Things Don’t Go According To Plan
We got baby home from the hospital and all seemed to be going well, at first.
The plan was to exclusively breastfeed and that’s what we did. I, like many new mom’s, had read Baby Wise , upon the recommendation of several other mom friends who said it had really helped them get their baby on a good eating and sleeping schedule.
Basically, I had a plan for when we got baby home and that made me feel more prepared.
In reality, I still wasn’t prepared and if anything, in my case, reading Baby Wise may have caused more harm than good to have such a rigid idea of how things were “supposed” to go when baby got home.*
The first few weeks were typical.
Baby cried, appeared to eat, was awake for a bit, slept and did this on repeat over and over again. Mom and Dad were haggard, dealt with the shock of the new seemingly enormous work load this one little human being had added to our family but enjoyed and appreciated the care, help and meals we received from family and friends.
By the end of week two, I was concerned that my daughter was losing weight. She looked skinny to me, much skinnier than when we brought her home from the hospital and she seemed to be crying a lot but I just told myself that all new mom’s probably feared their baby wasn’t getting enough food and brushed it off as new-mom worries.
But by the end of week three, I took her into the pediatrician because I was concerned she might be ill with thrush or something like that. She was crying a lot and in spite of family members encouraging me that she was “thriving” I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong.
When they placed my baby on the scale, my heart sank.
She had lost nearly two pounds since we brought her home from the hospital; nearly 1/4 of her total body weight.
She was losing weight. It hadn’t just been in my head.
But now what?
*Books I would recommend you read to prepare before baby.
