hello all,
i am emailing for info on newborn stools not changing from meconium by day 8
postpartum. i gave birth to Elijah Rayn on October 1 (hydronephrosis -free, i
might add - it cleared up by wk 34! ;-). he was born at home at 38 wks,
induced due to preeclampsia symptoms (high bp, protein in the urine, edema) and
hx of precipitous labors. he was born frank breech after 18 mins of labor and
weighed 5lbs, 12 oz. the mw did bag him at birth for being very white, but he
cried vigorously imm upon birth and passed the newborn exam w/ flying
colors. he voided a lot of meconium right at birth as his rump crowned and nursed
w/in 20 mins of birth and passed more meconium a few hrs later.
he was very difficult to latch at 1st - my nipple seemed entirely too big
for his tiny mouth and he had a tendency to pinch and crimp it as he latched.
all of my babies (he is # 5 - 3 of which were also early inductions or came
spontaneously early for the same reasons as him altho he is the smallest i've
had...) sleep through the night right from birth and have to be roused to
nurse every few hrs. true to form, he slept his 1st night for 6 hrs, the next
night for 7 and the night before last for 9 !! and last night we slept for 8. i
wake up a few hrs into the night, painfully engorged (milk came in w/ a
vengeance on day 3 w/ quaking chills and fever and breasts that went from 38D to
40F w/in hours - i am still also nursing my almost 2 yo and 3 yo toddlers. i
assign them the right breast to share, the new baby gets the left exclusively
for the 1st few months.) and try to nurse him but there is just no waking
him. i have to strip him, rub lotion on him and change his diaper to wake him
up and then he will take 3 sucks and be out again.
when he *does* nurse, it tends to be every 4-5 hrs throughout the day, which
is what my last cpl did...and he's now a very efficient nurser. he has a
beautiful latch, super strong suck and manages the ejection perfectly. i can see
and feel from all 3 nurslings that my supply is abundant, i can hear him
swallowing rapidly and frequently. he has no gas, no spitting up, no fussiness
whatsoever. a few times i've had to unlatch him rapidly when someone fell down
the stairs or something and i've seen a whole mouthful of orange-y milk
spill out. i think i've heard him cry maybe 3 times so far. i do swaddle and
sling and basically never put him down.
we took him to the ped the day after he was born and he was down to 5lbs, 7
oz. by yesterday, i was very concerned that his stools have not yet changed
from meconium so we went in for another weigh. he's down to 5lbs, 3 oz. it
seems obvious that the problem is just that he's too small and young to be going
so long b/t feeds and the ped agreed. it worked out fine w/ my last 9 lb
baby, but it seems tiny ones don't have the same reserves! he has no jaundice at
all. the ped wants me to not swaddle and sling so much, to put him down more
often and let him wake up a little and get hungrier. i've been doing this
(tho he just keeps sleeping contentedly no matter where i lay him!) and nursing
before even the 1st cue.
so the last 2 days i've really stepped up the energy i put into rousing and
nursing him. my mother is here from calif for another week and hubby is off
for that much longer, but then they return to their normal places and
routines and i will be on my own w/ 5. i don't want him to get lost in the shuffle
already at a disadvantage when my life gets hectic again. so i wake him and
strip him and lotion him every 2 hrs throughout the day. in the late morning
(after cluster feeding and pooping for a cpl hrs upon waking from sleeping all
night) and after we've gone to bed he simply won't nurse more than a cpl
sucks no matter what i do so we do still have an 8 hr stretch at night where he
doesn't nurse, but he's begun bulking up before bed. he nursed for 40 minutes
before bedtime last night.
after increasing his feeds so much, i fully expected to be changing
mustardy, seedy diapers today but they're still meconium. he does stool w/ every feed
and has urine output 4-5 times a day as well. the ped has us coming in again
tmrw for weighing. in the meantime, i'm wondering if those big sleeping
stretches in late morning and all night are still enough to keep his stools from
changing or if this could be a sign of something else? during yesterday's
weigh, the ped was worried the toddlers were taking his milk (even tho i
explained i assign breasts) so i nursed him after the weigh and then we weighed him
again and he had gained half an ounce after about 8 mins on the breast so even
the ped conceded the latch, suck and supply seem to be good... even as i
write this it seems glaringly obvious he is just going too long w/out nursing
but there is nothing like a fragile newborn not acting in ways you are used to
to make you fear the worst scenarios (metabolic disorder? one of those rare
genetic things where he can't digest my milk?) and i thought i'd come to the
place i respect most for bfing info!
i'v recently had a few moms tell me their exclusively bf'ed newborns were
having dark, tarry stools and it seemed eliminating cow's milk cleared it
up...but i don't do cow's milk at all and very little dairy. any experience,
ideas or input is greatly appreciated ! you can also see the little fellow at
_myspace.com/mummaTOwldthings_
(http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=161196488)
~jacqui gruttadauria, bsw
babymooning near detroit, michigan
_myspace.com/mummaTOwldthings_
(http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=161196488)
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