Very little sleep and a lot of sitting

Poor little IQ. Her teeth really are causing some misery. After bed last night she woke around 9:30pm having a screaming meltdown. I quickly changed her and gave her more teething powders then took her back up to bed. After that waking she woke every 1.5 hours thereafter and was wide awake at 5:45am.

I'm on my knees here!!

She's barely slept today (usually has 3 good naps per day) and has been really miserable. I haven't left the house once today and I feel so stuffy because of it.

One great positive that came out of today is that she's making good progress at sitting on her own. In between feeding, calpol and crying we have been playing and having fun. She's Still a little wobbly and falls over when reaching for toys but it's all practise!

I have been keeping with the mix feeding today but I'm almost certain that my supply is really dwindling... She's just polished off 14oz!!!! And is sleeping in my arms for the first time today. I feel like the wakings last night were because I wasn't producing enough milk for her... I feel pretty dreadful for that.

It's looking like my breastfeeding journey has come to a rather abrupt end, not the smooth transition I was hoping for :-( I'm trying to reassure myself of the positives to stopping breastfeeding but I feel bereft. Has anyone else stopped suddenly or phased it out? How did you feel about it? Was it easy to get used to not bfing anymore?

I could do with a few positive words as I'm feeling really guilty!

First of 2013 - Travelling and Teeth

Good evening and happy new year!

I hope the festive period and new year was full of family, food and happiness for everyone.

It was our first 'family' Christmas, the three of us together and it was a very busy one. From the 23rd of Dec until the 31st, we travelled almost 600 miles, visited two different countries, two childhood homes and lots of family and friends. We were both so proud of IQ. She coped with all the changes amazingly and was very content for most of our time away. We returned yesterday feeling like we'd had a long holiday but the 10 days we were away flew by. It was great to see so many friends and family over the festive season and I think I ate my body weight in food.

I can do this by myself ya know...

All I want for Christmas are my two front (bottom) teeth!

Just before we left for our Christmas break we discovered IQ's first tooth, well, teeth in fact. The bottom two teeth were just about poking through the gums. I had discovered them by chance when letting her chomp on my finger - what a surprise! It was quite a sad discovery for me as I'd said that I would phase out breastfeeding once her teeth arrived. It seemed so sudden and unannounced that, while I was really happy that my little girl had reached this enormous milestone, I was upset because it called for an end to breastfeeding.

We've started to add in a bottle feed gradually, we started with an evening bottle before bed then after a few days we added another bottle at lunchtime. I wanted my supply to adjust to this lack fo demand without any sudden changes, so that my supply didn't go crazy and leave me feeling sore. So far we're on 3 or 4 bottles a day, ranging from 4oz to 7oz as we're still trying to figure out just how much our little milk monster needs. It's going much better than I had hoped and I'm starting to feel the pressure of being the only person to be able to feed IQ lift, giving daddy some much needed bonding time with her too.

Only comfortable on mummy

Growing Pains

While IQ's teeth took us by surprise, we had noticed some of the signs of teething - chomping, drooling, cutting naps short and general grumpiness. We thought we were doing really well, especially as she was teething during our holiday but I've got to hand it to her, she's been fab. It's only been in the last 2 days that she's been really miserable. The poor little thing has got all the nasty teething symptoms, chomping, drooling like a bulldog, short naps resulting in over tiredness  horrible bottle green poos leading to TERRIBLE nappy rash. It's no surprised that she's spent most of this evening crying and grizzling.

Schnuggles

It's so hard to see her feeling so miserable.

At one point she woke from a nap and came downstairs only to fall asleep in my arms a few minutes later. It was the only place she felt soothed and comforted (I'm in no way complaining about this, I LOVE it when she sleeps on me). After a nap in my arms and a quick bath we got her ready for bed. She was so tired she fell asleep so quickly and I'm hoping she'll have a good sleep. Poor little thing.

Teething is horrible business and I read recently that if adults had to go through the pain of teething, we'd be driven crazy by the pain... no surprise that our little ones have such a hard time of it!

