Feeding Fiasco!

OK...time for a little baring of my heart here. :) Up to this point, I have been nursing Jaelyn, and I truly enjoy it. I love that time spent with her, especially that first feeding of the day when all is quiet and we just get to hang out, though I am still tired at 6am!

As we begin looking at the rest of our summer and into the fall, we realized that I don't have enough milk stored up to keep her on breast milk in the fall, and I'm not going to be able to keep up with it. Many tears have been cried over this predicament, but over the last month or so, I've accepted this and have mentally prepared to slowly move Jaelyn to formula. I plan to nurse in the mornings and evenings, but supplement with formula during the day, while she is in daycare.

I have a week long graduate class the first week of August, so we need her to be on formula by August 4th. Two weeks ago, we started the gradual introduction to formula. I mixed one ounce of formula with one ounce of breast milk. She scoffed at it a bit, certainly tasting the difference, but she drank it down pretty well. A few hours later, we were at the store. I looked down at her in her car seat/stroller, and she vomited. Without giving all the gory details, let me just say it was a fountain and I half expected her head to start spinning around! I called to Scott and we got home as fast as we could, though she vomited five more times before we made it home. Her little tummy was visibly heaving to empty itself, but she handled it like a trooper. No tears, just some funny looks on her face. Once we got home, we got her all cleaned up, then had the task of washing her car seat and her stroller, since BOTH were soaked from the ordeal.

I talked with Des (she's a nurse practitioner) and she suggested just trying straight formula since the proteins of the two milks were obviously not mixing well. A few days later, we tried straight formula, but Jaelyn wouldn't take it. She got a few drops on her lips and chin and soon broke out into a rash on her face. It quickly went away, but was still nasty for the time it was there.

We then tried a different brand of formula. After just getting a few drops on her face, she again broke out into an ugly rash on her face. Ugh!!! We called the doc and she is thinking this is a milk allergy. We'll have some labs run when we go in for her six month appointment in August.

Next, we tried soy formula. I was a tad nervous, but thankfully, it's been working! We're giving it to her mixed with breast milk right now, but she is taking it and getting used to the taste with no rashes and no puke fests! THANK YOU LORD!

Since that has been going well, we've now gone back to the rice cereal and she is eating it. She's not finishing off a bowl yet, but she is at least getting more in her mouth than on her chin! :)

I'm still getting used to the idea of not nursing exclusively, but I know this is the best thing for our family at this stage in our lives. I'm looking forward to meeting with the doctor in a few weeks to find out more about this milk allergy. Please be praying with us that this will not be a life long issue for Jaelyn and just a bit of an infant sensitivity. I'll let you know what the doctor says.