Bye Bye Booby - Part 2

Here's my next recap about weaning Brennan!

As I mentioned before, I got most of my weaning ideas from here. I made it through the first week of dropping pumping at night without too much discomfort. I certainly didn't need a full week before dropping the next feeding, but it was nice not to rush the process. This past week, the plan was to drop Brennan's 11am feeding. Several days Brennan took crazy long morning naps, so I did drop a feeding, but it wasn't always the 11am one. For example, we had swim class Tuesday morning from 9:30-10:30. He ate when he woke up, then after class he went right down for a nap. He slept for 3.5 hours, so when he woke around 2, I nursed him. That day he only received a total of three feedings. He didn't take a sippy or a bottle at all. So, it wasn't quite as easy to drop a specific feeding as I thought it would be.

I was also very ambitious with this weaning process. Since Brennan has only had a bottle a handful of times, I wanted to try to wean him directly to a sippy cup. His doctor had also told me it was fine to start cow's milk with him at 11 months, so I decided to mix breast milk and cow's milk from the very beginning, so I could hopefully make the transition to cow's milk easier. However, he wasn't drinking much from a sippy by the second day, so I switched a bottle. Mostly because I wanted to see which variable was keeping him from eating: the sippy or the cow's milk. He hasn't been drinking his entire bottle, but he is certainly drinking more from the bottle than from the sippy, so he doesn't seem to mind the cow's milk. As we continue the weaning process, I really want him to be using a sippy, but we'll see how it goes. I have been giving him his sippy or bottle while he's sitting in my lap in his room; the same place I nurse him.

With all that said, here's my recap from this past week.

Week Two - Dropped the 11am(ish) feeding
Jan. 8 - Dropped one feeding (his naps were off, so his feeding times were off), nursed him three times during the day; gave him a sippy cup with 3oz. of breast milk mixed with 3oz. of cow's milk and he drank 1/2 of it.
Jan. 9 - woke up with A LOT of discomfort in the morning and the morning feeding only relieved some of it; dropped the 11am feeding, but moved his third feeding up a little to help with the discomfort; gave him a sippy with 3oz. of breast milk mixed with 2 oz. of cow's milk (this is the same ratio I am still using at this time, until he drinks the whole amount and seems to need more) and he only took a few drinks, but we were at church, so it was a different environment; however he took a really good nap in the church nursery and another good afternoon nap, so I think he had plenty to eat; I nursed him three times.
Jan. 10 - woke up with no discomfort; gave him a sippy around 11:30 and we tried a different kind of cup, but he barely took any of it; he ate his solids at this meal, so I figured he was fine; nursed him three times.
Jan. 11 - woke up with no discomfort; we had swim class this day and he slept through his 11am feeding, so he didn't even try a sippy this day; I nursed him three times.
Jan. 12 - woke up with no discomfort even though Brennan slept in - we had to wake him up at 8:30; tried a sippy, but he wouldn't take it at all, so I switched to a bottle and he drank about 3oz. of a 5oz. bottle; nursed him three times.
Jan. 13 - woke up with no discomfort; he got a bottle at 11am and drank 3.5oz; nursed him three times.
Jan. 14 - woke up with no discomfort; he got a bottle, but didn't finish it; nursed him three times.

So that was our 2nd week. Brennan is doing well and doesn't seem to miss the dropped feeding. This week I am dropping another feeding and for the past two days, he had taken two bottles each day and no sippy.

What are your thoughts? Should I just stick with the sippy and assume he will drink if he is thirsty enough? Should I give him a bottle for the next few weeks and then work on the sippy? He does drink a little water from a sippy, so he can use it; just not very proficiently. I am thinking if he takes a bottle during the weaning process, I might make him go cold turkey to a sippy after his first birthday. So many choices!!!

This is the sippy we are using.

We tried this one, but he doesn't really seem to like it.

And I just bought this one today, but Brennan's is blue, not pink. :)

I think I am becoming obsessed with sippy cups!

Friday's Fab Five

I feel like I just did last week's Fab Five and now here it is Friday again!

