Anyone else have a love hate relationship with winter? Though I love the beauty and coziness of it (at times), I am longing for warmer weather – to be back outside again playing with the kids, swimming, gardening – you name it!

Our winter in Cleveland has not been too bad at all. I sometimes feel bad complaining at all, but here is life lately, winter edition!

Sleep training – FAIL

In the beginning of the month, I was ready to start actively make some of my 2020 goals happen. First, my goal was to start getting baby T on some sort of routine. I was so good with following/understanding sleep and hunger cues with our son JP that we were able to fall into the same routine everyday. I knew exactly when he was hungry or sleepy and rarely confused the two!

It has been difficult to fall into a routine this time around with the other two kiddos needing things from me constantly. So, while my husband was home from holiday break, I decided to start sleep training.

I kid you not, I set up the perfect sleeping environment, made sure he was fed, changed, burped and that he was up for 60-75 minutes before putting him down. I was setting timers on Alexa and this is what I discovered…

He was taking cat naps – every time we put him down, he was up 30 minutes later EVERY TIME. While I was super annoyed, it turned out those days were somewhat a lost cause because it was sickness that was brewing causing him to wake and get interrupted sleep…I’ll report back and share the schedule I follow once we get it nailed down (trying to emulate the one we had for JP).

Sickness

Everyone is finally starting to feel better thank goodness. Since Christmas, we have experienced the stomach bug, some nasty colds, coughs and RSV/Bronchiolitis. I am so thankful our docs sent us home with breathing treatments because this helped BIG TIME – I recommend asking your doctor if you are able to take one home if you have a child suffering from RSV.

These factors were affecting our sleep, our schedules and routines. It was pretty difficult to manage the needs of all three kids, but we made it through. I’m feeling positive of starting up with a routine again, because I am happy to know that illness was the main cause of the 30 minute catnap.

Poor feeding

Because of RSV/Bronchiolitis, we had some set backs in terms of breastfeeding. Baby T has been the best and most efficient eater of the three kiddos. He didn’t deal with GERDS/reflux as the other two did – which makes things so much easier!

Because he was not feeling 100% and there was mucus stuffing up his nose, he was having a really hard time feeding. My supply and our mojo got a little out of wack, but I was determined to keep things going, just because he was such an easy baby in terms of breastfeeding.

In order to keep my supply up, I pumped as much as I could and tried to have him feed on me during the night. He seemed to do well with that and liked to be laying on his side to feed. Any time I tried to cradle feed in my arms, he would SCREAM! I was just happy we accidentally stumbled upon that solution!

My supply was getting super low and I knew I really needed to do something about it so I decided to try making Lactation cookies. I was super skeptical at first, but WHOA, these things resurrected our feeding efforts!

If you have supply issues, I totally recommend. I tried to eat them in moderation, I was reading that some people would eat 5 at a time, and that some women had reverse effects (they lost their supply) or (blocked ducts from an over supply). I would do about three a day at the most – morning, afternoon and before bed. I went from pumping 2 oz of milk from both sides to 2-3 oz per side!

I used this recipe https://pin.it/fptlfvpblw4ihd.

A Hand at Home’s World Famous Lactation Cookies 

Recipe from her site below:

Makes about 4 dozen cookies. Prep time: 15 minutes

Cook time: 12 minutes

Ingredients

1 cup butter
1 cup sugar (feel free to add less, they are pretty sweet)
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
4 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons flax seed meal
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
3 cups oats (old fashioned oats or steel cut oats make for a different texture)
1 cup chocolate chips
2 -4 tablespoons brewer’s yeast

Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 350°.
2. Mix the flaxseed meal and water and let sit for 3-5 minutes.
3. Beat butter, sugar, and brown sugar well.
4. Add eggs and mix well.
5. Add flaxseed mix and vanilla, beat together.
6. Sift together flour, brewers yeast, baking soda, and salt.
7. Add dry ingredients to butter mix.
8. Stir in oats and chips.
9. Scoop onto baking sheet.
10. Bake for 12 minutes.
11. Let set for a couple minutes then move to cooling rack.

Thanks Pioneer Woman for Kitchen Aid cookie dough inspo! She uses her mixer for making cookie dough always!

Yum! I’m telling you these cookies worked! We are back to normal feeding over here. It did take 3 days for things to catch up, so try to be patient and don’t get discouraged!

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