We Have a Plan

Today I went for an appointment at Abbott Northwestern Hospital with a Lactation Consultant at the infant feeding program there. And I couldn't have been more happy when I left that appointment. I learned so much from the nurse and we now have a plan that will hopefully solve a lot of the minor problems we're having.

I initially wanted to make an appointment to help with weaning Meri off of the nipple shield during breastfeeding. We left the hospital using the nipple shield because Meri was keeping her tongue on the rough of her mouth and she was pushing my nipple. Using the nipple shield forced her to keep her tongue under the nipple, therefore allowing her to breastfeed.

But now we've been home for a couple of weeks and we're still using the nipple shield. Though it isn't the end of the world, it's a little cumbersome and messy. I had been trying a couple of times a day with limited success. Not to mention that I wasn't even confident that she was in fact doing it correctly since I have never seen a natural and good latch.

Also, we found out at our first pediatric visit that Meri was a little tongue-tied and the doctor suggested a frenulectomy, which could actually help her latch. We decided to go ahead with the procedure and were actually encouraged over the phone by several lacatation specialists to do so. She had the procedure done in the office last Wednesday with almost no pain or blood. It took all of 3 minutes and Meri was happy immediately afterward when Jon picked her up.

So back to the lactation appointment. Earlier this week I spent some time looking into making an appointment for a lactation specialists. But after calling my insurance company, I found out that "Lactation Consultations" were not covered. So, first I called someone from La Leche League. They were as helpful as they could be over the phone, but encouraged me to make an appointment with someone - saying that the cost of the visit would be a lot less than the cost of formula, just to put it into perspective. So, I tried calling a couple of places to find out what they would charge for an appointment. I had received a card from Fairview for their lactation consultants, but they only did phone consultations and directed me to 3 different possible offices to make appointments. Then I came across a sheet of paper that the Home Health Nurse left me when she visited us three days after we got home from the hospital. It was about the Lactation Specialists at Abbott - so I gave them a call.

They were so encouraging and helpful and even told me that they would be able to bill my insurance as an office visit and 99.9% of the time it would be covered. They also informed me that we would have as many appointments as needed to get the results we wanted. So that brings we to todays visit.

I arrived at Abbott (which I have to say was a feat to get out the door by myself today with baby, stroller, carseat, diaper bag, purse, and breast pump, at their request - thankfully my good friend Danielle came over with some lunch and helped me watch Meri while I packed it all up - THANKS DANI!!)... and unpacked and took the long trek to their L & D department. The nurse I met with was super nice, understanding and knowledgeable. We talked about everything that was happening and everything that I was doing. And as it turned out, Meri was able to latch on pretty darn well!!! But the issue was more that I am way overproducing milk. I knew that to some degree, but had no idea the problems it was causing. Apparently the milk is coming out too fast that Meri can't sustain a natural latch and is overeating - leading to gassiness and fussiness and her 18 ounce weight gain in less than 14 days (1 ounce a day is on the high end of normal for weight gain - so she's exceeded that by a bit!). Also, the milk she is getting is all the foremilk, and no hindmilk. What's the difference, well - now I know. Apparently the foremilk is mostly sugar and water and the hindmilk has more creme and apparently you want the baby to get as much hindmilk as possible. So Meri has mostly been getting this sugary, watery foremilk which also leads to gas, discomfort and rapid digestion with explosive poos! Wow, so far - this sounds like exactly what we've been dealing with - the answer to all the problems with fussiness, discomfort, and feeding, and spit-up issues.

So now we have a plan that involves getting my supply to decrease and giving Meri more hindmilk, which should correct or at least help with SO many of the problems we've been having. We're going to try out this plan and I'm meeting again with the nurse next Tuesday. I know this is very personal info and maybe more info then anyone would want to know - but I am just so darn happy to have some knowledge and some answers - that I wanted to share! I will let you know how our plan works!

Thanks again for all the encouragement and comments on Facebook. Email, text, call or even stop by anytime - we'd love to see or hear from any of you, anytime!!