1. Brennan is becoming such a big boy. I'm not sure how fabulous I find this, but I guess he has to grow up so I might as well be excited. Check him out eating his big boy lunch today; pasta with diced tomatoes.

2. I got this CD in the mail the other day.

I won the CD in a giveaway over at Amber's Articles. I am excited to add it to our collection in the car.

3. Speaking of music; I am LOVING this song right now. The praise team has been working on this one, so we will hopefully be singing it on Sunday morning soon.

4. Swim class started back up this week. Brennan still seemed to love it and he crashed and took a 3.5 hour nap afterwards! The best part is our friends Amanda and Parker are taking the class with us!

5. It's a three-day-weekend for the hubby! Woohoo!

I hope your weekend is fabulous!

Dear Brennan,

Whoa! You are 11 months old today. That means that in a mere one month, you will be 1! Whoa! Where in the world has the time gone? It really does not seem like it has been 11 months since this day:

You are growing so fast and learning so many new things. It just seems crazy to me that I am planning your first birthday party! But here we are, so let's recap some of the things you've been up to lately.

You wear 12 month clothes. Lately you've spent a lot of time in your pajamas. You are comfortable in them and on days we don't leave the house, I don't see any reason to change you out of them. You are still in size 3 diapers. I am doing most of your diaper changes on the floor now. It is just easier because it doesn't make me nervous if you wiggle all around on the floor like it does when you're on your changing table. Just this morning, as soon as I had your diaper off, you rolled onto to you belly. You were so cute with your little naked butt sticking up in the air. Hehe.

We still spend most of our day in your room because that's where most of your toys are. Sometimes we will take some to the living room or downstairs just to get a change of venue. Mommy is working hard to make sure you get independent playtime each day. When you wake up from your morning nap, you eat lunch, then play in your pack-n-play with a few toys. You always fuss for about a minute when I leave you, but then you start playing and babbling. I come back to get you after about 30 minutes. You would play longer, but you're little, and I think 30 minutes is good amount of time. It gives Mommy time to eat lunch and sometimes take a quick shower. You love your new toys you got for Christmas. You are doing really well at standing at your music table, but you don't pull up on your own yet. Books are your absolute favorite right now. Mommy reads to you ALL DAY LONG. We are still working on not eating books, but we seem to be making some progress.

You still aren't crawling. We try to practice with you, but you want none of it! You will go from sitting to your belly now by leaning over to the side. But then you usually roll right onto your back. You aren't cruising yet either, but with how much you love your music table, I don't think it will be long until you start moving around it.

We are just starting the weaning process. You are now nursing 3 times/day and getting a sippy of half breast milk and 1/2 cow's milk once/day. You aren't really proficient at the sippy yet, but I am going to try to stick with it instead of giving you a bottle. I'm not sure if that will work as you keep dropping more feedings, but it works for now. You are also starting to eat more finger foods. You like pears and green beans and I am excited for you to try more table foods. You get frustrated when Mommy tries to feed you your pureed foods now, so I think you are certainly ready to be feeding yourself more.

You continue to sleep really well. You usually take two good naps during the day. You are extending your wake time, which is nice because your afternoon nap is getting pushed back a little, so now you aren't so exhausted at night. You go to bed between 6:30-7:00 each night and sleep until 7:00-7:30. You are still sleeping with binkies right now, but that's the only time you usually have one. I am undecided if I'm ready to take those away during nap and nighttime.

You have started using sign language. You can sign "all done", "please", and just yesterday you started signing "duck". Sometimes you'll use the sign for "milk", but it looks just like waving, so sometimes I'm not sure which one you're doing. You will wave hi and bye bye. You put phones up to your ear to talk on them. You have a quite a temper; you grunt and flap your arms when you get really mad. You shake your head 'no' on command. We started swim class again today and you did great! I'm so glad you love the water. You're just a little sponge soaking up everything going on around you.

I'm sure there are many other things you are doing too. There is something new every single day, so it's hard to keep up! You are absolutely adorable and I love you so very very much!

