Poor Weight Gain and Acid Reflux

Most all parent know that a child looses some weight shortly after birth. This is totally normal and the weight will return before you know it.

When Matthew was born he weighed 6 pounds and 5 ounces. Remarkably even though he was having trouble feeding he only lost 3 ounces.

Since he was having trouble feeding my doctor scheduled him for a weight check when he was a little shy of 2 weeks old. Don't judge me, I'm a new mom, I forgot to bring his diaper bag. oops :-) I allowed them to weigh him anyway even though I think he had a dirty diaper. He weighed 6 pounds and 8 ounces. The doctor said that his weight was okay but she wanted him to be gaining faster.

2 weeks later he had another appointment and he weighed 6 pounds and 13 ounces. When I heard that I was a bit concerned. He hadn't gained much at all.

When I came home I read that some babies don't reach their birth weight until 2 weeks after birth. Maybe my baby is just a slow grower. And besides he is gaining some weight.

One reason I think he is gaining weight so slowly is because he tends to vomit after his feedings. His doctor said that this is probably Acid Reflux.

Here are some tips to help an infant that tends to vomit.

1. Feed the infant in an upright position
2. Burp the infant a few times during the feed.
3. Leave the infant sitting upright for 30 minutes after the feed.
4. Allow the infant to sleep with his or her head elevated above the stomach.

These tips have been really helpful for Matthew. They tend to work if he doesn't try to eat to fast. Burping him a few times help him to slow down and let his brain catch up with his stomach.

She also gave us 3 options to use along with the steps mentioned above.

1. Acid Reflux Medication
2. Change the formula to the one called "AR". It is thicker and sits in the stomach better.
3. Rice Cereal which will thicken the milk.

She told me that all three options work just the same and it just comes down to personal preference.

I chose to go with the Rice Cereal. I know that many of you will not agree with this choice but I don't see any thing wrong with it. She told me that it was safe and it works well for reflux. 

She told me to put one teaspoon of cereal per 1 ounce of formula.

I must tell you that this really helped him. He still vomits sometimes but I have seen a big improvement. I am surprised that I haven't seen a decrease in the amount or times he feeds.

Hopefully these things will continue to work and he will have gained weight the next time we have an appointment.

Struggles With Breastfeeding

Before I become pregnant, I always knew that I would breastfeed. I know that breastfeeding offers so many benefits for the baby and mommy.

• Helps build the baby's immune system
• Helps prevent certain cancers in the mother
• Helps promote uterine contractions to speed recovery
• Helps promote mommy baby bonding

This is what I intended for myself and baby.

Complications in Labor

I had what I call a traumatic labor. My blood pressure was really high. Therefore, after the baby was born I was put on a strong hypertension medication. The medicine made me feel really woozy and not my usual self. Not to mention that I hadn't slept in 48 hours.

I felt that it was best for my baby to spend the night in the nursery because I knew that I could not properly care for him. I was on strong medication, on bed rest, and had a catheter. 

In the Hospital

From day one my son was receiving formula from a bottle. And with that he could barely suck.

The hospital knew that I had every intention of breastfeeding, so they scheduled me with a lactation consultant. She came and showed me how to get Matthew to latch on and express some colostrum. 

She gave me a hospital breast pump and told me to pump my breast every three hours. This was hard to do because I had so many visitors and I am a bit modest. She also gave me a manual pump to take home with me.

While I was in the hospital my milk did not come in. I had to feed my baby formula just to make sure he was eating. And I thought that if he was having trouble sucking a bottle; a breast would be nearly impossible.

At Home

Once we returned home, I still had no milk. I would pump and get discouraged because I wasn't seeing results.

My milk finally came in on day 5 after I let my son latch for about 2 minutes. However, it still wasn't enough to feed him with. So, I mixed my breast milk with the formula. 

Sometimes I could pump about 1 once of milk. I wasn't satisfied with this so I decided to rent a hospital pump for a week. And honestly I got about the same amount of milk with the manual.

I started trying to put my son to the breast more but he hates them. Every time I try to feed him he screams and pushes them away. Sometimes he latches but he never sucks long enough to get full.

I still haven't completely given up but I must be honest, I don't know if it is worth trying any more because I think my milk is drying up. My doctor want him to have rice cereal with each bottle because of acid reflux; he will only be receive pumped milk. 

I hope I don't get any negative feedback but I don't know if my baby can breastfeed. Right now we are just focusing on helping him gain enough weight.

 

Baby Couldn't Suck?

So I guess the title explains it all. No, when my baby was born he didn't know how to suck. My husband and I would try to feed him and he would barely get 5 ml in a span of 30 minutes. I thought that babies were born having this skill.

