I have been meaning to write another post about the feeding issues with Samuel, basically just to clarify that I don't think using formula is a horrible thing (although I do still hope to be able to nurse exclusively eventually). I am motivated to make nursing work because of the reasons that I listed in my last post about it (the majority of which are emotional, when I look back at it). We have been supplementing with formula now, and I am glad there is good formula available, with many improvements having been made in recent years. Also, we fed Ethan formula exclusively from 5 weeks on. So for those of you who chose to or had to use formula with your kids, I wasn't trying to say I thought that was bad. Hopefully you could see from the reasons I described in my last post about it that being able to nurse Samuel is something that is important to me on a personal level and not part of a crusade to make everyone else exclusively breastfeed. I have some fears that supplementing with formula could sabotage my opportunity to nurse Samuel, but right now our priority is making sure he gets enough to eat, with the secondary priority that it is human milk if at all possible.

The interesting thing is, he doesn't seem to really want any more milk than he was already taking. It seems like we're force feeding him the bottles. He doesn't cry for more after nursing, though he will take the bottles when we offer them, eventually finishing them very slowly. I have increased my supply so that most of the bottles we give him are pumped milk. But if we don't give him the bottles and attempt to give him all the milk we think he should be drinking solely through nursing, he doesn't take it all and I end up having to pump again to maintain my supply at this level. So maybe gaining .58 ounces a day rather than 1 ounce a day was just his natural pattern? I don't know, but he does look healthier now that he is gaining at a little bit faster rate.