Almost 6 weeks update on Magpie

Time keeps passing so quickly - the day a constant whir of feeding and burping and pumping and soothing - all as it should be, but not leaving much time to even think about posting. I will try to get in at least little posts rather than have so much time pass.

So, to begin with: Ms. Magpie. She is delicious. She will be six weeks old on Tuesday at 11:39pm. Hard to believe. She is making lots of eye contact now and debuted her social smile last week, becoming more and more practiced at it as the days go by. We don't have any pictures of her smiling yet, but I'll post one as soon as we capture one. She is also starting to track objects. Just this morning she looked at a toy overhead and both followed it with her eyes and turned her head toward it. I know, I'm the mom, so I'm biased, but I was very impressed!

So far, Magpie is a petite girl. We have had significant feeding issues since her birth that merit their own multiple posts, but basically, she still is not able to get much milk directly from the breast, although she enjoys hanging out there (which I appreciate!). She also was not able to suck sufficiently to get enough milk from the supplemental nursing system that was introduced to us by lactation consultants (a tube that I tape to my breast so she can nurse and get additional milk at the same time). She would try and then would fall asleep. I would wake her and we would try to continue...the whole thing would take over an hour. She was exhausted; I was exhausted. And for a few weeks there, she was not gaining much weight.

Finally, the pediatrician called a halt to the madness (I think she was sick of seeing us week after week). And then, based on the ped's call, the lactation consultant we've been working with recommended we try the Haberman bottle. It's a bottle made for babies with significant feeding issues. And it still requires her to suck to get the milk...but she is able to drink it successfully now. We've also made the amount she has to drink smaller (60 ml) and are giving it to her more often (every 2 hours during her 16 hour "day"; then 2 feeds 4 hours apart overnight). This seems to be working. It takes her about 45 minutes to drink the 60 ml, but she can do it. And for the first time, she gained what the pediatrician says is acceptable.

So at a day shy of 6 weeks, Little Miss Petite now weighs 8 pounds 15 ounces...up from her birth weight of 8.1 pounds.

It's hard to say what her temperament will be like because she's so little, but so far she seems to be a very easygoing and mellow little girl. She doesn't cry very much (hopefully I'm not cursing myself by writing that!). She loooovvveeeesss to sleep, especially when it's time to eat (the doctor thinks this is partly because eating is so exhausting for her). She also loves to look around and take in everything around her. She likes tummy time, she loves to nurse (even if it is just for comfort), and she loves to look into people's eyes. She hasn't really noticed Moxie yet...still waiting for that to happen!

Mo

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