When I looked on this scene, my heart simultaneously melted -- for love of my family -- and wrenched halfway out of my chest -- to see my baby boy receiving breastmilk out of a bottle.
We gave him a bottle for two reasons. (1), I will be returning to work eventually and he will need a bottle at daycare. The lactation consultant suggested that 4-6 weeks is the best age to introduce a bottle. At that point, breastfeeding is well enough established that the bottle shouldn't interfere with his ability to latch and suck properly, but he's still young enough to adapt to it all without much stress. Dad is supposed to give the first few bottles, because sometimes babies will reject it if they know mom (and the boob) are nearby. (2) Mamma wants to go to a yoga class tomorrow, and it'll last long enough that Baby might need food.
Fear not, Jack loved the bottle. It helped him to accomplish his most important life goals: as much milk as possible, as rapidly as possible. In fact, due to my oversight, we only had fast flow nipples in the house, which means he got that milk really quickly. Little buddy was zonked after that bottle. Greg said it was fun.
P.S. We are using glass, vented bottles (Born Free, a BPA free company) -- they seemed to work well.
P.P.S. I forgot to add this to Jack's one month milestone list -- he can really grab on to stuff now! It is very cute, because he holds on to use when we lift him to our shoulder. I like getting those "mini hugs" :) Unfortunately, he has also started yanking on my hair. I think the days of dangly earings are over!
No comments:
Post a Comment