Growing pains

My baby just doesn't want to grow! So often I hear parents complain that their babies are growing too fast. I have the opposite issue. Madelynn is growing too slowly. Her weight gain is poor. She's dropped into the 1.56th percentile. She's 14 weeks old today and she only weighs 9.6 lbs!

The doctor is concerned but says she's not malnurished. Doc says that Madelynn seems otherwise healthy. Her heart and lungs sound good. The concern is that she's not growing at an arc like most babies do. Her weight percentile keeps falling. Last month she was in the 6th percentile.

I recently went back to work and started supplementing with formula. I fully expected Madelynn to gain more weight this month because last month I was exclusively breastfeeding. Last month she gained 1 lb . This month, she only gained 6 oz. Only 6 oz and she's getting formula daily! She gained more weight when she was on breastmilk only!

The doctor is going to give her one more month before we move on to testing. I've been instructed to follow up my breastfeeding with a bottle of formula to try to get her to take in more calories. We're also supposed to try to get her to take 6 oz at each formula feeding (she's only taking 5 now).

If that doesn't work we'll move on to blood and urine tests and possibly a GI specialist to see if we can determine what's wrong. Madelynn has acid reflux, which could be impacting her weight gain (that's why we may bring onthe GI specialist).

My prayers are that she begins to gain more weight and develop a growth arc. The doctor said she would be happy if Madelynn at least has an arc, even if it's under the normal arc for most babies.

I'll be praying for an arc every night!