Using a spoon

Posted on January 26, 2012 by terri

Brodie’s been joining us at the table at dinner for a while now, and he’s been studying how we shovel food into our mouths. He actually got pissed the other day when I was eating in front of him. He will just STARE at your food (which I guess is definitely something he got from me… mmm… those fries sure do look good…).

I’m so not ready to start him on solids. I know that at 4 months old, his system is getting to be mature enough to start, but I’m not ready for the mess, the prep and the poops. Instead, we tried an experiment. I poured half an ounce of breastmilk into a clean little dish and spoon fed it to him. He let the first few spoonfuls dribble out of his mouth and kind of made a face at the process. But by the 10th spoonful, he was actually taking it! He’ll even open his mouth a tiny bit when I come in with the spoon, and then I tip it onto his tongue.

I think we’ll keep practicing with the spoon with milk for the next couple months. I want to make sure he’s super comfortable with it. And then as he approaches 6 months, we’ll start on solids.

He’s come a LOOOONG way to get accustomed to the bottle, so if we can get him going well with the spoon, a cup could be next. I’m so stinking excited that he’s open to practicing so we won’t have to fight trying solid foods AND using a spoon at the same time.

No pictures this round yet. I just thought I’d give it a try. We’ll take pics this weekend when Joe gives it a whirl.

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I need to practice more yoga

Posted on January 25, 2012 by terri

Among my checklist of to-do’s (renew car registration, get my bloodwork done, replace my cracked windshield), I desperately need to get myself back into a regular yoga practice. I came across this article on Psychology Today about the stress-relieving effects of yoga. Western culture tends to focus on just the asanas (physical poses) for shaping your body, but it’s everything else about yoga that is so good for your health.

Ujjayi breathing
Drishti (focal point)
Being present
Doing only what you can and not pushing yourself into pain

I used my yoga practice to get through labor. I used my yoga practice anytime I felt nauseous or motion sick on a plane. I used my yoga practice to keep from freaking out about my thyroid.

This last one is what’s prompting this post.

I’ve been doing a lot of reading about thyroid disease postpartum and the effects of thyroid-related medication for nursing mothers. My endocrinologist warned me that many mothers will see their Graves or Hashimoto disease come back a few months after delivery, even if it’s been in remission (as mine has). Four months postpartum, and I’m definitely feeling many of the unsettling symptoms. Add to that all the stress of transitioning back to work and the challenges we’ve had with the bottle and sleep, and my Graves disease is likely being exacerbated.

The other night, my heart was pounding so hard, I couldn’t seem to mentally calm down. I took a pill of atenolol (beta blocker) that I still had. I thought I remembered seeing that beta blockers were okay for nursing mothers, but researching more on it yesterday, atenolol specifically has potential long term effects on breastfed babies. So… obviously, I’m not doing that again. The research on breastmilk is so spotty in general, that I’m not even sure I’ll feel comfortable taking medications that aren’t being well studied for safety. And this is where I need yoga to come in.

I need it to help me de-stress and tell all those chemical reactions that prep for fight-or-flight to go away. I need it for everything that goes with not having inflammation in the body. I need it to help me get mentally focused when I’m feeling so scatterbrained.

I’ve gotten on the mat maybe 6 times since Brodie arrived. I don’t even care about burning fat or toning up. I just want to feel better already. Deep breaths in and out of my nose. Focus on my drishti. Om.

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The 4 month wakeful period

Posted on January 23, 2012 by terri

My mind is a mushy mess today. Not just because I’m sleep deprived and dealing with congestion that could be allergies or could be daycare germs. Or that I know my thyroid is completely out of whack as my hands tremble and my heart pounds as if I’ve run a 5K even though I’ve been sedentary. No, today my mind is putty because I learned Brodie’s sketchy sleep patterns are due to the 4 month wakeful period.

Now, I was really banking on his sleep getting better at 4 months. Julia told me so, and I figured she did way more research about this kind of stuff than I have. (Julia, if you’re reading this, please reassure me this wakeful period thing doesn’t last long.) But the ladies of the board told me that Brodie is not going through another growth spurt despite waking up every other hour throughout the night. He eats at normal 3 hour intervals during the day; just seems he’s hungry at night again.

So I go and google “4 month wakeful period”, and I find that because he’s developing so fast these days, he’s making mental connections with everything around him. And when everything around him is so very interesting, he’s super distracted when he tries to eat (oh, is he ever). He’s not really getting full meals during the day by looking all around and giving up on eating once he’s had a little bit. So he makes up for it at night when it’s dark and quiet and there aren’t distractions.

Thanks, kid.

I feel like I need to put blinders on him when he eats now. His eyes are wandering and his head turns this way and that. I’m sure his congestion isn’t helping either. And I can only imagine that he’s not that great a bottle eater a school with all the other kids around and toys and noises.

It makes a lot of sense. It really does. But I want that week back when we were in Dallas, and he slept 8-9 hours uninterrupted at night. Such a tease. I’m exhausted.

Posted in Breastfeeding, Brodie | 5 Comments

Happy 4 Months, Baby!

