Hi everyone! thank you all for kind words and suggestions! it means a lot to me! You ladies are the best and I cannot say enough good things about this forum!!! So much useful information!!!
Sorry it takes time to answer - i am writing this in between sleeps and household tasks, with such short naps I do not seem to have any time left to myself
re: oversupply and forceful letdown I do not think I have it, I definitely do not have oversupply, sometimes in the evenings I even think he does not have enough and my breasts feel empty even before he starts feeding. But he does choke on the breast and pulls off sometimes, I don't know if there is a sure way to know?
re: my diet - i have eliminated dairy right after his birth, read too much that it is a common discomfort reason in breastfed babies, but i cannot say that my diet has been clean of any possible signs of dairy since I have to confess I have been guilty of indulging in a little ice cream or a piece of chocolate once in a while. When he was about one month I also eliminated all types of cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, soy and all kinds of beans, gluten, all grains, garlic and onions, but either I was not consistent or it was not working.
I used to not believe in the notion that a breastfeeding mom has to have a special diet, after all no other mammals change their diet when they have little ones, but after his last two weeks struggle with naps and his increased fussiness at the breast I decided to give it a try again and now I strictly follow the diet described in the sticky post in the reflux forum (i eat only white rice, courgette, celery root, carrots, potatoes, meat, chicken and eggs - no sausages or bacon, all plain meat, and bananas and I use coconut milk to make my white rice morning porridge. Also I do not drink coffee or black/green tea - only herbal teas for lactation support). So far cannot say if it has changed dramatically something in his digestive health, but i think there is some very minor improvement. If after a week there is no noticeable improvement, then i guess the diet is not the answer.
On the optimistic note he is not doing that bad in general, this is what my DH keeps reminding me everytime i have a meltdown
He was born 3 weeks earlier (they had to stimulate the labour with pitocin but it was an easy and fast birth, no post birth negative things whatsoever, 30 min after he was born I told my DH that I could easily do it again
, and since birth he grew 11 cm and has been gaining on average 300-350 g per week and now he is a chubby fella. I think this is the main reason why my pediatrician does not seem concerned about anything I complain about. I have not contacted her to discuss the possibility of reflux yet - I decided to first do a diet test and then if it is not improving contact her.
So for now, we are on the 3hrs EASY, almost like it is described in the book with the exception of short naps of course. What i try to do is after every short nap I try to put him back to sleep, first using shsh-pat (which has not worked to extend his nap yet), and if it is not working using APOP: i put him next to me in the bed or keep him in my arms or wear him in a sling, but i try to make sure that at least one nap is longer then 1 hr.
The naps he has are now a sequence of short naps with some minutes of being awake in between, i hope it is not too bad for him in terms of having restorative sleep. I guess it should be better than having short 20-30min naps with hours in between.
And I do hope that my APOP will not come back to punish me later and he will not become one of the only-sleep-in-sling-or-next-to-mum babies...
Also, I still do not get his waking moods: he still wakes up very cranky and crying after even a lon nap, does it mean he is OT in general? or is it his grumpy side showing? in the morning he wakes up crying or rather whining but normally after several minutes he is in better mood but during the day it takes long for him to lighten up
Victoria, hold on there! You know you are not alone and it will get better!
