Anna Reaghan Update

We are still feeding, feeding, feeding our sweet girl.  The lactation consultant in Cleveland indicated that AR was in a fasting/make-do kind of mode as far as how much she ate (since she had difficulty transferring with her tongue tie).  She said if we started offering her to eat more often, we should awaken her appetite.  And how.  The first night or two, she still did a 5-6 hour stretch at the beginning of the night.  That is a thing of the past.  I am feeding her every 1.5 hours during the day (before and after naps, generally) and she's waking about every THREE hours at night.  I am TIRED.  It feels like having a newborn again when I really have an almost-6 month old!  When it feels extra tiresome and overwhelming, I remind myself it will be worth it and it's for a time until she's more caught up.  Then we can let her stretch things back out again.

We were also encouraged by all the professionals we consulted to start offering her solids.  That was a smidge hard for me to hear because my ideal approach to solids is along the lines of baby-led weaning and at *least* waiting for all the physiological signs of readiness (no tongue thrust, sitting completely unassisted, pincer grasp, etc.) or 7 months (studies have shown better iron levels in exclusively breastfed babies who "delayed" solids til 7 months).  Now for the 2nd time in a row, we've had to abandon that philosophy (although, with Asa we did make it to 7 months).  I keep telling myself that ideal is just that, a general ideal, but what is BEST and IDEAL for Anna Reaghan is whatever will help her catch up and grow.  We waited until we got back home, but on January 1, she had her first solids!  I prefer to start with "real" food, but even the LC encouraged us to try a cereal first (it doesn't have nearly as much nutritional content as "real" food).  I chose oatmeal over rice because Asa liked oatmeal better and it has more fat--something we are trying to help get into AR.  Again, we're nursing first and keeping breastmilk the priority as nothing is as calorie-dense as it is!  On Sunday I made the oatmeal pretty thin (with pumped milk) and AR wasn't sure what to make of it.  On Monday I made it a little thicker as that was part of the trick for getting Asa to eat, and she ate it!  Then I added some olive oil (again, per the LC's suggestion--more good fat!), and she still ate it!  I didn't measure how much I made, but slowly but surely she ate it all.  During the last few bites, she even grabbed my hand and pulled the spoon to her mouth.  For now, I'm trying to add offering oatmeal after an afternoon nursing session--it's a little easier to give my attention to AR while Asa is napping. ;)  And he had his, while still tame, most jealous moment during her first try of oatmeal on Sunday.  He was INSISTENT on eating the oatmeal too, and kept trying to grab the spoon and bowl.  I did get him a different spoon and let him try a small bite, but I think it will just be easier for everyone if we let AR get the hang of eating first without Asa right.there.in.her.face. :)

Lastly, we are no longer swaddling Anna Reaghan.  After we returned home, we kept finding her unswaddled in the crib!  She was rolling around in such a way she'd unravel the blanket and we'd find it on the opposite end of the crib from her.  We've tried putting her down unswaddled for a nap, and it was clearly not working.  Asa busted out of the swaddle so much we stopped around 3 months!  So AR has already been swaddled a good while longer!  This morning, I found her with the swaddling blanket (VERY) loosely (thankfully) wrapped around her head.  That was it.  That was the "switch" with Asa and that's the switch with AR.  I will not put a blanket in my baby's bed when it could hurt her.  So, cold turkey unswaddled it is!  She has been "arms only" for months as her legs outgrew the leg pocket on our beloved Miracle Blankets a long time ago.  But now we're leaving her arms unswaddled.  I thin it will be a rough few days, but hopefully she'll get the hang of it soon.  And I'm so, SO thankful she held off on her houdini act until we got back home!

Stay tuned soon for 5 month pictures!  And I'm hoping to get some good Christmas pics before we take our tree down. :)