell her my thoughts. She thinks it could be the foremilk issue as well and offers up another suggestion. She tells me to pump off an ounce or so before letting him nurse so that he was sure to get the hindmilk. Of course this easier said then done b/c who has time to do this with a screaming kid and a toddler. I waited until Jeremy got home and pumped. I realized my milk had kind of leveled out so I started putting him back on both sides on Friday night.

I am happy to report that I think it is finally working. He was pleasant all weekend unless he was sleepy. We may have turned the corner...keeping my fingers crossed!

(Update: We still don't know the date of the MRI. I found out on Friday that we have been approved by our insurance company for it and are now waiting on the hospital to schedule it. )