Posted on January 21, 2012 by terri

Brodie has been growing up fast these days! He had us really worried about eating at daycare, but he seems to have come around on the bottle. He smiles and laughs at his teacher, Miss Sharon, and really seems to enjoy being with all those other babies at school. He doesn’t cry at all when we drop off, and he doesn’t cry at school except when he’s tired or hungry. He’s a pretty happy-go-lucky kid.

As for milestones this past month, he showed us he could roll over. I haven’t seen him do it again, but he’s starting to get mobile in other ways. He was on his play mat the other day, looking up at all the dangly toys. I walked out of the room for 5 minutes and came back to see him turned a quarter turn. I asked Joe if he moved Brodie, and he said no. I figured out how he’s moving though. He’s getting pretty good at lifting his legs up (Oh, yeah! He’s figured out he has feet!), and then he twists his body a little bit as he brings his legs back down. Inch by inch, he manages to shimmy his way to face another direction.

His hand-eye coordination is getting so good. (Soooo good!) He can grab at all his hanging toys. He grabs for the little bucket we use in his bath. He grabs at my hands when he nurses. He grabs my hair (ow!), and his little pinchy fingers are even able to grab at my throat (super ow!) when I’m carrying him. He still unknowingly pulls his pacifier out of his mouth, but it seems he’s able to push it back in too. We really have to watch what we put within arm’s reach.

Poor kid is still dealing with congestion though. The pediatrician said it’s just a result of being in daycare. :-\ But at least we all survived his first cold. The kid was just miserable for those 3 days and nearly inconsolable. Hopefully, he’s good on illnesses for a while. I somehow doubt it with RSV floating around schools, but fingers crossed that he stays healthy.

Because of the bottle issue, his sleep pattern has been in flux. He went from sleeping through the night (8-9 hours) to waking up twice, and there isn’t much of a pattern to it. Most of last week, he was only waking up once around 3 am to eat and then up for the day at 6:30. But then he gave me a 9 hour night followed by a 2 am/5 am wake up. I’ve actually had to turn on the lights and wake HIM up at 7 the past two mornings.

He’s taking 2 naps at school each day, takes another quick nap around 6:30 and is down for the night around 8. At least we know that after 8, he’s pretty well asleep, and we have that time to ourselves. I’ve been trying to go to sleep around 9 to take advantage of longer stretches, but work has gotten in the way of that.

I’m hoping that his schedule starts to even out now that he’s gotten more used to daycare, bottle feeding, and a set evening routine.

Here are his stats from his 4 month well check appointment. He’s measuring 24 1/4 inches long (25-50th %), 13 lbs 10 oz (dropped to 25th percentile, likely from the 2 weeks of not eating at daycare) and 41.2 cm head circumference (50%). He also got his 4 month shots, which are never fun. We had a really rough night with his waking at 1 am, 3 am, 5 am and 7 am. He had a slight fever, but after a bit of acetaminophen, he seems to be doing much better.

See the rest of Brodie’s 4 month pics here.

A look back: Happy 3 Months, Baby!
Happy 2 Months, Baby!
Happy 1 Month, Baby!

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We have full bottle intake!

Posted on January 19, 2012 by terri

Yesterday and today, Brodie took ALL THREE bottles at daycare with very little to no fuss. Talk about relief! His teachers seem to find new tricks that work for him each day, whether it’s holding his hand, singing to him, swaddling him, stroking his cheek or warming up the bottle nipple. Additionally, all three teachers were able to feed him, whereas before, only Miss Sharon or Melissa had success (and even then, not consistently). I don’t want to jinx it yet because it’s only been 2 days, but we’re feeling really hopeful that this will continue.

The next experiment is seeing what Brodie’s tolerance is for my lipase-y frozen milk. Remember, I have 200-ish oz of milk in the freezer. Today’s bottles, I had Joe put 1 oz of frozen milk pumped back in November and then 3 oz of fresh in each. Tomorrow, we’ll up that to a half and half mix and see how he takes that. Ideally, he’ll be able to take a bottle of just frozen so we won’t have to always mix in fresh.

Now, once we are good there, we’ll have to make sure Brodie can also take a bottle from Joe at home. I know it’s asking a lot of my almost 4-month-old, but these are all important milestones he needs to hit. He has come so far within a couple of weeks, and I’m so proud of his progress. But in our reality, it’s not enough.

There is a very real possibility that I have to travel for work again within the next month. I’m rather devastated by this news because I’m having a hard enough time with the transition back to work and feeling like I can be successful in my current position. I am still trying to figure out what the right balance is for me and where I should and absolutely need to push back. I know that my desire to have a normal home life and be there for as many of my kid’s big developmental steps will likely stunt my career growth. It is a whole other struggle I’m facing. Guh. Being a working mom SUCKS!

Anyway, I tapped the lovely moms of the local board for their tips for pumping, storage and transport of breastmilk while traveling for work. They all say it’s doable, but it’s another 20 steps on top of everything else involved. Pump and dump in the airport bathroom? Gross. All I hear in my head is, “I don’t wanna! I don’t wanna! I don’t wanna! Hmph!!!” When this becomes a reality, Brodie will need to be comfortable in every possible bottle feeding situation, and I guess I’ll just be quietly crying on the flight or in my hotel room.

Kudos to any mom who can do it all. I have no idea how they maintain sanity though.

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