Breastfeeding Check In -June 16

[littleredfish]

Wow, I've been lazy with these.

Rants/Raves: Things are going well. Still feeding her primarily boob with 2 meals of solids a day where she's been fed BM first. Her first tooth is finally making an appearance so I'm not excited about that since she still loves to "bite" or clamp down and pull away for fun. "Gymnurstics" are strong with this one.

Goals: Still want to get to 9 months first, but 1 year and beyond is ultimately my goal. Since getting my BFP I've been wondering about the possibilities of tandem nursing. I don't remember it talked about much on here or any mom's who did it but if anybody has experience on nursing while pregnant and/or tandem nursing I'd love to hear about it.

[sunfrogger88]

Good morning!

Rants/raves : heavy cream is good for her. We're working on 2 meals a day but we don't always get there. I need some help with meal ideas for solids since we don't have teeth yet. Also, she likes to give me a hard time about nursing and its really frustrating.

Goal : still 1 year+. Based on her attitude towards solids, I think I'll consider 1 year the big to-do and go from there. She loooves solids.

littleredfish the BF board is a wealth of knowledge on tandem nursing!

[littleredfish]

@sunfrogger, just some spit ball ideas of what DD2 has eaten. Cornflakes (softened with milk), pancakes, bread, pasta (she LOVED stroganoff and spaghetti) steak, hamburger, chicken, bacon, grapes, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, banana, apple, pear, yogurt, cheese, sweet potato (her absolute favorite), potato, carrots, cucumber, tomato, asparagus, broccoli, and probably other stuff I'm forgetting. Most of this was cut or shredded in various ways since we mainly do BLW, and some of the stuff she's had both in solid and puree form. We usually just feed her some of what we're eating or if we end up having a late supper I just either cut her up seem fruit, and cheese and grate some veggies for her or grab a container of purees. Any of the above can be blended too to make your own.

[rachaeleigh]

Jun 16, 2016 5:49:22 GMT -5 sunfrogger88 said:

Good morning!

Rants/raves : heavy cream is good for her. We're working on 2 meals a day but we don't always get there. I need some help with meal ideas for solids since we don't have teeth yet. Also, she likes to give me a hard time about nursing and its really frustrating.

Goal : still 1 year+. Based on her attitude towards solids, I think I'll consider 1 year the big to-do and go from there. She loooves solids.

littleredfish the BF board is a wealth of knowledge on tandem nursing!

I know this will be little help to you since I cannot for the life of me remember where I read it but I swear I just read something referencing that this time can be difficult for nursing and moms often get frustrated and stop. Could have been a magazine, the Internet, maybe it was a dream! Lol

[sunfrogger88]

rachaeleigh I think it was the wonder week app. I remember reading it too and keep telling myself, it's just a phase, it's just a phase. It's so frustrating.

[rachaeleigh]

Also, sunfrogger we tend to feed her what we eat, especially when we go out. I just pinch of small "bites" and smash it really well. I'm too scared to give her strips of food.
This doesn't always work when we have spicy food, but we always have pouches of baby food handy

[rachaeleigh]

Jun 16, 2016 6:04:27 GMT -5 sunfrogger88 said:

rachaeleigh I think it was the wonder week app. I remember reading it too and keep telling myself, it's just a phase, it's just a phase. It's so frustrating.

Yes! That was it. Thanks for helping my brain

[sunfrogger88]

Jun 16, 2016 6:05:43 GMT -5 rachaeleigh said:

Also, sunfrogger we tend to feed her what we eat, especially when we go out. I just pinch of small "bites" and smash it really well. I'm too scared to give her strips of food.
This doesn't always work when we have spicy food, but we always have pouches of baby food handy

Emma actually does really well with strips because she grabs it in her hand and still has food to eat. Just a thought

[rachaeleigh]

Things going well here. She's eating more and more solids but still mostly breast milk.
When I'm with her, I nurse her and then offer solids about an hour later.
Both my husband and MIL have skipped a bottle, only giving solids for 1 meal. I really try to pick my battles, so is this something I need to put a stop to?

I would still like to make it to a year. I think that will happen. I'd really love to cut down on pumping at work though. Ugh

[pearlvirus]

Rants/Raves: I think menstruation is messing up our nursing. she is happy to eat solids all day, but the last couple days barely seems to want to nurse at all. I was thinking of bringing her into the clinic but then AF showed up last night and maybe I'll wait it out a couple more days.

Goals: Still targeting 18 months or self-weaning. Might be impacted by #3 if we decide to go for that this fall instead of next year...

littleredfish my DD2 was conceived when my DD1 was 10 months (and still nursing). I planned to tandem nurse, but somewhere around the end of first tri I think the pregnancy really started impacting my milk supply. DD1 started losing interest and basically self-weaned in her 14th month. I probably could have convinced her to suckle once a day for a trickle, but it would not have benefited her calorically and was painful, so I gave up. Aaaaand it was actually really nice to have a couple months off between babies. I did try to re-establish nursing with DD1 once DD2 was good, but by then she had lost interest. I feel a little guilt wondering if DD1 would have gone longer if I hadn't dried up, but oh well 14 months is still pretty good!

