Saturday, August 13, 2011

Happy Baby

This weekend we attended the FSA Conference.
More on that later on my Adoption Blog.

Andrea (Avery's Adoptive mom),
and I were able to spend most of the time together.

SO much fun.
I love her. She is seriously such a good friend.

On Friday we went to lunch at Chili's
and we were talking about Kali's problems with sleeping and puking.

She still wasn't sleeping through the night and I starting worrying that I was doing something wrong.
I feel like such a terrible mom when my baby doesn't seem to be progressing at all!

Then,
Andrea started telling me about things she tried with Avery.
She said that Avery would always act starving when she was done feeding her a bottle,
so she started feeding her more than what she usually did,
and she ate the whole thing and would be so much better.

I've also had some people recommend putting rice cereal in her bottle.
Andrea recommended that too.
I've been thinking about doing that for a while, but never acted on it because I've been worried that she's too young.

I feed Kali a bottle at night
and I've been doing that for a while now.
so last night, I finally decided to just try what others have been recommending for a while.

First,
I wanted to make sure she liked the cereal before I ruined a perfectly good bottle with it.
I made some,
and gave her some on a spoon.

My heavens,
it was like I couldn't give it to her fast enough.
She would take some and immediately want more and start crying because I wasn't giving it to her fast enough.

Poor girl acted like we were starving her to death!
It was then that I concluded what I've always suspected...
she is DEFINITELY her fathers daughter! Especially when it comes to eating food.
haha

So I just put it all in a bottle with formula so that she COULD get it fast enough.
But I also added two more ounces of formula.
I usually give her 2 ounces at night, but this time I gave her 4

She scarffed that sucker down!
and finished that thing way fast.
Then I gave her the Prevacid that we had prescribed for her
and burped her.

She only threw up a teeny bit!
YAY!

Then,
came the scary part.

Whenever we would put her to bed,
she would scream her head off until she fell asleep.

That is so hard for both of us.
We would take turns going in there and putting her binky in her mouth,
but it's so hard when your baby cries. seriously.

So,
I laid her in her crib and put her binky in her mouth.
She didn't make a PEEP.
She was fine and fell asleep without even crying!

I was so happy.
I was hoping it would help her sleep all the way through the night.
we got her to bed around 10:30.

She slept until...
6:30!!

Eight hours!!
I couldn't believe it.
Then all day long today she was the happiest baby on the block and hardly even cried.

I've been feeding her bottles all day because of how well it turned out last night.
and she has loved it.

The hardest part of this all is that I'm greatly greatly considering just cutting off breastfeeding completely.
That's hard for me because I really really wanted to breastfeed until she was at least six months old because,

1. because it's SOO much more convenient when we're out and about to just have it right there and not have to run and make a bottle while she's screaming her head off

and

2. It's cheaper.

I thought about maybe pumping and giving her those bottles,
but I think that would be even MORE inconvenient than making a bottle and PLUS,
I am pretty sure she is allergic to something I'm eating and quite frankly I can't figure out what!

She throws up so much less when I feed her a bottle even when it doesn't have cereal in it.

Meh.
So that's hard for me and I get a little emotional every time I think about stopping.
haha I'm pathetic.
But seriously,
I do love breastfeeding. That might sound weird but I really do.

I know some women have a hard time,
but I'm not one of them so I feel like I'm letting it all go to waste.

I'm just hoping that our next baby doesn't have such problems.
Because I think I would be able to do it for a while if they took it well.

Anyway,
enough with my rambling.

I just had to say it.
She is already SUCH a different baby and it's only been 24 hours!

I just put her to bed again and tonight went even better than last night!
She fell asleep while I was feeding her so she didn't even finish her bottle
(I hope that still means she will sleep through the night)
and she didn't wake up at all when I put her in her crib.

I almost cried of joy.
haha.
I love my baby girl so much!

I'm so glad I figured out what was wrong with her.
I don't know why it took me so long!
Of COURSE she was just still hungry.

She IS her fathers daughter.

1 comment:

  1. I'm so glad you figured it out! I think that you should do what is best for your family when it comes to breast feeding. A lot of people will make you feel guilty about it, but do what is best for YOUR baby. Let them deal with their own babies. I just feel like I am constantly reading or hearing things from crazy breastfeeding moms and they can be SO rude and judgmental. I think because they have to defend it so much that they're just rude about it. I have a friend that still breastfeeds her 3 1/2 year old and I just think "look, if I'm not judging you for bf-ing your 3 year old, don't judge me if I don't want to!"
    That's been a pet peeve of mine lately. I am going to say though that I gave up breastfeeding Nate at 8 months and I completely regretted it. It is something I've regretted ever since. That and making him sleep in his own room because we were living in my parent's basement and it was kind of far away from our room and I couldn't hear him very well. Audrey sleeps in our room now because she wakes up too much to sleep in Nate's room and I feel a lot more attentive to her which makes me feel better. Blah blah I'm rambling. Anyway, when it comes to parenting I feel like I should start the "guilt free initiative". Never second guess your instincts. Never look for approval. Do what you in your heart feel is right. No matter what other's opinions are. The reason why I regretted stopping breast feeding was because in my heart I wanted to keep going. So if you really want to breast feed, maybe you could go to once a day. Then as she get's older and her tummy can handle it better then you can increase your supply by pumping in between feedings. But above all do what YOU think is right because you're the ONLY mom to Kali. You know her better than you know yourself! :D

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