Adventures in Bottle Feeding

So we have had an interesting couple of weeks with feeding. Hadley has all of a sudden decided that bottles are for babies and that she is not a baby. We were feeding her five bottles a day (all of which she was scarfing down)until a couple of weeks ago, then she stopped getting hungry for the second bottle. That was fine, we just went to a 4-bottle-a-day schedule (which we were ecstatic about because that meant that we had enough bottles that we only had to wash bottles every other day). But now the past couple of weeks she will drink 2 or 3 oz. of a bottle and then she will flat out refuse to drink any more. She will eat solids until she bursts, but no bottle. At first I thought she was teething, but she isn't really acting like she is in that much pain. Then I thought she had an ear infection. I took her to the doctor. The doctor said her ears were a little red and she used a tool to measure the thickness of the fluid. But the doctor said she didn't have a full-blown ear infection yet, it just looked like she was starting to get one--so we put her on antibiotics.

We thought she was doing better for a few days, but now she is back to refusing bottles. We have been trying everything! Warm bottles, cold bottles, bought higher nipple levels so she would not have to suck as hard, tried a sippy cup with and without the spill-proof valve. We have ended up just mixing her formula with her food most of the time, but there is only so much you can mix in before it gets too thin. This is really frustrating! The problem is that she is not getting enough fluids by only drinking a couple of ounces at each meal, and I don't want her to get dehydrated or constipated. Constipation has been an issue already. Finally, tonight, I got frustrated and just took the nipple and lid off the bottle and held it up to her mouth like a cup. And I will have you know she drank the whole darn thing, and wanted more!

I don't know about you guys, but I am really looking forward to her being able to tell us what she wants, because sometimes it takes me forever to figure things out, and then when I finally figure out what she wants, it seems so simple like I should have known it the whole time!

P.S.--Hadley is saying mama now! It is totally indiscriminate, and she has absolutely no idea what she is saying, but I just love it!

--Amanda

8 months and teething again!

I just cannot believe that Hadley is already 8 months old! I guess I will be saying that from now on every time she reaches a milestone. She actually just moved to the "big baby" class at daycare, which is for babies from about 5 months to 1 year. She has also started creeping round, and she can actually scoot around pretty quickly so we had to start baby proofing. We still aren't finished with that process, but it is coming along. I'm not doing too much, because I want her to get into some things so that I can tell her no and teach her not to get into them. But we did plug up all the outlets, got rid of all my candle and pebble sets, and moved all the cleaning supplies, etc. up high (although we did leave the dish soap under the sink and just locked the cabinet).

We also have all wood floor in our downstairs, so we got a playmat for it--not so much for baby proofing as just to help her be more comfortable when she crawls round. One of my coworkers told me about GreatMats.com. You can get just about any color mat you want, and you can even design your own playmat with your particular colors. We just got an 8x8 burgundy mat to match our living room. I love it! It can be rinsed off or washed in the tub easily, and the mats don't soak up the water. It also comes with edgers so that the edges and corners are straight. It was a little more expensive than the ones you see at WalMart, Target, etc., but so far I think it was worth it.

Hadley is also teething again--this time her top two front teeth. I have been looking for some good teethers for a while, and I finally found a "nuby" teether. I think I got it at Target. It is a soft round silicone teether with lots of little ridges to help stimulate their gums, and it even comes with a case.

Hope everyone and their babies are doing well, and hope we can all get together soon!

--Amanda

New name for the jumperoo

If you are offended by poo talk, just stop now.
Adam and I are officially changing the name of our jumperoo to the jumperpoo.  It never fails.  He could have already gone twice that day, but something about the jumping/gravity ALWAYS makes Isaac go poo.  It's pretty stinking hillarious to watch him jump for a couple of minutes and then see him grunt the all familiar poo noise. Its also kind of nice to have a sure way of getting him to go before we leave the house. I've done a little research on it, and it seems like we are not the only ones with this problem (thought I don't really think its a problem.)  I think its pretty funny, but that's probably cause we haven't had an all out blowout on the fabric covering yet.  Check back with me later.