[yummeecookee]

Rants/Raves: C is becoming increasingly more distracted while nursing - attempting to climb allover me, stand up, look around etc all with my nipple still in his mouth. OUCH! The only peaceful nursing we do is MOTN, where he doesn't even open his eyes. I aim for 3 solid meals per day as his pedi suggested. We are about 95% purees though. I feel kind of behind now seeing that you all are giving your kids so much table food. I just cant let go of the choking fears.

Goals: My goal has always been to go 12 mo (no supplementing). 4.5 more months to go!

[sunfrogger88]

yummeecookee I make sure whatever I give E is soft. She also does really well with strips - think like finger shaped pancakes and French toast and the like. Practice will help him learn to judge how much he can put in his mouth! It sounds gross but we also taught E how to chew while we eat by just chewing very dramatically and making the same motions when she puts food in her mouth. I know you tried a couple months ago.. maybe he is more ready now!!

[yummeecookee]

Yes, I really would like to move to more table foods sunfrogger88. So like you will just plop a strip of pancake on her tray and no prob?
I guess my issue is trusting how much mashing he can/will actually do w his gummy jaws.

[sunfrogger88]

Jun 16, 2016 8:08:39 GMT -5 yummeecookee said:

Yes, I really would like to move to more table foods sunfrogger88. So like you will just plop a strip of pancake on her tray and no prob?
I guess my issue is trusting how much mashing he can/will actually do w his gummy jaws.

Yup! She picks it up in her fist and still has enough to put in her mouth. I use the "ultimate pancake" recipe on the Bisquick box and they basically melt in her mouth.

[kensie5226]

Rants/Raves: Nothing crazy going here. All is well. She's cutting back on bottled milk a little. She's leaving about an ounce in each of her 2nd two bottles. So I sent less today and just tossed in a backup in case. She's distractible during the day, but straddle hold and her standing up to nurse actually helps b/c she can wiggle a lot more.

Goals: Meh, 9months for now. Then probably a year.

sunfrogger88, we do a yogurt and a combo puree for DC. (Think peas and carrots, chicken and rice). Then a modified version of whatever we're having. She loves meat, so far salmon has been her fave. We usually give her a fruit or veggie with whatever meat we're having.

[kensie5226]

yummeecookee, I was afraid of that too, but after watching her it helped a lot. I've seen her take ridiculously big bites of things and then she spits it out. Also she's totally cool with me putting a piece near her mouth and letting her eat it. Kind of like you'd feed a dog. She really prefers table food to purees.

[run4fun]

I haven't been around much but I'll pop in.

We are still BF as his main source of food. Most days I've added in 2 solid meals, but some days we don't do any. It just varies and since he still nurses anywhere from 2-4 hours apart during the day I'm not worried about solids a ton yet. He just started STTN the past couple nights, so at night he's going about 12 hours without eating. He seems to wake up famished and wants to eat like every hour for the first couple hours after waking.

I'd love to make it to a year, but the child has 7 teeth and gets me with them all the time. So right now I'm taking it day by day and hoping he eases up on me. Before teeth I loved nursing and would love to continue without the pain.

[Deleted]

Rants/raves: nursing is going well. We have been ear infection free for awhile so nursing strikes only happen when we are in public places where there is a lot of activity. I usually just keep our outings short.

Goals: we are still on track to nurse until 18 months. We still haven't started solids yet so he is still EBF. I plan to take a more BLW approach with him so we will skip most purées and go for the finger foods.

[allycat]

Hi all. Still going pretty well here, although it's less fun when he's teething and biting down. A few days ago he clamped down pretty hard - I popped him off and said no, and he legit pouted at me. Little stinker.

Goal is still to get to a year and avoid having to buy formula, if possible. After that, we'll see how it's going.

Solids are going well, but we mostly just offer fruits, veggies and yogurt - he doesn't really get into meats yet. Hopefully that will pick up soon. He gets real food at daycare too, so that's good.

[samelly]

Rants/Raves:. Nursing is going fine and he doesn't nurse as often as DD did when she was a baby. He does rely in the book for sleep though and so he usually naps in my arms or we do a motion nap (he naps in stroller or baby carrier while I take my older child to playground). I'm also co-sleeping which I said I wasn't going to do but it is the easiest wY for us to all get enough sleep


Goals: I have about five more months until I return to work, so I will have to slowly adjust him to eating more solids and also to drinking some water from a cup. I would like to still nurse him morning and night after I return to work. I think I'll have to get him used to longer stretches without me though. I've never been away from him for more than an hour.

