Katie's Growth Update/ Weaning Update

A little late, but as promised, here is what we found out at Katie's one year well check. She is in the lowest possible percentile, less than 3%. She weighed 16 pounds 5 ounces, which was an increase of about 3 pounds in 3 months. She also grew in her height and head circumference. The doctor asked me try to increase her milk intake during the day to at least 18 ounces and to put either ovaltine or carnation instant breakfast in her milk, both of which I have done.

I was holding on to her last breastfeeding session, which was the middle of the night one. I was afraid that if I cut this out that she would lose out on some much needed fat and calories. I figured if she was still waking for it, she must need it. I was wrong. The doctor told me that she was perfectly capable of sleeping up to 12 hours at night and was most likely just using the night feeding for comfort. I swear, she heard and understood him. For the next two nights, she slept 11 hours straight and skipped the night feeding. Night 3 was a different story. She woke around 3 AM. At first I tried to let her cry it out(CIO). She did, but woke a few minutes later. Then I tried picking her up and rocking her for a bit and laying her back down. She would have none of that. I tried walking around the house with her, which kept her quiet, but I was exhausted. I was fully committed to cutting out her middle of the night feeding, but by 5:30 AM I couldn't take it anymore. I made her a cup of milk and sat down to let her drink it. By this time, everyone else in the house was up too. We put in a movie and put some blankets on the floor to lay down. Katie and I laid on the couch and she finally went back to sleep at 6:30. It was NOT fun, especially when I had to get up a couple hours later and go serve in the nursery at church. Needless to say, I skipped the shower that morning and opted for a little extra sleep.

This has happened two times since then, but most nights she will sleep 11 hours. The first time it happened I tried CIO first, then went straight to the milk. After drinking about 4 ounces, I went through our lay down routine and she went back to sleep for the rest of the night. Last night I let her CIO and she made it through the rest of the night. So, Katie is fully weaned from breastfeeding and if it weren't for the puppy that I talked my husband into getting, I would be sleeping through the night most nights.

As for Katie's growth, her doctor and I are happy with her progress for now and will continue to keep an eye on her. As long as she is eating good and grows proportionally, there really are no real concerns.

Thoughts on Breastfeeding

It's funny that Shannon and I are both posting so much about breastfeeding right now. I hope if you're not in that stage, or use formula, you'll stick with us through these posts and find helpful info anyway! I wanted to share a few thoughts on breastfeeding.

For those of you who don't know me, you should know I am a person who likes to be prepared. I like a good challenge, but I really like to be informed about what is coming ahead of me. I don't think I run away from difficulty, especially when I know it's the right thing. But I like to know what it is I am getting into.
With breastfeeding, I knew all the info- the amazing benefits for my child, the cost savings, the calorie-burning (amazing!), and the benefits of the bonding time. All experts agree breastfeeding is best, though I do also think formula is better than it's ever been. My son Seth was formula-fed because we adopted him at 9 months, so I defend formula because he is smart, healthy, and we bonded great. But I am getting off track: my point was that I knew 100% that I wanted to breastfeed Eli. So he was born, we started the process, he was a great eater... and it was days before the reality set in.

Breastfeeding is hard. 

Maybe this is obvious to you. To me, it wasn't. I saw all the other moms just sitting peacefully with their babies under their nursing covers, happily feeding away and thought it looked like a piece of cake. Some people have a hard time with the actual mechanisms involved- we didn't. There is help out there for you if you do have issues. One reason it was hard was Eli's reflux because eating was painful for him. He would latch on, start eating, then pull off and arch away and cry. Feedings took hours. We had to work hard through that till his medication worked correctly. So sort of along those lines, the hardest thing for me was the commitment.

