Rough Week

Everyone knows that Maxim is a little guy, but he is my son...and I can't gain weight even if I try. So maybe he just has my metabolism. At Max's 2 month appointment he had gained weight and was doing great! Then at 4 months he hadn't gained weight and the doctor was concerned so he recommended starting rice cereal sooner, we had planned on waiting until 6 months. So then 2 weeks later he had a check up with this same doctor, who forgot that this was a follow up appointment and hadn't remembered the first appointment. And he said well he gained a little weight so he is fine.

Now he is 6 months old and last friday he had his 6 month appointment, with a new doctor because we didn't like this last doctor. This doctor told Alexandra that she was starving Maxim and made her feel horrible. Also she wanted to see him again on Monday and over the weekend instructed us to bottle feed him with pumped breast milk. This was very upsetting. Alexandra started out following the doctors instructions, but then called a Lactation Consultant. They recommended continuing to nurse him because he will get more milk that way, he is more efficient than the pump. So we did that through the weekend, feeding more frequently and feeding more solids.

On Monday I went to the appointment with Maxim and Alexandra. Max had gained a little bit of weight over that 3 days so we thought that was pretty good. But then this doctor started basically flipping out. She tried to explain to me how the pump will produce more milk. I argued that for one baby's are more efficient at getting the milk our than a pump, but even if we assume the pump and baby get the same amount of milk he will not be getting anymore nourishment, which is what we want. X ounces of milk from the breast = X ounces of milk from a bottle. She left and a nurse came in explaining their concern and that they are calling the hospital to schedule us to see a lactation consultant and another pediatrician. Then said they may have to get Child Protective Services involved because when a child is in danger and the parents won't do anything to help they have to intervene, and she said in this case the parents only want to breast feed and that is not enough for this child. I was like WHOA lady, hold on! We want to help him, we want to do whatever we have to so he is healthier. We don't want to follow your advice of exclusively pumping because it doesn't give Max any more food than before! She told me I seem like an intelligent person and she wanted to explain this scientifically and explained how the breast lets down milk, and I still said yes I agree but he needs more milk, not the same amount by a different means. They ended up sending us to TAMC (Trippler Army Medical Center) and told us we had 30 min to get there or they would be calling the Command. I don't know what command they were going to call, but we went straight there, expecting them to be ready to see us like an emergency visit. But no, we were treated as a walk in...and they didn't even know we were there to see both a lactation consultant and a pediatrician.

So the pediatrician decided to admit Maxim to the hospital Pediatrics Ward. A couple of nurses were then going to put an IV in his arm and asked if we wanted to step out. We said NO! Then they asked for our help in holding him for the IV because he is a strong son of a gun. I was like, yep, purely a sign of a malnourished child. They also commented on how alert and happy he is, again how can he be starved???

So anyways, they drew blood, took a urine sample, gave him an X-Ray, and a sweat test. He had a little bit of an iron deficiency and some liver enzymes were high, nothing critical. The doctors were pretty much baffled. Basically it came down to Alexandra's milk supply very slowly decreasing, which allowed Max to slowly adjust to less and less food and never complained. So then he was gaining less and less weight and then lost a little. We believe the lowering milk supply is due to Alexandra being pregnant and the conflict of breastfeeding a 6 month old and her body preparing to breast feed a newborn. Oh yea, so in case you didn't know Max is going to be a big brother.

We spent the night Monday-Wednesday and then on Thursday Thanksgiving they were finally satisfied with Max's eating habits and weight gain and we went home around noon. We had a frozen pizza for Thanksgiving lunch and then a friend brought over some of their Turkey and fixings! We are happy to be home and so is Max, he is doing very well on the formula and eating like crazy! We are so happy that everything is okay! He means the world to us, we love him so much!