Feeding and development

Feeding Loki has become increasingly difficult, and is almost a crisis. After the surgery, his eating (or actually, drinking) decreased from about 70 mL to 40 mL per feeding. But soon after, we (or actually, Mom) began pushing breast feeding harder. The pumping, freezing, thawing, and bottle-feeding system that we have been using is a lot of work, to say the least.

But this has been difficult. It's not just that Loki doesn't eat consistently from the breast. (He usually falls asleep). We also can't tell what's happening, exactly. When we gave him a bottle, it became even more difficult, with him taking in only 30 mL or so. And Mom's pumping production decreased. Do these two things indicate that he is succeeding - even if he is not on the breast very long? And if he is not yet succeeding, for how long should he get less-than-enough from the bottle, in order to make him drink more from the breast? When we do give him a bottle, is it a good thing if he drinks a lot (nutrition! calories!) or a bad thing (too full for breast milk later!)?

This is complicated by his single kidney. If he doesn't drink enough, will he become too dehydrated and not produce enough urine?

In a similar dilemma, Mom is worried that her production will decrease. The best way to keep production up is to pump often. But that will leave less milk for Loki. How do we juggle all this?

At the doctor today, we learned that Loki lost 6 ounces (170 grams). Nevertheless, the doctor said to push breastfeeding even more, and to use fewer bottles. So, Mom is holding him close to her chest almost all day.

Of course, this puts me in an awkward position. I want to help, but there is only so much that I can do.

Meanwhile, Loki is developing some fun new behaviors. In just the last few days, he has begun to "talk" or vocalize. He makes little cute sounds , even when he is not complaining (which is all he could do until know). Loki smiles much more, too. He is also playing with his hands, bringing them together and interlocking his fingers and bringing them to his mouth. This includes a new ability to push away the bottle!

We will try to get a video of some vocalization and smiling. But he is most awake early in the morning, when I am more interested in coffee than a video camera. (Of course, Loki's smiles always wake me up...)