In Which I Continue to be Totally Unsure of Myself

Baby J had an appointment on Friday for a little check-up. Apparently, little girls and old women can get dry um, down there, and need some cream to make sure things are sticking together. I'd never heard of it, but we'd been diligently putting cream on Baby J's girly bits for three weeks and we needed to make sure everything was fine. Well, her girly bits are fine.

But she lost half a pound in the three weeks since her four month check up.

If you remember, we talked about lots of sleep issues at her last appointment. One of the other things she said was to try to go longer between feedings during the day. That happened pretty naturally on its own. We have been going three to four hours between feedings. And although I was becoming convinced Baby J is just really efficient and doesn't need to nurse all that long, I now think we might have a problem. The pediatrician seemed pretty concerned about the weight loss. She went from the 65th percentile to the 26th.

So these are the solutions we came up with. I should feed her on both sides at each feeding and try to get her to eat longer. When she's getting a bottle because I'm working, it should be four ounces. And I'm going back in on Thursday to weigh Baby J again and see the Nurse Practitioner/Lactation Consultant to make sure everything looks okay.

Hubby was away this weekend for a friend's bachelor party and I had to work both Friday night and Saturday night. We are lucky to have my sister and good friends around to help out (and for free!). My friend J watched her last night and she ate two four ounce bottles within an hour of each other! I had a hard time getting her to eat both at 1pm and at 3pm before I left for work. She just seemed totally uninterested and cried rather loudly instead of eating. I'm glad she had those two bottles because I was concerned she didn't get enough to eat during the day, but it really confuses me. Is she just done with my actual breasts? I don't really think so because she does still eat especially at night and in the morning and even a little during the day. Should I just pump and feed her four ounce bottles so I know she is getting enough...whatever enough is? I'm thoroughly confused and unsure of myself. And totally freaked out because I only pumped one four ounce bottle at work last night and am scared she's going to go through a ton of milk while I'm working two doubles this week. I read oatmeal helps with milk production so I had a big bowl for breakfast yesterday and today. I'm also thinking of getting some fenugreek capsules to take to help with the milk production especially for pumping purposes. I'm just scared the production will go crazy and I'll end up with mastitis. I just feel at a loss and don't really know who to call because I'm sure everyone will tell me something different.