Weaning- part three (morning feeds)

I had hoped that Pi would continue the 'morning' and 'before bed' feeds for a while. I thought another month of so of both, and then just the 'before bed' feeds for a few more months. However, about a week after he had accepted (read, stopped crying for milk and asked for 'moo moo juice') that the 'after nap' feeds were finished, he woke up on one Sunday morning and asked for 'moo moo juice'. I checked and double checked that that was what he wanted, and when he said yes, I took him downstairs- half expecting him to start screaming when I took him away from the feeding chair in his room. But nope- he was happy having moo moo juice. 

The problem for me came in the evening, because by the afternoon my boobs were engorged and I was in a lot of pain. I couldn't wait for the night feed. Thankfully, he wanted my milk at night and I was very relieved to give it to him.

But giving him moo moo juice in the morning gave me a decision to make. Do we wean him off the morning feeds earlier than planned? 

After the pain I was in, I decided that it is best to call it there, rather than go through that again. So the next morning, while he wanted milk, we took him downstairs for a cuddle and moo moo juice. He was very unhappy about it and for the next few days it messed up his acceptance of no day time feeds either; after his nap he would scream for milk again- though for far less time than before. The demand for milk stopped after a few days though, and he was happy with the new regime- moo moo juice in the morning and day, and milk at night. 

It did leave me with another problem though- the pain. The morning after his first moo moo juice feed in the morning I had a mild case of mastitis. I had a fever of over 40c, and felt absolutely horrible with red streaks in one of my breasts. Last time I had mastitis, the solution was lots of rest and lots and lots of feeding to get rid of the blocked duct. This time I didn't have the option for the feeding bit, but I could stop the engorgement. Off to the shop we went to buy some cabbage leaves, and I had plenty of sage in the cupboard. I made sage tea, and took an oral dose of about 1 tsp of dried sage leaves mixed with peanut butter. I stuffed cabbage leaves down my bra, which was so lovely and soothing. It must have been a very mild case (unlike last time- which was 24 hours) because I was fine by the afternoon.

And, the cabbage and sage really worked. Actually, it worked too well. Between the sage and the cabbage and the lack of feedings, my milk is so little now. When I feed Pi at night, he could be done in a few gulps (I leave him on for a long time though for comfort). At least the engorgement isn't a problem anymore.

However, there was another problem- hormones.

Cutting out two feeds in a space of a few weeks made my body go crazy. I felt nauseated constantly- to the point that I was convinced that I was pregnant for a while. I also had insane hot flushes- mainly at night where I would wake up sweating and boiling hot, and I would strip off everything even though it was 2 degrees out. I also got really sad- not all the time, but at night I would think of how Pi is growing so fast and it would depress the hell out of me. I also couldn't sleep- whether it was lying awake thinking about Pi, or just insomnia, I wasn't sure. I was also exhausted, but that isn't anything new. Thankfully, this stage only lasted about a week or two, and things are back to normal now.

It isn't something I thought of about weaning- all of the side effects. I looked it up, and it is basically a chemical reaction that happens when your brain tries to produce milk, and searches for the hormones to make the milk and doesn't find them, or find many. All of the above are side effects of weaning, but the only one I expected was the engorgement.

I plan of feeding Pi at night for a while yet. I really want to get back on my medication (that isn't safe for breastfeeding), but I love my quiet cuddles with my boy. He is two next month, so I will probably continue until he is two and a few months. Whether it is me that stops, or him that decides he wants to, I will be more prepared for the side effects and armed with lots of sage and cabbage leaves.

Weaning- part two (after nap feeds)

Now that the night feeds are under control, and his birthday is not too long around the corner I had a bit of a decision to make. A part of me would love to keep feeding him forever. I love the snuggles and the closeness of it, and the quiet time in which I get to hold my little man, and he is happy to be held. He also loves his milk and I didn't want to take it away from him.

On the other hand, society seems to frown on feeding children after two, he wiggles so much when he feeds so it is easy to get really sore nipples after a particularly wiggly session, and there has been medication that I haven't been able to take for over 3 years as it wasn't safe during pregnancy and not during breastfeeding either (apparently it can turn their teeth yellow).

Anyway, after long, emotional talks and decisions, I decided that I needed to bite that bullet and start weaning. It still makes me feel guilty talking about it as we both do love it (I know, you are probably wondering why stop if I like it that much- many pro and con lists were written, I assure you). I figured that cutting out the day feed, the one he gets when he wakes up from his nap, would be the best start. I think he was about 21ish months or so when the first bottle of milk was offered instead of the boob...

He was not happy.

