THREE Weeks AND

8 pounds and 10 OUNCES!!!! 

Baby Kate has regained her birth weight of 8 pounds 5 ounces plus 5 more ounces!!!

Since birth, Baby Kate is unable to completely fill her belly with milk directly from my breast, so I usually breast feed her until she falls asleep- which is usually 5-10 minutes into breast feeding on each breast, then supplement her with 3-4 ounces of expressed milk when I have some in the refrigerator, then pump to replenish my milk storage or if she is still sleeping, pump then feed her the milk just expressed from the bottle... usually, by her late evening feeding at 10-11 pm, I am out of stored milk and since formula stays in the tummy longer,  I feed her formula... Pat has been doing the evening feedings the past several nights....

The week of breast feeding, formula feeding and expressed breast milk feeding every 2-3 hours paid off with a 10 ounce gain... I was feeding her at 10-11 pm, then waking her about 2 pm and 5 pm during the night for more formula feedings... not to mention feeling like I was constantly bottle feeding or pumping in between... I thought I may lose my mind, did develop a clogged milk duct and did have a few "come aparts" as my Southern Friend, Alicia, would say... then on Tuesday morning, I accidentally slept through the 2 am feeding, waking at 4 am... guess what... Baby Kate was still alive, well AND sleeping, so I woke up, made a 3-4 ounce bottle and filled up that sleeping tummy...


She is doing a GREAT job of holding her head up, which she has literally been working on since birth and continues to be a very alert baby, almost constantly making eye contact... she also makes a lot more noises at night and definitely has more gas with tummy problems at night... I can always tell when her tummy hurts because she cries out in the most heart breaking cry right before she pulls her knees up to her chest and poops or gases... this of course breaks my heart!!!  I've started putting infant gas drops in her evening bottles to help out with this... I make her formula bottles for her 10-11 pm feeding, with the gas drops, and her middle of the night feeding as well... this seems to have helped...

Just since yesterday, I have been allowing her to make a noise without jumping up to check on her and then trying to shove her binky in her mouth for comfort... clearly she makes noises and can soothe herself without my interference... I think this is allowing her to get more rest... It certainly is allowing my nerves to relax, just a bit..