Post by dizzycooks on Jan 18, 2017 17:19:19 GMT -5
We are still at it here. She's my first I haven't pumped for so I don't really know what to do now. We nurse morning, nap and bed for sure. Overnight 1-3 times too. She eats three solid meals a day, but will not take a straw cup with meals. She's done it once, but can't seem to figure it out. She gets no other liquid so I'm a little concerned. I'm ready to sttn, but not sleep training hard core. I love that we are headed into another cold/flu season and she's so healthy! I am certain that's related to bfing. One challenge is several people in my family have asked when we will stop. I've told them it's up to her, but that the others nursed until 16-18 months so I'm not guessing anytime soon. Most don't realize I nursed that long previously and drop it, but I'm curious how others are handling nosey Qs, especially considering I'm around more this time and she does nurse more than others.
Post by dizzycooks on Jan 18, 2017 18:20:32 GMT -5
kelltothekell at this point (3 babies in) I just do what needs doing and people know it's our thing. You're right though, it would help if it were more "normal".
Post by scorpioscuba on Jan 18, 2017 22:43:06 GMT -5
dizzycooks, I taught DD to use a straw by filling my own straw up with some water (~an inch worth?) and putting my finger over the other end of the straw to keep the water in. I would put the opposite end in DD's mouth and let the water in by releasing my finger. Soon I'd keep my finger over the end and she'd suck to get it out. Worked like a charm. Now she is an expert with all straws!!
Post by scorpioscuba on Jan 18, 2017 22:52:32 GMT -5
How is it going? Good - DD has increased her BM intake the last few days so I'm trying to figure out what's going on. Growth spurt maybe?
Any challenges? Anything getting easier? Any changes? I'm SO tired of the BF acrobatics. When DD is nursing, she contorts herself into the most insane positions and sometimes it hurts. I make her stop if it does but she just keeps trying to twist her body around. It's so annoying. Also, I'm looking forward to not pumping. I only pump twice a day at work. But I still hate it. I plan to gradually stop pumping and replace those bottles with WCM after a year. I'll nurse all other times until we are both ready to stop. I have no end time in mind really.
Any questions for the other mamas? Nope.
How often do you nurse/ provide a bottle? She gets 2 bottles on a day that I'm at work and away from her. Other than that she nurses morning noon and night.
How is nighttime going? We are moving in a positive direction, finally (knock on wood)! With the nanny and having to do DS's bedtime on my own too, I had to do something to help DD sleep in her crib. I mentioned my modified ST the other day and it has improved her sleep back to where we were a few months ago. She still wakes up, but I have my evenings back to get things done. Sometimes I can convince her to lay back down in her crib if she wakes up around 11pm. Usually by 3-5am I just bring her to bed with me. She always ends up there eventually. I wouldn't mind if it wasn't so hard to get out of bed to get ready for the day with her there. One - she's cuddly! Two - she usually wakes up within 20 minutes of me leaving. She'll sleep forever if I'm still there.
Share a perk/ positive thing about BFing! It's something special only between us! Also, when they are sick it's nice to be able to BF to help them feel better.
kelltothekell, I'm so glad nursing helped you get through that scary time in the hospital and that she is doing so well now!
Post by tinydancer on Jan 19, 2017 11:35:33 GMT -5
Still going well for us. When I'm working, he gets two bottles (and I pump twice) and then he nurses in the morning, after work (about 5:30) and at bedtime. On weekends he often nurses only 4 times a day. Bedtime is 8 or 8:30 and then he sleeps through until about 5:30 or 6. Then he comes into bed with me to nurse and he sometimes dozes for another hour or so.
I'd like to wean from the pump within the next few months, and I'm currently in the process of trying to cut down to one pump a day. I haven't given any cows milk yet though. Question for the other mamas - do you think the cows milk needs to replace breastmilk ounce for ounce? Right now he usually gets about 7-8 oz total during the day.
I'm not opposed to giving cows milk but it doesn't seem like he should need that much. He's gotten pretty good at eating solids and it seems like he's been eating a little bit less from the breast anyway. My LO turns 1 a week from today ( ) and I'm planning to talk about it with his pediatrician at his one year appointment in a couple weeks.
Another thing we probably need to work on is bedtime - he still generally nurses to sleep and it seems like we should stop that at some point? This also means that we brush teeth before his bedtime nursing, and I think we should reverse that.
I don't anticipate him dropping his morning or nighttime nursing sessions anytime soon, and I'm planning to keep nursing as long as we're both interested in it. I am starting to add some extended work travel (more than one night) back into my schedule this year, so we'll see how it works.
Post by NellieOleson on Jan 19, 2017 18:09:16 GMT -5
tinydancer - with dd1 I started offering cow's milk occasionally in a cup around 14 months (I think?), but she didn't like it and refused to drink it until after she turned 2. The pediatrician wasn't concerned at all since she was eating yogurt regularly. You definitely don't need to replace ounce for ounce. I'd just treat it more as a supplement to his solid food, like you would an older child or adult.
tinydancer - with dd1 I started offering cow's milk occasionally in a cup around 14 months (I think?), but she didn't like it and refused to drink it until after she turned 2. The pediatrician wasn't concerned at all since she was eating yogurt regularly. You definitely don't need to replace ounce for ounce. I'd just treat it more as a supplement to his solid food, like you would an older child or adult.
I feel that in the past two weeks my supply has dropped a bit. But I also think her nursing is slightly reduced. So there you go. She nursed on demand, but it seems that is getting more erratic/infrequent. I have ended up with a soaked shirt more times recently than since our first month. I am trying to catch it and pump (since the freezer stash is no more) but I am also ok with this subtle weaning. She still comfort nurses quite a bit. But it's usually just a quick how do you do and off to the next activity. Night time is a different story. She nurses to sleep for the most part although even that is getting sporadic. She also nurses throughout the night. Depending on how dinner went sometimes a little sometimes a lot. We are out of pumped milk so I had my mom give her some cow milk this week. She mixed it with the smudge I was able to pump and it went down fine. I know it was a few days earlier than recomended but hasn't seemed to bother her so am running with it. I love our snuggling time, and the forced breaks in my day for baby time. I need to choose a way for that to continue going forward. Fortunately she has a new found book love so I think that might be the ticket.
Post by tinydancer on Jan 22, 2017 23:13:50 GMT -5
Thank you NellieOleson! My LO likes to eat yogurt and cheese, so I bet he's fine. I rarely drink milk myself, so I think maybe I just can't imagine giving him big cups of it everyday.
Speaking of cups - has anyone moved from giving breastmilk in bottles to cups? It just occurred to me that our pediatrician wanted us to wean from the bottle by about 1 year. My LO drinks water from a straw cup (and occasionally a 360 cup) but he wastes a lot of it - he loves to spit it out - and I would hate for that to happen with breastmilk. I guess I should just give it a try.
I'm slowly trying to wean from the pump at work and keep on NOD when I'm home. Of course this means no pumped milk for the next day. I have a huge freezer stash but obviously at some point will have to introduce whole cows milk. I would ideally like to BF until at least two, but not sure what will happen with my FET.
When I'm home we nurse every couple of hours. She's learned how to ask for nursing and so the last couple of days we nursed more frequently because she was excited about that. (She calls it num nums and either points to my chest or if she's close enough pulls down my shirt 🙈)
We have night weaned. I did it mainly to get my prolactin low enough to safely do a FET, but it was actually easier than I expected.
I'm surprised at how very pro BF/extended BF I am. And how willing I am to nurse my nearly-one year old in public.
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