Mayday in May

One day in the middle of May Sam refused to eat. For twenty-four hours. He scared the milk out of me with this nursing strike.

For a few days he had a light fever with no other symptoms. His ears were clear and so were his lungs. I took him to the doctor to confirm that but his low fever remained for a few days. And then on Wednesday morning he nursed, but much less than normal. I didn't think much of it because he does do this sometimes. Nothing too weird for this distractible baby. I dropped him off at the babysitter. His first bottle (which was 11ish in those days) wasn't finished. He finished the rest at 2:30. And then it started. From when he came home he did not nurse one drop. Each time I brought him to my boob or even put him into a nursing position he arched his back and locked his little lips shut. He was not eating. Did I not notice?

I tried to offer my boob every our so but nada. Sam was just not going to eat and no amount of coercion was going to help. I tried nursing him outside on the swing (it was a refreshing, calm spring night), I tried other positions, I tried playing it cool (pretending I didn't care when I was worried as heck), I tried to nurse in the bathtub, but nada. I called the doctor at 10pm and he said that if he doesn't eat by the morning I should bring him in the morning so he can check him for dehydration. HELP!!!! Remember that he had a low fever and as far as I was taught, when you have fever you need to drink a lot - this was beyond nothing.

I finally just put him to bed. I tried to dream feed him before I went to bed but nope, he kept his lips shut and turned his head away. He actually pushed my boobs away with his little palms (any other day it would have been adorable). I pumped and got like 2 oz. And then he slept. He actually slept 10 hours straight that night, without waking up to eat. This never happened to him. The most he's ever gone was maybe 7 hours. The only good thing out of this was I got a full night's sleep.

In the morning he did not want to nurse. I pumped and got 4 ounces. Obviously the pump did not do a good job at all. I stayed home from work. I tried lots of skin-to-skin contact and we even bathed together. But still he turned his head away in disgust when I tried to get him to latch. I made an appointment to take him to the doctor at 2:30. I was really beyond the frantic, worried stage by now.

He was not yet eating drinking from a cup and wasn't eating solids other than occasional baby cereal. So at 2:00 I got him to take a few spoonfuls of baby cereal with expressed breastmilk. Thank goodness for that. The first time he's eating in 24 hours! Relief!

The doctor checked him out at 2 and said that he's not dehydrated because he was looking alive and following conversation, talking etc. His pupils were fine. He had tears. His mouth was moist enough. Then and there in the doctor's office, his fever broke and he felt like a sack of wet laundry. That was the finale to this whole saga.

By the time we got home, Sam was finally willing to nurse! I fed him every hour on the hour! 3:00, 4:00, 5:00... through the night! By the next morning all was back to normal.

Now the issue was my milk supply did take a little nosedive because of the lack of proper stimulation and milk removal. The few times I pumped were nowhere near adequate to maintain my supply. So when Sam finally was back on my breast, it took a long time for him to get a letdown. To help him, I'd manually stimulate for one and then latch him on to me. That helped.

The next day at work I was able to pump my usual amounts, so all's well that ends well.

But I can't do this again. Nursing strikes are not for the faint at heart.

Pump on the fritz

The time has come for my pump to big me a weak goodbye. For the past few days, I could not pump a decent quantity at work. I knew I did not have a supply issue because I had plenty in the mornings and evenings when I nursed Sam. And I had recently replaced the pump parts and they were in fine working order. So what could be the issue? The pump.

On Friday, the pump began to make protesting noises (instead of ch-CH ch-CH ch-CH, it was more like ch-ch-ch-CHAAA ch-ch-ch-CHAAA). I called Ameda parent line and the customer service agent asked me to put the phone to the machine while it's turned on so she can diagnose the sound issue. She immediately told me the pump sounded labored, and that she'd be sending out a replacement by Monday.

I knew the pump might not arrive by Monday when I need to pump so I brought in my backup pump that I keep at home. I already got more than I did on Friday. And today, Tuesday, I got a nice amount! Three cheers for new pumps that work!

If you've got an issue with your pump, call customer service today.