11 degrees in February? AND it's a Friday!? Can I get a "Woop woop!"?
Anyway. If you don't feel like slaving away for The Man... why not help The Lady (me) instead? Here is my first instalment of Mommy Questions. Some of you must have been through this... or have some advice... or something... right?
Mommy Questions - The Weaning/Napping Instalment
1. When it comes to weaning - when/how do you drop the last feeding? Anna only nurses first thing in the morning now. (Usually around 4:30 or 5am). Then she sleeps for another 45 minutes to an hour, then we get up and have breakfast. How long can one's supply keep this up for? What does your morning schedule look like?
2. Associated with the last question - If you're done nursing... do you give your baby/toddler a bottle when they first wake up in place of nursing? Right now, Anna gets a bottle of milk before bed and twice in the day in place of nursing. Should I cut those out?
3. Is there anything wrong with a baby drinking milk right before bed? For how long?
4. Around what age did your wee one drop one of their naps? What time do they nap now?
5. Do your babies still need soothers for naps? I can't imagine trying to take Anna's away from her any time soon. I'm in no rush... just sort of wondering around what age they can be sneakily stolen without feeling like you've just taken away your baby's only friend in the entire universe.
I have many, many more questions... but perhaps I'll save those for a later date. I don't want to overwhelm anyone here.
But, Mamas with older kiddies - I could use a little expert advice on this lovely, lovely Friday afternoon.
Thank you kindly, in advance. *Leaves post, hoping to heck that at least one comment appears on the blog, so she doesn't feel silly - kind of like the last kid to be chosen in gym class*.
1. When it comes to weaning - when/how do you drop the last feeding? I dropped our last feeding (which was the before bed one) after he got used to daycare. He would eat dinner and have milk with it, and that was all. A sippy cup of water goes to bed with him.
ReplyDelete2. Associated with the last question - If you're done nursing... do you give your baby/toddler a bottle when they first wake up in place of nursing? Personally, I would see if you could get her to get used to waking up for breakfast and skip the bottle/feeding altogether. It can become habit more than necessity.
3. Is there anything wrong with a baby drinking milk right before bed? For how long? I think it can rot their teeth. Unless you give her a bottle and then brush her teeth, that would probably be ok. We used to do that with our oldest until he was about 18 months.
4. Around what age did your wee one drop one of their naps? What time do they nap now? My first was in daycare at 10 months at which time he was still having two naps a day. Because they wanted to get all the kids on the same schedule, they eliminated his morning nap and put him down for a longer afternoon nap. Brutal at first, but once he got used to it, he stayed on this same routine until he was about 3 (at which time he dropped his nap entirely).
The second one was never a big napper at all, but we almagamated his two small naps into one afternoon nap at about a year.
5. Do your babies still need soothers for naps? Our first had a soother (at nap/bedtime only) until he was 3. A very long time yes, but since I sucked my thumb for a million years I wasn't going to deny him his comfort item. He wasn't allowed to walk around with it during the day, so it didn't interfere with his speech. If the kid wanted it to sleep, big deal in my opinion. Once he started asking for it all day long, we trimmed and trimmed until there was nothing left to suck on and that was that.
The second one, never really liked the pacifier and I wasn't going to push it as it was the same time we were weaning the older one off of it, so he's never had one.
1. The morning feed was dropped when I went back to work because I didn't have time in the morning anymore! Now, if K wakes before 6:30am, I wait for a few mins and if it doesn't sound like she is going back to sleep on her own I bring her in our bed and she usually falls back to sleep. In a pinch, I use a small bottle of water...hand it to her in her crib and she drinks it and goes back to sleep. Same thing if I am having a hard time getting her down at night/naps (doesn't happen too often).
ReplyDelete2. I give her milk in a sippy with her breakfast (which is, sadly, usually a piece of bread and some blueberries...or worse some goldfish while we are driving to daycare!). She gets one bottle of milk during the day and cup of milk with dinner...the rest of the time, water.
3. Same as above post...my dentist says this is a no-no because they fall asleep with milk in their mouth and on their teeth and it could cause cavities. K was OK with water in a bottle...sometimes I give her warm water if she seems extra cranky.
4. K is weird...she only naps once a day at daycare (afternoon) but still sometimes naps twice a day at home on the weekends (either one short morning and a longer afternoon one, or just one looooong afternoon nap...I am talking 3 hours here!). I think it is just that she wants to get up and play with the other kids when she is at daycare.
5. I don't think she "needs" it to sleep but I give it to her anyway. Seems to help her get to sleep quicker. She is only allowed to use it when sleeping so like the person above I don't see a huge issue...
1 & 2. Can't comment as unfortunately Ryan didn't nurse very long
ReplyDelete3. Ryan still needed milk to calm himself and settle down until between 2 and 2 and a half when I noticed he didn't need it anymore. However, I did try and brush his teeth after he drank and didn't let him take a bottle into bed or fall asleep drinking (so hopefully he won't have cavities)
4. Ryan has always been a bad sleeper, and dropped nap number 2 on his first birthday. Average is 18 months I believe but it became too difficult to get him to nap 2 times that it ended up making life easier by dropping it. At first I didn't like it though as I use to nap during #1 and do things during #2... got used to it quick. Now he rarely naps at all which was also hard at first, but now I am embracing the freedom and the easy night time routine, plus the long night time sleep (12+ hours) instead of a shorter night sleep plus a nap.
5. Ryan just stopped needing his soother a few weeks ago. I haven't taken it away though - he still uses it, just not all the time. I have found though that not needing it has made him sleep through the night SO much more often! That may have been part of his problem why he woke up in the night...
PS. Ryan too only used his soother during naps and at night. I would not worry about this if I were you especially at only a year of age.
ReplyDelete