dropped.....in a good way!

Being the first time mother that I am, I had to google "How to wean a baby off bottles". Go ahead and have yourself a little chuckle because it is funny. Who does that, seriously? Aren't mothers just supposed to know how to do all baby related things? I'm sure back in the good ol' days mamas just knew right? Well, I'm glad that I'm a mom in the age of the internet. I don't think I could live without google!

Many different ideas about weaning a baby from a bottle popped up. And after looking at them, I decided to go with traditional weaning...taking away one bottle every few days until there are no more! This idea worked when we stopped breastfeeding, so I thought we'd give it a try with bottles too. (One of the ideas was to just quit bottles cold-turkey, but I don't think I could have dealt with the screaming for a bottle for a few days.)

Last Monday I dropped Presley's 4 pm bottle...as in got rid of it. She was still drinking 4 bottles a day then. She ate more dinner that night than I had ever seen her eat. I thought maybe it was just a coincidence that one time. But consistently she was eating more. So, Saturday I attempted to drop the 11 am bottle. We had a busy day that day and by 3 pm Presley was having a major meltdown. We were in JoAnn's Fabric store and when I got out the bottle and started shaking it, she went crazy! She lifted her arms high and started squealing really loudly! I guess she wanted that bottle!

Sunday and yesterday, I stuck to my guns and we only did a morning and bedtime bottle. I have been offering her snacks and her sippy cup more frequently in hopes that her tummy won't miss those bottles. She has her moments of mini-meltdowns, but overall she is doing good with the changes. I'm proud of her!

I bought some whole milk yesterday at the grocery store so we can start mixing it in with her formula. Oh, I almost forgot. I also bought the "next step" formula the last time I bought formula because of how much cheaper it was. $18 vs $25 for regular formula. The label says it's for 9-24 mo olds who eat solid foods. Well, Presley fits into that category, so I decided to give it a try. So far, so good!

So, next is to transition entirely to drinking milk out of a sippy cup. I know that the morning and bedtime bottles are the hardest to lose, the latter being extremely difficult to drop. Because it's comfort for them. Wish us luck! ;)

file under "hope this is easier the second time around"

We went for Presley's 9 mo. check up, Dr P. asked how she was doing with food. I told her our little food schedule and Dr. P was really surprised at how much formula Presley was still drinking. Keep in mind that not too long ago we were told that 24 oz was the minimum that Presley should be taking in. So, what did we do? Increased her intake so that she was drinking about 5 bottles of 6 oz each. That equals 30 oz, not bad right?

Well, apparently it is! Dr. P thought that Presley has had good weight gain because of her formula intake, not because of her food intake. So, insert that old saying "darned if you do, darned if you don't" here. She told us that Presley would probably would need to be on the "next step" formula even after she turned a year old. She would most likely only need a cup a day of it, but still. This is not something your check book wants to hear! I was looking forward to making the jump from $25/can to $3/ gallon in whole milk!

We dropped one of the bottles so Presley is drinking 24 oz again in hopes of her appetite picking up. Some days it seems like she eats better than others. This has been Presley's theme since the beginning- she could care less if she eats or not. We have been pushing table food because Dr. P said she really needs to be feeding herself at this point. And again, some days she cooperates with this and others, not so much. She doesn't do too well with textures. I'm not sure why. If anyone has any good suggestions on meal ideas I would LOVE to hear them!

Below are lists of food that we have tried.

~YAY~
cheese toast
grilled cheese
yogurt
pizza
ANY kind of roll!
crackers
shredded cheese
chicken and dumplings
chicken wings
coleslaw
french fries
sweet potato
mashed potatoes

~NAY~
avocado
grits
oatmeal (packaged)
spaghetti
watermelon
carrot cubes
apple cubes (Gerber graduates) this surprised me

Presley at Eight Months!

mWell, yet again I can't believe I'm posting another month that Presley has flown into!

Since little Miss has had issues from the beginning...I'm learning to take her eating habits a lot lightly. Some days she just does NOT want to eat any solid food and no matter how hard I try and make it appealing, she just doesn't want it! So I'm slowly coming to terms with that. Other days she doesn't want a bottle OR solid food. Those are the days I stay in prayer longer!! Ha ha! I just hope this doesn't translate into a stubborn will later!

But on good days, Presley takes four 5 oz bottles and a 6 oz bedtime bottle. She eats cereal in the morning and a veggie and fruit for dinner. I've been hesitant to start a lunch feeding because I don't want her to stop drinking her bottles. Dr. P, our pediatrician said that at this age, the minimum formula intake is 24 oz/day. The only way I can make Presley drink that much is if I keep her on a pretty strict eating schedule. And I'm just not sure where lunch would fit it! She does eat a snack around that time, so maybe I should just do a veggie then instead. For snacks she loves puffs, crackers, and baby rice cakes. She's not to keen on the yogurt melts that we've tried....although in her defense, they do taste kinda funky!

In the mobility department....we are moving upward! Well, not literally! Presley is rolling now from her back to her belly! A feat just accomplished in the last 3 days! So now she's rolling all over the place. I think she kinda likes her new found freedom! Now only if we could get the crawling thing down...

I think Presley's going to be a talker...I mean how could she not? Have you met her mother?! She is babbling up a storm and saying "da da". It is so precious to hear her say it! We've been saying "ba ba" and"ma ma" to her so she'll mimic it, but she still prefers so say "da da"! =)

Presley with a slice of apple. She really liked it! We let her try different table foods sometimes. She must have a really sensitive gag reflex, because she gnawed a piece off and then gagged on it and ended up throwing up! Poor thing! It didn't bother her though!

