Weaning a Toddler

Sometimes I wish I weaned Maddy earlier. Or maybe mix fed earlier, then at least she would be drinking fresh or formula milk now. Unfortunately, she's still hasn't given milk a chance since she quit drinking my pumped milk at 11-12 months old.

I said to myself, I'll wean when Maddy's ready. After all, it's not as if breastfeeding is doing her any harm. It's extra calories which she doesn't get because she doesn't drink milk, and it calms her so fast when she's upset. It's also gotten me through teething phases and it helped tremendously when she's sick. I feel like she gets well faster because of the antibodies I'm probably passing on to her through my milk.

However, the past several weeks, especially when I left for Canada for 7 days, then took a 3 day trip to Manila and another overnight trip to Manila, we all noticed that while it took her a while to fall asleep at night, she would end up sleeping straight through. Unlike when I'm beside her asleep at night, she would subconsciously reach for me to feed every 2-3 hours. She wasn't getting enough sleep. I wasn't getting enough sleep (and my body aches from all the side-lying feeding). Hanley wasn't getting enough sleep. I decided, she might think she's not ready to wean, but breastfeeding wasn't doing her a lot of good anymore.

Weaning takes 110% commitment. You can't look back, cheat or give in just a little bit. It's Day 6 and 5 nights of weaning so far. I can't say she hasn't been looking for it. A couple of times at night she seems to forget and reaches for my boobs and cries, but I've managed to put her to sleep after rocking her for a while.

Day 1: The best course was to rub sliced ginger around my areola/nipples. When Maddy attempted to suck, I first told her my boobs were broken and my milk has already gone bad. When she tasted my ginger-smeared nipple, she was immediately repulsed. She did not look for it anymore until it was time for bedtime. Usually she feeds to fall asleep. This time around, I fed her a bottle of Yakult before sleeping. She tried to reach for my boob, but I had rubbed ginger again, told her my boobs were broken and my milk was bad already. She tasted it, and didn't ask for it anymore. She rolled around the bed, moved around a lot. We turned off the lights and just lied still on the bed. Eventually, and surprisingly, she eventually fell asleep. At around 2am and probably 5 am though, she was crying in her sleep, a usual cue for me to feed her. I simply tried to pat her back to sleep. I tried to offer her water (which just made her mad). I just carried her and rocked her to sleep. She tried to point outside (with eyes closed, half asleep), but I prevailed in rocking her back to sleep.

Day 2: Rubbed the ginger again. Repulsed again, up until bedtime. Same routine, I gave her Yakult to drink. She rolled around the bed, moved a lot, went up and down, was so active. We kept telling her over and over to close her eyes and go to sleep. Eventually she did. Cried twice in her sleep, reached for my boob, I carried her and rocked her back to sleep, telling her repeatedly, "Mama's here, don't worry, I'm just here." Offered her water, she sipped a little, but refused it more or less.

Day 3-5: No more ginger. She seemed to understand, at least during the day when she's wide awake, that she wasn't getting any more milk from me. She seems to be indifferent to my boobs now. However, I haven't really noticed any change in her appetite, except she drank 1-2 tetrapaks more of Dutch Mill or Yakult. I wish she drank more water instead, but that's for another week to work on. On the 4th night, I was surprised she slept through the night!!! So far she's been able to fall asleep on her on, after tiring herself out a lot from all the jumping, rolling, moving around the bed, and usually after 1 Yakult+1 Dutch Mill. But 4/5 nights she's been crying out twice during the night, reaching for my boobs. But the time crying and reaching out have been becoming shorter though. And I'm able to rock her to sleep faster.

Hopefully, in the next few weeks or so:

- She'll drink less of the juices of flavored milks, and drink more water
- Ideally, she'll drink actual milk. I bought several different types of milk already, and she's refused them all. We'll just keep trying and trying
- Ideally, she'll eat more solids during dinner time and feel fuller, helping her sleep more straight, without waking up anymore
- I hope that when she does wake up or cry out in the middle of the night, she'll take a sip of water instead, or fall back to sleep just by patting her, instead of having to rock her to sleep

Difficult journey so far,  but not impossible. Past few attempts to wean have been half hearted, plus I myself wasn't ready yet. Now I am, so maybe that's why it's been working so far. Plus, I think it's a better decision to wean once all their teeth are out. It's crazy dealing with teething, and I'm glad breastfeeding saw me through all of it!

Almost 20 Months Old + Almost Weaned...or not really

I left for Vancouver for my sister's civil wedding, and was gone for a week. I had hoped to come home to a fully weaned toddler. But life has other plans. And so I'm still breastfeeding my 20-month old. Surprisingly I'm only slightly disappointed and instead fell right back into the comforting groove of feeding my baby. It's just a nice bonding time, especially for this working mom.

In other news, she's slowly increasing her appetite. I swear, when she started picking up green peas and putting them in her mouth, swallowing without spitting, I yelled hallelujah! She's also eating more, like fish, and even a whole chicken nugget even.

Constipation Power Duo: Duphalac Lactulose + Suppository!

(Crossing my fingers but) Maddy has been pooping every other day or so for the past 2 weeks. What we did was we gave her Lactulose (1 tsp) 3x a day, then administered suppository every 3-4 days for 2 weeks.

The Lactulose does not taste half bad, and suppositories weren't as painful as I imagined they would be on Maddy, since they're very waxy.

This is because we noticed that the Lactulose seems to be working fine, making Maddy's stool soft, BUT since she was holding back on pooping, her stool would eventually harden and aggravate constipation. Her fear of pooping and the pain associated therewith counter-acted whatever benefits the Lactulose brought.

