Failure to Thrive

Failure to Thrive, what a terrible thing for a first time mom to see written about your baby. That hurts my heart just writing it. I know it isn't my fault, but it still doesn't make me feel any better.

This has a been a very trying week. Jaxson had his 2 week check up on Monday. We get there and they ask the normal questions for a physical, then they take him to be weighed. Last time we were there was when he was 5 days old and he weighed must have weighed about 7 lbs. He had lost some extra weight after being born which is normal. So when they weighed him on Monday he only weighed 7 lbs 3 ozs. The doctor started freaking out about how he hadn't gained enough of his weight back yet. He said we had to make sure nothing was wrong so he sent us for more tests, which meant more heel pricks for our baby. We had lots of questions for the doctor but he kinda rushed us tothe hospital. So they took 3 vials of blood and they asked us to wait 15 min to make sure it was a good draw. Sure enough, the nurse comes out and says they have to do it again because the draw was bad. I had already been crying since being in the dr. office and having to get him stuck again just killed me. So, we did the draw again and finally it was good to test. We got the test back later that day and of course they were fine. I never thought anything was wrong with him, I was just exhausted and sad for him.

So we get a call from the doctor and he says we had to supplement formula every 4 hours. So we had to feed him every 2 hours for the next 3 days. Luckily the grandparents and my sister were able to help out and let us sleep for a bit or we would have been wiped out. He said if Jaxson didn't gain weight by today, then he would have to put him in the hospital. Long story short, after a long and very tiring week, Jaxson gain 6 ozs. So now he weighs 7 lbs 9 ozs. We still have to feed him more often but we can start to extend it now and I don't have to give him formula unless I need to. We have to go back again for a weight check next Thursday just to make sure whatever we are doing is still working.

We think the problem was that I was breastfeeding him incorrectly. I was feeding him for 10 minutes on each breast instead of letting him finish one whole side so he could get the fatty milk that comes at the end of the session. Basically I was giving him skim milk. I was justfollowing what I was told from the hospital. They tell you so many things when you are on drugs and out of it, so maybe they told me something different but I don't know. It's all so confusing.