Feeding Baby

Yum. Yum.

It feels like I have been sick almost the entire time since Xander was born. I've had the fall down the stairs, a pulled groin muscle, multiple colds/ flus, and strep throat. I am getting about an hour to three hours of sleep a night. There are so many days I've felt like packing my bags and coming back when he's 18.

The illness, injury, stress and lack of sleep is taking its toll on my milk supply. I had to stay with exclusively pumping, because Xander never took to nursing after we got out of the hospital. Anyone with experience in exclusively pumping (EP) knows that EP alone can make it very difficult to maintain a supply for more than a few months. Toss in stress, medication and lack of sleep and it becomes near impossible. There are so many days and nights I sleep in half hour spurts so that I can pump every two hours. (It tricks the body into thinking baby is feeding more, so you produce more to meet the demand.) When you're already experiencing lack of sleep, it can compound the problem. Even now, I have only enough pumped for his next feeding and it will be an hour until I pump again... he will eat what's ready before I pump next. I simply can't get ahead!

Posing For His Fans

Our "little" boy has almost doubled his birth weight. He eats like a horse! A combination of factors have made Ross and I adjust our plans to hold off solids to 12 months. There is a lot of evidence to support extended exclusive breastfeeding, but I simply can't keep up with the demand. Xander is also showing all the physical signs of being ready... the tongue thrusting reflex is going away, he's doubled his birth weight, he doesn't seem satisfied after eating and he shows an avid interest in what mommy and daddy are eating. He is just under four months now. We will wait until the minimum recommended age of six months to start solids. It bothers me to start solids so early compared to our original plan, but I think it will be the best choice for our current situation.

His first food is going to be mashed banana. After that, we'll try avocado. We'll be giving him just one thing at a time... waiting four days in between to check for a reaction.