Having a (Second) Baby Changes Everything!

I'm sure everyone is familiar with the phrase "Having a baby changes everything." You think that it only applies to the first baby. This is absolutely not true! While there are in most cases two people to take care of the first child, when you have a second it becomes one-on-one, and is much more of a juggling act. Another thing that I have recently come to realize is that not all children are alike and while it is difficult, you cannot compare them.

I'm sure like a lot of newer parents you feel like because your one child ate/behaved in certain ways that all of your children will. This is not true! Let's jump back a few years. When our amazing son, Brady was born 26 months ago he would not breastfeed (latch), so I spent the first month of his life pumping and supplementing with formula. Brady was our big little guy from the beginning. He was 8 lbs., 7 ozs. when he was born and gained 3 ounces by his first pediatrician's appointment (four days after his birth) and was a very content and happy newborn. This was the model that I was used to in terms of being a mommy. Let's move on to our newest addition.

Our sweet lil' Aubrey was born August 13th and weighed 7 lbs., 9 ozs. when she was born. I decided this time that I really wanted to try the breastfeeding thing again and she was actually latching, which B-Man never did. When we took her to the pediatrician four days after she was born she had dropped to 6 lbs., 14 ozs. You can imagine how upset this baby bluesy Mommy was hearing that her little sweetheart had lost so much weight. The pediatrician reassured us that this was completely normal and to continue doing what we were doing and that she should be back at her birth weight by her two week appointment. This brings us to last Friday, when we took our lil' girl to the doctor she had only gained one ounce. Once again, I was VERY sad and upset. I felt like such a failure to not have been providing my daughter with what she needs to thrive. The pediatrician told us to supplement with formula and we began supplementing expressed breast milk with formula. When I took her to the pediatrician's office for a weigh-in and for some tummy/gassiness/fussiness/colic issues we were having this past Wednesday she was back at her birth weight!  She is now on sensitive formula until her tummy figures things out.

While I am a strong advocate for breastfeeding and think that this important for the moms who really want to do it...I have realized how difficult it is to pump, make formula bottles and try to entertain/play with a two year old and after seeing how well our son did with formula, we have made the switch and I can already tell her tummy is noticing the difference with just using the sensitive formula and getting a lot of TLC. The bottom line when it comes to breastfeeding or giving formula--don't let anyone make you feel pressured to breastfeed-I've done it to myself twice now and it makes life that much more stressful. You want to be calm, because if you're stressed your little guy or gal will be stressed and you need to enjoy one another.

Love,
S