He's been rice cereal free for almost 3 weeks now. I was reading plenty of articles online about how babies hit growth spurts at 3 weeks, 6 weeks, 3 months, and 6 months. Which explains why little R was so fussy at the start... He was letting me know he was hungry and I was trying to stretch out his eating times. I've seen so many dream babies put themselves on 3-4 hour eating schedules from very early on and I was trying to make Roscoe fit that mold as well. But the little guy needed food.
When you're nursing, your milk supply functions on a supply/demand basis. The more Roscoe nurses, the more milk my brain is signaling my body to make. Also, for each ounce of formula (or rice cereal or whatever you're supplementing with) you give a baby, your milk supply goes down. I was starting to get worried about this because honestly, I don't want to stop nursing any time soon. A mother's milk is perfect for babies. Sure, there are things out there to supplement with, and iron-fortified formulas, but nothing better provides the immunity and nourishment that a mother's milk provides.
So, Mark left May 1st for some training and shortly thereafter I declared a nurse-a-thon for me and the little guy. In a few days, he was becoming more content after each feeding and I was beginning to see little signs of him pudging up (his fingers and feet are a little fatter, he's got more of a gut than before, his thighs have a little roll...)
Yes, this may mean that sometimes I feed him every 2 hours, but I'm ok with that. I've read that your baby can't control your life and that you need to make him conform to your schedule-- that if you don't do this your baby will be demanding and will exhaust you. I know this works for some people, and I am very happy for them, but trying to put Roscoe on a schedule and stretch out his feedings only exhausted and frustrated both of us. Lately, he's gone 3-4 hours between some feedings because he's getting better naps. And even if he doesn't go that long, he's much happier anyway.
I know I'm kind of all over the place with these blogs and updates on Roscoe, but from what I've heard from friends and family, sometimes parenting is a trial and error experience.
Sorry little man, bear with me as I'm still learning how to take care of you
Great post! I'm glad you are figuring Roscoe out early on. Parenting is hard; and though we all want to give our opinions to new parents on "the right way" to do things, there really is a lot of trial-and-error needed to figure out your own baby.
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