A couple of weeks ago the health visitor paid us another visit – her third. She weighed Jackson who was 9lb 4oz. She noted that he had dropped a centile, from 25th to 9th (noone had explained what centiles were so I had to ask my friend to explain them later) she told me that he was still gaining weight just that it had slowed so to feed him more and to make sure he was getting enough of the more calorific milk. I had also told her that he seemed very gripey, often crying when he had been fed and changed and was being cuddled. She explained that breastmilk is the only cure for gripey tummys – atleast that it comforts them and does no harm, often putting them to sleep so they don’t cry. So basically from that visit I was told to feed him whenever he opened his mouth. This should bump up his weight and also help with his incessant crying.
I worked hard at feeding him more – it meant I got even less done around the house as I spent longer feeding him. I gave up recording when and for how long I was feeding him on my app as at times it was nearly constant! (Plus it’d have been depressing to see how many hours a day I was spending feeding him!)
A week later I went to get him weighed at our local clinic and despite my best efforts he had only gained 3oz. I was however assured that babies are only expected to gain about 1/2oz a day so this weight was on track for a week, however it kept him firmly in the 9th centile.
Yesterday, a week later the health visitor weighed him again and amazingly he was now 10lb! Although this was a great weight gain he is still in 9th centile and she now thinks it will be hard to get back up to the 25th.
Aside from the weight gain he seems a far more contented baby. He no longer goes for long periods of crying for no reason, as I feed him as soon as he starts, which can only be a good thing, helping with weight gain too.