With Seth, Josh and I could both take care of him equally.  When it was time to eat, one of us would prepare and heat up his bottle, and Seth would happily suck it down in minutes flat.  No problem.  With breastfeeding, suddenly it's me, my body and my time...EVERY TIME.  And sure, you can pump and leave a bottle, but that still involves you doing something about it.  Someone recently said to me, when I was saying why I couldn't be at a certain event at a certain time, "can't Josh feed him?" Well yes, he can, but unless you want me to start leaking milk in front of you, I'm going to have to go pump at that time anyway. It involves me leaving places early or not going at all; it involves me getting up from the group having fun and going to a private place to feed him (Eli refuses to nurse under a cover- has since day one- and I am not comfortable being uncovered, though some people are).  It involves me scheduling everything in my life around feeding him.

I wish someone would've explained this to me.  It didn't occur to me at all.

Here's my second point though: I'd do it again anyway. 

This does not change my feelings about it. I would still not trade this time I've had with him, and the satisfaction of knowing I've fed him all this time. It hit me when he was about 6 months old: I grew him. I grew him inside of me and then he'd basically only had my milk to eat up to that point. How cool is that? Again, not knocking formula-feeders because I've done that too. It is just cool to me. There are tons of articles out there about the benefits of breastfeeding, so I won't go into all that here, but they are really amazing. There is even new evidence that breastmilk might help cure cancer. Seriously. This article by Betsy Lee is one of my favorites about breastfeeding. So I wish someone had told me it would be hard, but I'd do it anyway.  I just think it would've been better if I'd been prepared. It's a commitment. It's hard. It's time-consuming and life-altering. But I am glad I've done it.  Eli's only 8 months, and with his tummy issues (one of which is Milk/Soy Protein Intolerance), I might be breastfeeding longer than a year- we'll see how it goes. And I also know his tummy issues would've been way worse if he'd been on formula because of this.  So that's another reason I am glad.

I just wish someone would've told me. So I'm telling you. It's hard. Really hard. Hard does not equal wrong. Hard does not equal Don't Do It.  I think a lot of things are hard because they are worth a lot. It's worth it.

Flexible when necessary

Well, this time this week I thought I would be posting my second entry on weaning from breastfeeding. That's not happening! I have found that anytime you think you have a handle on how things are going to happen, life happens. Things were going quite smoothly with dropping our afternoon feeding and substituting whole milk. Monday through Friday it worked great. Katie was a touch more clingy in the afternoons than she had been, but her sleeping was right on track and she was taking the milk just fine without a reaction.

Enter life. Saturday began just like any other Saturday, but ended with an unforeseeable incident that left us leaving our house for the afternoon with little notice. I forgot the milk and decided to nurse Katie after her afternoon nap thinking we would get back on track the next day. Saturday night though she woke with a fever and has been sick for three days now. Though her symptoms were few, loss of appetite was one of the main symptoms. For the first couple days nursing was about the only nourishment she received, so I opted out of weaning. Thankfully this afternoon Katie began returning to her normal happy, fever free self. I was able to successfully substitute her evening nursing session for whole milk.

My plan to get us back on track is to only drop the afternoon nursing for the next two days. If that continues to go well, I will then drop a second feeding. I've now decided to drop her first feeding of the day next. Hopefully by next Monday we can be back on track. I say that thinking back to my quote above, "anytime you think you have a handle on how things are going to happen, life happens." So, for now, I will do the best I can, be happy with where we are, and not be too disappointed if things end up off track.

Weaning from Breastfeeding

Katie turned 11 months old this past weekend, so I am beginning to wean her so that she will finish up with breastfeeding right around her first birthday. I'm not intending to recommend this age to wean, this is just what I did with Brayden and what I am also choosing to do with Katie. In addition to the age, she is also showing signs of disinterest in breastfeeding. This happens especially in public.

This is my process. I chose to drop the feeding after Katie's afternoon nap first. I chose this for two reasons. First, it is a pretty busy time of day around here. Stephanie will just be getting home from school so there will be plenty of activity to distract her. Second, I still cluster her feedings a bit in the evening so her next feeding will be 3 hours from now instead of 4. I always feed her shortly after waking. I usually take her straight from her crib to the loveseat to nurse her. However, just so I know she isn't completely reliant on this occurring I usually choose a random feeding each day to delay the nursing for a bit after waking.

