Okay. We're down to two feedings per 24 hours. The reason that I'm pushing to change Elise's feeding habits is that I'm starting to have Braxton-Hicks contractions every time I nurse her. I'm concerned that it will eventually send me into early labor. Bad news. Trying to avoid that.
I still feed Elise right before bedtime, but I've changed her 5:30am feeding to 6:15 and then she gets a sippy cup full of cow's milk when she wakes up for the day. Also, I'm cutting both of her feedings short rather than letting her decide when she's done nursing. This has not met without resistance, mind you. But it's going better than I thought it would.
I don't take Elise out of her bed until 6:15, instead reminding her if she wakes up early that it's time for night-night. She cries but she lays back down pretty quickly. Then at 6:15 Husband picks her up and puts her in our bed, she nurses for a bit, and then I tell her "all done" and make her unlatch. For the most part, she goes back to sleep for another hour or so. I just let her sleep with us. When she wakes up for the day she asks for milk and pulls at my shirt, but I say, "Would you like your sippy?" Elise always says no and shakes her head, maybe cries a bit, then asks for milk again. I tell her that she can come with me and get a sippy with milk if she wants, and then she climbs over me and wiggles out of bed, taking off down the hall toward the kitchen.
This is working well for us so far. It's silly maybe, but I don't know if I'm ready to stop breastfeeding Elise completely. It makes me feel sad when I think about it. At the same time, I have to protect Clark. I'm hoping that I can find a point where I can cut back enough that I don't get the contractions anymore, but don't have to completely stop breastfeeding Elise, either. This is a work in progress.
No comments:
Post a Comment