And here is a good example of Presley's rolling over skills!
She was on the blanket and ended up in our room! Ha ha!

shots, speech and soap suds

Presley had her 6 month checkup, although really she was 6 months and 3 weeks! She weighed 15 lbs and 3 oz on their scales (which I think are a little different than the normal scale I have her weighed on). Anyway Dr. P said she looked great. She is doing all of the things that "normal" 6 mo olds are doing (rolling over, sitting up, putting everything in her mouth) AND some things that "normal" 6 mo olds are NOT doing (recognizing her name, having stranger anxiety)! Poor Presley had to get her regular 3 shots and the flu shot...bringing her total to being poked FOUR times! She did ok with them though.

We also had our last speech therapy appointment! Yay! We were discharged today! Presley is doing so much better than when we started. She completely cups her tongue around the bottle nipple and sucks properly! The therapist also watched me feed Presley some cereal and she ate like a pro. The therapist asked was I comfortable where we were at now with Presley's eating and I told her I couldn't be happier (well, except if she would nurse better, but that's a whole other set of issues!). So, I'm glad to be done with going there. I know Presley is too!

And on our way home we stopped by the car wash because my car looked like we live in a desert. Every time I brushed past it getting Presley in and out, black junk would rub off on my coat! Gross! Presley had fallen asleep on the way there and I was afraid she would wake up scared of all the strange noises going on. NOPE! She slept through the entire thing! I find it quite humorous....she sleeps through what sounds like the apocalypse at the car wash, but yet as soon as I put the garage up and very quietly open the door to get her out, her little eyes bounce open and she gives me a huge smile!

I knew I wasn't crazy...

Forever ago, at our last Mommy & Me playgroup, I asked the lactation consultant if she thought Presley's frenulum was short. That's the little thing that attaches your tongue to the base of your mouth. You are considered tongue-tied if it's too short. Well, she looked at it and didn't think so, but she suggested asking Dr. P, our pediatrician for a consultation for a feeding evaluation from speech therapy at a local hospital. I really felt that something wasn't right about the way Presley STILL didn't latch well while nursing and you could just literally pull the bottle right out of her mouth. She had no grip on it whatsoever.

So me being the good mother that I am, I procrastinated and waited until Presley's 4 mo checkup to ask Dr. P about it. Instead of just calling her oh so long ago and asking for the consult. Anyway, Dr. P took a look at Presley's mouth and agreed that something was off about her sucking. She said Presley had good control of her tongue in the back, but didn't have any suction in the front of her tongue. So she decided to do the consult to see if there was anything they could do to help her get it together.

So, fast forward to Friday and we had our visit with the speech therapist. She watched Presley eat a bottle and suck on her paci. The therapist right off the bat said, "Yeah her sucking is really disorganized." THANK YOU PEOPLE! I've been telling you that something wasn't right with Presley's eating!! The therapist is going to be seeing Presley twice a week for therapy in order to help her sucking. We didn't set up a definite time because she needs to get a game plan together of what exercises she could do with Presley. I asked her if she thought that this would help Presley nurse better and she said "hopefully"!

I'll take hopefully! :)

I fell really bad that I didn't call Dr. P sooner to get the ball rolling. But, Presley's a HEALTHY girl, so it's not like she suffered from it!! And it's just the beginning of a long list of regrets I'll have as a parent...because I won't do everything right. You just do the best you can and hope for the best! Oh, and PRAY... a lot!

Feeding issues

Presley has had so many issues with eating and gaining weight. She is just not an aggressive eater...meaning she would sleep ALL day long and not wake up to eat and be just fine. I was really worried at the beginning about this, because I have never known an infant that did not like to wake up and eat. But thinking back to my last trimester, she slept a lot in my belly. I would have to poke at her sometimes to make sure she was still alive in there. No kidding! I guess babies really do show their personalities in the womb!

Anyway she lost quite a bit of weight at the beginning of her little life, but gained her birth weight back by her 2 week checkup. Dr. P, her pediatrician, was ok with this and just wanted to see Presley at her normal 2 month checkup. But mother's intuition told me she was still too little when she was 4 weeks. So we went and saw our lactation consultant (the lady who had been helping me with breastfeeding). She had only gained ONE ounce in a WEEK. Bad, bad, bad! Breastfed babies are supposed to gain 1/2 ounce to 1 ounce per DAY. Needless to say that earned us a trip to see Dr. P.

Dr. P wanted me to start supplementing with some formula to see if Presley could gain weight. By her eating the formula we could rule out whether or not the issue was with her not getting enough "hindmilk" (which is the fatty part of breastmilk, with all the calories, that comes at the end of the feeding) versus it being a medical issue of why she couldn't gain weight. Thank the Lord above that there was/is nothing medically wrong with Presley! She just isn't a vigorous enough eater to get enough hindmilk at each feeding.

So now we are still supplementing with soy formula about every other feed. She lets us know when she is not done eating and needs a bottle by screaming her head off after nursing! She also doesn't nurse well in the middle of the night. She is so sleepy (wonder where she gets that from?!) that she won't wake up to eat. So...we decided to just give her a bottle those times too. That has helped a lot. I still have to wake up to pump out the breastmilk that she doesn't eat, but it's a sacrifice I'm willing to make! :) Overall, this is working because she was 7 lbs 12 oz at 6 weeks and 8 lbs 9 oz at 7 weeks. I'm anxious to see how much she'll weigh on Monday at her 2 month checkup!