Brooke has always been a distracted eater. Even when she was tiny she would eat for a few minutes and then look up at me and suddenly not be interested in eating all together. If I could get her to nurse well, she would fall asleep within minutes.
Even now, she will latch on and off multiple times in one feeding so it will take her sometimes a good half hour to 45 minutes to get the job done. It's also a struggle because I will try to nurse her and because she doesn't get her fill, she will often want to eat just minutes later. I feel like our day is filled with many, many series of small feedings.
I look at Alison nurse Nathan and their experience seems to be so much different. It seems like he always "gets to the point" while he nurses. I know babies get more efficient in nursing as time goes on, but Brooke is 5 months old now. You would think the problem would improve itself! I know Nathan and Brooke are individuals and that's wonderful. However, I do think that our nursing relationship is lacking in this area.
I feel like I have been working so hard to try to resolve this issue with little to no improvement. I have tried turning off anything and everything that stimulates her in hopes that she would be more encouraged to focus on nursing. Wrong! At first I thought that this whole issue was a result of me offering her food too often. I questioned if maybe it wasn't a matter of her not being legitimately hungry. However, even when I nurse her when she's extremely hungry, she still doesn't focus.
It's just such an odd situation. She is growing so big, therefore she's obviously WELL nourished. That's great that I don't have to worry about that. On the other hand, I'm wondering if we'll ever get to the point that feeding Brooke isn't quite as difficult.
I guess that if I look at the bright side that I'm lucky that she would rather play and talk to me than eat! :-) She must think I'm pretty special or something.
3 comments:
You're in your peak "distractability" time and it's normal for her to want to focus on the world happening around her. Don't be discouraged!
And you're right - Brooke and Nathan are really different individuals and what was normal for Nathan may not be normal for Brooke. Nathan acknowledges the world around him, but he'd rather eat and get down to business ASAP so he can get back to it faster!
We have some crazy kids! Don't stress over this...just hang in there. It HAS to get better!
I know...Hudson was this way too! I think it's just a phase they go through. Is it any better when you feed with the baby ole? I'm just thinking maybe that would limit her distractions even more?
Marissa went through a stage like that. For a while I had to wait until she was 1/2 asleep to nurse her, but at least she would nurse in her sleep. Sometimes she still does it, and I just try to distract myself with the computer or tv, and that'll help her concentrate more on eating and less on talking to me :-P
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