I made a mistake.
During Samson’s 20 week ultrasound he was in the 13th percentile. The midwife said that Josh and I are not the biggest people, therefore our baby is most likely small due to genetics.
At Samson’s first month appointment he was in the 28th percentile for weight. Then at his 2 month appointment he jumped up to the 55th percentile. I bought the book Moms on Call and it recommended sleep training around 8 weeks as long as your baby is growing well. By all accounts, he was. Around 10 weeks old, I sleep-trained him to sleep through the night, which only took 3 nights for him to start sleeping 11+ hours in a row. It was such a relief.
Two and a half months of not being able to sleep longer than 4 or 5 hours in a row is taxing. It amazes me that people do it for a year or more.
I was pretty strict with the Moms on Call schedule, sometimes too strict. My son had some bad days and it was not my first instinct to breastfeed him, but it should have been.
The Moms on Call schedule may work great for some babies, but it did not for mine. He was crying a lot because, little did I know, he was starving. Starting at two and a half months he slept through the night and I nursed him every three hours during the day. Then I dropped it down to every four hours when he started solids at 4 months, like Moms on Call recommended. I felt like that was not enough, so I squeezed in an extra feeding. If he woke up early, I nursed him then too.
Everything seemed to be going great. Samson slept well at night and took good naps during the day. He was rolling over no problem, hitting all the milestones. He smiled a lot and was happy and playful.
We got to his 4 month appointment and he was in the 7th percentile. From 55th to 7th percentile is quite a drop. The pediatrician wanted a weight check in two weeks, at which he was in the 4th percentile. The crazy thing is that he looked normal, looked healthy, he did not look especially small.
She gave me some Enfamil formula to supplement the breastfeeding. I tried to give it to him, but he didn’t like it. It smelled sour. I figured I wouldn’t like it either. I tried Similac instead and it smells sweet, much more enticing to drink. I was unable to get him to drink very much from a bottle, so I only used it to make his baby cereal.
The pediatrician requested labs to see if there was an issue with his thyroid. Thankfully, they came back normal. It was weird seeing blood being drawn from my baby, but he did great. The lab tech thought Samson had a haircut, his hair looked too perfect (and short).
The pediatrician also gave us a referral for a GI doctor, which took five weeks before we got the appointment.
The GI doctor said the reason he was not gaining weight well was because he is not getting enough calories. Then he gave me Duocal powder to put in Samson’s solid food to add more calories. He told me to try different bottles to supplement one to two ounces of formula after nursing. He also said to nurse him every three hours, including at night...dang it. No more sleep for Mama.
The first two nights, I woke up every 4 hours at night to nurse him. But as I became more tired, my body decided sleep was more important than waking up to my alarm. I set my alarm to the highest volume and put it right next to my head, yet I still slept right through it. I am one of the hardest sleepers you will ever meet. My baby, however, wakes me up if he makes a sound. So does my husband when he opens up a loud crinkly wrapper in the middle of the night.
I kept setting my alarms for the middle of the night, but after a few days of not waking up to them, I gave up on feeding Samson at night. He was so tired in the middle of the night, he didn't eat much anyway. I did wake him up for a late night snack though.
Samson had his six month pediatrician appointment just a week after I changed his feeding schedule. He had bumped up to the 5th percentile. Because he was gaining more, I figured it would be fine continuing to not feed in the middle of the night. Two weeks after that appointment, he had a follow up with the GI doctor and a dietitian. He jumped up to the 7th percentile and they agreed that he was fine to not wake to feed in the middle of the night. Thank God.
I’ve learned to take it easy on the scheduling. If Samson needs to be nursed every two hours instead of three, I don’t deny him. If he needs to be breastfed to sleep, I’ll do it. If I need to hold him in my lap for an hour so he can get a good nap, I set other tasks aside. As my introduction says, I am learning through trial and error.
