The Beauty of "The Nap"

I've mentioned in earlier posts that Sophia is transitioning to one nap. While my initial reaction was to fight this transition as long as I could (admittedly for entirely selfish reasons - I liked having 2 bouts of quiet time throughout the day!) I am happy to admit this one nap thing has brought me over to it's side.

While we're not on quite a consistent schedule (the nose boogers from hell have been haunting us for over 2 weeks now and occasionally wake Sophia mid-way through when she is "supposed" to be sleeping till) we have gotten into more of a rhythm of her going down to sleep after lunch (anytime between 12:30 and 1:00pm) and sleeping for upwards of 2.5 hours. It is a very respectable nap.

But the best part - this is it in the land of "changing naps." From what I understand (or am deluding myself into thinking) this one nap thing hangs out until there are no more naps to be had (god help us all!) If I trace back the steps over the past 14 months, we went from newborn stage (sleeping whenever and forever how long she wanted with absolutely no predictability) to what I like to call the "freshie" stage - not quite newborn but still not on a schedule - where she would need to sleep every 1.5-2 hours - Kind of a productivity killer for outside the house.

Then, it was the 3 nap phase - a morning one, then 2 hours later and then a third nap - for us, this one was usually in the stroller and the one I like to credit for most of my post-partum weight loss.
Around 6/7 months, there was 2 naps. A nice long morning nap and another one in the afternoon (if we were lucky, both of these naps were 1.5 hours.) But the morning nap meant we didn't leave the house until 11am at the earliest. (Kind of made me feel like a college student all over again.)

So, little Ms. 1 nap - I'm excited to have you hang out for some time, a few years even. But if you felt like edging closer to 3 hours, that would be cool. But I'm just happy to have you here!

The great transition

I've quickly learned over the past 13 months that raising a child is all about transitions. They (or you) are always moving from one stage to the next: Eating every two hours to spacing it out. Sleeping on and off through the whole day/night to consolidating their sleep to the evening. Laying around like a sack of potatoes to crawling to walking.

Right now, our big transition is from 2 naps to 1 nap and from bottles to sippy cups. The nap transition is a big deal, more so for me, I think, than Sophia. She has been showing signs for the past month or so that she's kind of done with her morning nap. This used to be my precious down time to get things done - email, check the football pool, cook, for at least 45 minutes if not a full 90.
But it is really nice to have a full chunk of time in the morning with her to get out and play, do errands and not feel like we're racing against the clock to get home or can't leave until 11.

Sophia is also in a very mommy-centric mode (despite the fact that she only says "Da Da" - you can ask her - where's MaMa and she looks at you with this big smile and says "DaDa!"). This focus, though, makes me putting her down for naps really difficult. She just wants to stay and snuggle and not have me leave her. It's really tough, as I know she is exhausted and needs to sleep, but the excitement of me being around is too much to handle. She is quite a trooper though.

My sitter has been a rockstar in helping her to handle the transition and can put her down in a snap. Dave, too, has had good luck with it. It makes me feel really special that all she wants is to play with me :)

We'll make it through the transition, just as we have the others. There will be some tears, but in the end, we'll all grow up as a result.

Breastfeeding - Approaching a transition

It was always my goal to breastfeed Sophia through her 1-year birthday. From what I've read, and with the routine we've got down, it's the best option for us. I particularly enjoy our morning time together - it's a nice way to ease into the day for both of us. With 10 months down already, I've started to think a lot about the transition.

Right now, I feed her directly 3 times a day and she gets a bottle of pumped milk before bed. We started the bottle before bed because my supply was at its lowest at the end of the day (as is most women's) and we wanted to make sure she had a nice, full tummy for sleeping. It's also a great opportunity for Dave to participate in the putting to bed process. The other two feedings occur when she wakes up after first and second nap. She is eating lots of solids, so the stress from the beginning of her life of not being quite sure how much milk she was getting has eased up entirely.

What is funny is that the more active she is become (crawling, pulling up), the less interested she is in eating. Yesterday, we made it about 8 minutes before she was completely distracted and disinterested. (Note that we were sitting quietly in her room with nothing really to distract her - no music, people or anything. She manages to distract herself! with trying to move all around) I ended up pumping and giving her about 3ozs because I knew she was still hungry. We're working on beefing up the solids even more, but much like breastfeeding, it's hard to know exactly how much they're eating (vs throwing on the floor!)

One thing I won't miss is the pumping. I've been fairly dedicated to pumping 3 times a day. Once in the morning after her first feeding and twice at night - when she gets her bottle at bedtime and once before I go to bed. That has covered the nightly bottle with some extra to increase our freezer supply. My hope it to be able to stop pumping the end of this month, with enough "banked" in the fridge to cover her nightly bottles through the 1-year mark.

Come November, the plan is to move her onto cow's milk for 2-3 feedings and to continue to nurse her for the morning feeding for awhile longer until she's ready to give it up. We'll see how it all plays out. We'll probably start with a nice half mommy milk, half cow milk transition and go from there. I do love the fact that I can soothe her at a moment's notice (especially in the middle of the night with teething) so I'm not willing to give up breastfeeding entirely. Breastfeeding truly has formed this bond that we'll never lose; it will just evolve.