babys,nursing and such.

Anonymous said... I am wondering how you manage to get your babies to sleep in cribs or other rooms, through the night. I'm a mommy of three and I tend to let my kids nurse on demand and sleep in our bed for tooooo long, and I know I need to change this habit if I want to have anymore!! And I do! Any tricks or methods that have worked for you? We're running out of real estate in our bed. Finally, how long do you typically nurse for? Do you continue to nurse once pregnant, or do you introduce formula? Just curious about the "logistics" of it all.

Dru said...? Also, when do you wean your babies? One of mine nursed for 15 months. My 6 month old wants to nurse alot and really has no interest in solids. She will even tell me when she wants to nurse! I do try and give her formula to give me a break but she will only drink about 2 oz. I don't mind nursing her for as long as she wants (within reason) but I worry she isn't getting enough. However, the dr says she is gaining weight fine. And she wants to nurse alot at night. And I would like to have time with my hubby too. =)

Having nursed 8 babies has given me the opportunity to learn a lot. I don't have it down to a science and I have also learned every child may be different. Also, what may work for me might not be what works for you and your family. But I can give you a little peek into what works for us.

I typically nurse each one of my children until I become pregnant. That usually has been anywhere between the baby being 5 to 10 months old. I have always been able to wean pretty easily by slowly replacing a feeding with a bottle stretched over a few weeks. With Charlie (my 4th baby), he would never take a bottle or eat baby food and it turned out that I didn't get pregnant with baby number 5 until he was 10 months. By the time I actually found out I was pregnant probably due to being unusually tired, he was 11 months. For some reason he didn't like baby foods and went straight to big people food. The funny thing was that the doctor had said that he was a little under weight and when he began eating regular food his weight increased significantly. So it just worked out.

Now Jasper (our newest baby) on the other hand, has been a picky eater of solids and I have just been rolling with the punches when it comes to his eating habits. He used to eat non-stop during the night and frequently throughout the day and only catnap in between. He was running me ragged. It was difficult to know what was going on with him because I would have solid feedings with him making me think he was alright, but the truth was-- he wanted more. Like I said, every baby has been different and it wasn't that I was doing anything wrong or being a bad mommy. His metabolism just seems to been operating at a much faster pace. The Doctor mentioned that he seemed like the type of baby who is always hungry regardless how much he is already getting. So I began supplementing him with formula even after a really good nursing session. Around 7 months we tried the baby food with no success. We tried certain table foods and fruit, veggies, puffy thingys-- you name it and he got even pickier. Then my husband re-introduced the baby food and he began to eat that. Pretty much only bananas, although we are constantly trying to fool him with something else.

As far as getting them into their own bed goes-- Jasper has slept with us the longest, while my husband constantly urged me to get him out and into his own crib which is still in our room. By about one year of age, nearly all the kids have been moved into another room with their siblings. The only one who's ever been in a room by himself is Parker, our first born-- but that wasn't for very long either because Ethan followed quickly.

I hope you find some help in my answers. Sometimes just knowing that other Moms have the same struggles can be helpful enough.