Motherhood.

Lincoln is three weeks old today! Yikes! Where did the time go? O I know -- holding my sweet baby, changing many diapers, feeding him, loving on him, and watching him swing in his swing (which he LOVES). The last three weeks of my life have been the most precious, wonderful, challenging and exciting weeks of my life. Lincoln is a laid-back, cuddly and content baby who loves to look around and see what is going on.

We have had some struggles with the nursing which is where most of our energy has been spent over the last three weeks. After a week of being home from the hospital, I decided to go meet with a lactation specialist because I had a feeling that something was not quite right. Lincoln was eating every 2 to 2.5 hours for 45 minutes to 55 minutes each time! However, he was not producing the right amount of dirty diapers and I could tell he was not gaining weight. When I met with the lactation lady, she too was stumped. She weighed Lincoln before I fed him and then 20 minutes later. In that amount of time, he had eaten about 0.5 of an ounce (which is not great). She indicated that he must be a "slow eater." Gee thanks for the great advice, I think I figured that much out myself!! We continued for another week with nursing but I had a bad feeling about what his weight gain would be at his 2 week appointment.

And I was right.

At his 2 week appointment he was 8 ounces less than his birth weight!! I was devastated! I felt terrible for him. We had a long conversation with Dr. A and decided that the best choice for us at this point was to supplement with formula and come back in 5 days. In this 5 day period Lincoln gained 9 ounces! (Three-fourth of a ounce to one ounce a day is average!) So he basically doubled what he should have been gaining with a formula supplement!! Needless to say -- it was evident that he was not getting what he needed from the nursing.

I researched a couple of theories on my own and have a feeling that my milk may not have an adequate amount of fat in it. I have pumped and the quantity of my milk is sufficient -- so it must be the quality. Lincoln was extremely unhappy after nursing but a different baby after the formula. It was baffling and still is. I have struggled with this whole process because I dearly wanted the nursing to work out! However, after many tears from both me and Lincoln -- I decided that nursing was not going to work for us. Lincoln needs nutrition and my milk alone is not enough. So, we have decided that I am going to continue to pump and bottle feed him breast milk along with formula. I will continue to do this until the river runs dry :) This allows him to get nutrients from the breast milk but gain the fat from formula.

Our wonderful neighbors bought an electronic baby scale to use with their son who was born four weeks early and have let us borrow it. So, we have daily weigh ins to see how he is doing!! He has continued to gain an ounce a day since our appointment earlier this week. So, he weighs about 8.7 now!

And on a FANTASTIC note -- Lincoln is a champ at sleeping at night. Since he was 5 days old, he has been sleeping from about 10:30 p.m.-4:00 a.m without waking up!! And after a feeding around 4:00 a.m. he goes back to bed till about 7:00 a.m.! We are SOO blessed with a great night time sleeper! He struggles with taking good naps but we are working on that! I think the feeding situation has also helped him take better naps now that he has fuller tummy!

I have spent sometime "mourning" the loss of the nursing but feel confident that this new system is right for Lincoln and us. Motherhood is magical and my heart has been swept away by Lincoln Miles but it also comes with challenging moments that stretch you in all new directions. However, I wouldn't trade a moment of the past three weeks for the world!!

I'll post later with some updated pics of our little man.