hi! Its been a long time!
Dairy - congrats! I am holding my breath for you... I hope this is a sticky bean!
Ginny - welcome!
Lee - you brought up something I have been thinking about a lot -weaning from breastfeeding. I hope we make it as long as you have, but also know that sticking it out long term can lead to even more dependance on the boob. I wish you the best of luck and please let us know how it goes!
Lucy is doing good! She is a mover and really really active, so I am pretty much busy sun up to sun down. She is finally sleeping on her own for naps (at least the first half, until she wakes up and will only go back to sleep if I nurse her) but that at least frees up a bit of my day, and allows me to do house work while she naps and focus on her when she is up.
We sort of went backwards with food. She doesn't eat much. Pretty much fruit is the only thing that actually goes in... I try not to get too hung up on it, as she is a HUGE milk drinker, but I think I am starting to feel ready to cut back a bit on the milk as her first birthday grows closer. I have been getting horrible migraines since Lucy was born and my doctor thinks that it might be hormone related and thinks that once I wean, they might go away. I am not ready to wean, but would like to know it was a possibility. Right now it is not an option at all as she eats so little.
So my question for you experienced mommas - I am still nursing Lucy to sleep. It is the only thing that works every time. I have tried to change up the routine, but it just doesn't work. She also still wakes many times in the night and although sometimes I get her back to sleep with a back pat and a cuddle, I am usually too tired and just give her the boob. I guess I just need to know that there is light at the end of the tunnel here - someday she will sleep more, some day she will not need me to fall asleep. Right now I am totally ok with it, but I don't see how this could be possible to keep up LONG long term...
Hopefully I can offer a little help. I have 4 children, my youngest is 18 months and am still BF as I can't bring myself to stop!
I think the route of everything here is that Lucy is having too much milk.
From fairly early on, I would BF Caitlin on an evening and would top her up with formula to make sure she wAs properly full.
The weaning at 6 months wAs gradual from baby porridge and moving up fairly quickly to 3 meals a day.
When this happened I stopped BF in the day, just sticking to mornings and evenings.
Cutting down on the milk will hopefully encourage LUcy to eat more. Caitlin loves roast dinners, which I mash up together with gravy.
If she is eating more solid food, she will be getting fuller, which in turn will mean more likely to sleep through. However, on the occasions she does wake, try not to BF. Caitlin still wakes occasionally now and it can take 2 hours to settle her, but I still don't BF. Its hard work, but worth it in the long run. (Many years ago I remember a work colleague telling me her about her daughter waking in the night, out of habit, for a feed. She stopped giving her milk, but instead put water in a bottle and gave her that. She soon stopped waking in the night!)
When my DD was around 12/13 months I stopped BF on an evening. I had also moved from formula to cows milk and she still has a bottle of this before bed.
I now just BF when she wakes in a morning, before giving her , her 2 weetabix for breakfast.
I haven't managed to get her onto fruit, but I'm working on it. She has snacks of breadsticks and crackers. She also likes buttered toast cut into pieces.
So, to sum up, I really think you need to try to cut back on the milk, which hopefully will encourage her to fill up on more solids, which should help her sleep better. Hopefully!
I hope this is helpful