Dun wanna stop...

Feeling just so reluctant and sad to eventually stop nursing Kiefer (and really soon). :( Maybe it's the thought that he'll be our last baby to nurse and that I'm not going to enjoy that feeling anymore. I'm glad that I kept at it for so long and yes, it's true, Kiefer is really quite close to me. :D And he is 14 months old today! This means that he's been breastfed just a little longer than Kieran (and i'm kinda proud of this little achievement!!) However, with the current H1N1 situation, I had intended to continue with nursing him but it seems that the supply is really running low. I am only latching him 2x a day, before bed and early in the morning. I know that he is not drinking much early in the morning anymore, and the bedtime feed, I have to supplement with about 2oz of formula even after he nurses. So I guess this is *almost* it. I still have about 2 weeks supply of EBM in the freezer, so I guess *THE* end of all breastmilk drinking will come sometime in 2-3 weeks time.

Here's his feeding schedule usually:
6am - BF
730/8am - Breakfast (cereal)
930am - EBM 120ml
12pm - Lunch
230pm - Formula 150ml
6pm - Dinner
9pm - BF + Formula (60ml)
AND... loads of sneaking food from everyone in between!!! :P

Kiefer is ONE!!

Yes, our little baby is growing up! He is now cruising all over the place and also starting to have some speech development. Here's some updates:

Speech/ language:

• a-oh.. (*hello*) with hands/remote/ phones to his ears
• eh.eh..eh..eh.. means he wants something or go somewhere
• get!/ duck! Don't know what this means, but the duck usually comes after a sneeze
• recognises some pictures like "duck, dog"

Dexterity:

• cruising very well, can free stand for 1s sometimes
• crawls really fast
• still puts everything into his mouth

Feeds:

• Direct BM 3x a day (6am, 6pm, 9pm)
• 1 120ml EBM (9am) + 1 120ml FM (230pm) Enfagrow
• breakfast - 1 scoop of cereal
• lunch & dinner - usually porridge with vegetables and fish/ tofu (1/2 - 3/4 rice bowl full)
• biscuits in between meals

Naps (Weekdays):

• Leaves the house at 630am, usually continues to sleep after reaching IL's place till about 830am
• Nap at about 10 till 11ish
• Nap after lunch till about 3pm (or whenever we fetch him)
• *if we are early, nap at about 3ish till dinner time at home
• Sometimes an evening nap before dinner (about 1/2 -1hr)

Naps (Weekends):

• Wakes at about 9am
• Naps at 11 till lunch (or no nap till after lunch)
• Afternoon nap from about 3-5ish
• Bedtime at about 930-10pm

Night Baby?

Kiefer's schedule is kind of opposite from all of us. He is usually sleepy in the day and starts to really wake up by about 8-9pm at night! This sleeping/waking schedule of hi really drives us crazy sometimes. He also doesn't seem to drink a lot of milk in the day, saving all the milk drinking for the waking hours in the evenings.  

A typical feeding frequency is as follows:

Every 2hrs if the day if he is awake, 4hrs if he is sleeping or when we are out and he is in the stroller/ carseat

After 8pm, 1 bottle of EBM at abt 9pm (he seems to drink A LOT from the bottle. We've tried giving him 70ml but he is never satisfied. The other night, he drank about 100ml from the bottle!)

He will fuss and want to suckle every 1/2 hr or so until he falls asleep at about 10pm.

He'll wake again at about midnight for another feeding and about every 3hrs after that.

In between all these feedings, I'll pump about 2x a day (about 7am and 10pm) to get used to pumping and to store some EBM so that Daddy can feed. 

I realised that I didn't record all these down with Kieran and I can't remember what we actually did with Kieran. I don't remember him being as fussy but I do remember him feeding a lot too. So we are kinda like starting all over again... 

Cluster feeder?

Got this off Kellymom.com. Sounds very much like what Kiefer is doing!!

Cluster feeding, also called bunch feeding, is when babies space feeding closer together at certain times of the day and go longer between feedings at other times. This is very common, and often occurs in the evenings. It's often -but not always- followed by a longer sleep period than usual: baby may be "tanking up" before a long sleep. For example, your baby may nurse every hour (or even constantly) between 6 and 10 PM, then have a longish stretch of sleep at night - baby may even sleep all night.

Cluster feeding often coincides with your baby's fussy time. Baby will nurse a few minutes, pull off, fuss/cry, nurse a few minutes, pull off, fuss/cry... on and on... for hours. This can be VERY frustrating, and mom starts wondering if baby is getting enough milk, if something she is eating is bothering baby, if EVERYTHING she is doing is bothering baby... It can really ruin your confidence, particularly if there is someone else around asking the same questions (your mother, your husband, your mother-in-law).

This behavior is NORMAL! It has nothing to do with your breastmilk or your mothering. If baby is happy the rest of the day, and baby doesn't seem to be in pain (as with colic) during the fussy time - just keep trying to soothe your baby and don't beat yourself up about the cause. Let baby nurse as long and as often as he will. Recruit dad (or another helper) to bring you food/drink and fetch things (book/remote/phone/etc.) while you are nursing and holding baby.
Does this mean that baby needs more milk than I can provide?
No. Don't give baby a bottle -- supplementation will only tell your body that you need LESS milk at this time, and that will not help matters. Also, keep in mind that formula fed babies experience fussy periods in the evening, too -- fussy evenings are common for all young babies, no matter how they are fed.

The Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine spells this out in their supplementary feeding guidelines:
There are common clinical situations where evaluation and breastfeeding management may be necessary, but supplementation is NOT INDICATED including... The infant who is fussy at night or constantly feeding for several hours.

Why do babies fuss in the evening?
One frequently-heard explanation for baby's fussiness in the evenings is that milk volume tends to be lower in the evening due to the natural cycling of hormones throughout the day. However, Dr. Peter Hartmann, a breastfeeding researcher, has said that in the women he has studied, milk volume is not low at this time of day. Even if milk volume is lower in the evening, fat content is typically higher in the evening (particularly if baby is allowed to control this via cue feeding), so the amount of calories that baby is getting should not be significantly different. Milk flow can be slower in the evening, which may be frustrating for some babies.

Doctors often attribute evening fussiness to baby's immature nervous system (and the fussiness does end as baby gets older, usually by 3-4 months). However, Dr. Katherine Dettwyler (who does research on breastfeeding in traditional societies) states that babies in Mali, West Africa and other traditional societies don't have colic or late afternoon/evening fussiness. These babies are carried all day and usually nurse several times each hour.

So perhaps none of these explanations is a complete answer to baby's evening fussiness. For many babies, the fussy time seems to be characterized by a need to have small quantities of milk at frequent intervals, combined with lots of holding, cuddling and movement. Babies who are offered as much expressed milk or formula as they will take by bottle [note: this practice will decrease your milk supply!] often behave in exactly the same way in the evenings. Baby takes a small amount and dozes (and fusses), then a little more, and so on. Perhaps babies "remember" mom being very active during her pregnancy at these times, and want to be held, rocked, and nurtured constantly again.

Perhaps babies simply need to nurse more often at this time -- rather than consume more milk.


Page last modified: 05/17/2006 Written: 10/29/1998

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