3/2 6-12 mo check in

[kam3100]

Mar 2, 2015 5:47:28 GMT -5 @nunzchucks said:

How old is LO?

How is it going/any new challenges?

How much is LO nursing/any new solids?

Any questions?

GTKY: where is your favorite place to nurse?

Hi I'm new to the checkins, thanks for having them.

LO is 8 months old this week

Everything is going well, the challenge I have is dd is taking in very little BM while I'm at work.

When I'm home all day she nurses on average every three hours, including at night. (I am half asleep during the night so I don't actually count how long it is between feedings) I haven't introduced new solids this week but we follow baby led weaning. She ate spaghetti with meat sauce and avocado for dinner.

No questions.

I only nurse at home. I tried nip once and I was too nervous and dd wasn't having any part of the cover. If I were to choose a place at home it would be in bed, while I'm sleeping.

[Leapinglizards]

LO is 7 1/2 weeks old

It's going well she hasn't been rough nursing lately so I am glad the pain is gone

LO nurses 8ish times a day including once or twice a night

We introduced eggs this weekend. She wasn't a fan. Hoping she starts to like them because it's so easy to cook

No questions

[ellabee]

@nunzchucks - I would discuss it with your pedi. Some are much more inclined to tell you to wait until closer to 12 months, but I've also heard of people who had success just introducign it like everything else (small amounts in moderation) and watch for any adverse reactions.

How old is LO?
Just turned 11 months!

How is it going/any new challenges?
It's going well. Starting to think about adding WCM in small amounts to DDs bottles. I'm trying to work on pushing out my pumping and spacing them out so eventually at 12 months I can just nurse morning and bedtime.

How much is LO nursing/any new solids?
4 times a day with me, 2 times + 3 bottles at daycare on weekdays. DD loves all food. She mostly eats whatever we're eating. She eats peanut butter fairly often, which is a relief because for some reason I had a big fear (totally unfounded) that she would have a peanut allergy.

Any questions?
None this week....surprisingly!

GTKY: where is your favorite place to nurse?
I second the side lying. DD STTN 95% of the time now, but occasionally she'll do an early wake up and we'll side lie together and catch a few more zzzzs.

[doglover31]

Can I join in here? DS will be 6 months on Wednesday. (Wow time is flying!)

2. I think it is going well. The only challenge we are having is he gets really distracted when I'm nursing him. If he heard something interesting he will pop off and look around then come back to nurse. He likes to bring the nipple with him so it really hurts when he does that!

3. When he is at MILs house he eats about every 2 1/2 to 3 hours. Then I do on demand when we are home. At night he varies. Last night he only woke up 2 times and wanted to eat but he has woken up more than that before wanting to nurse. We are still doing purées. I want to do baby led weaning I just have a big fear of him choking.

3. Ladies who have done baby led weaning, how have you delay with choking? I am scared of him choking so I just keep doing purées.

4. I love nursing him in bed. The snuggles are great, and it's such a relaxing time for us.

[melody330]

Mar 2, 2015 5:56:09 GMT -5 @nunzchucks said:

Nursing 5 times a day and once at night. I got a once/week job that I am starting next week where I will have to be away for 5-6 hours. DS doesn't take a bottle so I'm really nervous about how things will go. He won't miss a nursing session, but will have to go a long time in between. If he doesn't eat a good lunch for my mom, I just don't know what to do! Can I do a small cow's milk sippy for one meal once per week? He won't do BM anywhere but the boob.

I would just do water in a sippy with whatever meal is takes while you are away.  At that age, I also let him drink sips of water all day while I was gone at work.  

Are you going to pump at work?  You can save that milk and use it instead of water.  At 9 months, I wouldn't give cows milk.  Water or breastmilk is fine.

[liziz]

LO is 7.5 months old

Things are going well - I think teeth might be coming - she was gumming me pretty hard during our nursing sessions this weekend, and the drool has returned. I weighed her this weekend (on my big person scale, so not sure if it's perfectly accurate), and she was more than 17 lbs, which is awesome, since she was 15lbs 11oz at the doctor when she had a stomach virus 2 weeks ago.

6-7x/day, or 3 bottles and 3-4 times from me. She just started to really "get" solids. Picking things up and putting them in her mouth because she wants to eat them. It's great (until you change her diaper!)!

I'm starting to do math on my freezer stash and my remaining work days until LO turns one, and figuring out when I can drop pumping sessions. Anyone have any advice? (I'm scared to go to early, because I'm just keeping up right now)

I love to nurse in our corner of the couch. We have it all set up - pillow, side table for water/food/coffee, and most importantly, the TV My favorite thing about nursing is that I can do it anywhere, though.

@nunzchucks, I think WCM would be fine. I never took a bottle (although I think it was about the bottle, not about the milk), and so my mom did the same thing - sippy cup with WCM. If that's not the ONLY milk LO is getting right now, and dairy isn't an issue, I think a few servings a week wouldn't be any big deal.

doglover31, have you tried foods that will dissolve easily (puffs, avocado, etc)? We started there, and once we realized that LO was good about not choking herself, it was fine. I think she makes choking noises no matter what we feed her, but as long as she's supervised, it's all good.

