Has anyone seen the milk man?

I'm trying to track down the milk man this week, because we are running low on milk in this household, and I am not talking white or chocolate, I'm talking breast milk.

Earlier this week, PC and I took E for his 4 month check-up and to get his needles. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I was having trouble feeding him last week... and so going into the appointment I wanted to ask the family doctor a few questions, but we were barely in the office door before he had a few questions for me.

We discovered at this appointment that E has gained just shy of a pound since his 2 month check-up... and while I knew he wasn't a big gainer or a super chubby baby, I wasn't overly concerned because he has been such a happy little guy, and doing everything a 4 month old baby should be doing.

However... we stripped him down and weighed him and the eyebrows were raised by the nurse, the medical student, and the doc himself.

They went from raised eyebrows... straight to the percentile graph, and of course, E's most recent weigh-in (of a whopping 10 pounds) doesn't even register on this holy graph they use.

A serious of detailed questions about his eating habits ensued, and their advice was to put him on formula and FAST - feeding him as much as he will take and often. The doc went as far to say we have to start waking E up in the night for a feeding - to which I gave him a blank stare and the invisible middle finger shot up for emphasis. I am NOT waking up a baby that sleeps through the night - sorry.

In the meantime they were sending us to see a pediatrician to see if it might be more then being 'undernourished' as the family doctor so delicately put it. I was thinking we would see a ped in a week's time, but NO, we were called later on Monday afternoon for an appointment the following day - thus making me feel that this low-weight gain issue was an EMERGENCY.

We left the family doctor's office, and I managed to keep my emotions under control until we hit the car. I was a mess... I took it personally what he said about E being undernourished... and while I know everyone can tell me its not my fault, I do take the blame and the responsibility as I am his mother, and I am the one who feeds him on a daily basis, and I am suppose to know my baby. I think what upset me even more is that because of this whole 'weight' issue, they decided to hold off on giving E his 4 month shots... until the ped weighed in on the case (no pun intended) - so while the goal of the appointment was to get the shots, we left without them, and that made me mad.

So.... Tuesday we were off to the pediatrician, and to my surprise she was extremely nice and informative, and overall I adored her approach. She had read E's file previous to me arriving, so I didn't have to repeat my life history, and she was very easy to relate to, like a woman who has 'been there' with her own experiences - I quite liked that.

Her basic analysis was that E has outgrown my milk supply... meaning that I have enough milk to meet his needs and sustain his current weight, but not enough milk to exceed his expectations, thus allowing him to gain weight. This explains why feeding him later in the day is such a challenge because according to her, there is barely anything there as the day wears on and he is frustrated by that.

While she flat out said, she doesn't recommend/promote using formula, in this case, its necessary to supplement with formula (in addition to breastfeeding) and work on getting my milk supply up (by drinking more fluids, EVEN the occasional beer)!

So... we left her office, with an armful of formula, and an appointment to see her in a week. She fully believes that E will gain weight with the top up, and that it won't be long before he is back on the charts and everyone is happy.

Once Tuesday was over... I was relieved. We have a plan - AND its not the end of the world. I am happy to go back and see the ped again next week, and I hope that the results will show on the scale for E.

If all goes well I will chalk this up to an emotional Mommy hiccup on my part... if not - you'll definitely hear about it!

I think I already mentioned this earlier in the week, but 'oh... the joys of motherhood'!