Being punished for responding without reading every post in the thread on
Katherine's case first - mea culpa.
So, the baby nurse for the first two weeks is definitely a wrench in the
machinery.  After reading the other posts, I'm reassured that Heather,
Laurie and I would likely have ended up agreeing on how to proceed.  I'm
also reassured that the baby is behaving normally, with cluster feeds all
evening and then a long sleep afterwards. How many parents don't wish their
babies would just feed around 5 pm and be done with it, sleep for a while in
the early evening, and then feed again, once, just before they retire?  (And
how many babies oblige them? IME hardly any.)  The description of every
event since the baby's birth would seem just as plausible to me even if the
mother had never had reduction surgery.  That is, I would always expect a
delay in the surge of milk supply if mother and baby were separated and baby
not being fed on cue.

Had to laugh when I read all the other factors in the later posts, as I had
immediately interpreted the information according to my blinders about
breast reduction - and now I almost think the reduction surgery is a red
herring, possibly not the problem at all.  Susan Burger mentions the
possibility that supply may not keep pace with baby's needs over the next
few weeks, and I take her point, but the description of this case doesn't
make me concerned that it is a factor here. I think baby's activity level is
more relevant.  The fact that mother's supply responded as quickly as it did
to more frequent feeding tells me that there is likely plenty of functional
mammary tissue to keep the baby fed.

I would not expect a baby who sounds so physically active to gain as much as
my son did, for example, when all he did was lie there and feed and coo and
work on deepening the cracks between the fat rolls on his arms and legs.  It
was a lot more gratifying to go have him weighed than it was with his
sister, whose weight at age two was about the same as his at four months.
Luckily she was born first so in my ignorance I thought she was fine too. 
(She was. And both of them are slim adults today.)

Keep us posted on the family's progress, Katherine. We're all holding our
breaths.
Rachel Myr
Kristiansand, Norway

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