Hungry, Hungry Hippo

I was going to write a very lengthy post on all that has been happening the past week or so+ with Hayden's eating. But it's a very long story, and I'm not in the mood to get all detailed. Here's the long and short of it:

Due to Hayden's size, it seemed as if he wanted to eat all the time. At least every hour to hour and a half he was rooting and gnawing on his fist. That was getting old quickly. Then suddenly he started rejecting the bottle and spitting up every time he fed--bottle or nursing. I still believe he's exhibiting signs of some acid reflux, but that's not the big issue currently. I made an appointment with the pediatrician. As she looked at his chart, she just burst out laughing and kept laughing. I began growing indignant because I was very concerned and getting very frustrated with feeding times. I need Hayden to be able to take a bottle because I do need breaks every now and then and it's good for David to be able to feed him. Plus, we need to be able to go out and do stuff, not be confined to the house. Nursing in public can be difficult, though I will say that dressing rooms at the mall are perfect in a pinch! So back to the dr.---apparently, Hayden is overeating. Let's just say that exactly a week ago at the cardiologist he weighed 13 lbs. 12 oz. Today he was up to 14 lbs. 8 oz. Since his last ped visit he had gained like 52 oz. That didn't mean much to me until she explained: babies should gain about a 1/2 oz. to an ounce a day. Hayden has been gaining over 2 a day! WHOA, JOE! So we're slowing him down. Today I stretched him from 1 and 1/2 hours between feedings to at least 2 1/2+. It wasn't as bad as I thought the day would be, but we still have the night to go. I can already see and feel a difference. I have quite a few mixed emotions right now and maybe there were some things we could have tried sooner, but he wasn't gaining weight this rapidly before (and remember, 1. I am a first-time mother and 2. I was a political science major, not nursing or pediatric--I am learning much!). At least now I know I can hold him off; it was definitely harder for me than him, I think! On the plus side, he slept for 4 hours straight last night and probably would have gone longer or done it again, but our air went out and we were both sweltering.

This is an entire learning process. I am not perfect in my parenting, nor will I ever claim to be. I am very slow to offer advice to other mothers or tell them what to do (I've had a cousin do this to me repeatedly--nothing has worked that she recommended!). For now, we're thickening his bottles when we do feed that way, I'm stretching his feedings out (and he eats more rapidly then too), and we're working on the sleeping. All in all, while I feel like it's taken so long to get here and why didn't we realize all this sooner, I am so thankful we are at 7 weeks and not 7 months! At least we're getting there!