The Harkers

I’ve had a couple of requests for an update on Audrey’s feeding situation, so here it is. My last post about it was written when she was just over two months old, and right now she’s 5 1/2 months. We started out supplementing with formula and she very quickly realized that bottle-feeding was a much more effective system and rejected breastfeeding altogether. She would scream anytime I tried, so I just started pumping every three hours instead and bottle-fed her breastmilk, supplementing with one or two bottles of formula a day. I tried Brewer’s Yeast (which tastes awful), Fenugreek (which made me smell like maple syrup), and Blessed Thistle to increase my milk supply and found that Fenugreek did help a little bit, but not dramatically. I was a dedicated milk machine on our trip to Mexico, even pumping on the airplane, but by the time I visited my sister in D.C. at the end of last month, I was thoroughly tired of the whole ordeal and got pretty lazy by the end of my trip, pumping only twice a day. Last week Jim finally talked me into quitting altogether and we are done with that exhausting chapter.

Audrey is a great eater now and finally has some chunk on her cute little thighs. I recently looked back at photos of her on her blessing day and was just sick about how scrawny and yellow and unhappy she looked. The happy baby I came home to the day my mom first fed her a bottle of formula was all the reassurance I needed that we were doing the right thing.

(And apparently, so does corn syrup. Am I the only one who is appalled that corn syrup is the first ingredient in most baby formulas? Sigh. {Edit: It is the “gentle” formulas that are corn syrup based. The regular ones don’t usually have it listed.})

Those of you who are Facebook friends probably saw my status two weeks ago asking for help in increasing my milk supply. Well, here’s the whole story.

To put things in perspective, I breastfed Elijah for 14 months and never had to use any formula. He gained weight and grew just fine. Little Audrey has been another story entirely. At two weeks, she weighed 7 lbs. 7 oz. At four, she was 7 lbs. 9 oz. When the pediatrician told me her weight, I was pretty alarmed. At this age, babies should be gaining an ounce a day, not an ounce a week! She was still pretty yellow from her jaundice and was down to only one poopy diaper a week. She was a fussy eater and we often had feedings that ended in tears for both of us. Sometimes she’d get so frustrated that she would cry until she fell asleep hungry. It didn’t really seem to be a latching issue. I wasn’t sore and she wasn’t losing weight, just not gaining. The pediatrician didn’t really seem concerned, which kind of just made me mad. At birth, she was 99th percentile for height and 33rd for weight. At one month, she was 77th percentile for height and 7th for weight. Not okay. After another week of frustration, my mom called me one night and I just burst into tears. I was really worried about Audrey. My mom came to my rescue. She came over the next day and cleaned my house, did my laundry, made dinner, and told me to get out of the house for a little bit while she fed Audrey a bottle of formula. Now I’ve never been a breastfeeding Nazi, but I do feel that breastfeeding is the best way to go when it’s possible. So I felt awful about supplementing. When I got back home, Audrey was content. Like I’d never seen her before.

It’s been two and a half weeks of pumping and supplementing with formula and Audrey is a different baby. She is happy, a great sleeper, her jaundice is completely gone, and she’s starting to fill out a little bit. She was 9 lbs. 10 oz. at her two month appointment on Friday and I couldn’t be happier with her 20th percentile weight! I’m taking fenugreek to help with my milk supply, but I think that was only half the problem. Audrey isn’t an efficient eater. After she eats for an hour, I can always pump out another two ounces or so. And she’s never satisfied after breastfeeding. So it looks like I’m going to be pumping and bottle-feeding her breastmilk for the next ten months. Not the most convenient solution, but you do what you have to do for these cute little ones! My goal right now is to get my supply up to where we don’t have to use any formula.

And now for some baby eye candy: