This morning saw us at an unscheduled appointment with Dr. Schwartz to check on my stapled-up incision. Things got a little scary last night with some significant, unexpected drainage. Turns out that some of the concerns about someone of my size and shape having a Cesarean are coming true, but things aren’t as bad as they could be. The staples are all out now, and the wound *is* healing – so close monitoring is in order, but no further interventions were needed.

Dr. Schwartz wants me to be extra vigilant (and Paul too) about feelings of depression, anxiety, and being overwhelmed. He reminded us that we’re going through A LOT just in the general scheme of life and having a baby – in addition to my medical stuff and Kieran’s weight-related challenges. So feeling tired and overwhelmed is to be expected. But with my personal history, and my family history – he wants to be on the lookout for issues to be proactive.

Kieran and I have an appointment with the Lactation Consultants this afternoon at 3:00. They were so incredibly helpful in their daily visits while we were in the hospital. (The LCs are truly one of the things we miss about the hospital.) I’m hoping they can get us back on track with breastfeeding, as Kieran seems to have forgotten everything we learned and had working before we had to start supplementing. It’s getting to the point where his lack-of-latch is hurting me pretty badly. But because his immediate need for nutrition trumps properly learning breastfeeding technique, things have suffered. (We can’t be spending an hour on getting him latched when we have to be making sure he gets a given number of milliliters of EBM [expressed breast milk] every two hours…)

Supplementing: Babies are expected to lose a little bit of weight before they leave the hospital. Usually on the order of 4-7% of their birth weight. They gain it back by their 2-week pediatrician check-up and everyone is happy. Red flags happen though, when a baby loses 10% or more of their birth weight. Kieran hit the 10% mark of weight lost at Day 3. My milk hadn’t come in (which isn’t uncommon since MILK doesn’t come in until day 2-5 after birth) and the colostrum apparently wasn’t enough. There’s a smaller window too, with such a little baby: 10% of 6lb 4oz is smaller than 10% of 8lb 6oz.

There’s a WHOLE LOT of backstory to tell here (and it was a helluva couple of days/nights) but right now the upshot is that I have a rented hospital-grade breast pump at home am using it after every feeding. Kieran gets offered one or both breasts for as long as he’ll nurse, and then he’s offered a bottle to make SURE he’s getting 30-45ml of nutrition every 2-3 hours (closer to two is better.) We have bottles of formula from the hospital, but we do everything possible to not use them – only what I pump. He’ll be weighed today and tomorrow to see how we’re doing to make sure there’s really nothing else wrong.

Prayers for his continued progress and our getting back on track with nursing are greatly appreciated.