With Elliotte's first birthday fast approaching,
"Operation: Wean Elliotte Paige"
has been set in motion!
Though I vowed to nurse both of my children
for the first year of their lives,
I had no idea how much sacrifice that would involve on my part.
With both of them.
Piper of course,
was mostly difficult in the beginning,
due to her being born at 35 weeks
and not being quite developed enough
to master the art of nursing right away.
By the time she was three months old,
we had both figured it all out
and it was smooth sailing from then until she turned one.
My rule is:
If you're old enough to eat your own birthday cake,
then you're old enough to drink milk from a cup with it!
So, not long after Piper's first birthday,
she was fully weaned.
I promised Elliotte that I would give her
the same nutritional benefits as her sister
for the same amount of time.
It all started off much easier with Elliotte,
thanks to her being full term,
but that all changed a few months ago.
It changed when doctors and nurses became concerned with Elliotte's poops,
and started investigating the source.
I spent more than two months on a dairy-free diet,
(not as easy as you might think).
If it was as easy as cutting out milk, cheese, yogurt and butter,
it all would have been fine.
But no.
Dairy seems to be in EVERYTHING!
I felt as if I was restricted to a specific brand of bread,
fruits, vegetables and nuts.
It was difficult!
But that was nothing compared to having to give up sleep
when Elliotte turned six months old!
Basically,
for the past four months,
my longest stretch of sleep has been 1.5 hours.
(That's a lie.
I can think of two occasions when I slept for 2 straight hours!
But it's was so rare I don't think it really counts.)
With the help of a wonderful doctor
and later a wonderful pediatrician,
we have finally started to have some improvements on the sleep front.
It all surrounds Elliotte's diet and digestion.
We are still limiting dairy for our sweet girl,
but slowly we will keep introducing and reintroducing it to her
in hopes that soon she will have outgrown any sensitivities.
Due to that,
and the fact that the pediatrician believes that our little pork chop
has been filling up on too much 'solid food'
and not enough liquid food,
we have begun the weaning process a little early.
(I knew that she loved to eat,
but didn't realize that her eating so much
could actually be the reason behind her lack of sleep.)
I've been told a million times that most kids sleep better
once they start eating solids,
but apparently not always.
Especially not if they decide to eat so much
that they don't nurse as much later.
This was practically impossible to judge or measure,
so it's not 100% sure that it's the reason for the sleep interruptions,
but it's very possible.
Either way, the process has begun
and it's going very well.
Elliotte is now loving her Soy Formula
(like I say, avoiding dairy still),
and will actually grab her bottle out of my hand
when she sees it.
Once we get our wee one fully transitioned,
then it will be time for birthday cake
and for us to start the introduction of cows milk.
Wish us luck.
I'm not so sure it will be as much fun
if we have to dunk some sort of dairy-free cookies
in soy milk.
No way.
We want Oreos and cows milk!!!
xo
xo
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| I think I'll just feed myself, mom! |
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Finding out the hard way that you can't use the bottle's nipple
like a straw.
She did try very hard though! |
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Still self feeding!
Independent little thing. |
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| Trying the straw method again, but still no luck. |
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She won't let her mother hold her bottle,
but she is more than happy to have the help of her big sister.
Look at her cheeks and how hard she's sucking. lol
(These were just empty bottles that the girls were playing with.) |
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Thanks for teaching me how to hold it, Piper.
You're the best teacher ever!
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