I asked the nurses about it and they where having trouble feeding him as well. The told me that this is not common but some babies struggle with sucking.

Matthew didn't understand the sucking motion. He would push the nipple out of his mouth with his tongue. He was trying about it just wasn't working.

On top of his sucking problem; he was a very sleepy baby. It was really hard to keep him awake in order to feed him.

Since we were having so much trouble with feeding him, we had an Occupational Therapist work with him. She gave us some tips to help us feed him.

Here are a few of her tips:

1. Unwrap the swaddle the make the baby a little less cozy.
2. Sit the baby in an upright position.
3. Hold the bottle and the baby's lower jaw forcing the jaws to make a sucking motion.
4. If the baby seems to be uninterested, wiggle the bottle in his or her mouth to encourage sucking
5. Burp the baby in the middle of the feed.
6. If the baby has trouble burping rotate the baby's arms to encourage relaxation.
7. Try stretching the baby's legs.

These tips really help Matthew. The Occupational Therapist was able to feed him 30 ml during his first feed with her. 

It took my husband and I a while to get use to these techniques. However, when we finally got the hang of it he didn't need the techniques anymore. 

He now knows how to suck but he still is a slow eater.

Labor and Delivery Story

When I was pregnant I got diagnosed with Gestational Diabetes. My OBGYN thought it necessary to send me to a high risk doctor. He didn't seem concerned because my baby was the proper size and my fluid was normal and my blood sugar levels were always great.

Pre - Labor

When I reached 39 weeks my OBGYN still thought it necessary to delivery me quickly. However, I would not let her do it because I knew the risks involved in an induction. I read that one intervention more often leads to another. At that appointment she did a membrane sweep.

I hate I let her do it because it gave me period type cramps for no reason because it didn't put me in labor. By the way at this point I was one centimeter dilated and 50 percent effaced.

The next week at my appointment she demanded that I be induced because of the risk to the baby.I was 2 centimeters and 70 percent effaced. She did another membrane sweep and it really hurt.  She scheduled my induction for 2:30 am the next morning.

That's when it all started!

Before Going to the Hospital

My appointment that morning was at 9:30 and I never stopped cramping from that moment forward. I told my husband to go to work and I would call him if I needed him. I called him around 3:30 pm because I felt the need to time the contractions or cramps. I wasn't sure if I was having contractions because the pain was in my back and not my stomach.

Around 7:00 pm the contractions were around 2 to 3 minutes apart. I was advised to go to the hospital.

Triage 

When I got to the triage room to see if I was going to be admitted, my blood pressure was 186 over something insane. This really shocked me because I hadn't had blood pressure problems at all during my pregnancy. The monitored me for awhile an and it would not good down. We feel that my pain level was the cause of this. The gave me medicine through an IV.

When I arrived in triage I was 3 centimeters but had progressed to 4; I informed them that I didn't want any pain medication.

The doctor on call asked me if I wanted her to break my water. I said no and she told me it would help things progress a lot faster. I told her that I would allow it when I reached 7 centimeters.

Labor

At the hospital I was able to labor in the tub and be monitored at the same time. However, the pain of labor mad my vomit multiple times.

I was encouraged because every time they checked me I was progressing farther along.

At the 3:30 am the doctor came and checked me and told me I was 7 centimeter so I allowed her to break my water and of course the pain intensified. The nurse checked me an hour later and I was 8 centimeters. yay!

At that point, I stopped progressing. My OBGYN came to check on my around 10:30 am. I informed her that I was 8 centimeters and I hadn't progressed anymore since 4:30 am. She checked me and burst my bubble even more by saying that I was only 5 centimeter. I know! Have you ever heard of such a thing?

At this point I chose to have the epidural because I had been in labor for 24 hours.

With the epidural my contractions began to slow down. So the put me on Pitocin and put a monitor on my baby's head to make sure the contractions were adequate.

Delivery

Seven hours later at 5:30 pm I was 10 centimeters and could start pushing. I pushed for almost 2 hours. At first I didn't know how to push because I couldn't feel anything. I told them to turn the epidural off so that I could feel better.

After I pushed my beautiful baby boy out, I hemorrhaged. The had to get my uterus to clamp down which hurt really bad. The gave me medicine to help. In the end everything was ok.

My baby was 6 pounds and 5 ounces; 20 inches long. I am so glad that I didn't let him be delivered early. He had no problems with this sugar levels and neither did I.

It was a very traumatic experience but he was well worth it and it has not influenced my decision to have more children.