Colic Game Changer!

I have been thinking about writing a post on colic for over a year. Long before I ever got pregnant with baby #2. When G was a baby I remember when his colic started so vividly. It was on Halloween. My mom had left on October 30 after being with us the month. I spent the entire day holding him as he cried. Finally in the evening he was able to release some gas and was so happy. I was exhausted! Over the next few months the colic only got worse. 

He would be colicky in the evening from around 4pm through 7 or 8pm. It was rough! Once I had gone back to work I would come home and hold him for hours. I would try not to move him once I would get him in a position where he wasn't crying. Occasionally the colic would let us if he sat in the Bumbo chair. Whatever position relieved his pain I would try to leave him as long as possible. 

I tried numerous gripe drops. Colic Calm was my favorite. It helped some times to help relieve the colic for G. It would help the colic from screaming to just fussing, but it didn't take the colic away for him.

I started taking him to the chiropractor maybe when he was about 2.5 months. At 3 months old I added a probiotic to a bottle once a day. I bought Flora Infant's Probiotic at Whole Foods or Sprout's. It was in the refrigerated section by the vitamins. I would not recommend buying this online. I would go to a store and buy it from the fridge section and keep it in your fridge at home. I started off with maybe a 1/8 of a teaspoon once a day and worked up to 1/4 teaspoon. Between taking him to the chiropractor and the probiotics it was a TOTAL game changer!!! 

We went from screaming between 3-4 hours a night to laughing and cooing within 1-2 days. If he skipped a day or two without probiotics his poor little tummy was in trouble. Once he was a year old he didn't require it anymore, but I still continued to give it to him. I noticed what a change in his health. If he didn't have a probiotic he would get sick. Probiotics are so important for a healthy gut! I will be starting the new baby out on a probiotic from day 1. I will have Art bring some to the hospital after he is born. I will add the probiotic to a bottle of breast milk each day. I also take a daily probiotic myself.

I wonder at times if maybe he had a reaction when I ate dairy. I am not sure. I didn't even know that I should try to eliminate foods from my diet to see if it made a difference. Looking back now that I eat Paleo grains and dairy cause me a lot of problems. I had asked his pediatrician if he had reflux which the doctor didn't think he had. 

This is my recommendation for anyone dealing with colic or any type of stomach issues with their infant. A probiotic won't hurt anyone. If you have to give other medicine the doctor recommends a probiotic is always helpful too! 

No More Ba Ba's!

The day has finally come to take away G's bottles. No mommy judging here folks. Yes, I 2.5 year old still had a bottle up until now. He LOVED his bottle. Like he would dance around when I would make them. The boy has been potty trained for awhile, but still had a bottle. He was at the point he could make his own bottle. 

G would have bottles throughout the day, nap time and bedtime. I didn't limit how often or how much he had. He only got almond milk in them. The boy thinks sparkling water is juice, so he didn't get juice in them. Most of the time I would give him one if he asked unless it was right before a meal. He had a bottle day 1 in the hospital. My milk hadn't come in and his sugar was low. I didn't freak out about it. I knew I would nurse and it would all be ok. 

He ended up with jaundice pretty bad. We gave him bottles of pumped milk to make sure he was getting enough milk to get the jaundice to pass. He ended up LOVING bottles and didn't want to nurse. I had to really work with him to get him to nurse. He would SCREAM his head off because he wanted a bottle. Once he was able 6 weeks old it clicked and he nursed until he was 15 months. 

I pumped until he was a year old and gave him bottles. Once he was a year I switched him over to milk. I would nurse him when too until we weaned. The kid has had bottles his entire life. I was the one not wanting to take it away. Art on the other hand was ready to take them away. I told Art we would take it away on a Friday that way if we needed a nap from late night or middle of the night crying we could take one on Saturday and Sunday.

I didn't want to take them away because I have felt this might be my only baby. I wanted him to be a baby as long as possible. This year though he started sleeping in a regular bed, potty trained and will be starting preschool. The time has come that the bottle needs to go. A couple days before we took them away I stopped giving him a bottle during the day. I also would talk to him how his bottles would be going away. Bottles were for babies and he needed to give them away now. 

I knew though the first day was going to be awful! I figured the first day he would cry throughout the day. He ended up falling asleep in the car for his nap. I was able to move him inside and he still napped for awhile. When he woke up from his nap he normally wants a ba ba. I gave him a cup of milk and he happily drank it. Probably only the 2nd time he has drank milk out of a cup. If I gave him a cup in the past with milk he would say no ba ba. He would refuse a cup of milk. 

Now let's get to bedtime. Oh lord! He loves his bottle of milk before bed. We read a couple books, he has his milk and he goes to sleep. We have a good system down. I knew bedtime would be rough. He went ballistic that I tried to give him a cup of milk for bed. He was screaming no babies take ba ba. more ba ba. I showed him how there were no ba bas in bottle drier, dish washer or fridge. It went on for an hour. Finally he crashed. He woke up at 5:30am asking for a ba ba. I told him sorry we don't have any.  I offered him a cup of milk, he drank a little and went back to sleep within 15 minutes. 

He asked for a bottle the next day. I would say sorry no bottles. He usually went to do something else. He had a couple cups of milk. One time he had a major meltdown crying for a ba ba and for tv. Neither of which were an option at the time. Over tired and change is rough on my kid. Nap time went a lot smoother. He took a cup of milk and crashed. A couple days after his bottles were taken away he was really upset. He was crying and VERY dramatic. He told Art all my baba's are all gone. whyyyyyyy whyyyyyyy!!!! He was crying, big tears just so upset as he said whyyyyy whyyyyy. We didn't laugh at the moment, but later we were cracking up after he went to sleep. It was so dramatic and hilarious. 

