Weaning

Finley and I have had a good run at breast feeding. She took to the breast and never looked back! We always did breast feeding on demand. She refused bottles, pacifiers and took a very long time to try a sippy cup. She is a boobies addict.

I have had mixed emotions about the whole breast feeding thing. Most of the time I love it. The bond we share, the snuggle time, the fact that her food is portable and always stored at the right temperature is a bonus! Our nights were much less disruptive, I wasn't up mixing formula, we rarely became fully awake and she never cried during the night. The flip side to this is the high needs times. When she is teething and wants to attach herself for hours drives me crazy not to mention it's beyond annoying and doesn't feel awesome! All I can hear is the nurse in the hospital telling me, "Don't let her use you as a pacifier!" Um, yeah - I failed at that. I am Fin's pacifier.

Finley has been weaning herself. We had gotten down to only one feed between 4-6pm and then I would nurse her down to sleep at night and then nurse her at her usual 5am feed. It got to the point where I stopped offering her the boobies and only when she signed milk at me while scaling my legs to get near the boobies did I feed her. Usually it was a comfort reason - not- hunger. Then that subsided too, so, I was just nursing her to sleep...Our pediatrician said "cold turkey - just stop!" I decided I'm not taking that advice. It's called weaning for a reason. Besides, I don't want to become engorged and get a breast infection or something nasty! Gradual works.

Then Fin began to latch every stinking half hour ALL NIGHT LONG. Teething again. I was climbing out of my skin. It was driving me crazy and I was resenting the fact that I was not getting any sleep. Truthfully I don't think Finley was either. She was cranky and whiny during the day until after her morning nap. I didn't want her to feel my resentment and then there was the biting when the supply ran dry. She was getting frustrated and biting me. Yeah - that's awesome! Not so much.

Last week we began to night wean. I warmed organic cow's milk put it in a sippy cup and we snuggled in the big chair. The first night she drank all the milk wiggled a little and fell asleep right there in my arms. I was so amazed at how easily she had done this and then I began to cry. I had a great big sobbing cry. My baby is a big girl now. We're moving into new phases this is a great new step kind of cry.

Finley woke a number of times in the night throwing a tantrum when the boobies were not offered. I gave her the cup of milk. She refused it then gradually she would take it and fall straight back to sleep. This went on for several nights and then in the last two nights she had taken her milk at bed time. Rolled around in bed and then fell asleep all by herself. I'm right beside her, she's not alone, but she is self soothing and sleeping. Last night she only woke up twice and I was slow to offer the cup of milk. She settled herself and went back to sleep sans milk. The only feeding she took was at 5am and I'm certain she was very thirsty. Then she settled again.

The nice thing for me has been the early evening. Instead of running upstairs to resettle her with nursing every time she wakes up which was every hour, she now whimpers and settles herself. I get to relax and have some me time. It's been a year since I've had any!!! I know I'm preaching to the choir.

This is going really well, although I dare not say it aloud. Next step will be getting her to take her morning nap without me.... She falls asleep in my arms or in the Ergo Carrier but wakes the second I put her down. Arrrgggghhhh!

One step at a time.

Advice? What worked for you?

Nature vrs Nurture

Since when did trees begin to remind me of bottle brushes?

No I was not eating mushrooms.

I guess I have "teaching Fin to bottle feed" on my mind ... a lot more than I thought.  

It's not gone well - she likes her boobie buffet way too much.  She screamed her head off at the introduction of a bottle of breast milk offered by Dad Dad.  We'll keep trying, we've read all the suggestions by Dr. Sears and will try a few different nipples to see if she has a preference.  I love breast feeding Finley but there will be times we have to be apart for a feed. We'd like her to know how to take a bottle.   Suggestions welcome.

BPA & Bottled Water = BAD

Steve and I have been advocates for drinking tap water for quite some time.  Why?  Tap water is regulated and good for you, and, we have a very hard time thinking about how many  plastic bottles previously containing "water"  end up in landfill.  Last year while visiting Paris and Amsterdam there was a noticeable movement in restaurants toward tap water,  presented in a glass decanter, rather than selling a bottle of water.  The production of plastic bottles to carry "filtered" or "remineralized tap water" last year alone used 17 million barrels of oil, produced 2.5 million tons of carbon dioxide and used three times the amount of water used to fill each bottle. Shocking hunh?  Especially given that we live in a country where clean water is accessible everywhere.   

The next big dilemma presents itself in the form of what type of reusable container we should be putting our tap water into.  Everyone has heard that Plastic Number 7 is BAD.  It's a hard clear plastic found in many reusable containers, from what I have read, it's a catchall number meaning the #7 plastic is made from several types of plastics some of which contain BPA and some of which do not. Still how are you to know?  

BPA is a synthetic sex hormone similar to estrogen which is used to harden plastics, however, it has been known to leak into the container's contents.  Scientists studying BPA in animal research have found it can cause various health problems including cancer, diabetes, hyperactivity, obesity and early onset of puberty.   

So we play safe and rule it out altogether which is what the FDA in Canada has done declaring BPA a TOXIN. YAY CANADA! 

With Baby P on the way I have begun to really look for  BPA free bottles, sippy cups, utensils, pacifiers and toys.  While it will  be fine if Baby P lives a lifetime singing show tunes I really don't want to be buying Baby P's first training bra at age six, or carpooling to chemo treatments instead of hockey practice,  if I can help prevent it.

So what can you do? 

If you are heading out for the  day, pack a bottle of water to take along. There are a number of great BPA or Bispenol-A FREE reusable stainless steel bottles on the market specifically made for toting water. Companies like Klean Kanteen,and Sigg, just to name two brands who have taken the lead on the market in eco friendly reusable containers for kids and adults.

For baby items look for the BPA FREE logo in the packaging.  I recently bought a set of spoons made by Munchkin who had a big BPA free symbol on the front of the package. Although,  not all of thier products are BPA free. Careful consideration is still at the buyers discretion.  Other great companies making BPA Free products like bottles, sippy cups and pacifiers for babies are Born Free,  AVENT, Evenflo glass bottles, Dr.Brown's glass bottles, thinkbaby, Nuby and Sassy MAM.

We all have a choice.