Baby Steps
I noticed that Allie’s been filling out. Her cheeks are rounder, her jawline is curved with a little baby fat under the chin instead of looking chiseled, her tummy is rounded and her torso teardrop-shaped above the diaper instead of the previous elongated lean shape. This morning during nursing, I held her little fingers and thought, “Her nails are larger. Her hands are larger.”

Progress at the Lactation Clinic
Sure enough, at her second lactation clinic consultation today, the same nurse weighed her and said, “Oh my — she’s gained A POUND in the last week!” The average weight gain for a newborn is approximately 5 oz per week. She caught up and flew ahead. The nurse made sure to say she’s not fat, just doing really well and has noticeably grown healthy and “robust.” There was another baby there who was smaller than Allie, Mr. W noted how “tiny” she was. I found out that other baby is ELEVEN weeks old, but the mom is having major problems with breastfeeding so her baby’s growth is a little undernourished.
When asked how Allie’s been doing since we were last there a week ago, I responded that Allie’s developed a new problem; for the past few days, she has been spending very little time on my breast and would actually push herself away from it after 8 minutes or so. I’d try to get her to relatch, but she’d refuse it and cry. Then she’d root around as if she were hungry, but won’t latch for more than a few seconds before she’d push away and cry again. It drove Mr. W crazy last nite when Allie wouldn’t go to sleep around midnight and screamed bloody murder again until 1am and we’d fed her, supplemented, burped her, changed her diaper, so we had no idea what else was wrong. This morning, she made a giant poopy so we were hoping it was just her discomfort working on that.

“It’s About to Get So Much Easier”
We put Allie on my right breast and just like at home, in under 10 minutes she pushed herself off. The nurse weighed her and made repeated joking exclamations. “Oh my goodness. OH my GOODness. Goodness!” She grabbed the calculator and started tapping in numbers. “She just took in almost TWO and a HALF ounces!”
“Whoa, in like 8 minutes? On just one side?”
“You are really, really lucky; this is about to get so much easier,” the nurse said. So here’s what’s been going on. Since my milk came in a week ago, the supply has increased. My muscles around the mammary glands that pump out the milk are highly efficient, so the baby is getting a good supply in very little time. She pulls off in about 8 minutes because she’s DONE in that time, without even touching the other breast. But she roots around like she’s still hungry because she wants to snuggle with the comfort of suckling, and yet can’t take any more milk, so she suckles a bit and spits it out, saying “I want to suckle without milk!” The solution to that is the pacifier.
“You’re giving me permission to use a pacifier? Would there be nipple confusion issues?”
“There’s no chance of that,” the nurse said. Because of the efficiency of my milk let-down, and the particular shape of my nursing body parts, “there’s no way she would prefer a bottle or a pacifier to your breast,” the lactation nurse explained. “And your breastfeeding is already well-established.” The nurse unwrapped an orange newborn Gumdrop pacifier and popped it in Allie’s mouth, who took to it immediately. The other lactation nurse there exclaimed over how well Allie was holding it in on her own.
So I have no need to supplement anymore (not that I’ve been doing it much), no need to pump anymore (unless it’s uncomfortable and I really want to, but I pretty much only do it once every few days now to not overincrease the supply, and the nurse said I’m doing exactly the right things). “And you’re so lucky, the feedings are soon going to be just 3-4 minutes long!” Wow. She also said that occasionally Allie takes in 3-4 ounces between the two sides, and that after that, she has her long naps.
So the spit-up the last few days is normal, it comes from laying Allie flat on her back (to change, to swaddle, to sleep) too soon after she’s eaten so much. I’ve noticed that a good way to quiet her into sleep is to co-sleep with her so that her head is elevated on my arm. She sleeps long and well like that, and I’m a little propped so I don’t roll. Then after a few hours and she’s up for her next feeding, she sleeps better and can be placed in her co-sleeper next to our bed. She’s really only getting 2 feedings between midnight and 9am, so it’s not THAT bad, it just feels bad cuz Mr. W is so miserable getting his sleep interrupted. She gets about 7 feedings per 24-hour period, so she’s already lower-maintenance than other babies who demand hourly feedings.

