Monday, April 28, 2008

Negative Progress

Pumpkin has decided to un-nightwean herself. She is now waking up at 2 or 3 a.m. and demanding that she be nursed. Hubby and I don't want to hear her scream at this hour (OK, we never want to hear her scream, but the middle of the night is a particularly unpleasant time for a screaming fit), so we've decided to give in and have me nurse her. Other than this extra nursing, her nighttimes are getting a little better, or at least not getting worse (i.e., she isn't waking up more often after the nursing and seems to be sleeping longer before waking up for the first time), so things aren't horrible.

However, if she wakes up to nurse at 2, that means that I must be asleep by 10 if I am going to get 4 hours of uninterrupted sleep, my minimum requirement. This means that I need to start my bedtime routine (which still includes pumping, but that is another story) by 9. This means that posts may be even more sparse than usual until we work out this new routine. Or come through this sleep regression. Or whatever.

This is a shame, because I really do want to post a trip story about Sedona, and write some more rants about day care workers who dump the remains of used bottles into the "spare" bottle, thereby making me throw out four ounces of perfectly good milk and about sleep-deprived mommies who ruin perfectly good baby t-shirts by spraying bathroom cleaner with bleach on stains instead of stain pre-treater, because the bottles look very similar and are stored right next to each other (that is fixed now, but I haven't gotten over the loss of one of my favorite shirts). I could also write happy day care stories about how Pumpkin is getting to visit the older babies room, and spend afternoons playing outside, and how happy she is when I come to pick her up and she is playing outside. Maybe later this week....

Update: Pumpkin wouldn't go down for the night so I went in and nursed her. She had been too distracted by the birds outside our living room to nurse well before her bath, so I guess I'm not surprised. On the plus side, this means that I don't have to go pump right now. On the negative side, I'm even more annoyed about the wasted four ounces, because I just had to get three ounces out of the freezer to make up for the fact that I won't be pumping tonight.

4 comments:

  1. You need to be clear and firm with the daycare workers that they are wasting, not saving milk when they do this.

    You need to label each of your bottles with masking tape and "DO NOT POUR INTO ANOTHER BOTTLE".

    Pumpkin is likely going through a growth spurt and needs the extra calories and comfort of nursing. Be there for her. Take sick time if you have to, to catch up on sleep.

    Hang in there, this time shall pass.

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  2. I second grace. She's probably going through a growth spurt and really needs the extra nursing. Good luck getting through this period. It's just a phase. It's all just a phase.

    I actually would pour leftover breastmilk into other breastmilk bottles. I figured that because you can re-use leftover milk in general and reheat the milk at least one more time, it should be safe if added to the other milk, too. My girl never had a problem. (I know you want some backup data, Ms. Scientist! Check out this kellymom.com page.

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  3. Of course, after I posted this she slept until 1:30 and didn't want to nurse until 4.... Not that I'm complaining about that! We'll see what happens tonight.

    I should clarify the milk thing: I have no issues at all with reusing breastmilk within 24 hours. What the day care person did yesterday was dump milk that I think (from the report they gave me) had already been given to Pumpkin 2x (first time at 9 a.m.) into a fresh bottle that wasn't used at all. Since she doesn't get a bottle at night, and the milk had already been warmed up twice, I didn't feel like I could keep it.

    The regular day care employees would never do this- some of them have been pumping moms themselves. I think there was a sub yesterday, and apparently she doesn't understand how breastmilk is the most precious substance on the planet. Sigh. I labeled the last bottle today with a request not to mix. Pumpkin is in the process of dropping this bottle, so it only gets used some days. On the days she doesn't drink it, I can save it for the next day.

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  4. Aha! I understand now. And I'm totally with you.

    "breastmilk is the most precious substance on the planet" Amen, sister, amen!

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