Four Month Appointment

Today we had Pippa's four month appointment. I was anxious to meet with the doctor today because the last couple of weeks have been pretty rough. The last few days have been worse. Pippa has been crying (colic-like screaming) and inconsolable. Last night she went to bed at 8pm and woke up screaming at 10pm. She was up until 1am then down for about an hour and up about an hour over and over. I am exhausted. It's even worse when Dan is gone working because we can't trade off. Anyway, she has been nursing more at night so my first instinct is that she may be ready for solids.

We got to the doctor and the normal measurements were done. Head is still 97th percentile  (17.24"). Height is down a bit only 91st percentile (25.75") but the shocker was her weight. She was only 14#7oz. that is the 64th percentile! Normally I could care less about that stuff but she has gained less than a pound in two months. Needless to say, we were concerned and wondering what the doctor has to say.

His thoughts are two-fold. The crying could be caused by a bladder infection or extreme hunger. To rule out a bladder infection, we would have to catheterize her. Ouch. So he wants us to practice the "Freedom to Eat Act" for the next couple of days. He believes that her hunger has outgrown my milk supply. I cried. I was devastated. We have done so well (I thought) in feeding and still having milk to store that I never realized I could be underfeeding my baby. So here's the plan: for the next couple of days I will nurse her on both sides until she is done then offer a bottle (we are choosing formula for the time being) of extra milk to see if she takes it. He believes this will solve all the problems. He thinks that she was getting just enough through nursing to satisfy her at that moment then she was hungry within an hour or so and by three hours she was starving. This would prevent her from sleeping through the night and also proper growth. If this is the issue, she will be fine tonight and from now on. He also said that we could start some rice cereal if we want, this would allow us to minimize the amount of formula calories she receives. However, if by Friday, she still has hour+ bouts of inconsolable crying, he wants her back in his office for the catheter. She doesn't have any other signs of a bladder infection (fever, refusing to eat etc.) so we think this might just do it.

After we got home, I hunted down a formula coupon and bought a canister along with some brown rice cereal. Her first feeding she nursed both sides then took one additional ounce of bottle breas tmilk. She slept for an hour after her playtime and woke up happy for the first time in weeks. Our last feeding I tried some formula after nursing and she was NOT having it. So we did more expressed breast milk (2 ounces)...good thing I have a stock pile. I will try to do some formula/expressed milk mix for our next feeding. Since we've been home she's been in a great mood; she's talkative and playful and is sleeping well. I hope it continues into the night.

Interesting enough, with Liam, I dried up at four months and now with Pippa we are having issues as well. Although my supply is good, she just wants more than I have. I wonder too if maybe I'm just not eating enough calories. If I've been so concerned about getting back into shape that I denied my body what it needed to make enough milk. I know that I can go around and around on this but it doesn't matter. We are going to do what it takes to feed and nourish our little girl; formula, breast milk, cereal...whatever it takes.

We would appreciate some positive thoughts our way as well all try and rest a little better this week and hope this helps our little girl get on the growing track again. This is a very tough thing for me to actually talk about so  writing it out has really helped. Thanks everyone for your support and well wishes. We will keep you posted by Friday.

Also...gotta get my plug in there, VOTE for Pippa as Portland's Cutest Baby, the link is in the below post.