Success?

Well this morning Ben did such a good job nursing that they aren't supplementing him at all. I tried to offer him a bottle, he took literally 5 ccs and went right back to sleep, hasn't woken up since.

It is 1.5 hours until his next care time (when he is "supposed" to eat again) and I'm sitting on pins and needless waiting for him to wake up starving!

The more I read the more I think my problem is not so much supply as it is time with baby at breast. Or lack thereof.  Yeah I know you guys have been saying that all along...I finally think you are right. :)

Ben was apparently very anemic, so they have put a port in his thigh and inject a daily dose of epogen to help get his red blood cell count up.  they will do this for ten days. They said this should give him more energy to help with his feedings.

I think if he doesn't get the feeding thing down soon I might see if I can room in here at the hospital and nurse on demand. I don't know if they would allow it or not but I feel like if he does that for a few days and keeps gaining weight then why not?  He is packing on the pounds, February 14th he hit 4 lbs and now he is over 6. He gains an ounce or more every day!

I'm up to 12 ounces pumping a day, plus two nursing sessions where of course the milk goes directly into his body and doesn't count towards my totals. He eats almost 14 oz per day. So I am very close to him.

The C monster turned 5! I can't believe how fast he is growing up. D will be 14 soon too. Just crazy.

Edited to add: They are letting me nurse Ben 3 or 4 times a day now! He slept through the full 3 hours between his scheduled feeding times.  I nursed him again at noon, same thing happened as before. He did both sides, took a tiny bit from a bottle and was out like a light. I left at 1:15 and was pretty nervous about him getting enough food and the nurse assured me they will keep an eye on his weight and that if he wakes up hungry before 3 then she will give him a little extra in his next feed.

So he will get weighed tonight at 9 p.m., I guess we will see how he does.  

I think God is using this time to grow me. I like to do amazing things with my body (I think they are amazing, anyway), like run marathons and stuff like that.  Whatever I set my mind to, I have been able to accomplish, whether that is running longer, going faster, or whatever. But with nursing and milk production is it almost completely out of my hands.  I mean I do what I can to help it along, but if I don't make enough milk well, I just don't make enough.  That's that, and I can't change it no matter how hard I work. 

So I am trusting God for Ben's weight gain and the amount of food he is getting when we nurse, and we will just see what happens!