Relax?

There is a lot I need to update everyone on! I think I shall do another list because it makes things so much easier.

1. In reference to my entry title, I feel I need to relax. No, not the kind of breathe, think good thoughts, read a book, take a hot bath kind of relax. Shoot, I already do that. I think I need to relax with the way I approach this calorie/water/milk/formula/food/etc thing with Lily. I see other Moms feeding their babies, giving them their sippys or bottles without a care in the world. Yes, granted they don't have babies with special needs and they aren't trying to shove calories down their babies throats every given second of the waking day, but I should learn something from them. Hell, I don't want Lily growing up with eating issues. I don't want her to dread eating with me because I'll be counting calories and asking if she ate enough.

I think the doctors said it best to me the other day, Lily knows best. She knows when she's full. When she's thirsty. When she doesn't feel good and just wants a bottle. I should follow her lead. Well, I should learn from her too, but also challenge her slowly. She gets so frustrated so easily and I don't want to push her away from trying new things.

2. Which leads me to OT. We have taken a 2 week break from OT because Sue's schedule is too busy with the holidays coming up. She thinks it's a good idea to take a break for Lily anyways because she really does get frustrated easily. So we are focusing on getting in calories, exploring new textures, touching foods, biting anything and offering lots of variety. It's tiring. But, it's also very rewarding each time she bites a cracker, or self feeds a cheerio (if only to bring it to her mouth, taste it and put it back down...baby steps!)

3. Another big food change is that we are moving on to whole milk. Lily is 11 months now and with the nutritionist's support we are slowly moving her over to whole milk. And I mean SLOWLY.

Let me back up.

I started giving her one bottle a day of concentrated formula and then breastfed her the rest of the time. Well, she started getting really disinterested in nursing so I decided to give her 2 bottles of formula a day and stick with nursing her at night/morning. Gradual weaning but still breastfeeding. It seems to be working out well so far.

I would make her 5 oz bottles and she would only drink 3-4 ounces of it. *sigh* So, after emails back and forth with nutritionist again, we decided to try moving to whole milk and also moving onto to sippy cups. She didn't know LB could do sippy cups and I thought *duh* why not give her the stuff in a sippy? She loves her sippy!

So this past week I gave her the formula in a sippy and she drank all 5 ounces...in like 2 seconds flat. Gosh, she loves her cup.

So yesterday was day #1 of 3-4ounces formula, 1 ounce whole milk.

Down the hatch again! Woo hoo! I was so relieved!

I gave her another cup for lunch (she slept through her lunch) and thank god she had no food on her stomach because it ALL came back up right before we left for the grocery store (another thank god that we weren't already at the store!) I think I pushed it too far, too fast. I even added a little bit extra whole milk (like maybe did a little less than 2 ounces) and it was a FULL cup.

So today we decided to stick with one cup a day and move the milk up every couples of days she keeps it down. Wish us luck!

4. I am so reluctant to even type this out or talk about it...but, here goes (please no jinx!) Lily is sleeping so much better. I am so worried our wonderful schedule is going to fly out the window any day now. We get her ready for bed around 630/645 and she is in bed by 7:15pm. I nurse her and then put her down - awake - and she rolls over without crying and goes to sleep! Some nights she wakes up crying and I have to go back and rock or comfort her. It's like screaming, sad crying that I can't stand and she's usually sitting up in her crib looking for us with sleepy eyes.

Most nights I've been having to wake her up at 3am for her medicine and to nurse her (mostly for comfort and to get her sleepy enough to go back to bed) and then she sleeps until about 6:30/7 which is outstanding! On days that she does wake up at 6:30 (like this morning) I just leave her in there to play while I sleep until 7 and she lets me! haha, yes, my baby lets me "sleep in" until 7am. She plays in her crib and talks and sighs but...not screaming crying - because she's well rested! It's wonderful!

5. Annnnd she has officially dropped her morning nap. Some days, like today, she gets cranky earlier. But she's also teething pretty bad today. Her afternoon naps are now lasting anywhere from 1.5-2.5 hours. AMAZING! I love it. I love it. I LOVE IT. I can actually get things done. I can nap! I can just sit and watch tv. It's made life livable again ;)

Okay, I do need to go and eat some lunch and catch up on emails though while I still have time left! I do need to update more but my arms are tired of typing!