[melody330]

Mar 2, 2015 11:41:08 GMT -5 @nunzchucks said:

melody330 He won't do BM anywhere but the boob. I'm not going to pump at work. I'm only there 5 hr/week. Instead of nursing at 5, 8, 12, 3, 6:30, he will nurse 5,8,10, 4, 6:30 those days. I'm just worried about that 10-4 stretch.

Oops, reading fail!

DS would always rather wait for me if I was only gone for 4/5 hours. Does your DS eat solids well? Maybe it won't be that big of a deal to him to just wait for the boob!

ETA - a few friends of mine got the okay to do an occasional sippy of WCM at that age. That would work too

[amackattack]

How old is LO? 8.5 months

How is it going/any new challenges? Going fine. She gets super distracted during the day and has lately been waking up a ton.....AGAIN........to nurse. In the middle of the night I just have no resolve. I just do whatever it takes to get myself back in bed. In the past when she has a bad regression like this she goes back to normal which is 1-2 wakeups. So I'm hoping that happens.

How much is LO nursing/any new solids? She nurses a lot peeps. She eats lots of solids. Don't think any of it has really been new lately. I guess I've been making the same stuff. We are having pulled pork tonight which I know she'll love.

Any questions? Any other older babies who consistently wake up 2-3 times a night out there? We've been doing this for so long that at this point my body couldn't sleep more than 3 hours in a row if it tried. I'm not super worried about it...just wondering how abnormal it actually is.

GTKY: where is your favorite place to nurse? Hmmm...probably the loveseat in her room. Lately when we get home I cover us both up with blankets and sit there nursing her in the quiet..it's really nice.

[ellabee]

Mar 2, 2015 10:44:10 GMT -5 doglover31 said:

3. Ladies who have done baby led weaning, how have you delay with choking? I am scared of him choking so I just keep doing purées.

We did a combination of BLW and purees (sent to daycare). A few things I'd mention, the first being that there's a difference between gagging (which is normal) and choking. The first few times DD gagged, it was scary. She would even gag and then spit up a little (or a lot) if she had eaten a lot or nursed recently. The gagging is something they learn to avoid once they get a better sense of how much they can fit in their mouth. I've also heard that the spot on the tongue that triggers the gag reflex migrates back further down the throat as babies get older, so it's more prominent and more easily triggered when you're just starting out. 

In our experience, it was actually puffs that helped DD understand that something "chunky" doesn't automatically mean "gag to get it out of my mouth". Since they melt, she was able to push it around in her mouth a bit and then swallow it once it was the consistency of a puree. Once she got those, she stopped gaging so much with the other bits of food she'd break off while doing BLW. Hope that helps!

[ellabee]

Mar 2, 2015 11:23:44 GMT -5 liziz said:

I'm starting to do math on my freezer stash and my remaining work days until LO turns one, and figuring out when I can drop pumping sessions. Anyone have any advice? (I'm scared to go to early, because I'm just keeping up right now)

I think it depends on just how much you have in your stash. Up until 10 months, I was pumping 3x a day at work, plus pumping the side DD didn't feed off of in the morning. At 10.5 months, I dropped to 2x at work, plus the 1 side in the morning. Now at 11 months, I just do 2x at work. At 11.5 months, I plan to do 1x at work and quit the pump completely at a year. 

I will say that keeping up with the oz got harder right around 8-9 months. At ~10 months, I made the decision to make DDs bottles smaller by a bit because she was doing so well with solids. That was a weight off of my shoulders.

If you have the stash to cover running a deficit until you can top off or switch to WCM, then go for it. If you don't think you can cover it, then maybe keep your pumping schedule the same for another month or so. Just my 2 cents.  

Also, I totally understand the reluctance to drop a pump (even if you don't think it will impact your nursing goals). It was a big mental hurdle for me to let that first one go. 

[ashanne88]

Mar 2, 2015 13:30:15 GMT -5 ellabee said:

Mar 2, 2015 10:44:10 GMT -5 doglover31 said:

3. Ladies who have done baby led weaning, how have you delay with choking? I am scared of him choking so I just keep doing purées.

We did a combination of BLW and purees (sent to daycare). A few things I'd mention, the first being that there's a difference between gagging (which is normal) and choking. The first few times DD gagged, it was scary. She would even gag and then spit up a little (or a lot) if she had eaten a lot or nursed recently. The gagging is something they learn to avoid once they get a better sense of how much they can fit in their mouth. I've also heard that the spot on the tongue that triggers the gag reflex migrates back further down the throat as babies get older, so it's more prominent and more easily triggered when you're just starting out. 

In our experience, it was actually puffs that helped DD understand that something "chunky" doesn't automatically mean "gag to get it out of my mouth". Since they melt, she was able to push it around in her mouth a bit and then swallow it once it was the consistency of a puree. Once she got those, she stopped gaging so much with the other bits of food she'd break off while doing BLW. Hope that helps!

