We just got back from your first doctor's visit. I was actually really nervous about it. Here's the thing: we almost had to stay an extra day (or more, I guess) in the hospital with you because of your weight loss. All new babies loss some weight in the first few days and apparently it's all about the percentage weight loss. The nurse seemed to indicate that 5% was typical and 10% was dangerous. You lost 8% of your birth weight. The pediatrician was okay letting you come home, though, probably because we had shown a willingness to supplement with formula for you as needed. So Wednesday, when we brought you home, although we were telling everyone you were a 9 pound, 4 ounce baby (your birth weight), you were actually an 8 pound, 9 ounce baby.
Even though I really am committed to nursing you, I recognize that helping you gain weight is important and have been doing a crazy combo of nursing, pumping, feeding you expressed breast milk and formula on a fairly rigid two hour schedule. So today, when we went to the doctor, I was very nervous when I put you on that scale. It turns out, though, that all those calories your dad and I have been putting in to you in the last two days are working out. You weighed a little over 9 pounds (9 lbs and 1/2 ounce, to be precise)!I hope that as my milk comes in, I will be able to wean you off the formula and on to a breast milk only diet. But I want you to know that no matter how all of this turns out, I am thinking about what's best for you and trying to balance out the benefits of mother's milk, the need for nourishment, and the desire to bond with you.
Love,
Mom
This will all be a distant memory when he and his friends are eating you out of house and home, because you have the mac'n cheese, gold fish and hot pockets that all teenage boys require to ensure the contined weight maintance...no wait.. this is the very sceniro that will trigger the memory of now. In fact this whole blog is setting de va voo aflight across social networks everywhere.
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