Lucy & Zach are in week three of their 12th month {thanks baby center email for reminding me how old they’re getting}. So that’s 55 weeks of the three of us breastfeeding. Before we switch things up {again}, I thought I’d do a quick update to remember these days.
At the suggestion of our trusted pediatrician, the change will be us slowly adding whole milk {either mixed with carnation instant breakfast or done half/half with pedi sure for added calories} within the next couple weeks. & sooner than later we’ll be weaning from nursing {but don’t tell Lucy}.
Lucy’s on a streak of night wakings where breastfeeding is almost the only {& most definitely the quickest} way to get her back to sleep. I’ll side-lying nurse her so we both can be barely awake through the whole feeding. Then we just roll over & co-sleep til morning.
I try to grab her as soon as I hear her on the monitor, so we just have one awake baby. Zach tends to be a light sleeper, but if he wakes up, he’s quick to go back to sleep with just snuggles & doesn’t typically need milk. He’s actually refused nursing {overnight & in the morning} multiple times in the past week. I’m not sure if it is/was {he nursed Thurs am, overnight & Fri am!} a temporary nursing strike or if he’s beginning to wean or if he just likes how quick he can drink from a bottle better.
His strike means I’ve been pumping some in the morning before work & always after they go to bed as I’m trying to make sure we have enough breast milk for at least 7 6 oz bottles per day {so my goal is 21+ oz}.
After a couple weeks of a struggle, they’ve taken great to their half formula/half breast milk bottles. If it’s much less than half/half, Lucy will still do fine, but Zach will protest a bit.
After my last formula/ milk supply post, I tried {just about} everything to up my output. I went through a huge bottle of fenugreek pills. I drank {yummier than I was expecting} mother’s milk &/or fenugreek tea all day. I drank a lot water. And I started looking at what {& how much} I was eating.
And from all that, I realized that the pills & tea & water probably didn’t hurt matters, but what makes the most difference in my supply is food. Adding in an extra carby second breakfast means I pump an extra couple of ounces. So we keep donuts, bagels with cream cheese, & cereal/granola bars on hand. Or I swing through chicfila drive through after doing daycare drop off for a chicken biscuit & tea/lemonade. This extra mid-morning meal is key for me. I keep a healthier snack {like Greek yogurt & fruit} for after my afternoon pump.
And yes, we still use bottles. Transitioning to sippy cups will start to be in the works very soon {like starting this weekend}. We offer water or water with a lil apple juice in sippy cups at home but they play with them way more than actually drinking. I’m thinking we’ll try moving to sippy cups before we introduce whole milk. That way they don’t have two big changes at once.
