My baby's nursing causes me a LOT of anxiety. Is she getting enough? Do I have enough? Is she gaining enough? Should I wake her to eat? As I'm writing this, I'm debating on whether or not I should wake her up to eat. I generally do not like waking up sleeping babies. She will be 5 weeks old on Saturday, and I thought I would have had it all figured out by now, and would feel pretty good about nursing by now, but I don't.
One clue that she be good enough for me until our next Dr's appointment on whether or not she's eating enough are the amount of dirty diapers she has in a day. Nola has MANY dirty diapers a day. Which is kind of funny, because we had to stay in the hospital a few hours longer than I would have liked because they didn't think she was having enough wet diapers, and now her diaper is ALWAYS wet, and I'm always changing it. I thought diaper duty would bother me, but because of the hospital, and nursing ordeals I look forward to seeing a dirty diaper. It reassures me that my baby is getting something, and with the amount of poop and pee diapers she has in a day, my guess would be that she is getting a good amount of food (boobie milk) throughout the course of the day.
Take a cue from the dirty diapers! I went through this, too. My girl went through a week or so where she would only eat for a few minutes before going back to sleep. I kept crazy logs of her feedings and diapers (she too had plenty of diapers)and ended up crying because I worried that there was something wrong or I'd have to end up supplementing with formula. I think I even obsessed over whether or not her pee diapers were wet enough to qualify as a truly wet diaper. Ahh, to be a first time mom :). But at her next weight check she had gained more than enough and is growing like a weed.
I bet Nola is getting plenty of the good stuff. Hang in there - I think your anxiety is pretty normal but you're doing a great job!
Posted by: Kate | April 24, 2009 at 10:35 AM
CONGATULATIONS! I had no idea where you were, or that you were pregnant or anything! WOW!
Posted by: Sandi | April 29, 2009 at 01:23 PM