Mya was not a fan of nursing. She cried when the milk came out too fast and cried when it came out to slow. She did not latch on well and I had no idea what I was doing so I quickly resorted to the bottle with milk that came out just right for my little Goldilocks. So I pumped for 10 months. No biggie. She was not a great traveler either. She usually cried in the car. But for the most part, she was an easy baby that didn't cry much and would let most people hold her. AND she slept for 10 hours at a time at just 2 months old. I'm not even exaggerating. She slept from 8PM to 6AM every single night. When Mya was about 10 months old my milk started to run out because I was pregnant with Winter. She refused any formula or water for weeks until I was completely out of milk and got desperate. I tasted the formula and it was awful so I didn't blame her. Breast milk is sweet and that's what she was used to. So I got the brilliant and slightly unhealthy idea to put strawberry quick powder in her formula to get her to take it. It totally worked. And we had her weaned off of the strawberry quick a few weeks later =)
Winter was an easy baby that would sit anywhere and just stare at everyone. She didn't cry much at all. Winter's challenge for mommy was that she had a very sensitive gag reflex along with what must have been reflux. She puked up her dinner (breastmilk) most nights all over the boppy and Mommy's jammies. After a while I learned and put down a towel before I would feed her. That lasted for what seemed like an eternity, probably about 2 months. Her sensitive gag reflex also kept her from wanting a bottle or paci in her mouth. But she latched on great right away so no breastfeeding problems with her. She was sensitive to loud noises too. I remember taking her to a Dodger game around 4 months old and she was not happy at all. All that cheering was far too much for my sensitive eared baby. She still doesn't like loud noises at 5 years old. I went through weeks of banging my head on the wall, trying to get her to take a bottle. One day when she was about 4 or 5 months old, she decided she liked the brown, lifelike nipple by Playtex. That was a happy day.
Adelyn took anything we put in her mouth like a little piranha. In fact she caused me quite a bit of pain the first few weeks of nursing until I got used to her strong little mouth. She took a paci right away and still has it in her mouth at all times. That was helpful in the car because she was NOT a good traveler. She cried everywhere we went unless there was someone in the backseat with her to put her paci in when it would fall out. Addie's challenge for me has been learning to deal with the volume and intensity that comes with her. Mya and Winter were very different in almost every way except that they were pretty quiet for the most part. I appreciated that. Addie yells everything, especially when she is annoyed. It started when she was a few months old. Probably because she is tiny and needs something to defend herself against her sisters. I'm trying to teach her to use words to get her point across rather than just the screechy whiny noise that she usually makes. When she was in the hospital after she was born, the nurses commented on how good she was, how little she cried. They assumed she would be an easy, quiet kind of baby. NOT. Oh and she used to bite me every single time she latched on. And lucky for me, she had teeth at 4 months old. I had to cut her off early because of it. And I got pregnant with Angus so my milk ran out anyway.
Angus, my fat little guy, I just love him! He's so perfectly sweet. I know, I'm totally playing favorites here. To be fair, I loved all my babies at this age. They were just so squishy and happy. And Angus just loves me so much. He smiles at me all day and just wants to be with me. He does this cute little giggle when I sit down to nurse him because he's so excited about it. As babies, the girls were not very attached to me. They would hang out with anyone who gave them attention. Anyway, so Angus, being the mama lovin' little guy that he is, has wanted nothing to do with anything like bottles, sippy cups, straws, etc. Nothing. He just wants to nurse. He is also prone to choking. I think his throat muscles may be underdeveloped or something because he chokes on his saliva all the time. He gags on anything with texture too. He's almost a year and he's still eating pureed baby food. I got him used to puffs (baby cereal) because they are just so handy. I had to start slowly with just a tiny piece, then a bit bigger and so on. They dissolve in his mouth so he can't really choke on them. Angus is probably my happiest baby. He falls asleep in the car and will let anyone hold him. And he will sit for like an hour in the stroller outside. He's not the greatest sleeper however. I have yet to get 8 hours of sleep.
Dan and I have a 3 day trip planned soon and I need to leave Angus with my mom so he HAS to take a bottle. There is no option. So for the past 2 weeks, every day I have tried to get him to drink something, anything. I tried cow milk, soy milk, breast milk, juice and water... at every temperature. I've offered him every single bottle and sippy cup in my arsenal. I even tried squirting juice in his mouth with a juicebox to see if he seemed to like it. He hated it. What kid hates juice??! I tried a big kid cup which was poured all over him and not a drop went in his mouth. I had other people try to feed him with me nowhere near him. I tried a medicine dropper which he didn't seem to mind but that could get really tedious for my mom to feed him 5 ML at a time... I had my entire bible study praying that Angus would take a bottle. I was yelling at Dan, yelling at the girls and just cranky for weeks. I was going crazy. Like nutty. I begged Angus to tell me what he needed, what he wanted. I would have given him milk in a wine glass if that's what it took.
So after exhausting every option mentioned on the internet, I cried. And after that, I pulled out the big guns. I went to Target and purchased some strawberry quick. I warmed up 4 oz of cow milk, put a teaspoon of strawberry quick in it and put it in the bottle with the most lifelike nipple with the fastest flow and wished Dan luck and walked in the other room and prayed. It was a very whiny prayer. I think it went something like, pleeeeeeese God pleeeeeeease heeeelp!! And low and behold he started to drink. He drank and drank and I felt all of the tension that was held hostage in my shoulders begin to ease up. He is now drinking strawberry quick flavored cow milk happily, even from me! I am ecstatic. I can now look forward to my mini vacay where I will sleep 8 hours straight for the first time in one year.
Four different babies with their own personalities.
(Mya - top left, Winter - top right, Addie - bottom left, Angus - well you know)
No comments:
Post a Comment