Getting a breastfed baby to take a bottle - part 2

I use my pump to express straight into a bottle

From Boob to Bottle

We had made a decision that we wanted to try and give our breastfed baby a bottle. The bottle is not to replace breastfeeding but it's something we wanted out little one to learn to do. We nominated a day in the week where myself and hubs were free all day, as he was going to be the one to give her the bottle. Many people have said that breastfed babies can smell milk from their mums and often refuse to take a bottle from mum because they know there's better milk near by. So we decided that I was going to be in the house but not the one to offer IQ the bottle.

The night before the big 'B' day I let IQ play with the teat from the bottle. I stuck my finger inside the teat and let her put it in her mouth. She was in charge. I let her grab it with her hands and when she directed my hand towards her mouth, I let the teat touch her lips. SHE was the one to put it in her mouth. I think this was important  as the teat wasn't being forced into her mouth while she was hungry, she jut played with it while content and got used to how it felt. I also expressed some milk the night before (around 4oz) ready for when we offered her the bottle when she woke up in the morning.

The big 'B' day

Around 7am, when IQ started to stir, I crept out of the room before she was fully awake to warm the bottle. This meant she neither saw nor heard me. Obviously she was very hungry when she woke (she had slept from 10pm until 7am), hubs quickly changed her and then offered her the bottle. He warmed the teat a little so it wouldn't be such a shock for her in comparison to the warm milk.

I sat downstairs nervously while he went back upstairs to try. I sat in silence while I listened to my baby having a grizzle upstairs. To my horror this turned into full blown crying! I could hear hubs talking to her softly and after a few minutes her grizzles subsided and I heard no sound. The silence went on for around 10 minutes.

I was so pleased when he came downstairs with a big smile on his face. He asked if there was any more milk because she'd polished off the whole 4oz! I quickly expressed a little more milk for my hungry little baby. I was so pleased that she had taken this first bottle so readily. I thought it was beginners luck as the other times we'd offered her a bottle, she'd got so upset that she refused to feed at all - from breast or bottle!

Daddy feeding IQ

We kept up the bottle feeding all day and hubs gave her a bottle for every meal and to our pleasure, she took every bottle without too much issue. I couldn't believe it! I even managed to give her one around 6pm! I have to admit that I did nurse her to sleep this evening. I think she deserved it and I had missed this special time with her. She is now sleeping soundly and I think her little tummy is VERY full from all the milk she's had.

We are now going to try and give IQ a bottle every day (maybe I can do an end of week report to let you all know how we got on). The daily bottle will be hubs' job when he gets home from work. I think this will be a lovely job that he's going to enjoy and I know IQ will love spending this important time with her daddy.

Learning to take a bottle

It was really hard listening to IQ cry while hubs was trying to give her a bottle. It seemed so unnatural that someone else was feeding my baby. It also gave me a slight sense of relief, the immense pressure that I feel as the ONLY person to be able to feed IQ had been lifted. I now know that if I'm ill or have to be away from IQ for any period of time that someone else can feed her and she will be OK. I think this is a worry for most breastfeeding mums, "will my baby be OK if I can't be with her?". I'm so glad that I can now answer that question with a firm "Yes!".

With a little perseverance hubs can now enjoy feeding IQ and I feel that it's important for him to have that kind of bond with her. I felt that he was missing out on the lovely feeling you get when IQ looks me in the eye while feeding and I know she's really happy. I have also learnt to take a step back and let someone else take care of my baby. While it was hard at first because I wanted to step in and comfort her while she was getting upset, I kept my cool and let hubs take control and feed her.

The most important lesson we've learnt is that bottle feeding is a skill that breastfed babies have to LEARN! It's also something they will forget how to do so be patient with your baby, stay calm and offer the bottle every day so they don't forget how to use it. With a little planning, perseverance and learning from all - we've managed to achieve what we wanted and everyone stayed happy. IQ got lots of milk, I had my hands free for a few hours more in the day and daddy can now feed his baby.

