The Baby-Backed Flip-Flop

I am mostly nursing at night now. Which basically means that I nurse when DD wakes up and I cant (read: haven't the energy to) coax her back to bed. Which means that I spend a lot of my sleeping hours getting sucked on. Now, usually, or at least this was the case with my DS and in the early days of DD, I'll decide when to switch them from one side to the other. Usually I do the switch when I'm tired of lying on that particular side and I need a change. Or sometimes it's because I feel the pressure in the other breast or else that the milk in breast 1 is running out.
What's cute is that DD now does the switching for me. I don't know what prompts it; whether it's the same reason as me, that she is uncomfortable lying on one side for so long, or if it's also because of a low milk supply on that side. Whatever the reason is, when she decides to go for breast 2, she will abandon the side she was nursing on and climb over me to lay her head on the other breast. She gives me a little head-butt if I'm not paying attention or if I am not getting her message. 'Aah, aah' she says and nudges me a bit to get me going.

Nursing to Sleep No More

I can't really seem to nurse her to sleep anymore. Well, at least it doesn't seem to be working every time like it used to. Now I actually have to work on it.
She's always been kind of a restless nurser. Well, I shouldn't say 'always' because I don't always remember exactly-- that's why I keep this blog. But at least in recent months she'll suck suck suck and then trash and root around a bit until I redirect her. I don't remember DS ever doing that back when he was nursing. Different kid, different style, I guess. Also, just when I think she' asleep, she'll be suck suck sucking and then she'll pop up so we're face to face and give me an ear-to-ear grin with her big trademark 'aaaaahhhh'.
I just put her to sleep now not by nursing her (though that was the prelude) but by just waiting until she was tired enough and then snuggling up with her, forehead to forehead. She'll watch me and sometimes try to catch my eye and smile flirtatiously but eventually she drifted off to dreamy dream land.
Good night, little one.

Formula One

I havent' been giving her a lot of formula at all since she was born. It was mostly once a week in the beginning when I was working. Now that she's eating she just gets fed solids when I'm gone. (she's eating real solids now-- chicken! She loves it. Even though she still has no teeth.)
The thing is that she doesn't sleep really well. That is, unless she's in bed with me. She can usually make it on her own up to about midnight or one a.m. but then she wants to cuddle and nuzzle. We are not good at keeping her in her bed because we don't want her to wake up the other people in the house, especially her big brother. That's just our logistical situation right now. So she ends up with me for at least part of every night. I can't even get her to nap without nursing her or driving her around and even that doesn't necessarily work anymore.
There was one occasion when I put her in her crib with a bottle of formula-- I don't remember why -- and when I checked back on her she'd fallen asleep with her pacifier in her mouth. There happened to be one next to her. I tried that today, hoping to get the same result but it was a no-go. She's still awake but at least she's playing independently behind me. I might try to train her to go to sleep with a bottle, though. It would save me a lot of time lying down with her and trying to get her to sleep that way.
I'm not crazy about the idea of formula. I'm not crazy about feeding her straight chemicals out of a can. But I know I fed DS formula once a day starting around this age-- or maybe a little later. It was a supplement to give me a break and to make sure he was rounding up his nutrients now that he'd begun a more solid routine of solids.

Period of Uncertainty

I was sick for a couple of weeks until a few days ago. I wasn't eating much and what I was eating wasn't getting processed so well. It was in that time that I felt I was losing my breastmilk. It was also in that time that I think my menstrual cycle might have started up again. Now I'm feeling better and I'm milkier than ever. Which is good because I'm not ready to wean.
I can tell that she's becoming better fed-- or something-- because she's gone back to spitting up after she nurses. Not much-- and not every time-- but it's something she never quite grew out of. I should ask the doctor about it, I suppose.

Breast Biting Has Begun

She doesn't have any teeth yet, but wowsers, does she have a solid set of gums. I guess you can't really say that she's biting my nipple but just imagine someone trying to squeeze the last bit of toothpaste out of a tube-- using a laundry wringer. That's what I feel like. The laundry. Ouch!

Spit and Suck

When she gets upset in the middle of the night and I bring her to my bed, she often comes still bearing her pacifier in her mouth. I used to have to remove it for her before I could introduce the breast, but lately she just spits it out and waits, open mouthed for her dinner-- or midnight snack, as it were.

I invested (heavily-- those things are pricey) in some all natural rubber pacifiers. She's has never been picky about the shape or size or texture of soother I give her and she took to these well. The only problem is that they are a translucent honey colour, which makes them almost impossible to find when dropped on virtually any surface. The other day we were at the planetarium and she was complaining while the lights were still on before the show started. So I let her start nursing. In the meantime, I dropped this pacifier just as the night sky began appearing overhead. I wanted to keep her satiated so as not to disturb the presentation so I had to hunt all over the ground for the thning-- several times. The show was about half an hour long and I must have spent at least three-quarters of the time feeling around for it.

New Breastfeeding Patterns At 8 Monhs

Whereas baby used to get hungry at about the same time as I would start to feel full, a different nursing pattern seems to be emerging. The above situation still does happen, but nowadays it's rare that I get overfull until a few minutes after she starts suckling. But then --watch out for your eyes, ladies and gentlemen- the geyser erupts at her beckoning and she gets a mouthful-- or I get a shirt full if she gets distracted and raises her head to check out the commotion that her brother and /or cousins are inevitably making in some other part of the room.