Sigh of Relief!!

So after my post last night I decided to dive into some reflux research and see what I could come up with. Let's be honest, I can't go the next year without sleep!! Last night before laying Lena down for bed we noticed a change in her poo (sorry for the tmi). It had suddenly turned green!! Eww, I know!! (side note- when you become a parent you are suddenly very interested in all things bodily....it's the only way to know how your baby is doing since they can't communicate with you) This didn't scare or really concern me, but I thought it had to be a sign of something. So I began to type in some symptoms....green poo, spitting up, choking during feeding, spit up, and behold google introduced me to "oversupply of milk"!!

It's like a weight lifted completely off of my shoulders. The more I read up on it, the more I kept thinking....that's us. Poor Lena gets choked sometimes during feedings and i have to sit her up and pat her back to calm her down, and often times after a feed she gets the worse case of hiccups. She does spit up, and gag, but only after a feed as well.

So what is an oversupply of milk? Exactly that, your body is just producing too much and during the let down, or when the baby begins to feed, the milk just shoots out, which is just too much for the little one. Because of this the baby often times misses out on the hind milk...the part of milk that has all the nutrients needed for baby. The milk before that is just an empty calorie snack. Because I switch up every feed, my little one was clearly only getting the fore milk....basically eating a candy bar at every meal. This would also explain that crazy 12 ounce gain we had in the last week. Another symptom is the leaking of milk. No lie, I would wake up DRENCHED. I knew leaking would be expected, but not to the extent of a flood!!

So I decided last night to start implementing some of the suggestions. I fed Lena on the same "breast" for the next 4 feeds. This way it was completely emptied out and she received the nutrients needed. YAY....it worked! We had no more spit up, hiccups, choking, or green poo!! What a relief. Unfortunately though when switching over to the other breast this morning she had a few spit up episodes. That fore milk is just not thick enough and hard for babe to keep down!

Although Lena's doctor was convinced that what she has is reflux, something in my gut was screaming otherwise. And I will say after figuring out that I probably had an oversupply I was actually able to put her in her bassinet and I fell asleep! AMAZING!!

So I am living and learning!! And urge all mothers out there to follow your gut and get ALL the answers and possibilities....don't just give in to the "its common among babies" answer!!!