Successful early nursing

From the time we came home from the hospital, we have been focused on getting Claire to nurse successfully and get back to birth weight. She was 8lb1oz and went down to 7lb6oz.

With Wesley, he went from 8lb9oz to 7lb12oz and was slightly jaundiced so our doctor at thd time made us give him formula to make sure he wzs getting what he needed. I've always felt like that decision set us in a downward spiral when it came to nursing. I was never able to nurse exclusively and thus both breast & formula fed Wesley for 10 weeks when I gave up nursing for formula bottle feeding.

This time things are turning out so differently. First off Claire only lost about 7% of her birth weight and our new doctors encouraged me to keep nursing. I decided to go to our hospital lactation to ensure i was nursing right. I took my mother in law with me and we bonded over ... Well let's just say she saw more than she bargained for. Unfortunatly Claire was still not gaining weight and she put me on a pumping regimen. I just about cried walking out of there ...

The next day I had a doctors appt again and she still weighed 7.6 despite 24 hrs of pumping and supplementing. My doctor told me to stop pumping and nurse every chance I could get.I was thrown for a loop here but she explained a) the baby is a better pump than any pump and b) I will go crazy with a pumping schedule. So I nursed round the clock whenever I heard even a whimper come from Claire and ... 3 days later she was weighed in at 7.8oz! Another 3 days later she weighed 7lb 10.9oz! Finally, at 2weeks4days she made it back to 8lb. I'm so happy now to be exclusively nursing and having a doctor who encourages it.

Just the thought of buying formula and making up bottles encourages me to nurse regardless of the otherwise known benefits. I'm sorry it didn't work with Wesley.