September 7

My "Labor Day" happened a week ago. But it's great that Joe has this extra holiday to be home from work. He took his one week of paternity leave last week. Tomorrow he returns to work.

We are still so frustrated because Rebekah refuses to nurse. Is she really getting enough from the medicine dropper? Again, we called Sharon, the lactation consultant, and she suggested we come see her at her office.

Things did not go very well at the lactation consultant's office either. We tried to put Rebekah to the breast, and she just screamed and screamed, probably because she's so hungry. Sharon had me pump a little milk to soften things up so Rebekah could latch on. Again we tried to get her to nurse, but to no avail. Sharon then took a syringe and tried to finger-feed her with the syringe and then to supplement with my expressed milk at the breast. Things still just weren't going well.

While there, we also weighed Rebekah, and she was only 6 lbs, 5 oz, according to the scales in the office. Apparently she was losing even more weight. Before we left, we determined that Rebekah needed at least 12 ounces a day to stay healthy and grow. We decided that until Rebekah was able to nurse or I was able to express that amount, we would also supplement with formula so that she would not stay dehydrated and would gain her weight back.

The syringe feedings are easier than using a medicine dropper, but still quite messy. We fed Rebekah my expressed milk first when she was hungry and then fed her as much as she would take of the Similac formula we had received samples of. I don't know how she managed to get it down, because it smelled horrible! Yet she seems to like it. During one particular syringe of formula, we heard the wonderful sounds of our little one's bowel movements..."So this is what formula does to her!" was Joe's response.
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