Love,
Mommy

Brennan back at 10 months

Brennan today at 11 months

Eskimo Kisses

I wanted to post this picture one more time, so I could link up with Jhen Stark! Before Brennan was born, we worried about how Ringo would act with the baby. Everyone told us the dog would be great and he truly is. Brennan absolutely loves the dog too, which makes it even better. I never had pets growing up and even though they are A LOT of work, I'm glad Brennan will grow up loving animals.

Could they be any cuter?!?

Bye Bye Booby

If you don't want to read about breastfeeding, you might as well stop reading now.

We are about one month from Brennan turning one! (Whoa!) As of the first of the year, he was nursing four times each day. His meal times are approximately 7, 11, 3, and 6. At three of those meals, he also eats solids. He has always been a fast nurser, but lately he has become very distracted. If he nurses for five minutes per side I consider it long, so I have decided it is time to start weaning him. I think Brennan could do it cold turkey but I'm not up for that, so we are dropping one feeding per week. I also pump every night to have breast milk I can mix with his cereal, so there are technically five "feedings" throughout the day. Pumping at night has given me a good supply of frozen breast milk I can use as I start dropping feedings.

I thought I'd go ahead and blog about our weaning adventures so a.) I can remember what I did and how it went and b.) others might get some ideas that may work for them.

I got the majority of my ideas from here. I was going to do one big weaning post when we were all done, but I think it will be a little long-winded, so I'm going to do it weekly. So lots of reading about boobies coming up!

Week One - Stopped pumping at night
Jan. 1 - First night of not pumping (Hallelujah!)
Jan. 2 - Woke up with no discomfort at all (very surprising); nursed Brennan at his four regular times throughout the day.
Jan. 3 - Woke up with quite a bit of discomfort, but it passed after the morning feeding; nursed B four times during the day.
Jan. 4 - Woke up with a little discomfort, but it passed after the morning feeding; nursed B four times during the day.
Jan. 5 - Woke up with no discomfort; nursed B four times during the day.
Jan. 6 - Woke up with no discomfort; nursed B four times during the day.
Jan. 7 - Woke up with no discomfort; nursed B four times during the day.

Yesterday was our first day to drop one of his feedings during the day. I'll write all about that at the end of the week. I dropped his 11am feeding first since he gets solids with that meal. My plan is to drop the 3pm feeding after that, followed by the nighttime feeding, and finally the morning feeding.

Wish us luck!

SNOW!

It started snowing last night just before we went to bed and we woke up to a couple inches of the white stuff this morning. Brennan has never "played" in the snow before and we figured today would be a good day.

Here's Brennan this morning eating breakfast.

Dada took some pictures of the backyard this morning.

Then after Brennan woke up from his (three hour) nap, we played inside for a little bit and then bundled up and headed out. We don't have snow clothes for Brennan in his size, so he is wearing a 24 month snow suit and size 7 boots! Ha! All he was going to do was sit in the snow anyways, so we figured it would get the job done.

Friday's Fab Five

The first Fab Five of 2011 - Woot! Woot!

1. Check out B's new kicks. His friend, Aiden, wore a pair to church on Sunday and I knew B needed a pair too.

2. Check out this loot! I got my Luv Bath and Body Works card in the mail the other day. You take the card to the store on one Thursday of each month and get a free gift. I went yesterday fully expecting to get some little dinky free gift and instead scored three free things! Pretty sweet deal! Unfortunately the enrollment period for getting a card is over now.

3. Brennan is signing! Yes signing - not singing. I have been working on sign language with him since he was way too little to understand it, but now he can sign "all done" and "please". I am so proud of him!

4. I've been working on Brennan's birthday party! I'm trying to make as much as I can myself, so I don't spend too much money on something he isn't even going to remember! I think it's going to be a doggone good time!

5. Kyle is building Brennan a toy box! I'll save pictures for when the whole thing is complete, but it is coming together very quickly! I am excited to see the finished product!

And here are some pics of my boy.