All of this is good advice, especially knowing gag vs. choke.  When you expand to other foods, just make sure they are small pieces.  We even cut cheerios in half until we knew DS wouldn't have a problem.  We still do a mix of purees and finger foods.

[ashanne88]

How old is LO? Almost 9 months

How is it going/any new challenges? About the same, nothing new yet.

How much is LO nursing/any new solids? 15 oz at DC plus 3-5 nursing sessions on week days and 6-8 nursing sessions on weekends.

Any questions? Not yet. DS still has no teeth so I'm sure I'll have questions when they finally make their appearance.

GTKY: where is your favorite place to nurse? The glider in the nursery, especially when he first wakes up or right before bed. He snuggles into me and it's peaceful.

[doglover31]

liziz I have given him tiny pieces of banana. And he has started gagging on them, it freaked me out so I used my finger to get the piece out. Good idea about the puffs, I might try those next.


@ellabee thanks for the advice!

[kendraj426]

How old is LO? 8.5 months

How is it going/any new challenges? Much better than last week. AF plus having been sick for a week really did a number on my production. So far today I've already pumped 3/4 of what I need for bottles for tomorrow, and I have 2 pumping sessions left!

How much is LO nursing/any new solids? 5-6x/day on the weekends; 2x/day and 4 bottles at DC during the week. DD tried pulled pork for the first time and seemed to like it. Or at least she didn't dislike it. She's not really all that excited to eat most of the time, she seems rather indifferent so it's hard to tell if she likes something.

Any questions? No.

GTKY: where is your favorite place to nurse? The only place it's really comfortable for me is on the couch. I've attempted side lying, but I think my breasts are just too large. My sister has told me that's the best lazy-sunday-morning position, but I just can't seem to make it work.

[cinnamonsmiles]

LO is 8 months old.

It's getting better than it was last week. Pretty sure the intense pain during his initial latch BFing was from ovulating...handy to know for the future.

6x/day BFing, 1x/day solids.

Anyone know any info on nursing while pregnant? We are NTNP and so I want to be prepared if it happens

GTKY: The corner of our loveseat. Not very exciting but I love being around the rest of the house instead of being confined to a room.

[bkroxfan003]

How old is LO? Dd just turned 6 months yesterday.

How is it going/any new challenges? It's going great. I'm so glad we've gone a while without having any new problems.

How much is LO nursing/any new solids? Every 2-3 hours with 2-3 feedings during the night. Haven't started solids yet.

Any questions? Nope.

GTKY: where is your favorite place to nurse? The right side of the couch is my "nursing spot"

[casey]

Hope you don't mind my intrusion.

@nunzchucks, the WCM could upset his tummy so young. Glad you are talking with pedi. I'd probably just have water there and maybe have caregiver offer fruit or yogurt (easier to digest than WCM).

doglover31, we did BLW. It helped me to review notes from our infant first aid class and watch YouTube videos on choking vs gagging. I seriously spent a weekend like that. The big thing is to remember that the gag reflex is really far forward early on, so lo may gag a lot as the exploration process. Avocado and banana seem like good first foods, but they are surprisingly Gaggy. Avoid very hard things like apple or celery once lo can break off big chunks. See the BLW website for some examples about good first foods and appropriate sizes shapes (bigger strips). We desenstized after a couple weeks. Wish I could help more than that.

liziz, most people around here seem to have trouble responding to the pump starting around 9-10m. unless you have a huge freezer baby, you might wait a couple months and then reassess.

[kendraj426]

@zerozeroone, we switched to 3 meals a day when DD started showing signs of wanting more food. It was around the 8 month mark. The DC said that she was seeming hungry in the morning after her bottle, so we might want to start giving her breakfast and lunch. She was only getting solids at lunch, and it was only a quarter cup of cereal. So, they suggested that we give her breakfast and lunch at DC and we were already doing dinner with her at home. She also usually gets puffs or cheerios as an afternoon snack at DC.

I recommend that you let your kid dictate. If he seems hungry and interested in another meal, you can add in another meal and start small (we only provided a small amount of puree for lunch and have worked up to a quarter cup of puree & some finger foods). In my (very limited) experience, it seems babies are very able to let you know what they want and don't want.

[ShtsNGiggles]

Mar 2, 2015 5:47:28 GMT -5 @nunzchucks said:

How old is LO? He'll bee 10 months next week.

How is it going/any new challenges? Going pretty well. I had the stomach bug last week and my supply tanked. I've been drinking so much water and i finally got it back up.

How much is LO nursing/any new solids? During the week he nurses 3 times. Morning, evening and before bed. On the weekends he nurses on demand, probably 5 or 6 times. He lives all solids. We had chicken burritos for dinner tonight. He loved the chicken but whined until i let him take a bite of my burrito. He took a big bite, then went back to the food on his tray.

Any questions? He takes two 4 1/2 ounce bottles at daycare. He's been refusing one lately. When should i switch him to one bottle?

GTKY: where is your favorite place to nurse? I like nursing in the rocking chair in his room. There are no distractions.