I have a new paranoia: that my little guy will self-wean long before I am ready.
But first, a cute quote from the "two and some months" little girl. We were in music class yesterday and the teacher was doing the standard "Hello, fusspot it's so good to see you song" and she remembered to include the dumpling. So as she sang his name the fusspot looked up and said very loudly: "Dumpling THE MAN." Yes, we're working on pronouns over here.
So here's the thing: once the fusspot figured out nursing (and it did take her over 3 weeks to latch on ...) she would nurse happily forever. Offer her the breast, and she'd nurse. She would occasionally play, and she was certainly distracted on occasion, but she would nurse no matter what.
The dumpling is just so interested in everything, that even in bed at night when it's just the 2 of us he has to pop up to kick the wall and lick the pillow and examine his hands in the midst of a feed. And the boy loves him some solids. We were in Whole Foods yesterday around lunchtime and as the fusspot started to meltdown I abandoned my plans for a lunch at home and settled in to feed both kids there. Of course, all I had that was soft enough for the dumpling was Indian food which he devoured, lunging for more when I turned to deal with the fusspot.
And now he's started refusing bottles from babysitters. He still takes bottles at daycare every day (and I try to go nurse him once during the day) but our array of evening babysitters (when I work at night, it's not like we've been out as a couple in the past 2 months ...) can't get him to take a bottle. I don't know if I should cut back on his solids, even though he enthusiastically tries to join in every time the fusspot eats and will happily crawl under her high chair to collect the "extra" food. I am trying to only do one real solids meal a day, but he would enthusiastically have more and he's still a petite guy so I don't want to limit his food. Also, since he's now spending part of the night in a crib it limits his even snacking, although I do bring him to bed with me as soon as I go to bed (usually around 2 am). But then again I am terrified he'll self-wean or my milk will run out sooner than I'd like (and let's be honest ... I would like to nurse practically forever. But at least 2 years if possible. Oh, and it really doesn't help that we now believe (possibly erroneously) that nursing hormones help to control some of my weirder hormonal imbalances and may have made it easier to get pregnant the second time ...). Thoughts?
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2 comments:
My concern with the solids (and keep in mind I'm no MD or LC) would actually be the opposite of yours--that they are not as calorie-dense as breast milk and so would fill him up faster without getting enough calories. Isn't the whole BLW thing that before 1 food is just for play and exploration and not actually eating? BUT I have no idea how you would keep such an enthusiastic eater from eating! If you're concerned about his weight gain I would at the very least make sure all the solids he eats are pretty calorie dense (we used to literally mash olive oil into avocado, that's how calorie dense I'm talking).
I have the same enthusiastic eater- but 2 months younger! He tries to swipe our food & while he does nurse very well and there is no issue of weight gain for him (he could stand a few less calorie dense meals pretty well!) I am also very concerned about supply. But mine is all work/pumping/stress/travel related.
The Pumpkin had gone through a very distracted phase- but I found that if we could squeeze in a few more (if shorter) sessions things worked out just fine. It was the age of scootching & crawling & life being generally much too exciting for nursing. I don't know if Little Bear is going to be the same. But he does eat a lot & with lots of extended travel I am nervous he will run through my frozen supply at breakneck speed & I won't be able to pump enough while gone to replace & then he will no longer want to nurse as well which will in turn make me not able to pump as much during the day.
My goal's for nursing this time have been little and fluid- right now it's 6 months, but ultimately I would love for him to never have a drop of formula, but it is such hard work to achieve that!
Goodness- look at me highjacking your comment! All this is to say I feel ya sister- in my opinion dumpling is showing you exactly what he is ready for and what he wants. Keep nursing through his distraction as much as possible and hopefully it's a short-lived phase!
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