Bottle Woes Solved

Well, made better at least. But first, here's the bottle back story.

Little Miss did great with the bottle from practically day one. Because she dropped 10% of her body weight in her first 24 hours, we supplemented with formula for a day or two until I was able to pump enough to supplement with breast milk. This turned out to be a blessing and disguise because she easily switched back and forth between bottle and breast. This made it possible for My Love to give her the 6 am feeding so I could sleep for 4 or 5 hours. That was bliss in those early weeks.

We continued to give her bottles at least once or twice a week until about 3 months when Little Miss was having feeding problems and I didn't want one more variable in the list. I stopped pumping as much because I realized that all the milk in my freezer was no good because of her dairy allergy. Furthermore, I didn't know if any new milk I pumped would also be bad if I found out we were dealing with more than one food allergy. It just became easier to breastfeed and not worry about what I had eaten when I pumped whatever was in that bottle. The few times I tried to give her a full bottle in the third and fourth months, she had fought it. I knew we were in for a struggle but since it was easier to just breast feed her, I let it go.

Then we started giving Little Miss Zantac for her reflux. I started pumping 2-3 ounces at a time and making several 1/2 ounce bottles with the medicine in them. At first she wasn't a big fan of these small bottles but she soon realized that if she sucked them down, she got to the breast sooner. I thought, great, she's taking bottles really well again. A few weeks ago however, all that changed. She stopped taking those small bottles. She wasn't taking bottles at church or when we went out for date night. Uh oh, now I'm in trouble. Little Miss would rather just skip a feeding than take a bottle.

Then I had an epiphany. We had been given lots of Nuk latex nipples in the hospital. We had been using these all along. I realized late one night after a failed bottle attempt that those nipples we had been using since the beginning were newborn nipples...with newborn flow. Little Miss is no longer a newborn and her appetite is no longer that of a newborn. I had heard about not giving a breastfed baby a large or fast flow nipple too soon, especially from the beginning. I hadn't thought however, about how frustrated she must be getting just a trickle from the bottle when she can nurse quite efficiently now.

So last night when it was time to give her a bottle, I tried the regular flow nipples. She fussed for a few minutes and then... she sucked down 4.5 ounces. That's the most she's taken from a bottle in about 2 months. Granted, this was only one time but at least it gives me hope that we are not doomed to breast or nothing until we wean. I'm hoping to breastfeed until a year so with just over 6 months to go, I'm glad to think that being apart for more than a few hours is still a possibility.

Schedule at 5 months

I thought I'd share where we were a few weeks ago at 5 months and what we are doing differently in the last week or two. At five months, we were pretty much still on a 3 hour schedule with a dream feed.

8:15 nurse
9:15 nap (60 min. after waking)
11:15-11:30 nurse (she was napping really well and long so I often let her sleep a few extra minutes)
12:30 nap
2:15 nurse
3:15-3:30 nap (watching for sleep cues)
5-5:15 nurse (often waking around 4:30 or 4:45)
6-6:30 nap
7:45 wake if still sleeping
8 nurse
8:30 bedtime
10-11 dream feed

I realized that I was almost always waking her for the second and third feeds of the day. She really can go longer than 3 hours in the earlier part of the day. I also had been thinking about dropping the dream feed for many weeks but different things kept coming up. Then she started waking in the night and I thought perhaps either the fourth nap or the dream feed were causing sleep disruption in the night. Over the last several days we have moved to this schedule. Unfortunately, she had two vaccines Monday and has been teething as well but I decided to push ahead and hopefully get it all over at once.

8:15 nurse
9:20 nap
11:45 nurse
12:50 nap
3 nurse
4-4:30 nap (watching for sleep cues; the length of this nap is still variable depending on earlier naps and errands, etc)
6 nurse
8 nurse
8:30 bedtime

I have to admit that dropping the dream feed has been bittersweet. I loved that time snuggling her while she slept and I do miss it a bit. The last two nights I haven't fed her but I've gone in to kiss her one last time. Both nights she has stirred and cried for a minute or two just after I've left her room so tonight I'm not going to go in. It is also nice, however, to put her in bed at 8:30 and be able to do whatever I want with the rest of the night without needing to worry about stopping to feed her one last time.

