Two Ounces Down

We brought Iver in yesterday for a weight check and, causing me some mild (ok, medium) anxiety, he had lost two ounces.

The nurse/lactation consultant, Brenda, was not terribly alarmed by this.  At least not like I was.  She simply said we need to try to increase my milk supply.  To do this I need to try pumping every time after I nurse the little guy.  In addition, we need to give him one ounce of formula, or, when I can produce via pumping, of breast milk following each feeding.

I know this is a not a unique situation where a baby needs to be supplemented with formula, but it's a little tough on my maternal ego.  I want to be able to supply Iver with all of his needs -- at least the nutritional ones.  What makes me feel slightly better is knowing that I am doing everything I can to produce as much milk as possible.  I don't know what makes me not as prodigious lactation-wise as I need to be, but I suppose trying to guess the reason(s) isn't particularly constructive at this point anyhow.

So this is where we are.  Nursing every 2-3 hours, with 15 minutes pumping at the end of each feeding plus a bottle feeding -- all of which takes about 45 minutes to complete.  Since you start the clock from the beginning of each feeding until the start of the next one, this gives me between 1.5 to 2.5 hours where I'm not in milk supply and delivery mode.  (KLC does the bottle feeding, diaper change, and re-swaddling so this doesn't really add extra time to my routine.)

Brenda said this pumping after every feeding thing will be "short term" so hopefully it will be enough to get the little guy to bulk up in the short term and boost my milk supply in the long term.  We go back to the doctor tomorrow for Iver's almost-2-week check up so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that there will be some demonstrable positive difference in his weight.