eating & sleeping changes with pregnancy 2YO LONG

[maptome]

We've been experiencing some rough times since I got pregnant.  DD is about to turn 2. I'm now 12 weeks along.  I think it all started with my milk drying up pretty quickly.  DD doesn't eat a lot of food and was relying on nighttime nursing to get in her calories.  She was waking about every 2-3 hours to nurse, which ramped up to about every 45 min when I got pregnant.  I've since started trying to get her to eat more during the day and really pushing a bedtime snack.  I am literally constantly feeding her food.  She's a picky eater and doesn't eat meat, eggs, fish, bean, cooked veggies, avocado, nuts/nut butters.  She doesn't drink milk.  She sometimes eats cheese and yogurt.  I feel like I've tried every food.  She does like to try new foods.  I do try to reintroduce foods that she has historically turned down, but this is almost always fruitless.

Q1: Should I start compromising nutrition so that she will consume more calories?  For example, I don't like to give her sugar, but I'm pretty sure she will eat yogurt if it's sweetened.

Q2: What's a good bedtime snack?  We've been doing crackers or oatmeal, but both take about an hour for her to eat about 100 calories.

So there's the whole eating thing which exhausts me during the day, and then there are a number of things going on at night.  It's taking her forever to fall asleep because she doesn't want to nurse when no milk is coming out.  Like about an hour for both naps and bedtime.  She rejects any kind of physical comforting.  She does like singing and snacks, both of which calm her down from crying, but neither of which put her to sleep.  Also, she's going through a language development explosion.  I don't know how much that's affecting her sleep.  She's become really attached to me when sleeping.  She only sleeps about 40 minutes after I leave her, which is making me crazy.  She used to be able to do like 1.5 hours without me.

Once she's asleep, she will sleep either 40 min or 5 hours (unheard of before my milk dried up).  She's become really unpredictable as to how long she'll sleep and how easily she'll go back to sleep.  She does wake up hungry sometimes.  I can tell because she will wake up and ask to nurse about every 10 minutes until I feed her something.

Q3: What's a good middle of the night snack? I hope to eliminate this with more calories during the day, but until then...

I believe that her sleep and night waking is still normal, as in, not caused by food allergies or any problem.  As in, I'm just hoping she will grow out of it because I don't have any good idea of what we can do to get her to sleep more.  The best we can expect from her is about sleep 5 hours, nurse, sleep 3, nurse 3.  She's getting 11 hours of sleep in a 24 hour period.  We tried nightweaning but gave up after 2 weeks of progressively less and less sleep.

Q4: Does her sleep sound normal considering circumstances?  Or, do I need to do something? If so, what?

Help!  Any advice appreciated.

[LadyCatherine185]

when i got pregnant with DS2, my DS1 was only 18 months old. My milk also dried up. I nightweaned, and he started sleeping better once his body got used to not needing calories at night. He also started eating more during the day.. and I started giving him Coconut Milk (Sodelicious or Silk Coconut milk) to drink.

I would work on upping her fat intake during the day so that she gets fuller.. good luck!

[Peony]

All very normal behaviors when making the transition from nursing to sleep to not. Two of my kiddos did the exact same thing when I got pg with the next one shortly before 2 years. It just takes time. TIme for them to start eating more during the day, going longer at night without eating, time for them to learn how to more quickly fall asleep without nursing. How long it takes? Varies vastly from child to child. Could be days, weeks, or months. 

Cheese was always a favorite of my toddlers before going to bed, and in the middle of the night as well. I see yours only eats it sometimes. The no milk thing isn't surprising either, that always came when my kids were older and honestly once they forgot what breastmilk tasted like after they had weaned. With my current 2y, I just gave in and started allowing one cup of juice a day.   I didn't with my girls but he is especially resistant to drinking enough water (I'm still pg and have no milk) and it is so hot out right now. 

[Snapdragon]

have you tired the baby cereal type things? you can put (cow's or whatever type you prefer to offer) in there and also some water and it is an easy to digest and filling food- my ds likes it. I think it is fine to add some sweetener but it is a personal choice. I sometimes add maple syrup to ds's food but then again I cook with maple syrup in my food a lot and always have- so if I am making something for him, I don't mind making it to where I actually think it tastes good too! I don't hink little ones only can have bland food with no sweeteners, but that is my personal opinion. when I feed ds brocolli at this point I do add butter and salt, for example. good luck!

[dalia]

 I would try giving her smoothies. Dr. Sears sells a great smoothie cup that has worked wonders for us. I would put purreed oatmeal sweetened with raw honey or agave syrup in it or make a smoothie with coconut milk, banana, avocado, frozen berries and something green that can be easily disguised, like kale. I might even put some nutbutter in it and I always used the high fat canned coconut milk but of course any kind of milk or kefir would be great. DS would sip on it all day and also have his meals. I think the oatmeal might be a great option for the middle of the night. HTH.

[anjsmama]

  ITA. Spinach is an easy green to hide too - practically tasteless in smoothies and grinds up really well. We also use almond butter & sunflower seed butter as "fatteners", haha!
 

Originally Posted by dalia 

 I would try giving her smoothies. Dr. Sears sells a great smoothie cup that has worked wonders for us. I would put purreed oatmeal sweetened with raw honey or agave syrup in it or make a smoothie with coconut milk, banana, avocado, frozen berries and something green that can be easily disguised, like kale. I might even put some nutbutter in it and I always used the high fat canned coconut milk but of course any kind of milk or kefir would be great. DS would sip on it all day and also have his meals. I think the oatmeal might be a great option for the middle of the night. HTH.

[AKislandgirl]

We night weaned DD shortly after I got pregnant. It has done wonders for her sleep! She also was waking every couple of hours to nurse... now she sleeps through the night! We did have some rough nights but it was well worth it in the end. She knows now that if she wakes in the night she doesn't get to nurse and a quick pat on the back is all she needs. She rarely even wakes anymore though.

I'd also focus on adding fat to anything she does eat to up her calories and help her feel full. Just by default though DD started eating a ton when we night weaned. We noticed another jump once my milk dried up too. I add coconut oil, olive oil, avocado, butter, etc... She really likes peanut butter too. Sometimes she just eats a couple of spoonfulls of it. She is not a milk drinker either. I add the fats because she is tiny but I think it has helped her with sleeping too.