A growing village
Our babies were born smaller than we had anticipated, and like all babies, they dropped weight quickly in the hospital. During my time on bedrest, I read a lot about breast feeding - and EVERYTHING I could find about nursing twins (which wasn't much back then) - and both my husband and I were committed to giving them mother's milk and not formula, no matter how much we felt pressured in the hospital.
We struggled to help my son latch the first few days, and my husband grew increasingly nervous about his weight. I encouraged him to call the local La Leche League leader, whom I had contacted the week before to let her know my situation and to ask for advice. My husband called Marcy, and with desperation in his voice, explained that our son had not eaten. Within an hour another local LLL leader, Lisa, was in our hospital room. A short time later, Marcy arrived. With their help and the lactation consultant's, we were able to formulate a plan: My husband would feed our baby milk from his finger, and we would be patient with the latch.
In just the first few days of our children's lives, we had called in the village, and they came to the rescue. A week later, both kids were back to their birth weights, and even though G-Pa's weight analysis below hasn't come true, Ryan was 16 pounds on his 6 months birthday, fed solely on breast milk. Marcy and Lisa, who selflessly came to aid a family they had never met, are still part of my village.
My village has grown over the last decade, and I'm always thankful for those who come to my rescue. The end of August this year was challenging as I found myself without child care during the last week before school, which coincided with the start of my semester at my new job. Thankfully, I have moms (and dads) in my village who were willing to host my children for a full day, and it all worked out.
With thanks to everyone in my village over the last ten years, and a happy new school year!
We struggled to help my son latch the first few days, and my husband grew increasingly nervous about his weight. I encouraged him to call the local La Leche League leader, whom I had contacted the week before to let her know my situation and to ask for advice. My husband called Marcy, and with desperation in his voice, explained that our son had not eaten. Within an hour another local LLL leader, Lisa, was in our hospital room. A short time later, Marcy arrived. With their help and the lactation consultant's, we were able to formulate a plan: My husband would feed our baby milk from his finger, and we would be patient with the latch.
In just the first few days of our children's lives, we had called in the village, and they came to the rescue. A week later, both kids were back to their birth weights, and even though G-Pa's weight analysis below hasn't come true, Ryan was 16 pounds on his 6 months birthday, fed solely on breast milk. Marcy and Lisa, who selflessly came to aid a family they had never met, are still part of my village.
My village has grown over the last decade, and I'm always thankful for those who come to my rescue. The end of August this year was challenging as I found myself without child care during the last week before school, which coincided with the start of my semester at my new job. Thankfully, I have moms (and dads) in my village who were willing to host my children for a full day, and it all worked out.
With thanks to everyone in my village over the last ten years, and a happy new school year!
Tim's weight analysis
Date: 09/11/2007
Weigh ins:
August 17 ( ten days old) back up to their birth weights of 5 # 9 oz. for Megan and 5 # 1 oz. for Ryan.
August 23- they were 6# 2 oz. and 5# 10 oz. A gain of 9 oz. each over six days for 1.5 oz. average per day.
September 4 - they far exceeded my over/under of 7 and 6.5 pounds, weighing in at 7#7 oz. and 6#15 oz. They both gained 21 oz. over only 12 days for a daily ave. of 1.75 oz.
In summary:
Megan and Ryan both gained 30 oz. over only 18 days for daily average of 1.67 oz.
They are averaging a gain of 1 pound every 10 days.
Looking to the future:
If they keep up this pace then they both will be in the 39-40 pound range next August 7. This pace will also get them to around 180 pounds by their fifth birthday.
|
Comments
Post a Comment