I have been becoming more and more frustrated with Laney’s
sitter over the last few weeks. She is a
really nice lady, kids love her, she takes good care of them, but she just
doesn’t seem listen to me. I don’t think
she blatantly ignores what I tell her, but I think she just doesn’t get it.
My biggest problem is with her feeding Laney. She has been watching Laney for 14 weeks now
and I have had to tell her to only feed on demand 4 times already. Really I should have only had to tell her once. But no, I’m having to tell her like every 3
weeks.
Friday she infuriated me when I learned that she purposely
fed Laney at a certain time “so she’d be ready for me”. Well really no, she wasn’t because she eats so
much at your house that she doesn’t want to nurse for 4 hours or more after I
pick her up!
After the first time she started constantly drinking 4
bottles at the sitter I looked at the book and realized most times she was
finishing a bottle just before I got there at 4. So I asked for her not to feed her after 3
unless it had been over 2 hours since her last feeding (this was when she was
still eating every 2 hours). The next
day she woke Laney up from a nap just to make sure she had her 4th bottle
before 4! Umm no, feeding on demand
means you feed her when she’s hungry and my theory is to never wake a sleeping
baby to eat unless they have a medical need for it. *And maybe a few other
circumstances that may warrant it, but not just so she has the bottle*
After finding this out I told her, “just feed her on demand,
when she’s hungry. If I am going to be
here to get her in the next 20 minutes or so, try holding her off so I can feed
her.” *which I have to drive some where to do because she doesn’t think her son
would be comfortable with me nursing her there, insert exasperated sigh and
huge eye roll*
Anyway, this was working for a while, until last week. Last Monday I told her that 1 of the 4
bottles I sent was 5oz instead of 4 because I just had some extra so not to
worry if Laney didn’t finish it. I also
told her that the whole week I was exclusively nursing she was eating maybe
every 3 hours, sometimes 4. So the rest
of the week when writing down what and when Laney ate, she wrote down 5oz for
EVERY feeding! This isn’t a huge deal,
but irritates me because it means she wasn’t even looking at the bottles. On Thursday she said “she really downed those
bottles today.” So I told her “well maybe tomorrow I will send all 5oz bottles
and maybe they will fill her up more.” She
said to me “You mean they haven’t been?
I thought you’ve been sending 5oz bottles.” HELLO??? LISTEN!
So Friday after all week she’d been having 4 bottles a day I
said “I’m not sure what you are using for hunger cues, but I always wait until
she starts to whine at least and shake her head because he thumb doesn’t give
her milk.” Laney is a good self soother
and sucks her thumb a lot, plus she’s teething so sucking and chewing are NOT
signs of hunger. That day she also
called me at noon saying something was off with Laney and could I come check on
her during lunch. Of course I went and
it was nothing more than her normal nightly discontent with whoever holds her
sitting and what I think is a belly ache. I got her to sleep and also called the Dr and
made an apt for her cough (whooping cough is going around and her cough hadn’t
gotten better in a week) anyway, I told the sitter I’d be back at 3 to get her.
She called me at 2 again and asked me if
I wanted her to wake her up and feed her. Um NO, if she isn’t hungry don’t feed
her! That day was the first day in a
long time she slept over a half hour 45 minutes at the sitter. And guess what, she only ate 1.5 bottles!
And last but not least, yesterday when I picked Laney up,
she asked if I sent 5 bottles. I said no
why? She said “I know I fed her 3 times
today, but there is still 2 bottles left in the fridge.” I knew then that she had only fed her twice
because I knew that I had sent 4 bottles. One was left from the day before and the other
3 were what I had pumped the day before. I didn’t defrost milk and I never have more
than needed any more. When I got home
and looked in her book tough, she had written down that she fed her 3 times. This irritated the crap out of me. What is she doing, filling out the book
before she even feeds her? Feeding her
on a schedule which I specifically asked her not to do? This morning I said to her “Did you find any
empty bottles last night, if not you must have only fed her twice.” She said “No, she must have slept through the
12:30 feeding.” I said that very
possible. On Sunday she ate at 11 and
then napped 1 to almost 4 and didn’t eat til after that. I’m fine if she only eats twice as long as she’s
only eating when she’s hungry.”
Today I’m sending out for information from a daycare center…
I hope this made sense, I don't have time to proof read at the moment
Ugh that's so infuriating!!!
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