Hey Mamas, would you please troubleshoot this for me? I'm not sure which "problem" I'm dealing...

[lellian]

DD is 10.5 months, and starting walking on Thanksgiving. That night she woke up every 3 hours. A typical night is down by 7, one night nursing with a clean diaper, and back to bed until 7 am. Last night, she was up every 3 hours again. I nursed her each time thinking a belly full of warm milk would help her sleep longer.

A few things: I'm 9 weeks pregnant. I guess this could be a dip in my milk supply so maybe she's not getting what I'm assuming she's getting, BUT she does have heavy wet diapers.

Dinner time: We've been sticking to pears, peas, prunes because she's having a hard time being consistent in her bm. I don't know if she's getting enough calories because she's so active. This morning she gobbled down her egg, and begged for more food. This is after I nursed her at 7 am, and again at 9 before she had an egg. I gave her a baby yogurt, and she ate the entire thing. Maybe I'm not feeding her enough?

The only other thing I'm wondering about is whether she's cold? She's in a fleece romper with feet, on a flannel sheet, and she's naturally a very warm baby. I might add an under shirt tonight. She sleeps with a warm mist humidifier so that's why I haven't layered, and she's seemed fine until the last two nights.

I don't know what I'm trying to fix to help her sleep better! Any thoughts?

TIA

[Knitting Mama]

Warmth: Check her hands and face first. If they are cool, check her back or chest. If her trunk is warm but her hands/face are cool, she is probably okay. If her trunk is cool, then I would add more layers.

Food: It does sound like she wants more food! High fiber foods are also great for regulating BMs, so maybe add some beans to her current repertoire?

Milk supply: This is about the stage of pregnancy with #2 that my sister's girl weaned herself because my sister's milk just wasn't nutritious enough anymore for her. It's unfortunate, but it can happen. You can try to nurse her more often, or up her solids intake to get more nutrition in there. Worse comes to worst, there is always donated breastmilk or formula if your supply really tanks.

[Sfcmama]

I'll just add my experience... When Dd started crawling, she started needing a LOT more calories so I imagine the same is true for walking, not to mention what the pregnancy is doing to your supply.

Are teeth a factor? Good luck!

[lellian]

Thanks for your suggestions, mamas.

I cooked up some lentils last night to fill her belly a little better. I made sure the room was toasting with the humidifier before bed time, and even gave her a "taste" of some baby tylenol as those two top teeth have pushed through at the same time and are taking their time getting settled. I'm not sure which aspect helped but she only woke up once last night to nurse. . .back to normal, I hope. Thanks for your advice.

[Tattooed Hand]

My DD's sleep didn't even out until she got good at walking. It can sometimes be a week or two after they start. But it sounds like the supply might be an issue and if you have top teeth coming in, well, it's usually more than one thing. It must be hard to have more wakeups in the super tired early days of pregnancy. hope it gets better soon.

[Snapdragon]

wehad issues with infrequent bms too- so I can offer advice about what I learned regardign this and food. I had been trying to have less solids with ds but it really didn't help us. Now, what finally is working is I give him more solids- also breastmilk, but solids until he seems satisfied, and I also give him bottles with water mixed with apple juice. I vary the amount of juice, sometimes just a bit, sometimes more. HE sucks those right down- so I realized I think his lack of bm was from not enough liquids- because since we have been doing that his bm issues are so much better. Plus I didin't like feeling like I had to limit food if he was wanting it.

anyway- maybe you could try that- feeding your baby as much solids as they want, then adding the juice water in bottles- and maybe that would help with the sleep. Maybe it is from wanting more food that they wake.

[Tattooed Hand]

I would be wary of giving too much juice since it's all sugar. But do try to hydrate her, I offer plain water throughout the day, in addition to meal times. When we upped DD's water intake and her system adjusted to solids, constipation became less of an issue.

[Knitting Mama]

I totally agree with Tattooed Hand. I'd be more likely to give juicy fruit itself, like pears and peaches, than juice, because you don't get the benefits of the fiber and vitamins in the fruit when it's in juice form. It's basically sugar.