Friday, September 27, 2013

5 months old, sleep, and weaning

Martina was 5 months old on tuesday and I only got to post about it now. She is doing very well, rolling over, chatting to herself and doing her best to sit up unaided (not there yet!). Today we had our second round of jabs, I am keeping them a bit more spread out than the recommended two months, but we believe vaccines save lives so we do them all.
Her sleeping is significantly better, I think trying to stick to a (EASY) routine helps me as much as her and I think we are in a transition phase from 3 to 2 naps (just when I was getting comfortable with the 3 naps gig) so at the moment it goes like this:

Wakes happily at 7am and breastfeed
Nap at 9 am for about 45 minutes but on good days is 1 our and 15 minutes
Eats at 11.30  solids, we are still on the root veg mostly, standard fruits, yoghurts
Nap at 12.30 and this one varies depending on the length of her morning nap, if the morning is short this one can be 2 hours.
Eats at 3.30 milk, I was breastfeeding her till two days ago and as of yesterday I introduced a bottle at this time as she is mostly chewing at my nipples and I'm back in pain
Cat nap (or not) around 5pm for about 30 min
Eats at 6.30 solids, mostly cereals of some kind (rice, tapioca, millet) and a bit of cheese
Bedtime routine starts around 7.30 with a bath, cuddles and breastfeeding to sleep.
Dream feed a bottle around 11 pm.

So the days I have them sorted, according to some suggestions I got on the babywhisperer forum, I should stretch the awake time to 3 hours and move to 2 naps a day which should be longer.
The nights are mostly good, she wakes once for breastfeeding at 4.37 (exactly!) but some are totally out ow whack and I don't know what I do differently. Only two nights ago she woke at 10.30, 2, 4.37, 6.10...and those nights are hard. Interestingly it is quite obvious when a night is going to be rough, it starts at bedtime and she seems to be in a very light sleep when I put her down, and wakes shortly afterwards and then keep waking. Anyway I can handle a couple of bad nights a week when I go back to work, hopefully no more than a couple!

In the process of going back to work I have started weaning her from the breast too as I mentioned, I kind of need my body back, I've been a little more than an amoeba since she is born, no sex drive whatsoever and my poor husband is very understanding of course but at the moment I can't tolerate much a suggestive caress, let alone touching my boobs...I think my period won't be far away, I have had ovulatory cramps and classic signs, so I'm hoping that my hormones are also resettling and I'll get some mojo back. With Oliver this...dryness...didn't really happen, I think it was due to the fact that I didn't breastfeed. Any of you guys in the same boat?


3 comments:

kdactyl said...

Breast feeding is known to keep your hormones off balance and the dryness is a direct result and actually quite common. I had all the same issues...you may want to invest in some intimate lubricant...it won't bring back your sex drive but it will definitely help in the comfort area. I had all these same problems and also just generally felt "over-touched" while I was nursing my babies. If they were not nursing...I just wanted to be left alone and to sleep or get something done.....sex was the last thing on my mind. But....luckily...once the nursing either lessens or you stop....you will get a nice return of your cycle and all the resulting hormones that you need to bring your mojo back. but it does not happen overnight. It took me a good couple cycles after nusing stopped to really start feeling back to normal.
kd

Heather said...

I hear ya. I am touched out. Boobs are completely off limits while I'm nursing. No exceptions. I'm one of the lucky ones. I got my cycle back 13 weeks post partum despite nursing exclusively. Sigh. I think being well rested benefits my sex life more than anything.

Good luck!

Photogrl said...

I can not believe that she is already 5 months...wow!

Oh, and yes. Could not stand to be touched while breastfeeding the twins...I think that's pretty normal.