The suppositories helped immensely to get her pooping without the fear of pain. Since we administered it every 3-4 days, her stools would remain soft from the Lactulose and she would be able to pass them without pain or blood. 

Once she got used to the feeling of passing stools regularly, and painlessly, she began to poop every other day without need of suppositories. We've cut back on administering Lactulose (1 tsp) once a day, then now every other day!

We just got a go signal from the pedia that we can keep giving Maddy Lactulose 1 tsp 1x a day every other day for 2 months, until her GI tract is completely used to passing stools easily.

Hurray for small achievements!

Pump Free!

When Maddy hit around 16 months old, I stopped pumping at work. Before that I'd pump just once midday. One, because I was afraid if I didn't, my milk supply for evening would be affected. Two, because sometimes my boobs would still be engorged with milk. But when I stopped pumping, I found that I still had enough milk to feed Maddy when I get home from work and during the night. And my boobs weren't that engorged anymore.

Next step, when I go to Vancouver for 6 days in June/July, hopefully Maddy will be completely weaned off direct feeding already.

Then time to make a new baby!

Practice Makes Perfect

Maddy's around 16 months now. She has a tendency to repeat certain actions around 10x, as if she was practicing to get it right. One time, she would keep opening the door to her playpen, enter inside, close the door, open it again, step out, and repeat!

Or she would open and close doors, as if to see how they work. Or sit down and lift herself up using the pack and play rail on a cycle.

It's really interesting to observe them doing this, showing how their mind works, and how they're struggling to perfect a task or simple activity, committing it to muscle memory or such.

Maddy at 15 Months Old

Food She Likes

Papaya
Grapes
Apples
Pomelo
Mangoes
Ponkan oranges
Eggs - hardboiled with mayonnaise, scrambled or sunny side
Pasta noodles, pancit
Congee
Rice
Squash, carrots, malunggay
Cream of squash/pumpkin
Rice+monggo
Dutch Mill
Chuckie
Fita/Marie cookies
Halo-halo (that one time we were in UCC)
Generally little bits of meat or fish

Food She Doesn't Seem to Like

Milk - huhuhu
Oatmeal
Bananas
Sayote
Doesn't seem to be into potatoes as well

What Can She Do

She can walk.

Say a bunch of monosyllables like Ba (for Barney), Bo (for Ball), Buh (for Bubbles), Mama, Dada, Ter (for Water, sometimes), Aw Aw (for Dog).
But she already recognizes a lot of things and can point them out. She can point out, when you say the word, for Book, Pooh, Dog or Aw-Aw, Mama, Dada, MiHy (MIL), DiDav (FIL), yaya, apple, banana, orange, slippers, as well as ball, Barney, bubbles and water.
She also allows me to brush her teeth and when I say it's brush teeth time. Then she just grabs ahold of her banana toothbrush after.
She can hi-five and align her finger.
She can also dance or jiggle her butt a bit, mostly to commercials and random songs.
Care of gymboree, she can hug+kiss, as well as pack away her toys (and anything else you tell her to pack away...like laundry)
She can also do the hip hip hurray move.
She has like a set of toy kikay stuff, and she can more or less put "lipstick", comb her hair.
She can drink from a cup better. She skipped the sippy cup phase.

Little Quirks

She loves to lean on her back against the bed mattress while standing up.

(what in the world are you doing kiddo)

She essentially wants to do whatever it is she sees you doing - feeding herself (the mess!), cleaning the floor, brushing her teeth.

(little helper)

(messy eater)

She blows on her food sometimes before eating it, because I guess she sees us doing it.
There are a few times she'd ask to go inside her Pack and Play, sit inside, and ask for one of the flip board books on my night table. Then she'd just flip through it on her own. I really need to get more of those.

It's not a milk strike huhu

So it's been almost 3 months already that Maddy has stopped drinking pumped/expressed milk while I'm at work. There was a brief maybe 2-3 day time when she started drinking it again, but nope, ended quite quickly.

I have come to the conclusion that she simply does not want or like pumped milk anymore.

Recently, we have been successful in having her finish small cartons of Dutch Mill (80ml) or a bottle of Yakult. We only give it to her once a day, and on alternate days.

Before she stopped drinking my pumped milk, I would pump twice a day when at work to produce two (2) 3-4 oz bottles. That's a good respite already considering that when I started, I would need to pump 4-5x a day to give her 3-4 bottles of milk. Since her appetite for milk decreased when she started eating more solids, 2 bottles of milk of day was enough.

Now, I'm only pumping once a day, and mostly just so my supply doesn't diminish further. Problem is she doesn't even take it anymore, and she feeds more at night when we're asleep.

I do want to stop, but may 40% of me says that this is convenient, she's getting good nutrients from direct feeding and from solids, she doesn't seem to need formula yet, except that I feel like she's constipated all the time from not drinking enough liquids. We've been trying to remedy that with more water, Dutch Mill and yakult.

Soon will ask pedia again if we can give flavored milk. Better than nothing.

She also seems to be more inclined to take on new drinks if they're offered through straw or through.. well.. the Yakult bottle. She seems to be complete averse to drinking anything at all from a feeding bottle anymore. Big girl na.

I am just hoping that without formula or fresh milk, she will grow normally and get enough nutrients. BUT. A bottle of formula or fresh milk, at least before sleeping, would be good sana, if only to help her sleep longer.. aka help me sleep longer.

Maybe I'll be stricter with enforcing no more breastfeeding when I get pregnant again? Nyak. Will see.