The day after we came home from the hospital I had to take Emily in to the doctor for a check-up and a jaundice test since her levels were still a little high when we left the hospital. Her weight was down to about 7lbs. 2 oz. (9 oz. less than her birth weight). The doctor wasn't too worried but said to make sure and feed her every 2-3 hours. They start to get concerned if babies loose more than 10% of their birth weight. At this point Emily was only eating about every 4 hours. That night I nursed Emily before putting her to bed at around 7pm. Emily started to stir around 11:30 pm so I got up and tried to feed her. I tried for about 45 minutes to get her awake enough to eat, nothing worked so I just put her back to bed. I woke up around 5am feeling like I was going to explode and assuming that she would be starving tried to wake her up again to get her to eat. She ate for maybe a minute and then passed out.
This is kind of how the morning went, she had maybe two diapers that were barely wet and was really lethargic, even her cry sounded tired and weak and we couldn't get her awake and alert enough to eat. Around 11am Ryan asked when we should be concerned about her sleeping so much and not hardly eating.
Nursing was still really difficult for us so I decided to pump a bottle to see if it would be easier to get food in her that way, but she still would barely suck. In the packet of newborn info they send you home with they tell you to call the doctor if you can't wake them up to eat and if they don't have at least 6-8 wet diapers in a 24-hour period. Our insurance works a little differently so I don't have a number to go straight to the pediatrician, so around I called the number for the advice nurse on the back of our insurance card. I told her what was going on and she asked some questions and told me that I should take Emily to the ER, but that she would check with a doctor to see what they thought. While I was on hold Ryan got Emily awake enough to drink about 1oz. of what was in the bottle, I told that to the nurse when she got back on the line and she said I should still take her to the ER.
Not knowing what else to do I took Emily to the ER. While checking us in they asked what was going on and I told them I hadn't been able to get her to wake up to eat all night or that morning and that she had only had about 2 wet diapers, the nurse laughed and said that having a baby that sleeps all night didn't sound like a problem. The nurse told me to put her on the scale and to not worry about taking her clothes and diaper off (which actually make a big difference in a newborn). She weighed 7lbs. 9oz., which was 7oz. more than she had been the day before (this was due to her clothes and diaper). The nurse asked what her birth weight was and then told me her weight looked fine and it was normal for her to lose a little weight.
They then took Emily temperature, rectally of course, which made her scream... and poop and pee all over the place. One problem solved. However, I had no extra clothes for her, I hadn't planned on going on any outings for a while and didn't have a diaper bag well packed. The nurse said that they happened to have a 6-9 month size onesie that she could wear. They then tried three times to check Emily's blood pressure, not easy with a kicking and screaming baby, and told me it seemed kind of high. Obviously. She was screaming.
They then admitted us to a room where we proceeded to wait an hour and half to be seen by the doctor. During that time Emily was very calm and the most alert I had ever seen her in her short life, a couple nurses even came in to check on us and commented how alert she seemed. She stayed awake for about an hour and then fell asleep, but I did get her to finish the rest of the bottle I had pumped. When the doctor came in I told him what had been going on. He asked if this was my first child, I told him it was my third and he asked if I had nursed the other two, yes I had. I must have seemed very incompetent. He checked her vitals and said that the nurses had told him she had been very alert earlier, according to him she seemed fine. He called a pediatrician to see if they had anything to add before he sent us home. The pediatrician just said "well sometimes nursing is hard." Yes. Thank you. I know.
I went home $50 poorer (ER co-pay), starving and shaky (since I hadn't eaten lunch yet), and feeling like that whole experience was incredibly frustrating and unnecessary.
Emily ate ok that evening and the next day we went to see a lactation consultant. You would think nursing would be super easy on your third kid, but for some reason it is hard to get the hang of it every time for me. As the LC looked at Emily's chart she asked about the ER visit, particularly if they had weighed her with her clothes on. I told her they had and she expressed her annoyance and said we would just throw that weight out since it was entirely useless. :) She gave me some good advice on getting Emily to latch and on helping my swelling go down (which was one reason Emily was having a hard time latching on, not to mention it was incredibly painful). Needless to say we left that visit much happier.
