What a little piggy!

There's no doubt about it - Olivia is a ravenous little girl and has been pretty much since the moment she was born.

Olivia was 8lbs 1oz when she was born on April 18th. As is typical with all newborns, she lost some weight over the next couple of days. Olivia was having quite a bit of trouble getting a hang of the whole breastfeeding thing, so she didn't get a whole lot of food the first couple of days. On the 19th, she was down to 7lbs 7oz. On the 20th, she was 7lbs 6oz. Nothing really out of the ordinary, but the nurses were cautious.

Because she hadn't really been getting a lot of food over those two days, she was pretty upset a lot of the time. She'd feed at the breast for 30 or 45 minutes, be calm for 10-20, and then start screaming again. Two days of this behaviour finally took its toll on Andrea and I and we were at our wits' end.

Recognizing that we were about ready to give Olivia away to the next person that walked by, our nurse suggested that we try giving her some formula so that she'd at least have a full belly and let us get some sleep. We started with only one ounce, but as soon as she finished it, she quieted right down and went to sleep. We've never looked back since.

Breast milk is best, of course, so Andrea was pumping off as much as she could during the day (and she continues doing that today), but we continued to supplement with formula. It was 1oz at first, but with each feeding, she would take more and more. By the middle of the 3rd day, she was almost up to 4oz.

As a result of feeding her the formula (and the sheer amount she eats), her weight loss obviously stopped and she actually started to gain back a few ounces. We left the hospital on the 22nd and the public health nurse visited us at home on the 23rd. When she weighed Olivia, she was back up to her birth weight.

Olivia is now consuming 4-6oz per feeding, with 5-6 feedings a day, and the results are incredible. By the 27th, she was 8lbs 14oz. On May 9th, she was 9lbs 14oz. She also grew 2 inches in length between the 27th and 9th. She's starting to bust out of the 3 month sleepers we have for her, resulting in Andrea hanging out in the second-hand clothing stores (we're pretty lucky in that we have 2 very good stores within a 10-minute drive).

Olivia is progressing incredibly well, and I very much look forward to the next stage of her continued development.

- Mike