If I had to do it all over again I would have taken the bottle away when he was a year old. At one I would have just offered a cup. I just was worried he needed the extra calories. He has been such a skinny kid. I also wanted to keep him a baby for awhile too. I don't regret letting him keep his bottle. I just feel it would have been an easier transition at one than at two and a half.

Disclaimer: All thoughts and opinions are my own. The post No More Ba Ba's appeared first on Because Chocolate Can't Get You Pregnant. 

Pumping Adventures are Ending.....

The time has come it is time to put the pump away. I am happy that we made it a full year nursing. It was a HUGE struggle back in the beginning. I never thought I would make it 2 months let alone a full year.  I had more clogged ducts than I care to even remember. I was persistent and determined to nurse.

When I returned to work last year in December I pumped 3 times a day at work. I found a schedule that worked for me. I tried to pump about every 2.5-3 hours while I was in the office. George had formula a few times in the first 5 weeks of his life. Honestly he didn't need it. I should have just used my freezer stash I was accumulating. I was juggling so much back then formula was how we made it during some stressful times. It doesn't really even matter in the grand scheme of things. He is a healthy little boy.

I have decided I am going to continue nursing when I am with George until we decide we are done. My goal was to get to a year. I made it to a year, so my next goal is to make it until after we go on vacation. It will be easier to nurse him than lugging milk through the airports.

I put my pump away at work right after George turned 1. I was pumping a couple days a week at home until past week. I didn't want to deal with clogged ducts again, so I tried to slow the pumping down. I still have some milk in the freezer, so I am starting to use that when I send bottles to the nanny.

I still believe giving birth is easier in the beginning than nursing. You go through a few days of labor and it's over. Nursing lasts for weeks. You are tired, baby is hungry, tears are shed by all, trying to get them to latch, over production of milk....oh lordie let me stop before I have a moment.

Adventures in Nursing

My goal was to breast feed for the first year. When I was pregnant I told my mom if it didn't work out I wouldn't be horribly upset. Well fast forward to a hormonal woman who just had a baby and struggling to breast feed.....it became a big deal. The first 5 weeks of breast feeding was horribly hard. First there was the jaundice struggle for about 3 weeks. In & out of the hospital, trying to feed him as much & often as we could to get that jaundice out of his system, latch issues, porn size boobs, a baby who refused to nurse, sore nipples and the list continues. 

In the hospital I breast fed as much as I could the first couple days. We had to supplement at first because his sugar was too low. Then we had to supplement because he had jaundice really bad. I tried to keep him under the lights as much as possible when he was in the NICU, so we could go home. I would pump and feed him under the lights. My goal was to get my little man better as soon as possible. 

When my milk came in the poor little guy couldn't latch on at all. My boobs were just enormous. We had a doctors appointment a day after my milk came in. I showed the lactation consultant what I was dealing with. Immediately she said there is no way you can breast feed without a nipple shield. Well that was a game changer right there. It really helped us for a few days.  Then I got a lazy baby. He had been bottle fed so much he only wanted a bottle. The milk came much faster and he didn't have to work to eat. He had been through so much already at this point I just gave him a bottle. When it came time to nursing he would scream bloody murder. My mom thought I was being dramatic when I told her how he would act. Well she saw it first hand and couldn't believe it. 

The first 5 weeks of his life I tried to nurse. I would fight him as much as I could to get him to latch. Some days I just didn't feel like fighting. I was going through a lot with my health, numerous tests and a lot of stress for me. Nursing was just one battle I didn't want to keep fighting, so I pumped. He received pumped breast milk for his feedings. 

Pumping takes A LOT of time. I would pump 20 minutes, feed the baby, change diapers and an entire hour would pass. I was spending 3-4 hours a night just feeding. I was EXHAUSTED. 

At 5 weeks a light bulb went off and the little guy started nursing. He latched right now and nursed for an entire day until 6pm. At 6pm he screamed his head off for a bottle. I fought him a little bit then gave him a bottle. I figured if I only had to give one bottle that was a big improvement. I noticed if he had more than one bottle a day he really fought me on nursing. 

We are now going on week 9 and I have been nursing exclusively for 4 weeks. I pump 1-2 times a day just to keep my supply up. I save 1 bottle for outings just in case I can't find a place to nurse. It really is a shame how there is no where to nurse your child. If you nurse in public you get looks. I also give him a bottle when we go to church. I find it much easier to just bottle feed him a bottle once on Sunday. Sometimes I can feed him during the service and I don't have to miss anything. Other times I go to the cry room to finish feeding him. 

Public places need to have mothers rooms with a changing table and a place to nurse. A lot of places don't even have a changing table. The things you find out when you become a mother. 

I made a list the other day of places I have now nursed. I just whip it out if the little guy needs to eat. I try to stay covered the best I can, but if something peeks out oh well. This is nature people!

Movies
Chiropractor office
Old Navy fitting room
Babies R Us mothers room
Target parking lot
Nordstrom mothers room

My goal is still the same to nurse until he is a year old. I was ready to give up during the first 5 weeks and give him formula. I have tried about 5 different types of formula. Each one he gets sick from it. Either he gets really gassy, pukes, or fussy. Luckily I have enough breast milk in the freezer to help when I go back to work.