Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Our Sicky the Biter.

Our little pobrecita just has a cold, but the doctor said it's good that we brought her in. Since Gabriela recently had an ear infection, the doctor wanted to be sure it hadn't made a repeat appearance. At least her ears are in good health. She napped tons today. I'm glad she was home to get extra rest.

In other news, Gabriela finds it necessary to test her new (very sharp teeth) out while I am nursing her. Why, Child, why?!?!?! Geez, does it hurt!! My mom said I always bit her when she nursed me. I guess I'm getting my payback. I don't want to stop nursing Gabriela. I've gone all this way and worked so hard to not give her formula. I plan on nursing her at least until she is one and she can have cow's milk. But, man oh man, I feel like I'm playing Russian Roulette every time I give her some milk. There's no telling when she'll chomp down. What do I do?!??

I've been taking the boob away and sternly telling her not to bite, that it hurts Mommy. But really, she's a little baby. Does she even understand? Any biting/nursing advice is welcome.

4 comments:

Theresa said...

You could consider only giving her the bottle, but still breast milk. You would have to spend more time pumping. I really don't think she understands it all that much. Sometimes maybe, but not really enough to stop.

Good Luck!

banananutmeg said...

Reese LOVED to nurse, so it was easy to get her to quit biting me. First off...give her a few days with the new toofies to figure out how to use them...she may not be able to control NOT biting you yet...and also they won't be so friggin' sharp after a few weeks.
THEN what I did was abruptly quit nursing and set her on the floor facing a different direction than me and tell her "No Biting. That HURTS Mommy" and walk away...it took less than a minute before she was DEVASTATED and wanting me. SO I'd go back, pick her up...distract her with a different activity for 5 minutes or so, then try again. Eventually, she figured out the cause and effect of biting=da milk quits coming.

Quincy didn't care so much and would giggle and look at me before she bit. She was probably 9 or 10 months though....and couldn't care less when I stopped nursing. While Reese hung on to nursing until she was 14 months and I HAD to quit (I had a pregnancy between my girls and had to quit so I could recover from the MC, Quincy weaned herself pretty much entirely by 11 months, and flat out WOULD NOT nurse and cried for the bottle or real food. It broke my heart, but it was close enough to my goal of 1 year that I got over it. Good luck...bust out that lansinoh again!

Patrick and Crystal said...

So sad! I felt extremely lucky that kaiya never got top teeth until after she was one and weaned. So I don't have any good advice, but hang in there! You are doing the best for you baby even if she doesn't seem so grateful right now!

banananutmeg said...

Hey FYI, don't be alarmed if you've seen me on your blog a lot lately! I've been making all of your recipes! The rice was awesome, we added corn and cilantro and, well YUM! The carne is on our new favorites list for sure, too! It wasn't as spicy as we'd hoped, Next time I'll put in more jalepeno. I'm making the carnitas tonight!