Last night, she fussed for a few minutes around midnight and then woke up crying around 2:30. I knew from her cry that she was in pain but I wasn't sure if she was hungry as well. I gave her Tylenol, put a little Orajel on her gums, and tried for a few minutes to settle her back down. When she clearly wasn't going to fall back asleep, I decided to nurse her for a few minutes. She was still awake when I put her down about 8 minutes later but she went back to sleep relatively easily after I left her. I think it was just the teething that woke her so tonight I gave her some Motrin before bed to try to cover that preemptively.

5 months already!?!

I can't believe it's been five months since Little Miss joined our family. I'm absolutely loving motherhood and feel so incredibly blessed. For those of you who don't know, it took us 18 seemingly endless months to get pregnant with our little bundle of joy and though the first several months of pregnancy went quite smoothly, the last few were a real challenge. Sunday was Little Miss' dedication at church (the pic was taken after church) and the next day she turned 5 months on the nose. We seem to be in a good groove with her schedule and life is good.

Little Miss is the happiest, smiley-est baby around. Everyone always comments on how content and sociable she is. Several people have told us we should get her into modeling because her smile and her temperament are perfect for it. We are contemplating entering her in some photo contests and seeing if it goes anywhere.

Sleep Issues: I think, fingers crossed, we have turned the corner on her sleep difficulties. Her nap difficulties got better little by little just before she turned 4 months old. It started with her sleeping through the occasional nap with 5-10 minutes of crying in the middle. She then began only crying about 5 minutes. Now she will occasionally cry 45 minutes to an hour in but rarely cries very hard or very long.

Only about a week after the naps returned to being consistently good though, she started waking up in the night again. Up until then, I could count on half a hand the times she had woken in the night since 6 weeks when she had started sleeping through the night. It was right before Mother's Day and right around when she turned 4 months. I had read on Chronicles of a Babywise Mom that 4 month sleep problems are rather common so I wasn't too surprised. I knew she was learning how to roll from back to tummy and that she was practicing when she should have been sleeping. I also knew that she was really taking an interest in the world and had been much more distracted while nursing making full feeds more difficult during the day and I thought she might even be going through a growth spurt to boot.

I assumed that it was a hunger problem and sure enough, she took a full feed. That continued for a few nights until I questioned whether she was going to get used to feeding in the night and therefore if I was setting a new routine in a different direction than I wanted to go. I tried letting her cry for 5-10 minutes and then soothing her without feeding her, but she really was hungry so I ended up feeding her. Then one night she slept through. Then another night she would sleep until 6 (normal wake up is 8). Then she would go back to 4:30. There was even one or two nights she woke up twice to eat. She had a cold during this time so I really didn't want to do cry it out while she was sick so I kept feeding her when she woke and she kept eating. I actually didn't mind waking up all that much as I would just watch her nurse so peacefully and think about how fast she is growing up. My baby won't always be a baby so I'm doing my best to cherish every moment.

There was one night last week that I finally decided to let her cry. She cried for over an hour. I only checked on her once in that time as letting her see me only makes matters worse. I finally decided she really was hungry and wasn't going to fall back asleep so I fed her. That was a rough night. The next night she slept through till 8. She has slept through the night the last several nights though so I think we may be over the hump. Only time will tell.

Dairy Allergy and Reflux: At 2 months, I went off dairy (after mucousy, bloody stools) and Little Miss started eating better without fussing so much. At 3.5 months, she was fussy again and spitting up more and acting like she was in pain while eating. We put her on Zantac hoping it was reflux and not more food allergies. She got better (around that time her naps got better too). Around 4.5 months, she started fussing while eating and spitting up again. I called the doc and they upper her Zantac dosage so it is more in line with her current weight. Overall, she seems more comfortable but still has times when she struggles while she's nursing. I'm praying she's not allergic to anything else because selfishly I don't want to have to cut anything else out of my diet.

