Bye Bye Breastfeeding

So, it has come to an end - my bouncing little cherub of 7 and a half months is coming off the boob. I feel liberated but a bit sad that I may never breastfeed again - it's such a beautiful feeling to produce your baby's milk and satisfy their demands with your body. Their sounds of indulgent gulping throughout, and contented cooing after they've finished a feed - all produced by you. I loved how easy it was (after the first week's soreness hurdle) to feed my baby and not need to sterilise bottles and buy powder and have water ready at a time when Elias needed feeding the most often. Milk on tap, portable, warm and forever ready beat night-time formula prep and also gave me an extra hand free to pick up my coffee (it's OK during a feed!), browse online, stroke baby or fend off a toddler. Oh, and it gave me massive boobs for a while, which is such a change!

Although he's forever developing, I feel as though Elias has entered a new phase of mobility, exploration, and communication that ties in well with a severence of our special bond. I too, am entering a new phase of independence and freedom, allbeit due to my own disorganisation of not expressing milk or leaving my baby for too long. Most mothers balance breastfeeding well with normal life, my response was to just involve my baby with everything I did and everywhere I went, thanks largely to babywearing - but now I want to burst free and go out dancing, drinking, stay out late, largely because I can - but mainly because I miss it. (err I haven't yet but want to! On the hunt for a babysitter ;)

Gosh this sounds dramatic and life-changing but it's a just a new phase of so many others: he's commando crawling, loves holding our hands and going for a little walk, leading the weaning and I had almost forgotten how messy that gets! His night-time sleep is always interrupted by a need for 2 bottles which is frustrating and tells me he needs to eat more during the day, but this is part of our journey to make him a strong little boy and I'm happy knowing that I started it the best way I could.

Now, to wait for les boobs to settle and go underwear shopping!

Weaning and HIPP Organic food review

Leon LOVES food. He had his first tastes from about 4 months with purees and other finger foods and now at 10 months he's pretty much feeding himself with his hands and with a spoon! It's so exciting to watch him maneuvering the spoon into his mouth. As expected, it's messy - but in the space of a few days he's hitting the target much better and not getting as much on the walls thank goodness.

Since going to back to work part-time I've found it a bit of a struggle to organise myself properly in terms of making all his food - and remembering to take it out of the fridge in the morning. When he's being looked after by my parents or my childminder friend, I've pretty much given up on making his main meal and am content to pack him a jar/pot/tube of pre-made food along with a few steamed veg, pasta and a banana or pot of yoghurt for after.
 

I was sent a few tubs of  HIPP Organic wholesome meals to try out and they've gone down extremely well. Firstly, the size of the portions are large enough to satisfy his hunger even though they were stage 2 wholesome pots suitable from 7mths+ and I shall try the stage 3 for 10mths+ soon enough. To prepare I only needed to place in a little pan of hot water for a few minutes where I also added some cold pasta and frozen veg to complete his meal. You can of course just give the pot on its own - but I prefer to add those bits to vary the textures/tastes etc. Plus he can dip them into the HIPP food.

Secondly, the meal flavours were indeed scrumptious:  Sweet Red Pepper & Aubergine Penne; Tasty Sweetcorn, Tomato & Chicken Risotto and Scrumptious Cottage Pie with Herbs. (Full product range here) However I was a bit concerned that most of them contained a high percentage of tomatoes (usually 20% of the veg) and Leon hadn't reacted well to tomatoes a few months ago. But he didn't react to it and ate it all up so it was fine :) 

Last but not least, HIPP have made their new pots completely recyclable plus, it's easier to reuse than the glass pots as they can go in the freezer - perfect for storing batches of my own recipes ;) And they stack better than the glass pots too. It's also encouraging to know that "each of the ingredients can be traced back to the farm, field or animal they came from" and that all the ingredients are considered organic. Thumbs up all around!

HIPP organic pots approved by Leon

The main factor for me, as well as knowing that it's relatively free of nasties, is the convenience of chucking it into the baby bag for whoever's looking after him and knowing that it's easy to prepare to serve warm. Now, I'm looking forward to trying the other flavours, but will save them for childcare to use only as they are a tad pricey to be used every day. Plus I enjoy making food for him!

Formula Won

It's been a week since we've introduced Formula milk to baby Leon.

