Friday, December 5, 2008

Feeding Frustration

Well, from the beginning, feeding Rosie has been a struggle. I thought by now that it would be easy and routine. But it seems like every week there's a new struggle. First, she was so gaggy she wouldn't even try. Then my colostrum was so thick she couldn't eat it. So we were using formula and a tube stuck to me to try to get her to eat. That didn't work, so then we had to use a syringe and our finger. That worked for a day, then my milk came in, but we had to use a nipple shield. That wasn't so bad, but still a hassle. Then we finally got her nursing without any aid, and she got jaundice and wouldn't stay awake to eat. She got over that and seemed to be doing fine, but has a terrible latch and causes me a good bit of pain. Now, we don't know if she's having a lot of gas or some acid reflux or what, but for the last few weeks, sometimes she'll just scream and fight and kick every time i try to feed her. The last week wasn't so bad, which was good because Bobby's family was here. But the last two nights, she's barely eaten anything. She'll nurse okay during the day, but at night she just screams and screams, sometimes even if i pick her up. it's like she's scared to nurse. It's horrible. She'll nurse for about a minute or two, and then just cry and cry. Then as soon as she calms down, she'll start acting hungry again, but if I try to feed her again, it just starts another bout of screaming. I'm at my wits end. Sometimes she's absolutely fine, usually most of the day, and even at night, she will fall asleep and be fine until she gets hungry again about 3 hours later, but I just don't see how she can be getting enough. And when she's acting fine, then I feel like there isn't really anything wrong. Maybe she's just getting too worked up. I don't know. Anyway, I just needed to express my frustration after a particularly bad night and so far day. Would appreciate any prayers.

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