Day 6 – January Daily Blog Posting Month
First off, welcome to my new followers. Thank you for embarking on this journey with me! I am honoured and flattered that you are following along.
Baby J is going to be 4 months old on the 16th of this month. I continue to exclusively breastfeed him which is a huge thing for me given how awful an experience it was with my firstborn. I still have the emotional scars. Baby J feels like he is gaining well and he is certainly growing! He is already ahead on the developmental side of things – he is doing everything a 4 month old should be doing and he is only 3.5 months old. He is laughing at us, grabbing at things and is starting to bring his knees up and pivot on his back. He could roll over any day now.
He is napping pretty well throughout the day, it’s just his nighttime sleep which I wish would improve. Selfishly, I admit. I am tired. I want to sleep more than 2-3 hour stretches at nighttime. Last night at 4am, husband got up to replace the soother as I had just fed him 45 minutes earlier. Husband came back and said, “We should be giving him formula at night.” The thought being that he would sleep longer. It certainly was the case for our other kids, why not this one?
My plan all along was to introduce formula about 6 weeks before I returned to work, which would be in mid-late February. But last night and this morning, I am seriously considering introducing it early. Yet, the mommy guilt kicks in. It’s only been 3.5 months. I could do this longer, I should be doing this longer. After all, why did I extend my leave by a month? So I could hand off the baby to be fed by a bottle, by others?
Ugh.
All of my children were given formula. My daughter was 2 weeks old when I started supplementing; my middle son was 3 months old when I first started his transition. By all accounts, I have done pretty well with Baby J as he has been exclusively breast-fed the longest.
So why can’t I just do it now?
Mommy guilt.
The Urban Dr. Mom 
I hate mommy guilt! I still have it all the time and not wanting more of it is making me not want another baby. I think you know, just as well as all of us, that you need to do what you need to do for yourself. What would you say to one of your patients who talked to you about this?
Touche´! 😉
I had massive guilt about the formula but I just wasn’t producing enough. You’ve done so well, but you need to do what is right for you and your family. If you want to keep EBFing then do so, but if you want to transition for WHATEVER reason then don’t feel guilty. Bubs will thrive either way, and a happy Mummy means a happy baby.
Thank you! You know, I tell the mothers in my practice this all the time. Doctors do make the worst patients. We can’t take our own advice!
As a breastfeeding Mother, the decision to halt that feeding method and move to formula based feeding can be a big moment in your parenting life. Some Mothers can find this change more traumatic than others but learning how to implement the transition is important for it to go well. Checkout this feeding guide; it gives a basic overview of milk consumption by babies in their early months http://www.first1000days.ie/advice/feeding-guide/
Thank you for the comment and the link.