I bought a big tub of SMA and a few bottles and it's going well so far. I bought the SMA Blue extra hungry tub and a couple of mini 250ml cartons again (great for when you're out for more than 2 hours and he needs a feed - or for my mum to feed him- as it's so easy, just snip and pout into a sterilsed bottle)  - but I have noticed that Leon is not eating the puréed carrots and very much else that I'm trying to give him and he loved it two weeks ago!

He's having 8flz oz + 8spoons of powder in a bottle 4 times a day and still some breastmilk in the morning and afternoon. He's sleeping well - sometimes through the night (8.30pm - 6amish) though when he wakes I'll sometimes feed him myself. 2 day-time naps and lots of play and stimulation - he seems happy, so I'm happy :D

Amazing how quickly we're going through nappies - especially with the new formula milk and carrot purée his poos are a lot more interesting! Will buy another tub of SMA but think that I'll try the yellow one this time which is more similar to breast-milk. Though perhaps I'll stick with the blue heavier milk for evening feeds....?

Teething troubles and hot potato

20 weeks / almost 5 months! : Little L is now teething. His first little tooth has popped up on his lower gum and it's so lovely to feel it with my finger. He's not a happy bunny though. The sun and heat are already causing him bother - he hates it!! Coupled with the new tooth though makes him rather fragile.

I've found the following help:

Frozen dummy - dummy in the freezer for a few minutes then he can chew on that
Sophie the Giraffe  - Loves to chew on that.
Frozen cloth - muslin cloth drenched in water, wring it out then place in freezer for half hour or so. Originally for him to chew on - but he doesn't chew it so I use it to keep him cool. Pat him with cloth from time to time to cool down.
Cold flannel - just to wipe all over his face and body, feet etc.
Bottle of cooled down boiled water - as he gets thirsty. used to give him a couple of teaspoons as per my granny's advice, but now i take a bottle out with me. Even though they say breastmilk contains water and is enough - sometimes he's just thirsty so don't want to feed him again. Or I just put a few drops on his lips.
Cool purée - I've started giving him some carrot purée and make a batch then freeze in ice cube trays. I take out 1 or 2 blocks when frozen in a little tupperware in the morning and by afternoon when we're out and about I can give him some of that in between feeds. It also cools him down.

At night he gets so warm he only sleeps with a sheet. I don't want him to get a fever and don't want to resort to Calpol for the discomfort. I read that sometimes he's scared as he doesn't know what is going on with the tooth - rather than it being really painful - and often distraction is the key! So playing a lot with Little L is also a great way to get him through this tough time! How long will it go on for? Poor thing

Breastfeeding

I've really enjoyed breastfeeding the past few months. Only now am I starting to feel tired due to the night-time feeds and sometimes feel as though I have the baby permanently attached to me as he's still feeding every 3 hours. The WHO recommends exclusive breastfeeding for 6 months before introducing solids, but our parents' generation introduced them at 4 months... I'll see when he's ready but for now I've started to give him little 'tastes' of other foods as suggested by the Mexican ladies. Up until now he's mainly tried a few drops to the tongue of mexican beans.

French feminist Elisabeth Badinter suggests that breastfeeding is a form of oppression and prevents women from going out and doing what they want to as they need to be constantly with their babe - but has she not heard of expressing? I know what she means though... and I think that the NHS ram it down out throats a bit too much equating Breastfeeding=Good Mother=Good Woman that women go to extreme lengths to do what is deemed best. A local mother is expressing her milk every 2 hours to feed her son as he didn't take to the breast. While I admire her persistence, I believe that she needs to take care of herself as well and not feel bad for not BF. Those that it comes easy to are lucky and I am happy to be one of them. It's just very convenient not to have to wash up bottles and be able to 'whip em out' whenever you need to.

Then there's the bonding :)

For the past few days, Little Leon has started to pause halfway through a feed on one breast then moves his head up and smiles at me! I saw that my mum has written the same thing in my baby album "as if to say Thank You mummy!" and I totally see it now. I thought she may have confused it for a gas smile, but it's a proper huge smile. He's doing it during most feeds now and it's so sweet. I was considering moving on to formula soon as I'm getting a bit tired of BF, but now I've swung right back onto the BF branch. It's lovely!

The only thing I'm not sure about is that I didn't realise how my breast would change to these soft boobs that seem to belong now to my baby... Will they ever become perky again!