My Life is a 2-hour Cycle

Warning: I am complaining. I'm sorry!! 

My daughter has literally been a PERFECT baby for almost 5 glorious months. She follows a beautiful schedule that I guess you could say we made together. She sleeps 12 hours every night (8pm-8am) and takes wonderful naps. Seriously, I take her to her crib, swaddle her, sing one verse of Jesus Loves Me, lay her in her crib, and walk out. She does the rest :)

Well, no more!!!!!! Girlfriend is hungry! 

She actually is still pretty perfect for the majority of the day, and then it's time to feed her. She eats for maybe 3 minutes and then just cries and cries. It's so sad. I think this all started when we went to Albuquerque and the Outer Banks the last two or three weeks. There were three mornings in a row that I decided not to pump (too tired) and I'm pretty sure that ruined me!! Now I am not making enough milk for my little munchkin and she is upset about it!! 

In addition to the milk supply issue, she is also used to getting one bottle a day. Bottles are so easy to drink from, even when you use the slow flow nipple. So once my milk is not just free-flowing, she is completely giving up!! 

So here I am... Living on a two hour cycle. Trying to get my milk supply back up. My sweet daughter that used to eat 5 times a day is now eating 8/9 times a day and I'm exhausted!! Her new schedule is eat, awake, eat sleep. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. You get the idea.... I was prepared for this with a newborn, not with a 5 month old. I need some encouragement. I am THIS CLOSE to just giving up, using all the milk that is in my freezer, supplementing with formula, and feeding her solids. I DON'T WANT TO DO THAT!! 

I went to the doctors last week and my sweet girl had lost 5 oz in three weeks. I go again on Wednesday and I really don't think anything has improved :(

Here's a picture of my little angel this afternoon. She's trying to convince you all that I'm lying with that perfect smile of hers :)

I really hope we can make it through this time and get back to a good nursing schedule/pattern. 

PS- if this was TMI for you, you might not want to read my blog anymore. This is my life. The glorious life of a mama!! And I love every minute of it, I'm just a little discouraged right now :)