After about three weeks of waking up multiple times a night to a hungry baby I have given in and bought formula for Julie. She has always been a fabulous sleeper, giving me 10-12 hours a night. However, for the last few weeks she is waking up at least twice, sometimes three times to nurse. I was used to this with Jack and Eric but now after having such an easy time with her I am dying! At first I thought it merely due to teething, but that has passed and it is still happening. I have tried not nursing her, just putting her back to sleep, thinking it was just waking up and not knowing how to put herself back to sleep, but from the way she gobbles I can tell that she is in fact hungry. I've started feeding her baby food in earnest but it is slow going to get her to like food enough to eat significant amounts. She really does not like baby cereal at all. So in desperation I bought a can of formula and some BPA free bottles. Tonight was our first try, she chugged back half the bottle in about five minutes and then promptly fell asleep.
The plan is to continue nursing her and only give her a bottle at bed time in order to fill up her tummy before sleep. I'm concerned though that she'll give up nursing entirely given how easy it is to get milk from a bottle as compared to nursing. I read the ingredients on the can and the first thing is corn syrup. Does anyone else out there find this alarming? How can this be good for an infant? So I really don't want formula to replace breast milk. On the other hand, I'm really reaching the end of my rope. Can't be good for baby if Mommy wants to sell her to the circus either. I never formula feed Jack and Eric, they went straight from nursing to eating. And in Jack's case continued nursing well into the eating phase. I'm definitely one of those women that is comfortable nursing the baby for a long time, and am willing to follow their cues about when it's time to stop. So maybe all this waking up is Julie's cue that she's ready to move on. I'll be sad though if she's done nursing now. This is probably my last baby and I don't think I'm ready to end this stage yet entirely.
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Since I can only listen to other moms & my sisters, I would suggest ditching the corn syrup try again with the food before bed. Either the pablum with fruit to jazz it up or people food mushed up well (you may have to cook with less salt). She has been tasting that for the last six months and may find the pablum boooorrrrring. Miss S would not eat baby food -ever. My oldest nephew weaned himself at 8 months for no apparent reason. The youngest would nurse now if he could. All kids are different.
Western society seem to guilt mothers into following a strict program for babies. No solids before 6 months. Baby food only after that for the next little while. Introducing new stuff slowly is fine but babies in other countries eat minced/pureed regular food and it doesn't seem to cause a problem. Let the Force, I mean Julie, guide you.
Hmmm... any way to spice up that pablum? I mean, have you TRIED that? Ugg!
I can't wait to hear how it went. Did she sleep through the night again? At the store today I checked the brand of formula that we used for Bridget and it had no corn syrup at all. So if you want to try the formula, perhaps look for a different brand. :) Hope you're getting some sleep, Mommy!
Your blog really hit home today. I have been thinking of just formula feeding my little guy as I have been having a hard time breastfeeding him lately, but your words encouraged me to keep going. Thanks so much!
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