Over the past few weeks many transitions have occurred for Miss Evelina Marie-Claire.
For starters, the biggest transition being from bottles of formula to sippies of cow’s milk (the Zoli straw cup continues to be our savior!!). We have been extremely lucky on this front. Evelina appears to enjoy the taste of milk and doesn’t have a huge attachment to the bottle, meaning she doesn’t mind taking formula or milk out of a sippy, which apparently, some babies have difficulty with. When Evelina was about 11 ½ months we started replacing 1 ounce of formula with 1 ounce of milk in each of her daily bottles. Once we knew that it wasn’t impacting her digestion, we increased the milk to formula ratio every week. After her 12 month well-baby visit, we decided to start offering her cow’s milk in a sippy only, with a goal of having her drink 12-16 ounces of milk a day, per the recommendation of her pediatrician. For the first few days she was doing well but we noticed lots of messy diapers (up to 6 a day, ick!!) and some night-waking. Even though we had gradually introduced milk, the transition to only milk seemed to be difficult on her sensitive tummy. We decided to offer her formula in the morning and at bedtime and cow’s milk during the day until she became regular again. As of today, she only drinks out of her straw sippy (no more bottles….kind of bittersweet really), and drinks exclusively cow’s milk with the exception of a sippy of formula at bedtime. In the coming weeks, we will attempt to stop giving her a sippy at bedtime, but a part of me worries she will wake up during the night hungry even though she gets 3 meals a day, 2 snacks and 12-16 ounces of milk.
In other news, Evelina no longer naps in a pack ‘n play at school. She has successfully made the transition to sleeping on a mat with a blankie and her Gigi. Sniff, sniff…she is becoming such a big girl. Many times, her teachers will sit with her and rub her back until she drifts off to dreamland, but once she is asleep she will nap for an hour or so. When she is in her crib and wakes up from a nap, she will sit up/stand up/crawl around and start playing until we go and fetch her (don’t get me wrong, she isn’t perfect, she does cry often as well). I asked her teachers what she does when she wakes up from a nap on the mat and many times, she will crawl over and try to torment her other sleeping friends, until one of her teachers intervenes. She is a mischievous one. My hope is that all of her practice sleeping on a mat will aid in the transition to a toddler bed in the future.
In addition to napping on a mat at school, she is also being transitioned to one nap a day with some mixed success. Honestly, I don’t know how they get her to stay up until after noon without her having a fit. If we were to attempt that at home, we would have a major meltdown on our hands. But, she seems to be doing well. My only compliant is that she isn’t napping enough. Only one hour of napping a day results in some cranky evenings. I would think that limited naps a day would result in her sleeping in each morning, but nope, she still just loves waking up around 6am (although the past couple of days she has sleep until 7:20a or 6:45a). Perhaps once she gets used to the mat a little more, she will start napping for two hours. In the meantime, we continue to put her down for 2 naps at home.
And, just for fun, a picture of Evelina making one of her favorite faces.