The important steps that I feel worked for us:

IQ playing with the teat

• Plan ahead - nominate a whole day to try your baby with the bottle
• Choose one type of bottle & teat and stick with it
• Let your baby play with the teat a few days before
• Express some milk the night before (keep at back of fridge)
• Offer the bottle as the FIRST meal of the day
• Get your partner/husband to offer the first bottle (if possible)
• If your baby pushes the bottle out of their mouth just back off, stay calm and try a few minutes later
• Offer the bottle at EVERY meal for ONE WHOLE DAY

Are you trying or have tried to get your boobie-baby to take to bottle feeding? What were your reasons for trying and how did you get on? Do you have a bottle refuser? Do you have any tips you'd like to share?

Getting a breastfed baby to take a bottle - part 1

My baby loves the boob

Our little IQ is a real boob baby. She's been exclusively breastfed on demand from birth. If she's hungry - she gets boob, if she's tired - she gets boob, if she's scared - she gets boob… you get the picture. She nurses to sleep most nights and without nursing, she rarely goes to sleep on her own. While having an exclusively breastfed baby is an amazing and wonderfully natural thing, it makes what you can do/go/wear very limited. I knew that sooner or later though, she'd have to get used to taking expressed milk from a bottle. 

Giving IQ a bottle wouldn't happen very often. Only on the rare occasion if we wanted to go out on a 'date night', if I wanted to go shopping without her, or if hubs wanted to take IQ out for the day by himself. He wouldn't be able to take a boob, nor could I leave one behind and I don't want to start giving her formula. (I'm not saying formula is bad. You wouldn't like it if someone replaced the meal you're about to eat with something you've never eaten before and you only find out as you start eating it? No, that would be mean.)

Nipple confusion?

I held off giving IQ  bottle because I'd read (stupid internets) about something called nipple confusion. It's apparently where breastfed babies are given bottles/pacifiers and somehow get confused between those and the breast. This results in them apparently getting 'confused' about which one will give them milk and result in them refusing the breast. Obviously this scared the hell out of me. I'd worked so hard and there was no way I was going to suffer from bleeding/cracked/sore/swollen nipples and rock hard boobs for my baby to forget how to feed.

(I know now that) In reality, this probably wouldn't have happened. I'd scared myself stupid into thinking that if I gave her a bottle, she'd forget how to feed and all my hard work getting her to breastfeed would be wasted. It wasn't until she was 10 weeks old that we really tried giving her a bottle as a replacement for a nursing session.

Trying and Failing (mainly failing)

We've tried (and failed) on a few occasions to give IQ a bottle of expressed milk. Some resulted in her taking the milk fine and without quarrel but the majority of attempts ended up in a screaming meltdown and hubs handing over a very inconsolable baby who is so wound up, she refuses to nurse. Those were very stressful times for all of us. I'd usually end up in tears before we all gave up with the bottle and I whipped a boob out and everything calmed down.

Crunch Time!

It was last week, at 10 weeks of age, we decided that we HAD to get her used to taking a bottle. Before now, all of our attempts had been last minute decisions and because the attempts were not that thought out, they ended in disaster. We have a wedding to attend on Saturday (6th Oct) and the plan is for my parents to babysit. As most grandparents would be, they are so excited to be asked to babysit but this would only be possible if we are able to get her to take a bottle. I know they'd be devastated if they couldn't look after her as planned. 

We want to take her during the day to meet all of our friends and wanted the evening to ourselves so we can have a few drinks. There will also be lots of friends that we haven't seen for nearly a year. Tomorrow is the last chance that we'd have to get IQ to take a bottle, so tomorrow on hubs day off, we're going to try her with the bottle. I'm nervous about not nursing my baby. I feel cruel to not nurse her when she needs/wants to. I have a feeling it may end in disaster and tears...

Please check back for part two tomorrow for the report on how we get on!