This little girl has a lot going on.
Right after I posted about breastfeeding beyond a year, E started nursing less. Figures, right? Immediately after I write all about it, she decides to change things up! She had been averaging about six times a day and for the last week she’s been averaging about four. And on top of that, not each of those four are a nice, long nursing session. My supply has definitely decreased because of it. I am very okay with her transitioning from breastfeeding to solids at her own pace, so it would be fine for her to be nursing less if she were eating more. Except she’s not eating more. In fact, some days it’s still a trial to get her to eat much of anything.
On Friday I think I pinpointed just why E has been eating less in general – both of her bottom molars are coming in! Oh, baby! You know that can’t feel good. I’m sure I wouldn’t feel like eating either if my mouth were sore and achy. The top of the right molar was fully through on Friday and the left side was maybe a third of the way through. Lefty is about halfway through as of this morning. I am stunned that I didn’t notice these big teeth coming in until one had already completely cut through! But it totally explains the random bouts of excessive drool and the fuse that is just a bit shorter than usual. Things that are usually just minor blips on her radar now reach near tragedy status. (That’s fun!) But I can’t blame her. If my mouth were hurting all the time, I think I would be a little extra crabby as well.
Another change that we’ve recently been dealing with is transitioning from two naps a day down to one. It has been hit or miss for a couple of weeks at to whether I would be able to get E down for both her morning and afternoon naps. Some days she would take two naps and some days she would take one. It was challenging because I hadn’t fully embraced one nap and so I never really knew when to try to lay her down. But getting her down for her morning nap was becoming a struggle more often than not, so I let go of two naps and decided to embrace one nap. I don’t know if the teething had an affect on her napping (She’s been sleeping fine at night.) or maybe just spurred the transition but for the last week she has consistently been taking one nap midday.
Some things that I have noticed about making the transition to one nap a day are:
- E sometimes gets really cranky before nap time. I’m not sure whether this is because she’s tired or her teeth are bothering her. I suspect it is a combination.
- She still looks tired and yawns a bit mid-morning but she won’t go to sleep. A lot of the time she’ll nurse and that recharges her and gives her a second wind.
- She falls asleep at the end of her pre-nap nursing session pretty frequently again. She is definitely ready for that nap when it comes!
- E is ready for bed earlier in the evening.
New eating habits, teething, a new sleep routine — that’s a lot for one little body to take on!
In non-baby related news, this happened yesterday:
12 miles! What, what?! More on that coming soon in my March running recap!
