Dylan has been sleeping better the last few nights — he’s back to waking up just once or twice during the night, which compared to the multi-hour screamfests I will gladly take. Oh, I had grand ideas of getting him to sleep through the night with no interruptions at one point, but there’s nothing quite like comparison to get you on board with compromise.

Everything I read says he shouldn’t physically need a bottle in the middle of the night, and there’s the question of whether or not I’m creating a very bad habit of him 1) wanting a bottle to soothe himself back to sleep, 2) learning to be hungry in the middle of the night, and 3) continuing his broken sleep pattern by waking up his body with digestive processes and so on (that sounds weird but makes sense: our bodies are designed to be restful in the middle of the night, and eating switches on these bodily functions that are normally supposed to be chilling out), but on the few times I’ve tried to cut back on the milk he lies there afterwards howling in fury and he DOES. NOT. STOP.

I’m cutting my losses, though. One or at most two trips in there to plug his snoot with a bottle is survivable, while listening to him blat away for three-quarters of the night is not.

Speaking of milk, in February we can transition away from the beshitted formula, and I cannot wait. It stinks, I’m sick of mixing it, I hate the stupid container (have you seen this hilarious thing on their website? Warning: OBNOXIOUS TY PENNINGTON AUDIO) which is supposed to somehow make my whole life easier but comes with a foil lid that takes like half an hour to peel off, and most of all it’s been creating a year-long Similac-shaped dent in our budget and I would like to fill that space with, say, shoes.

(Quick recap for anyone new: breastfeeding was not an option for me, so no need to remind me of the cheaper alternative, mmkay?)

In our daycare if you are providing milk for an infant you have to send in filled bottles with the specific amount you think they’ll eat — for safety purposes they won’t mix anything up, nor will they keep anything left in the bottle. Over the months I’m sure this has resulted in a LOT of wasted formula, as I’ve tried to guess how many feedings Dylan will want, especially when he was younger and drank more often but ate unpredictable amounts each time.

In addition to the money we’ll save by buying regular milk instead of powdered heroin, or whatever it is, expenses will go down even more when Dylan’s a year old or so and moves out of the uber-expensive infant room at daycare into the ‘woddler’ room, so come on 2009! Mama needs a new pair of . . . okay, fine, Mama needs to contribute to her kids’ 529 plans and pay off the credit card. Bah.

In the meantime, we’re augmenting his bottles with the occasional cup of creamer-enriched extra-strong coffee. Wait, you think this has something to do with the not-sleeping thing?

coffeecupbaby.jpg

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Erin
Erin
15 years ago

what an adorable photo! I remember being happy to be done with formula days too! Good luck

Ellen
15 years ago

Great photo! My son, Max, loves coffee. We joke up him growing up and becoming a barista.
http://www.lovethatmax.blogspot.com

Kirsty
15 years ago

I wouldn’t worry about the milk-at-night thing, just do what works for you (coz there’s nothing worse than kids that WILL NOT SLEEP – and believe me, I know what I’m talking about here!).
And, because I’m sure you’ve got absolutely nothing better to do, I just tagged you for a (very quick) meme! Hope you forgive me!

Kristi
Kristi
15 years ago

More unsolicited advice. For what it is worth, this worked really well with my daughter:

I read a book that said that once they are old enough and heavy enough (I think 11 pounds?) they no longer need a night feeding. So when she woke up for her 3am feeding, I rocked her back to sleep.

The book made a good point that yes, she probably is hungry. But since you don’t feed her, she’ll eat more calories the next day to make up for it. Which she did!

She woke up the next night and I rocked her again. And the night after. But by the third night, she slept through!

Some parents are lucky and their babies figure out the whole eat during the day/sleep at night thing. Other babies need a little prodding to get on this schedule.

Oh, and I do still give her a “dream” feeding around 10pm.

Saple
Saple
15 years ago

Try giving him water in his bottle instead of formula, if he is truly hungry the water will fill his stomach.

If he just needs the soothing of the bottle, he can still get it with the water..

If he is just visiting the cafe, he might not want to bother waking up for the water

BRash
BRash
15 years ago

Woddler! Hah!

wm
wm
15 years ago

We’ve got a few weeks to go until the one year birthday, but we made the switch to cow’s milk this week. We started mixing the formula with cow’s milk at 10.5 months and we were using it to make cereal even earlier. He had no problem with it, he’s a big healthy kid in the upper percentile ranges and he’s still getting some breastmilk each day. So when we ran out of formula, we decided not to buy any more. So far, so good – and it is a relief. HOwever, I’m just now realizing that milk gallons do take up a lot of room and the fact that powdered formula doesn’t spoil is a benefit.

That’s a bummer that your daycare causes so much formula to be wasted. We treated ours like gold!:)

Korinna
15 years ago

I’m glad that I’m not the only one who found that freakin’ foil lid infuriating.

And those containers hold less ounces and yet mysteriously are the same price if not more expensive.

Bastards.

Joanne
15 years ago

My son was a formula baby from 9 months to 12 months and I liked that I could a) give it to him in a bottle, wherever I wanted to and b) I knew he was getting the vitamins and lipids and proteins or whatever the hell he was supposed to get. Breastmilk doesn’t have enough Vitamin D in it and I was always nervous about getting him out in the sun enough. Also I used to let him lie there and cry his heart out in the night, after he was nine months old, so it helped me to know that he had drunk x amount of formula and I knew he wasn’t hungry. There is always a little bit of doubt with breastfeeding as to whether they got enough, for me. My daughter won’t drink formula – she stays mad for HOURS after whenever I’ve tried to give her some, so I just bf her and I started her on whole milk when she was like nine months old. I wouldn’t have done it early but since I’m pg again my OB recommended I start to wean her early. Maybe Dylan could go to whole milk a skoshe early?

I hear you on the night waking thing but I am always nervous about dealing with night wakings when they’re older so I like to break their spirit by the time they’re nine months. My ped told me early on with my son that the goal is not for them to sleep through the night, the goal is for them to be able to put themselves back to sleep. Sometimes, for my demon children, that means hours of yelling. I wish they were different but they’re not, what can you do?

Sarah
Sarah
15 years ago

I agree with the watering down. We would just leave the bottle in the crib with him and he would “find” it. Over a week or so it became just water, at which point he had no interest. No crying, no getting up in the middle of the night. Very nice.

Jenny
15 years ago

In our day care, they were apparently required by law in the infant room to change the babies every HOUR (plus, of course, every time they noticed a stench.) What kind of insanity is that? This meant we went through 8-9 diapers a day there, plus the formula. When Matthew hit a year, learned to walk, changed to milk, and moved to the “pre-toddler” room, where they change them a mere four times a day, we suddenly got a whole lot more room in our budget. Brand-name salad dressing, here we come!

melanie
15 years ago

I know I’m not supposed to admit this but I’m really looking forward to the day I stop nursing my daughter. I mean – I feel really lucky that I am able to do it at all (it was really freakin hard at the beginning) but I kind of have a one-year cut off point in my mind and am really looking forward to that. I’m also happy I don’t have to deal with formula but I’ve never been able to pump an ounce either and my daughter doesn’t understand what a bottle is for other than as a chew toy or something to ignore (probably should have introduced her a little earlier to it) so we are pretty much joined at the hip (or nips as the case may be) these days.

Kerrie
15 years ago

i love it! i was just getting ready to do a post about similac’s ty pennington ad i saw in parents mag! it cracks me up! i am a horrible mom … nurse my babies next to me like an all-night milk bar, so they can’t fall asleep without me until they’re like 3 years old. naps, too. i’m horrendous.