Supplementing and the Road to Weaning

When Abigail was about 6 weeks old, she started refusing to nurse at night before bed. For a few nights we let it be, and then we tried even harder to get her to nurse. It only ended with a screaming, writhing baby and tears from me. So, I pumped and we gave her a bottle of breast milk. Problem solved. Abby loved her nightly bottle. Dave and I took turns putting her to bed every night, so she never got used to the way that only one person did it. It worked like a dream. There was a catch, though. I had to pump that milk. In the beginning, it was so easy to do. I dealt with oversupply issues and could obtain her nightly bottle in just a few minutes. Fast forward a few months and my milk supply had regulated. I was spending more and more time pumping every night after she went to bed. When she started drinking 6 ounces in her bottle every night, I couldn't keep up. I pumped at night and in the morning, and sometimes had to add another session as well, just to get those precious 6 ounces. When Abigail turned 9 monthly old (exactly), I told Dave that I didn't want to do it any more. I was so tired of being a slave to my pump. I didn't want to go back to nursing before bed either, though, so I brought up the idea of supplementing. In my mind, I thought that he would object to giving Abby formula. But of course he didn't, he supported me and understood my desire to be done pumping. I felt guilty that I wanted to stop pumping her bedtime bottle, but I also knew that I was done with that aspect of breastfeeding. So, we went out and bought formula. I thought that she would hate it, or refuse it, or something of the sort. I wanted to try anyway. The first night we mixed 2 ounces of prepared formula with 4 ounces of breast milk. She drank the whole thing and went right to bed! So we upped the formula, and she still drank the bottle without a problem. We gave her an all-formula bottle (the ultimate test!) and she didn't seem to notice the slightest difference. I started pumping less and less, and last night I didn't pump at all. What a HUGE RELIEF it's been. I'm still nursing her 4 times a day and 1-2 times at night, so our breastfeeding journey is no where near over. But not having to spend an hour or so pumping every day has been wonderful!! Formula is EXPENSIVE, so I don't see me stopping nursing any time soon, but I'm honestly looking forward to Abigail turning 1 so we can introduce whole milk and begin the road to weaning. We are hoping to have another baby soon, and I've read that pregnancy can either dry your milk up or change the taste so much that a baby will self-wean. We will just have to see what happens in the next few months. Until then, I'm quite happy to no longer be a slave to my pump!!

9 Months!

Abigail is 9 months old :) She's been out in the world lighting up our lives for as long as she was baking in my belly! Pregnancy seems like a lifetime ago for some reason. Abby is such a little person these days. I think she looks SO big lately, and then I see her in her dad's arms and she looks like a little baby again :)

Abby has her two front bottom teeth and the two front top ones are going to be poking through any day now. Teething has been accompanied by LOTS of night waking and sleep has been scarce for both of us lately. I'm sincerely hoping it passes and she starts sleeping better soon!! We had a stretch of about three days where she was sleeping 10 hours straight again and that felt like bliss compared to this past week!! She has also just started babbling consonants and her favorite phrases to tell are Yaya and Dada! It is beyond adorable, and I have a feeling that this most recent developmental milestone is another reason for her sleep troubles. I can't wait to hopefully hear Mama soon!

Lil Miss is still not crawling. She loves to walk around while holding onto someone's hands and will do that all day if you let her. She likes to stand holding onto the furniture, but the little stinker bites and scratches the couches so we don't let her as often as I wish we could. We borrowed a walker from friends but then I discovered that it was scratching our wood floors, and unfortunately that is just not a price we are willing to pay to let Abby run around in the walker. She gets lots and lots of play time on the floor and my guess is that she will figure out crawling in the next month or two. She's growing so fast!!

Abby is still nursing 5-6 times a day, but she is back to eating all table food too and loving it!! She enjoys eating so much and will pretty much eat anything we give her at this point. It's going great so far! 

Here are some recent pics: