Milk and Weaning

For the last few days June has not been drinking very much cow's milk at day care. Cow's milk in her diet is relatively new. We tried it first in December before we went traveling. Then after four weeks we tried again. She takes it just fine, which I am pleased about, though it seems to make her BMs a little weird. (I'll skip the BM details unless some other mom wants to discuss.)

Though June doesn't have any apparent intolerance to cow's milk, she seems to have a preference for the cow's milk at day care with the hormones and antibiotics added. I specifically buy the organic, hormone-free milk. June's main care provider, Debbie, says that June turns her nose up and won't drink the organic milk, but that she likes the other milk.

I have a few thoughts on it. First, just last week I started June on #3 nipples, as a gentle push toward bottle preference. (This doesn't seem to be working, by the way.) Perhaps she is not liking the faster flow nipples? But then how would that explain being okay with different milks from the same bottle? I guess it really doesn't.

The other thing is that June has always been a major reverse cycler. She still nurses a lot at night. Since she nurses at night, I'm tempted to not worry about the lack of drinking cow's milk at day care (she is drinking 5+ ounces of water and sometimes juice in addition to 4 ounces average of cow's milk daily). Some babies go 12 hours (for those lucky moms whose babies sleep through the night) without any form of caloric intake. If that is alright for them, June should be alright. Right?

Does anyone out there have advice for me? I'm also curious if anyone has tried goat's milk. I've never tasted it, but I've imagined the taste of it based upon goat cheese and I'm afraid to try it. I love goat cheese, but I'm not sure I'd like that taste in a milk.

Meandering Post

If all goes as planned, tomorrow will be my last day of pumping. I describe it this way because tomorrow is also June's last day at day care for a month, so who knows what will happen when we are together every day. I don't know if I will try to stop her from daytime nursing. I am tempted to start giving her cow's milk in bottles. Luckily, June is not one of those babies who won't take milk from a bottle - at least during the day. Nighttime is another story, especially right before bed.

I feel a little melancholy about the whole concept of weaning. I am ready to have some freedom back, yet I don't want to let go of my "baby." Sometimes I am really glad that children grow so gradually. It gives us time to keep up with them and their progress. Otherwise how would our minds comprehend the reality of them and their little personalities? The other nice thing about the gradual learning of new skills is that every day we have something new to exclaim over and be excited about. I hope that my joy of discovering June continues as she grows up. I think it will. Though I know that sometimes I give people static personalities in my mind, I at least know that it is untrue. We all grow and change, all the time. I think this knowledge helps Adam and I get along so well.

When Adam and I first met a friend of ours said that we were "cut from the same cloth." I love that expression. And it contributes to my love of homemade things oddly enough in a way I can't explain. But mostly I think it was very accurate. [Thanks Chrisso.]

Pumping Woes

Three ounces in twenty-five minutes.

This is fairly frightening as it is the second day of dismal supply (completely tied to my total body sickness from the food poisoning I mentioned in my last post). I have gone from a six to eight ounces in ten minutes pumper to half that, and I don't know where to go from here. I feel so bad when June nurses and nurses and doesn't get anything.

Early on, pumping woes included things like spills, daily cleanup of my pumping products, milk stains on my clothes, and the time it consumed.

But then I embraced pumping and began to love the connection it gave me to June. Even when I am not with her, I am still providing for her. I even pumped during a cross-country trip this summer in the car, sitting beside her in the back seat and passing her bottles of expressed milk. It has been a point of pride.

Granted, thoughts of weaning have been on the horizon as we approach June's one year birthday. But we're over a month shy of that. I do have lots of frozen supply to use in the meantime, but I don't know how long it will last. Stay tuned folks... there will be more on this topic I'm sure.