How a Girl Grows
Instead of trying to remember the last time Ilse ate each time throughout the day, I have named her feedings. It has been so much easier to keep track of if she should or should not be hungry. She’s pretty consistent at having 6 meals a day, with the last and first meals of the day being “double shots.” Each day she averages a 3-hour spacing, but at either her or my own prompting, she’ll go between 2 and 4 hours — it’ll just average out by the end of the day. So if she takes a long morning nap and goes 4 hours between feedings, then she’ll vociferate voraciously 2 hours after that meal. Her meals are taken as follows:
5:30 — breakfast (double shot)
9 — second breakfast
12 — lunch
3 — afternoon snack
6 — dinner
10 — nightcap (double shot)
Sometimes breakfast is a single, and then she’ll usually have an elevenses and sometimes she’ll have a dessert around 8pm and then she’ll only take a single nightcap. If she wakes up in the night I give her the pacifier and that has been enough.
She, just like the boys, shortened her eating time by 6 weeks to under ten minutes, so I guess that probably has something more to do with my supply than their desire. And just as with the boys, she’ll suckle longer than that but only half-heartedly as if she might as well while she’s there since there’s nothing else to do. I have maintained all along that I might be the food supply, but am not a pacifier; I think all my babies have taken to a plastic version so well because they need more suckle time. I like the word suckle. Our family calls the pacifier a “muffler” or “muff” for short, but Ilse generally wants the muff right after eating, and so I’ve been calling that her dessert or her chaser, depending on my mood and what I myself am desirous of. :)