Actually, that is the understatement of the year. He screamed, for about 40 minutes or so. Just screamed the house down and nothing would calm him. Eventually, he took the bottle of milk.

However it was a pattern that repeated itself for about three weeks. That's right, three whole weeks. After every nap he would point to his chair and say 'milk', and scream when I took him out of his room (I wanted him to see his room chair as his mummy feeding chair, and he gets his 'moo moo juice' downstairs). I had to explain over a few days, that he gets his mummy milk in the morning, and he can have it before bed, but after his nap it's 'Moo moo juice' time. He eventually accepted it and the crying stopped. Now, (at 23 months) he actually asks for 'moo moo juice' when he wakes from his nap and is happy to have a cuddle in my arms.n He asks for seconds sometimes, and with the bottle there is less slapping, clawing, scratching, poking up the nose and in the mouth, and pulling of the hair, etc.

Stage two of weaning complete.

Weaning- Part one (During the night weaning)

Pichan was weaned at night from about 19 months. By that age, I was just getting up twice or so, once at 11am and once at about 4am. I would feed him and then he would happily go back to sleep until about 7:30 or so. The arrangement was fine, but it was tiring and as he didn't need the milk, we thought it might be time to cut out the night feeds.

It was actually quite easy to do. We started by agreeing that if it was before  3:30am, my husband would go in and sing him/ pat him back to sleep. At first, Pichan was REALLY upset that Mummy Feedbags wasn't coming in, but after two nights he was pretty used to it, and then just started sleeping through. He stopped waking at 4am too. It all just kind of clicked into place- so we just dropped all feeds during the night.

 For a little while there, he might wake up once  a night, but Daddy would just sing to him and he would go straight back to sleep. Within 4 weeks, he stopped waking at night all together.

He wakes up earlier than he used to. Usually about 6:30am, but that is fine for his age- sleeping from 7:30-6:30 is 11hours, which is pretty darn good in my books.

 For a while there he was waking up at 6am, or 5:30 am, but that was our fault as we became inconsistent with his bed time (usually his bedtime is from 7-7:30, but for a while there it was more like 8-8:30). A quick change back to a stricter bedtime, usually between 7:15-7:45pm, and he is back to sleeping until 6:30am.

Ahh, bliss.



(not Pichan :p)

Re-peat

Pete is getting really great at repeating things...

Last night after getting after the bath, I was drying him off while my husband was drying himself off:

(Petey stands up and is eye height with Daddy's goods).

Me: Petey, be careful or Daddy might accidentally Teabag you.

Pichan: Teaaaaabaaaag. Teaaaaaabaaaaaaagggg....

:/

Night-time nappies

Petey's nappy started leaking at night. Doh! Not good for him and not good for me with all that extra winter washing. I am not sure how far into the night it leaks, or, if it leaks just after his morning feeding but either way something had to be done.

Pichan gets milk before bed and with the amount of bath-water he drinks  (much to my dismay) it wasn't really a surprise that his nappies have started leaking. Usually I would just go up a size but as I find it hard enough to get Merries 'L' size and the 'big' size is even harder to find, I thought I would try a different route,

The "OyasumiMan" nappies are really great. They are night time nappies and have a really high waist and fit well everywhere. So far no leaks! They claim they won't wet the futon (or bed, in my case) and so far they have lived up to their claim.

They are a bit more expensive than regular nappies- for a pack of 22 is about 1400yen (so about 64yen a nappy). I buy them from 'Create drug store'- where I get all of my nappies.

The extra cost isn't great, but at least I don't have to worry anymore about helping my little man get a dry night's sleep

The WOW cup

Pichan loves water. He loves it so much that he is quite happy to shake water out of a cup, sippy cup, or even a bottle, any time, any where. We have a water bottle that seals, and should be leak proof, but if he tips it upside down and shakes enough then water can still come out. Yay! I also found that water can rise up through the sealed straw when there is a change in temperature- which has meant my bag has gotten wet a few times.

I heard online ages ago about a WOW cup. They are a special cup that, supposedly, is leak proof. Given my son's penchant for spilling anything and everything I really wanted to put one of these to the test, however I wasn't quite wanting to pay the shipping cost from America.

Happily, I stumbled upon them the other day at AKACHAN HONPO in kawasaki. Happy days! They are kind of expensive- 1380yen per cup- but as it is a cup and not a sippy cup I figured that he would still be using it in a few years.

It really does live up to it's name- just WOW. Pichan can shake until the cows come home and he still can't get water out of it. He really can drop it too and nothing comes out. They are also easy to clean. I am in love, and intend to buy some more. It did take my bub a few goes of trying over two days before he could drink the water out (it is a little weird to drink), but now that he can, it is perfect for our needs.

