Status Update

First I want to say thank you for all of the posts, emails, and phone calls I received regarding the breastfeeding. I feel like I was able to pull something from each of them, which was really nice. Unfortunately it is still a struggle. Believe me, I feel like I've tried all of the suggestions-letting him nurse as often as he wants in a 24 hour period without supplementing, eating more, drinking more water, etc. I met with one of the lactation consultants and we came to the conclusion that I just have a low milk supply--I've also found out that this is very common among women who struggle with infertility! Chalk it up to just one more thing that my body has a hard time doing:) One of the lactation consultants wanted to put me on a prescription medication to try and help to boost my production. I went ahead and filled it, but then after reading up on it and some of the possible side-effects I began to wonder if I should take it or not. Then we met with the pediatrician and when we mentioned it to him, he looked it up on his iPhone and told us that they didn't really recommend it because it was seen to pass through breast milk--so I decided to forgo that route! One of the other struggles with it is that Owen is just a bit of a lazy eater....which doesn't help the situation. I struggle to keep him awake--believe me, I've tried all of the suggestions on that end as well--which makes it really hard for him to get full. Over the Christmas holiday when Tony was home, I did a lot of pumping and he did a lot of bottle feeding, which helped to keep him awake and get his nourishment--believe me he was a much happier camper when that happened! Now, for the past few days since Tony has gone back to work, I've been nursing and then giving him a 1 oz bottle of formula, which has also seemed to make him happier--probably because he is full. He also generally gets a formula bottle before he goes to bed at night, which seems to stick with him a little longer and helps him and us get some good sleep. Then when he wakes up, I again nurse and supplement him with some formula before putting him back down. I'm not sure how long we will continue down this road, but for now it is working and he is getting full and doing some growing! Right now I take it a week at a time and know that he is still getting some of the good stuff from mom:)

Speaking of growing, at his pediatrician appt last week, he was up to 8lbs and was 21 1/2 inches--so he definitely gained some weight, but it might have been masked by the fact that he got longer! Still hard to imagine that he may not be back to the weight he was when I was carrying him around in my belly! We go again next week, so we will see how his weight is doing then.

Oh-and he went on his first trip to Hooter's with daddy, Grandpa Arms, Uncle Bill, Uncle Chip and Nick on Monday! He apparently was the star of the day--even got a picture with a couple of the girls, a bib, and an autographed menu commemorating his first trip! Daddy said he let him try the hot wings to get him started out on the right path.....hmm, maybe that is why his belly was a little upset:)