In place of her afternoon nursing session, I gave her a cup with a straw with 4 ounces of whole milk. I sat with her while she drank what she wanted and then put the cup away. I'm leaning towards a cup with a straw in place of a sippy cup for all liquids. I am also teaching her to drink from a regular cup with assistance. I hope this saves me the trouble of breaking her from a sippy cup in the future. I do give her some juice in a sippy cup, but I don't want her to become reliant on it.

On a side note, I know that it is not recommended to give your child milk until they are one. I began two weeks ago giving Katie small drinks of my milk at meals to ensure that she would have no digestive issues. I also know she can tolerate cheese, yogurt and ice cream. I believe it is safe to begin offering milk.

I will continue to replace her afternoon nursing session with milk for the next week. At that point I will choose another session to drop. I haven't thought far enough ahead to know which it will be. Currently she nurses roughly at: 7 Am, 11 Am, 3 PM, 6 PM, and 8 PM. She also usually wakes one or two times overnight.

I should also mention that I have changed her meal times in order to get her ready for a complete wean. Until 2 weeks ago, she had her meal directly following when she nursed. She would then sit with us for supper only. She would play independently during our other meals. A couple weeks ago I began delaying her breakfast and lunch until we were all sitting down to eat these meals. So, Katie would nurse at her regular time but then wait approximately an hour until her meal. Since she is eating what we eat anyway, it made my life much easier.

Last thought for the post. I thought I would mention Katie's nap time for those with younger children. At 11 months, Katie takes two naps. They are each around 1 1/2 hours. Her first nap is from 9:30 to 11 AM. Her second nap is from 1:30 to 3 PM.

This is an older post from another blog. I have copied it word for word and pasted it. It was written in late January of 2010. I can't say that everything I typed then still applies now, but I'm being lazy and just pasting it:

Here are some tips and tricks I have learned to make pumping and bottle feeding easier for me.

I began pumping when Katie was 4 or 5 weeks old. By that time she was on a solid 3 hour routine for feedings. She was also beginning to extend her nights. I had read somewhere, and absolutely found it to be true that your body produces more milk in the morning than in the evening. Therefore, in the morning I would feed Katie as normal. Then approximately 1 and 1/2 hours after she began eating, I would pump. I would have enough milk to store at least 4 ounces in the freezer, many times more. It would also not be a problem to feed Katie at the 3 hour mark, there was plenty of time to build my supply back up.

Here are some products related to pumping that I prefer and why:

-Medela Pump in Style pump-even though it is an expensive investment, I have found that it is a very reliable pump. When I had Brayden, I tried pumping with a cheaper electric pump and could never get more than a couple ounces. It is very easy to use and well worth the money in my opinion.

-Medela bottles- a small supply comes with the pump and I borrowed and purchased more to supplement my supply. Katie never had any issues accepting this bottle. It is very convenient because at times I just put the bottles that I have pumped into the fridge for later use. That way I don't have to transfer the milk and risk spilling any.

-Medela quick clean steam bags- I never looked to see if another brand carried these bags. They are fairly inexpensive. When I first began using my pump and bottles for Katie, I would wash and then sanitize the products on the stove for 10 minutes. Not only was it time consuming, but my water tended to leave a film on the products after I sanitized them. I have found that using the microsteam bags is much quicker and I do not have the problem with the film. With a high wattage microwave like mine, it only takes 1 and 1/2 minutes per load to steam.
***side note-Medela bottles are bpa free. Therefore they will take on a slightly cloudy appearance after they have been used and washed a couple times.

Last thought for the post-I have developed a washing/sanitizing system that works well in our home. I wash the bottles and pump parts. After I rinse them, I put them directly into the microsteam bag and steam them. When I remove them from the bag, I then put them on the drying rack on our counter. I usually put them away the following morning after all condensation has evaporated. When I am at work, my husband always knows that anything in the cabinet or on the drying rack is sanitized and ready to use.