The "F" Word

Formula. Yep, just shy of 8 weeks old, we gave in last night. Let me back up...we supplemented last night. I'd written a long email (one thing that Kaiser has over other insurance companies) to the pediatrician describing crying and eating issues we've had over the past week with 'Lil D. Basically, he's eating every 3 hours on the button. Dead sleep, he stirs at the strike of the 3rd hour, and cries til he gets his fix, bottle or boob. The last few days, however, we find ourselves with the 3/4 a.m. feedings, a kid not willing to go back down to sleep. He'll eat, we swaddle, he sleeps, and is up an hour later, crying off the wall. Sean gets up, takes him to the rocker/recliner, and spends a good hour calming the kid. Sometimes Sean himself just will fall asleep and let D sleep on him. Not very practical. The cycle, if you were paying attention, then means we're 2-2.5 hours into this, the 3rd hour approaches rapidly. We've now had perhaps an hour of sleep. Not good. The upside to this is that it happens at the 3/4 a.m. and not the entire night, usually. The bad side is, it happens at all. Usually we start putting him down around 10 p.m. and he'll get up around midnight, so there is a few hours of sleep there.
Okay, back to the F word. So yeah, I'd sent the email to the pediatrician and asked about adding some formula to his diet. I have heard that formula tends to be more filling, and breastfed babies eat more often. Bingo! The doctor said that if we were having this issue, that yes, we could supplement 2-4 oz. of formula at night, but because he is doing great with his weight, don't feed him formula during the day. Well, since I'd become pregnant I had signed up for pretty much every website and baby promotion, including Enfamil. I had received samples, which I thankfully saved, for these nursette bottles (just add nipple) and some powder (just add water). First I added a nipple to the pre-made bottle...spillage. Dr. Brown's nipples are made exclusively for the Dr. Brown's nursing system. So, we just poured the formula into the bottle...at first D didn't like it, was like what the hell is this crap. After the second attempt, he was like suweet! Something new. And about halfway through the 2 ounces...zzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Asleep. Score! We waited about 30 minutes and I decided to take him to bed, swaddle him, and put him down, and go to bed myself. I fudged up the swaddle, again, and he escaped withing two minutes, and cries. Shit! I take baby out of bassinet, I rock him, he's out again. This time I very carefully swaddle, my little mummy is still out, it is midnight exactly. I lay down. The next thing I know, it is 4:20 a.m. I woke up and was amazed! I'd slept four consecutive hours!!! The formula worked! Now, if I'd swaddled properly the first time, I'd have slept for closer to five hours. Lesson learned here. 4:20, we nurse, change, burp, put baby down, and I am asleep by 5:05 a.m. 7:15 he wakes up again. I have now slept SIX hours last night! I felt like a new person! I was renewed. I wasn't grumpy! It was awesome!
The experiment will continue tonight. Around 11 p.m. we will offer the formula and hope to get baby down for a good stretch of time, and all get some rest. I am hopeful.
Yes, I initially felt like a failure offering formula, or thinking about it offering it. But, then I thought, he is still getting mostly breast milk, so this ain't so bad. One to two bottles a day/night, we can handle that, plus I can pump through that feeding and build more of a storage! If he sleeps, we sleep, it's really win-win!
Now I just need to figure out if I discontinue using taking my Expecta vitamins...we shall see, awaiting email response from the doctor.
Wish us luck, and we'll post the results in a few days, if we're awake.