Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Growth Spurt?

Or, Who Is This Baby, Part 2.

She went down last night at 9:30. We were going to give her a bath around 9, but at 8:15 she was just getting fussy. So we gave her a bath early. I was surprised that she went down as easily as she did and expected to hear from her again in 30 minutes, tops. We heard some peeps and some whines, but she never fully woke up.

When Richard came to bed she was getting fairly vocal. I asked if he was going to go take care of her and in true Richard fashion he told me to just let her be and see if she would calm herself down. She must have! Because she slept until 8:15! THIS MORNING! I heard her stirring a few times around 7, but she never fully woke up. I finally got up at 7:50 because I was having dreams that everyone I knew was supposed to be nursed by me (a signal that it was way past time for Autumn to eat!) and I wanted to stop having those dreams! I peeked in on her and she was at the side of the pack 'n' play on her tummy. She moved her foot so I knew she was okay. Richard said that he was starting to worry as well and had already checked in on her.

When she woke up Richard was still home because some work things were having problems. He was able to change her and I was able to get breakfast before we nursed and she was just a happy baby.

She played for about an hour and then started getting fussy so I picked her up and walked around with her and SHE FELL ASLEEP! At 10:00!

It's now 10:15 and I know that as soon as I start getting into something productive she'll wake up, so for now I'm just going to waste time on my computer!

*Edited to add* I got up to take care of some things at 10:30 and she woke up 2 minutes into it!

2 comments:

Kirsten said...

Hi there!
I am so glad you de-lurked; always like to hear from readers and now I have a new blog to read, too :)
I am trying to remember how much formula we gave them when they were Autumn’s age…I always felt like we were giving them too much but then I figured if they wanted it, I was going to give it to them. We’ve always done 8 ounces first thing in the morning and then we’d do six ounces three times a day and then another 8 ounces (mixed with cereal) at night, so between 32-35 ounces a day up until a couple of months ago. We dropped it to about 25 ounces a day recently (around 10 months) just because they are eating more and more baby food (and now some table food) and we have been giving them slightly diluted juice for a couple of months now, too.
As for the formula, we plan to switch to whole milk when the girls turn one. We might still give them a bottle of formula mixed with oatmeal cereal at night because they love that but we’ll likely give them milk in the mornings and afternoons. I’ve read several articles on the Web that giving whole milk and juices is just as nutritional as formula. I spend around $50 a week on formula right now so, as long as their pediatrician approves the switch, I am looking forward to cutting that down to about $10 a week on milk!
Glad to see that Autumn is sleeping longer; it makes a huge difference when that happens! Chayse was sleeping through the night (10-11 hours) around 5 months but Landry didn’t get there until 9 months.
And she is just adorable, by the way!

Deb said...

Thanks for your input on the formula. I have PCOS and I've heard that it causes low milk production, which I definitely have. I think each time she nurses she only gets about 2-3 ounces from me. More on the 2 side I think. She eats every three hours and starting on the second feed I start giving her 4 ounces of formula. I don't have to do it on the first feed because I have more milk built up from the overnight time. So I'm thinking she gets about 6 ounces total food each time she eats and she eats about 6 times a day. It sounds comparable to your amounts, just given at different times. I just wonder if she wants more sometimes. I try every so often to make up another bottle with 2 more ounces in it, and she'll take another ounce only about 25% of the time. So it sounds like she's getting what she needs. I just hate to make up formula that she's not going to eat (because if she only eats half of the bottle the rest has to be thrown out and that's money down the drain!).

Wow, $50 a week on formula! We buy the large cans of Similac at Costco and they are $30. The last can she used in a month. This can she's used up almost 2/3s of it since June 3rd. I started supplementing a lot more around the middle of the first can.

We still haven't tried rice cereal again. We did get her a high chair last weekend (which completely engulfs her!), but haven't had a chance to make it a priority. Besides, I think since she's sleeping much longer at night she's getting the correct amount of food during the day.

I remember I used to read your blog about the twins' sleeping habits before Autumn was born and think, "Why is it so hard to get a baby to sleep?" NOW I KNOW!!!