[fuzzylogic]

Rants/Raves: She's nursing almost every hour again. She's like a damn newborn all over again! Sometimes she rage-nurses which is kind of annoying but I think that side (righty) tends to still let down pretty furiously.

Goals: One year. She'll be going back to daycare at just shy of 9m so I'm going to have to start pumping and storing in earnest again. While I'm not too pumped (ha) to do that all over again, I did get 5oz out of righty this morning after feeding E on the left side, so I feel good about that. I might have to start getting up earlier and pumping before she gets up, which is feasible since she's sleeping until 7 or later these days.

And you all know the solids game is strong around here. This kid loves to eat. Even my mom is impressed. She of course fed me purees and cereals since BLW wasn't a thing in the early 80s so she's kind of fascinated by me feeding her actual solid foods so early and so successfully I feel like a food champion.

Ask me again how I feel when she goes through a picky phase and only wants mac and chicken strips. Then again, I do love me some mac and cheese and chicken strips, too...

[yummeecookee]

That sounds a lot like us samelly. I nurse him to sleep at night. He always starts out in the crib but o usually end up co sleeping at some point in the night.

[littleredfish]

Anybody else have a talker while nursing? Baby will growl with the boob in her mouth the whole time then pull it out and babble at me with a serious face then pop the boob back in and keep growling. It's like having a conversation at the dentist LOL. We call her pirate baby because she loves making this little "Argh" sound over and over when she's hungry and we're moving too slow.

[rachaeleigh]

Jun 16, 2016 8:17:43 GMT -5 kensie5226 said:

Rants/Raves: Nothing crazy going here. All is well. She's cutting back on bottled milk a little. She's leaving about an ounce in each of her 2nd two bottles. So I sent less today and just tossed in a backup in case. She's distractible during the day, but straddle hold and her standing up to nurse actually helps b/c she can wiggle a lot more.

Goals: Meh, 9months for now. Then probably a year.

sunfrogger88, we do a yogurt and a combo puree for DC. (Think peas and carrots, chicken and rice). Then a modified version of whatever we're having. She loves meat, so far salmon has been her fave. We usually give her a fruit or veggie with whatever meat we're having.

We've been having leftover milk as well

[rachaeleigh]

Jun 16, 2016 10:22:08 GMT -5 littleredfish said:

Anybody else have a talker while nursing? Baby will growl with the boob in her mouth the whole time then pull it out and babble at me with a serious face then pop the boob back in and keep growling. It's like having a conversation at the dentist LOL. We call her pirate baby because she loves making this little "Argh" sound over and over when she's hungry and we're moving too slow.

Yes! We have this going on sometimes

[sunfrogger88]

Jun 16, 2016 11:54:59 GMT -5 rachaeleigh said:

Jun 16, 2016 10:22:08 GMT -5 littleredfish said:

Anybody else have a talker while nursing? Baby will growl with the boob in her mouth the whole time then pull it out and babble at me with a serious face then pop the boob back in and keep growling. It's like having a conversation at the dentist LOL. We call her pirate baby because she loves making this little "Argh" sound over and over when she's hungry and we're moving too slow.

Yes! We have this going on sometimes

+1

[yummeecookee]

Not a talker, but C always tries to put his index finger in his mouth while nursing, sometimes when eating solids too. I'm like - kid, that's not going to work.

[littleredfish]

Jun 16, 2016 13:49:37 GMT -5 yummeecookee said:

Not a talker, but C always tries to put his index finger in his mouth while nursing, sometimes when eating solids too. I'm like - kid, that's not going to work.

She always does this when we give her purees. She tries to suck them back by putting her middle and index fingers in her mouth. Then she gets mad when we can't put more in fast enough because her fingers are in the way. She'll sometimes do it if she's nursing when she's overtired and gets mad that her fingers are in the way.

[ldubhawksfan]

Jun 16, 2016 10:22:08 GMT -5 littleredfish said:

Anybody else have a talker while nursing? Baby will growl with the boob in her mouth the whole time then pull it out and babble at me with a serious face then pop the boob back in and keep growling. It's like having a conversation at the dentist LOL. We call her pirate baby because she loves making this little "Argh" sound over and over when she's hungry and we're moving too slow.

Yes she is a pirate too. She also sometimes pops off to smile at me and then once I smile back will lunge back to the boob. It's like she wants all of my attention! lol

[ldubhawksfan]

AFM BF is still going well. I've still got an oversupply but my pump output at work has gone down a bit, and I'm usually an oz short, so I'm glad to have that extra from my morning pump. DD is funny and sometimes when she doesn't want to lay down, she has taken to bursting while sitting up, which is funny and took me by surprise the first time she just dive into my breast sitting up.

Goals: still on track to a year. I am keeping 1 month's worth in my deep freezer so I can start to wean at 11 months if we make it to then. I haven't had my pp period yet, so if we want to start trying around a year, I need to get that going at some point and may need to wean to get it. but id like to keep nursing at night if possible.