Tag Archives: breastfeeding

Baby update – Averie Month 8

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I’m getting really good with pushups

I realize I say this every month (and I guess most parents do this), but Month 8 was the best so far.  Averie picked up some super cute skills and finally got into a predictable daytime nap routine, yay!  It only took…oh, 30-ish weeks, I guess?  And the timing couldn’t be any better because we’re planning a family vacation to Palm Springs next week.  This will be the first time going on a trip with both kids and I’m hoping things will go smoothly!

So here go the updates for this month –

Sleeping: As mentioned previously, Averie finally fell into a predictable nap schedule starting around week 30, and she did pretty darn well throughout this month.  She also started sleeping through the night too!!  It’s like something clicked in her brain that made her realize, oh yeah, regular naps + sleeping all night makes me much happier and energized during my awake times.  I was overjoyed, to say the least.

Eating: Pretty much the same as previous months – she eats everything I place in front of her, though I’m still unsure if she’s getting enough breastmilk, especially because she’s been very distracted at the breast the last few weeks and won’t nurse more than 5 minutes at a time.  Still, she has a good amount of wet diapers and seems satisfied after each feeding, so I’m assuming she’s getting enough for now.  I did notice though that ever since she started STTN my supply has taken a huge hit – down about 30% compared to last month.  I try nursing as much as possible on weekends and days off with her, but should I start supplementing with a little formula?

Milestones: Averie mastered sitting up and she loves playing with toys, especially her stacking rings and shape sorter.  She also started practicing her pincer grasp and learned to feed herself dry items like puffs this month, While she learned to roll from back to stomach pretty early on, it took her a long time to learn to roll the opposite way, which is interesting because most babies learn to roll from stomach to back first.  Anyways, the great thing about this is that now she can roll herself onto her back in the middle of the night, instead of getting stuck on her tummy and crying until I come over to help her.

Oh yes, and she got two teeth this month! The cute factor is just overwhelming.  I want to bite her all the time.

Yeah, I can sit up and chill like the adults.

Yeah, I can sit up and chill like the adults.

I’m seeing signs that she’s getting ready to start crawling soon, so we’re going to enjoy this time of limited mobility as much as possible until the day she starts scooting around.  Can’t believe we’re already at this point…!

Baby Update – Averie Month 2

2012 023Averie’s 2nd month continued to be pretty easy.  For the first half of the month, she slept a lot during the day but started to have a fussy period between 7-11pm, during which she’d cry unless nursing or held.  This was tough because Aaron gets home from school around 5:30 and needs to be fed, bathed and put to bed by 7:30-8:00.  Usually, I serve him dinner and nurse/hold her while he ate, and during his bath time, I put her in her crib.  Sometimes she’d hang out staring at her mobile without any issues, but usually she’d be crying by the time we finished.  By 8pm, I’d be wiped out.  Breakdowns/tears usually happened at this time.

After a few weeks though, we settled into a sort of routine and I got used to running to her crib and comforting her, so it’s gotten a lot better.  I need to invest in a battery-powered mobile that runs for longer than a few minutes to help keep her distracted in the evenings, and possibly to help soothe her when I start training her to nap in her crib during the day.

Speaking of naps, she’s started to consolidate her daytime sleep and have longer wakeful periods in the day.  Now her routine is something like this:

6:30am – eat, back to sleep
8:30-9 – eat, play
10:00 – eat, play
12:00pm – sleep3:00 – eat, play
4:30 – sleep (maybe)
5:30 – go with mommy to pick up Aaron – sometimes she’ll be asleep in the car, lately she’s been awake the entire trip
6:00-8:00  – play/nurse, sometimes fuss/cry in crib during Aaron’s bath and bedtime routine
8:00 – bath, bedtime routine
8:30 nurse before going to bed
11:30 – dream feed (only sometimes if I’m worried my boobs will feel engorged in the middle of the night)
4-5am – eat, back to sleep

On good days, she’ll fall asleep and wake up quickly just once for another nursing session before going to sleep for good, but most nights she’ll fuss/wake up at least 2x.  We usually give her 2 oz of formula that helps.  I’m not sure why…either it’s because I’m emptied out by this point, or she associates the formula with sleep (maybe both?)

Overall, month 2 continued to be pretty smooth for us, as we started to establish a sort of schedule and I got the hang of juggling 2 young children.  I have less than 2 weeks before heading back to work so I’m trying to treasure every moment of my time with my little one. She’s just so good, happy and healthy that the thought of leaving her makes my heart ache…hope I won’t fall to pieces my first day back!