Naps, Teething, and Other Updates

Naps are still a struggle. I thought for a while that things were getting better and to some degree I still do. There are now some naps that Little Miss is making it all the way through with no to minimal trouble. There are, however, still many for which she is only sleeping 35-50 minutes before waking. Unfortunately, I've had very little success getting her to fall back asleep as well. Sometimes she'll fall back asleep in my arms and then wake up as soon as her head hits the bed so I usually just get her up and keep her mellow until the next feeding time. She also woke at 5:15 this morning; I think her teeth were bothering her and once she was awake she wanted to be fed. She then fell back asleep until normal wake up time at 8.

That leads me to the next update...teething. I'm pretty sure Little Miss is so fussy and often inconsolable due to some serious teething pain. She doesn't like the cold teether or cold wet wash cloths. She occasionally likes the vibrating strawberry teether. So far, chewing on her own fist or mommy's finger seem to be her favorite. Her worst time of day is late afternoon and often I resort to Tylenol or Motrin at this hour. I picked up some Baby Orajel today to see if that helps as well.

Last night and tonight are the first nights in a long time (that I can remember actually) that Little Miss cried at bedtime. She is usually falling asleep just before bedtime when I change her diaper, put on PJs, and go nurse her. She almost falls asleep at the breast and then fusses some during our goodnight song. She has fallen asleep only to wake a few minutes later screaming. When I go check on her, I hold her for a minute, put her down, pat her and she falls asleep.

She continues to keep doing great at tummy time and is able to do up to 5 or 6 minutes. Occasionally she still rolls over from tummy to back. She loves to coo and giggle and "talk" with whomever will listen. Her eyes are getting darker but they're definitely not brown yet. She had a growth spurt a few days ago and is officially in 3-6 month clothing now. That's pretty much what's going on around here.

Holding My Breath

I'm holding my breath and hoping that the trend continues. As mentioned recently in this post, Little Miss has been having some major nap trouble. She has been waking up between 45 minutes and an hour into each nap (which I'd like to be 1.5 to 2 hours) for the last 5 weeks. Today, she slept perfectly for her first nap, fussed mildly for her third nap, and needed only a little bit of help from me in the middle of her second nap. This last nap of the day she woke up an hour in but three out of four is a huge improvement over none.

Dairy Free for Me

It's official - Little Miss is allergic to dairy. After being dairy free for two weeks, I had some cheese Monday and the next day, Little Miss had tons of mucous and specks of blood in her stool. She was also more fussy during nursing. I really would like to keep breastfeeding until her first birthday so I'm saying goodbye to all milk products. I will miss my cheese and my ice cream but it is well worth it to keep Little Miss healthy. Most children outgrow dairy allergy by two or three years old though so hopefully it won't be an issue for her forever.

Amazingly, I too have had a major change since going off of dairy. My insulin needs have dropped by about 40%. I'm not quite sure what to make of that but obviously my body has issues with milk protein as well. Within 48 hours of stopping dairy, I kept going low over and over again. After about two days of stuffing my face to keep up with the lows, my genius husband suggested I change my basal rates on my insulin pump. Duh? Why didn't I think of that? The only thing that changed was the dairy.

I'm kind of hoping that maybe God will use this to heal my diabetes. Medically/scientifically it makes no sense but I know God can use whatever means he desires to heal people and I'll take it. Healing from diabetes is something I have always prayed for but honestly most of the time I don't really think it will happen in this lifetime. I know I should have more faith but it is one of those, "God, I believe. Forgive my unbelief" type things. I want to believe and I know he can heal me; I just don't always think he will. For now though, I know that Little Miss needs me off of dairy and if that is the case, then so be it. If it helps my health, all the better.

We've Got a Roller

Little Miss is officially rolling. On Tuesday, I had her doing tummy time on the changing mat and she looked like she was trying to roll. She couldn't get too far because our changing mat has raised sides so I put her down on her activity gym mat. I propped her up on her arms and over she went.

She proceeded to roll over and over and over again. I kept putting her on her tummy and she kept rolling. She even did it for the video camera a few times. I called My Love and he got to tell everyone at work about his girl's first real milestone. Then I called my mom even though she was on her way over and she was thrilled too.

By the time my mom got here and Little Miss was awake again, she wouldn't do it. When daddy got home we tried again. No luck. Fortunately I had the video to prove it. We tried again Wednesday and Thursday to no avail. Finally this morning, she finally rolled again a few times. Silly girl had me thinking maybe she had already forgotten.