Hello,
MY ds is almost 8 months and is waking several times throughout the night. He used to sleep from the 7pm bedtime, basically through a dream feed and then until about 6:30am... until we moved to Belize from US in March and now I believe he's teething. He's waking at all different hours and ALL hours of the night. Last night (and many others lately), I was "blessed"
to see the number of each new hour on the indiglo clock! He used to nurse really well, but for the last month or so, he's on and off the breast like a little one bobbing for apples! It doesn't help that my dd who is 3 comes bounding in on the perfect moment when he is actuallly nursing well. ... namely the 5am feed and the evening feed.
SO..... my question is: now that he's going to be 8 months, isn't interested in nursing well during daytime feeds
(11am and 4pm.... and sometimes the 5am depending on the arrival of his sissy in the room) AND I've not given him more than 4 or so bottles total (SAHM and haven't really needed to).... where do I go from here? Which bf times should I really be trying to keep if I can and which should I try to push with either a bottle or sippy? I do give him a sippy during the day and at meal times, but he's not gotten the hang of it quite yet and it's more of a toy than anything to him. Also, I'm still producing milk and need him to bf.... however, (don't know if this is TMI
), but this past week I started spotting so I think maybe my milk supply/breastfeeding days are going to be soon over
).
Plus, he's eating basically 3 meals throughout the day:
breakfast: rice cereal/oatmeal/cream of wheat/ and a fruit (mashed banana, peaches, etc.) sometimes cereal is mixed with 2 ounces formula and the amount of water needed to make right consistency depending on how well he's nursed earlier.
lunch & dinner: veggie and a fruit ... I've been trying to make homemade baby food as the selection of veggies and fruit in ready made jar food here on the island is few and far between (plus it's better for him). I'd like to feed him more protein as my 3yo dd had when she was a lo but I don't have the option of buying "turkey and veggies" or "chicken and rice" in the jar ready made here. AND, I don't know how to make the chicken into baby food (guess I need to do a bit more research!
)
I'm now giving him some cheerios and a mashed banana or other mashed fruit with sippy of water for an afternoon snack after the 2nd (last) nap of the day before evening feed at about 3:30pm.
I'm soooo exhausted and am having some serious migraines from lack of sleep and really need to get some sleep.........so, any suggestions on how his bf/EASY/Solid food schedule should be going throughout the day/night to encourage a more routine sleep pattern would be so greatly appreciated!
Sorry that there are several topics I've touched on and that this post is so long, but they all seem to coincide with one another... breastfeeding to sleeping, to teething, to dd bounding in to interrupt. I'm just soooo insanely tired and am in need of the calvary to come in!
I've read several threads on the EASY scheduling, but am having a hard time getting him back on track with this last month! My dd was a great little EASY baby once I was blessed by a friend for giving me Tracy's book and I didn't have the problem with the bottle situation as I'm having now as I had to go back to work at that time when she was 3 months.
Oh, BTW, I also gave him some of the teething meds to numb his gums today a few times and that seemed to take the edge off, but really didn't make a big difference in the long run today with the nursing issue. I did give him some Tylenol and the teething meds just before bedtime to see if that may help with the night wakings if pain is the source.
Okay, TIA for any tips/advice.
