You Are What You Eat

I figured it's been a while since I talked about this, so this will be a general update on all that Ethan eats (except for cat fur because that's not supposed to go into his mouth). We're still nursing at least five times a day, and he's taking three bottles of formula supplement and two meals of solids. So let's start with nursing:

We made it over a hump a month or so ago. He'd gotten to the point where he was refusing the breast in favor of the bottle, which really upset me. He would only nurse a couple of minutes on each side, and I worried about my supply. Finally, I just stopped stressing out about it. And gradually, he stopped popping off and crying until I gave him the bottle. He still often nurses only a few minutes on each side, but I put him on each side 2-3 times in the course of a feeding so I feel like he's doing enough. As stressful as it's been, I love nursing. Obviously, I wish we could just nurse exclusively, but my body had other plans for the past almost 7 months. However, as he continues to add solids, his need for formula supplements is decreasing (just as the lactation consultant predicted). Already, we've dropped one bottle due to his changing nap and eating schedule. I was very nervous about this, but the numbers on the scale continue to rise! As a result, I have a new goal. I'm going to add back pumpings and such in order to boost my supply, and with increased solids, I hope to be off supplements around 10 months. I don't know if we'll reach that goal, and obviously we'll continue with the supplements if his weight starts to stall, but it would be so nice to not have to deal with bottles and formula anymore. (Don't worry, Mom. I talked about this with his doctor, and she thought it was a great idea provided we continue to monitor his weight, which we will. I know you're going to worry anyway, but you know I would never do anything that compromises Ethan's thriving.)

Now on to those supplements. Around the same time as the nursing hump, we dealt with Ethan getting easily distracted when taking his bottle. It became a major production and required multiple bottle breaks and changes in scenery to get him to finish. We seem to have overcome that, as well, much to my relief! He gets a bottle after his second, third, and final nursing of the day, so even with my tiny stash, I only have to wash bottles twice a day and mix formula once. It's still a pain, but not as bad as when he had five (smaller) bottles a day.

And now onto solids. My freezer contains the following (in order of introduction):
- Organic sweet potato puree: Likes it now!
- Organic brown rice cereal: Not a huge fan unless mixed with banana.
- Organic pear puree: Loves it!
- Organic apple puree: Loves it!
- Sweet pea puree: Loves it!
- Organic asparagus puree: Loves it!
- Turkey puree: Tolerates it if mixed with pear, but he has a hard time swallowing it without a sippy cup of water
- Organic spinach puree: Waiting until 8 months to try due to Nitrates and Oxalates

In addition, Ethan still loves banana, still hates avocado (we tried it again last week... not good), and is obsessed with yogurt. We were using Stoneyfield Farms YoBaby, but then I decided to just get Stoneyfield Farms Plain Whole Milk yogurt and mix his purees in. Now I'm thinking about just making my own yogurt because it's actually quite easy! I'll let you know how it goes. He eats 4 oz. of yogurt every afternoon, which helps to make up for the lack of a bottle then since yogurt actually has more calories.

So all in all, we're both doing great!