Growing Up Fast
Allie’s also been awake and alert for longer and longer periods of time, and smiles frequently. She has a lopsided Elvis smile, and a full-on dimpled smile that turns her eyes into adorable little half-moons. Developmentally she appears to be ahead. The nurses also observed how well her eyes track the toy butterflies hanging on the handle of her carrier. And, her umbilical cord fell off last week, when she was around a week old. We were told not to expect that until the 2-week mark. (The cord loss was announced to me as Mr. W changed her diaper, saying, “Uh-oh…where did her umbilical cord go?” Later he found it and tried to show it to me. I was so grossed out.) That means we could submerge her in water and give her her first home-bath, which we did this past weekend.

I guess she’s making up for lost time, considering I wanted her out a week or two before she actually came out to greet us.

Breastfeeding Tidbits
Interesting FAQs I learned today in the lactation clinic:
* Eating sushi is fine; that doesn’t go into the milk supply.
* Having a glass of wine is fine for breastfeeding also; the alcohol content gets recirculated out of the breastmilk. It’s best to drink at least 2 hours before breastfeeding to allow the body time to filter out the alcohol, but generally, if mom’s not feeling a buzz, baby isn’t going to feel a buzz. But if mom has more than 1 drink, or drinks on an empty stomach, or is feeling buzzed, it’s best to pump and dump.
* Mom can have up to 3 servings of caffeine (such as that in 3 cups of coffee) per day, spread out thru the day, without it affecting the baby, altho caffeine DOES go into the milk supply and stay there. But up to 3 servings/day is pretty harmless to the baby.
* Breastmilk pumped on different days can be stored together in the same container in the fridge/freezer, but can’t be poured together unless they’re the same temperature. So to add newly pumped milk to refrigerated milk, refrigerate new milk, then when that’s cold, pour new milk into old milk container.

“You Worry Because You Love Her”
I asked the lactation nurse to check on Allie’s frenulum, just in case a short/tight frenulum is why latching had been difficult; I asked her to see if the white coating on Allie’s tongue is thrush. I asked her why Allie’s breathing gets gaspy and sounds like sleep apnea as she falls asleep. The nurse’s response to all of those paranoia things were, “Nope, totally normal. She’s perfect.” And apparently, babies have really tiny airways and they make noise and snort and stuff, especially if the heater is on at night. As for sleep apnea, she assured me I have no risk factors; Mr. W and I aren’t obese, the baby isn’t obese, no one smokes around Allie, Allie’s super-healthy.

The nurse left me with this:
“You’ve only known each other for 13 days. You’re still getting to know each other. Soon you’ll learn what each of her cries mean and you’ll know immediately if she’s angry or needs to be changed or burped or fed. Right now they all sound the same, and that’s okay. You’re doing REALLY well and you’re one of those lucky women who could probably have twins and feed them well. Look at all the progress you’ve made. You’re a great mother for putting in all this effort now, and it’ll pay off. By 90 days, it’ll all be SO MUCH EASIER, and easier than formula-feeding. Studies have shown that babies breastfed for a year have up to 8 points higher on their IQ, so if you already have a smart kid, this could put them in the genius category.”

Ying Yang
The nurse walked me out with the baby to give her assessment to Mr. W. He was so relieved nothing’s wrong with Allie, that her super-short fussy feedings are because she’s FULL, not because she’s STARVING, that he started laughing, and then we went to Mimi’s Cafe to celebrate. Allie slept the whole time in her carrier, although the booth we were first seated, the framed oil painting of all things fell off the wall onto Mr. W, who reflexively brought his arm up and held it back against the wall to keep it from knocking into Allie on the head. The Mimi’s staff was horrified, reseated us with abundant apologies, the manager came out to apologize and check on us, and the waitress insisted, based on her manager’s orders, on giving us free dessert.