For those of you following my minute-by-minute reports on Jonah’s sleep patterns, that one day was more of an aberration. He’s back on track (who is driving this train?) with his usual sleep and general nap times, though none of us could get him down for that third nap yesterday. These things happen.
I do think teething was to blame for that really rough day. And possibly that we tried a new homeopathic remedy that is supposed to be good for colic and reflux but all I could see so far is that it coincided with his disrupted sleep and made him spit up black goo (it has vegetable charcoal in it) which is not fun to clean up. I hear from the mom that recommended the stuff to me that homeopathics are supposed to bring up the problem on the path to resolving it. Huh. I’m plain sick of remedies, actually. But since the psychic chiropractor had also said it would be good for him, I made myself try it. I don’t know. Maybe I just don’t believe in it enough to bother with all the washing up using it entails.
We have our 5-month pediatrician appt today so just for fun, I decided to track his nursing schedule. They always ask how often he nurses, and I always make something up, I don’t know, 6-8 times a day? It’s on-demand, I explain.
Well, guess what. My boy still nurses 12 times a day. In a 24-hour day. A WHOPPING ! 12 ! times.
I hear the moms in my MG are down to 4-5 feedings. One mom sternly adheres to an every 3-hours or more, not less, schedule.
Given that this boy is the one who came into the world starving, I shouldn’t say I’m surprised. But it does help to put my ongoing exhaustion in perspective. It’s a lot of work, feeding this baby.
He is napping right now (woo hoo!) which gives me a moment to check in here.
And I’ll say these things about him:
Damn! He’s cute!
The laughing: I looooooove the laughing. Yesterday as we were strolling, him in bucket gazing up at me, he just laughed and laughed, pausing to see if I knew what was funny, and each time he paused I smiled and nodded, and he laughed again.
Grasshopper: This is his new nickname in honor of the crazy lying on his back dance that he does — the feet rubbing together are entirely insect-like.
Toys: We are now fully engaging in toys. Especially his new bright red and blue monkey from Nana and his big red crinkly-wrinkly “Peekaboo” cloth book. Both animal and book are excellent for placing atop one’s face and then wriggling about underneath in a help-help-please-save-me-oh-never-mind-i’m-fine-just-going-to-gnaw-on-this-a-bit sort of way. The bear bouncer, so useful and interesting of yore, has worn out its welcome. He’s moved beyond beige or/and vibrating. (You can view a photo of happier days in the bear chair on my recently-revised About page.) Except for the beige “Hug Me” organic mobile, which continues to entertain, as long as I continue to run in and wind it up every three minutes. And while all recently mentioned toys are still popular (O-Ball, Kringelring), he was quite content with the cardboard sleeve from a Starbucks cup yesterday as well.
MILIIT: My mother in law is in town for the week. Yesterday she came with us to yoga, and we went on a next-size-up shopping spree at Baby Gap. Today she’s going with us to the ped, and then all bets are off because who knows how the vaccines will affect him this time.
I’m not a shill: Yes I am. Today I shill for the Pumpin’ Pal. I wish I could get a commission for this… So I’ve always HATED pumping. I’ve found it not only tedious, but painful and uncomfortable no matter what combination of suction speed and frequency I try. I saw these shields mentioned on a breastfeeding advice site, particularly in relation to providing comfort for larger-boobed gals, and thought, what’s another 32 bucks? Well spent, that’s what. Didn’t hurt, got more milk more easily than before. I should note that I had been using the Medela standard-size shields and hadn’t tried the larger ones, which might also have been better for me. But what if the Pumpin’ Pal’s curves are what makes them magic? Who knows.
Re: nursing – some other mom made a comment once about how much my 8-month-old was nursing. As if I was supposed to control it somehow, or as if he were wrong to nurse a lot. I was puzzled as much as offended. What was I supposed to do, say no? No tit for you, you just had some?
Maybe other people’s kids will accept no, but my 2d child never does. He has a will of steel, and we hope he becomes a lawyer because he will wear down the opposition and make us all a lot of money. I am a strong-willed person and I made many firm attempts to cut back on nursing with that infant but he had me licked.
Every baby is different. Lying to nosy parkers is perfectly acceptable. If *you* are sick of nursing then do what you can to cut back, but as long as you can deal with it, who cares? PS my 2d child was so well-adjusted that at 18 months he would go off on the playground and play on his own or with others for half an hour at a time, utterly unconcerned about staying attached to me. He was very attached to me, mind you, and loved to nurse and snuggle. But he was extremely independent very early, and he gave me some scares because of his fearlessness about leaving Mama’s skirts. So all that nursing didn’t cause him any harm…
Yeah monkey! Yuck charcoal! Once I tried to give you some Ipacac because I thought you had swallowed an aspirin. You would have none of it and you survived. Don’t know why I thought of this. I guess it is about remedies and vomit and forcing babies to do something they don’t want to do, or keeping them from what they want. It all turns out okay in the end.
yes, I said licked. Utterly unconscious. *blushing*.
hee hee hee hee