Here is a link to Akachan Honpo online store which has them too: http://akachan.omni7.jp/search/?keyword=wow&searchKeywordFlg=1

And the WOW website, if you want to know what I am going on about: http://www.wowcup.com/

Absence and Injuries

It has been a long time since I have posted. And I mean a looooong time. Having a toddler who won't let me near the computer is the main issue- the only time I have free is when he naps- and like today, that was only for one hour- 1 out of 24 hours that I get to myself,( when I am not sleeping) - which at the moment means is the time when I eat my 'no babies allowed' food (like chocolate) and binge-watch 30 Rock.

It's going to be my new goal to update a post every Monday- and hopefully with relevant ramblings.

Today's offering is all about our big ouchie last week.

I have bought myself a (second hand) electric bicycle to help with the hill *cough- mountain- cough* that we live on. And last Tuesday, after taking him to the baby playroom- and then him not wanting to go- we decided to go the park instead. I put him on my bike and the handlebars swung wildly around and the the whole thing fell over. Poor little Pi went chin first into the concrete.

I was rattled as hell as I picked him up and there was blood everywhere. Luckily, this happened about a kilometer away from my G.P. so I picked him up, grabbed my bag, abandoned my bike and the rest of the things in the basket, and ran to the doctors- all the while carrying my 13kg toddler in one arm, and the other with a facecloth desperately trying to stop the bleeding. We made it there and the doctor ushered us in right away. She was able to look at it, but as they are a smaller clinic, she could not treat him.

They called us a taxi to take us to a bigger clinic about 10 minutes drive away (while detouring home to get his health insurance card and other medical documents.).

Funnily enough we had been sent to this doctor a few days before to check out my husband's aching foot and were not that impressed with the doctor- a long wait, and then x-rays only to have his diagnosis of "your feet are foreign, and Japanese people don't have high arches like that, so it is probably a foreign problem....". With nothing else- not even a 'try RICE-ing it'. So I was not all that impressed with going back there.

We got there and apparently regardless of the fact that both me and my baby were covered in blood, and my baby was SCREAMING in pain- we waited in line like everyone else (none of whom were covered in blood). An hour and a bit later, the doctor finally saw us.

It was bad. He had split the skin on his chubby chin down to the bone. The doctor investigated and the insisted on showing me- so he pulled apart the skin again just for my benefit! I will say I have little problem with blood and gore- I have a MAJOR problem with causing my baby any more pain than necessary. Anyway...

He explained that it needed stitches, and that it is incredible painful without anesthetic, but young children can react dangerously so....- he explained it in such a roundabout way that I couldn't tell what he was going to do- use it, or not. In these situations, usually I just say "do your thing". However, I was not going to let him stitch without numbing the area first- so I called up my friend to double check what he was saying (my Japanese gets me far, but in some cases knowing 80% of what is going on isn't enough...).

Turns out he was going to use anesthetic, so we had to straight-jacket my baby by wrapping him in a towel tightly so he couldn't move his arms- then I climbed on top of him to pin him down to the bed- while three nurses held his head still for the doctor to inject... It was fairly traumatic for him, and me, but the job got done.

We then unwrapped him and I held him for 10 minutes for the anesthetic to kick in. Once it had, it was sausage baby time again, and back to all of us pinning him down. Then before the doctor did it, he investigated it again, and then got my attention saying "Mum, look" and then sticking his forceps all the way into the wound down the the bone- for my benefit! Pi was still screaming and distressed as hell, and all I was thinking was for the doctor to just fix him. I knew how serious it was, we were covered in blood.

He started stitching and the after about 2 minutes, he got a one of those surgical covers out- you know the kind that is like a huge sheet of green paper with a circle cut out of it, so they only see the wound area (there are pictures on google, but none without gross wounds so I won't post..). Needless to say,  his face and body being covered freaked him out even more, and the damn doctor waited until Pi was loosing it like crazy, and wetting the sheet with tears sweat before he took it off. We finally thought the doctor was finished when he stopped, but had only finished with the internal stitches.

Long story short- many internal and external stitches, and a lot of trauma and tears later, and he was finally done. My bub passed out from exhaustion as soon as he last stitch was pulled through.

We had a course of antibiotics and some topical antibiotics, and we have been back to the doctors every second day to check on the stitches and make sure there is no infection. We change the dressing twice a day, and more if it becomes wet/soiled. He hates that.

I am about to go again to the doctors now to have them taken out. I really don't like this doctor, but sometimes I feel in Japan there isn't much of a choice.

 Good luck little man...